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Post by gilmoreandbasketball on Dec 1, 2009 19:40:59 GMT -5
Hey everyone! I'm not sure if there is already a thread like this, but I was thinking here everyone could recommend books to other members. And give a brief summary (no spoilers!) and your opinion. Okay, I shall start. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. Its a love story like most of Spark's book, but it has an amazing twist. It will make those who don't believe in true/ultimate love believe it and those who do want it to happen to them even more. I cried, hahah enough said. Hope this thread goes well
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Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
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Post by Isa on Dec 1, 2009 20:47:26 GMT -5
That's a nice idea for a thread Seems like a nice way to discover some novels that are not particularly famous. I'll start with John Grisham's "A Painted House". When we hear the name John Grisham, we immediately think about his trial novels, but there are no lawyers in this one. It's a great story that was inspired by his childhood - Grisham grew up in Arkansas, where his father worked as a cotton farmer. The main character is a 7-year-old boy, and I loved the description of life in a rural town of the southern US in the 1950s. It was the first Grisham novel I ever read because I was not interested in his legal novels, and I was pleased to discover a fantastic story-teller and a really good writer.
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cauthoncrazy
First short story featured in regional newspaper
I've got the dreamers disease.
Posts: 158
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Post by cauthoncrazy on Dec 3, 2009 12:01:22 GMT -5
I'm keeping a list on my computer of books I've read and liked, here it is:
Author's last name in parentheses
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce) Shopaholic series Atonement (McEwan) The Hottest State (Hawk) Beauty before Comfort (Glock) How to Buy a Love of Reading (Gibson) Love is a Mixtape (Sheffield) The Cure for Anything is Salt Water (South) It seemed like a good idea at the time (Hodgson) Bit of a Blur (Alex James) First comes love, then comes malaria (Brown) Somebody Else's Daughter (Brundage)
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Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
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Post by Isa on Dec 3, 2009 13:40:56 GMT -5
It'd be nice to know what you liked about them, though!
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Bina
First novel published
Posts: 2,472
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Post by Bina on Dec 3, 2009 18:15:59 GMT -5
Sounds like a great thread. Sometimes it feels like we´re all reading the same books, though! I´d recommend Sarah Waters´Fingersmith. I think it´s quite well-known but perhaps not too many people on here have actually read it yet!? I´m halfway through now and it´s wonderful, very gripping, Victorian and twisted. How about a teaser? "We were thinking of secrets. real secrets, and snide. Too many to count. When I try now to sort out who knew what and who knew nothing, who knew everything and who was a fraud, I have to stop and give it up, it makes my head spin." (Sarah Waters: Fingersmith. 110)
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Halie
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
Posts: 982
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Post by Halie on Dec 3, 2009 19:07:25 GMT -5
^Wow, that sounds really good! LOL, I just added it to my TBR list. So many books, so little time...
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Post by bookaddict on Dec 3, 2009 20:11:53 GMT -5
The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Description: When she wakes up from a yearlong coma, 17-year-old Jenna Fox can remember nothing and must reconstruct her life and sense of self from what others tell her. But are they to be trusted? The people who claim to be her parents . . . well, ARE they? And what is the meaning of the strange, contradictory memories Jenna keeps having? Narrator Jenna Lamia, who has a fresh, youthful-sounding voice, assumes the role of the confused teen. Lamia reads with a strong sense of believability, capturing the tone of a female adolescent with perfection. A compelling and often shocking story, which asks important philosophical questions, is realized with clarity and, most importantly, honesty. Also included is an interview with Pearson, who offers insights into the story. L.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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Post by Dominique on Dec 7, 2009 18:14:02 GMT -5
I just finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett and I have to recommend it. I think it's one of my favourite of the new books published in 2009. Here's the book depository description: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. Minny, Aibileenas best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobodyas business, but she canat mind her tongue, so sheas lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own. Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way womenamothers, daughters, caregivers, friendsaview one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, "The Help" is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't. This book made me laugh out loud again and again and it made me cry. It deals with the difficult subject matter of racial relations in Jackson in the 60s without being depressing (as I feared it might be). www.bookdepository.com/book/9780399155345/The-Help
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Lu
Administrator
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Post by Lu on Dec 8, 2009 14:08:16 GMT -5
Great thread! Some new additions to my tbr list I'd recommend Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle, I think it's really good. I got it from library and I liked it so much that I ordered a copy online last week. Here's the description from the Book Depository: Roddy Doyle's Booker Prize-winning novel describes the world of ten-year-old Paddy Clarke, growing up in Barrytown, north Dublin. From fun and adventure on the streets, boredom in the classroom to increasing isolation at home, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is the story of a boy who sees everything but understands less and less. I loved how you see everything from Paddy's point of view and the division into scenes, which gave me the impression to be listening to a child.
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Post by Dominique on Dec 17, 2009 18:47:22 GMT -5
I recommend The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Both #1 The Hunger Games and #2 Catching Fire had my heart thumping with suspense, I could barely tear myself away from them to go to sleep at night. Its a dystopian series where there are twelve districts and one Capitol, a cosmopolitan city that harshly rules over the districts. Every year, as punishment for a past revolution against the Capitol, each district has to send one boy and one girl to The Hunger Games, where the twenty four contestants must fight to the death in a large arena with only one champion at the end.
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