Books - What Are you Reading?

[RunningAway]

i'd love for you guys to read my teleplay...but i'll wait to post it until May because that will be the final draft. i only just finished the first draft that will be critiqued by my peers next week. *nervous*

anyways, the last book i read was Atonement, and i tought it was really well-written. you really get inside the characters' heads. really sad, but really good. i want to see the movie.

other books i've read and really recommend:

The Giver
White Oleander
Paint It Black
Speak
Swallowing Stones

[gogonutz]

I used to be a book junkie, and I guess I still am, though I have less time to read books for fun ever since I went to college. Though I have to admit that I really enjoy a lot of books that I read for my studies as well. I read all kinds of books though, from cooking books to adventures, to science-fiction to (auto)biographies. Most of what I read are probably spy/adventure novels or historic/cultural books though.

some authors that regularly/always write in that genre and that I really enjoy are Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Jeffrey Archer, Raymond Khoury, Preston & Child, Gregg Hurwitzz, Matthew Reilly, Patrick Robinson & Robert Ludlum. I will pick some examples of their books that I can especially recommend if you are into this:

The Last Templar Raymond Khoury
(If you enjoyed Da Vinci Code, you will eat this book. It's more captivating, better use of language and a more coherent progress of what you get to know while reading it. I didn't particularly like Da Vinci Code, but I adore this book. You will really place yourself in the story)

The Ice Limit Preston & Child
(Without a doubt one of the most interesting books I've read. What I like most about this is how they combine actual scientific (geology/mineralogy) facts with a fictional and exciting story. It is an adventure novel, like you're on a exploration, and this is probably my favorite writers duo/team, I really like their writing style as they give you the opportunity to identify both with one character, as well as with all the main characters. They plot out everyone's motives and viewpoints carefully without interrupting with the storyline.)

Reliquary Preston & Child
(this is another book by the same writing team that also combines a fictional story with forensic & scientific research. This story might be a little too sci-fi for some people. (at first I was afraid I'd think that too) but they give you a step by step discovery in a police/forensic investigation that counters the sometimes too sci-fi/horrormovie-setting the book is placed in sometimes. It is very well balanced.)

The Temple Matthew Reilly
(The 2nd international best seller for this Australian writer. Without a doubt my favourite adventure book. Of course it has to do with Indian-America, which has my interest (because of my studies) and it sometimes has a bit of a civilized Indiana Jones feel. But most of all it is about an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation. I think it's impossible not to identify yourself with the main character and literally feel everything he feels. Everytime I read this book I don't feel like I'm reading, I feel like I'm experiencing it.)

Clive Cussler
Inca Gold
Golden Buddha (which I'm currently re-reading)
Lost City
Trojan Odyssey*
(especially the 2nd & last one I will recommend, as basically any book by him. Without a doubt the most consistent writer of suspense adventure novels. I particularly like Trojan Odyssey, which is partly based on another book which I will recommend later, in another category)

Jeffrey Archer[/b]
(I'll list a few of his books but he is a diverse writer that I really admire. I love his literary style as it is captivating yet he uses a lot of subtle choices of words and lines to set numerous different moods.)
The Eleventh Commandment (first Archer book I read, got me hooked right away. Can compete with Clancy, Cussler & Robinson in level of suspense)
As The Crow Flies (not just the same as a July For Kings song title but also a very emotional story in which I sometimes had to swallow because it was written so honestly.)
Sons of Fortune (Archer in top form. My favorite Archer book. I won't say anything about the plot, cause I really do not want to give anything away, but this family drama will draw you in and you will not stop until you finish the book. You will find yourself siding with one side and then with the other side, and in the end I am curious what side you will pick, if you will at all).

I'm gonna list a few different types of books too though:
Where Troy Once Stood Iman Wilkens
(This Dutch economist and linguist has always had a soft spot for the old Greek(?) masterpieces, the Iliad & Odyssey. I say Greek(?) because of what mr. Wilkens writes in his book. I won't go into details, and I would recommend to read the Iliad & Odyssey in advance as these are a few of the earliest literary works in the world that are still with us. If you don't want to go through these stories, at least read a synopsis on them and read some background research on Wikipedia or other sites about the search for Troy (Ilios), especially Schliemann's claim to have found it on Hissarlik Hill in Turkey. Within the archaeological and mythological/historic field this has always been a bit fishy. Wilkens didn't buy it either and he comes with a theory that the Trojan war actually took place in Cambridgeshire in England and that a lot of the geographical locations in these old stories were in Western and Northern Europe. Do I believe him? I don't know, but he does make a case worth considering. He doesn't come with a whole lot of actual proof as most of his story is backed up with geographical, logistical and especially linguistical clues/evidence. But his 'evidence' is so abundant that you would have to say he has a few very good (and at times even solid) points). Many people believe that Wilkens here has a very plausible theory, and Clive Cussler (an expert when it comes to seas, travels, ships, and adventures) was so convinced that he wrote a fictional book based on this research by Wilkens. So if you are interested in the matter of Odysseus and the Trojan War, this is a must read.)

