Book recommendations

[Rob]

I want to read.

[Quincy]

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I recommened it to everyone.

[sicottem]

Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

[Sydneyfan]

Under the Skin by Michel Faber is completely weird and one of my favourite books ever.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a classic.

[sicottem]

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a classic.

its one of my favorites

[Sydneyfan]

I just re-read it recently after last reading it at uni. I'd forgotten how brilliant it is - espeically when you consider that Capote basically invented an entirely new genre when he wrote that book.

Did you see the film, Capote?

[sicottem]

I just re-read it recently after last reading it at uni. I'd forgotten how brilliant it is - espeically when you consider that Capote basically invented an entirely new genre when he wrote that book.

Did you see the film, Capote?

Yea. It was a great movie. Capote manipulated people so much to get that story.

[Sydneyfan]

I really enjoyed it too. He was a strange character who never really managed to achieve very much after In Cold Blood. It was as if the sucess of it killed off his ambition.

[sicottem]

I really enjoyed it too. He was a strange character who never really managed to achieve very much after In Cold Blood. It was as if the sucess of it killed off his ambition.

I've never read any of him other books...i didnt really hear too many good things about the others, but there is no doubting that In Cold Blood was revolutionary. I think he may have just lost a lot of hope in life after the whole trial process. He got so close to Perry that i think he lost a lot after he was hanged. Even in the film you could see that the whole thing was really bothering him...not a very enjoyable life :(

[finchattack]

The World Is Flat
The Kite Runner
Life of Pi

[blueone]

I've just started a book called 'Slaughterhouse 5' by Kurt Vonnegut. It's an anti-war book written (or at least started) in the 60's.

[Sydneyfan]

I've just started a book called 'Slaughterhouse 5' by Kurt Vonnegut. It's an anti-war book written (or at least started) in the 60's.


I love that book. It's probably his best novel - and he's been an incredibly prolific author.

[blueone]

I love that book. It's probably his best novel - and he's been an incredibly prolific author.

It is very good yes. I've just read the first chapter (which is a sort of an introduction) and it's filled with wonderul little phrases.

"little girls in white party dresses and black party shoes"

Reminds me of Cold Roses' (the song) saturday/sunday feet/shoes thing.

[sicottem]

I've just started a book called 'Slaughterhouse 5' by Kurt Vonnegut. It's an anti-war book written (or at least started) in the 60's.
anything by vonnegut is great...Cat's cradle is awesome

[Sydneyfan]

Yep, That's a good one too. If you enjoy short stories, his "Welcome to the Monkeyhouse" is fabulous.

[sicottem]

Yep, That's a good one too. If you enjoy short stories, his "Welcome to the Monkeyhouse" is fabulous.
i havent read that whole one...but i have read harrison bergeron (spelling??) which is in that collection and i really liked it

[Sydneyfan]

i havent read that whole one...but i have read harrison bergeron (spelling??) which is in that collection and i really liked it


I first read that story when I was kid and have never forgotten it. Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General. Brilliant.

Have you ever read anything by Jim Crace - you might like his stuff.




Link to the Harrison Bergeron story if anyone's interested: http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html

[sicottem]

Have you ever read anything by Jim Crace - you might like his stuff.

What do you suggest from him? I'm reading the reviews about "Being Dead" on amazon and it sounds really interesting

[Sydneyfan]

What do you suggest from him? I'm reading the reviews about "Being Dead" on amazon and it sounds really interesting


Being Dead is a really good, albiet very dark read. I couldn't believe someone could make an engrossing book about two decaying corpses - but the guy is good.

His best novel imo is "Quarantine" - he won the Whitbread Award for that a few years back. Its basically a reworking of the "Jesus rising from the dead story" and is one of the most inventive things I've ever read.

[Quincy]

Robert Service's biography of Stalin is pretty good, or are people not too interested in history books?

[blueone]

I like to read WW1 & WW2 history. Not much else interests me (except Ancient Greece).

[sicottem]

Being Dead is a really good, albiet very dark read. I couldn't believe someone could make an engrossing book about two decaying corpses - but the guy is good.

His best novel imo is "Quarantine" - he won the Whitbread Award for that a few years back. Its basically a reworking of the "Jesus rising from the dead story" and is one of the most inventive things I've ever read.
i think i'll really have to check this guy out...all of the reviewers on amazon talk about how poetic and creative of a writer he is...it seems that there is a lacking of these type authors recently. Or maybe it just seems that way because all we ever hear about are guys like Dan Brown, whose stories are interesting, but writing styles are weak.

[sicottem]

Robert Service's biography of Stalin is pretty good, or are people not too interested in history books?
Guns Germs and Steel is a great book...not sure if that would actually be considered a history book though

[Sydneyfan]

i think i'll really have to check this guy out...all of the reviewers on amazon talk about how poetic and creative of a writer he is...it seems that there is a lacking of these type authors recently. Or maybe it just seems that way because all we ever hear about are guys like Dan Brown, whose stories are interesting, but writing styles are weak.


I agree, publishers are all about big bucks these days, rather than quality.
New, talented authors are no longer supported - while the Dan Browns of the world (and god, he is really terrible) make millions. Bit like the music scene.

Grace writes like a poet and is wonderfully inventive. Michel Faber is in a similar vein - the guy deserves to be a squillionaire yet is not well known.

[Quincy]

I like to read WW1 & WW2 history. Not much else interests me (except Ancient Greece).

Well Service's biography of him is great because he's one of the only western historian allowed access to the Moscow archives with all the testimonies and private documents, so it's a more accurate account of his life.

[Sydneyfan]

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber - terrific, epic book about a prostitute in Victorian London and her relationship with a wealthy industrialist. If Dickens were alive today, he'd be writing books like this.

The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass. A classic that examines the impact of totalitarian regimes and social engineering on the human conscience.

Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban. Brilliant, highly original novel set in post-apocalyptic Britain. Written in an invented dialect that is a weird hybrid of pidgin English, computer/tech terminolgy and medieval Old English, its far from an easy read, but well worth the effort.

[risa]

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber - terrific, epic book about a prostitute in Victorian London and her relationship with a wealthy industrialist. If Dickens were alive today, he'd be writing books like this.





a friend recommended this to me recently, said it was very long but a good read. it's on my list.

[sicottem]

i just finished Reading Lolita in Tehran. OVerall a pretty solid work. Some of the passages were annoying because of the author's structure. It combines the story of a woman living in post Islamic-Revolution Iran and literary criticism of censored books that she taught at university at the time.

[Sydneyfan]

a friend recommended this to me recently, said it was very long but a good read. it's on my list.



Yep, it is really long but the story moves at such a pace that you barely notice the length.

Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan about a 19th century Tasmanian convict is also a good read, particularly if you like speculative fiction.

[sicottem]

Im about to begin reading No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy...heard that its a good read...

[Althea]

A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving One of my most favorite books EVER.

I'll second the Crimson Petal and the White....LOVED it. The detail of everything in that book was meticulous. I could picture the rooms, the clothing...everything in my mind. It's a big book...but the more the better.

[winter_trees]

Perfume - Patrick Suskind
Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse
Journals/ Ariel/ Bell Jar/ Johnny Panic... - Sylvia Plath
The Crow - Ted Hughes
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Blindness - Jose Saramago
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lorca
Rimbaud
Keats
Martin Amis' Autobiography
Mao II/ Underworld - Don DeLillo

and

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf>Ulysses - James Joyce> Saturday - Ian McEwan....make for intersting comparing....

[foggy]

Wow, nice list, winter trees. About all of those are favorites of mine. I especially love Lorca, Plath, and Rimbaud.

[winter_trees]

Thank you! :)

Yeah...I do love Lorca, Plath and Rimbaud...but I'll always have a soft spot for Keats...

I should have mentioned Candide - Voltaire as well...that's great.