The "read Any Good Books Recently" Thread

[Happylittlegreensquirrel]

I love reading but I seem to have run out of good books to read or listen to ( I love audiobooks ) so I am looking for recommendations

 

My last 2 books have been

 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver... There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared. Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...

and One Day by David Nicholls

'I can imagine you at forty,' she said, a hint of malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.'

 

He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.'

 

15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways.

 

So where will they be on this one day next year?

 

And the year after that? And every year that follows?

 

Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY. From the author of the massive bestseller STARTER FOR TEN

Edited December 27, 2010 by Happylittlegreensquirrel

[gooster]

Ooh I love books.

Jodi Picolot is amazing - the best one I have read of hers is one called Nineteen Minutes, which is about a school shooting, and it goes back to discover exactly why he did it. Couldn't put it down!!

Another good book is called The Book Thief. Can't remember the author, but it is fantastic. The first few pages are a bit weird, so you have to persevere, but once you get into it, again it is a real page turner!!

[Jacobean]

I love books.

 

Have just finished Kiss by Jill Mansell. An enjoyable easy read.

[lil_angel]

I have all of Jill Mansell's books. I had the latest one for Christmas so looking forward to that

 

I adore To Kill A Mockingbird. The only book I did in English Lit they didnt destroy by dissecting every little details.

[Spins4me]

I love reading but I seem to have run out of good books to read or listen to ( I love audiobooks ) so I am looking for recommendations

 

HLGS, I love books but don't read anymore (can't do it since I've been insane) but I listen to audiobooks every day - well night actually because I have chronic insomnia. I've just listened to Atonement Ian McEwan:

"Atonement is the novel for which Ian McEwan will always be remembered. Enthralling in its depiction of childhood, love and war, class and England, at its centre is a profound and profoundly moving exploration of shame and forgiveness."

Very moving.

 

I've also listened to two of Jodi Picoult's: Plain Truth

"The discovery of a dead infant in an Amish barn shakes Lancaster County to its core. But the police investigation leads to a more shocking disclosure: circumstantial evidence suggests that 18-year-old Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish woman believed to be the newborn's mother, took the child's life.

 

When Ellie Hathaway, a disillusioned big-city attorney, comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania, to defend Katie, two cultures collide, and, for the first time in her high-profile career, Ellie faces a system of justice very different from her own. Delving deep inside the world of those who live "plain", Ellie must find a way to reach Katie on her terms. And as she unravels a tangled murder case, Ellie also looks deep within, to confront her own fears and desires when a man from her past reenters her life.

 

Moving seamlessly from psychological drama to courtroom suspense, Plain Truth is a fascinating portrait of Amish life and a moving exploration of the bonds of love, friendship, and the heart's most complex choices."

and

Handle with Care

"Charlotte O'Keefe's beautiful adored daughter, Willow, is born with a severe form of brittle bone disease. If she slips on a crisp packet she could break both her legs. After years of caring for Willow her family faces financial disaster.

 

Then Charlotte is offered a lifeline. She could sue her obstetrician for wrongful birth - for not having diagnosed Willow's condition early enough into the pregnancy to be able to abort the child. The payout could secure Willow's future.

 

But to receive it would mean Charlotte suing her best friend. And standing up in court to declare that she would have preferred that Willow had never been born..."

 

I can recommend both of them.

 

Do you belong to audible.co.uk?

[Happylittlegreensquirrel]

Thanks all

 

Spins yes I have an Audible account they are great value

 

I have read and listened to all Jodi Picolots , I thought Nineteen minutes and Plain Truth were fantastic as was Change of Heart

I love To Kill a Mockingbird in fact I think its my favourite book and I read it at least once each year

Thanks for the other suggestions , am off to check Amazon and Audible now

[Fee]

I've recently discovered Kate Atkinson, and absolutely love her books and have rapidly worked my way through the lot. I suppose they could loosely be described as crime/mystery, but they are much more than that. Brilliantly observed, her use of language is fantastic and there is a dry humour running through them that I love.

