Need book recommendations...

[Chan790]

I'm kind of easy-going though I prefer contemporary-fiction to non-fiction. The only things I don't read are Sci-fi and Fantasy, I can't get into them and really don't even want to try...I know, I'm the only one in the Lounge who hates the "nerdy" book genres. Hate them though, I do.

I've been reading a lot of Haruki Murakami and Thomas Pynchon lately. Something lighter than that would be nice.

[fizzgig]

1. if you haven't read world war z, do it

it's a great book. i would also recommend the five quarters of the orange by joanne harris, the same woman who wrote chocolat.

[margotb822]

2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Great story told from the pov of an autistic teen.

I also think The Pillars of the Earth was good, though it's historic fiction.

The X President was great. It's about Bill Clinton in the year 2055, so yes, it's in the future, but it's not sci-fi.

[Chan790]

4. I've read Curious Incident before...

I'm a huge fan of Mark Haddon. I've had to buy 4 copies of that book already...I keep lending it to family members who "forget" to return it.

[margotb822]

6. My mom could barely read it

She's a teacher (not special needs), but thanks to NCLB, had autistic students in her class. She said it was too realistic for her to enjoy, haha.

[Richardo]

11. One of my top 5 novels ever

:thumbsup:

[Fire Walk With Me]

28. I'm about 100 pages into this book (thanks for the recommendation)

but it's not totally grabbing me. I'm an oddball, however. I'm enjoying parts...slightly reminds me of Iain Banks' "Feersum Endjinn", which has a POV of a character one wonders is "special" or not.

Along these lines, have you read "I Am The Cheese"? Nothing should be said about it if you are interested in taking such a recommendation.

[margotb822]

29. If you know or are close with someone who is autistic

it can be a hard read. I have a bizarre imagination and I got really into it.

I have not read I Am the Cheese, but I'll look into it. I'll pretty much start any book that's recommended to me...I love reading!

[Fire Walk With Me]

30. Only one friend in high school had an autistic brother

who was totally cool, quite the good guy. I haven't had much experience, no, and I do take what has been stated here regarding it being accurate...although I'm just not totally "buying" the voice/POV. Perhaps I'll grow into it... Edit: Incorrect, his brother had Down's Syndrome. See? I don't know what I'm talking about here.

Interestingly, that very friend from high school is the one who gave me "I Am The Cheese"!

If you're into flights of imagination, etc., pick up your Harlan Ellison short story collections...

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Geez, anything is lighter than Thomas Pynchon.

Except perhaps Palhaniuk.

If you ever give "science fiction" a try, go for the truly exceptional author Samuel R. Delany. "Titan", for instance, or "Dhalgren", or "Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand". Rather nice prose, excellent POV.

"Riddley Walker" is also sort-of sciene fiction, but it stands nearly myth-like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddley_Walker

[crispini]

12. Loves me some Delaney.

Dhalgren was amazing, very Pynchon-esque in some ways. But with more plot. Well, maybe.

[DarkTirade]

5. For lighter, I've been laughing my ass off at some Terry Pratchett lately.

[graywarrior]

7. Child 44

or

Promise of the Wolves (sort of a Watership Down, but with wolves--totally awesome)

[jobycom]

8. Have you read "The Art Thief," by Noah Charney?

Manages to be light entertainment without being contentless.

[DeepBlueC]

40. he's made himself a bona fide authority on art theft

He's graduate of my college, a young guy, and the Alumni magazine recently published a very interesting profile of him.

[Chan790]

9. Wow! I'm getting some interesting recommendations...

I'll check back in on this in the morning or afternoon...I have to be up for 5am for work at 9. (Joy of living in Westchester Co. and working in Brooklyn.)

[HopeHoops]

10. Here's one I bought for my late grandmother...

http://www.amazon.com/Gas-We-Pass-Story-Science/dp/1929132158/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235048850&sr=1-1

No, that isn't what she died from.

[Sequoia]

13. Dog Eats Dog, by Iain Levison

is entertaining and not very many pages. Really good book.

[applegrove]

14. I hate science fiction and fantasy too.

[bif]

15. Anything by Bill Bryson

Very funny travel narrative.

[MrCoffee]

16. Death from the Skies! These are the ways the world will end...

By Philip Plait, Ph.D (also of badastronomy.com fame)

It's a fun read, as far as astronomy books about all the ways the Universe can kill us (including the end of the Universe itself). Plait is a clever writer.


http://www.amazon.com/Death-Skies-These-Ways-World/dp/0670019976

[BlueIris]

17. Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" feels like a good book for you. Or maybe

it's time to re-explore the modern classics. I just finished Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast," which is (sort of) light and fluffy, but still interesting. Or, go get a copy of the O. Henry Prize short stories (any edition). Not always light, but always excellent.

[Heidi]

18. "A Confederacy of Dunces," by John Kennedy Toole.

