Submitted by Kaarin on Thu, 01/15/2004 - 21:38
Posted in
this site is about reading and writing so i thought about something (a rare occurance i know) that maybe it could be a good idea to recommend books to people who are probably quite good readers or the likes.
I will start by saying that a book i just read called
'Memoirs of a Geisha' by Arthur Golden is one of the best books I have read in a long time. and I do alot of reading. ok every one feel free to post your own recommendations and dont make this another failure to start of a thread.
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Book Recomendation
I LOVE Stephen King, but I havent read that series still. Although I've read most of his early stuff. One of my vampire favorites of all times is "Salem's Lot" try reading it if you havent. :D
But as recommendation, please read "Bag of Bones" from him, or "IT" Those are excellent.
Book Recomendation
Yes, there is a movie. Oh...it's bad. If you liked the book, I recommend you don't see it. They change so much. If you didn't like the book, then sure as hell don't see it ;)
Book Recomendation
Go read The DaVinci Code now! The story takes you through a real-life conspiracy (fictionalized for the novel, but it is all based on real facts), a secret society, a cult, and the Vatican. Awesome stuff. It takes a while (about a third of the book) to give you all the exposition and set up but once it starts moving then it really rocks.
Book Recomendation
I just recently read in my English class Where the Heart Is (yes, that's a movie with Natalie Portman but they change a lot of the book). I HIGHLY recommend it.
Basically, it's about a 7 month pregnant 17 year old girl named Novalee Nation who is dumped in Walmart by her loser boyfriend in a small town in Oklahoma. So, she begins to live in the Walmart since she has nowhere else to go. During her stay there, she meets a different assortment of people from a single mother of five kids to a quiet librarian.
I thought I wouldn't like the book, but it really is rather good. Some parts get really disturbing and you would NEVER see them coming a mile away (don't you say a word, Jamie!)
Book Recomendation
Oh, yes, Where the Heart Is was very, very good. A nice story with strong characters. I recommend that one as well.
I'm sure I've already recommended Lovely Bones, but I'll reiterate that it's truly a great book. I was really taken away by how well it was written.
I also want to recommend White Oleander, which was a movie with Michelle Pfeiffer, but is a much better book.
Uhm...what else...Oh! I'm reading The Hours. It's good, a bit hard to follow, but the character development is very nice and the language is really beautiful.
I also recommend a short story collection called Gunning for Ho, which is entertainind and thought provoking. It was written by my creative writing teacher, who recently put out a novel, The Lucky, which I received for Christmas but haven't read yet.
Okay, that's all I've got for now. Thanks.
Book Recomendation
I also recommend Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (is it Charlotte, or is it Emily? No, wait, Emily wrote Wuthering Heights). It's basically about this girl named Jane Eyre who was raised by her cruel aunt and cousins and was later sent to a strict boarding school. Later, Jane is hired as a governess to a rich man's daughter (grr, wtf is his name???). Soon, she falls in love with Mr. (what's his face???), Jane soon learns that he is keeping many secrets....
Another book I highly recommend (I don't know if anyone has recommended this) is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (LOVE her). The story takes place in early 19th century England, where the two oldest Bennet sisters, Jane and Elizabeth, are looking for love.
Book Recomendation
Actually I'd recommend anything by Austen, Pride and Prejudice is the more popular (and well known) work but if you like that I'd definetly try out the others especially Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion.
Actually I never really liked Jane Eyre, too much pious self deprivation for me, though I LOVED Wuthering Heights, I couldn't put it down, i remember reading it on the train journey home every day until it was finished, nearly missed my station a couple of times too hehehe
Book Recomendation
Actually I just thought... if you liked Jane Eyre you should read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - it's a wonderful 'parody' type book written from the perspective of Rochester's 'mad wife in the attic' - the writer shows how through a loss of identity and a strict insistance to conform to rigid female stereotypes just why his wife went 'mad'.
