Book Suggestions

Post by **Penelope Ardith** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:01 am

I second (third?) the reading of Terry Pratchett. He's brilliant and funny! Love his Discworld Series til no end. Good Omens and Mort are awesome. Even though some other Pratchett fans thought otherwise, I liked his Monstrous Regiment, too.

For young adult fiction:Lois Duncan - "Killing Mr. Griffin", "Daughters of Eve", "Summer of Fear", "Locked in Time"Richard Peck - "Princess Ashley", "Secrets Of The Shopping Mall", "Are You In The House Alone?"Joan Llowery-Nixon - "The SeÃ¡nce"Paula Danziger - "This Place Has No Atmosphere", "There's a Bat in Bunk Five"
For older fiction:Cathy Cash Spellman - "Bless the Child"Darlene Barry Quaife - "Death Writes: A Curious Notebook"Donna Tartt - "The Secret History"John Grisham - "A Painted House" (not his usual courtroom drama-llamas!)Roddy Doyle - "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors"Wilbur Smith - "River God"Nick Bantock - "Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence"
Non-fiction:"Uriel's Machine" - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas"On Writing" - Stephen King"Teacher Man" & "Angela's Ashes" - Frank McCourt
I know there are dozens more I could recommend, but y'know...don't want to have an overkill. /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

Post by **Andrea Slate** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 3:38 pm

Books books books! I love to read and I love suggestions because I never know what to read next!
Some suggestions of my own:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - I try to read this once a year. This is the story of a woman who is trying to save her Rail Road while all of the competent people in the country are disappearing around her.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman - First of all, I adore Neil Gaiman and all of his books. But I had to pick a favorite, and this is it. Stardust was a close second. American Gods is a surreal tale of how the Gods got here and the war that is brewing between them.

Contact by Carl Sagan - Carl Sagan is one of the most influential people in my life, even though I never ever met him. I was an astrophysics major at university, and this book is why.

1984 by George Orwell - This is a great commentary about socialism and it's pitfalls. It has it's dry moments that you have to muscle through, but all in all you'll be glad you did. Unless you're like me and get scared that that is how things really are!

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - Another tale of socialism gone wrong.

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut - Jurt Vonnegut is my #1 favorite author of all time. This was the first (of MANY) books I read by him. It won me over. Maybe it will win you over, too.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - I do love those post-apocalyptic utopia/dystopia stories! They're my favorite. This is like ...almost the opposite of 1984.. kinda. In fact, if you're in high school and have a big paper to write, impress your teacher. Read these two books and write up a compare/contrast of them. They're MADE for it.

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice - What can I say? I've read them all and loved them all.

Those are just a few of my favorites, (can you tell I'm a book worm?) and I just ordered about $50 worth of books from Barnes and Noble, so I will soon be reading Flowers for Algernon, The Dark Tower 1, Gunsligner, Watership Down, and Good Omens (which I'm sure I will adore.)

So those are the types of books I love, besides the obvious, Harry Potter! I can't wait to hear some more suggestions!

Post by **Natara Starlight** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 3:52 am

Hey i don't know if this is the right spot but i want to read a good romance or mystery novals
Anybody know any book that would be good to read?

Post by **Zach Goldenfarb** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:39 am

Dave a night is good, it's about an elevan year old who lives in an orphangae and tries to escape, it's good.

Post by **Fujiko Ankyo** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 5:19 pm

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

On A Pale Horse by piers anthony.

A Spell for Chameleon by piers anthony

1984 by george orwell

The Great Gatsby by f. scott fritzgerald

Suffer the Children by john saul

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury

Lasher by anne rice (ties in with the mayfair witches series)

The Mummy or Ramses the Damned by anne rice

Watchers by dean koontz

Whispers by dean koontz

Post by **Fujiko Ankyo** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 2:41 am

Ioana Bona wrote:QUOTE (Ioana Bona @ Sep 14 2005, 02:07 PM) hmmm....good books , well i must be honest and say that i haven't read as many books from the foreign literature , but the ones i have always left a pleasant impression on me.So here's my little list (in random order) :
Paolo Coelho-11 Minutes and The Alchymist
Emily Bronte-Wuthering Heights
J.D Salinger-The catch in the rie
Sylvia Plath-The glass bell (im not sure whether this is the english term-i have it in my own language)
John steinbeck-The winter of our discontempt
Hemingway-Farewell , arms
the list goes on but i dunno...i could recommand some Romanian books but i dont know how many students here are actually from Romania so i'll just stick to those
/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

i believe the Sylvia Plath book that you are referring to is "The Bell Jar". and yes, its a great book. =)

Post by **Ginger Witheroot** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:10 am

This is a fun forum. I think a lot of us read so much that it's hard to choose. I pefer young adult fiction because it's usually the most fun to read. I'm a Lit major, so I have to read the "good" (i.e. classic and/or serious) stuff all the time.

I recommend the Dark Is Rising series, A Wrinkle in Time, and A View from Saturday. Also, if you like The Giver, you might want to read Gathering Blue, The Giver's companion novel. Messenger, the third book in the The Giver series, is also out...but I didn't like it at much as the other two. I also suggest Don
Quixote...it's just a fun book (and if you can read the last few Harry Potter books, you can make it through this one).

Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:59 pm

I'm not sure if anyone recommended these books. It's actually a series, and very interesting. It's called the Artemis Fowl Series. I'll list all of the books in the series.

1. Artemis Fowl
2. The Arctic Incident
3. The Eternity Code
4. The Opal Deception [I'm reading this one currently, and its very good]
5. The Lost Colony
6. The Graphic Novel

The 5th and 6th books of Artemis Fowl are the newest. The Graphic Novel is coming out this Fall, and The Lost Colony was last year. Eion Colfer is the author, and he is quite talented upon all of his book. It's very action packed, and magic filled. Also there is a book that is not in the series but will help you out. If you are ever to read the Artemis Fowl Series, there is a small book called The Artemis Fowl Files, and it shows you the Gnommish Alphabet, and how to understand the symbols written along the bottom of the pages. Of course the Gnommish letters are not in every book, but so far it has been in the 1st, and 4th book.

Post by **Caitlin Hewett** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:19 am

For younger readers, I would recommend anything by Meg Cabot. She has written a few different series', including The Princess Diaries.

Some of my favourite books include;
Sabriel by Garth Nix (and the other two books in the series, Lirael and Abhorsen)
Anything written by David Eddings
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (Australian book)
Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Over The Top With Jim by Hugh Lunn (Australian book)

Post by **Fujiko Ankyo** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 12:35 am

JinxyJo wrote:QUOTE (JinxyJo @ Aug 26 2007, 06:46 AM) A few books that i think are great reads are;

A Child Called It - David Pelzer; true story about David's life, very sad but such a great read.

My Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold; a little girl is tragically murdered and its her view from heaven.

To Kill A Mocking Bird - Harper Lee; about racism etc

A Child Called It was a very good book as is To Kill A Mocking Bird.

Post by **Fawn Warwick** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 5:01 am

oh wow i'm glad i found this forum!!
i have been in a rut trying to find something interesting to read for a very long time
althought right now i'm working on reading Les Miserables.

when i found this i got lots of suggestions of new books to check out! /biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />

Post by **Amanda Patel** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 3:07 am

Some books I recommend are:

Loneseome Dove by Larry McMurty (I just started reading it, but it's a very good book. And it's a western, for all you Western lovers out there.)

The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher (I absolutely recommend these books. It's fantasy/science fiction/horror, and it's about a wizard, Harry Dresden, who lives in Chicago. Think of it like a Harry Potter book series, but for adults. It's really, really good. And plus there are nine books of the series out, so if anyone likes book series and fantasy, then I recommend this series.)

