Good Books to Read this Summer!

<p>Jo. InC: Hahahaha. That's alright. I enjoyed the Rule of Hour so much and right now I'm reading Time Traveler's Wife, you read any good books that you would recommend?</p>

<p>I love Angels and Demons, I am just reading it now!</p>

<p>LovesTHEarts: not exactly, but i saw one that interesting yesterday. it's by Katherine (?) McGowan entitled : "the expected one" :D It's kinda like The Da Vinci Code, in a way.</p>

<p>^ Man, excite rushes through my body when reading books like that. I just can't seem to put it down! I read more than I do work, I got to stop it!
Jo. InC: What is the book about? Is it some kind of suspense book or mystery?</p>

<p>It's about the "Gospel of Mary Magdalene" and it was said to be a semi-autobiography. I heard it's not that up to par with DV but still worth a good suspense/mystery read. :)</p>

<ol>
<li>The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - So good. It's similar to the movie, "The Lakehouse," except way better in terms of plot, etc.</li>
<li>Who Killed Daniel Pearl? by Bernard Henri-Levy - Explores the life of the mastermind who organized the execution of Daniel Pearl (the journalist who was beheaded). </li>
<li>Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - Easy to read and really good.</li>
</ol>

<p>Skimmed the whole thread and was thrilled to see a lot of people reading the same books as I had or that I’ve been meaning to read.</p>

<p>I could recommend a lot but I’ll give short explanations of a select few anyway so my list doesn’t seem as random:</p>

<p>Anything by Chuck Palahniuk, as people from earlier pages said. His writing is sarcastic–but not in a burdened way–short but vivid sentences, repetition and a bit of horror. Don’t read his books if you’re extremely squeamish, but he’s one of my favorite authors. Extremely quotable.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon; written from the viewpoint of an autistic savant, it’s kind of a mystery but more psychology. Would be more of a favorite if the book didn’t preach atheism (the protagonist is a mathematician) so harshly.
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck if you’re into early-20th-century Chinese history</p>

<p>My opinion on random debates here:
Catcher in the Rye is a love-or-hate book, but it’s interesting to note that was published in the 1950s when the concept of “teenagers” was just beginning to form. Whether you dislike it or not, I think it’s an important read.
Of Ayn Rand’s works, I’ve only read The Fountainhead and Anthem (and only liked the Fountainhead), but I have to note that she’s a good writer even if parts of her philosophy is (in my opinion) too unrealistic to apply on a mass scale. The Fountainhead (and Atlas Shrugged too, I’ve heard) is an rather long novel but a very quick read. I strongly agree with certain points she makes and strongly disagree with others.</p>

<p>I would recommend a lot more but they’ve already been mentioned on this thread…anyone, feel free to PM me if you want to discuss books. =P</p>

<p>I’m trying to read more non-fiction, though. The only recent non-fiction novel I’ve read lately (besides memoirs) was Blink, which was good but not amazing.</p>

<p>Also, be careful not to read any books your high school may assign to you for required reading in English class later. It will either make the book extremely boring to reread (if you disliked it), possibly kill the book (if you liked it, and have a boring English teacher or class), or you will use your familiarity with the book as an excuse to skip reading assignments and end up getting Ds on quizzes.</p>

<p>One more note, a great site for readers is [url=<a href=“http://www.goodreads.com%5Dgoodreads.com%5B/url”>http://www.goodreads.com]goodreads.com[/url</a>], where you can catalog and rate any books you’ve read (to have a solid ranking system or boost your own ego or just remember which books you’ve been meaning to start), and look up quotes and book reviews.</p>

<p>YES THANK YOU. Heller is a satirical genius. </p>

<p>Yossarian is a monster of a character, that book is a riot. </p>

<p>Read satire, it is cleverly written. Many of it is pure entertainment. Try:</p>

<p>Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
1984 by George Orwell
Animal Farm (Quick read) by George Orwell
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller</p>

<p>Some others that I fail to recall. I’ll post them later if I remember. </p>

<p>Science Fiction: </p>

<p>Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (Wicked. Read this.)
Sunstorm by Arthur C. Clarke </p>

<p>For a more serious read:</p>

<p>The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling (Clever plot)
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
Captain’s Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens</p>

<p>More to come when I think of them :D</p>

<p>I liked:</p>

<p>Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt
The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Great Gatsby
Freakonomics
Outliers</p>