Watership Down, several times. It is good fiction about coping with adversity with companionship and maintaining hope. Also the in story mythology is deep and rich and rewarding.

All Creatures Great and Small. This series is my set of comfort books.

Thank you. Based on Address Unknown, you might appreciate Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin and Guerin the Brown Plague.

It's worth it to read the wiki about Fallada's life. He had a promising career cut short by the Nazis.

Ugh. I like Heinlein but with Time Enough for Love he could have used a better editor IMHO. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Good to know. Thank you.

Wow. Thank you. Echoes of Bowie's Space Oddity. I have a new author to follow.

I find epistolary novels satisfying. I also take great pleasure in Terry Pratchett's footnotes.

Edit, since everyone is recommending books, some favorites are the Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Dracula and the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I have a commitment that I will read for 20 minutes before sleep, no matter what. I can read more, but not less. My books are on the kindle app on my phone. I am comfortable. It doesn't matter how much progress I made.

I'm just a random person on the internet who had a hot take on a word.

What is dot not feather? I would love to learn more.

I am not indigenous and he is certainly qualified to approve the name, so that is good to hear about. My first reaction to the name was cringe. But my first reaction to the iPad name was cringe also and that became popular. I didn't see how people would get past menstruation jokes, but they did and now use the name unironically. Bottom line, it's a well intentioned program that may do some good.

California just instituted what they call a feather alert system for missing indigenous people. Modeled on the Amber alert system. I'm not thrilled with the name of the program but they are making an effort to respond to the problem.

Memoir like Born a Crime is a subset of nonfiction.

Yes, but I read widely with interests including history. The Black Swan, Debt the first 5000 years and reading about financial bubbles has changed the way I think about risk and money. Someone reading only beach reads may not benefit as much unless they are bonding with work contacts over specific books to build their network.

For short, clear and beautifully written, Elie Wiesel Night and then Dawn. Man's Search for Meaning is more philosophical if you want that. For a woman prisoner, Corrie ten Boom's book the Hiding Place.

The Gulag Archipelago is a brick of a book. I wouldn't start there. Animal Farm is supposed to represent Stalinism although it works for exploitation generally.

a novel painting a picture of a miserable life works the same way a novel painting a picture of an unlikable character works. The misery is the point. Great art isn't only pleasant or fun. Try the Yellow Wallpaper for a short take on the same theme. Actual women live lives like this, just like there are actual migrant farm workers as well as migrant characters in Grapes of Wrath and Cider House Rules. What is your take on Holocaust or gulag survival stories?

So can many pastors. Church government varies a lot.

See also Stolen Focus by Johan Hari, summarizing research about how social media is designed to be addictive and how it interferes with attention span.

Also the Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen is written with a clever and surprising form for the book. It has amazing unique metaphors, beautiful language and is a brutal and insightful approach to war, espionage and the refugee experience.

For a swashbuckler character in English read something like Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser.

Such a good game. I'm not much of a gamer but the story really sucked me in.

There are always exceptions. It tends to be more universally true for books written originally in English. For translation the translator can choose a more modern style and vocabulary than a contemporary English speaking author would have used.

I don't know the Hoover books. I read a lot as a young teen, but including Jean Auel books with explicit sex scenes and mostly it worked out fine. The two exceptions I can think of, the Godfather and Aztec had content I really wasn't ready for, but I survived the experience. I would look closely at reviews of the books and make sure there isn't something truly disturbing in them.

People mean different things when they say a great read. Any book from before the 20th century is going to be slow. But people still appreciate paintings even though we now have television. The stories can be worth the effort.

But for classic novels I would start with something shorter like the death of Ivan Ilyich

At one time I was super into the Deverry books by Kerr.

Thanks for your perspective. Carson's Silent Spring appeared just a little later in 1962. The 20s produced both Dorothy Day and the Great Gatsby. There is a wide range of cultural icons and goals in every generation. But yes, selfish individualism has been a trend in American literature and philosophy from Ayn Rand to Bonfire of the Vanities. I agree with your analysis of the book but not that it is especially Boomer to be that way.

Can you tell me where I can find out more about Stoker's sexuality?

The Japanese got love for doing this. The Moroccans should be praised too.

I'm still not visiting Morocco though. That's travel on hard mode.