Recommend me a book(s) to read!!

I've never finished a McNab book. It felt that with every word I killed off a few more brain cells.

I'd actually rather read Eddings/Rowling/Brown if I wanted a mindless read.
 
tbs said:
i just didnt find Diary that good, it had too many "flashbacks" of the beach and such and got a tad boring nearer the middle, i mean i might give it another go since i am reading 1984 again, but i doubt it be any time soon :p

whats Angels and Demons about? someone recommended me Dan Brown - Digital Fortress dont know if youve read that?

whats Bee Season, seeing as you like it so much? :)
Click to expand...

fair enough. to each his own :)

i've not read Digital Fortress...Angels and Demons is the prequel to the Da Vinci code. i've not read DVC but i was told that Angels and Demons was way better, and it certainly didnt disappoint, if being a little farfetched :o

review of bee season:

A Site I Can't Link to said:
In Myla Goldberg's outstanding first novel, a family is shaken apart by a small but unexpected shift in the prospects of one of its members. When 9-year-old Eliza Naumann, an otherwise indifferent student, takes first prize in her school spelling bee, it is as if rays of light have begun to emanate from her head. Teachers regard her with a new fondness; the studious girls begin to save a place for her at lunch. Even Eliza can sense herself changing. She had "often felt that her outsides were too dull for her insides, that deep within her there was something better than what everyone else could see."
Eliza's father, Saul, a scholar and cantor, had long since given up expecting sparks of brilliance on her part. While her brother, Aaron, had taken pride in reciting his Bar Mitzvah prayers from memory, she had typically preferred television reruns to homework or reading. This belated evidence of a miraculous talent encourages Saul to reassess his daughter. And after she wins the statewide bee, he begins tutoring her for the national competition, devoting to Eliza the hours he once spent with Aaron. His daughter flowers under his care, eventually coming to look at life "in alphabetical terms." "Consonants are the camels of language," she realizes, "proudly carrying their lingual loads."

Vowels, however, are a different species, the fish that flash and glisten in the watery depths. Vowels are elastic and inconstant, fickle and unfaithful.... Before the bee, Eliza had been a consonant, slow and unsurprising. With her bee success, she has entered vowelhood.
When Saul sees the state of transcendence that she effortlessly achieves in competition, he encourages his daughter to explore the mystical states that have eluded him--the influx of God-knowledge (shefa) described by the Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia. Although Saul has little idea what he has set in motion, "even the sound of Abulafia's name sets off music in her head. A-bu-la-fi-a. It's magic, the open sesame that unblocked the path to her father and then to language itself."
Meanwhile, stunned by his father's defection, Aaron begins a troubling religious quest. Eliza's brainy, compulsive mother is also unmoored by her success. The spelling champion's newfound gift for concentration reminds Miriam of herself as a girl, and she feels a pang for not having seen her daughter more clearly before. But Eliza's clumsy response to Miriam's overtures convinces her mother that she has no real ties to her daughter. This final disappointment precipitates her departure into a stunning secret life. The reader is left wondering what would have happened if the Naumanns' spiritual thirsts had not been set in restless motion. A poignant and exceptionally well crafted tale, Bee Season has a slow beginning but a tour-de-force conclusion.
Click to expand...

it may seem kinda lame, but it's an amazing book and it's written to paint some of the most wonderful images i've ever taken from a book.
 
kitten_caboodle said:
Oh, Memoirs of a Geisha. Loved that book though it might be a bit girly.
Click to expand...
Nah, I really loved it too.

Also check out

D.B.C. Pierre - Vernon God Little
James Frey - A Million Little Pieces
Mitch Albom - The Five People You Meet In Heaven

I very thoroughly enjoyed all of those.
 
Sic said:
i've not read Digital Fortress...Angels and Demons is the prequel to the Da Vinci code. i've not read DVC but i was told that Angels and Demons was way better, and it certainly didnt disappoint, if being a little farfetched :o
Click to expand...
A&D and DVC are very well written books. Worth a go if you've nothing else to read. They don't take long to read though. Digital Fortress isn't bad but pales in comparison, and IMO Deception Point was really rather poor.
 
