Good fiction/literature book recommendations?

Question

I've been reading a lot of non-fiction but want to balance it out with some fiction books:

Some books I enjoy:
Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility
The Namesake
The Life of Pi
The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as The Hobbit
The Golden Compass
The Handmaid's Tale
The Kite Runner
Gentleman and Players

Here are some books/series I did NOT like:
The Phantom Tollbooth
Robert Jordan's really long "Wheel of Time" series
Mists of Avalon
The Painted Veil
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Moby Dick
The Alchemist

Thanks!!

Answer 1

Wicked. It's the Wizard of Oz told from the witch's point of view. Very entertaining.

Answer 2

Most of the authors that I'll suggest have many good books so take the titles as just a guideline and read the backs of a few before you buy. None of these books are considered young adult but they are all perfectly suited to someone of your age. Jane Hamilton ~ Disobedience Anne Tyler ~ Dinner At the Homesick Restaurant Donna Tartt ~ The Secret History Ann Patchett ~ Taft Anna Lee Waldo ~ Sacajawea Larry McMurtry ~ Lonesome Dove Jane Smiley ~ Barn Blind Studs Terkel ~ The Good War Neil Gaiman ~ Neverwhere Anne Lamott ~ Blue Shoe John Sandford ~ The "Prey" series Donald E. Westlake ~ The Dortmunder series Robertson Davies ~ The Cornish Trilogy John Steinbeck ~ East of Eden Bobbie Ann Mason ~ In Country Tim O'Brien ~ In the Lake of the Woods Rebecca West ~ The Fountain Overflows Charles Frazier ~ Cold Mountain Audrey Niffenegger ~ The Time Traveler's Wife Mary Doria Russell ~ A Thread of Grace Marge Piercy ~ Gone to Soldiers All Creatures Great and Small ~ James Herriot Well, you've got a little bit of everything there. Between wiki and amazon you should have no trouble getting info on any of them. I hope you find some things to enjoy. Have a lovely summer, reading to your hearts content!

Answer 3

Alot of the books you listed under the "what you like" section, I also enjoy. I think you would like:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time- Mark Haddon

Marly and Me- Josh Grogan

Running With Scissors and Sellevision-Augusten Burroughs

The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Girl With a Pearl Earring- Tracy Chevalier

that should be a good start for you

Answer 4

I read Moby Dick and finished it inside a week. Great novel and brilliantly written. Herman Melville is a genius and it's a shame you didn't enjoy it.

If someone were to ask you what it was about, would you be able to answer them? How would you answer them? What did you learn from the novel?

It's a book full of symbolism and somehow has a chamelion effect everytime it's read.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that in there.

I am, personally, a classics reader~~fiction. I am over half way finished with Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. Wonderful, riveting. Highly recommended. If you can tackle 1200+ pages, it's worth every minute of the read. I am about to begin A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth. 1700 pages, but a page turner. After that, it's an off beat read by Tom Robbins with Jitterbug Perfume.

Good luck to you and whatever you choose.

Answer 5

You should read these books:

To Kill A Mocking bird
The Conch Bearer
The House on Mango Street
Kite fighters
Autobiography of Fredrick Douglass
Inkheart
Inkspell
Sadoko and the thousand cranes
The Breadwinner
Al Copane does my Shirts
White Lilacs
The mystery of platform 19

Answer 6

The only one I haven't read is the first:

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner)
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Answer 7

Atonement by Ian McEwan was really good.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield was really heard to put down even at 3 am when i was really sleepy.
Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen was a fun mystery novel set in the 1930's.
I also really enjoyed Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly because of all the great details.
Stardust was also fun to read.

Answer 8

If you liked Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, I'd try Persuasion. I think its the best, apart from P&P.

I'd also recommend Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which is my favorite book, although it is a love-it-or-hate-it-book. It's this creepy, dark, incredibly involving fairy tale, set in regency England, so you have this balance between this light, witty tone, almost reminiscent of Jane Austen, and this dark, mysterious magic and magical history.

Answer 9

If you liked Handmaid's Tale - I also liked many other books by the same author.

I also recently enjoyed "The Mermaid Chair" and think I'm going to read "Bridges of Madison County" (Couldn't do it when it was being overhyped, but can stand to think of it now.)

Answer 10

for sci-fi / mystery / romance --- try J D Robb's 'in Death' series. They have humor and mystery and are set in NYC in 2060 or so.

The Wizard of Oz books are good too.

How about Charles Dickens?