Any good book suggestions?

pumpkincat210

Well-known member
Right now i'm reading Love in the time of cholera. It is translated from spanish to english. It's not a fast read, but I've been picking it up in my spare time. I really like the story line and he writes beautifully even though it rambles a bit in translation so you really have to pay attention. I don't usually read love stories but this one caught my eye strictly because of the title.
 

AmberLilith

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissChievous
I was just going to come in here to recommend The Kite Runner and I guess someone beat me to it! I just finished it and I thought it was really good, but sad.

ditto

I like this thread
smiles.gif

I've read quite a lot of good stuff over the past couple of years, will post some recommendations when i've read the thread...

Some of the books i'd rec have already been mentioned i think, so sorry for repetition:

Grotesque – Natsuo Kirino
The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly
Tuesdays With Morrie & Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
A Thousand Splendid Suns & The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
All the Harry Potter books – J.K. Rowling
Lord of The Rings & The Hobbit (and others..) - Tolkein
We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
White Oleander - Janet Fitch
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
His Dark Materials Trilogy - Phillip Pullman
Girl With A Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
Perfume - Patrick Suskind
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffery Eugenides
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Geisha of Gion - Mineko Iwasaki
An Unquiet Mind - Kay Redfield Jamison
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Half of a Yellow Sun & Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngosi Adichie

That's it for now, but i'll probably add some more later.
I loved Mitch Albom's books, but haven't read the most recent yet, i didn't think i could cope with it as it sounded like it'd hit too close for comfort.
 

Obreathemykiss

Well-known member
The Desperate Season.

I love this book, each chapter is told by a different character in the book from their point of view.

I suggest you read it, especially if you are especially keen to psychological thrillers.
 

Esperanza

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by chameleonmary
I just finished A Million Little Pieces and loved it!

This will be my next purchase, one of my colleagues recommended it to me!

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlarmAgent
Right now, I'm reading A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It's quite funny so far, and light and easy to digest without feeling too...popcorn? I'm not finished by any means, and it's a bit of a long read, but it's very good so far.

This book is really funny, I really liked it. I read it when I was about 16 and I'm thinking of re-reading it again.

I'm about to begin The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart, it has some really good reviews.
 

blazeno.8

Well-known member
I don't know if it has been translated into English, but I really like Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo. It's very dark and it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it was wonderful when we read it in my Spanish class right around Halloween and Day of the Dead.
 

Pnk85

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by AmberLilith
ditto

I like this thread
smiles.gif

I've read quite a lot of good stuff over the past couple of years, will post some recommendations when i've read the thread...

Some of the books i'd rec have already been mentioned i think, so sorry for repetition:

Grotesque – Natsuo Kirino
The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly
Tuesdays With Morrie & Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
A Thousand Splendid Suns & The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
All the Harry Potter books – J.K. Rowling
Lord of The Rings & The Hobbit (and others..) - Tolkein
We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
White Oleander - Janet Fitch
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
His Dark Materials Trilogy - Phillip Pullman
Girl With A Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
Perfume - Patrick Suskind
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffery Eugenides
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Geisha of Gion - Mineko Iwasaki
An Unquiet Mind - Kay Redfield Jamison
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Half of a Yellow Sun & Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngosi Adichie

That's it for now, but i'll probably add some more later.
I loved Mitch Albom's books, but haven't read the most recent yet, i didn't think i could cope with it as it sounded like it'd hit too close for comfort.


I love Alice Sebold!!! I don't care too much for romantic books but Nicholas Sparks has a book called The Guardian that made me cry, laugh, & angry. I recommend it for Animal Lovers......
 

MAC_Diva

Well-known member
I absolutely loved All Over Creation by Ruth ozeki!! Its soo good! Its more of a science genre, but it was a page turner! i couldn't put it down!
 

triccc

Well-known member
I suggest:

Anything by Chuck Palahnuik
American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs
Naked Pictures of Famous People - John Stewart
Underground - Haruki Murakami
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Stiff - Mary Roach
Doctors From Hell - Vivien Spitz
 

.k.

Well-known member
i just finished the husband by dean koontz! im going to start mary mary by dean koontz now...
 

SuSana

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by *KT*
I wouldn't hold your breath on that one. I read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and it felt like it took me one hundred years to get through it. The most painful read I've ever had. I wonder if part of my sheer disappointment with this novel has to do with the translation from his native Spanish into English... or if it's just dull in any language.

I read it in Spanish (Cien Años de Soledad) and I really liked it, so maybe it was just the translation. I also read 'Memoria de mis putas tristes' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and really liked it as well.

Right now I am reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, my sister told me to read it so we can go see the movie together, and so far it is very boring, but I always gives book a chance and she said it's a slow start. I like reading the books before the movies.

