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Recently I've been reading a whole lot more than usual. I was always a bibliophile, but due to the fact that I'm graduated from college (no homework) and I'm trying to save money (no cable), I'm going through books very fast.
So please, if you have any suggestions, please let me know. I especially like series.
Hopefully, if enough people respond, others will find this useful, and I'll of course post my favorites when I get out of work. Thanks!
Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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You want a series? Read the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold and the Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forrester.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley novels are a fabulous British mystery series--really intense, though. (And there's a lot of them, they're long, and most of them are out in paperback. )
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Agatha Christie and the Father Brown short stories of GKC. Heck, grab a complete version of the Sherlock Holmes stories while you're at it.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Ooh ooh! Encyclopedia Brown! That is a fantastic series, and it's got a lot of books, so it should keep you entertained for a while. I haven't read any in, oh, 15 years or so, but I'm sure they're still great books!
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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The book has a solid Five Star rating at Amazon, and is at once heartwarming and heartbreaking.
It is a coming of age story for 12 year old Joey Margolis who is living in a tough Italian neighborhood of Brooklyn. The format is a little unusual in that most of the story is told in letters, news clippings, send between Joey and his hero Charlie Banks, third basemen for the New York Giants.
Don't let the format throw you off. You will laugh and you will cry at the antics of the characters, and I do mean /characters/.
Here is an excerpt from the Harper's Pub. website -
"Laugh-out-loud funny."—Library Journal
"In this poignant and funny coming-of-age novel, Steve Kluger uses letters, newspaper clippings, war bulletins, and report cards to tell the delightfully quirky story of 12-year-old Joey Margolis. Growing up Jewish in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood, Joey is troubled by anti-Semitic neighbors, by Hitler's rising power, by his parents' divorce, and by his absent cad of a father. Joey is "a real pip," sending memos to Franklin D. Roosevelt advising on foreign policy and "Top Secret" missives to The Green Hornet, a.k.a. his best friend, Craig Nakamura. Joey's letter-writing leads to an unlikely friendship with his sports hero, New York Giants rookie third baseman Charlie Banks."
This books is earthy enough to be appreciated by guys, romantic enough to be appreciated by girls, and despite some course language sweet and funny enough to be appreciated by younger readers.
For a quick sample of the letters that young Joey and Charlie exchange, check out the Harper's website here-
"Toast" is an autobiographical book where the life of a boy as he grows into a man is told in the framework of the nostalgic foods that permeated his life.
Here is an excerpt that I found touching -
"It is impossible not to love someone who makes toast for you. People's failings, even major ones such as when they make you wear short trousers to school, fall into insignificants as your teeth break through the rough, toasted crust and sink into the doughy cushion of white bread underneath. Once the warm, salty butter has hit your tongue, you are smitten. Putty in their hands."
The book is a bit brawdy in spots, so I wouldn't recommend it to any below later teenage. Still, it is a wonderfully captivating story, and a reminder that the best spice for any food is a heaping helping of nostalgia.
"Millions" by Frank Cottrell Boyce
This book was made into a movie by the same name, if you haven't seen the movie, and you would like to see a good heartwarming film about family life, this is it.
The book is even better than the movie and a fun read for all ages.
A young boy who is obssessed with Saints, and his father and brother move to a new house after the death of the mother. The father stresses to his boys that they need to be 'excellent' and Damian takes the idea a little too literally.
Using the old boxes from their move, he builds himself a saintly hermitage, just beyond the shrubs that hide his neighborhood from the railroad tracks. One night after offerring a short prayer in the name of his mother, and as a train is rumbling past, something lands on his hermitage crushing it. He discovers that it is a very large bag filled with money.
Yes, that might sound a little hokey, but the characters especially the boys, really make the concept work. This book has been around for a long time, so I'm sure you can by it cheap or borrow it from a library. It makes for a very pleasant and enjoyable read.
Finally -
"The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly ($16 Amazon, $14 Walmart)
From the jacket cover -
"High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother. He is angry and alone, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in his imagination, he finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a land that is a reflection of his own world, populated by heroes and monsters, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book ... 'The Book of Lost Things'."
This is a wonderful book for anyone of any age. It is at once a heartwarming and heartbreaking family story, but also is a fairytale, an epic adventure, a heroes quest, a coming of age, and more.
Note this book is not marketed to young readers, though it is appropraite for most. There are a couple of very vague references to sex, but only in the form of what parents do late at night when they think their kids are sleeping. I'm sure any normal kid age 10 or older will be able to read it and keep it in perspective. For more naive kids under 10, the parent may want to read it first. Though, I must say, parents should read it in any case, as they will certainly enjoy it.