I don't know how much you like sci-fi, it's a genre I like to dip into occasionally, IMO the best around atm is Peter F Hamilton, you need to read:

The Nights Dawn Trilogy: (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, The Naked God)

Also his most recent duet: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.

All the books are well over 1000 pages each, some say they move too slowly but it could just be the detail of the environments and characters. The places and ideas he describes are simply amazing and are so far ahead of the generic sci-fi space opera with some aliens.
 
kitten_caboodle said:
Oh, Memoirs of a Geisha. Loved that book though it might be a bit girly.
Click to expand...

i didnt think it was girly at all. it's one of very few books that's actually gripped me from start to finish. i felt like a big part of my life was missing when i finished it, too.

Arcade Fire said:
John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
Click to expand...

i keep meaning to pick this up.
 
kitten_caboodle said:
did you ever get hold of that callgirl book?
Click to expand...

With the move and all I completely forgot! :eek:

I'll get in contact with Ali and get it - cheers for reminding me. :)

I'm just coming to the end of the 11th Katherine Kerr book so thats perfect timing! :D
 
oh oh oh my god!! i cant believe i forgot!!

Orson Scott Card - Ender's Saga and The Shadow Saga. if memory serves it's 8 books and all of them are truly amazing. if you're into sci-fi, political, philosophical fiction :)
 
im not a big sci-fi fan, but some sci-fi is okay, since as you said, there are a lot to describe generally in sci-fi books and films so it gets kinda slow.

lots of books here, keep em coming!! i will check each book and see which one(s) i will be picking up :D
 
Kell_ee001 said:
With the move and all I completely forgot! :eek:

I'll get in contact with Ali and get it - cheers for reminding me. :)

I'm just coming to the end of the 11th Katherine Kerr book so thats perfect timing! :D
Click to expand...

Ah good :D I was going to say email me and I'll send it out to you, make sure it's this one, as there are several about that aren't as good. If you can't get it, mail me and I'll get it to you :)

Linky

Glad Memoirs wasn't 'girly'. Being a girl it's hard to tell if blokes will like it as much as you do. Sic I felt exactly the same, kept feeling like i'd left something behind. I'm reading 'Geisha' now by Liza Darby, that's good too. Oh and a History of Love by Nicole Krauss. Just bought Momentum - Mo Mowlams autobiog, hope that will be a good read.

This thread is great.We should have a book club on OCUK.
 
Last edited:
Sic, just wanted to ask, is Invisible Monsters Chucks newest one? heard it was smiliar to Fight Club, is it?

i was thinking about picking up Choke the other day
 
kitten_caboodle said:
Glad Memoirs wasn't 'girly'. Being a girl it's hard to tell if blokes will like it as much as you do. Sic I felt exactly the same, kept feeling like i'd left something behind. I'm reading 'Geisha' now by Liza Darby, that's good too.
Click to expand...
Have you noticed how there are loads of Geisha-themed books getting republished after the success of Memoirs? Cynical? Moi? Never!
 
Gilly said:
If we're talking Sci-Fantasy then I reckon Stephen Donaldson is the main man.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure about his fantasy work, but sci-fi wise his books just don't jive for me. The sci part is often very tenous, the plots often feel strained and unnatural and the worlds limited.
I personally dislike so few main characters, in the books above there are well over 20 "main" characters and so many story arcs that randomly cross over, or end before the book does, it makes for more compelling reading.

Hamilton's style of writing just felt like such a breath of fresh air in comparison to a lot of other work out there. And he definitely has the ideas to back it up.
 
tbs said:
Sic, just wanted to ask, is Invisible Monsters Chucks newest one? heard it was smiliar to Fight Club, is it?

i was thinking about picking up Choke the other day
Click to expand...

erm, i wouldnt say it's like fight club. it's as good as it, but the subjects are completely different. without wanting to go too much into it, it's about a supermodel who's in a freak accident and is severely disfigured, and the tales that unfold thereon. if you liked fight club, there's a good chance that you'll like it.

choke is unbelievably amazing. get it.

kitten_caboodle said:
Sic I felt exactly the same, kept feeling like i'd left something behind. I'm reading 'Geisha' now by Liza Darby, that's good too.
Click to expand...
it's not the whole geisha thing that i liked...the story was wonderful. i loved every second of the book, and i dont think i'd read another geisha book just because of MOAG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom