The thread all about good books

What you might do here:

• Suggest a book to the community
  
• Ask the community for a book you might like
  
• Just give your opinion of a book, either good or bad
  
• etc.
  

I personally suggest two books that I read recently.

The first is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

 Spoiler

Narrated by a fifteen-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions.

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions, and cannot stand to be touched. Gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. "I do not always do what I'm told," he admits. "And this is because when people tell you what to do it is usually confusing and does not make sense. For example, people often say 'Be quiet' but they don't tell you how long to be quiet for..."

At fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork and is initially blamed for the killing. Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As Christopher tries to deal with this crisis within his own family, the narrative draws readers into the mysterious workings of Christopher's mind.

At once deeply funny and heartbreakingly poignant, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of the freshest debuts in years.

I personally LOVED this book. It was interesting to see life through the eyes of someone who suffers from autism and it gave a new perspective on the world. I am not going to say much more because I do not want to spoilt the plot.

The second I would suggest would be The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

 Spoiler

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary — and literary history.

The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

I suggest because it is also incredibly interesting because it also focuses on someone who sees the world differently, and it is a mixture of a feeling of sympathy and great admiration for one of the characters at the same time. It also gives a good background on the English language which is also quite interesting. Again, I don't want to say too much because I don't want to give away to plot.

I have a lot of books on my reading list. Let's see..

The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker

 Spoiler

The novel is about the conflict between two highly evolved men - Randolph Jaffe and Richard Fletcher - over the mystical dream sea called Quiddity. Jaffe hopes to tap into Quiddity's power while Fletcher wants to prevent it from being tainted. The conflict between the two men spills into the real world in a decades-long feud, distorting reality and affecting the entire human race.

Douglas Coupland fiction is great, too. A lot of them aren't written like traditional novels, though, just in case you guys go for those more. Here are three:

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland

 Spoiler

Generation X is a framed narrative, like Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales or The Decameron by Boccaccio. The framing story is that of three friends—Dag, Claire, and the narrator, Andy—living together in the Mojave Desert in California. The tales are told by the various characters in the novel, which is arranged into three parts. Each chapter is separately titled rather than numbered, with titles such as "I Am Not A Target Market" and "Adventure Without Risk Is Disneyland".

Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

 Spoiler

Set in the early 1990s, it captures the state of the technology industry before Windows 95, and predicts the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. The novel is presented in the form of diary entries maintained on a PowerBook by the narrator, Daniel. Because of this, as well as its formatting and usage of emoticons, this novel is similar to what emerged a decade later as the blog format.

jPod by Douglas Coupland

 Spoiler

JPod is an avant-garde novel of six young adults assigned to the same cubicle pod at Neotronic Arts, a fictional Burnaby-based video game company, by someone in Human Resources through a computer glitch. Ethan Jarlewski is the novel’s main character and narrator, who spends more time involved with his work than with his dysfunctional family. His stay-at-home mother runs a successful marijuana grow-op which allows his father to abandon his career and work as a futile movie extra. Ethan's realtor brother Greg involves himself with Asian crime lord Kam Fong who serves as the plot's crux of character connection.

The first is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

 Spoiler

I personally LOVED this book. It was interesting to see life through the eyes of someone who suffers from autism and it gave a new perspective on the world. I am not going to say much more because I do not want to spoilt the plot.

Yup.
That was a good book. I haven't read anything recently, but I'm about to get some from the library.

I request the format be as Matt posted.

The series of books by Paul Christopher ive enjoyed, though up to Aztec Heresy ive yet to read. pretty decent stories, but nothing too profound.

Flipped was amazing when I read it, but that was a few years ago.