 

Worth starting with 'Case Histories' which is the first novel featuring Jackson Brodie.

 

For those with e-book readers I've managed to borrow all of them from various public libraries that do e-book loans

Edited December 28, 2010 by Fee

[incapuppy]

After a recent purchase I now have all of Jodi Picoult's novels and can't think of one that I didn't really enjoy, currently reading the last of them (for me)

 

Keeping Faith - Jodi Picoult

 

For the second time in her marriage, Mariah White catches her husband with another woman, and Faith, their seven-year-old daughter, witnesses every painful minute. In the aftermath of a sudden divorce, Mariah struggles with depression and Faith begins to confide in an imaginary friend.

 

At first, Mariah dismisses these exchanges as a childs imagination. But when Faith starts reciting passages from the Bible, develops stigmata, and begins to perform miraculous healings, Mariah wonders if her daughter a girl with no religious background might indeed be seeing God. As word spreads and controversy heightens, Mariah and Faith are besieged by believers and disbelievers alike, caught in a media circus that threatens what little stability they have left.

 

Is Faith a prophet or a troubled little girl? Is Mariah a good mother facing an impossible crisis or a charlatan using her daughter to get attention?

 

The Host - Stephanie Meyer (author of the Twilight series of books)

 

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that takes over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. Wanderer, the invading 'soul' who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

 

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger (author of The Time Traveller's Wife)

 

Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers – normal, at least, for identical ‘mirror’ twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin ... but have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins’ mother – and who can’t even seem to quite leave her flat....

 

With Highgate Cemetery itself a character and echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens, HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY is a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger’s familiar themes of love, loss and identity. It is certain to cement her standing as one of the most singular and remarkable novelists of our time.

 

White Teeth - Zadie Smith

 

One of the most talked about fictional débuts of recent years, WHITE TEETH is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing - among many other things - with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-read of a book.

 

Epic in scale and intimate in approach, White Teeth is an ambitious novel. Genetics, eugenics, gender, race, class and history are the book's themes but Zadie Smith is gifted with the wit and inventiveness to make these weighty ideas seem effortlessly light.

 

The story travels through Jamaica, Turkey, Bangladesh and India but ends up in a scrubby North London borough, home of the book's two unlikely heroes: prevaricating Archie Jones and intemperate Samad Iqbal. They met in the Second World War, as part of a "Buggered Battalion" and have been best friends ever since. Archie marries beautiful, buck-toothed Clara, who's on the run from her Jehovah's Witness mother, and they have a daughter, Irie. Samad marries stroppy Alsana and they have twin sons: "Children with first and last names on a direct collision course. Names that secrete within them mass exodus, cramped boats and planes, cold arrivals, medical checks."

 

Big questions demand boldly drawn characters. Zadie Smith's aren't heroic, just real: warm, funny, misguided and entirely familiar; reading their conversations is like eavesdropping. A simple scene, Alsana and Clara chatting about their pregnancies in the park: "A woman has to have the private things--a husband needn't be involved in body business, in a lady's ... parts."

 

Samad's rant about his sons--"They have both lost their way. Strayed so far from what I had intended for them. No doubt they will both marry white women called Sheila and put me in an early grave--acutely displays "the immigrant fears--dissolution, disappearance" but it also gets to the very heart of Samad.

 

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

 

The Asian literary phenomenon of the 90s. More magical than Mistry, more of a rollicking good read than Rushdie, more nerve-tinglingly imagined than Naipaul, here, perhaps, is the greatest Indian novel by a woman. Arundhati Roy has written an astonishingly rich, fertile novel, teeming with life, colour, heart-stopping language, wry comedy and a hint of magical realism. Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala, Southern India, The God of Small Things tells the story of twins Esthappen and Rahel. Amongst the vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their grandmother's factory, they try to craft a childhood for themselves amidst what constitutes their family -- their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist and bottom-pincher) and their avowed enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grand-aunt).

