book lovers? i need a new book!?

Question

i need some good book recomendations please. preferably fiction, or historical fiction. i was thinking about reading Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen or When the Sleeper Wakes by HG Wells so if anyone has read them, what do you think?

oh and one more thing.....i would love to know any great books that left you thinking and books that you thoroughly enjoyed

thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

Some good historical fiction:

A Year or Wonders (Geraldine Brooks) -- deals with a small town hit with the Plague in the 17th century, the story is presented through the eyes of one of its inhabitants and is based on a small town outside of London and how it reacted to the Plague.

The Red Tent (Anita Diamant) -- great story about Dinah, a figure mentioned only briefly in the bible. Really engaging story.

Girl With A Peal Earring (Tracy Chevalier) -- about the Dutch painter Vermeer and a "what if" account of how he came to create one of his best known works.

The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) -- the Arthurian legend as told and experienced by the women. Wonderful work!

Ragtime (E.L. Doctorow)

The Alienist (Caleb Carr) -- murder mystery set in NYC in 1896.

Trinity (Leon Uris)

Ahab's Wife (Sena Jeter Naslund)

House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende) -- saga of the Trueba family in Chile in the years and days leading up to the 1973 coup.

Cry to Heaven (Ann Rice) -- forget her vampire works and erotica, this is a beautiful story that makes real the life of the society of castrati in 18th century Italy.

Shipwrecks (Akira Yoshimura) -- tale of life in a medieval Japanese fishing village that relies for food, wealth, etc. on boats that come too close to the nearby reefs (when lured by saltfires set by the villagers) and wash ashore, and what happens when one such boat turns out to be carrying Smallpox.

As for books I've really enjoyed and/or that got me thinking: Mists of Avalon and The Red Tent are two historical fiction novels I count among my favorite books, they're just gripping and beautifully rendered. Outside of that genre...there are so many, but for whatever reason tonight I'm thinking a lot about Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins.

That's a start. Enjoy!

Answer 2

Any of the R. A. Salvatore books. Those are great fantasy fiction novels.
Harry Potter is great too, but I am almost certain you have probably read those.
The Left Behind Series is really great if you are a Christian. It might affend you if you are not. It's abou the Apocalypse actually occuring on Earth and millions of people disappear. It's really suspenseful.
I really enjoyed Peace Like a River if you like books that are about a boy trying to find his missing brother kind of thing.
Eragon was really good although it was very cliched.
My friends tell me Eye of the World is really good.
The Jurassic Park books are really good. Any Michael Crypton books.

Answer 3

HG Wells Time Machine was a good short read.
G.K. Chesterton's "The Man Who was Thursday" is an excellent book (fiction). I Think about 180 pages or so.
The Last Nazi, Stan Pottinger (Fiction) had an interesting theme.
Edgar Allen Poe's "The System of Dr. Tar & Proffesor Fether" is excelent and is about a 45 min. read.

Answer 4

If you want somethgin that will take you ages AND keep you captivated the whole way, pulling out all stops and becoming mind boglingly ingenius toward the end, then i highly recomend the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. there are 7 books in total, and the only one that gives people trouble is the first one, The Gunslinger. Although its still good, it takes a while to get into the voice of the story, if that makes sense.

happy hunting.

Answer 5

The Kite Runner was EXCELLENT.

I also really enjoyed Secret History by Donna Tartt and although it is not historical fiction, She's Come Undone was an extremely, easy interesting read!

Right now I'm reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (The guy who wrote The Remains of the Day). I only just started but so far I like it.

You should go online to your local public library to see if they have an online database called NOVELIST. It refers you to other books based on criteria you enter. For example, if you want a book that's like another book you just read, it will provide suggestions.

It's pretty cool. Many public libraries make it accessible remotely.

Answer 6

The best book I've ever read in my life was "Back Roads" by Tawni O'Dell. It's a pretty intense fictiona novel about a young man who has to care for his 3 younger sisters. It's extremely suspensful and takes a lot of unexpected twists and turns. It's really funny and will probably make you cry, but some would find the intensity a little disturbing also. She also wrote one called "Coal Run" which was a bit of a let down after the first.

Answer 7

Diana Gabaldon's 'Outlander Series'. It's a great set of books. They're historical fiction set in 1740's Scotland and 1750's United States. She is still working on the series. There's 6 or 7 books written so far.

Answer 8

Good authors:

Garth Nix
Donna Jo Napoli
Stephenie Meyers

Good Books:

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Rebel Angels (Teen's Top 10 Awards) by Libba Bray
Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde
In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
Daughters of the Moon: Goddess of the Night by Lynne Ewing

Hope you enjoy!!

Happy reading!

Answer 9

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, first in a trilogy: the 2nd and 3rd are A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly tilting Planet (these are fantasy). My all time favorites.
Anything by Elizabeth Goudge, but they are old and a bit hard to find, try Amazon.com. Gentle stories with enchanting people.
Anything by Dean Koontz, most often horror fiction but a fabulous writer with always a captivating story. One of his best: One Door from Heaven--heroine is a cripple girl (was abused) who is also brilliant, sassy and gorgeous.
To get you thinking for sure, The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown.

Answer 10

Dresden file book series by Jim Butcher.There are 8 books in the series beginning with stormfront.It narrates the story of Harry Dresden,chicago's only professional wizard who works as a detective.He stands between the general population who is ignorant about the supernatural world and the monsters - vampires,werewolves,fallen angels,fey.He is aided by Bob,a talking skull.Karrin Murphy-a police officer and Thomas-a white court vampire.

Count of Montecristo by Alexander Dumas.The hero is Edmond Dantés, a young French sailor who, falsely accused of treason, is arrested on his wedding day and imprisoned in the island fortress of Château d'If. After staging a dramatic escape he sets out to discover the fabulous treasure of Monte Cristo and catch up with his enemies. A novel of enormous tension and excitement, Monte Cristo is also a tale of obsession and revenge, with Dantés, believing himself to be an `Angel of Providence', pursuing his vengeance to the bitter end before realizing that he himself is a victim of fate.The author did a great job describing the emotions of the prisoner.Disbelief,denial,self pity,madness,apathy and finally hope.For God's sake don't see any of the movies based on the book.They don't do justice to the book.

Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini.When his best friend, a young clergyman, is killed in a mockery of a duel by an arrogant noble, just to quiet his eloquent expressions of democratic ideals, Andre-Louis Moreau vows revenge. From that point, through meteoric careers as a consummate actor and scenario writer, then as a fencing master, and finally a politician, the brilliant Moreau keeps thwarting the aims of the aristocratic Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr. However, the nobleman causes pain to Moreau as well, and the time must come when the two will meet to settle their enmity once and for all. You are not likely to guess how their confrontation finally turns out. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, this swashbuckling novel is exciting throughout, and it presents one of the most dashing heroes in fiction, a man who can fight equally well with his mind, his mouth, his pen, and his sword, a man who stirs up events wherever he goes.