Read any good books lately?

Question

I like all kinds of books. Just list your favorites, new or old. Give a little bit of the what the story is about and I will give you 10 points.

Answer 1

Here are some books that I have read this year that I loved...

Favorite New Find
Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (6 books in all) - Historical Fiction, Romance, Adventure, Time Travel...
Outlander
Author: Gabaldon, Diana
In Scotland with her husband on a second honeymoon after World War II, Claire enters a circle of stones and is transported back to the Battle of Culloden 200 years earlier, where she must marry a Scot to save her husband.

New York: Delacorte Press, 1991, 627 p.

Other's I have loved this year
Lost diary of Don Juan, The: an account of the true arts of passion and the perilous adventure of love, a novel
Author: Abrams, Douglas Carlton
Raised secretly by nuns until he falls in love with one, Don Juan leaves the church and is recruited to be a spy by the powerful Marquis de la Mota, who teaches him to become the world's greatest libertine and seducer of women.

New York: Atria Books, 2007, 320 p.

Blood of flowers, The: a novel
Author: Amirrezvani, Anita
After her father dies without leaving her with a dowry, a seventeenth-century Persian teen becomes a servant to her wealthy rug designer uncle in the court of Shah Abbas the Great, where her weaving talents prove both a blessing and curse.

New York: Little, Brown, 2007, 384 p.

Catering to nobody
Author: Davidson, Diane Mott
Caterer Goldy Bear has been able to pay her bills from the income from her catering business until rat poison is put in the food of her buffet and the police close her business.

St. Martin's Press, 1990, 266 p.

Moon women
Pamela Duncan
Author: Duncan, Pamela, 1961-
Ruth Ann's life is turned upside down when she takes in her elderly mother, her pregnant nineteen-year-old daughter, and her ex-husband, in a story of three generations of women separated by a long-hidden family secret.

New York: Delacorte Press, c2001, 352 p.

Wideacre
Author: Gregory, Philippa
Since Beatrice loves the estate of Wideacre, she plots her father's death in hopes of tempting her weak brother Henry through incest so that she can circumvent the laws of entail.

New York: Pocket Books, copyright 1987, 635 p.

Lost memoirs of Jane Austen, The
Syrie James
New York: Avon Trade, c2008, 352 p.
Fictional account of Jane Austen's romance with a man betrothed to another as written in a diary locked away since her death. Also details her evolution as an author and gives real facts interspersed with the fictional elements.

Historian, The: a novel
Elizabeth Kostova
Author: Kostova, Elizabeth
Discovering a medieval book and a cache of letters, a motherless American girl becomes the latest in a series of historians, including her late father, who investigate the possible surviving legacy of Vlad the Impaler.

New York: Little, Brown and Co., c2005, 656 p.

Rhett Butler's people
Author: McCaig, Donald, 1940-
New York: St. Martin's Press, 2007, 512 p.

Wonderful retelling of Gone With the Wind through the eyes of Rhett Butler. Adds new depth to one's understanding of the time period and the character's as written in the original book.

Nefertiti: a novel
Author: Moran, Michelle
Raised far from the Egyptian court with her sister, Mutnodjmet, the beautiful and ambitious Nefertiti becomes the wife of the radical new pharaoh, Amunhotep, encouraging his plans to overturn Egypt's state religion and making powerful enemies in the process.

New York: Crown Publishers, 2007, 480 p.

Angels all over town
Author: Rice, Luanne
Una Cavan, an actress in soap operas, looks back on her relationship with her father, whose ghost has begun to visit her

Atheneum, 1985, 292p.

Ghostwalk
Author: Stott, Rebecca
When the death of a Cambridge historian leaves her opus on Sir Isaac Newton unfinished, Lydia Brooke is called in to finish the book, only to find herself embroiled in a mystery in which the present becomes entangled with a past based on Newton's life.

New York: Spiegel & Grau, c2007, 320 p.

Also anything by Anita Shreve, Nicholas Sparks, Jennifer Weiner, V.C. Andrew, Helen Fielding, Emily Gifin, Billie Letts, Elizabeth Noble, Anya Seton, or Lauren Weisberger

Answer 2

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson: About the relationship between a boy and his father. Very Good.
The Cider House Rules by John Irving: Well written. Sort of graphic though. If you can't handle descriptions of medical procedures (abortions, births), don't read.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Classic; Better if you read without knowing what it's about.
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes: A mentally handicaped man gets an operation to make him intelligent. Shows his progression from an IQ of 68 to one of 180 something. Very good.

Answer 3

I'm reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossieni and its terrific. This book is not my normal reading material but I thought Id take a chance with it. I normally read Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Sandford, Sue Grafton etc.
The Kite Runner is a tale of friendships and betrayal in the war torn country of Afghanistan. It follows two boys through adulthood and the perils and pitfalls they encounter. Its a must read.

Answer 4

I really liked the Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. Its about a group of Navy SEALS who are trying to capture a notrorious al queida member and the courage of them men involved. Marcus is the only survivor of the group.

Also Peony in Love is a good book about seventeenth century China and the struggles of the teen women back then. Both excellent.

Answer 5

Insomnia by Stephen King - An old man is going through losing his wife to brain cancer, watching her deteriorate, until she finally does die, but he is left with an ongoing case of insomnia. The less sleep he gets, the more in tune he becomes to a parallel world that exists all around us, like the greek myth of the lady that cut your life string when you die, he sees the entities responsible for our moment of death. He also starts seeing peoples auras, and is fascinated when he see auras of mothers and babies together, even by the aura of a dog. He spends a lot of time sitting and looking out his window all night long when he cant sleep, and becomes entangled in the business of those who don't appreciate the attention of mortals. Oh, I just read Flowers for Algernon with my 10yr old, we took turns reading it out loud together, make us cry like little babies! Great Book!!! PS Little Miss Lovely is talking about another SK book, IT, which is very scary indeed!

Answer 6

"Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist" by Bradley Steffens. It tells the fascinating, true story of a medieval Muslim scholar who overcame bouts of mental illness to develop the scientific method.

Born in what is now Iraq in 965, Ibn al-Haytham studied theology, trying to resolve the differences between the Shi'ah and Sunnah sects. He turned his attention to the works of the ancient Greek philosophers and mathematicians. He was the first person to apply algebra to geometry, founding analytic geometry. He traveled to Egypt to build a dam on the Nile, failed, and ended up imprisoned in Cairo for ten years. During this time he began systematically testing hypotheses with experiments, the core of the scientific method.

"Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist" was just chosen by California Readers to be part of the 2008 California Collection. You can find reviews of the book and a sample chapter at http://www.ibnalhaytham.net/

Answer 7

well these are the best few of the books iv'e read this year...

The interpratation of murder by Jed Rubenfeild

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Historian Elisabeth Kustova

A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini

These books are all amazing, i know you just have to look at the top 10 best sellers of the year to see then but they are there for a reason, because they are the best!

Answer 8

Pride and Prejudice - pride...and prejudice, lol. no, it's a really reallly good romance story.
The Uglies Series - Everything is changed, people go through this surgery to get "pretty" when they turn sixteen....and well, things are a lot different than they are now. They're really addicting. I love them.
Peeps - About vampires, but a totally different point of view. I haven't finished it, but so far it's really good.

Answer 9

Twilight,

An ordinary girl wins the heart of a vampire.
Its a romance novel, with a touch of suspense as a vampire is out to kill her because her blood smells so good. Its classic and I love this book.

Answer 10

If you haven't read the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, then you are missing out. =D