 

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

 

It's hard not to become ensnared by words beginning with the letter B, when attempting to describe Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell's third novel. It's a big book, for start, bold in scope and execution--a bravura literary performance, possibly. (Let's steer clear of breathtaking for now.) Then, of course, Mitchell was among Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and his second novel number9dreamwas shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Characters with birthmarks in the shape of comets are a motif; as are boats. Oh and one of the six narratives strands of the book--where coincidentally Robert Frobisher, a young composer, dreams up "a sextet for overlapping soloists" entitled Cloud Atlas--is set in Belgium, not far from Bruges. (See what I mean?)

 

Structured rather akin to a Chinese puzzle or a set of Matrioshka dolls, there are dazzling shifts in genre and voice and the stories leak into each other with incidents and people being passed on like batons in a relay race. The 19th-century journals of an American notary in the Pacific that open the novel are subsequently unearthed 80 years later on by Frobisher in the library of the ageing, syphilitic maestro he's trying to fleece. Frobisher's waspish letters to his old Cambridge crony, Rufus Sexsmith, in turn surface when Rufus, (by the 1970s a leading nuclear scientist) is murdered. A novelistic account of the journalist Luisa Rey's investigation into Rufus' death finds its way to Timothy Cavendish, a London vanity publisher with an author who has an ingenious method of silencing a snide reviewer. And in a near-dystopian Blade Runner-esque future, a genetically engineered fast food waitress sees a movie based on Cavendish's unfortunate internment in a Hull retirement home. (Cavendish himself wonders how a director called Lars might wish to tackle his plight). All this is less tricky than it sounds, only the lone "Zachary" chapter, told in Pacific Islander dialect (all "dingos'n'ravens", "brekker" and "f'llowin'"s) is an exercise in style too far. Not all the threads quite connect but nonetheless Mitchell binds them into a quite spellbinding rumination on human nature, power, oppression, race, colonialism and consumerism.

 

Life of Pi - Yann Martell (yes, I know it's an oldie but had until recently been sat unread on a bookshelf for at least 5 years)

 

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orangutan - and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.

 

Some books defy categorisation: Life of Pi, the second novel from Canadian writer Yann Martel, is a case in point: just about the only thing you can say for certain about it is that it is fiercely and admirably unique. The plot, if that’s the right word, concerns the oceanic wanderings of a lost boy, the young and eager Piscine Patel of the title (Pi). After a colourful and loving upbringing in gorgeously-hued India, the Muslim-Christian-animistic Pi sets off for a fresh start in Canada. His blissful voyage is rudely interrupted when his boat is scuppered halfway across the Pacific, and he is forced to rough it in a lifeboat with a hyena, a monkey, a whingeing zebra and a tiger called Richard. That would be bad enough, but from here on things get weirder: the animals start slaughtering each other in a veritable frenzy of allegorical bloodlust, until Richard the tiger and Pi are left alone to wander the wastes of ocean, with plenty of time to ponder their fate, the cruelty of the gods, the best way to handle storms and the various different recipes for oothappam, scrapple and coconut yam kootu. The denouement is pleasantly neat. According to the blurb, thirtysomething Yann Martel spent long years in Alaska, India, Mexico, France, Costa Rica, Turkey and Iran, before settling in Canada. All those cultures and more have been poured into this spicy, vivacious, kinetic and very entertaining fiction.

 

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

 

A seductive and evocative epic on an intimate scale, that tells the extraordinary story of a geisha girl. Summoning up more than twenty years of Japan's most dramatic history, it uncovers a hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation. From a small fishing village in 1929, the tale moves to the glamorous and decadent heart of Kyoto in the 1930s, where a young peasant girl is sold as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. She tells her story many years later from the Waldorf Astoria in New York; it exquisitely evokes another culture, a different time and the details of an extraordinary way of life. It conjures up the perfection and the ugliness of life behind rice-paper screens, where young girls learn the arts of geisha - dancing and singing, how to wind the kimono, how to walk and pour tea, and how to beguile the most powerful men.

