Attention Fellow Book Lovers

[missy'smom]

I need a new good book to read. I like the classics, biographies, things with a good message, not necessarily a happy ending, stories that take me to another place or time Dislike sex, violence etc,

The last few books that I read were: the Frank McCort memoirs, "Three Weeks with My Brother"?, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and The Good Earth

[Mango04]

I recently finished The Shadow of the Wind and would definitely recommend it...

[happygirl]

I'm reading "freakonomics" right now...its non-fiction, but still, a really interesting read!

[blueeyedmanda]

I recently read There are no children here, about Chicago's Public Housing. I enjoyed it.

[Mtndog]

Oh gosh...so many! I loved The Good earth. I really liked My Sister's Keeper and Salem falls by Jodi Picoult, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Actually, I really like historical fiction.

Secret Life of Bees is great as is The Mermiad Chair by Sue Monk Kidd.

I love Anita Shreve- I've read Light on Snow, The Last Time They Met, Sea Glass, The Weight of water and Fortune's Rrocks by her.

The Poisonwodd Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is unbelievable 9all her stuff is good).

Anne Lamott's books are very irreverently funny.

[CarlaB]

I love anything by Jane Austin. Pride and Prejudice is a favorite ... Elizabeth Bennett is one of the best developed characters in literature.

I like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

Barnes and Noble has a free-standing section with paperbacks of the classics. They're very reasonably priced. It's a really good selection, and you just have to look in one place for them.

[missy'smom]

THank you all.

I also read "Inside the Victorian Home"? by Judith Flanders. I like historical fiction too. I haven't heard of many of these suggestions but will check into all of them. I worked with someone last year who was well read and always had good recommendations. I miss that alot.

Read most of Jane Austin's and Wuthering Heights is one of my long standing favorites.

I was a Lit. major but there are still so many good ones out there that I haven't read yet.

[Mtndog]

I love anything by Jane Austin. Pride and Prejudice is a favorite ... Elizabeth Bennett is one of the best developed characters in literature.

I like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

Ditto on those! Wuthering Heights and The Scarlet Letter are my 2 all time favorites!

[2Boys4Me]

To Kill a Mockingbird.

[DingoGirl]

To take you to a different place and time:

Daughter of Fortune - Isabell Allende - - - LOVE this book (begins in S. America and travels to California during the Gold Rush)

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Cold Mountain

East of Eden

The Kite Runner - - - searingly brutal but amazing and unforgettable

Reign of Gold (kind of the Mexican "Roots")

...and I assume you've read Angela's Ashes (also by Frank McCourt) - - - I feel it should be required reading for American high school students......

happy reading!

[blueeyedmanda]

If you are into fantasy, The Wizard of Oz series was neat. I also still enjoy Colonial Books and life on the frontier.

The Diary of Anne Frank

I am not sure if you are into Thrillers....Dean Koontz is very good.

I love Twilight Eyes, The Funhouse, and Phantoms. There is a another but I cannot think of it offhand.

[Mtndog]

Cold Mountain

The Kite Runner - - - searingly brutal but amazing and unforgettable

...and I assume you've read Angela's Ashes (also by Frank McCourt) - - - I feel it should be required reading for American high school students......

happy reading!

Yes- I loved these too! Cold Mountain is soooooo good. I loved the movie too!

[missy'smom]

Read and loved the Wizard of Oz series as a kid, tried to get my son interested in it but no luck. He's missing out. I still love children's books and occasionally buy some for myself.

Read and liked Angela's Ashes and Diary of Anne Frank. Read O' Pioneers by Willa Cather. Very nostalgic for me as I grew up in Nebraska. I recommend Life is Good, about an African American man who learned to read at 80 or 90 something and Rosamond Halsey-Carr's Land of a Thousand Hills, My Life in Rwanda

You guys have given me quite a list. I have some homework to do this afernoon, checking these out.

[TinkerbellSwt]

I am currently reading a lot of John Jakes. He is the one who wrote North and South. I read that trilogy, all of it is very historical. About the American Revolution and Civil War. There is a bit of sex sometimes in his books, but not like some novels. Mostly about love and the heartaches and trials of the women who the men left behind by going to war.

I am currently in the middle of an eight series about the Kent Family. They are ficticious. But the events surrounding them are real. The battles, the towns, how they started, slavery.. that is just me though.. I love historical books..

[amybeth]

I read "Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver at least once a year. Another annual read for me is "Backroads" by Tawny O'Dell (Very disturbing content, but whoa! what a story!)

The Dave Pelzer books ("A child called it" through "A man named Dave") are gripping real-life page turners.

If you don't mind delving into young adult literature "Bronx Masqeurads (sp?)" by Nikki Grimes is neat and quick.

I really enjoyed "Running with Scissors" and "A Million Little Pieces" although both of them are also psychologically disturbing.

