Perhaps we don't need Amazon telling us what to read, and their new list of "100 Books to Read Before You Die" is based on nothing but the arbitrary selections of marketing executives. On the other hand, it's difficult to argue with many of the choices on this new list, including several (22 to be exact, more than 1 in 5 overall) by past guests of the Institute.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
All the President's Men by Bob Woodward (no) and Carl Bernstein (yes)
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (more than a visitor, a long-time friend)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (more than a visitor, a colleague)
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat (before she was famous)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (an early pal of Bill Kennedy)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (before and after he was famous)
The Color of Water by James McBride
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
The World According to Garp by John Irving
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Complete list here: http://money.aol.co.uk/2014/02/06/the-100-books-to-read-before-you-die/#!slide=aol_1260760
Visit the Writers Institute Visiting Writers Archive here: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/vwindex.html#I
Amazon has also announced that it will compile a new reader-driven list based on a Goodreads readers' poll.
