Looking for book recommendations

[gan_naire]

Kem Nunn is my favorite author, other than his books I have only read books based off movies (which takes some of the fun away since you already know most of what is going to happen), autobiographies, memoirs, philosophy and a couple others here and there. One of the main things I want to do this year is just always be reading. It takes me about a week to finish a normal sized book since I'm kind of a slow reader, but last year I only read about 7 fictional books.

I really just don't have a clue how to find the books that I would probably like, I'm an hour away from a true bookstore so I just get everything off Amazon. My favorite books deal with surfers, bikers, prisoners and criminals in general. I'm not a fan of detectives, political, fantasy or horror. And if it's a romance (which I am a fan of) I want it to seem like it was written by Quentin Tarantino or something. I also prefer thrid person POV.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I really want to bulk up my library of fiction this year.

[alleycat]

Maybe In Cold Blood, Papillon, Cool Hand Luke (even if you've seen the movie), Deliverance, Bikers by Dave Ebert.

[amyashley]

Do you follow Janet Reid's blog? She often has interesting book rec's.


For something very unique try YOU by Charles Benoit. I just finished it last night. It is YA, which I rarely read. What made me try it was that it is written in second person.

What made me keep reading was that it was amazingly well-written. It was a great page-turner. I had an almost love/hate relationship with the MC. It made me think about my own highschool experience, how it differed from many people's and what my kids' might end up being like.

I enjoyed that although the kid in the book is a teen, he also has a sort of condescending attitude about himself. You should be smarter than this. You should know better-kind of thing. It was a fresh breath of air for an adult reading YA, but not so much that I would hesitate to give it to a kid. I thought a teen would like it too.

Twist ending, great pacing. Not fantasy. Not lame. No real fluffy stuff. Very gritty and well worth money spent. I was surprised and impressed.

[gan_naire]

I ordered Bikers, I didn't think it was going to be in first person though, no big deal, I haven't read it yet but it looks good either way. I also got a book called One Percenters, honestly I thought it was about bikers, but it's not, and its also written in first person. The other two books I ordered was The Three Worlds of Johnny Handsome (officially the second oldest book I own, it's from 1972!) and Breakfast on Pluto, which I think is in first person as well.

I couldn't believe that every book I ordered basically was in first person, it's pretty funny though.

I'm now looking for books that are in third person and are just good in general, I know I need to broaden my reading a bit. I really don't know how to classify the books that I love, again Kem Nunn is my favorite and would love to find work like his, but I have yet to find anyone like his writing style. I love books that deal with a normal guy being put in a bad situation and has to fight his way out of it. I also love books that deal with gangs in general, crime (but from the criminals perspective not the detective), surfers, stuff like that. I have never been able to get into fantasy or sci-fi, historical, YA, general romance, stuff like that.

If anyone has any more recomendations, I would really appreciate it, I get paid on Thursday and always order books so I never run dry of them. I plan on getting Lolita since everyone seemed to think it was a great novel.