Saturday, February 7, 2009

Gimme Books!


Ok guys, so my main New Year's Resolution was to read at least 2 books a month. So far, so good!

There are several books on our bookshelf that I haven't read, but I'd also like to hear about some books you guys just love! I will read just about anything, aside from anything Harry Potter or Twilight involved. Just not my style :D

So leave a comment & tell me the books you adore & give me some suggestions for my read-a-thon!



p.s. I will have some crafts to show off soon!

15 comments:

beefranck said...

Ok ok ok, where to start...

The Toy Collector by James Gunn of Troma fame.

Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood by Jennifer Traig - she's grown up into a crafty lady, and her autobiography is hilarious and heartbreaking.

Innocence by Jane Mendelsohn - just weird.

Some of my personal faves:

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

Foop! by Chris Genoa

Death Rat! by Mike Nelson - weird, but funny.

John Swartzwelder's books - you can only get them on amazon or ebay. He wrote some of the funniest episodes of The Simpsons (when it was good) and his books are short, but hilarious.

anything by David Sedaris

Ray Bradbury's short stories

I hope some of these are interesting to you! I really need to set aside more time for reading myself. Right now it's only about 15 minutes a day before I fall asleep. :)

Rachel said...

Thanks for the suggestions, Bridget! I knew you wouldn't let me down :)

Anonymous said...

I *love* to read, mostly fiction, tho I throw some nonfiction in every so often. I'll throw out some of my favorites from different genres. I like series, which is pretty obvious by my choices listed below ;-).

Laugh Outloud Funny: The Stephanie Plum series, by Janet Evanovich

Time Travel: The Outlander series, by Diana Gabaldon

Crime/Suspense: Tie between the Lincoln Rhyme series, by James Patterson (I think), and the Myron Bolitar series, by Harlan Coben

Young Adult (vastly underrated by most adults, in my opinon): The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, and The Golden Compass trilogy, by Philip Pullman.

My nonfiction reads are all over the place subject-wise. The one I've enjoyed most so far in 2009 is See You In A Hundred Years, by Logan Ward.

Bliss said...

I'm reading the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. It's the book series True Blood was based on. I have really enjoyed the first two.

I also read "The Garden" which is Eve's take on the Garden of Eden. It's kind of a lower reading level, but an interesting feminist take on a classic story.

Enjoy your reading! I've been reading more and it is SO relaxing!

TiLT said...

Glenda - so with you on the Evanovich & Coben!

You said no Twiglight...but if other supernatural or kick a$& chick books are for you...

then anything by Laurell Hamilton, Kelley Armstrong, Carrie Vaugh, Yasmine Galenorm, Kim Harrison...I could go on & on.

Chick lit humor: Laurie Notaro rocks! I can't read her without laughing.

classy broad said...

* use me -- elissa schappell
* the hottest state - ethan hawke
* the diplomat's wife - pam jenoff
* after you'd gone - maggie o'farrell
* dirty job -- christopher moore
* the good people of new york - thisbe nissen


i also agree about david sedaris & laurie notaro, and would like to add nick hornby!

*xo...

*xo...

Anonymous said...

Well, what haven't you read? I guess you read less NZ fiction. Some of the best books to come out of this country in the last year or so are (imho) include:

"Two Little Boys" by Duncan Sarkies (he made the film "Scarfies", which you got as "Crime 101", and if you haven't seen, I highly recommend). Tale of friendship between two very immature young men.

"The Crocus Hour" by Charlotte Randall. Story about a father's search for his missing daughter. Very good.

Short stories! "Forbidden Cities", Paula Morris, "Is She Still Alive", Tessa Duder (excellent), "Etiquette for a Dinner Party", Sue Orr (also excellent). Also: "Fish of the Week" by Steve Braunais. It's a collection of columns written for the Sunday paper, but there's not too much local politics at all -- mainly rants about steak. And of all my picks, it's the one that feels the most local, and is probably my favorite.

Lily said...

I second The Hottest State by Ethan Hawke! It's one of my favorite books ever.

Queen by Alex Haley - it's the sequel to Roots and it's really long but SO worth it! It's amazing.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - it's a little hard to get used to the ebonics at first but once you do it's incredible.

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King, or any of his collections of short stories, or The Stand.

Maus by Art Spiegelman - it's a graphic novel about the author's father's experience in the Holocaust. All the jews are mice, the nazis are cats, french people are frogs, and so on.

His Dark Material by Philip Pullman is awesome but if you don't like fantasy you probably won't like it. Although it is pretty cool to read a story where the religious people are the bad guys and there's gay angels and shit.

I'm reading the first Dexter book right now and it's radical. I like the show a lot more but it's cool to get into his head a little more.

And I know you said you don't like Twilight, but Stephenie Meyer wrote another book called The Host that's fantastic. It's a sci-fi romance which sounds weird but I thought it worked. It's an adult novel, too, so there's no teenage aliens or anything.

torrance said...

Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, I've read it about a dozen times.

The Beauty Myth bu Naomi Wolf

Rachel said...

Thanks guys! I'm surprised I haven't heard of a lot of these books! Keep em coming :)

Brook said...

Laurie Notaro pretty much is my soul mate... She writes just how I think... She is hilarious and I catch myself cracking up every time I read her books. Here are my fav books

Geisha/ Asian books
"Memiors of a geisha" (of course)

"Snow flower and the secret fan"

"Tea house fire"

All Amy Tan books

Some of my fav fav fav are
"The kite runner" if you watched the movie then read "A thousand splendid suns"

Also The secret Life of Bees (its also a movie now)

Water for elephants

I also like the Jennifer Wiener books

Right now I am reading "The pillars of the earth" and it is really good so far... its a huge ass book though

Rachel said...

Ohhh I LOVED Memoirs of a Geisha..but I thought the movie was terrible. I tend to not like the movie versions of books too much. Torrance, Naomi Wolf is fucking amazing & I've read several of her books. But I dunno if I could fit 2 books in a month if one of them was Pride & Prejudice (which is another one that I loved, but CHRIST it's long!)

bee listy said...

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marsha Pessl
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno

:)

Chrisy said...

Love the pic at top of post! My fav author is Robert Dessaix...so anything by him...

Loca4crafts said...

I totally agree about Memoirs of a Geisha. Loved the book; hated the movie.Here are some suggestions from my recent reading:

The Witch of Portobello by Paolo Coehlo

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

My sister loves all Jodi Picoult books. I will be reading my first one soon.

Some of my old favorites:

In the Name of the Father by Gerry Conlon (Non-fiction)

And I love Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Anne Rice

Hope that's helpful :)
Lisa