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Forum Resident
Original Poster
#1 Old 16th May 2008 at 2:59 AM
Default Book Recs
I love to read, but I honestly don't know many people who share this interest in real life (my mom and grandma and one friend who lives out of state). I was hoping that a few of you also like to read, and could share some good book recomindations.

My contribution is this:

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga is a YA novel about a boy who had an affair with his female teacher when he was 12. He's now in high school, and the story deals with his current relationships and the fact that his former teacher will soon be released from prison. The subject matter is really interesting and tastefully writen, and even though it's YA fiction, it doesn't suffer from an older author painfully trying to write from the perspective of a teenager (i.e. no awkward slang). It gets off to a bit of a slow start, but I promise that once you get into the action of the story, you won't be able to stop reading.

The author also wrote a book called The Adventure's of Fanboy and Goth Girl about an aspiring comic book artist and the afforementioned goth girl, who likes to flash people. It's a little slower, but the characters are more fleshed out and unique than in Boy Toy,so if this sounds more your taste, check it out.

Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.


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Alchemist
#2 Old 16th May 2008 at 1:04 PM
I love to read, but I have to really be into a book to get past the first ten or so pages. If I don't get interested in it that far in, I can't read it.

I really love the book A Million Little Pieces. That's the one that they made a big deal about because the guy said it was a true story about what happened to him while he was in rehab, but he really lied about it all. Oprah had a fit about it. Anyway, it's an AMAZING book about this guy and the entire rehab process. It's depressing, but when you finish reading it, you actually feel really good. It also helped me relate to my step brother. He was a drug addict for years and reading that book made me realize exactly what he had gone through. I read it before he died in October of last year, actually, and re-read afterwards. It's just really an amazing book and one of my favorites.
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 16th May 2008 at 1:37 PM
'I was told there'd be cake' - Essay's by Sloane Crosley.
True, autobiographical essays from a young woman who grew up and lives around NY, just funny little stories about summer camps, moving apartments, crappy jobs etc, but really funny and sometimes thoughtful.

I, Lucifer - Glen Duncan
The Devil takes a challenge from God / Gabriel to spend a month in a mortal body for the chance to be admitted back into heaven. He does and spends a month abusing the recently vacated body of a miserable writer in London who tried to kill himself. O-M-G funny. Not for the easily offended, and quite adult humour & bad language, but if you like all that then THIS IS AWESOME
Scholar
#4 Old 16th May 2008 at 1:42 PM
'Lying' by Lauren Slater... it's a book about a girl with epilepsy and so much more. Definitely worth the read.
Field Researcher
#5 Old 16th May 2008 at 4:11 PM
"The Reader" is such a great book. Not my absolute fave but it's really unique.
It's about a teenager who starts an affair with a 36year old woman. Suddenly Hanna,the woman, disappears without any note. 7-years later both meet again in front of the court. Hanna is arraigned for murder, she worked as an officer in the KZ of Auschwitz. Michael suffers from having loved a murder and became an emotianal wreck because of her.
Pretty interesting and it comes to the movies this December.
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#6 Old 17th May 2008 at 2:54 AM
Thanks to everyone who's replied so far. I'm heading out to Barnes and Noble tomorrow after work, so I'm excited to have some books to check out.

I submit one more, and I hope this doesn't offend anyone.

The book Lamb, by Christophor Moore is quite frankly hysterical. It's the childhood misadventures of Jesus and his best pal Biff. It's extreamly well written and researched, and if you don't mind having a little fun with your religious beliefs, than it's a great read. I honestly doubt it would offend many people, it never mocks the bible, it just has some fun with the question of what Jesus was doing those 30 years that no one was writting about him. I honestly hope someone out there reads its. It's unappriciated, in my opinion.

Ok, and I lied, I'm going to submit one book that I just thought of. If anyone is a fan of Lemony Snicket, the author (who's real name is Daniel Handler) wrote an amazing book for ADULTS called The Basic Eight. If you're into The Usual Suspects, A Clockwork Orange and anything of that nature (unreliable narrotor, mystery, a lot of unusual characters), you will adore this book. My friends and I read it in high school, and we had a lot of fun writting notes in the margins, hightlighting parts and passing it around for discussion.

Thanks again, everyone who replied. I honestly didn't think anyone would be interested in this thread.

Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.


Mad Poster
#7 Old 17th May 2008 at 3:02 AM
I simply adore reading.