Sounds like I like a lot of disturbing books!!!

I can't let two years go by without re-reading Wuthering Heights. I LOVE The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, Inherit the Wind...............

Also Russell Banks -- "Rule of the Bone" is great, so was "Affliction" and "The Sweet Hereafter"

"Drowning Ruth" (Blanking on the author's name) is a great tale of family and sisterhood........

Enjoy!

Editing to Add "Cane River" One woman's look at her family's roots in America, the slave trade, etc.

Gripping.

[TinkerbellSwt]

I have to add in my yearly read, The Thornbirds.. love it. I read about a novel a week, barnes and noble LOVE me. whenever i get gifts its always a barnes and noble gift card.. go figure? lol.

[Jo.R]

The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins is a great book! It's a classic, and a mystery, written in a unique way.

[missy'smom]

whenever i get gifts its always a barnes and noble gift card..

Lucky You! I just bought one of the recommendations and was thinking I wished I had a gift card. I can't complain about prices. I love books. My dream is to have a house with a room for my own library, like the ones in the movies with real wood panneling like they used to make. I'd be happy just to sit in a comfy chair and look at all the books lined up on the shelves with the sunlight streaming through the large multi-paned windows. A few antiques and photos and pieces brought back from travels.....That would be my little piece of heaven.

[Mtndog]

Lucky You! I just bought one of the recommendations and was thinking I wished I had a gift card. I can't complain about prices. I love books. My dream is to have a house with a room for my own library, like the ones in the movies with real wood panneling like they used to make. I'd be happy just to sit in a comfy chair and look at all the books lined up on the shelves with the sunlight streaming through the large multi-paned windows. A few antiques and photos and pieces brought back from travels.....That would be my little piece of heaven.

Oh my gosh-I'm with you. All this talk of books has made me want to find a new book and READ! I read so much for school that I forget about reading for fun!

[BRUMI1968]

Bone Black by bell hooks is amazing. (probably considered a memoir.) The Earth is Enough by Harry Middleton also really good. Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez is very good. (nonfiction about the arctic, but also about us and how we perceive places and spaces and the like. really good.) Solar Storms by Linda Hogan is really good. (Native American fiction, if it must be put in a box. I found it exceptional.)

Some of the best books I've ever read: Cormac McCarthy's anything, but especially the trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and ... the third one.....um ...... Cities of the Plain. Very good. Violent, however. Set at the turn of the century in Texas and Mexico. Very sparse writing. Called the Faulkner of modern times. Also, not fiction but extremely good: Michael Pollan's books: The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I'm about to start Second Nature. Also supreme is Wendell Berry's "The Unsettling of America".

Lastly, I recently read a book called "Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce" that was exceptional, especially if you're interested in such things as Native American history. This book really sticks with me because not only was it utterly compelling the whole book through, now that it has been three or so months I still feel I learned a lot - I feel I know a lot about what happened all those years ago. Great book!

[DingoGirl]

Yes- I loved these too! Cold Mountain is soooooo good. I loved the movie too!

I have to say one thing about Cold Mountain - - - people seem to either LOVE or HATE this book - - no in between. I REALLY loved it but, didn't like the movie as much......

I have to add in my yearly read, The Thornbirds.. love it. I read about a novel a week, barnes and noble LOVE me. whenever i get gifts its always a barnes and noble gift card.. go figure? lol.

oh my gosh.....The Thornbirds is the only book I"ve ever read twice. What a beautiful story. Read it in high school, many many years ago.

Hey, you guys should check out half.com. this is where I get many of my books - great prices.

[Lauren M]

I am a total book-a-holic.... always reading at least 3 at any given time. My consistent favorite, at least for his humor, is David Sedaris. "Holidays on Ice" has got to be one of the most hilarious books I've read in awhile. I just love his style. Although I liked Running With Scissors (like a previous poster), it was an odd book, and did have some graphic sex "scenes."

I also like Nick Hornsby. About a month ago I finished How To Be Good, which I highly recommend. It's funny, and has a really good message.

If you want a book that makes you think, though it is NON-fiction, I really liked "Crazy Busy" - puts a whole new perspective on how we, as a nation, are serial multi-taskers and how this takes away from our enjoyment of daily life. It's not a downer though; the writer has talent and gives an optimistic view.

Good lord, I could go on forever. Getting ME started on the topics of books is dangerous!

- Lauren

[TinkerbellSwt]

7

Hey, you guys should check out half.com. this is where I get many of my books - great prices.

[SunnyDyRain]

Phillipa Gregory writes about Henry V, I'd start with "The Constant Princess" it's so good!

[BFreeman]

Please, everyone who likes a good clean entertaining read, get Jan Karon's Mitford series books and read them in order. They would all be at the public library by now. Two chapters into the first one and I wanted to move to Mitford so bad and live among those people There are six or seven in the series.

BF