Recommend a good book for me to read.?

Question

I've been working on my Phd and need to take a break and read something different.
Recommend a good book for me. Doesn't have to be fiction - can be anything. Tell me what it's about etc. Sell it. No, don't sell it - just tell me about it.
You'll have to do this by 2.55pm GMT because that's when I'm going out (hopefully to buy that sh!t hot book you've told me about).

Answer 1

The very hungry caterpillar. I find it requires just the right amount of brain power one feels like exerting during thesis breaks, and additionally, it's plenty long enough to keep me busy for the two minutes I have free while I'm not writing my thesis, sleeping or lying awake worrying about my thesis. You can also get the colouring book edition. I enjoyed colouring in the 'lollypop, pickle, cake, sausage' page very much.

Answer 2

Good luck on your PhD;

Society of the Mind by Marvin Minsky, the co-founder of the MIT lab, explains the process and functions of the brain; each page is it's own chapter and he starts off explaining things very basically, and progresses from there. It's a fun read on the way our brain works - and you can literally put the book down at any time.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut was one of his best sellers in the 60s - it's a book that transcends time, (literally), and explains a few stories about WWII from the point of view of an old man. My first Kurt Vonnegut book was Galapagos, which was funny and easy to read - and it had a very interesting ending. However, Slaughterhouse Five, Slapstick, Cats Cradle, and Galapagos are all amazingly intuitive fun-reading books that relax your "omg this life is horrible and hard!" muscle.

Millionaire Next Door is a statistic book about the habits of the millionaire in the United States. No, it's not about big fast cars and huge houses - in fact, it's the opposite, and it explains how and why people in the US never make money (hyperconsumerism) and the entire social facade of life. If you're going after your PhD it'd be a necessary read to *really* understand the difference between offensive and defensive tactics for wealth.

The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy or Good Omens are both funny funny reads.

Good luck

Answer 3

King Fortis the Brave

It's not a heavy book, but then you probably would want something light to read for the break. It's written at about the same level as the Harry Potter books. It's fast-paced and has just the right combination of action and humor. It will be a great book to take you briefly away from your other responsibilities.

Answer 4

Gone With the Wind- One of the greatest books ever written about the American Civil War. And as a added bonus, if you get tired of reading it, you can rent the movie! Just kidding about the movie thing. But its a story of love, lust, betrayl, hate, poverty, and outrageous riches. It is set in Georgia, in the Country and in Atlanta. And it has a really great male character, Rhett Butler, who balances out the female character, Scarlett O'Hara.

If your not into that kind of book, try Keeper by Mal Peet. It's about soccer, but even if you don't like soccer you'll love this book. It's really awsome. It's about a fictional goalie, El Gato (the cat) whose team just won the World Cup, and he's being interviewed by his journalist friend, Paul Fatisuno, he tells about how a ghostly mentor taught him to play soccer in a small clearing in the rainforest that surrounded his home village. Really great on a scale of one to ten its a solid fourteen.

I bet when you asked this question you didn't realize that I was a used car saleswoman... j/k :)

Answer 5

I like many books, so I'll list a few:

Charles deLint (any of his Newford stories) - urban fantasy set in Canada. It's smart, fun and has depth of emotion you wouldn't believe.
Tim Powers - I like all of them, but check out his early work, like "Stress of her Regard" or "On Stranger Tides." Tim writes fantasy and is a gonzo writer. Anything can happen in his books.

For Mystery, try Laurie King, Mark Frost, Ed Gorman.

If you can find them, get Katharine Kimbriel's Allie series (alternate history fantasy set in Michigan area). Very very good read. Even Andre Norton was a fan of these books

Like Paranormal romance - try Julie Kenner or Shana Swendon. Funny and quick reads.

For more traditional romance, but still funny enough to make you fall off the couch - try Jennifer Crusie. Start with Bet Me.

If you wanted to try a YA quest fantasy with a difference, you could try my "The Essence of Stone".

For blue collar SF - bawdy and fast - try Selina Rosen's "Queen of Denial.

Hope that helps.

Answer 6

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. This book is very moving and so rich in history that it picks you up and sets you in the middle of it all. You'll laugh, cry, get angry and fall in love with every character in the book.

The book is about a women named Clair and a man named Jamie who get involved in the Jacobite uprising in 1745 Scottland and it's actually the first of a series of books. I can't really tell you any more because it would give the story away.

Answer 7

The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall

Answer 8

CLARA CALLAN, by Richard Wright
I read it, and was completely blown away by how a male writer can get completely into the mind of not one, but two women. It is written as correspondence between two sisters. I have recommended it to friends, and all have loved it.

FALL ON YOUR KNEES, by Ann Marie MacDonald
First novel by this Canadian writer. Beautifully written.

Read a few pages of both while in the bookstore.

Answer 9

House of Leaves - story about a family who's house is trippy. It adds rooms, moves, etc. Not a stephen king-like, but just a good book.

I also like the Long Goodbye - classic private I story.

Walk Across America - TRUE STORY!

Answer 10

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

"Khaled Hosseini's stunning debut novel The Kite Runner follows a young boy, Amir, as he faces the challenges that confront him on the path to manhood—testing friendships, finding love, cheating death, accepting faults, and gaining understanding. Living in Afghanistan in the 1960s, Amir enjoys a life of privilege that is shaped by his brotherly friendship with Hassan, his servant's son. Amir lives in constant want of his father's attention, feeling that he is a failure in his father's eyes. Hassan, on the other hand, seems to be able to do no wrong. Their friendship is a complex tapestry of love, loss, privilege, and shame.

Striving to be the son his father always wanted, Amir takes on the weight of living up to unrealistic expectations and places the fate of his relationship with his father on the outcome of a kite running tournament, a popular challenge in which participants must cut down the kites of others with their own kite. Amir wins the tournament. Yet just as he begins to feel that all will be right in the world, a tragedy occurs with his friend Hassan in a back alley on the very streets where the boys once played. This moment marks a turning point in Amir's life—one whose memory he seeks to bury by moving to America. There he realizes his dream of becoming a writer and marries for love but the memory of that fateful day will prove too strong to forget. Eventually it draws Amir back to Afghanistan to right the wrongs that began that day in the alley and continued in the days, months, and years that followed."