If you want some fabulously unique books, check out the work of Chuck Palahniuk (if you haven't already). I could sing his praises all week. He has a great conversational tone, a wicked sense of humor, and a sort of gruesome description to all of his books that will keep you fascinated. I recommend Fight Club (the novel that inspired the popular Brad Pitt movie; quite the tour de force), Choke (a story about a med-school drop out who pretends to choke in public to be paid by sympathizers and care for his addled mother), and Haunted (a story about twenty-four strangers stranded for three months on a writer's retreat where they die one by one). He's an amazing author and, despite the in-depth plots, makes for very humorous reads.

Also, for more poignant reading, check out either of Johnathan Safran Foer's novels, Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Foer has a unique ability to completely immerse himself in the character and write as though he were anything from a peculiar Eurasian translator to a nine-year-old child prodigy with something like OCD. Both books are heartbreaking, well-written, and pack a serious emotional punch. They blew me away, and I anxiously await his next novel.

Do I dare disturb the universe?
.
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#8 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 2:11 AM
Yay, people who read! I thought readers died off a while ago, haha.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is definitely a classic, but not the boring, dried-up kind that you get from Jane Austen and such. It's about a woman who is abused by almost everyone she meets in her life, and how she copes with it and triumphs in the end. When she's in her teens, she's married off to an older man she hasn't even met yet, and a lot of things happen from there, shaking up her life and the lives of those around her.

World War Z by Max Brooks is awesome as well. There's a huge pandemic of this disease that turns humans into zombies that crave human flesh. It's very realists; the author even goes into medical descriptions of the disease (but none of it is boring, I tell you). Through stories from various characters recounting their experiences, you get a big idea of what the world might be like if everyone had to cope with the same exact problem together. If you did read it, I would recommend listening to the audio version of it--there are some great voice actors there, and it makes the story even more real.

I'm not really into YA books, but I've been reading Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier lately, and it's pretty good. It's about your typical Indian chick and her parents obsessing over her getting married. It's a fun read though; it does dig a little deeper and isn't sappy or wah-wah like a lot of that YA junk out there.

Woo, I wrote quite a bit...
Lab Assistant
#9 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 2:32 AM
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter is a good read too. The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is a fairly typical all-girls school—that is, if every school teaches advanced martial arts in PE, chemistry always consists of the latest in chemical warfare, and everyone breaks CIA codes for extra credit in computer class. So in truth, while the Gallagher Academy might say it's a school for geniuses what they really mean is spies. But what happens when a Gallagher Girl falls for a boy who doesn't have a code name? Cammie Morgan may be fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways (three of which involve a piece of uncooked spaghetti), but the Gallagher Academy hasn't prepared her for what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl. Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, and track him through a mall without him ever being the wiser, but can she have a regular relationship with a regular boy who can never know the truth about her? Cammie may be an elite spy in training, but in her sophomore year, she's doing something riskier than ever—she's falling in love. (Taken From Site) The second book is out, and the third is coming out next year.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
I havenot read this yet, but read a Twilight FanFiction based off of this, and have been dying to read it ever since. When Clay Jenson plays the casette tapes he received in a mysterious package, he's surprised to hear the voice of dead classmate Hannah Baker. He's one of 13 people who receive Hannah's story, which details the circumstances that led to her suicide. Clay spends the rest of the day and long into the night listening to Hannah's voice and going to the locations she wants him to visit. The text alternates, sometimes quickly, between Hannah's voice (italicized) and Clay's thoughts as he listens to her words, which illuminate betrayals and secrets that demonstrate the consequences of even small actions. Hannah, herself, is not free from guilt, her own inaction having played a part in an accidental auto death and a rape. The message about how we treat one another, although sometimes heavy, makes for compelling reading (Taken From Amazon.com)

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros A amazing read. The only way to really enjoy the book is to find and figure out the themes and other clues Cisneros weaves into the text.

A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass, but it is amazing. It's about a girl who suffers from synesthesia. Thirteen-year-old Mia Winchell appears to be the most normal kid in her family. Her younger brother Zack keeps a chart of all the McDonald's hamburgers he's eaten in his lifetime. Her older sister Beth dyes her hair a different color every week and might be a witch. But Mia knows she is far from ordinary. She is keeping something from everyone who knows her: the fact that sounds, numbers, and letters have color for her.When trouble in school finally convinces Mia to reveal her secret, she feels like a freak. Her family and friends have trouble relating to her as she embarks on an intense journey of self-discovery. By the time she realizes she has isolated herself from all the people who care about her, it is almost too late. She has to lose something very special in order to find herself.(Book Summary)

Also by Wendy Mass, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
Twelve-year-old Jeremy receives a wooden box in the mail with the words, “The Meaning of Life—for Jeremy Fink to open on his 13th birthday.” He recognizes the box as his dad’s handiwork, although his dad passed away five years earlier. The box has four locks, requiring four keys. But the keys are missing. He and his best friend Lizzy set off on a quest through the streets of Manhattan to find the keys before time runs out. (Site)

Again, Wendy Mass, Leap Day Sixteen-year-old Josie Taylor was born on Leap Day, February 29, and today is her fourth real birthday, full of birthday surprises, a school play audition, her driver's test, a scavenger hunt, and the secret sweet-sixteen initiation at the lake. Like any average teenager, sometimes she wonders what other people are thinking. But today it's the reader who gets to find out, by "leaping" into the minds and viewpoints of Josie and everyone around her, changing your assumptions of people forever. (Site) Amazing. The way the book is written, changing POV's so you can 'leap' into everyones head...
#10 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 6:47 AM
The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George is my all-time FAVOURITE book!!!! Its size is intimidating; its the second largest (in both width and length) book I own but every page is worth it! Its basically an autobiography of the infamous Henry VIII from his early childhood, through Wolsey and Cromwell, through his six wives, through the revolution of the English church, right up until his death. When I first saw this book I thought it was just some dictionary-sized political book on a random English king. It wasn't until I looked it up that I realized it was the beautiful tale of Henry VIII's heartache and search for love and an heir. Its very well written. You actually sympathize for the man as he puts two of his wives to the block! If you're in to historical fiction you'll LOVE this book! If you're in to romance you'll LOVE this book. If you're in to the lavish life at an English court you'll LOVE LOVE LOVE this book.
Test Subject
#11 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 7:40 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Dame
World War Z by Max Brooks is awesome as well. There's a huge pandemic of this disease that turns humans into zombies that crave human flesh. It's very realists; the author even goes into medical descriptions of the disease (but none of it is boring, I tell you). Through stories from various characters recounting their experiences, you get a big idea of what the world might be like if everyone had to cope with the same exact problem together. If you did read it, I would recommend listening to the audio version of it--there are some great voice actors there, and it makes the story even more real.


Right now I'm reading The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks! I absolutely love it. I love everything that has to do with zombies, I love preparing for the worst, I love offbeat comedy. This book has everything I love. Unfortunately, I've found myself looking around my house for things I could use in case of a zombie attack lately. It goes into incredible detail about what to do when the dead rise. Two thumbs up and five stars for this book. I recommend it to everyone.
Field Researcher
#12 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 9:56 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by Dame:

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is definitely a classic, but not the boring, dried-up kind that you get from Jane Austen and such. It's about a woman who is abused by almost everyone she meets in her life, and how she copes with it and triumphs in the end. When she's in her teens, she's married off to an older man she hasn't even met yet, and a lot of things happen from there, shaking up her life and the lives of those around her.


I didn't read the book, but saw the film with Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. There are so unique characters in this story, especially Sophia. Her change from the powerfull loudmouth to the traumatized old lady, caused by the major's wife, is so terribly sad.
#13 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 12:52 PM
I'm basicvally telling you whats on the back to not spoil anything

The Thirteenth tale, by Diane Setterfield
Ada Winter, reclusive writer thats old and dieing, decides to reveal the truth of her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret for so long to a young biographer named Margaret Lee that is troubled by her own painful history.

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Zafon
Taking place in Barcelona in 1945, a anitquarian book dealer's son named Daniel finds a book called The Shadow of the Wind, by a guy named Julian Carax. When he goes to discover his other works, he finds that someone is systematically destroying them. Daniel actually has the last book. His innocent quest opens one of barcelona's darkest doors.

Lullaby, by Chuck Palahniuk
A reporter for a newspaper called Carl Streator discovers that parents are accidentally killing their children by reading a culling song to them found within a book called Poems and Rhymes from Around the World. He then goes out to destroy it. I do admit, at first it was like "oh my god, what the f***?" when it came to how he writes after reading the first two, but then there seems to be a reason/function of it all

And last but not least, George Orwell's 1984. It's hard for me to summarize. I am only 30 pages away from finishing it.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 2:55 PM
1984 is a classic. It should be part of a person's education in literature to read it.

