Great? Well, I'm not going to suggest _all_ of these are masterpieces of social/personal observation. I'm going to error on the side of entertainment--books which were moving and memorable to me on the drop of a hat (or HN post :^)
(here are a few in no particular order)
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Palahniuk, Chuck. Diary (2003).
Horror genre. Artist in a community conspiracy--not the 'social machine' sort of conspiracy, but the more personal and creepier 'family horror'. EWWW.
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Stephenson, Neal. The Baroque Cycle (2003, 2004).
This is a story of the dawn of science through the network of scientists surrounding the Royal Society of London. I read these non-fiction books around the same time, so the total effect was very moving:
- Berlinski, David. Newton's gift : how Sir Isaac Newton unlocked the system of the world (2000) [its surprising just how many books have the same theme of 'the system of the world']
- Aczel, Amir D. Mystery of the aleph : mathematics, the kabbalah, and the search for infinity (2000) [this largely concerns Georg Cantor]
- Swetz, Frank J. From five fingers to infinity : a journey through the history of mathematics (1994) [This is a collection of short essays, primarily for and by teachers. I don't have formal training (past some college courses) in mathematics, so YMMV].
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Jong, Erica. Fear of Flying (1973).
From Wikipedia: "Fear of Flying is a 1973 novel by Erica Jong which became famously controversial for its portrayal of female sexuality and figured in the development of second-wave feminism." (thanks to my GF Martina for that recommendation back in the day).
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The entire works of Willian Shakespeare. When I don't feel like suffering anything too personal or too timely, Bill just connects.
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PLUS1 Not fiction, but frack it. They're good
- Bourdain, Anthony. Kitchen Confidential (2000)
- Buford, Bill. Heat. (2006)
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PLUS2. I read an article (New Yorker? 2005?) by a retired professor who had the habit of writing a brief review/book report after finishing each book (and he would grading it, too!).
I adopted a similar practice, because I wanted to remember my thoughts of each book in more specific terms. And I was practicing my touch-typing skills. I can say after 15 years I have a good collection of grep searchable text files and much better typing skills.
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Plus3. Astronaut Scott Kelly recommends keeping a journal as a means of wellbeing during this time of self-isolation [1].
I can't think of a better way to start than writing a few sentences about a moving reading experience.
[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/opinion/scott-kelly-coron...