Book Recommendation Thread

[LunaMuses]

I thought it'd be nice to have a spot to share what the kittens are reading. I also thought I'd be a good kitten and try to make the mods' jobs a lil' easier. If you are looking for GLBT-related books, look here instead. I'm off school for the summer (yay!), and my free time to read has increased trifold. :p I thought it'd be nice to share the books you've read and such.



Anyhoo, I think this should remain pretty strictly a recommendation-only thread. I'm all for the discussion, just in a different place, perhaps? Just don't want any spoilers/rhetoric spilling out all over the thread.



And what kind of nerdy kitten would I be if I didn't make any of my own recommendations? :P So, let me get the ball rolling...



First off, I finished The Alphabet Versus the Goddess a few weeks ago. It was a very fascinating read. I know it looks daunting (written by a brain surgeon? eeks!), but it's actually pretty darn readable. Anyway, the paralells he draws between literacy and society and the way the brain functions is pretty nifty.



Andd also, I finished up The Sex Lives of Cannibals a couple of days ago. It's not really about sex or cannibals, but it's rather humorous. It's a memoir-type thing. The author, a graduate with little direction in his life, packs up and moves to a tiny island way out in the Pacific, and recounts his misadventures during his two year stay. I laughed during alot of the book. It reads really fast, too.



And as of right now, I'm just now getting into The Count of Monte Cristo for some swashbuckling fun. And I'm about 40 pages into Middlesex and so far, so good. It looks promising.



Anyhoo kittens, spread the love!...er...books!

The Cheese Stands Alone...

[dekalog]

Great thread as I love to read.



Just finished comparing Kerouac's The Subterraneans www.ualberta.ca/~mborshuk/kerouac.htm (could only find excerpts - sorry)



to Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground - etext.lib.virginia.edu/to...Note.html.



Now I'm feeling like re-reading one of my all time favourite's Thoreau's Walden eserver.org/thoreau/walden00.html.



Would love to hear great suggestions for some wonderful reads.

[Kieli]

You know, I'm glad this thread exists...I just finished reading Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet In Heaven and it both saddened me and gave me hope. An excellent read and has many quoteworthy lines.



I'm also reading The Warrior Queens by Lady Antonia Fraser and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. They all are excellent reads.

Time flies by when the Devil drives.
It's not the pace of life that concerns me, it's the sudden stop at the end.

[effrena]

I agree with Kieli, "The Lovely Bones" is amazing!

I read Life of Pi by Yann Martel , The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon and Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre lately and loved all three of them!

Now I`m just finishing The time of our singing by Richard Powers. It`s a bit slow sometimes, but really amazing! i love his writing-style!

And after this one, I`m going to throw one of Dean Koontz`s books in. I love him!









Edited `cause i made a mistake with the last link.

Can`t we not suck anymore?! Ellen DeGeneres

Edited by: effrena at: 6/17/04 9:50 am

[dekalog]

Luna thanks for the heads up - I just ordered it - can't wait.

Have you read Chalice and the Blade - www.newworldlibrary.com/p...m?PC=1011X



More anthropology and a little harder to read from the sounds of it but very enlightening.

[LunaMuses]

*rubs hands together evilly*



as if my books-to-read list wasn't long enough already :p



actually, I'm planning to grab Lovely Bones as soon as I can get my paws on it at the library.



hehe, you guys have good taste :D I was going to mention Life of Pi in the future. Quirky, fun kinda read.



dekalog - I spent just about all of Alpha. v. Goddess going..."wow! I never even realized that!...oh, yeah! that makes sense! wow!" :p



to any kittens looking for a really strange, spooky, and utterly addicting read: House of Leaves. This book is just plain awesome. I know it's a big, floppy paperback, but the binding holds up if you're gentle! ^^ It's hard to just sum up, there's several stories going on at once. The central premise of [one of the] stories: A family returns to their new suburb home after a vacation and finds a hallway that wasn't previously there (it's also missing from the blueprints, even though it's physically *there*). And the catch--the house still measures exactly the same on the outside. This book is so massive and extensive you'll be busy for awhile. Plus it's really creepy too :D



quick question: anyone out there read The Second Sex? It's under the heading "Haven't Gotten Around To" on my list and I was looking for some feedback.



yay for overflowing books-to-read lists! ^^



edit: yay for typos

"No, my friend. We are lunatics...psycho-ceramics, the cracked pots of mankind..."
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Edited by: LunaMuses at: 6/18/04 10:24 am

[effrena]

I just startedThe Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and love it!!! It`s really worth a try!

