Book suggestions:FAVORITE READS AND WHY

[Suzan]

HELP me find a great book!

Between writing, three kiddos and a husband I have to pick my reads carefully. Once I commit to a book I make myself finish it whether I want to or not. The last two novels had tons of buzz, over five hundred tiny font pages, and ended up taking me forever and a day to finish. I'm looking for page turning fiction. Quick, furious and fantastic! Loved The DeVinci Code, Five People You Meet in Heaven, Water For Elephants...

By the way...I see Unbreakable Child on AW. Anyone read it yet? I did last year and it was one great (page-turning) read. I couldn't put it down ... read it in a day.

Help me out AW...What's the last REALLY great (couldn't put it down) book you read and why?

[stormie]

Any book by Fannie Flagg. Her characters are truly 3-dimensional and her books are page turners.

I had started with Welcome To The World, Baby Girl. You might remember the movie Fried Green Tomatoes (which is one of her books), but I didn't like that book as much as her others.

There is also The Help by Kathryn Stockett told from differing points of view during the civil rights movement in the south. Excellent, page-turning read.

[Jess Haines]

Karen Marie Moning's FEVER series. Jim Butcher's DRESDEN FILES.

Pure awesome. Both of 'em.

[Chris P]

I really enjoyed Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I'm also about 50 pages into Stephenie Meyers' The Host and it has promise as a good action story. If you like short story collections, I thought Kurt Vonnegut's Armageddon in Retrospect was excellent while Slautherhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, and Deadeye Dick were his best novels (and not long at all).

[Kate Thornton]

I just finished Mike Shevdon's 61 Nails and the sequel, The Road to Bedlam - can't wait for the next one (the ending of Bedlam includes a cliffhanger...)
This is fantasy set in modern London & environs - very interesting. Kind of explains everything you might ever want to know about the world of faery-type legends, but in a very exciting, seat-of-your-pants way.

[Suzan]

Great...keep em' coming : ) I'm writing these down for my next trip to the bookstore.

[Diana Hignutt]

Watership Down by Richard Adams. It is the best novel. Period.

[brainstorm77]

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg is one heck of a great book! Just sayin...

It kept me turning pages, but may not be the pace you're looking for.

[A.C.]

The End of Mr. Y
Our Tragic Universe

Both by Scarlett Thomas. I read these recently and loved them both. The End of Mr. Y is more plot-driven, so I liked it better. Our Tragic Universe was still pretty good, especially since the main character is a novelist who spends a lot of time thinking about writing theory. ;)

[Kitty Pryde]

The best book I read this year was a Francesca Lia Block collection called "Dangerous Angels", collecting: Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys, Missing Angel Juan, and Baby Be-Bop. They are all short, and perfect in every way.

[LaceWing]

If you like Water For Elephants, which I did also, you might also like The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti.

I like Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl for other reasons as much as plot -- but for some reason I always seem to read it faster than I want to. Strange!

[fredXgeorge]

You've probably read them but The Time Traveller's Wife and The Lovely Bones are good.

[aadams73]

I've read a lot of really great books this year, but three stand out as real page-turners for me:

Paul Hoffman's THE LEFT HAND OF GOD (fantasy). Fantastical monks, a great escape and adventure, and a hero who is...kind of a jerk at times. It wasn't perfect, but something about the world captivated me.

Jasper Fforde's SHADES OF GREY (quirky/mystery/fantasy). This one was like nothing I've ever read before. It's set in this weird/cool dystopia where social standing is based upon what color each person can perceive. Everything about it sucked me in and kept me reading. Plus, Fforde is always funny.

Laura Lippman's I'D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE (suspense). I really didn't like the protagonist. I found her passive and annoying because of that. But it quickly becomes apparent that her passivity is what enabled her to play her part in the antagonist's criminal past. I kept flipping the pages because I had to know where it was going and just how these two were really connected.

[sleepsheep]

You would probably enjoy "The Help" and "The Thirteenth Tale."

[Devil Ledbetter]

The novels I enjoyed most this year were Let The Great World Spin and The Wet Nurse's Tale.

The best nonfic were Endurance, an historical account of Ernest Shackleton's polar shipwreck; and Nic Sheff's memoir, Tweak.

[quicklime]

Help me out AW...What's the last REALLY great (couldn't put it down) book you read and why?


The October Country by Ray Bradbury, collection of shorts...."The Lake" is one of the most perfectly haunting stories I've ever read; no horror, except growing old and realizing how much you loved someone long gone.

Agyar by Stephen Brust, a vampire with conscience tale done without all the teeniebopper moping or as a cop/investigator/whatever

Just started The Midnight Road by Tom Piccirilli, one of his ventures into crime/noir.....really like it

And Practical Demonkeeping, forgot the author.....some stuff in there very funny, some a bit over-strained, but a fun, quick read.

[nou]

my absolute favorite book (that is, a book i'd choose to be stuck with for the rest of time) would be THE HOBBIT. if you ain't read it, i'd recommend picking it up. i can't count how many times i've read it. it never gets old. it makes you cry. it's draws on your imagination. do it.

[Adam]

Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. Just finished it and luurved it! :D

One of the characters will stick with me for a very long time. :)

[Grrarrgh]

...
Laura Lippman's I'D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE (suspense). I really didn't like the protagonist. I found her passive and annoying because of that. But it quickly becomes apparent that her passivity is what enabled her to play her part in the antagonist's criminal past. I kept flipping the pages because I had to know where it was going and just how these two were really connected.

Good to hear. I just started this one and I was feeling the same way about the protagonist. But I'll keep going with it.

I like Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl for other reasons as much as plot -- but for some reason I always seem to read it faster than I want to. Strange!

This one I'm listening to in the car. The narrator is doing a really good job of making the MC sound like a pretentious brat. Which I'm assuming is accurate? What's frustrating me with this, though, is that I'm on the 3rd disc, and I don't know exactly how that would relate to the print, but I've been listening to it for a while, and I have no sense of who this girl is. She's smart and well-read, that's clear, but I don't really know anything about her. It's difficult for me to be invested in her right now because of this. Will that change????


And Practical Demonkeeping, forgot the author.....some stuff in there very funny, some a bit over-strained, but a fun, quick read.

Christopher Moore. And Quicklime is right - if you're looking for quick books, he's perfect.

I'm slowly making my way through Jim Butcher's series, which I'm really enjoying. I think someone upthread mentioned that one.

[cmi0616]

Try Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. It's a pretty dark story, but still it's told in this humorous kind of light. I really enjoyed it, and couldn't put it down once I started.

[scarletpeaches]

The End of Mr. Y
Our Tragic Universe

Both by Scarlett Thomas. I read these recently and loved them both. The End of Mr. Y is more plot-driven, so I liked it better. Our Tragic Universe was still pretty good, especially since the main character is a novelist who spends a lot of time thinking about writing theory. ;)YES!

Scarlett Thomas has the kind of imagination I can only dream of.

[scarletpeaches]

Watership Down by Richard Adams. It is the best novel. Period.Nay, my good manatee-overpowering bride. I think you'll find the best novel ever written is one of the following:

Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
I Know This Much is True, Wally Lamb
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro.
If you disagree further, I shall see you on the heath at dawn. Choose your weapon wisely.

[A.C.]

YES!

Scarlett Thomas has the kind of imagination I can only dream of.

Me too! She has inspired me to try out some weird stuff in my next project.

Right now I have PopCo in my TBR pile, so I've got something good to look forward to after I finish my damn WIP. ;)