It really is quite wonderful, completely turning the Jane Eyre story upside down - in fact, I think JE might warrent another read after that... :D
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OMG, I LOVE Sense and Sensibility! I cried when reading it! God I love her...
I haven't gotton to Wuthering Heights, though. 'Friad I have yet to find the time. But I might next week, on account of my lack of school. :wink:
Book Recomendation
Jane Eyre is by far one of my all time favorite books. I think the whole tragic love story is so brilliant. I adore it.
On the other hand, I hated, truly despised Wuthering Heights. It was so...dull. I just couldn't get into it at all.
I love the Austen stuff, especially Pride and Prejudice. I actually got a nice anthology for my birthday with Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persausion, and Emma. It's really beautiful.
I want to recommend, in case I haven't yet, The Clan of the Cave Bear and the whole prehistoric series by Jean M. Auel. These are really good, really interesting stories about Cro Magnon people, which focus on the girl, Ayla, who was raised by Neanderthals.
Book Recomendation
Kris, you and I have similar tastes, I simply loved "Jane Eyre", I read it when I was very young and I was very affected by it. And Meghan, the man was Mr. Rochester and i think the girl's name was Adele. :wink:
I only read "Pride and Prejudice" from Austen, and it was a Literature assignement, but the book hooked me. I guess I'll try the other ones.
I started Wuthering heights a few times but i could never past the first chapters. :oops:
And Candice will probably recognize the "Clan of the Cave Bear" I was recommending it to her not long ago. Although I preferred the second book of that series: "The valley of the Horses" probably because Ayla got a lover there: Jondalar :D I simply love love stories. ;)
Book Recomendation
Heh, well I'll agree there, Wuthering Heights is a bit slow to get started, you have to work though the opening chapters narrated by Lockwood - once you get to the housekeeper it really picks up speed - unlike Jane Eyre which in my opinion the begining is the better part than the ending - once you get into Jane just 'by chance' managing to meet her long lost family unknowingly ick - i HATE such coincidental occurances like that :? personally I found it pretty dry reading from that point, I could have put the book down at that point never to return. Like, come on Jane! You wet blanket! She spends all her time pining for Rochester but won't be with him until his lunatic wife (again, conveniently) dies - of course then it's okay, she can go back *sigh*
I think Wuthering Heights has much more drama and suspence, I absolutely HATED Heathcliff and Catherine with a passion! Oh so they can't be together, we'll just make EVERYBODY ELSES LIVES A LIVING HELL BECAUSE OF IT!! :evil: yes, yes, I'm very passionate about this book, I wanted to punch Heathcliff in the face he's such a f&*ki*g ba$ta%d!!! and Cathy is such a selfish, shallow, spiteful bit&h, yeah I wanted to slap them both - make them live in that bloody house on the moors and make them kill one another!!
Heh, okay, yeah, I'm getting angry and passionate just thinking about the story and it was a good year or two since I last read it!
Book Recomendation
8O 8O 8O 8O
Hell, I guess I'll have to try and past those first chapters then, Lou. Just dont be angry with me. :wink:
Book Recomendation
Moving on, I'd also recommend Of Mice and Men by John Steinback, which I also recently finished in my English class. Its about two guys by the name of George and Lennie traveling together during the depression. Lennie has the mental capacity of a 5 year old and is always getting him and George into trouble.
Tis a very sad, yet good, book. I nearly cried at the end. AND its not that long. A must read.
Book Recomendation
this isn't so much a book recommendation seeing as i can't possibly find the time to read something really deep these days...its more a magazine thing...
anyways, the reason i bring it up is because there are quite a few artistic/fashion-types in here...i picked this up a while back just looking thru some stands...
Wallpaper*, its not about what its name suggests...its an interior design, architecture, fashion, engineering magazine...its really cool, especially since its published in europe, so the stuff inside there is really swell, like the countless prada advertisements :P ...but there's quite a bit the art in there as well, talks about expositions, galleries, and the furniture is simply to kill for...heh, i got $$$ to buy india pale ash floorwood @ 85 pounds per square foot 8O
Azure...this is mostly a magazine about lofts, high-rises, apartments...but really slick designs...
oh yeah, actually i am reading a book, which doesnt seem to end, its Fateful Triangle, by Noam Chomsky...highly interesting and fascinating if your into mideast politics...a solid read from an intelligent and outspoken individual
Book Recomendation
Suffering through a Joss shortage?
