Recommendations

My doctor asked me today to recommend a book for her to read. I first had to ask her what kind of books she liked and she gave me a wide range. It's always hard for me to recommend books or movies to people particularly people I don't know very well. I know what I like and I have no problem telling others about books that I liked, but I  also know what I like isn't necessarily what someone else would like. For example, I talked about how much I liked the series House of Flowers at work and one of my co-workers later told me she couldn't get through the first episode. Now I never would have recommended this show to her because she's extremely conservative. (She tries to hide it, but she doesn't try too hard.) Hence, House of Flowers with its gay sibling, transgender ex, and drag queens would not have been up this lady's alley. (No pun intended.) What I would recommend to her would be the series Grantchester that I've been watching lately about a British vicar who likes jazz, cigarettes, women, and booze. My co-worker may still have a problem with this, but I think she'd be more open to it since it takes place in the 1950's and, despite the jazz, booze, ciggies, and women, is still straight-laced enough for her to probably handle.

But back to the doctor. Based on what she told me about the kind of books she likes to read and based on my limited encounters with her, I recommended A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne, one of the best books I read this year. I enjoyed it. The main character was thoroughly evil, but that made for a great narrator, in my opinion. It's not a perfect book, but it's a good one. I did warn the doctor about the main character's evil tendencies because I realize the character could turn a lot of people off.