Thanks Luna for the recommendation on House of Leaves, I already ordered it!

Can`t we not suck anymore?! Ellen DeGeneres

[LunaMuses]

effrena - ooh, about House of Leaves...drop me an email or IM or something (lunamuses@yahoo.com), 'cause I have lots of goodies to share, in terms of cross-references, hidden messages and fun stuff like that. you feel like a detective just trying to keep up with all the different directions it all goes in! ^^'



I'm re-reading How To Cook a Tart by Nina Killham, and it's a ball. Just don't read it hungry lol! There's a lot of great (and sometimes dark) humor. It takes on dieting/nutrition issues head on too, whee.



I also started With Their Eyes. It's really nifty. Some of the kids from the high school near the Twin Towers gathered a bunch of interviews of all sorts of people, and made the tapes into dramatic monologues. Actually made a production out of it and everything. Very raw, honest emotions.



til' next time!

"No, my friend. We are lunatics...psycho-ceramics, the cracked pots of mankind..."
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

[Sweetjane]

have to say i loved Middlesex, LunaMuses. what baffles me about Jeffrey Eugenides is that he writes with the air of someone with the knowledge and feeling of both genders. with The Virgin Suicides he adds such an adolescent melancholia to the girls characters and the entire book. it's just too lovely! hope you enjoy his new one, it's really something to get your teeth into.



i'm not sure if this is an international publication yet but is definately worth looking for; Brass by Helen Walsh. she's a young british writer and her book is a vibrant, fervous journey into the life of a girl on the edge and sinking. sex, drugs and domestic fights. the striking thing for me was the honesty and utter realism, all which lend themselves to the atmosphere of what i could speculate was semi-autobiographical. for the Brits it will strike harsh and real, especially for those who have lived and/or grown up around the Liverpool area, but i do reccommend it as a tasty, acidic slice of life for everyone else too. any Brit kittens catch this one yet?



SweetJ x

Edited by: Sweetjane  at: 7/2/04 8:01 pm

[sprhrgrl]

it's interesting to see how many people are reading middlesex lately. . .



i'm currently reading having our say which is the story of "the delany sisters' first 100 years" . . . the amazon page about it is here. it's a great and rich book, and there's also a stage play about it.



i also just finished off the map which is the second in the crimethinc letters series. it's a book that was initially a zine done by two girls from olympia, wa (where i'm from) while they were travelling throughout europe with little-to-no money. it's really well written and tells amazing stories, plus the cover art is fantastic. and it's cheap.



we had to read house of leaves for class this quarter and i wrote a very muddled paper on it not too long ago. maybe we should start a house of leaves thread in genuine molded plastic. . . of course, there's also .

Sweetie, I'm a fag. I been there. - Tara (Dead Things shooting script)

[dekalog]

If anyone here is into reading plays I just finished Dylan Thomas' Milk Under Wood www.geocities.com/dylanwt...k_wood.htm It allows you to trip the light fantastic - now if I could only convince someone in town to put it on



I also just read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, which orginally was a series of radio shows. I have been meaning to check it out for a while and saw a copy at a used book store for 50cents So gleeful me finely got to read it and I must say for anyone who is into sci-fi at all this is a must read. You will laugh all the way through it and it is an extremly easy read - I read it in one night.

[effrena]

I hope it`s no problem to recommend a german book, but i really thought it`s amazing!

Der Schwarm by Schätzing

Can`t we not suck anymore?! Ellen DeGeneres

[LunaMuses]

Recap of what I've found lately....