Clapton: The Autobiography Eric Clapton
(One of the most influential musicians/guitarists of the last century. Eric Clapton had a very eventful life and he tells about it openly and honestly. I bought this book after I saw an interview with Clapton on Larry King, about this autobiography. It might not be the most literary biography I've read, but it's honest, and it is personal. It tells you about great tragedies and great victories. It really shows you how much this man has been through. Sometimes he screwed up, sometimes he was the most unlucky man on earth. I though it was well worth my money.)

The Flight of the Iguana David Quammen
(This science/nature book is often used for ecology classes and such as a background book. Not so much because it gives you a framework (though in a way it does) but because you can see how to approach it on a personal level. This book is composed of personal essays about things from the face of a spider to Salvadoran refugees. A unified view on nature is his starting point and he just talks about what fascinates him and what inspires him. I found this a refreshing read and I can definitely recommend it.)

[kmom]

I updated the main post with the titles recommended so far

[FrancisMartin]

Good topic. At the moment I’m reading two books: Independent People by Halldor Laxness and Crow Lake by Mary Lawson.

Independent People by Halldor Laxness

It is the story of a man's life from just after he escapes his virtual enslavement to a local rural family on a remote end of Iceland, up through his attempts to build a family, a home, and a future for himself. However, from reading it, it is never explicitly stated that the setting is a remote part of Iceland. The reader only knows what the character thinks about it; and as far as he is concerned, it is a good plot of land. It is all he's ever known, he hasn't wandered in his mind to France or Germany or America. So as far as the reader knows, the land is just his Land.
It reveals some of Laxness's anti-war leanings in a chapter that consists of Icelandic farmers sitting around talking about how the livestock sales sure have gone up since the Europeans started murdering each other for no good reason. Also displayed is hatred of politicians, as he depicts them as all bosom buddies, part of some exclusive mindset that renders them too busy hobnobbing with each other and fulfilling grand ideals for them to actually care about what the poor people are going through.
Readers may also interpret it as an indictment of the idea of independence — not the good kind of independence, but independence taken to such an extreme that it becomes willful ignorance, and a sort of slavery of family members to the patriarch's ideas. To him his ideas are unquestionable, and inherently linked to his 'freedom'. This ends with alienating his family, in tragedy, in every minuscule and minute detail that Laxness paints with. Then he pulls back, and the reader realizes that just about every person out there on this part of the Icelandic ground was going through similar experiences. Poor health, near starvation, exploitative merchants, ignorance, hatred, etc. People will probably notice that Laxness, although he shows clearly that the main character destroyed the lives of some members of his family, the author seems to have a deep understanding of how that character came to exist, of why he exists, of why everything happens. Laxness still manages to dig out some shred of hope and love from the abysmal rural disenfranchised powerless poverty depicted in the book, and to find some human tenderness inside the burly troll monster of the main character.

Source: Wikipedia


Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

Crow Lake is a 2002 first novel written by Canadian author Mary Lawson. It won the Books in Canada First Novel Award in the same year and won the McKitterick Prize in 2003. It is set in a small farming community in Northern Ontario, the Crow Lake of the title, and centres on the Morrison family (Kate the narrator, her younger sister Bo and older brothers Matt and Luke) and the events following the tragic death of their parents. Kate's childhood story of the first year after their parents' death is intertwined with the story of Kate as an adult, now a successful young academic and planning a future with her partner, Daniel, but haunted by the events of the past. In among the narratives are set cameos of rural life in Northern Ontario, and of the farming families of the region.
The death of their parents, when Kate is about 8 years old, Bo a toddler, and her brothers in their late teens, threatens the family with dispersal and seems to spell the end of their parents' dream that they should all have a college education. Luke, the oldest but not the most academic, gives up a place at a teaching college in order to look after the younger two and allow Matthew, academically brilliant and idolised by Kate, to complete his schooling and compete for university scholarships. This sacrifice leads to much tension between the brothers. Both work intermittently for a neighbouring family, the Pyes, who for several generations have suffered from fierce conflicts between fathers and sons. In the final crisis, Matthew, after winning his scholarships, discovers that he has made the meek and distressed daughter of the Pye household, Marie, pregnant; she also reveals that her father, Calvin Pye, has murdered her brother, who was thought to have run away from home as several other Pye sons had done. Calvin Pye kills himself, and Matthew has to give up his plans for education to marry Marie. Kate sees the loss of Matthew's potential academic career as a terrible sacrifice, and is unable to come to terms with Marie or Matthew thereafter. The dénouement of the adult Kate's story comes when she returns to Crow Lake for Matthew and Marie's son's eighteenth birthday, introducing Daniel to her family for the first time. In the course of this visit, she is made to realise - first by Marie and then by Daniel - that Matthew's loss though real was not the total tragedy she had always considered it, and that it is her sense of it as tragic that has destroyed her relationship with him. The book ends with her struggling to come to terms with this view of their past and present relationships; the struggle is left unresolved but the final tone is optimistic.

Source: Wikipedia

I truly recommend them.

[cayters]

ok, i didn't really see any of these books when i went to target today.. i ended up buying a book called "forgive me." it sounded interesting:

"Nadine Morgan travels the world as a journalist, covering important events, following dangerous leads, and running from anything that might tie her down. Since an assignment in Cape Town ended in tragedy and regret, Nadine has not returned to South Africa, or opened her heart–until she hears the story of Jason Irving.

Jason, an American student, was beaten to death by angry local youths at the height of the apartheid era. Years later, his mother is told that Jason’s killers have applied for amnesty. Jason’s parents pack their bags and fly from Nantucket to Cape Town. Filled with rage, Jason’s mother resolves to fight the murderers’ pleas for forgiveness.

As Nadine follows the Irvings to beautiful, ghost-filled South Africa, she is flooded with memories of a time when the pull toward adventure and intrigue left her with a broken heart. Haunted by guilt and a sense of remorse, and hoping to lose herself in her coverage of the murder trial, Nadine grows closer to Jason’s mother as well as to the mother of one of Jason’s killers–with profound consequences. In a country both foreign and familiar, Nadine is forced to face long-buried demons, come to terms with the missing pieces of her own family past, and learn what it means to truly love and to forgive."

[City]

i dont really read much so my opinion might not matter, but two books that blew my mind.

Ender's Game
The Time Traveler's Wife

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[RunningAway]

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

btw karen, thanks for putting the authors with the other books i suggested. i completely forgot to do that.

[katelyn]

yndihalda said:

i dont really read much so my opinion might not matter, but two books that blew my mind.

Ender's Game
The Time Traveler's Wife

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ooo, the time traveler's wife is sooo good. i read that last year and loved it. one of the best books i've read in a long time. i usually don't like the concept of time travel because i get confused easily thinking about it, lol. but i thought the book was really clever and different and would definitely reccomend it! it was really interesting.

i think they're making a movie out of it too, not sure what the current status is on that project though.

[City]

katelyn said:

i think they're making a movie out of it too, not sure what the current status is on that project though.

should be out in the fall/winter of this year. Rachel McAdams yay. Eric Bana who?

[successstory]

oooh! i love books
right now i am rereading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelo. Its definately one of my favorite books of all time; one i could read countless times. As I am not very good at explaining things, I am just going to copy and paste from Paulo Coelho's website.




When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you realize your dream.

Santiago, the hero of the novel, already forms part of a select gallery of illustrious characters and leads us through his story to experience a remarkable adventure.

“When I wrote The Alchemist, I was trying to understand the reason for the existence of life. Instead of writing a philosophical treatise, I decided to converse with the child inside my soul.

To my surprise, this child was living inside millions of people around the world. With this book I wanted to share with my readers the questions which, precisely because they don't have an answer, make life a great adventure”. - Paulo Coelho


www.santjordi-asociados.com/titles.htm

There is a excerpt here, stuff like that.

[kmom]

runningaway said:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

Maureen, is this a book that you have already read and know to be good ...or are you reading it now and will comment later about how you finally liked it?

[kmom]

The titles mentioned over the last few days (and through 2/10/08) have been added to the main post.

[RunningAway]

kmom said:

runningaway said:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

Maureen, is this a book that you have already read and know to be good ...or are you reading it now and will comment later about how you finally liked it?

sorry, yeah i've read it before. i shall comment now:

The story takes the form of a series of letters to an anonymous friend written by the narrator, a teenager who calls himself Charlie (his real name is never mentioned). The story explores topics such as introversion, teenage sexuality, and the awkward times of adolescence. The book also touches strongly on drug use and Charlie's experiences with this. As the story progresses, various works of literature and film are referenced and their meanings discussed. The story takes place outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 1991-1992 school year, when Charlie is a high school freshman. Charlie is the wallflower of the novel. He is an unconventional thinker, and as the story begins he is shy and unpopular.

I found it very enjoyable and very relatable, especially if you've ever felt like the odd one out. There is also a twist at the end that I didn't see coming, but made sense when I thought about it.

[kmom]

runningaway said:

sorry, yeah i've read it before. i shall comment now:

I wasn't at all trying to be pushy...I just didn't know if I had in the right place on the list in the main post ;D

[RunningAway]

ah no, its ok. i put it down the other night because it popped into my head and meant to come back and say a little about it, but forgot to.