Latest Lists - Good books to read?

Good books to read?

Hi - I'm an avid reader and have recently been stuck in a rut, reading the same books that I have, over and over. I'm actually rather sick of my material now. Does anyone know any really good books that I could check out? I'm into classics, books that have some type of historical reference to them, but could still be considered fiction, autobiographies; basically, books that have substance to them. Really, any suggestions would be helpful though - please, none from Oprah's book club! I have read a few on her list and have yet to find that I like the same type of reading material she apparently does. Thanks.

Public Comments

Cry the Beloved Country love it. Apartheid in South Africa The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd similar to To Kill a Monkingbird-- Civil Rights issues. East of Eden by John Steinbeck - early 20's in U.S. early farming communities of California All will have historical backgrounds, or significance to history. All are fiction and fabulous reads. I agree with you on some of Oprah's picks.
I just had an occasion to be discussing good books with a pen pal the other day, and asked if he'd read a piece called Dr. Rat by William Kotzwinkle. Do you know of it? It's a really cool piece of work by a fantasist that is a disguised social commentary. It is one of my all time favorites, very entertaining with real substance. You might try to find it in your library, as I think it's well worth the time. There is a series of books about the Holocaust that not everyone is familiar with: the author is Aaron Appelfeld. These are short, almost meditative works that I found to be heartfelt and very soulful. There is also a man by the name of J.G. Ballard that writes intensely out-of-this-world stuff that I used to collect when I lived in the big city. The Crystal World was one I remember with great fondness. For good psychological mysteries, do you know Ruth Rendell? Patricia Highsmith, and Cornell Woolrich? Cormac MacCarthy is high on my list of favorites. I could go on, but don't know if any of this might appeal to you at all or not. Best of luck finding something that grabs your attention!
I just finished "Kindred" by Octavia E. Butler and it was actually quite good. "Einstein's Dreams" by Alan Lightman Explores the different concepts of time in very unique ways. If you have not gotten into Kurt Vonnegut yet, I would suggest "Cat's Cradle." "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold is really grand (it's somewhat of a modern Walden). oh and if you are looking for a great nonfiction, I would suggest "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. ... many more where that came from HAPPY READINGS!!!
I actually just finished a great book!!! It's titled "Illuminated" by Matt Bronleewe. It's fiction, but is resourced from some actual history of the Gutenberg bible. It's about an archeobibliologist who is basically cornered and told that his family will be killed unless he can interpret hidden meanings in the illuminations of the Gutenberg Bible leading to some massive treasure. I know it kinda sounds cheesy the way I put it, but I was really impressed by the way it was written and the pace of the story. It's neat because the author just kinda dives right into the story and then you get caught up in it pretty quick. I highly recommend it. And trust me, there is plenty of substance, at first, I thought it was going to be some written imitation of National Treasure or the DaVinci Code, but it was different than that, better actually.
"The Prize" by Daniel Yergin "Chaos" by James Gleick Sun Pin's: "The Art of Warfare" - Sun Tzu "On Man in The Universe" by Aristotle "The Amazing Secrets of the Masters of the Far East" by Robert Collier "Brain Droppings" George Carlin
I just finished a gr8 book. Memoirs of a geisha. Now a days Im trying to read from a list of top 200 books. I'm sure you'll wonder If i put all the 200 books. So here Im posting only top 100. If you want to get the next 100 lemme know. Happy reading... I don't remember the site from which I got the list. 1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien 2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman 4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams 5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling 6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee 7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne 8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell 9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis 10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë 11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller 12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë 13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks 14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier 15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger 16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame 17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott 19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres 20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy 21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell 22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling 23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling 24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling 25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien 26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy 27. Middlemarch, George Eliot 28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving 29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck 30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll 31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson 32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez 33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett 34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens 35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl 36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson 37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute 38. Persuasion, Jane Austen 39. Dune, Frank Herbert 40. Emma, Jane Austen 41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery 42. Watership Down, Richard Adams 43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald 44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas 45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh 46. Animal Farm, George Orwell 47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy 49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian 50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher 51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett 52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck 53. The Stand, Stephen King 54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy 55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth 56. The BFG, Roald Dahl 57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome 58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell 59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer 60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky 61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman 62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden 63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens 64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough 65. Mort, Terry Pratchett 66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton 67. The Magus, John Fowles 68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett 70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding 71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind 72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell 73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett 74. Matilda, Roald Dahl 75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding 76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt 77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins 78. Ulysses, James Joyce 79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens 80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson 81. The Twits, Roald Dahl 82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith 83. Holes, Louis Sachar 84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake 85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy 86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson 87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley 88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons 89. Magician, Raymond E Feist 90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac 91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo 92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel 93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett 94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho 95. Katherine, Anya Seton 96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer 97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez 98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson 99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot 100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
check out this site for some great mystery referals (so to speak)
To fit your criteria I would suggest Phillip Pullman's Sally Lockhart quartet. It starts with The Ruby in the Smoke, then The Shadow in the North, The Tiger in the Well, and The Tin Princess. The Tiger in the Well would have to be my favourite, but they are in chronological order so start at the beginning. They are set in about the 1800s (from what I can remember) and encompass a lot of what was happening in the UK at that time. The first three follow the life of a sixteen year old girl called Sally Lockhart, but the fourth one only features her once. They take place over about ten years. I haven't read them for ages (I think I'll read them again now) but I remember being absolutely captivated. I hope they're what I remember! For something completely different but equally as good you could go for Wilbur Smith, my two favourites of his are River God and Blue Horizon, or Bryce Courtney. Good luck!
Ok, checked the "100 best" list and here's a few that aren't on it, but could be if better known: "West with the Night," Beryl Markham; Hemingway's favorite non-fiction book. "The Long Walk," Slavomir Rawicz. "The True Story of the Bilderberg Group," Daniel Estulin. "Hidden Camera," Zoran Zivkovic. "The Master of Lucid Dreams," Dr. Olga Kharitidi. "The Masters and Their Retreats," Mark Prophet. "Expecting Adam," Martha Beck. "Essence of Aikido," Morihei Ueshiba. "The Great Divorce," C. S. Lewis. "The Neverending Story," Michael Ende. "Men in White Apparel," Ann Ree Colton. "Red Cocaine," Dr. Joseph Douglass. "Autobiography of a Yogi," Paramahansa Yogananda. "Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer," Yvonne von Fettweis. "The Life of Thomas More," Peter Ackroyd. "Autumn of the Middle Ages," Huizinga. "From Dawn to Decadence," Jacques Barzun. "Freakonomics," Levitt. "The Beautiful Story of a Master," Louise-Marie Frenette. "And There Was Light," Jacques Lusseyran. "To Live Within," Lizelle Reymond.
Try- "the last days of Pompeii" - Lord Lytton (though i doubt You'll find it) Great book! "Tale of two cities" - Charles dickens. Personally, Try Paulo Colelho's - "The alchemist".
a thousand splendid suns - khalid hosseini kite runner - khalid hosseini bridge to terabithia. anne frank's diary