Finished What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson (movie was great but the book has differences and is just as awesome...)



Also read Enduring Love by Ian McEwan. It's a good read, but you have to be able to handle the slow pace. Very, very eerie sort of feeling to the novel. Wonderfully original premise though.



Ran across This Body by Laurel Doud. It's a pretty enjoyable read, and there's alot of influence from Shakespeare, makes it a little more fun to read. A bit quirky, but what body-switching story isnt'? ;p



That's all for now!

In Memory of Austin Evans...you will not be forgotten...

[effrena]

Luna, did you read Atonement by McEwan? I really liked it, though it was sometimes really slow as well.

Can`t we not suck anymore?! Ellen DeGeneres

[Krazy Dreamer]

Hey, LunaMuses, I would just like to concur that What Dreams May Come is an excellent read. I prefer the book, but really enjoyed the visual-scape (is that a word?) in the movie. But my favorite book by Richard Matheson is Somewhere in Time (originally published as Bid Time Return), also made into a movie in 1980, starring Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve. The movie is excellent, and I highly recommend it to everyone, but as is usually the case, the book blows the movie out of the water. The book goes into so much more depth and helps to explain the whole time travel concept much better than the movie. So I’m going to go against consensus and say, I think watching the movie first (to get a general idea of what’s going on) and then reading the book second is the best way to go. (The endings are slightly different.) I did it this way, and found myself reading the book twice just so I could completely understand everything that was going on, because there is so much to absorb. If you want a book that leaves you thinking and continuing to ponder on it years later, this is definitely the one.

"Some men see things as they are and say,'why?' I dream things that never were and say, 'why not?'"

- Robert F. JFK

[michellesflute]

So, ok, never posted here before and I must admit that I don't know any of the books you recommended.

But I have a few to recommend myself.



First of all the now 6 books of Stephen Kings "The dark tower", the newest book "Susannahs song" is already published in Germany, but unfortunalty I didn't read it till now. But it is definitively the next book that's on my list! If you are already a King Fan, I think I don't have to say much about "The dark Tower". You can say these books are for King what "The Lord of the Rings" was for Tolkien, a lifework (hope this is the right word).



The next five books that are totally brilliant are the "The hitchhike's guide to the galaxy" books by Douglas Adams. If you like his crazy british humour you will laugh your ass off while reading these books. I know I did, all the 3 or 4 times I read them. I just say 42, yes?

If you like Terry Pratchett you will looooooove Douglas Adams!



So, effrena recommended a german book, and so will I (if it's ok), but there are really good german authors, you wouldn't believe it (just think of Wolfgang Hohlbein).

But the book I mean is by Akif Pirincci and it's called "Die Damalstür". It's about a man who finds a way or better said a gate back to his younger years, where his wife still loves him and everythink seems so perfect to him. They both go back there to restart their lives, but first they have to kill their other selfs (and a few other people by the way). This book is full of dark humour, but also thrilling till the end and it's very surrealistic as well. Arrgh, my description really sucks, my english is not so good.



Akif Pirincci also wrote all the "Felidae" books and "Der Rumpf" which is also a fantastic book.





Well, there are so many books I could recommend. You know the swedish author Henning Mankell? His crime books just rock!!!



But I will stop know, before I scare you away with my english.

Anya: "So, I've been reading a lot about the good old 'us of A', embracing the extraordinarily precious ideology that's helped to shape and define it."

Willow: "Democracy?" Anya: "Capitalism."

[WhiteSkyFire]

Ok, for me who is a fantasy freak I'm pretty much going to be endorsing Mercedes Lackey right about now. LOL.. simply because i've read almost every book in each Series I'm about to name more then three times.



Series By Mercedes Lackey



I've had the pleasure to read most of the books in the following Series: Bard's Tale, Bardic Universe, Halfblood Chronicles, and the Valdemar Universe



The Valdemar Series is just totally awesome. Lackey has set up an entire world with this set of books, and as far as I know will be continuing to add to it. We are only missing one book from the series and plan on getting it soon. The Halfblood Chronicles is also a good collection. Just found out there will be a fourth book to that series as well. I know i'll be looking out for it.