The Codex Alera also by Jim Butcher. It's a fantasy and I really recommend it, even if you aren't a big fan of fantasy. The second book is far better than the first, as the first takes a while to get interesting. There are currently 5 books in the series, with a 6th one later this year.

The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin--it's also a fantasy and it's rather short, and while it may seem as if it was written for children, it's really good. There are four books in the series, with two other novels that are collections of short stories centered around Earthsea.

On a similiar note, The Lathe of Heaven and The Dispossessed, both by Ursula K. Le Guin, are also really good. Both are science fiction; the first is about a man whose dreams come true and the second is hard to explain, but it's really good in a thought-provoking sort of way. It's about a man who goes to another planet trying to find utopia. It's not so much plot driven, but more idea driven.

Post by **Ariel Kingston** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:36 pm

One of the things I love to look for is retellings of old fairy tales or myths. Robin Mckinnley has several wonderful books out that are reworkings of Fairy Tales. My favorite of her's is Deerskin very beautiful yet sad story based on "Donkey Skin." The story is about a girl who is a princess but ignored her entire life in the shadow of her o'so perfect parents. Then one day her mom dies and well one thing leads to another involving the slow madness of her father, but she must leave and make a new name for her self. There are some unsetteling themes that some younger audiences might not be able to handle.

In general one of the best books I have ever read is Blindess by Jose Saramago. The book which was translated from Portuguese wonderful and haunting if not all togather disturbing. A very great work of literature but not for the faint of heart. It was something i read for a 400's world lit class and the common complaint was that the book gave people nightmares. The book happens in an unnamed city where people are being struck by a white blindess as the government tries to quarantine these people off the best and worst of humanity is exposed. Often times in very graphic manners.

Post by **Mia Vardales** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 5:31 pm

I think that anyone should read One Hundred Years of Loneliness by Gabriel Garcia Marquez at least once in a lifetime, because in my opinion in this South American family saga the whole humanity is represented in all its flaws and good points.

I also really loved Orlando by Virginia Woolf; this book is really crazy! /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /> And I really like Woolf care fror details, as trivial and little they may be.

Post by **Danielle Lupin** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:58 pm

I'm not sure if this one has been mentioned yet, but I just finished reading the first book of The Looking Glass Wars trilogy by Frank Beddor and I really enjoyed it. Its a completely different take on the Alice in Wonderland story. Wonderland is a real place with real politics. It was really interesting to see all of the correlations between the two stories. The second book in the trilogy is out now and its called Seeing Redd. I haven't had a chance to read it yet though.

Post by **Jennifer Kwan** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 5:04 pm

Hi, Well these are the books I suggest:

Holes by Louis Sachar
Small Steps by Louis Sachar
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
The Fire Eaters by David Almond
Starseeker by Tim Bowler
The Road of Bones by Anne Fine
Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontÃ«
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

and there are loads more books I would recomend but I can't think of any more... Anyway, happy reading!!!

Post by **Stephen Scofield** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:48 am

I suggest :

Eragon
Eldest
Brisingr
and
Harry Potter series

Post by **Astra Holt** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:06 am

Yeah, that Harry Potter series is a pretty good read!

Let's see, what have I read lately?

Water for Elephants
Sarah's Key
Let the Right One In (this one is gripping, but I warn you, it's really gory!)
The Summoning

Post by **Alex Tendder** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:24 pm

Well some of he suggetions I have had already been done. Yet, I'll write them either way:

The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
---> A book for anyone who loves legend, magic, and, of course, Arturian tales.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
---> This is an amazing book, very well written. One of my all time favorites.

The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
---> Have you never read this one? So do it now!! Definitly a classic!

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
---> This is a masterpiece of science fiction. Written a long time ago, yet, always contemporary.

Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
---> Victorian society has never been so funny! I love Becky Sharp! (Just don't want her to be my wife...)

Well, if you like any of these, please message me, i have many other suggestions!