Becky's Official Summer Reading Recommendation and Book Discussion Thread!

I recently finished reading Dr. No, which was very good, and had a nice, semi-twist ending. I'm currently halfway through Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis. It's pretty good so far, with nice commentary on humanity.
 
Just now I'm reading Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. It's surprisingly good summer reading. Well...so far. Last time I tried it I enjoyed it immensely until I hit Waterloo. Lets just say it has it's problem sections. Putting those aside, it meanders along nicely for a lazy summers day, all the while building rich characters and a very interesting plot. But it's very hard to put those aside...

I'm balancing it out with a little Twilight. First time, too. It's not as bad as I expected, and the story is interesting enough, but there are some horrible lines in it. Bella, nervous about her first day of school actually says to her self "Nobody was going to bite me". *headdesk* Apart from the occasional truly awful line like that, I've enjoyed it so far. The absurd sexualisation of Edward is a bit overpowering, but I suppose that's the intended effect. I'm not far enough to pass any real judgement on it yet though.

Other books I'd recommend for summer reading would have to include Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan series. The ones that Bones was (loosely) based off. They are very different from the program, but I prefer the books Tempe. And she always drinks Diet Coke. I just like that.

I also loved Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. Very nice books that you can just sit and read. And read. And read. At first they seem to be your standard fantasy fare, but David Eddings has created a deeply interesting world, and I loved the Tolkien-esque scope of history that the Sorcerers live through. Those two books actually helped me through a really rough time - they deal with huge themes like Death and Fate in such a way that you come away understanding them much better without feeling preached to. But to read them you have to have read The Belgariad, a series of novels that I'd also recommend, even if they don't quite match the standard of the prequel novels.

But now I've prattled on for far too long, and I'll let you get back to your books.
 
wickedtiger86
wickedtiger86
haha. Les Mis does have a couple strange inserts. Plot . . plot . . .history lesson . . plot. It is really good though.
Flannen
Flannen
'Les Mis' is on my 'Books I Have To Read' list. And yes, it's a real list! :p
I think I'm going to try read Talking Head by Alan Bennett. Its a collection of Dramatic monologues,we studied one English and I really enjoyed them. Each ones only 4/5 pages long.
I finished reading "The perks of being a wallflower" some time ago and it was brilliant.
I used to gobble up books, now I can't seem to concentrate long enough or find one that's gripping.
Oh I really,really suggest for any fantasy book type lovers the Age of Five trilogy by Trudi Canavan.
Oh and The Stand,Green Mile and IT Stephen King.
His Dark Materials----Philip Pullman
Girl Interrupted----Susanna Keyson
Girl Friend in a Comma---Douglas Coupland
Dark Spectre----Michael Dibdin
LOTR's
The Hobbit
RedWall----Brian Jacques
Red Dragon----Thomas Harris
Shadows of the Workhouse---Jennifer Worth
Angelas Ashes----Frank McCourt
In her Shoes-cheese chick book but I loved it
Veronkia decides to Die--Paulo Coelho
Devil Wears Prada.

Those are all the ones of the top of my head I suggest people read.
Oh I miss reading,I used to go through a book a week.
I should try start again.
 
H
hazzard
girl interrupted, his dark materials, and redwall karma!
I just finished "Less than Zero." by Bret Easton Ellis. Delightfully disturbing and self-indulgent, "A Catcher in the Rye for the MTV generation."
 
If you haven't read Death's Daughter by Amber Benson yet, you totally should. It's amazing.

And of course, Harry Potter, and the Sookie Stackhouse books are amazing.
 
Okay other I must add are:

The Day of the Triffids-John Wyndham
Forget you had a daughter-Sandra Gregory
Centennial-James A Michener
Clan of the Cave Bear (only the first book)
 
M
Miss Universe
The Day of the Triffids is a great book.
B
Blondie Bear
The Cave Bear books do get rather ponderous the further in you go.
wickedtiger86
wickedtiger86
Clan was good. The books after that, the author made her character responsible for every great invention of the stone age so it lost bit of believablity.
A book I'd recommend for you guys to check out is "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. It's set during WWII and narrated by Death. So it may not be your cup of tea, but I loved it.
 
H
hazzard
i agree. i loved it too.
Mumrik
Mumrik
Oh, that's still sitting on my shelf. Might read it after I've finished my current one.
Mr. Pointy
Mr. Pointy
Excellent book
wickedtiger86 agrees: Clan was good. The books after that, the author made her character responsible for every great invention of the stone age so it lost bit of believablity.
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Except SOAP! 😀 And Ayla was just too perfect. I can't think of a single real flaw, except maybe pride, but considering what she managed to accomplish, of COURSE she's proud!
 
Sweetescape
Sweetescape
Yes she was practically perfect in every way!...The bitch!
wickedtiger86 said:
A book I'd recommend for you guys to check out is "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. It's set during WWII and narrated by Death. So it may not be your cup of tea, but I loved it.
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my dad gave me this for my birthday last year and i loved it. i definitely recommend it too. it's really really good.

i just finished toni morrison's new one "a mercy" that's supposed to be a prequel of sorts to "beloved." it wasn't as good as "beloved," but still good.
i am going to read ford's "independence day" next (because sara quin from tegan and sara says it's one of her favourite books haha). and then i plan on moving to "atlas shrugged" by ayn rand. i also usually re-read all seven harry potters every summer--i'm not sure i'll have time this summer but i definitely want to re-read the half-blood prince before the movie comes out in july.
 