Out - Natsuo Kirino

[imgspoiler=Bookcover]http://sp5.fotolog.com/photo/37/14/64/jeremierda/1219992650914_f.jpg[/imgspoiler]

 Summary

A suburban Tokyo woman fed up with her loutish husband kills him in a fit of anger, then confesses her crime to a coworker on the night shift at the boxed-lunch factory. The coworker enlists the help of two other women at the factory to dismember and dispose of the body. Readers beware--Kirino's first mystery to be published in English (it was a best-seller in Japan) involves no madcap female bonding. The tenuous friendship between the four women, all with problems of their own even before becoming accessories to murder, begins to unravel almost immediately. Money changes hands. The body parts are discovered. The police begin asking questions, and a very bad man falsely accused of the crime is determined to find out who really deserves the punishment. The gritty neighborhoods, factories, and warehouses of Tokyo provide a perfect backdrop for this bleak tale of women who are victims of circumstance and intent on self-preservation at all costs.

I thought the book was excellent. Suspenseful writing, nice character development, extremely well-done dark atmospheres and some gore that even Stephen King would envy. Furthermore, how the dark side of the japanese culture is described in a way we don't see in anime, manga, pictures or travel magazines is clearly one of its best resources. However, if you can't stand blood and cold hearted people, this book is a no-no. I would recommend anyone interested in this culture or simply fond of suspense novels to read this, I'm sure you'll love it.

It's a shame Out is one the only books by Kirino translated to English (or Spanish in my case). Kirino is a respected suspense/thriller writer in Japan, and she has been awarded with the Grand Prix for Crime Fiction, one of the most important detective fiction awards in that country.

Out - Natsuo Kirino

[imgspoiler=Bookcover]http://sp5.fotolog.com/photo/37/14/64/jeremierda/1219992650914_f.jpg[/imgspoiler]

 Summary

A suburban Tokyo woman fed up with her loutish husband kills him in a fit of anger, then confesses her crime to a coworker on the night shift at the boxed-lunch factory. The coworker enlists the help of two other women at the factory to dismember and dispose of the body. Readers beware--Kirino's first mystery to be published in English (it was a best-seller in Japan) involves no madcap female bonding. The tenuous friendship between the four women, all with problems of their own even before becoming accessories to murder, begins to unravel almost immediately. Money changes hands. The body parts are discovered. The police begin asking questions, and a very bad man falsely accused of the crime is determined to find out who really deserves the punishment. The gritty neighborhoods, factories, and warehouses of Tokyo provide a perfect backdrop for this bleak tale of women who are victims of circumstance and intent on self-preservation at all costs.

I thought the book was excellent. Suspenseful writing, nice character development, extremely well-done dark atmospheres and some gore that even Stephen King would envy. Furthermore, how the dark side of the japanese culture is described in a way we don't see in anime, manga, pictures or travel magazines is clearly one of its best resources. However, if you can't stand blood and cold hearted people, this book is a no-no. I would recommend anyone interested in this culture or simply fond of suspense novels to read this, I'm sure you'll love it.

It's a shame Out is one the only books by Kirino translated to English (or Spanish in my case). Kirino is a respected suspense/thriller writer in Japan, and she has been awarded with the Grand Prix for Crime Fiction, one of the most important detective fiction awards in that country.

That looks really interesting, if I can get my hands upon it I will read it after I read my new book I just got. It is a pretty interesting book so far, and I am really looking forward to finishing it.

The book is Flight by Sherman Alexie.

 Spoiler

Sherman Alexie’s first novel in ten years is the hilarious and tragic portrait of an orphaned Indian boy who travels back and forth through time in a violent search for his true identity.

Sherman Alexie is one of our most gifted and accomplished storytellers and a treasured writer of huge national stature. His first novel since Indian Killer is a powerful, fast, and timely story of a troubled foster teenager—a boy who is not a “legal” Indian because he was never claimed by his father—who learns the true meaning of terror.

The journey for this young hero begins as he’s about to commit a massive act of violence. At the moment of decision, he finds himself shot back through time and resurfaced in the body of an FBI agent during the civil rights era. Here he will be forced to see just why “Hell is Red River, Idaho, in the 1970s.” Red River is only the first stop in a shocking sojourn through moments of violence in American history. He will continue traveling back to inhabit the body of an Indian child during the battle at Little Bighorn and then ride with an Indian tracker in the nineteenth century before materializing as an airline pilot jetting through the skies today. During these frantic trips through time, his refrain grows: “Who’s to judge?” and “I don’t understand humans.” When finally, blessedly, our young warrior comes to rest again in his own contemporary body, he is mightily transformed by all he’s seen.

This is Sherman Alexie at his most brilliant—making us laugh while he’s breaking our hearts. Time Out has said that “Alexie, like his characters, is on a modern-day vision quest,” and this has never been clearer than in Flight, where he seeks nothing less than an understanding of why human beings hate. Simultaneously wrenching and deeply humorous, wholly contemporary yet steeped in American history, Flight is irrepressible, fearless, and groundbreaking Alexie.

So far it is really interesting because it makes you wonder really how bad a person's life can be and how much a young mind can be manipulated. Again, I won't really reveal much about what I have read because I don't want to spoil the plot.

Oh man. I have a good book for you all. If you like horror and suspense than you should check this out:

 Werewolf of Fever Swamp

R.L. Stine really knows how to give the chills. I love this book up to this day. Pretty much all of his books are excellent reads.

Oh man. I have a good book for you all. If you like horror and suspense than you should check this out:

 Werewolf of Fever Swamp

R.L. Stine really knows how to give the chills. I love this book up to this day. Pretty much all of his books are excellent reads.

I read a couple of Goosebump stories when I was younger and, to be honest, I didn't really enjoy them. For a children's horror book it was pretty well written though.

Does anyone know of any books that involve people with a mental disorder (i.e. my first two books involved an autistic person and a schizophrenic person). Those types of books are my favorites.

I read a couple of Goosebump stories when I was younger and, to be honest, I didn't really enjoy them. For a children's horror book it was pretty well written though.

What do you mean? I am still horrified to this day by his stories.

What do you mean? I am still horrified to this day by his stories.

They never really scared me. That, and I have only seen them in children's sections, so it appears they consider it a children's book too.

if you like stephen king, i recomend the first book i read from him: Tommyknockers, i loved it and its still one of my favorites. not as gory as what you describe, but it is full of mindpineapples and twists. definitely worth a read.

 Summary

While walking in the woods near the small town of Haven, Maine, Roberta (Bobbi) Anderson, a writer of Wild West-based fiction, stumbles upon a metal object which turns out to be the slightest portion of a long-buried alien spacecraft. Once exposed, the spacecraft begins releasing an invisible, odorless gas into the atmosphere which gradually transforms people into beings similar to the aliens who populated the spacecraft. It also provides them with a short-sighted form of genius which makes them very inventive, but does not provide any philosophical or ethical insight.

Ooh yeah, I'll definitely have to check that out. I'm also thinking about giving his Duma Key a try.

Does anyone know of any books that involve people with a mental disorder (i.e. my first two books involved an autistic person and a schizophrenic person). Those types of books are my favorites.

actually, if you like that kind of books you might consider reading "the secret window" by Stephen King... The movie adaptation was good, the book, even better.

actually, if you like that kind of books you might consider reading "the secret window" by Stephen King... The movie adaptation was good, the book, even better.

I've just always been hesitant to reading Stephen King. I tend to not like horror because it just doesn't interest me. I like to have a main character I can sympathize for, but at the same time I don't want to be reading a horror story.

Offtopic: I saw this thread and at first thought it said "The thread all about good looks."

Offtopic: I saw this thread and at first thought it said "The thread all about good looks."

Offtopic reply: You could go make one in the funhouse. I wouldn't mind.

[COLOR="Green"]And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It's one of my favorite books. It's a murder mystery that takes place on an island. Here's the book's back cover.

 Summary

First there were ten-a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to any of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal-and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder, and one by one they begin to fall prey to an unseen hand. As the only people on the island, unable to leave and unable to call for help, they know that the only possible suspects are among their numbers. And only the dead are above suspicion.

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