Oh another book I really liked was Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I know a lot of people don't like this book but I loved it and I saw it at the theater and loved that as well. I want to see it again as a matter of fact lol.
 

silverbelle282

Well-known member
i am loving this thread! i just picked up love in the time of cholera, moral disobedience by margaret atwood, and a marian keyes novel.... i seriously can't recall the name and it's sitting in my bedroom.

i'll let you know how those go.

white oleander, to me, was depressing as hell. i eventually finished it, but wanted to kill myself.

the only book that made me want to kill myself more than white oleander was the lovely bones. i still can't get that mental imagery to go away. AND i made the mistake of reading sebold's autobiography which is basically the lovely bones all over again.

i don't know, i'm one of those people who tries not to watch the news bc it depresses the shit out of me.

some good fast light reads?

i vote for jemima j, can't recall the author

and also for anything by marian keyes. an irish former lawyer who writes funny stories about the lives of a certain group of sisters who all lead very different paths. the books are cute, endearing, kind of whisk you away, but still have a depth to them.

i also love the book the feast of love by charles baxter. i read it years ago and it has been my favorite, it's a vignette style love storybook. i avoided the movie.

i'm just getting back into reading for pleasure myself, so i will be checking this thread often and i can't wait to see other peoples recommendations to you
 

macismine

Member
chuck pahliunik's invisible monsters...simply amazing. it really makes you think and it's just a crazy story all together that really keeps you interested...or that's what i thought anyway but it's worth a shot. i haven't read much of his other stuff but i hear it is really good.
 

Lndsy

Well-known member
Fall on your knees - Anne Marie McDonald. I think I have read this book about 10 times an I will read it again!

The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood. Sooo good! This led me to read "A Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, "1984" by George Orwell, and "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess as well as others...I got really into books about dystopian societies..very interesting stuff.

A Dirty Job and You Suck - Christopher Moore. Both easy reads but I found them funny and will probably pick up the rest of his books.

And I love love love rock biographies...I think they are my guilty pleasure!
Scar Tissue - Anthony Keidis was really good, the Motley Crue one was pretty good as well. And I am really excited to read Slash's too.
 

AmberLilith

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by silverbelle282
white oleander, to me, was depressing as hell. i eventually finished it, but wanted to kill myself.

the only book that made me want to kill myself more than white oleander was the lovely bones. i still can't get that mental imagery to go away. AND i made the mistake of reading sebold's autobiography which is basically the lovely bones all over again.


Silverbelle, I guess you don't read any of the 'tragic life stories' autobiographies n stuff?? (eg: Dave Pelzer)


Another couple list from me....

The Collector - John Fowles
Drowning Ruth - Christina Schwartz
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby
Prozac Nation - Elizabeth Wurtzel
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
Sickened - Julie Gregory
The Vagina Monologues - Eve Ensler
 

silverbelle282

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by AmberLilith
Silverbelle, I guess you don't read any of the 'tragic life stories' autobiographies n stuff?? (eg: Dave Pelzer)

hahahaha yeah i guess. mostly because i already have my own tragic life story. but, don't we all... any who i just got done with law school and taking the bar, which means that for almost four years of my life i have been forced to read wretched and miserable crap (like cases from 1899, or supreme court opinions that make me want to disembowel myself) and i basically stopped reading, or thinking i could afford to (time-wise)

i actually did manage to read the vagina monologues, over and over, and my school did it's own production of it, i thought that was cool.

i also read a handmaid's tale (the poster above you suggested it) which i always tell people they should read, as a warning.

i've been about 1/3 the way through the beauty myth for...oh two years now. i should get on that huh?

i THINK i have a rushdie novel. i can't recall which one. i used to work in a bookstore, too, go figure. i'll get back on the horse. after a few beach reads, and when my life isn't such a hot, hot mess hahahah
 

Flammable

Well-known member
From the top of my head-
Pride & Prejudice (all time fave!)
Kite Runner
Memoirs of a Geisha
Kaffir Boy
The Namesake
Wuthering Heights
Interpreter of Maladies
My Sister's Keeper
Da Vinci Code
Angels & Demons
Lexus & Olive Tree
Harry Potter Series
Monkey Business
The Quilt & other stories

I want to read Open House.
smiles.gif
 

AmberLilith

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by silverbelle282
hahahaha yeah i guess. mostly because i already have my own tragic life story. but, don't we all...

Yep.. but i honestly get the 'but these people are stronger because they've survived n come through it' thing... i know it sounds cheesy as hell, but i do see it like that. My partner thinks i'm mad for reading 'child abuse' books that are bloody miserable, through choice!
 

kaneda

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by AmberLilith
ditto

I like this thread
smiles.gif

I've read quite a lot of good stuff over the past couple of years, will post some recommendations when i've read the thread...

Some of the books i'd rec have already been mentioned i think, so sorry for repetition:

Grotesque – Natsuo Kirino
The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly
Tuesdays With Morrie & Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
A Thousand Splendid Suns & The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
All the Harry Potter books – J.K. Rowling
Lord of The Rings & The Hobbit (and others..) - Tolkein
We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
White Oleander - Janet Fitch
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
His Dark Materials Trilogy - Phillip Pullman
Girl With A Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
Perfume - Patrick Suskind
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffery Eugenides
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Geisha of Gion - Mineko Iwasaki
An Unquiet Mind - Kay Redfield Jamison
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Half of a Yellow Sun & Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngosi Adichie

That's it for now, but i'll probably add some more later.
I loved Mitch Albom's books, but haven't read the most recent yet, i didn't think i could cope with it as it sounded like it'd hit too close for comfort.


Holy shiat!!! Thats a great list - you have very good taste in books!!
greengrin.gif
 

kaneda

Well-known member
Re: Shantaram

I actually bought and read Shantaram based on the reviews on here. Have to say it, felt quite unsatisfied. Loved the beginning of the book, felt the middle of the book took it down a notch, and couldn't actually be bothered to finish it which is so NOT like me.
th_dunno.gif
just didn't really enjoy it.

Now I'm well back into fantasy and reading Steven Erikson books again
th_DANCE.gif
 
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