BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

[wendilin622]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 9:17pm

Hi all,

So I searched and couldn't find a thread, but I'm about to start summer vacation (the joys of being a teacher!!) where I plan to sit by the pool, drink, and read all summer. so I'd love some recommendations. And I figured that this might be a good way for us all to share books.

So I'm looking for whatever you got. Fiction, non-fiction, comedy, mystery, whatever. The only type of books I am not a fan of are the likes of Nicholas Sparks. But I really do read everything else so I'd appreciate whatever you recommend!

Thanks in advance!

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 9:33pm

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 9:40pm

Perhaps these 2 threads may help:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?boardid=2&boardname=off&thread=984445#3704798

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?boardid=2&boardname=off&thread=1008119#3935370


The books I have enjoyed are
A Child Called "It" (Dave Pelzer), The Lost Boy (Dave Pelzer), My Sister's Keeper (Jodi Picoult), Listening With My Heart (Heather Whitestone), Savage Inequalities (Johnathan Kozol), House Rules (Jodi Picoult), Little Lamb Lost (Margaret Fenton), Hate List (Jennifer Brown), Breaking Point (Alex Finn), A Brief Chapter of My Impossible Life (Dana Reinhardt), Not as Crazy as I Seem (George Harrar), It's Kind of a Funny Story (Ned Vizzini).

Updated On: 6/1/10 at 09:40 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 9:50pm

"Silver Shoes" by Paul Miles Schneider:

http://www.paulmilesschneider.com/silvershoes_synopsis.htm

Game Change (If you haven't read it):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/books/11book.html

I am about to read "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind (yeah, I know I am late!)

For fun reading I suggest (If you havent read them yet!) both of Marc Acito's books:

"How I paid for College (A novel of sex, theft, friendship & Musical Theater)"

"Attack of the Theater People"

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 12:51am

"The Imperfectionists" by Tom Rachman

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 12:59am

I just finished the first two Stieg Larsson books (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire) - they were entertaining reads and I am waiting for the third to read.

[StarStruckGB]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 1:04am

I just finished up Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen & really enjoyed it.

[wendilin622]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 5:19am

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it!

And I just read The Book of Joe and Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper, quick, entertaining reads! Highly recommend them! I'm looking forward to reading his other novels as well. Also just finished "Let the Great World Spin" by Colum McCann. Really interesting....I liked it--but I'm not sure why yet.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 7:58am

I agree with YWIW about the "Girl" trilogy. I've read all 3 and they're great. I just finished "Ordinary Thunderstorms" by William Boyd and it was really good. Anything by Anita Shreve or Jodi Piccoult. I also just finished Kathryn Stockett's book "The Help". It was excellent. I'm reading a really good book right now called "In The Woods" by Tana French. Can you tell in the summer all I do is sit by the pool and read?

[AC126748]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 8:14am

A few recent favorites:

The Privileges by Jonathan Dee
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout
Vanessa and Virginia by Susan Sellers

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 8:16am

I know you won't be interested but I am reading this right now

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 12:35pm

I'm halfway through Under the Dome by Stephen King and loving every page. It's definitely a variation on one of his common themes (Needful Things, Insomnia, The Mist, Storm of the Century), but it has not stopped being compelling for a moment.

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 12:56pm

My favorite!

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 2:51pm

I decided recently to read Marnie (the novel on which the Alfred Hitchrooster film is based) and found a really cheap used paperback omnibus of three Winston Graham novels: The Forgotten Story, Marnie, and Greek Fire. (That's the order inside the book; cover lists them in a different order.) I've read Forgotten Story, am now well into Marnie (even better than the film). Graham's writing holds my interest quite well, which is saying something for me, trust me. I may have to search out other books by him.

When I was shopping at Dollar Tree this morning (it's a store where, basically, everything costs a dollar -- or less), I couldn't resist picking up I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!: And Other Things That Strike Me As Funny by Bob Newhart, as I've always been a fan of his. And yep, it only cost $1, in hardcover too. Not sure when I'll get to it but am looking forward to reading it.

Amazon link for the Winston Graham 3-novel omnibus Updated On: 6/2/10 at 02:51 PM

[madbrian]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 3:42pm

My wife and I like very different books, but we both love the Spellman series by Lisa Lutz. They're comedy/mystery books about a dysfunctional family of private detectives.

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 3:47pm

Wishful Drinking, if you haven't read it. The cover alone is worth the price of the book!

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 7:13pm

...Spellman series by Lisa Lutz. They're comedy/mystery books about a dysfunctional family of private detectives.

madbrian, that sounds like something I might like.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 9:15pm

I think I would like those stories too!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 10:59pm

My 5 year old granddaughter got me started on Jan Karon's Mitford series. She gave me one of the books for Christmas (obviously she liked the cover) and I got hooked.

The books are set in a small town where lives interact and I haven't come across any profanity. None of these books will will the Pulitzer prize for literature, but they are very enjoyable reading.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 11:12pm

I loved this book when we read it in high school

Updated On: 6/2/10 at 11:12 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 11:37pm

You could spend the entire summer reading just one book, Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past." And it would probably end up being a more enriching read than ten different ones.

If you read it, make sure you have tea and a madeleine (or several) nearby.

[madbrian]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 11:49pm

If there are any other fans of the Spellman series by Lisa Lutz out there, I have good news: a movie of The Spellman Files is planned for next year. Barry Sonnenfeld is scheduled to direct, but no cast announcements have been made.

[wendilin622]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 5:45am

I tried Proust one summer during college. I couldn't do it. I'd like to eventually try again, but now I'm very intimidated by the idea.

Did anyone read "Let the Great World Spin". I know I already mentioned it, but I can not stop thinking about it, and I did like it, even if I'm not sure why. I'd love to discuss it with someone!

[StockardFan]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 7:22am

Starstruck........I loved Water For Elephants, too!

[AC126748]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 7:58am

I started reading Let the Great World Spin, but abandoned it after a hundred pages or so. I liked it at first, but then began to feel that McCann was more interested in his turn of phrase than actually developing his characters and story. Nothing turns me off in writing more than that.