-Sky-

[TromDeGrey]

I'll toss in my two bits here with a non-fiction. A Boy I Once Knew by Elizabeth Stone. Imagine being a high school english teacher with one intriguing if difficult student. That student actually keeps in touch through the years with Christmas cards. Now imagine twenty years pass by in this fashion and one day a package arrives from this student filled with journals and a request. "By the time you read this, I'll be gone. Please write my story." That is what Elizabeth Stone was faced with. The book is small, barely 200 pages, but within it is an amazingly personal journey. The journey is not so much Vincent's, her student, but Elizabeth's. Whether railing over Vincent's unsafe sex practices that led him to contract AIDS, or agonizing with him over the loss of friends and lovers, or dealing with her own feelings of grief as she slowly loses her own mother to Alzheimer's, the book is an amazing window into how we live, die and cope with both.



On a fiction note, I highly recommend I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelson. It is the only book I have ever opened and read the first sentence, closed it and immediately bought it. To say that the descriptive language is lush would be a gross understatement. The first sentence?

"The sky is flesh."

My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint. -Erma Bombeck

[Alia16]

I would recommend the book running with scissors. I just finished it and it's very enjoyable =)

i feel pretty, oh so pretty!

[ichi chan]

I'd reccomend any books by James Patterson, especially 1st to Die, 2nd Chance, and 3rd Degree. His new one promises to be good, though.



With over 20 books he's writte, everyone's boundt o find soemthing they like.

"Great, I s-s-stutter even in my t-thoughts..." - my role play character Tara.

[supertramp]

I recently went on a trip to the library to stock up on books for the summer, and found one called The Glass Mountain by Jessica Rydill. It's a fantasy with a good storyline that doesn't have a male main character, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It was pretty great until I discovered a hidden treasure - yes; the main character has lesbian tendencies. It turned out to be so good that I had to go back to the library to get Rydill's first book to which The Glass Mountain is a sequel.



The first book is called Children of the Shaman, and it's about, funnily enough, a shaman and his children. They are wanderers, and the father and his daughter are both shamans, although the son who is older is not. The book has clashes between religions, magic, and portals to perilous realms. Basically, Malchik and his sister Annat are going to stay with their estranged father the powerful (and gay) shaman for the first time. He takes them up North by the railway to an area recently repopulated after having been deserted. They are planning to build a railway tunnel through the forest, but strange deaths keep occuring. When Malchik is overcome by someone using magic in his mind, he is taken through a shaman portal into La Souterraine, a frozen plane with danger at every corner. It is up to Yuda and his daughter Annat, as well as the Sheriff Govorin and his wife, Casildis, to save him and bring him home.



An excellent read for anyone who likes fantasy. Rydill totally belongs up there with Rowling and Tolkien for these books.

[oneyedchicklet]

Quote:

---

I just finished reading Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet In Heaven and it both saddened me and gave me hope. An excellent read and has many quoteworthy lines.

---

I can't agree more Kieli. It was recommended to me yesterday during our Thanksgiving dinner conversation. My daughter (14 years old) is reading it also. I could not put it down and ended up finishing it in about 3 hours. I am now looking foward to seeing the movie which will air on ABC next Sunday. I also read Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays With Morrie". Both are very good.



I've read Fanny Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatos at the Whistle Stop Cafe" about 4 times. I just love that book and the movie as well.



Now I have to find something else to read. Barnes and Noble, here I come again.



Love to All and Happy Reading!!

Barb

Now serving Bitter, party of one. Your table is ready.

Edited by: oneyedchicklet at: 11/27/04 9:42 am

[Floyd]

I just read one of the funniest books ever.

"High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby. It totally cracked me up because it's so true to life and the guy in it is an utter bastard.. And he's so selfish yet he thinks he's always in the right. Go read it, it'll have you in fits of laughter.

