I was going to put To Kill a Mockingbird but I figured it was one of those high school books you'd already read. I've taught it several times, though, and it's one of the few that all the kids seem to like. I could never figure out why people don't like Lord of the Flies, though -- I like teaching that one! All that great symbolism!
I'm not sure why I hated it, I just did. I... it... it seems so contrived to me maybe? Like seriously, leave Piggy alone already! It was the only test I ever failed in English simply because I refused to take it.
I also really dislike Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, and people think I'm crazy for that too Ha.
I'm not sure why I hated it, I just did. I... it... it seems so contrived to me maybe? Like seriously, leave Piggy alone already! It was the only test I ever failed in English simply because I refused to take it.
I also really dislike Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, and people think I'm crazy for that too Ha.
I was totally traumatized by Lord of the Flies. Argh!!!
Ariana Franklin has a nice series about a medical examiner in medieval England that I can't get enough of. I second the Jim Butcher recommendation.
Wysteria I love crime fiction. What would you recommend?
Ahahah awesome.
I'm mainly into British crime fiction, being British and all, so I'd recommend the following authors and my favourite book by each of them is:
Chris Simms - ****'s Fire
Mark Billingham - Sleepyhead
Colin Dexter - The Wench is Dead
Caroline Graham - The Killings at Badger's Drift
Mo Hayder - Pig Island
But anything by any of these is great, Mo Hayder is a fairly recent discovery for me but Pig Island had me hooked.
Of American authors my favourites are Meg Gardiner and Sue Grafton. Also, Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware books are fascinating. Beware reading those though, you'll find yourself analysing people around you!
Our household is currently convulsed by these books. We read bits out to one another, we quote them to each other, we giggle uncontrollably. Heartily recommended. Read a short story every night to stop night-time misery.
Last edited by silverbirch; 07-02-2010 at 05:23 PM.
I'm mainly into British crime fiction, being British and all, so I'd recommend the following authors and my favourite book by each of them is:
Chris Simms - ****'s Fire
Mark Billingham - Sleepyhead
Colin Dexter - The Wench is Dead
Caroline Graham - The Killings at Badger's Drift
Mo Hayder - Pig Island
But anything by any of these is great, Mo Hayder is a fairly recent discovery for me but Pig Island had me hooked.
Of American authors my favourites are Meg Gardiner and Sue Grafton. Also, Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware books are fascinating. Beware reading those though, you'll find yourself analysing people around you!
I've read all the Kellerman books and James Patterson.
I will check out the British ones, some there I don't know.
another mention here for The mists of avalon - it is phenomenal.
so last post was sci-fi (and by the way mandalinn i totally get why you would stop reading anything by OSC for political reasons, and if you read some of his other series you'd be outright offended).... this post will be cultural
The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
ALL of Amy Tan's books are phenomenal but I think i like "The Kitchen God's wife" the best. But really, I've read every one and they are great.
1000 Splendid Suns & The Kite Runner - Khaled Houssini
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (it's a tough read but worth it, if you want to experience the author in a lighter form Love in the time of Cholera is also really good)
These are the suggestions that I only received authors for with no specific works. Anyone have sugestions as to what the authors "best work" is?
Chuck Palahnuick
Neil Labute
Chuck Klosterman
Ariana Franklin
Alice Hoffman
And this is the list of all books that only got 1 vote. Anyone want to 2nd them so I can narrow the list down to 100? [I'd love 100 books with multiple votes!]. I've listed the title and author's last name.
1984 - Orwell
#1 Ladies Detective agency - Smith
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Smith
And Irish Country Doctor - Taylor
Angela's Ashes - McCourt
Beach Music - Conroy
Behold Your Queen - Malvern
Bleak House - Dickens
China Lake - Gardiner
Coop - Perry
Cotton - Wesselmann
Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky
Diary of the Provincial Lady - Delafield
Dracula - Stoker
Eat, Pray, Love - Gilbert
Everything is Illuminated - Foer
Farmer Giles of Ham - Tolkien
Five Golden Rings - Laurens
Frankenstein - Shelley
Glass Castles - Walls
Good Omens - Gaiman
Heart Shaped Box - Hill
House of Leaves - Danielewski
Howard's End - Forster
Howl's Moving Castle - Wynn Jones
I Capture the Castle - Smith
I, Claudius - Graves
Indigo Series - Cooper
Inferno - Dantes
Jeeves - Wodehouse
Jitterbug Perfume - Robbins
Lamb: Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Friend - Moore
Little Earthquakes - Weiner
Lonsome Dove - McMurty
Lorna Doone - Blackmore
Love Story - Segal
MASH - Hooker
Memory & Dream - De Lint
Mr. Midshipman Easy - Marryat
Omnivore's Dilemma - Pollan
On the Road - Kerouac
Outlannder - Gabaldon
Outlliers - Gladwell
Paint it Black - Fitch
Prince of Tides - Conroy
Scaramoouche - Sabatini
Second Glance - Picoult
Sherlock Holmes - Conan Doyle
Sleepyhead - Billingham
Storm Front - Butcher
Storyteller - Thompson
Such a Pretty Fat - Lancaster
The Book of Lost Things - Connelly
The Confessions of Max Tivoli - Greer
The Corrections - Franzen
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Barbery
The Glass Lake - Binchy
The Golden - Shepard
The Good Earth - Buck
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Shaffer
The Harvester - Porter
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocolypse - Rankin
The Kitchen God's Wife - Tan
The Last of the Crazy People - Findley
The Late Hector Kipling - Thewils
The Little Prince - De Saint Exipery
The Pickwick Papers - Dickens
The Red Tent - Diamant
The Secret Life of Bees - Kidd
The Sevenwaters Trilogy - Marrillier
The Shining - King
The Sterile Cuckoo - Nichols
The Stone Angel - Laurence
The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
The Swarm - Schatzig
The Three Muskateers - Dumas
The Velveteen Rabbit - Williams
The Water is Wide - Conroy
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Murakami
Tokyo - Hayder
White Man's Grave - Dooling
White Oleander - Fitch
Wind in the Willows - Grahame
Most re-read: Mists of Avalon
Second most re-read: The Hobbit
Most loved classic series: The Lord of the Rings
Most loved contemporary series: Outlander by Gabaldon
Second place: His Dark Materials by Pullman
Currently reading: Kate Mosse's Labyrinth
Recently read: Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections
Most loved classics: Knut Hamsun's Hunger and Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
Ha.
