My friend just discovered that he enjoys reading. Thus far he has read "Shes come Undone" by Wally Lamb, "I know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb, and "The Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck. He wants the next book to not be too emotionally deep so I have ruled out "To kill a Mockingbird" and "Uncle Toms Cabin" Maybe something more current would be nice. Suggestions?
2007-04-25 04:01:22 · 14 answers · asked by shannon d 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
hmm ive been a stephen king fan all my life, so I recomend the dark tower. But I would rule out of mice and men by stienbeck, its really good but pretty emotional.
2007-04-25 04:07:03 · answer #1 · answered by Adam of the wired 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why not start on Ernest Hemingway? The Old Man and the Sea would be a great novella to read. Then he could go on to The Sun Also Rises and other works by Hemingway.
How about Tim O'Brien, especially The Things They Carried?
Thom Jones wrote several books of smart alecky short stories. They are funny and they always held my interest and there's certainly little excess emotion in them. "The Pugilist at Rest" is one title.
A recent edition of Best American Short Stories or The O'Henry Prize Stories will be good reading and also suggest writers he will want to pursue.
Have fun with the reading.
2007-04-25 07:44:29 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. The book is well written and wickedly funny. This is a unique book and Wikipedia gives some info about it here:
"A Confederacy of Dunces is a novel written by John Kennedy Toole, published in 1980, 11 years after the author's suicide. The book was published through the efforts of the writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a revealing foreword) and Toole's mother, quickly becoming a cult classic. Toole posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the book in 1981. It is an important part of the 'modern canon' of Southern literature.
The title derives from the book's epigraph by Jonathan Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." (Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting)
The story is set in the city of New Orleans in the early 1960s. The central character is Ignatius J. (Jacques) Reilly, an intelligent but slothful man still living with his mother at age 30 in Uptown New Orleans, who, because of family circumstances, must set out to get a job. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters."
2007-04-25 04:12:26 · answer #3 · answered by Zelda Hunter 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Look at the many books by Dick Francis for some well written mysteries that are attractive to men with some emotional content, not a lot of violence and a good story.
For a more fantastical vein, the many science fiction/fantasy stories of Anne McCaffrey, some of which were written with other people. The many books on Pern with its epics on flying dragons and their riders and community are perhaps more attractive to men than, say, the Acorna series. The "Ship Who ..." series beginning with the "Ship Who Sang" are an interesting series built around the science concept of merging physically crippled people (Brains) with mechanical devices (ships, stations or chairs) from their successful point of view.
2007-04-25 04:14:49 · answer #4 · answered by Mike1942f 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
SEARCH FOR THE SUN by Ellen Anthony.
Donal Yorkson is a rookie cop on a science fiction world. When he is first on the crime scene of a pretty horrific murder, he helps more experienced investigators with the scene. When his veteran partner gets too close to the answer and is killed, he resolves to solve not only his murder, but the original murder. The problem is his family is now telling him to stay out of it. He's been reassigned to an officer's training school and it's not his affair any more. Since all the suspects are very close to the throne, it can only come out badly.
Donal is the one who, from chapter two on, holds the key to the entire mystery.
2007-04-25 04:56:53 · answer #5 · answered by loryntoo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tom Clancy is wonderful especially Hunt For Red October, and Sum of All Fears(kinda 9/11 ish with the bombing of the Superbowl).
2007-04-25 04:34:32 · answer #6 · answered by chellyk 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the Deceiver by Fredrick Forrsyth
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Black Sunday by Thomas Harris---9/11 predicted in 1975
Home Ground by Lynn Freed, a friend, growing up in apartheid South Africa
No Comebacks---a compilation of short stories by Fredrick Forsythe.
Any collection of short stories by Jack London or Steven Vincent Benet
2007-04-25 04:09:11 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If he wants to read something emotionally charging, may I suggest, Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie McDonald. This book is a few years old, and I had a hard time putting it down.
2007-04-25 04:46:49 · answer #8 · answered by jesterthemutt2006 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was going to suggest Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck....it's a awesome novel but is deep and emotional, a great read.
2007-04-25 04:08:57 · answer #9 · answered by sadie_oyes 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
An excellent detective novel... by the writer who helped create the detective genre
2007-04-25 04:23:35 · answer #10 · answered by aspicco 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