Read any good books recently?

Read any good books recently? I'm trying to be a good girl and read more (prose). Anybody got any good suggestions?

Are you looking for fiction or non-fiction?

Fiction, please!

Oh, I love this topic! :)

New Fiction:

"The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

Non-Fiction/Psychology

"Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl

Travel Writing:

"Blue Highways" by William Least-Heat Moon

Classic American literature:

anything by Mark Twain

One of my all-time favorites:

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

Thanks!

Hey, any ficiton dealing with age gap relationships?

I recently read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - kind of interesting in that sense too.

Age gap fiction?? Well, its OW/YM ~ and I'm not sure it was intentionally pegged to be ABOUT age gaps, but it turned out really well in that department... Diana Gabaldon's series, beginning with "Outlander" was REALLY good. I mean, REALLY good.

My favorite author, though, is Orson Scott Card. ANYTHING by him is delicious to read. Ender's Game series, Homecoming series ~ both sci-fi, then there is Homebody (AWESOME ghost/love story), Lost Boys (absolutely heart wrenching), the Alvin Maker series, which is about an early America where magic exists. The Women of Genesis series, which starts with "Sarah" and is basically a recounting of biblical history through the eyes of the WOMEN and very, very thoughtfully done.

Then there is David Feintuch. The entire Midshipman's Hope series... *drool* I love Nick Seafort. God, he is a man any woman would LOVE to have in command of her ship. :eek: It's NOT a romance either. Don't get me wrong. It's a deep space military sci-fi.

For a very tight, amazing, philosophical, scientific, deeply inspiring, very, very believable (as some of our current technologies and plans for Mars are damn well right out of this book to the point of freakishness) there is Kim Stanley Robinson's RED MARS series. Not an easy read, but once you get through the beginning development of the story, it starts chugging faster and faster and the chaos and believability build and captivate. One the BEST reads I've ever had the pleasure of getting into.

~phos

I haven't been so into fiction lately - I have a hard time getting through them. I think the last work of fiction I read was the new Anne Rice novel about Jesus and it wasn't very good so I stopped reading it. Oh, and How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accent which I was indifferent about so I stopped reading that one too. :o

I just finished reading The Serpant and the Rainbow (about Haitian Vodoun and zombis but NOTHING like the film from what I remember of it) and it was really good.

Other than that, all my books are school books.

Wow! I haven't read a fiction book since...
But being the geek I am I have to plug my favorite classics, Lord of the Rings, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Stranger in a Strange Land, and the Harry Potter series. (okay I did read the most recent instalment over the summer).
A great book I'm having my students read (11th grade US History) is Comming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody. It's a great memoir of the civil rights movement and not as disturbing as other books (I know why the caged bird sings).
A great new book is History of the world in 6 glasses by Tom Standage. (Beer, wine, liqour, coffee, tea and soda)


"Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever."-- Aristophanes

Thanks!

Hey, any ficiton dealing with age gap relationships?

I recently read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - kind of interesting in that sense too.

My favourite book is by Marguerite Duras, called "The Lover". It's not fiction but it has the age gap theme. Is about her life, I just love that book.

Wow! I haven't read a fiction book since...
But being the geek I am I have to plug my favorite classics, Lord of the Rings, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Stranger in a Strange Land, and the Harry Potter series. (okay I did read the most recent instalment over the summer).
A great book I'm having my students read (11th grade US History) is Comming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody. It's a great memoir of the civil rights movement and not as disturbing as other books (I know why the caged bird sings). A great new book is History of the world in 6 glasses by Tom Standage. (Beer, wine, liqour, coffee, tea and soda)


"Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever."-- Aristophanes

I read that book in College, when I was studying in California, Actually I didnt like it.

Wow! I haven't read a fiction book since...
But being the geek I am I have to plug my favorite classics, Lord of the Rings, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Stranger in a Strange Land, and the Harry Potter series. (okay I did read the most recent instalment over the summer).
A great book I'm having my students read (11th grade US History) is Comming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody. It's a great memoir of the civil rights movement and not as disturbing as other books (I know why the caged bird sings).
A great new book is History of the world in 6 glasses by Tom Standage. (Beer, wine, liqour, coffee, tea and soda)


"Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever."-- Aristophanes
Okay, call me a geek, but I LOVE the Harry Potter books. They are just awesome...the last movie was kind of...I dunno, I dont think it did TGOF justice, but it is cool to see the books in motion, ya know? :o :p

I read that book in College, when I was studying in California, Actually I didnt like it.

I don't know anybody who really liked I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
It was required when I was in high school, but if you're gonna force a kid to read on the civil rights movement I'm gonna go with Moody (Comming Of Age in Mississippi) or the Autobiography of Malcolm X

Okay, call me a geek, but I LOVE the Harry Potter books. They are just awesome...the last movie was kind of...I dunno, I dont think it did TGOF justice, but it is cool to see the books in motion, ya know? :o :p

I loved all the Harry Potter books, too. And agreed on the movie not doing TGOF justice. BUT, I'm not sure how the movie COULD. The book was a LOT too deep...

... it's kind of like the difference between the book American Psycho and the movie. The movie was a PATHETIC JOKE. Like... WTF? The book was gripping, nauseating (literally.. there were times reading it, I wanted to hurl!), intense, fascinating and incredibly good. All I could say when I heard they were making the movie was... "OH GOD NO, they're gonna SCREW IT UP!!!" And they did.

LOL

~phos

Dang! Don't any of yall just read smutty crap?

I read so much chick-lit ...it's not even funny.

Right now from the library I have a pile....here's whats in it:

Fashionably Late by Beth Kendrick (currently reading/chick-lit)

The Ex-Wife's Survival Guide by Debby Holt (chick-lit)

The Truth About Diamonds by Nicole Richie (I know...I didn't think she could read...let alone right a book!)

Non-Fiction

Git-R-Done by Larry the Cable Guy (looked funny)

Don't Eat This Book: Fast food and the Supersizing of America by Morgan Spurlock.

Usually my book choices aren't so weird and random....but I'm running out of books to read at our small library. *grin*

Nadine.

Morgan Spurlock's book is pretty good. Along those lines is also Fast Food Nation.

I've been reading more science fiction lately. I've read Joe Haldeman's Forever series. Forever Free was a stinker but The Forever War and Forever Peace are great books.

Poll, You might find "The Demu Trilogy" interesting by F.M. Busby. Pretty good.

But still, Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars series was flat out the BEST sci-fi I've ever read and reading about the REAL Mars space program (and space elevator plans) is utterly CHILLING... if you've read it. Just takes a while for the stories to come together, but when they do... :eek: WATCH OUT.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553560735/qid=1140110098/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-5710008-1734311?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Definitely worth a read... and a re-read *mumbles to self*...

~phos

Thanks for the good word about the Mars trilogy. I've been wanting to read it for awhile now.

Huge V.C. Andrews fan here. I first read Flowers In The Attic over ten years ago and I've been captivated since.

A few V.C. Andrews books deal with age gap relationships. The one I remember the most is Petals On The Wind in which Cathy was seventeen or eighteen and Paul was about forty. I remember just being so enthralled at their relationship and pretty much knowing deep in my heart that I was eventully going to end up with an older man. :)

I'm also an avid Steven King fan (although it's been quite awhile since I've read any of his books) The last novel of his I read, Bag Of Bones, dealt with an AGR...the man was in his 40's and the woman was in her 20's.

I would also recommend Frank Pretti who writes Christian fiction. His novels This Present Darkness, Piercing The Darkness, Prophet, and The Oath are quite exciting and emotional.

well it is not new...but Fight Club - Chuck Palanhiuk guess most of people have seen the movie but the book is just 100 times better.And any of his novels (but Diary) i especially loved: "Choke" and "Lullaby" :) not about age gap relationships but about weirdest people getting involved and a bitter and ironic critic to today's society principles and rules, and how we are more worried about "having" than about "being".I would recommend those...though there are many people who dont like his books :eek:

I'm a big fan of JD Robbs (Nora Roberts), though I'm not a fan of her Nora Roberts book titles. Too mushy for me. The JD Robbs "...in Death" series are pretty intresting. It stars an NYPD detective name Eve Dallas and the storyline takes palce in the future (~2059). It's a good book to read when television gets boring and you just want to relax.

I am reading "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" by Joanne Greenberg. Its for my womens lit class, but it is good so far, and the author is a friend of my professor's...so she's coming in to speak to the class about the book.

Pretty exciting. :p

lj

I just finished reading Red Mars. I can't wait til I got my mitts on a copy of Green Mars This is the best sci-fi I've read since Starship Troopers, way better than it really in terms of technology and technical detail. Great tale of settlement, revolution, all with technology that's very conceivable in our lifetimes. I can't believe I waited so long to read it.

:eek: YAY Poll! I'm SO glad to hear you're enjoying it. It was absolutely the most astounding, gripping, realistic, fantastic and amazing sci-fi series I ever read. The only gripe I have is there isn't a LOT LOT LOT more. :D You will enjoy the next two just as much. Then there are three smaller novels by the same author on similar topics (some related) worth reading, too.

YAY!!! I bet you'll re-read it, too. I know I've been craving it lately, so I'll probably dig it back out from the ~phossy library.
~phos

I loved the book. It made me kind of sad really. I remember when I was a kid in the '80s, we all thought the Moon would be colonized in the '90s, and men would be on Mars about this time. Now all we aim for is paying Social Security and Meicare out without going bankrupt. Can't help but wonder if we're in the downward slide.

I know how ya feel, Poll. Totally. But, have you read about the actual Earth (current day, real) plans to build a "Space Elevator?" :eek:

http://www.liftport.com/

http://www.elevator2010.org/site/index.html

http://www.isr.us/SEHome.asp

And there are a ton more links. After I read this series and saw an actual NASA article on plans to build one, I went :eek: and almost fell out of my chair. :o

And I completely support the trips and money spent to visit Mars and REALLY hope they colonize within our lifetimes. Gotta support it, ya know? YELL LOUDLY. :D
~phos

I know how ya feel, Poll. Totally. But, have you read about the actual Earth (current day, real) plans to build a "Space Elevator?" :eek:

http://www.liftport.com/

http://www.elevator2010.org/site/index.html

http://www.isr.us/SEHome.asp

And there are a ton more links. After I read this series and saw an actual NASA article on plans to build one, I went :eek: and almost fell out of my chair. :o

And I completely support the trips and money spent to visit Mars and REALLY hope they colonize within our lifetimes. Gotta support it, ya know? YELL LOUDLY. :D
~phos
Well, my boyfriend works on Elevators, he services them, he installs them, what have you -- and I just don't think I'd be okay with him working on this one. Nuh uh.
lj

Dang! Don't any of yall just read smutty crap?

I read so much chick-lit ...it's not even funny.


Nadine.


me too!!

If you like british/irish women's fiction try:

Marian Keyes


If you like philosophical but really good books:
Chuck Palahniuk

I just finished reading Something Blue, the sequel to Something Borrowed. I LOVED them. They are just cute, girly books...kinda young adulty, but I really liked them. Now I am starting Memoirs of a Geisha. Heard many good things.

I just finished the DaVinci Code. 'twas pretty good.

I finished reading Green Mars last night. Better than Red Mars if ya ask me.