I also recommend Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra. I'm almost finished with it and find it to be a phenomenal book- it's about a monkey who is shot by a boy and, in a flash of clarity, remembers all of his past lives. In order to stay alive, he strikes a bargain with the Hindu gods to entertain them with tales of his past lives, which he types on the boy's typewriter. It's a touching, amazing book.

Do I dare disturb the universe?
.
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Lab Assistant
#15 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 6:37 PM
Red Earth and Pouring Rain sounds good. I'll check it out at my libary.
#16 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 6:53 PM
Midnight Breed Ser. by Lara Adrian - is a really good ser. well if you like adult vampire romance books.

The Symphony of Ages Ser. by Elizabeth Haydon - a great Science Fiction & Fantasy

House of Night Ser. by P. C. Cast - i started this in the school year and its awasome. Teen book. has vampires in it

Uglies Ser. by Scott Westerfeld - this is a must read. yes its a Young Adult - Science Fiction/ Fantasy/ Horror but its great i wish he would write more books for this ser.

I you're willling to read a childrens book 10yrs+ the Pendragon Ser. by D. J. MacHale is great. i need to get the last book now

i love reading lol
Mad Poster
#17 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 6:55 PM
Quote: Originally posted by sesshomarusgirlplayer

Uglies Ser. by Scott Westerfeld - this is a must read. yes its a Young Adult - Science Fiction/ Fantasy/ Horror but its great i wish he would write more books for this ser.


I bought Uglies because I loved Peeps and now it's rotting in the back of my bookshelf. I didn't like it at all- thought it was subpar science fiction. The characters were so transparent that it was laughable. If you want good science fiction, read Hyperthought by M. M. Buckner. It's a great book about the hidden potential of the human mind and the consequences of using technology to activate it. There's also a bit of a love story and some snarky humor for anyone who's not satisfied with the philosophical aspect of the story.

Do I dare disturb the universe?
.
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Alchemist
#18 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 7:01 PM
Hmm... I recommend A Million Little Pieces. I know it was an Oprah's book club book a while back, but it's pretty awesome.

Must say though, my favorite book is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I haven't read the last one yet... but I know what happens. Other than that, sometimes I still re-read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books... and all the Princess Diaries ones. I have the worst taste in books. I just never know what to get, it's hard for me to get into them, so I just read the same ones over and over...
#19 Old 15th Jul 2008 at 7:07 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Rabid
I bought Uglies because I loved Peeps and now it's rotting in the back of my bookshelf. I didn't like it at all- thought it was subpar science fiction. The characters were so transparent that it was laughable. If you want good science fiction, read Hyperthought by M. M. Buckner. It's a great book about the hidden potential of the human mind and the consequences of using technology to activate it. There's also a bit of a love story and some snarky humor for anyone who's not satisfied with the philosophical aspect of the story.


i'll give the book a try. at least you gave uglies a try though
Lab Assistant
#20 Old 31st Jul 2008 at 12:07 PM
Chuck Palahniuk! his books are all-without exception- amazing
Disturbing sometimes, gross, and a bit depressing but so exciting!

I always reccomend iLucifer by Glen Duncan to people who like fiction that plays with biblical/chrisitan ideas. The Devil is offered a chance to get back into heaven, but only after spending a month in a mortal/human body. HILARIOUS. And a bit rude.
Mad Poster
#21 Old 31st Jul 2008 at 3:31 PM
Palahniuk is my literary idol. If you enjoy obscure facts, twisted humor, and brilliant satire, you'll enjoy his work.

Do I dare disturb the universe?
.
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#22 Old 31st Jul 2008 at 4:48 PM
I'm reading The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants series. It's amazing, Ann Brashares is a fantastic writer. I get goosebumps the whole way through. I'm on the 3rd at the moment.
Field Researcher
#23 Old 31st Jul 2008 at 5:22 PM
This is All, by Aidan Chambers. It's an amazing book about the life of a teenage girl named Cordelia Kenn, who is putting together a bunch of pillow books for her unborn child. It's heartbreaking and amazingly well written- definately one of my favourite books. :D

"I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."
-Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

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