 

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

 

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak was the best-selling debut literary novel of the year 2007, selling over 400,000 copies. The author is a prize-winning writer of children's books, and this, his first novel for adults, proved to be a triumphant success. The book is extraordinary on many levels: moving, yet restrained, angry yet balanced -- and written with the kind of elegance found all too rarely in fiction these days. The book's narrator is nothing less than Death itself, regaling us with a remarkable tale of book burnings, treachery and theft. The book never forgets the primary purpose of compelling the reader's attention, yet which nevertheless is able to impart a cogent message about the importance of words, particularly in those societies which regard the word as dangerous (the book is set during the Nazi regime, but this message is all too relevant in many places in the world today).

 

Nine-year-old Liesel lives with her foster family on Himmel Street during the dark days of the Third Reich. Her Communist parents have been transported to a concentration camp, and during the funeral for her brother, she manages to steal a macabre book: it is, in fact, a gravediggers’ instruction manual. This is the first of many books which will pass through her hands as the carnage of the Second World War begins to hungrily claim lives. Both Liesel and her fellow inhabitants of Himmel Street will find themselves changed by both words on the printed page and the horrendous events happening around them.

 

Despite its grim narrator, The Book Thief is, in fact, a life-affirming book, celebrating the power of words and their ability to provide sustenance to the soul. Interestingly, the Second World War setting of the novel does not limit its relevance: in the 20th century, totalitarian censorship throughout the world is as keen as ever at suppressing books (notably in countries where the suppression of human beings is also par for the course) and that other assault on words represented by the increasing dumbing-down of Western society as cheap celebrity replaces the appeal of books for many people, ensures that the message of Marcus Zusak’s book could not be more timely. It is, in fact, required reading -- or should be in any civilised country. --Barry Forshaw

 

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

 

Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to 'My dear and unfortunate successor'. Her discovery plunges her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an evil hidden in the depths of history. In those few quiet moments, she unwittingly assumes a quest she will discover is her birthright - a hunt for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the Dracula myth. Deciphering obscure signs and hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions, and evading terrifying adversaries, one woman comes ever closer to the secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of evil. Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel is an adventure of monumental proportions - a captivating tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful - and utterly unforgettable.

 

The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards

 

Families have secrets they hide even from themselves... It should have been an ordinary birth, the start of an ordinary happy family. But the night Dr David Henry delivers his wife's twins is a night that will haunt five lives for ever. For though David's son is a healthy boy, his daughter has Down's syndrome. And, in a shocking act of betrayal whose consequences only time will reveal, he tells his wife their daughter died while secretly entrusting her care to a nurse. As grief quietly tears apart David's family, so a little girl must make her own way in the world as best she can.

 

The Millenium Trilogy - Stieg Larsson

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder - and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

 

The Girl who Played with Fire

 

Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. Two Millennium journalists about to expose the truth about sex trafficking in Sweden are murdered, and Salander's prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society - but no-one can find her. Mikael Blomkvist, editor-in-chief of Millennium, does not believe the police. Using all his magazine staff and resources to prove Salander's innocence, Blomkvist also uncovers her terrible past, spent in criminally corrupt institutions. Yet Salander is more avenging angel than helpless victim. She may be an expert at staying out of sight - but she has ways of tracking down her most elusive enemies.

 

The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest

 

Salander is plotting her revenge - against the man who tried to kill her, and against the government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life. But it is not going to be a straightforward campaign. After taking a bullet to the head, Salander is under close supervision in Intensive Care, and is set to face trial for three murders and one attempted murder on her eventual release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his researchers at Millennium magazine, Salander must not only prove her innocence, but identify and denounce the corrupt politicians that have allowed the vulnerable to become victims of abuse and violence. Once a victim herself, Salander is now ready to fight back.

 

 

 

Not forgetting of course (and the only reason I ever picked up any of these to start with was because of a couple of certain Fugees)

 

Twilight Series - Stephanie Meyer (4 books)

 

True Blood Series - Charlaine Harris (10 books, I think!)

 

 

 

I read a lot, let me know if you want any more!

[Mommy Bear]

Gave myself the new Stephen King for crimble. All read Meanwhile halfway through Song of Ice and Fire part 4. Not happy to learn that part 5 is not finished yet! I tend to have at least two books on the go, usually of two different genre. Fantasy, Horror, SF/ Judy Picolt, Norah Roberts (also writes as J D Robb), Richard North Patterson.. Currently "doing" Richard North Patterson. Next project - read all the Pern series again, (Ann McCaffrey).

[Spins4me]

Thanks all

 

Spins yes I have an Audible account they are great value

 

 

I didn't mention one of my all time favourites Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin. I also like Thomas Hardy very much - can be rather gloomy but ...so can I! I also like Anita Shreve, especially Fortunes Rocks and Where or when .

[Happylittlegreensquirrel]

fantastic thank you all

[celeste]

I've not long finished Neil Gaimen's book Neverwhere, really good read about the people who "fall through the cracks" into a secret world underground, bit of an adventure come mystical story. As always I can't recommend the Song of Ice and Fire books ( or is it Fire and Ice, I can never remember ) set in a mythical land and dealing with the constant struggle for power between the various noble houses, if you like tales of double dealing, back stabbing, dragon's, incest and general scull-duggery then these books are for you, they're so good they've been made into an HBO series to be shown next year, they also have a huge internet following which rivals Lord of the Rings in size....so if you haven't already....READ THEM

[media][/media]

For some reason the imbed thing for You Tube won't work but if you look for A Game of Thrones on it there are loads of trailers for it and a behind the scenes thing starring Mr Sean Bean

Edited December 31, 2010 by celeste

[Fee]

As always I can't recommend the Song of Ice and Fire books ( or is it Fire and Ice, I can never remember ) set in a mythical land and dealing with the constant struggle for power between the various noble houses, if you like tales of double dealing, back stabbing, dragon's, incest and general scull-duggery then these books are for you, they're so good they've been made into an HBO series to be shown next year, they also have a huge internet following which rivals Lord of the Rings in size....so if you haven't already....READ THEM

[media][/media]

 

 

I'd agree, all the George R. R. Martin books are fantastic, huge sweep and wonderful characters - though very dark and violent in places.

In the same sort of genre I'd recommend anything by Robin Hobb - all good, though I still think her 'Farseer' trilogy is the best. I'm currently waiting impatiently for the third book of the 'Rain Wild Chronicles' to be published.

Fiona McIntosh is also a good read in the large-scale gritty type of fantasty, 'The Quickening' trilogy is my favourite of hers. I see she is also now writing crime books which will be worth a look.

Completely different, but there are some excellent Scandinavian crime writers becoming popular here, possibly on the back of the success of Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy. Joe Nesbo (The Snowman) is very good are are all the books by Karen Fossim.

Edited December 31, 2010 by Fee

[fee4]

can i recommend Laurie King-beautifully written-totally engrossing-just finished Folly

cant go wrong with george macdonald fraser-his macuslan in the rough had me crying with laughter and his memories of being in Burma-quatered safe out here- was deeply moving...and as for the Flashman series-an absolute classic

try Evelyn waugh-sword of honour-based on his time as a very bad soldier-very funny and moving without ever being sentimental

or-and i always recommend this-winifred holtby-south riding-this is one of The best books ever written and it saddens me deeply that she is not better known-

if you like cats-try Lillian jackson Braun-the cat Who...series

cant go wrong if you like Roman history with working class bite-historically accurate but funny and very real-you will Never look at Roman life in the same way again!-try Lynsey davis (Falco books)

lastly if you dont object to a bit of very steamy sex in your books-try JR ward-Black Dagger Brotherhood books-fab series-every single person i have lent the first one to has bought the series within the week!

fee

[Jacobean]

I love anything written by Clare Chambers.