As I read, I was sure I could predict where the book was going and how it would end, and to a limited extent I was right, but the last chapters also held many revelations that I had not and could not have predicted. In some sense, this is a very melancholy story, but in another sense, it is the story of all stories, just as any great story should be.
Here is a excerpt for the book that I found especially touching -
"Before she became ill, David's mother would often tell him that stories were alive. They weren't alive in the way that people were alive, or even dogs and cats. People were alive whether you chose to notice them or not, while dogs tended to make you notice them if they decided that you weren't paying them enough attention. Cats, meanwhile, were very good at pretending people didn't exist at all when it suited them, but that was another matter entirely."
"Stories were different, though: they came alive in the telling. Without a human voice to read them aloud, or a pair of wide eyes following them by flashlight beneath the blankets, they had no real existence in our world. They were like seeds in the beak of a bird, waiting to fall to earth, or the notes of a song laid out on a sheet, yearning for an instrument to bring their music into being. They lay dormant, hoping for the chance to emerge. Once someone started to read them, they could begin to change. They could take root in the imagination, and transform the reader. Stories /wanted/ to be read, David's mother would whisper. They needed it. It was the reason they forced themselves from their world into ours. They wanted us to give them life."
If you can relate to that, then you have grasped the heart of this story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sorry about replying to my own post, but I was reading reader reviews of this book at Amazon,...
...and perhaps I have underestimated the darkness and adult nature of this book. I still stand by what I said though. But, perhaps I should qualify my statements. While this book does touch on some adult subjects like sex and homosexuality, it does so with the very lightest of hands, and in ways appropriate to the story.
This book is dark in the way the Grimm's Fairytales are dark. It is definitely not the Disney-fied version of events. In Grimm's fairytales the wicked step-mother has red hot iron shoes placed on her feet and she dances until she is dead. You definitely won't see that in the Disney version.
While there are delicate subjects and dark events, as I said they are handled with a light, gentle, and sensitive hand. I still stand by what I said, any /normal/ kid age 10 and over will have no problems relating to this story, and keeping the events in prespective. Any parent who might be in doubt, should read the book first. I am quite sure that if you have any interest in the fantasy genre, you will love this story, and will have no problem letting you /normal/ (age appropriate) kids read it.
I have to highly recommend the "Atremis Fowl" Series.
True the basic premise is a bit childish, but the stories are filled with interesting characters as well as a healthy dose of Suspense, Mystery, and Intrigue. These are a fun, short, easy read for people of all ages.
Again, highly recommended. You won't find better source of entertainment for your dollar.
posted
What are you up for? I love Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni's novels and stories, but they're not to everyone's taste...
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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For light reading, you could do worse than "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," which is very popular right now. Not a "great" book, but interesting and often very funny.
And, have you read the complete works of Bill Bryson? If not, then I will be generous and assume that you are just ill-informed....
If so, try Pete McCarthy, who only wrote two books but both of which are great.
Posts: 211 | Registered: Dec 2006
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This is a bit obvious, but if you haven't, read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Glaxy". It's a wonderful book. But you've probably read it. So I'm probably no help Posts: 213 | Registered: Jan 2007
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I have no problems with the change, and I'm guessing that Tolkien was categorized as Science Fiction earlier, but it wasn't quite so apparent.
Question -- does anybody have a list of the nonfiction books that OSC himself has recommended over the years?
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: I'm guessing that Tolkien was categorized as Science Fiction earlier, but it wasn't quite so apparent.
No, it wasn't.
At one point I was going to root through OSC's columns and pull out every non-fiction book discussed, but yeah, I didn't have the energy.
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
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Salt: a World History by Mark Kurlansky sounded pretty dull at first but actually turned out to be really interesting.
Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman is a collection of essays that are absolutely hilarious.
Another Roadside Attraction is the only Tom Robbins novel that I've read. I would highly recommend it, but I hear his other books are wonderful as well.
Socrates Cafe by Christopher Phillips is also very good and if you haven't read it already, Good Omens by Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchet.
Posts: 681 | Registered: Feb 2004
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The Portable Door by Tom Holt. Continues with In Your Dreams, then Earth, Air, Fire and Custard. I've never heard my son (18) laughing so hard whilst reading.
My recommendations:
Cloud Atlas David Mitchell (a series of stories within one) The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov The Periodic Table Primo Levi
If you like any of those, let me know.
Posts: 237 | Registered: Feb 2001
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he changed it!
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No, it wasn't.