Firefly is on DVD
Dark Horse has signed a deal to have Joss do more comics (after Fray's Success)
Oh yes, and Joss is penning a new X-Men series too
Book Recomendation
I just finished an excellent book by some guy I'd never heard of before. The book is The Eyre Affair, and I totally think everyone should run out and read it, right away. It was really funny and different.
Book Recomendation
Recently, I read the book Night in English class. The book is the true story of Elie Weisel, a Jewish boy from Sighet Transylvania who survived the Holocaust.
When reading this, I almost cried. After reading it, you can't believe its true, since its so horrific. This is one of the many proof to those asshole Neo Nazis that the Holocaust was real. I suggest all read it.
Book Recomendation
K-PAX, the entire trilogy if you can get the hold of, a very interesting book of "earth is doomed, yup" and a guy who clams to have come from another planet, though in an insane isylum, he starts to almost work miracles, curing patients thought to be impossible to cure. And how can he see ultra violent light? They made a movie out of it, which was good, but the book is witty, funny, and a darn good read.
Book Recomendation
I have been reading Joseph Campbell's "Hero of a Thousand Faces" and for those of you considering more professional writing and plotting career I'd recommend at least spending an afternoon skimming it. It isn't a light read becasue Mr. Cambell writes in a high-brow style that is reminiscent of a college textbook or lecture.
But it argues that the hero is a manifestation of the psyche and how heores are portrayed in literature is actually a replaying of the deeper-rooted sociological and psychological elements of humanity of all cultures.
Its really interesting if you can get past the re-telling (and really just regurgitation of) stories in the midst of dissertation.
If you do feel as if you want to push for a deeper understanding read a chapter and then search your brain for any examples that defy the model (and be critical). Its an interesting exercise
Book Recomendation
For my English course this year, we have to read two novels and write an essay on both. I decided this was as good a time as any to read Nineteen Eighty-Four as I've been meaning to do it for aaaaaaaages. Anyway, so I went and got it out the library this morning and...
8O
I've been hooked all day, having just finished it. I really, really enjoyed it. The darkness and grimness probably played a big part, but so did the ideology, the politics etc, etc. I would heartily recommended it to anybody. Far, far better than another dysotopic view of society by another author we could mention (*cough*Margaret Atwood*cough*)... :P
Anyway, that's one down. Next up Brave New World...
Book Recomendation
I took a Creative Writing class at the local community college taught by thie really awesome teacher by the name of H. Lee Barnes. He writes as well as teaches, and his Contemporary Fiction class was my favorite literature class in my entire academic career. I really think he's fantastic.
I bring this up because just after my class finished, Mr. Barnes published his first book, a short story collection called Gunning for Ho. I, needless to say, ran out and bought a copy and got him to autograph it for me.
I've just finished Mr. Barnes first novel, The Lucky. I don't know if any of you will be able to find this awesome book anywhere, but if you can, then let me urge you to read it. It's set in Vegas in the 60's and 70's. The story was touching and tragic. I couldn't put it down. So, if you can get your hands on a book published by a small press, I completely recommend The Lucky.
Book Recomendation
Okay, recently I read a SHIT LOAD of books recently, many I have read in school (one of the many reasons why I've been too busy to post :?) Most, I won't go into because I'm too lazy.
Innocence by Jane Mendelsohn- It's a relatively short book told in the point of view of our heroine (I forget her name-- I read it back in October :oops: ) It's mixes teenage problems with vampirism and such (although it won't come into play until later in the story).
When I first began it, I was hooked. I mean, I love this book. I finished it in under 24 hours, and was sad to finish it. Great vampire novel reccomendation.
