Book recommendations

[tamago23]

I am running out of reading material and it's time to request some more books from my local library, so here we go! Please comment with your favorite fiction books, any genre is completely acceptable (although extremely scientific sci-fi can put me to sleep; Greg Bear good, Stephen Baxter not so good).

Comments

[persephone82]

I"m much more a nonfiction reader, but here's one I'd like to read soon: http://www.thebirthhouse.com/

[tamago23]

I've just put in a request for this one, but I'm 800-something in line to get a copy from the library. ;) So it might be awhile!

[persephone82]

WOAH. I live in a pretty populated place, but I've never seen a line so long for a book! Not even the 6th Harry Potter book!

[tamago23]

Yeah, I just looked and I'm 893 in line. :P I've been in the 2000's before.

[rhiannonhero]

As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

[tamago23]

Requested both from the library and am waiting for them to arrive, I'll let you know what I think once I've read them. :)

[tamago23]

OK, I'm done with them both. :)

The Amazing Adventures I just couldn't get into. The characters were really interesting but I just couldn't abide the author's writing style. (Obviously I'm in the minority here, considering this was a Pulitzer Prize-winning book.) I made it about a third of the way through and realized that reading it felt more like work than play, because I was just so annoyed by the author's verbose writing style. So I gave up, even though I would have liked to know how it ended.

As Meat Loves Salt... whoah. First third of the book: scary. Second third of the book: hot. Last third of the book: scary. Awesome book all the way through, but I found myself not wanting to read the last fifty pages because I knew it had to end badly, and I didn't want something terrible to happen to the main character's lover! But of course I finished reading it because even though I didn't want to know, I still had to know. :P I was thinking about it afterwards and it occurred to me that the main character would probably be considered

[eyezwideopen]

I was an avid Dean Koontz reader for quite some time. He writes weird, sometimes grousome shit, I love it. I also love Arthur Golden's Memoires of a Geisha-the movie did not do the book justice. And finally my next set of favorties:Jitterbug Perfume & Feirce Invalids Home From Hot Climates-both by Tom Robbins, excellent! And last but not least, Maya Angelous- I know Why The Caged Bird Sings, vivid account of the slavery that went on in the US.

[tamago23]

I love Dean Koontz' earlier stuff (Watchers is my favorite) but his very recent stuff blows ass. He's gotten religious and it's pretty aggravating. As for Maya Angelou's books, I've read that one and most of her other books, but I don't think I'd be able to read them post-Moo. o_O Stuff like that tends to fuck me up nowadays. Memoirs of a Geisha I actually owned but I lent it out and it never got returned. >:( It was an awesome book, though.

As for the two from Tom Robbins, I've requested them from the library and am waiting for their arrival. :)

[tamago23]

I'm still waiting for Jitterbug Perfume, but I'm finished with Fierce Invalids. OMG, I LOVED this book! I was enchanted by eight pages in, and laughing out loud within the first few pages. I was telling Frolic about it as I was reading it and he actually got interested enough to ask me later how it finished. :) I loved the quirkiness of the book, I think the whole Art Girls boat-racing saga was one of my favorite parts. I was kinda sorry he didn't get to bang Suzy though, because that would have been hawt. :P

[saffirebleu]

Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn by Kris Radish

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

If you like chick lit, anything by Jennifer Cruisie or Susan Elizabeth Philips is a lot of fun.

[tamago23]

The Red Tent is an amazing book. I've reread that one a number of times since I came across it probably 3 years ago. I've requested the other one you mentioned from the library and am waiting for it to arrive. :)

I do like chick lit occasionally (although it's almost always lesbian lit, LOL - I love Rita Mae Brown and Lauren Wright Douglas).

[tamago23]

I totally loved Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn! Radish has such a unique writing style, I really enjoyed it. I'm requesting her other book. :)

[saffirebleu]

I'm so glad you liked it! I haven't read the other one; I started it, but couldn't get into it.

[lordindra]

If you haven't read this one already, I'm dissapointed.

Robert A Heinlein - Stranger In a Strange Land.

I don't think any other book has influenced me so deeply.

And to balance out the seriousness of that book, read the Hitchikers Trilogy by Douglas Adams. All five books.

[tamago23]

You may now be disappointed, since I'd never read it before. But I have now read it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would say that I really fell in love with the book during the passage, early on, when the doctor asks, "Feel like breakfast?" and the book details the subsequent thoughts of the main character. The whole thing was fun to read and

I'm curious to know though, in what ways did the book influence you? I can't say it had such a deep impact on me, it was just like a fun sci-fi book. So I'm wondering if there's something I missed, or if it was an interaction between the book and your unique perspective that caused such an impact.

I will start on the Hitchhikers Trilogy soon. :)

[lordindra]

I was raised Christian, and pretty much unquestioningly accepted it

[tamago23]

Wow. Those are some pretty massive lessons to learn. Did you find it uncomfortable or anxiety-producing to read, since it was challenging deeply-held beliefs? Or were you at a point in your life where you were already questioning, and the book just sped up the process?

That makes a lot more sense now - I was raised atheist, so I never had the concept of an ultimate truth to begin with.