The Five Books I Most Often Recommend at the Book Shop Are:

1.

--For its epic scope, its great story and its literary quality (probably the safest bet to satisfy the book club goer, the Oprah lover and the snob), Middlesex is a beaut. 

2.

 
--Click East of Eden for the reasons why

3.

--Click Dance, Dance, Dance for the reasons why;
--The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - because it is widely considered Murakami's first masterpiece and is good for anyone looking for something meatier, denser, more all-encompassing; also that bit of (Japanese) history seems to ease more readers into the belief that what they are reading is "real" literature;
--Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - for sheer wonder and sparkling imagination

 4.

--Click All the Pretty Horses for the reasons why; and

5.

 

--For being my favourite collection of short stories published since Salinger's Nine Stories and winning the Pulitzer on what was Jhumpa Lahiri's first book, The Interpreter of Maladies is a stunning debut.

Haruki Murakami: Where to Begin? 5 Best Bets to Start

Where to begin ? It's not like with Salinger where the answer would of course be The Catcher in the Rye (with the critical addition of not letting the reader stop there, forcing them on to the "Nine Stories" of course and then "Franny and Zooey" and last but certainly not least "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters - bar none the least inviting title to a fucking brilliant story.) With Murakami it depends on the person reading. Is this reader a lovelorn romantic, or more the type to need a meaty, weighty book? Do fantasy and wonder appeal? Or is it just a straight but rather surreal adventure that is the order of the day?

The following is an attempt to help solve the problem:

Norwegian Wood
--For melancholy love and what seems so simple a story, but that carriers a similar mystique magic to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
--For the adult reader who doesn't believe there are fantasy books for adults, books that can take you into your imagination the way they did when you were a kid, but that are actually written for people who've outgrown George Lucas (more or less).

Dance, Dance, Dance
--For the utter fun pleasure of a magical mystery kind of tour - this is a thrill ride for the literary reader. [For a wee review follow me.]


The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
--For what many consider to be his first masterpiece, and what I have to call the best opening to a book I can think of.

Kafka on the Shore
--To confuse everything this may well be my favourite Murakami book of all, but it comes last and gets no real descriptor because I don't think it's the way to start if you're not familiar with the author. Start with the very good, warm your way to the great.