Red Moon Rising by Billie Sue Mosiman- A different twist on vampire folklore. It incorperates science to explain vampires, which, I must admit, I enjoyed. It slams some popular vampire myths, such as vampires vulnerable to sunlight, no reflection, ect.
It tells us several different point of views, but mainly that of Dell, a girl who recently turned into a vampire due to a mutated hereditary blood disease called porphyria. As she adapts into life after her change, an evil force is rising in the form of dying billionaire Charles Upton. Dying from the original form of porphyria, he is determined to find a cure for his ailment, no matter what it takes.
I really liked this book. Throughout its entire course, you just keep coming back for more.
Minion by L.A. Banks- Now, here's a novel closely related to the Buffy Universe. It's about a vampire huntress named Damali Richards, who hunts vampires and demons around the country with her band mates/guardians. But as her 21st birthday approaches, several vampire forces rise, planning on using her for their own agendas.
This book was awesome. So much so, that I'm reading it's sequal The Awakening. True, some things might be different (ie You can change just by being knicked from a vampire), but on the whole, it's awesome.
It has a much more "urban" feel to it, using a lot of slang and street code. Very good to use for here :)
Alright, that's it for now.
Book Recomendation
I have been reading Tales of the Slayers - Vol. 3 and I have recently read Tales of the Slayers - Vol. 4 (The Crucimentium) as well.
All of the books in this series are great background material for the background of the slayers and watchers. A source material for this board they are practically required reading.
The books 1,2 and 4 follow a fairly straightforward short-story format. There are between 7 and 10 stories in each book. Volume 3 has 4 novellas. Of the four books I have to say that Vols 2 and 3 stand out the most.
Volume 1 has a few shorts about the Slayers we'd expect to see. Nikki from the 70's and some of the slayers mentioned in the novels. There is also a short about Buffy.
Volume 2 strays into the more unusual slayers. Ones who had little guidance, and others that lived in highly restrictive cultures. The Slayer always has adapted to her environment, and this book really goes out of it's way to show you how.
Volume 3 - The novellas cover a very broad range of times and slayers but it is refreshing in that we really get to know these girls and their lives, hopes and struggles.
Volume 4 - Each of these stories covers the Crucimentium trials of a wide range of slayers. This 18th birthday ritual is reenacted again and again to the point where it really gets somewhat depressing a read. Of the four books so far, this was my least favorite.
I hope they continue to publish these anthologies because they demonstrate the range of women that are the Slayer. Much like we have done with our two additions - Ellie and Naasha - they are worlds apart but share some common experiences. And it is fun to see these places and times brought to light.
Book Recomendation
Lately, I've been reading a lot of manga (which means I've been buying a lot, and am currently broke until my parents decide to give me some cash for some more :cry: ) Here's a few I've read:
D.N.Angel Volume I- I am in love with this series. I brought this into school one day, and got my friends Alex and Cathy hooked. The story is about a fourteen year old boy named Daisuke Niwa who, on his fourteenth birthday, gathers enough courage to tell Risa Harada that he likes her. Unfortunately, she turns him down, leaving him shattered.
Later that night, Daisuke's genes act up, causing him to transform into the Phantom Theif Dark Mousy. Dark has been in his family's genes for 300 years, passed to the next male in the family, and now, it is Daisuke's turn. His grandfather tells him he can't transform back until he steals the "Saint of Tears" statue from the local museum. He agrees, and steals the statue.
However, there is more this than meets the eye. Even after Daisuke steals the statue, he hasn't changed back. Now, here comes the part where you must pay attention: Risa, Daisuke's crush, sees Dark on the news and sees him as the perfect boyfriend. However, Dark could care less about Risa, and instead, likes Riku, Risa's twin sister. However, Riku thinks Dark is a pervert, and has a secret crush on Daisuke. Ay carumba!
Through out the series, we see Daiksuke grow up and begin to accept that he is Dark (which he kept refusing to accept in the beginning).
Chrono Crusade Volumes I, II, and III- Now, this is a series that I knew I had to read when I saw something about it in Newtype USA back in November. This takes place in New York in 1928, focusing around a nun named Rosette Christopher and her demon partner, Chrono. She is a part of the Magdalene Order, an order of religious figures in the Christian faith dedicated to exorcising and killling demons. A good half (or more correctly, most) of the nuns aren't really nuns, per say. They have been recruted by the order to fight.
This is the case with Rosette. She originally joined to find her younger brother Joshua, an Apostle who was given Chrono's horns by a demon named Aion and was taken away. Chrono, also known as Chrono the Sinner, had his horns cut off and was sealed away in a tomb next to the orphange where Rosette and Joshua grew up.
Now, Rosette and Chrono, joined by another Apostle named Azmaria and a bounty hunter named Satella, are off to find Joshua and take him away from the evil Lord Aion.
I haven't finished the series, but from what I hear, it's rather depressing :cry:
Cowboy Bebop Volume I- Now, I know what you're thinking. "They made a manga of 'Bebop'? Blasphomy!" Before you say anything, allow me to continue. It's a new set of stories about the Bebop gang, so excellent that it was as if Shinichirô Watanabe (director and creator of "Cowboy Bebop") wrote it himself.
For those who don't know "Cowboy Bebop", it's about a motley crue of characters, traveling together as bounty hunters: former mobster Spike Spiegel, former cop w/ a robotic arm Jet Black, female gambler Faye Valentine, and computer genius/completely insane Ed (and Ed is a girl).
Phew. My fingers are hurting :?
Book Recomendation
This review comes in two parts: one open, one hidden. The open part is structural; the hidden part will deal with plot elements, and must remain hidden out of necessity.
I really have to recomend to everyone here Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. He has the "concealment fetish," but despite this, has managed to make an entertaining and intruiging book; and while you are aware of flashbacks, they add to the story by giving a form of depth to the characters, usually to understand what they're going through. All in all, an excellent piece of writing.
[hide]Which has to do with a plot by the Illuminati to destroy Vatican City with an antimatter bomb. Yes, you read that right. CERN has been working on antimatter (true), though they haven't admited to synthesing anything near the quantity they did in the book - and I never would if I were them, either. It's a rather interesting history as well.
The standard conspiracy view that I have puts the founding with Adam Weishaupt of Bavaria in 1776; Brown places the founding much earlier, with the main founder being none other than Galilleo Gallie, and it basically being a secret society of scientists. Wish I knew where he did his research, because that should be a fun read as well.[/hide]
My next project, after this, will be the Da Vinci Code. And no, this does not mean my posts will suddenly include the Priory of Sion. :)
Book Recomendation
I'm sure you've already visited the site, but in case you didnt, there's information on Dan Brown's sources in his web page. Not much, but you may be interested, anyway.
http://www.danbrown.com
Book Recomendation
Yeah, have looked around it some, but haven't found what I'm looking for... yet. I know he relied on Holy Blood, Holy Grail at least in part for Da Vinci. And it may just be the machine at work, but none of the URLs are working.
Besides... if I can get them to work, they look like Da Vinci resources. Really looking for the Angels and Demons ones. :(
I miss my dad
The Last Call to Arms
http://www.dtpwrite.com.au/books/index.html
Give this a go! It is a book my father wrote before he died.
Read the selected excerpts (and synopsys), I found the book a good read but I'm not sure if thats because I'm his son and feel the same way on subjects he did.
Only problem is the whole book was set in the future when he was writting it and the year he set it in is 2005 so you just have to look past that.
Book Recomendation
Picked up Romanitas by.Sophia McDougall in the airport last week. For something I bought just because I needed to read soemthing, it was actually a really good read. Half the time I couldn't put it down.
Its set in a world where the Roman Empire never fell but actually spread to cover half the globe. There's a complete timeline in the back that brings it right up to date - well, 2004 I think - which is when the storyline for the book is set. A fascinating concept and interesting characters written in a pseudo-unique style (I haven't seen anyone use a style that switches POV so much, but its pulled off really well). I'd heartily recommend it to anyone with even the slightest interest in alternate history or the roman empire....or anyone who like me just needs something to read.
Plus its the first in a trilogy, too. Now I just need the author to write and publish the next two hehe There's even a website here http://www.romanitas.com
Book Recomendation
I want to recommend two books from a series by Kelley Armstrong. The books are 'Dime Store Magic' and 'Industrial Magic'. There are other books that are before DSM but they involve different characters and are only briefly alluded to in DSM and IM.
Basically the two books revolve around young witch, Paige Winterbourne, who is thrust into the position of coven leader after her mother dies. Not only that but she has to raise a headstrong teen witch (Savannah) about to come into her powers - a task not made any easier when Savannah's parentage is brought into question.
But I don't want to get too much into plot because it would just spoil things. I want to say that I loved these books, not just because they're witchy but because they're so clever and witty and fun (while also having an element of danger too).
Rather than be bogged down in religion, Paige is a witch not a wiccan - a distinction that is made very clear in the novel (that witches have magical powers but don't follow the religion and vice versa) I must say there's an hillarious chapter in the first book where a group of stereotypical wiccans turn up in Paige's backyard skyclad and start doing a cleansing ritual for her - not only that but they want her to join in, much to the amusement of Paige's Sorceror friend, Cortez.
And I love Cortez, the suave, maverik yet geeky heir to the Cortez Cabal - and it's been a long time since I fell in love with a character in a book lol.
BTW, this is one of my fave quotes from the book -
Savannah "We have been invaded, Paige! Not only by a half-demon, but by a sorcerer and a necrophiliac-"
Paige "Necromancer. A necrophiliac is someone who has sex with dead people. Necromancer's don't- or at least I hope they don't... On second thoughts, lets not go there." :D
Book Recomendation
If you haven't read it already, pick up a copy of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Not only are the weapons so incredibly kick-ass that they beat out any other weapons in the books I've read (except for the flesh-firing .357 in The Drive-In), but the plot revolves around Sumerian myth and a tongue-in-cheek cyberpunk story involving an abundance of gadgets. And it's a quick read once you get into it.
Currently at the top of my list for all you surrealist fans is a book called The Drive-In: A B-movie with blood and popcorn by Joe R. Lansdale. The plot is a cross between The Exterminating Angel, a David Cronenberg movie, and the best bad taste movie ever made. It also manages hidden jabs at religion and mass consumption of pop-culture. The second book, The Drive-In 2: Not just another of them sequels isn't as good, but I recommend that one, too. If you can find the omnibus with both of them, I recommend you read that rather than the individual books.
Re: interesting
Have a look at the spam you got banned for.
Book Recomendation
well, "guest cur" was certainly appropriate.
Book Recomendation
Just finished reading The Conscious Universe by Dean Radin, and have to highly recomend it to everyone. Ok, it's non-fiction, but it's something that I'm sure most people here will find interesting.
It turns out that there's about a century of accumulated evidence for psychic phenomena, generated using techniques of the most rigorous and advanced science. We have evidence for, among other things, the ability of a person to apparantly recieve information from a sender; to recieve information about a distant target without a sender; to have a fight-or-flight reaction to an image before viewing it; and to influence, by thought alone, both dice tosses and random number generators in computers. All with statistically signifigant results.
Book Recomendation
On another odd note, I have to recomend The Morning of the Magicians by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier. Few authors accumulate in one place enough evidence to suggest that, lurking behind our officially accepted realities, is fantastic reality which deserves to be explored; and arguably, since publication in 1967, they have been vindicated.
Among other things discussed are: a quite fantastic description of the Nine Unkown Men of India; the mystical doctrines which form the context for Hitler's Germany; a discussion of Alchemy and its relations to chemistry; and a wealth of other information, all of which seems to have the intent to encourage people to not exclude data merely because they do not like the implications, while holding that we certainly don't have to accept every report as gospel truth.