Sue Townsend-The secret Diary of Adrian Mole. (The whole collection,but it does get abit iffy with the newest ones)
 
Mr. Pointy
Mr. Pointy
Mole rep...tho' I thought the last one was particularly moving
Rereading The Warlord Chronicles, by Bernard Cornwell, one of the very best of the Arthurian sagas I've read.

No magic or fantasy, despite the anachronistic Merlin and Lancelot, just Arthur as he may have been.
 
Mr. Pointy
Mr. Pointy
Excellent series...Mrs P and I loved it
The boxed set of paperback Harry Potter comes out in July, if I recall correctly, and I plan to buy it as soon as I can afford to and read all of them. I was reading them as they came out--my sister-in-law is a HP freak and I borrowed them from her--but then I sort of fell out of the habit around the 4th book. So I have a lot of catching up to do!
 
Lindsey McDonald said:
I'm balancing it out with a little Twilight. First time, too. It's not as bad as I expected, and the story is interesting enough, but there are some horrible lines in it. Bella, nervous about her first day of school actually says to her self "Nobody was going to bite me". *headdesk* Apart from the occasional truly awful line like that, I've enjoyed it so far. The absurd sexualisation of Edward is a bit overpowering, but I suppose that's the intended effect. I'm not far enough to pass any real judgement on it yet though.

Other books I'd recommend for summer reading would have to include Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan series. The ones that Bones was (loosely) based off. They are very different from the program, but I prefer the books Tempe. And she always drinks Diet Coke. I just like that.

I also loved Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. Very nice books that you can just sit and read. And read. And read. At first they seem to be your standard fantasy fare, but David Eddings has created a deeply interesting world, and I loved the Tolkien-esque scope of history that the Sorcerers live through. Those two books actually helped me through a really rough time - they deal with huge themes like Death and Fate in such a way that you come away understanding them much better without feeling preached to. But to read them you have to have read The Belgariad, a series of novels that I'd also recommend, even if they don't quite match the standard of the prequel novels.
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I think you stole my library! 😛 All great books, but especially the David Eddings books, I am currently re-reading the whole series, well I am on Polgara the Sorceress again now, so only a few pages left. I have read these books so many times I have lost count, and I always enjoy them.

I did also slip book 8 of the Sookie Stackhouse series 'From Dead to Worse' inbetween, but those books just aren't long enough for my liking, they are over too quickly 'lol' At least I still have book 9, 'Dead and Gone' to read. 😀

I've also got to agree, that whilst I love Bones, I much prefer Tempe from the books, there are a few similarities but not many at all. I used to read alot of Patricia Cornwell but haven't thought much of her last few books, they just didn't hold my attention like her earlier ones.

I've read all of the Twilight series and I really enjoyed that too, great for escapism. 🙂
 
Tony Parsons' books are fantastic. Especially Man and Boy and Man and Wife, which have the same characters in.

I adore Ian McEwan's books and his style of writing and Angela Carter's use of language astounds me.

But I'm a classics lover. Not a great fan of contemporary books. I'm all about the oldies! 😀
 
At the moment I'm reading Eveything's Eventual by Stephen King. It's made up of about 14 short stories and I love the ones I've read so far.

I also love Stephen King's The Green Mile 🙂
 
Sweetescape
Sweetescape
Green Mile Karma
Mumrik
Mumrik
Stephen King Karma. Great writer.
The Withc's bird

It's a book in about 100 pages, but it's cool. Ghosts, evil witch, bigass scary bird
 
I stopped halfway through my Mercedes Lackey marathon to go on an Anne McCaffrey marathon, so I'm reading Dragonsdawn right now.
 
Started reading the Buffy novels and intend on reading them all. So far I have read "The Harvest" which was a good translation of the first few episodes of Buffy however I would have prefered if the author told the reader more about the thoughts and feelings of the characters. The next one I read was "Halloween Rain" which is my second favourite one so far because the storyline was original and the characters were actually like they were in the show unlike "Night Of the Living Rerun" which was just a load of stuff about the salem witch trials. The only good part is where Xander is possesed by a girl. "Coyote Moon" was good, however the storyline was not particularly engaging and some of the characters acted out of character. "How I survived my summer vacation" is what I am reading currently and is definatlely my favourite so far because of a couple of reasons. It tells the story of what happens to the main characters in between seasons 1 and 2. It is a series of short stories about the Scoobies and the engaging plot keeps you wanting to read on.
I also reccomend the "Buffy Omnibus" series which picks some of the best comics from the original series in chronological order starting with before and early season 1.
Started reading Angel: After the fall. I have only read the first 5 issues and so far its okay. Not a patch on Buffy season 8 however it is quite good.
So in conclusion the only things I will be reading this summer is located in the Buffyverse. However I may check out some of the things that have been mentioned above.
 
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