"Green day is like sex, when we're good, we're really good, when we're bad . . . we're still pretty damn good." - Mike Dirnt, Green Day

[Yelowsub]

Anything by Douglas Adams and Chuck Palahniuk!



I'm a litt major so I rarely get to read my own books, there just isn't time. So when I do get a chance I grab something by them. They make me laugh and that always helps.

"Trying to talk about love is like trying to dance about architecture."

[Kieli]

Don't know if the mods want this recommendation here or elswhere but here goes:



Girl Walking Backward by Bett Williams (totally bloody disturbing and sexy at the same time...gave me shivers)

Crush by Jane Futcher (just in case it hasn't been said)

Annie on my Mind by Nancy Golden



ANYTHING by Leslea Newman....



Now on to the not-so-lesbian books:



First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough (actually all of her historical fiction novels are delightful reads)

American Gods and Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.



I could go on and on about other works I enjoy like Robert Pinsky's translation of The Inferno of Dante, Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddux, Julius Caesar by JC Fuller, De Bello Gallico, Tacitus' The Histories, anything by Ayn Rand. My library is rather diverse....I've only quoted about 1/100th of what I own.

Time flies by when the Devil drives.
It's not the pace of life that concerns me, it's the sudden stop at the end.

[mollyig]

Kieli I read The Red Tent recently. My gf's sister recommended it to me. A fascinating read, which brought vivdly to life the early bible era.

---

You stay the course, you hold the line, you keep it all together.

You're the one true thing I know I can believe in - Sarah McLachlan

[Repost Moderator]

Originally posted by JustSkipIt

I’m somewhat interested in lists. Even more so, I’m interested in good book recommendations. I’ve compiled a list of my ten favorite books. The order could change on a whim. Please comment, discuss, and especially post your own.

1. Temple of My Familiar – Alice Walker
   This book is about everything in the entire world but mostly about love. It is epic but not in a long boring way. I love the language Walker uses and have read the book out loud to two different women for the joy of hearing the cadence and beauty of the words. On my first date with my wife, I was shocked to learn that it was also her favorite book.
   
2. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
   Irving is a truly spectacular writer. What if there was a young boy who believed he was sent to save the world? What if he had a fevered vision of the date of his own death and lived the rest of his life into that vision? This book is one of the most virulent and effective anti-Vietnam books in American Literature. It’s also funny as hell!
   
3. The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon
   When I was reading Mysteries of Pittsburg someone asked me how it was and I said that I thought Chabon was trying to learn how to write. When someone asked me a similar question about K/C I said that he had accomplished it. If there is a “Great American Novel” and not the one by Phillip Roth, this would be my nomination. It is about those things which define this country: Immigrants, assimilation, war, peace, love, capitalism and upward mobility, and surburbia.
   
4. Bellwether/To Say Nothing of the Dog – Connie Willis
   Take your pick. They are hysterically funny and everyone needs to laugh that hard every so often.
   
5. Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
   I’ve been a fan of Kingsolver’s writing from her early days. I think she’s talented and growing more so and I particularly like her dialog. This book is complex and moving and fascinating. She pours enough personal experience into it to make it unusual and really makes wonderful use of her characters and their narrative powers.
   
6. The Gift of Fear – Gavin De Becker
   Yes, I’ve just slipped a work on non-fiction into my list. I read very little non-fiction but I can’t recommend this book highly enough. DeBecker is a safety consultant. His basic premise is that fear is an evolutionary quality and that we only need to listen to it be safe. He posits that we are only in danger when we ignore our instincts.
   
7. Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner
   Like Temple of My Familiar, the language in this work is stunning. The storytelling is rich and complex and evokes a historical feel. The narrative flow allows the reader to discover two separate stories at the same time.
   
8. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
   In high school, our English class would check out a book to each student for 50 minutes. If you wanted to read it later, you had to go back and read it there and I read this entire book the first day with the teacher staying at the school with me. I find it to be one of the most simple and beautiful books I’ve ever read. The narration is classic and pure.
   
