Do you have any GOOD books to recommend please?

Epic Username

So basically, I'm sick of going to the library and picking out books only for them to be a total disappointment. To give you an idea of the kind of books I find amazing, here are a few that had me engrossed until the very end:
♦ The Godfather (Reallly amazing)
♦ The Time Traveler's Wife
♦ A Thousand Splendid Suns (Same author as The Kite Runner)
♦ The Green Mile
♦ Any Malorie Blackman book
♦ The Green Mile
♦ The Da Vinci Code

To give you an idea of what I might like, I'm a sixteen year old girl and I don't like any of the twilight, vampire kind of stuff or any of those dark teenage series books. I found the Godfather really fantastic, so I suppose I like the classics. I just want to go to the library and get a good book I'll like and remember, not one I'll get bored of after two chapters.

Any recommendations? Thank you

Mardy Bum

I think you would like Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. Its a book set in Dublin during the Celtic tiger predominantly about teenagers. Its a very powerful book.

Tin Foil Hat

Epic Username wrote: »

So basically, I'm sick of going to the library and picking out books only for them to be a total disappointment. To give you an idea of the kind of books I find amazing, here are a few that had me engrossed until the very end:
♦ The Godfather (Reallly amazing)
♦ The Time Traveler's Wife
♦ A Thousand Splendid Suns (Same author as The Kite Runner)
♦ The Green Mile
♦ Any Malorie Blackman book
♦ The Green Mile
♦ The Da Vinci Code

To give you an idea of what I might like, I'm a sixteen year old girl and I don't like any of the twilight, vampire kind of stuff or any of those dark teenage series books. I found the Godfather really fantastic, so I suppose I like the classics. I just want to go to the library and get a good book I'll like and remember, not one I'll get bored of after two chapters.

Any recommendations? Thank you

If you liked The Godfather you should have a look at The Last Don. I really enjoyed it first time around.

x_Ellie_x

Since you liked The Godfather I'd recommend John Grisham's novels. Since you liked The Green Mile try some of Stephen King's other novels.

Some of my favourite books are:
P.S. I Love You - Cecelia Ahern
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Evans
The Beach - Alex Garland
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen
The Ice Cream Girls - Dorothy Koomson
To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn - Betty Smith
A Walk to Remember - Nicholas Sparks
Dear John - Nicholas Sparks
The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
In Her Shoes - Jennifer Weiner
The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
White Oleander - Janet Fitch
The Weight of Silence - Heather Gudenkauf

IvyTheTerrible

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, it's about the Biafran war. I think you'd like it if you liked A Thousand Splendid Suns.

robbie7171

Try "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, I've just finished it and its a terrific read

OakeyDokey

robbie7171 wrote: »

Try "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, I've just finished it and its a terrific read

Also enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

im invisible

Have you tried the Bible? It is *the* Good Book...


No, id like to recommend Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and a couple of his other books if you like that.

stoneill

The making of the atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes.

Excellent book!

Supermensch

+1 for Life of Pi.

The Cider House Rules and The World According to Garp, both by John Irving.
I know this much is True, by Wally Lamb.
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.
The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger.

If you want to read something less heavy, I highly recommend David Sedarais, either Me talk Pretty One Day or Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Both books have had me crying laughing :pac:

Hope O_o

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is a great read.

Paddy Samurai

Epic Username wrote: »

♦ The Godfather (Reallly amazing)

The Sicilian by Puzo is also worth reading

Nody

I'll go a slightly different route here:

Foucault's Pendulum (the original DaVinci Code; DaVinci is the simplified Americanized version basically) and The Name Of The Rose both by Eco Umberto.

Neither are the easiest read but I think you may like them if you give them time

GastroBoy

Try "In Cold Blood", by Truman Capote.

old hippy

Just finished Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian this morning. It's an apocalyptic western about scalpers and the lack of humanity during that era of American history. The language is startling, almost poetic (albeit dripping with gore) and it contains one of the most memorable "villains" I've read in literature; Judge Holden. I've heard this may be filmed, not sure how they will manage that but it's certainly a book that stays with you. Not the easiest of reads, mind.

Paddy Samurai

old hippy wrote: »

it contains one of the most memorable "villains" I've read in literature; Judge Holden.

Agreed..........................but IMO In the Rogue Blood is a better read overall.An added bonus is that the whole story revolves around a true event.

Viva san patricio´s

The only book bloodier than Blood Meridian. Early on I thought Blake was actually trying to outdo McCarthy in the body count, and maybe he was. But Blake is very much his own writer, and there's plenty of the "Old, Weird (and super violent) America" to go around. I read this a few years back, and it's set up is a bit like The Searchers, with two brothers going in search of a sister. But this isn't Hollywood. The Mexican War intrudes. A coming of age story for both, with an absolutely lethal landscape as a backdrop

FullblownRose

I like Audrey Niffeneger (sp), she wrote another one, Her fearful symmetry, quite different to time traveller's wife but worth reading. Carlos Ruiz Zafon's 'Shadow of the wind', Marina Lewycka's 'Short history of tractors in ukrainian', 'two caravans', 'we are all made of glue' are all fantastic. Kate Mosse's Languedoc series. John Boyne's 'Thief of Time'.

Marian Keyes is often underrated too.

Kate Furnivall's ' The Russian Concubine'

Neil Gaiman's 'Neverwhere'..

jcf

Life of PI - fantastic, since you like Stephen king , try It , it's an amazing read so deep and the character development is the best I've ever read,,,

Grievous

This recommendation is not just for that OP, but everyone else as well.

The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.


"All we talk about is Oscar".........................


"In the End, nothing ever ends"

Though that last quote is actually from Alan Moore's legendary Watchmen and used by Diaz to great effect in this Oscar Wao.

stoneill

Either Stalingrad or Berlin by Antony Beevor. Or Both!
I would recommend both books wholeheartedly, but his book on D-Day wasn't his best work.

Grievous

GastroBoy wrote: »

Try "In Cold Blood", by Truman Capote.

Or his beautiful novella "Breakfast At Tiffany's".

Seductive, witty and lucid. who wouldn't love Holly Golighty?

Grievous

jcf wrote: »

Life of PI - fantastic, since you like Stephen king , try It , it's an amazing read so deep and the character development is the best I've ever read,,,

Here's an actual still from Ang Lee's upcoming Life Of Pi movie.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-84zc6EzuXV4/T5fbNRw9zOI/AAAAAAAAABA/WWAyEpvf4Rc/s400/life-of-pi-film.jpg


It's funny though, the point of the novel being related to us by the unreliable Pi is if the story is true or not, fantasy or reality or something else altogether.

BelacquaBo

Read Proust's In Search of Lost Time (or Remembrance of Things Past - depends on translator) It is a massive collection of books - first four volumes is over a 1500 pages but I've never read anything more beautiful in my life

SpaceRocket

Because you like The Time Traveler's Wife (absorbing book!), I would recommend

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Atonement by Ian Mc Ewan
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Callan57

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

These are just a quick sample of books I loved and really enjoyed getting lost in ..... thankfully there are loads more, I could go on and on.
Whatever you choose, I wish you happy reading

BlueValkyrie

Another vote for The Life of Pi, and for Rebecca.

Also:

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides

Each of the above has to some extent a 'coming of age' theme, which I think would have really appealled to me at 16. I read (and was completely absorbed by) all of these in my 20's or early 30's though - I'm not picking 'teen fiction' or trying to pigeonhole you.

Also if you have never read them do have a look at:

1984 - George Orwell
East of Eden - John Steinbeck

Hope that helps - and thanks to the other posters - I've made some notes for myself to read

[-0-]

http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342401373&sr=8-1&keywords=surely+you%27re+joking+mr.+feynman

Ormus

BelacquaBo wrote: »

Read Proust's In Search of Lost Time (or Remembrance of Things Past - depends on translator) It is a massive collection of books - first four volumes is over a 1500 pages but I've never read anything more beautiful in my life

Haha hilarious recommendation!

Did you see the list of books the OP said that she had loved?

DazMarz

Frederick Forsyth - The Day Of The Jackal
Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park
Irvine Welsh - Crime
Dennis Lehane - Mystic River
Robert Harris - Fatherland
Dan Brown - The DaVinci Code
Stephen King - Cujo
Glenn Meade - Resurrection Day

paddymayoman

50 sheds of hay

Heres Your Future

under the skin by michel faber, trust me you'll never look at meat in the same way again after reading it. the book is currently being made into a movie i believe

mrsdewinter

I just finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and I'd definitely recommend it to an intelligent 16-year-old reader.
If you liked The Time Traveler's Wife, there's a chance that you like fantasy - and American Gods has it in spades.

Swiper the fox

Some very strange recommendations there for a sixteen year old girl, Anthony Beevor, Foucault, Proust!!!!

I would agree with THe Brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao, The Life of Pi, Atonement, all very good books and relevant to teenagers.
Vernon god Little is another, Star of the sea, The Grapes of Wrath is a classic that everyone should read at an early age.

old hippy

Anyone mentioned the Philip Pullman books yet?

Ormus

The Catcher in the Rye

tbh

another vote for the book thief, and for a good yarn, the pillars of the earth by Ken Follett.

musicnerd3

I can't remember the author right now, but I really liked Chasing Miracles. On the opposite spectrum I really like the books from Ellen DeGeneres and Chelsey Handler.

Ecarg

"Dissolution" and "Dark Fire" by C.J.Sansom are excellent reads, murder mystery based in tudor times, great characters and plots.
If you lioked the time traveller's wife you will enjoy Kate Morton's "The forgotten Garden" and Abraham Verghese's "Cutting for stone".

The game of Thrones series are thoroughly enjoyable if you want to try something a bit different.

fonkalei

I'll second suggestions like brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao, atonement, life of pi.

Another great book that I passed onto a friend and then she passed onto her teenage kids was Star of the Sea - Joseph O'Connor. Apparently they all loved it as much as I did.

Id also suggest classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies.

Unoriginal Choice3

I'll add another vote for life of pi, the book thief and cloud atlas, and the wonderous life of oscar wao.

I also really enjoyed 'never let me go' and the 'art of fielding', don't be put off by the baseball thing its a great book!

Voodoo_rasher

Eleni by Nicholas Gage. One must have a heart of stone not to be moved by this true life-story..

Anything by Michael Crichton will get one thinking.

Ormus

Voodoo_rasher wrote: »

Anything by Michael Crichton will get one thinking.

Seriously? 90% of his books are simple techno thrillers.

I have enjoyed him at times but he is about as deep as Dan Brown.

zyanya

I agree with Unoriginal. Never Let me Go was great.

Also, don't know if anyone has posted about this book already, but a couple months ago I read Purge by Sofi Oksanen and greatly enjoyed it. An old lady at the Estonia/Finland border finds a young lady in lamentable state laying on her front yard, and... that's just the beginning.

If you fancy thriller, you may want to "chase" a serial killer in Monaco, a killer who likes to call his favourite radio station and play songs that give hints about the people he's going to kill. Sounds appealing? Read I Kill, by Giorgio Faletti.

Flaker

Ecarg wrote: »

"Dissolution" and "Dark Fire" by C.J.Sansom are excellent reads, murder mystery based in tudor times, great characters and plots.
If you lioked the time traveller's wife you will enjoy Kate Morton's "The forgotten Garden" and Abraham Verghese's "Cutting for stone".

The game of Thrones series are thoroughly enjoyable if you want to try something a bit different.

Love all these books!

My recommendations would be;

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser - Dickensian style novel with amazing twists and turns. And it doesn't turn out how you'd expect it to....

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - Retelling of the Arthurian saga, really, really good. Again, goes in directions you wouldn't expect.

Lonesome Dove by Larry Mc Murtry - my favourite book EVER. It's a western (was my Dad's) but don't let that put you off. It's sad, funny, brutal and unexpected.

I read all these at about 16/17. They are all massive books but at that age I loved that! Big juicy reads I could really get my teeth into.....

zyanya

Another good one: title translation should be something like "swimming naked", by Carla Guelfenbein.