Recommend a book!

[jbravo_123]

Originally Posted by keith

jbravo, I liked those books especially Ender's Game. I am looking forward to the movie version of it this fall. I am thinking you probably like the same types of books I do so I would highly recommend Armor by John Steakley. It's a pretty thick book separated into two sections but man is it a fun read.

I'll have to pick that up - I've had Armor recommended to me many times from multiple sources now, so I think it'll be next on my list after I'm done with Children of the Mind.

Oddly, there doesn't seem to be an eReader version of it (at least on Amazon), so I may have to hit up Half Price or something.

Originally Posted by keith

And The Wheel of Time is probably the best sci-fi fantasy series ever in my opinion. If you like Star Wars I recommend The X-Wing Rogue Squadron series by Michael A. Stackpole or any of the series by Timothy Zahn (Heir to the Empire)

Rogue Squadron is so classic as is Heir to the Empire (which is cooincidentally actually on my bookshelf right now). Really brings me back to Jr. High & High School, heh.

Originally Posted by TSKrystiKakes

Most of my favorites are fantasy-fiction, my all time favorite is the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, I read these repeatedly, probably read the entire series over 50 times. I also have the audio versions on my mp3 player, I like to listen before bedtime or while falling asleep. Its way different from his other novels and really shows his range as an author, sad to see it over. I have also read the wheel of time series by Robert Jordan and agree with a lot of the comments post here already about it, lots of loose ends and long winded sections to stay focused on, especially near the end after Jordan passed away. If your into that type of writing, I can recommend the "Sword of Truth" series by Terry Goodkind, its amazing, and 12 installments and still going http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Truth

I really tried to like the Sword of Truth stuff, but I really couldn't get into the whole S&M aspects of it (nothing against it, but it's just not my thing).

Originally Posted by YummyMarie

"The Jungle " by Upton Sinclair: started reading in high school for an advanced English class...deals with the oppressed and exploited immigrant situation in Chicago during the industrial period. The culture shock that one family experienced and the clash in their community was utterly fascinating.

Classic reading - I also read that in high school. Of course, it's incredibly unAmerican of me to like it but it was a very powerful book.

"The Dark is Rising Series," by Susan Cooper. Read this when I was 10 or 11. It was a fantastical battle between the dark and the light with Will Stanton, a boy as the Chosen One. Very Harry Potter meets Frodo Baggins. Made me feel that one day I too would be special...that I was different because I had a purpose in life that had not yet been revealed to me. It was very consoling for me as a misfit girl...not to mention that reading was a great escape.

“When the Dark comes rising six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; Water, fire, stone;
Five will return and one go alone.

Iron for the birthday; bronze carried long;
Wood from the burning; stone out of song;
Fire in the candle ring; water from the thaw;
Six signs the circle and the grail gone before.

Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold
Played to wake the sleepers, oldest of old.
Power from the Green Witch, lost beneath the sea.
All shall find the Light at last, silver on the tree.”

I don't actually remember that much of the books (I read them way back when I was in elementary school), but I did remember there was a badass poem that went along with them and the books had a very British Arthurian legend feel to them. Something to go on my reread list!

"Lonesome Dove," McMurtry again...classic western. So long it felt like Gone With the Wind in that it spanned decades.

Haven't read the book (it has been recommended to me), but late last year I actually watched the TV miniseries for the first time and it was very good.

Hmm, YM's mention of the Dark is Rising Sequence reminds me of another fantasy series from my childhood - the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (which Disney actually made famous with their animated rendition of the Black Cauldron - the second book of the series). Taran Wanderer was always my favorite of the series because it's where Taran finally goes off on his own and grows up as a character and becomes his own person as opposed to a boy who's lead around all the time. Mayhaps I'll have to go back and reread that and see if it holds up well over time.

[Guest032417]

Ok so I have another book to recommend here but the thing is it is 100% pictures. The name of the book is Haunted Air and it is a collection of old photographs of people in halloween costumes from the 1800's all the way up to early 1900's. It is downright freaky but if you know someone who enjoys halloween this should work. I will include a couple of photos from it i found online.

[jbravo_123]

Very cool pictures - reminds me kind of the art from those old Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books:

[spice-is-nice]

• Michener in general, The Source in particular.
• Dune.
• Loved Stranger in a Strange Land when I was younger, but the last time I read it, I found that the unconscious sexism of its time made it hard to enjoy.
• Anything Nora Roberts writes.
• Zelazny's Amber series.
• Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series which I liked MUCH better than the one trick pony ad nauseum Xanth books.
• Catherine Asaro's Ruby Dynasty series
• Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Liaden Universe books.
• Blink
• Nathan Lowell's Solar Clipper Trader Tales.
• Jane Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility
• Anne McCaffrey's books about the dragonriders of Pern
• Dick Francis mysteries largely around horse racing
• Sam Llewellyn's mysteries set around sailing
• King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild. About a genocide I had been unaware of until I saw a review of this book.
• Best short story: "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman."
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.
• Many of the prolific Alan Dean Foster's sci fi novels.
• Word Freak. Stefan Fatsis. My geekdom includes competitive Scrabble, which this is about.
• and a whole bunch more, but enough for now

p.s. Much as I have loved bookstores in my life, I am firmly in the digital camp now. Between my Kindle and the Kindle app on my phone, I am never without reading material.

[Crystal.Love]

Anything by Harlan Coben! I've read them all! Page turners for sure.

[oden]

spice-is-nice, if you like Piers Anthony pick up Battle Circle.

[Guest032417]

ok so here is one that i cannot recommend and it is the only book that I have ever done this with. It was The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker. It is a really thick book about 900 pages and the first half was ok. The second half sucked so badly I stopped with 60 pages to go and didn't finish reading it.

[zerodahero]

Wow I usually like Clive Barker. I like his Books of Blood series.
I have Imajica haven't started it yet. Its over 800 pages.

[jbravo_123]

Finished Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card, the last book in his Ender series. It was... alright. Some of the stuff in it was interesting, but there really was very little Ender in the book. If I had to rank the four books, I'd have to say Ender's Game as #1 by a large margin, then Xenocide, then Children of the Mind, then Speaker for the Dead.

While Ender's Game was a great book, I think as a series overall, I prefer the Bean books more than the Ender books.

[spice-is-nice]

JB, interesting comments, depends on what you like best. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are such radically different types of books. Hard to beat Ender's Game for excitement, but I actually like Speaker the best of anything Card has written, Ender second best.

[spice-is-nice]

Oden, read the Battle Circle series a long time ago and about all I remember is liking them. Probably need to re-read them

Liked Macroscope very well, though the ending was satisfying to me.

LOVED the Cluster series of books. Some of the Xanth style punning, but I found it very interesting having people inhabit other people's (including aliens, opposite sex, etc.) as a platform for social commentary.

[jbravo_123]

Originally Posted by spice-is-nice

JB, interesting comments, depends on what you like best. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are such radically different types of books. Hard to beat Ender's Game for excitement, but I actually like Speaker the best of anything Card has written, Ender second best.

My problem with Speaker was that most of the characters are just downright unlikable or boring. Even Ender himself is just not very interesting and Novindha is just a nasty person (understandably so, given her circumstances but it doesn't mean it's fun to read about). What I liked most about Speaker was actually the philosophy of the different alien categories as well as the biology of the Piggies & Buggers.

[The Drummer]

Green Eggs and Ham

[Guest082824]

Originally Posted by The Drummer

Green Eggs and Ham

Now THIS....is a Classic!!!

[jbravo_123]

Started reading World War Z by Max Brooks. Very interesting style and read so far - I'm really digging it!