Young Writers Society

So the other day, I was at the library searching desperately for a good book. Recently, my taste in literature has taken a drastic change and instead of looking for thrillers by Robert Ludlum or lawyer yarns by John Grisham, I look for modern classic books, such as Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut or an HP Lovecraft piece.

Unfortunately I couldn't find anything. I racked my mind for recommendations by friends and family, but there were none.

I couldn't find a good book!

And so, with my time running out, I grabbed something called Child 44 by a debut author with a dry beginning and a barren writing style. My mistake.

To make a long story a short one: I decided we should have a book recommendation thread. I know that there's one in the Book Review forum, but it takes too much effort to submit something to it. In this thread post any books or authors that you've enjoyed reading and give us a reason to pursue it as well!

I'll go first

1.) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: This book radically changed my writing style and my outlook on life. It is a spectacular story about love and war and hope and forgiveness.

2.) Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut: Fun, witty, poignant, and emotional. Mr. Vonnegut is rude and harsh in voice and style, but he can deliver a idea like no one else can.

3.) Bless the Beasts and Children by Glendon Swarthout: It's only 170 pages long, but Mr. Swarthout wastes none of them. This is an incredible psychological piece, sort of contradicting Lord of the Flies in claiming that when you put a group of boys together they can accomplish great things, instead of destroying each other.

-Kylan

The Rum Diary
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Great Shark Hunt...

Well, pretty much anything by Hunter S. Thompson's a good read...

The Woman in White is by Wilkie Collins. It was written in the 1800s, but it's probably one of the best thrillers I've ever read. Well... I haven't quite finished it yet, but I'm getting there. It's way too good to put down. I'd recommend it to everyone who likes thrillers.

-Jared

Trainspotting and Glue, by Irvine Welsh.

The Time of the Hero (La Ciudad y los Perros), by Mario Vargas Llosa.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was the very first book to EVER inspire a physical reaction from me--and not nausea. As I read the ending, I felt physical chills run up my spine. Not just little shivers--real shuddering chills from somewhere deep in the core of my being. No novel has ever impacted me in such a way before. I'd recommend it to anyone, but don't skip ahead to the ending (even though it is the most awesome part of the entire book); read the whole thing, and when you get to the ending the impact will be a hundred times more intense.

Bickazer wrote:One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was the very first book to EVER inspire a physical reaction from me--and not nausea. As I read the ending, I felt physical chills run up my spine.

That is definately the way to tell you are experiencing something special. It happened to me with movies and the books I mentioned. I can like a book, but when I get that chill it definately means I love it.

Just Listen by Sara Dessen. First romance novel that I read that I didn't cringe at. It actually felt realistic, and it was beautifully written. It wove music and prose together beautifully. It really got me thinking about how music influences the way people write. It was just pure awesomeness. Her other books The Truth about Forever and This Lullaby were just as beautiful, always weaving music in with the lives of her characters.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. So creepy. That was the first book that I got extremley freaked out while reading it, but still was beautiful. My eyes started watering because I got so freaked out. The way she wrote was just mesmerizing and although the subject was dark, I couldn't help loving it. It was so amazing. It has definitley influenced my writing style. The rest of the series was just as dark and interesting Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing . Also the last one I mentioned opened up with this beautiful poem by W.B. Yeats called The Sweet Far Thing. The books were just so haunting and interesting that they definitley stayed with me long after I closed the last book.

Everything is Illuminated & Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Johnathan Safran Foer -- these are absolutely beautiful, and avant garde in the way that they're unusual, but not inaccessible.

Haroun & the Sea of Stories / The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie -- Rushdie is a genius, period.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz -- I love this book for its language. It's written in this great voice, mixed in with a patois of Spanish/Japanese/Arabic/general multicultural America.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel -- This book really spoke to me as a religion nerd, and it's just a good survival story to boot.

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs -- Terrible, and terribly funny.

The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar (trans Darbandi, Davis) -- I'm pretty sure this would be amazing even if you hate poetry and don't care about Sufi Islam. It's beautiful, and the translation is amazing.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami -- This is so long, but so, so good.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides -- I think the first book that I've read in "we" voice, and also insanely good.

Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer

Best Foot Forward by Joan Bauer

I can't think of any more.

I thought of a couple of other books: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (my favorite austen book ever!)

Anything BY Terry Pratchet

13 and ½ lives of captain bluebear by walter moers

The Bartimeus trilogy

the septimus heap trilogy

The best mystery I have ever read is And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It was amazing! I never knew who was the murderer until the very last page. It was creepy, thought, but it was so good. Agatha Christie is one of the best mystery writers of all time.

I agree with Anzius! Terry Pratchett is a genious, and worth every minute spent reading one of his books.

13½ lives of Captain Bluebear is also a hillarious book that I enjoyed very much. Definitely worth the time.


Now for my own choice(s)!

"Misery" by Stephen King. The horrors which the main character experiences are masterfully described, and you can almost feel his pain.

"Artemis Fowl", by Eoin Colfer. Not the book, but the series. Artemis fowl (second book, I think) is one of only three books that has had be laughing so hard that I had to stop reading, and skip a small portion of the page (every time I tried reading the passage I started laughing again).

I'm afraid I haven't read any particularly exciting books lately (at least not any that most people haven't already read)

Aside from all the greats (Lord of the Rings goes without saying, fantastic voice, narration...), there are a few others that I recommend.

Saturday, by Ian McEwan. Brilliant book. The entire book is a single day, about a normal Londoner. You learn about how normal yet interesting he is. Some great plot devices are explored. We see literary geniuses, terrorists and all the jazz. The description is breath-taking.

The Hobbit, by Tolkien is a great read. Silly hobbits and dwarves

I second Artemis Fowl series and The Hobbit! Great books!