I promise, Chan, having read your DU posts, you'll love this novel.

[Strong Atheist]

20. It was supposed to be very funny. I plowed through over 100

pages and did not find it so. Did I not go far enough, or was the whole book like that (not to my taste)? :shrug:

[DeepBlueC]

24. it just wasn't for you

[Strong Atheist]

25. You've read it? It was all like that? nt.

[Fire Walk With Me]

26. It was all like that. If you didn't laugh in the first 100 pages, you won't like the rest.

However, you might enjoy his other novel, "The Neon Bible". It's a scathing look at small-town life, and the ugly characters therein.

[DeepBlueC]

33. yes. I loved it

I cried with laughter when I read it. But that was many years ago. I decided to reread it this past year and I actually put it aside. I could not get into it again.

[likesmountains 52]

27. This is the only book I started that I could not finish...I don't know what I was missing..

and believe me..I have struggled through some pretty bad novels..

[moggie]

19. Murakami can be rather science-fictiony, though

If you like contemporary Japanese fiction and want something lighter than Murakami, try Banana Yoshimoto. Try "Kitchen" to start with.

[yellowdogintexas]

21. "A Short History of A Small Place" and any other book by T R Pearson.

a wonderful story.

[harmonicon]

22. shit, I would always just recommend Pynchon

I don't really get what the hype is about, but I've enjoyed Vonnegut as some quick light reading - easy to get through but doesn't really insult your intelligence. I am on my second attempt at Pynchon's "Against the Day" right now, so I know what looking for something lighter can be like. I used to really enjoy Irvine Welsh novels, but I think I sort of grew out of it. His collection of short stories, "The Acid House", I think has some nice stuff in in though - I've read it a number of times, but it's been a few years and my memory of it may not be so good now.

[The empressof all]

23. middlesex by jeffrey eugenide

I really wanted to hate it because everyone I knew read it at the same time and it was all they could talk about for a while. I waited...then everybody moved on and didn't want to talk about it anymore...

I really enjoyed it.

[Chan790]

36. Great book...

I used to read it on the bus coming home from work and people would ask me what it was about (it's the name of the county next to Hartford Co. so I think they thought it was a local history text or something.) and when I told them, they'd get this horrible look and move farther down the bus away from me.

I had the same experience about people wanting to talk to me about a book endlessly with The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. That at least was amusing because half of them clearly didn't understand it and the other half were pretty sure they didn't understand it. It's not that hard to understand...the effort to live a life without attachments (to society, to things, to one's homeland, to each other, love, ideology) is unbearable. It destroys both Sabina and Tomas. Living a life filled with heaviness and importance is honestly impossible, as we do not possess the "eternal return" necessary to weight or measure our decisions validly through comparison. Each decision is made then never comes to again. We have no ability to re-do or compare. Devoted attachment to conviction in this weight of experience drives Franz to an early death and Tereza to return to Prague to make herself miserable in order to liberate Tomas. Ultimately, nobody is happy. Everybody except Sabina is dead and Sabina is functionally-dead as she lacks anything to live for...everything she could have wanted attachment to (Tomas, her art, Tereza, Franz, Prague, Paris, politics, a cause) is gone and she has no means to reclaim anything approaching a life...she lives out her days meaninglessly.

[Shakespeare]

31. I'm a total lit snob, and used to say "I don't read sci-fi or fantasy."

And then I read some books recommended to me by somebody whose taste I trust. All I'll say is don't close your mind to it--there's some extraordinarily literate sci-fi and fantasy out there--don't deny yourself the pleasure of discovering it.

I'd start with Terror Or Illium, both by Dan Simmons. I think you'll like them. Illium is a take on the Illiad; Simmons is a huge fan of classic literature, and his books really show that.

[Chan790]

32. Illium was the last one I tried...

I didn't hate it...I just set it down and never picked it up again until someone asked if they could borrow it and I let them have it. I give away books constantly...otherwise I'd trip over them or be forced to start my own library.

[Shakespeare]

35. Fair enough.

I still encourage you to keep an open mind about those genres, though. There's some delightful stuff to be read out there.

[DeepBlueC]

34. White Man's Grave by Richard Dooling

"a scathingly funny black comedy that soars to Evelyn Waugh heights."

[Highway61]

37. Nineteen Minutes and

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (both page turners) and

A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson..(you'll laugh out loud)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

38. "A Simple Plan" by Scott Smith.

[peacefreak]

39. One of the best things I've read recently is

Water for Elephants by Sara Greun. If you're looking for just plain fun try Christopher Moore--Lamb or anything by Carl Hiassen

[DeepBlueC]

41. An author I just love in Jonathan Safran Foer

Everything is Illuminated (2002) and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005) If you enjoy contemporary fiction, this is hawt. I'd like to know if you read them & enjoy them. :hi: