Read any good books lately?

Hey so I am in college and I have one final today and then one tomorrow and then I am DONE!  I am planning on going to the beach, traveling, doing lots of things this summer (including summer school, but that doesnt start for a couple of months).  I realized that I haven't read a book for pleasure in a looong time - and I love to read!  I just haven't had time.  So I have decided on going to the library with a list in hand of books to check out...anyone have any suggestions?  My favorite authors currently are David Sedaris, A.M. Homes, David Rakoff.  I am open to reading anything.  Just wondering if anyone has some suggestions!

Don't know any of those authors, i'm sorry, what genre are they? I tend to read anything I can cheap at the charity shop (almost never buy books new).

At the moment I just finished "Notes on a Scandal" (which was released earlier in the year as a movie - don't remember the author) which I really enjoyed, and is ambigious enough to credit the reader with the intelligence to think about what is going on, without explicitly making everything completely obvious (which the movie does a little too much).

Also a big fan at the moment of the "no 1 ladies detective agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith. Only discovered them last year, but really enjoying the quiet simplicity of the stories. Set in Botswana, and really quite cool. If you are borrowing from the library definately worth a look.

Also "state of fear" by Michael Chrichton, not sure how i feel about his overall stance on global warming, but it is a bit of a page turner, and if you read it with a bit of intelligence might be worth a read.  (actually at home recently read quite a few of his books because my mum only had mills and boons and they were the only other thing available, and you have to give the guy credit for his imagination, and ability to turn a novel into quite an effective anti-technology platform)

hope this helps and enjoy your reading

I just got done reading Running with Scissors.  That was a hilarious book!  I have also read (don't laugh) Memoirs of a Geisha and it's awesome.  It's MUCH better than the movie (and I love the movie too and saw it BEFORE reading the book...that says a lot).  Let's see...my mother just got done reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodie Picoult.  She said it was great and she read it in just 2 days.  She's a busy woman so that says a lot.

Have a great summer.  Geez, I have to teach for another month and a half until I get vacation (I'm a high school English teacher).

I dunno if you've ever heard of Peter Abrahams, but he is an AMAZING author... If you've never read any of his books, you should definately pick up at least one of them over the Summer... I would personally recommend "A Perfect Crime" or "Crying Wolf"... "Lights Out" was pretty good as well...

I'm sure you've heard of Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code)... His other books, "Deception Point" and "Digital Fortress," are definately just as good if not better than 'Da Code'...

And if you think you might like some science fictiony sort of stuff... Dean Koontz is a fabulous read as well... I just finished "Odd Thomas" and started reading "Forever Odd" (The Sequel)... Can't wait to get to "Brother Odd!!"

Have fun over the Summer... Hope you enjoy your books! :)

Great books to read are The Girls, its a great story about sisters and women. 

The Devil in the White City is one of the best books I have read this year.  Its a true story but it reads like a novel.

I just read Valley of the Dolls which is really good. 

A Primates Memoir, its wonderful!  Its a true story about a man living among baboons in the african savannah.

You won't be dissapointed

I was disappointed with My Sister's Keeper. I thought the ending was way too pat and predictable. Maybe that's just me.

If you like science fiction at all, my boyfriend and I just read the Company novels by Kage Baker.  Very good.  They're about a company in the year 23-something that figures out time travel and immortality.  The problem is that 1) time travel only works one way - into the past and 2) immortality only works on certain people, and only when they are very young.  So what they do is "recruit" orphans and make them immortal, then send them back in time (way, way back) to collect priceless artifacts.  The immortals have to just live through the intervening years (no jumping ahead), so they actually live through the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, etc, never dying, storing up all this stuff that the company will then sell to the highest bidder when it finally comes into existence in 23-whatever.

Very, very good story/stories. 

The Company sounds like something I would read and really enjoy... lol This thread'll give me something to read over the Summer, too!

hybrids05 - If you want to read them, do a search for the titles.  I forgot the names of the individual books, but collectively they're called The Company Novels, or novels of the Company.   I would highly recommend them!

A few weeks ago, I finished Marylin Manson's biography.  It was written in 1998, so its not up to date, but it was a truly amazing read.

You do get an in dept view of what his life has been like, what he has gone through, what he has done and what has inspired his music.

There are alot of adult content in the book. 

While you may not agree with his music, or have seen him only the way the media has portrayed him, his book was still a good read.  He has a very good way with words and manages to really get you into the stories.

Not sure what genre your looking for, but for the type of novels I read usually...

Try Gregg Loomis' novels (start with the Pegasus secret) kinda like Dan Brown's novels. And on that subject, read Angels & Demons by Brown, pretty predictable, I thought, but still a good read. (wayyy better than the divinci code, which I read after and was very disapointed with)

If you like romance read Julie Garwood, especially her new stuff. I'm a sucker for romance novels!

For fantasy, I love Terri Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. 

Anything by Gregg Hurwitz or Robert Crais and you can't go wrong. Fabulous thrillers...quick page turners that never fail to satisfy.

Just finished The Onion Girl, by DeLint.  I didn't think it was as good as some of his other books.  He incorporates an alternate world in his fantasy.   This book was too long, as if he'd filled it in to make it longer and therefore more saleable.

I'm starting Shape Shifter, by Tony Hillerman.  Does anybody else like his books?  He writes detective stories set in Navaho country.

OH!  and salas - I have Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult here, waiting to be read.

lb0802, I love science fiction, especially the old classic stuff.

i think u should read the books

it happend to nacy and annies babby there real diarys of teens and wat happend in there life and it really makes u think

I just finished "Little Children" and it's fantastic. I bought "The Kite Runner" but it's really hard for me to get into.

Mmm. I'm such a bookworm.  I just finished the first two of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and enjoyed them very much.  I also strongly reccomend Lolly Winston's Good Grief, about a young woman who's husband just died, and it's funny! It sounds strange, but it really is hilarious, and worthwhile.

Right now I'm reading Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy- absolutely marvelous- I can't put it down!

I've been hooked on the Wheel of Time series now for a long time. Damn addicting fantasy books. But I also love books such as the Pursuit of Happyness, which is a very inspirational book on just so many levels it's unbelievable. I know it's a movie, but I got it before the movie came out.

The book is far better than the movie, at any rate.

the memory keepers daughter
the glass castle
the abortionists daughter
shopoholic series
marian keyes books

I suggest the New Wilderness series by Brian S. Matthews.  Those books aren't published by one the bigger publishing houses so I sort of doubt they'll be found in the library, but they are well worth buying in my opinion.  It's a trilogy but so far only books 1 and 2 are available.  The website says the final book is "coming soon" so I'm patiently waiting.  You can read the first 3 chapters online here and I recommend it because the book description really doesn't do it justice.   I do believe there's a sample of the 2nd book too. 

1. Fountainhead-Ayn Rand ,  Atlas shrugged- Ayn Rand

2. The Physician- Thomas Gordon

3. An american Tragedy- Theodre Dreisser

4. The Yom Kippur War