9. The Prince of Tides – Pat Conroy
   This is probably the most emotionally powerful book I’ve ever read. If you had a traumatic childhood, this book will bring you back to it. If you didn’t, it will tell you a little about what that term could mean. It’s beautiful and loving and brutal and amazing.
   
10. Annie on my Mind – Nancy Garden
    Yes, it’s a young adult book but I had to get something lesbian on here and I decided against Affinity (although it’s probably #11). It’s moving and adorable and so intense. For the young person who needs something to read and understand to anyone interested in a romance.

[mscheckmate]

deleted

[FineyMcFine]

I like the idea of top ten favorite books.

Debra, of yours I've read Temple of My Familiar, A Prayer for Owen Meany (it's one of my favorites too), To Kill a Mockingbird, The Prince of Tides, and Annie on my Mind. I started the Poisonwood Bible but never finished it. I might pick it up again on vacation later this month.

My favorites are, in no particular order:

1. Watership Down - Richard Adams
Okay, this might actually be my favorite book of all time. I just love it. The story is great, I love the drama and the otherworldliness to it, combined with the information about rabbits and their habits. I read it when I was a kid and every year since then, and as I've gotten older I keep finding new things in the book. It's one of those books that you can appreciate as either a kid or an adult.

2. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
This book is so powerful. I was HOOKED reading it, and the ending was just WOW. I'm hit or miss with most of John Irving's stuff, but this book is amazing.

3. The Onion Girl - Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint is my favorite author and this book focuses on the background of one of the longtime characters in most of his books that are set in the fictional city of Newford, Jilly Coppercorn. She's such a great character that it was a rare treat and privilege to get to read about her story - she is presented in previous books as a very together person and a free spirit with allusions to her past, but this is the book that tells her whole story.

4. Memory & Dream - Charles de Lint
This book really got to me - I can totally relate to a long-term unrequited love for a best friend. So powerfully written. CdL writes women so well - it's like he really knows what it's like to be a woman - and a gay woman, even! I cried.

5. The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (the entire series, actually) - Stephen King
This whole series is so epic, staggering, ambitious, and gripping. I love Stephen King and think he gets a bad rap as just being a pulp fiction author, but he is the master of description, dialogue, etc. in my opinion. And he tackles big themes in this epic.

6. Hood - Emma Donoghue
Emma Donoghue is one of my favorite writers as well, and this book was so poignant and sad. Made me cry.

7. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
What a great teller of tales. I love stories that are set during this time period. I loved the way she told this story, also, from the perspectives of both characters. No spoilers in case someone hasn't read it.

8. Bridget Jones' Diary (and The Edge of Reason) - Helen Fielding
Hilarious. I laughed so hard reading these, and also relate to Bridget in many ways.

9. Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman
I love historical fiction set in the British Isles, and this story about Joanna, the illegitimate daughter of King John who was sent to marry Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, is so well-written. I felt like I was there.

10. Curious Wine - Katherine V. Patterson
I have long-standing affection for this book because it was part of my coming out process. Good sex, some angst, more good sex, and a happy ending to boot. Just what I needed to read at that point in my life.

There are so many more books that I love that don't fit into a top ten list! I love to read.

[idontlikejam]

A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews about a teenage girl living in a Mennonite community, pretty emotional but the girl is really funny and i think shes the coolest.

Axiomatic - Greg Egan - a book of his collected short sci-fi stories, pretty cool concepts in a lot of places though i havent finished it yet

Only Forward - Michael Marshall Smith sort of sci-fi i guess, but i really recommend it even if you're not into that cus the ideas and writing are really good, he is fast becoming one of my favourite authors so i recommend everything of his. this is one of his earlier ones i think.

The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov ok its an old one but a goodie, also sci-fi, Asimov is one of the best in the genre and should be read by everyone.

Hmm thouse are pretty crap summaries, i dont really know what to say about them except theyre good, i guess if you dont like sci-fi you might not like them, but i dont understand how you cant like sci-fi