Can anyone recommend a real good book?

Question

Dont like murders or love stories yuck. preferably true or believable

Answer 1

one of the best books i've ever read was a catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger......it's about this guy who is tired of the way things are going and eventually finds himself. or maybe if you like something funny you could read a confederacy of dunces by john kennedy toole....it's a very hilarious story about this 40 year old man who lives with his mother and is a complete loser. i've got plenty of ideas but those two are the best i've ever read so give them a shot

Answer 2

To recommend a book to someone I don't know is very difficult, so I have chosen a few books that I found an amazing read and would like to share with others.

A really good book that I read recently is "Stalingrad" by Anthony Beevor, which describes the German's attempt to take the town during W.W. 2. It's truly a magnificent story told through letters and eyewitnesse's accounts and it gives you a unique insight into history. It's so well written that you almost feel that you are there.
If that doesn't appeal to you, how about a biography?

Another warmly recommended book is "Scott & Amundsen; The Last Place On Earth" by Ronald Huntford, which is the story about the race to the south Pole, a real nail-biting book that reads like a true adventure thriller.

If you are looking for a cosy and funny book I would like to recommed Janet Street-Porter's "As the Crow Fly: A Walk From Edinburgh To London In A Straight Line" which is hillarious.

When it comes to ficton -
Joseph Heller's "Catch 22", an anti-war story is both humorous and exciting.
I also like George Orwell's "Nineteen-eightyfour" and W. Somerseth-Maugham (anything really, but especially well written are the two shortstories, "The Lotus Eaters" and "Before The Party"). These are classics, but don't let that scare you off, it doesn't mean that they are boreing.

If you are looking for an easy read then Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" is a must on a rainy and cold October afternoon.

Best of Luck!

Answer 3

It's hard to tell you what to read without knowing if you are a guy or a girl or if you are 12 or 40 years old.
I get the feeling that you are probably a young boy. You don't like love stories so you are definitely male. If you have an imagination then truth and/or reality are something that you have to decide for yourself. Many things have been written as fiction (false) and then later have been proven to be true and/or possible.

Much science fiction has been written by people who had imagination and it took them into the future. Their thoughts and writing influenced our world and now some of those great visions are reality.

Your life would be greatly enhanced by reading the whole works of Issac Asimov

He wrote over 450 books. Some are science fiction, some are science, some are mathmatical, some are philosophical, some are just great excursions into wondering about the ways humans will wend and while their way through eternity.

When I was a teenager I loved science fiction. and there is no greater sci-fi writer than Assimov. He, In all ways, was a genius.

A good start is the robot books, (I robot). Try it, and find other titles or go to the library and get a book that has a collection of his short stories (many) to get an idea of his thinking and style.

Hope you give it a try

Answer 4

The Lovely Bones By Alice Seabold. On her way home from school on a snowy December day, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer. If you can get pased that bit which is only a very small part of the book you'll find that The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.

As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams", where "there were no teachers... We never had to go inside except for art class... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue".

The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow".

Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings.

Answer 5

It's impossible to understand the situation in the Middle East without understanding the Six Day War (1967) and its aftermath. I can thoroughly recommend "Six Days" by Jeremy Bowen, who was formerly the BBC's Middle Eastern correspondent.

Now that President Bush has finally drawn parallels between Iraq and Vietnam it maybe time to read (or reread) an account of that conflict such as "Born on the Fourth Of July" by Ron Kovic or "A Hard Rain Fell" by John Ketwig.

Keeping it topical, my last recommendation is "House of Bush, House of Saud" by Craig Unger. This book explores the hidden relationship between the world's two most powerful dynasties. This can be difficult to find in shops but can be ordered at http://www.signeturebooks.co.uk/

Answer 6

East of Eden by John Steinbeck, try Jack London he was a true explorer. 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Maus it is a graphic novel about the holocaust, it is excellent. The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, they are fantasy, but the characters are so real. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Ernest Hemingway is good, his romances aren't huggy kissy romances, they are dysfunctional. Hope something helps from this list.

Answer 7

Fiction:
Start with Cold Mountain, LOTR, Cryptonomicon (great fun)
Then graduate to stuff like The Sound and the Fury, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Underworld, Heart of the Matter, Naked and the Dead
Non Fiction:
Schindler's List, Europe (huge but very readable)

Answer 8

I read that u dont like murder books but there r 2 Stephen King Books that I Just love and they r Pet Semetary and Salems Lot u should rely give them a try they have death but are the best books I ever read.

Answer 9

"I, Claudius" by Robert Graves is my all time favourite book. All the more shocking because the events are true. It's about the first emperors in ancient Rome, but it's not boring I can assure you. Quite difficult to get into, but well worth the effort.

"Seabiscuit" and "The Man Who Listens to Horses" are both wonderful and inspiring true stories, which you would enjoy even if you're not into horses.

Answer 10

Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov. An utter, jaw droppingly lusious masterpiece. The use of english is spellbinding and will have you breathless with its emotion and style. In my view the greatest novel of all time by some distance.

For a laugh try Catch 22 by Joseph Heller it will have you laughing out loud and giggling to yourself at work when you think about it.