I have to read a book by one of the following authors?

Question

Atwood, Margaret

Bryson, Bill - A Walk in the Woods

Cather, Willa

Clancy, Tom

Conroy, Pat

Cook, Robin

Crichton, Michael

Dillard, Annie

Grafton, Sue

Grey, Zane

Grisham, John

Hillerman, Tony

Irving, John

Jackson, Shirley

King, Stephen

Kingsolver, Barbara

Kingston, Maxine

Ludlum, Robert

McCullers, Carson

Meltzer, Milton

Michener, James

Morrison, Toni

Rand, Ayn

Saul, John

Silko, Leslie

Welty, Eudora

Wolfe, Thomas

Woods, Stuart

Any sugestions? And if so could you please tell me a little about the book. I've looked into books by King and Irving and none of them seem to fit what I'm looking for. It's for a summer reading report for school. Thanks.

Answer 1

John Grisham- A Time to Kill.

It's about a young african american girl who is raped by two white guys, her father then kills the two white men. It takes place in the south, so there is a lot of racial tension saying the white men would have gotten away with it, but the african american won't. I had to read it for 12th grade English. One of my favorite books by far. It's a little long, but I read it in about 4 days, had three weeks.

Look it up on amazon, read their reviews. It was greattttt.

Answer 2

DId you know you can paste an author's name into the search box at Amazon.com and see the titles of books the person wrote? Then if you click on any of the books and scroll down the page, you can often find a review of the book that will give you a good idea of what it is about. If the picture of the book has a swirly arrow over it that says "Search Inside," you can click through to read the table of contents, or an excerpt, and so on--but only a few pages.

Here are a few books I liked or disliked:

I loved Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" because she goes walking in the woods and observes nature, so if you love nature and like that sort of low-key book with no plot, you'll like this one.

I have also enjoyed almost all of the Tony Hillerman books, especially the ones featuring law officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. They are mostly exciting murder mysteries, set on a Navaho reservation, and the reader learns a lot about Navaho culture and the natural features of the Four Corners area where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico come together.

James Michener has written a lot of rather long, but excellent books that take up the history of some particular area and cover it, often from prehistoric times down to near the present by means of the stories of individual people. Very enjoyable. My favorites are "Tales of the South Pacific," which became a Broadway show and a movie, "Hawaii," and "Centennial," which is about Colorado. Even though they are long, they are all great reads, and because they deal with the stories of people in different periods, they are easy to break up.

I detest everything I have read by Ayn Rand because her stories are all so bleak, but I don't know why they also bored me so much. I suppose they may have value from the historic point of view because they expose how miserable people really were, living under Communism.

Then there is "Beloved" by Toni Morrison. It isn't very long, and you might like it; it has been praised by many. It has to do with the horrors of slavery, basically. I didn't like it.

Carson McCullers book, "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" is the story of a friendship between two mutes. It is short and beautifully written and not hard to read. If you have to have an "exciting" story, though, this one is not for you. I liked it, but it is kind of sad at the end.

Zane Gray wrote Westerns a long time ago. Because of the period when they were written, they seem very innocent now, and kind of tame, but I liked the ones I read. I can't remember any titles now, however.

I loved Pat Conroy's book about teaching on a poor So. Carolina island, "The Water Is Wide," and he is a good writer, but I didn't enjoy his novels as much as that one and "The Great Santini," which is about his father, who was really rather abusive and pretty weird in his own way, and yet you can see some things in him that his children loved.

Sue Grafton wrote a mystery series with titles that go through the alphabet, like "J Is for Judgment." I have read every one I could get my hands on and enjoyed them all. The main character is a woman private detective. There are some scary moments in most of them, but nothing that is gruesome or will give you nightmares. Very easy to read.

Bill Bryson is a wonderful humorous writer. The most recent book of his that I have read is "A Walk in the Woods," which centers around his experience of hiking the Appalachian Trail, which stretches about 2100 miles from Georgia to Maine. He met a lot of interesting people and had some interesting and funny experiences.

Answer 3

My Antonia by Willa Cather - fiction based upon her own life in the midwest/romance

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy - submarines/navy/espionage/Russia

Sphere by Michael Crichton - Science Fiction about an alien spacecraft discovered on the bottom of the ocean

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton - a man raises dinosaurs on an island and things get out of hand;  NOT LIKE THE MOVIE

Alphabet murder mysteries by Sue Grafton the first is A is for Alibi then B is .... and so on

Zane Grey wrote a long series of Westerns

John Grisham's best known book is probably The Firm - Legal Thriller, but he also wrote The Innocent Man about a true crime

James Michener wrote many wonderful historical fictions including:  Alaska, Chesapeake, and Hawaii

Answer 4

Atwood, Margaret

Bryson, Bill -  

Cather, Willa

Clancy, Tom - I have read something by him but i forget the title

Conroy, Pat

Cook, Robin

Crichton, Michael

Dillard, Annie

Grafton, Sue

Grey, Zane

Grisham, John

Hillerman, Tony

Irving, John

Jackson, Shirley

King, Stephen -Pet  Cemetary, the shining,it

Kingsolver, Barbara

Kingston, Maxine

Ludlum, Robert

McCullers, Carson

Meltzer, Milton

Michener, James

Morrison, Toni

Rand, Ayn

Saul, John

Silko, Leslie

Welty, Eudora

Wolfe, Thomas

Woods, Stuart -looks familiar

Answer 5

How about.. "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton? It might be easier to read/understand because you've probably seen the movie.

Or how about any of the books by John Grisham? My parents love those books- ie: "The Firm", "A Time to Kill", ect. Those books are ... lawyery books if you know what I mean.

That's all I know of...

Answer 6

Timeline by Michael Crichton is good. There was a movie based on it but it is entirely different. A group of archaeologists go back in time to save the head of their expedition and find themselves potentially changing history as they are caught in the middle of a battle that they were investigating in the present day.  

Answer 7

While I really like some of these authors, I would have to agree the posters who wrote John Grisham. I would recommend The Rainmaker it is enjoyable and easy reading. It has been made into a movie (like many of his books). I liked the supporting characters and plot lines in this story the best. There are color-full characters. Here's a link to the summary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Grisha... Good Luck.

Answer 8

These authors cover a lot of ground and show a lot of variety in their styles and genres. Of these, I would recommend:

Tom Clancy - military/government thrillers. The Hunt for Red October or Red Storm Rising are excellent places to start. Red October is the first book Clancy wrote, and the movie of the same name is taken largely from the book. An excellent read, if a little long.

Michael Crichton - sci-fi/thrillers. Jurassic Park or Timeline. Both move along at a pretty good pace and tell a good story and both have been made into movies. Jurassic Park is about the re-creation of dinosaurs and Timeline is about the search for and rescue of a history professor/archaeologist who goes back in time at the urging of corporation that pioneers time travel technology. Of course, something goes horribly wrong in each of these books. If you like a little more along the way of horror, then try Prey. It is about a nanotechnology experiment that gets out of hand.

John Grisham writes mainly legal thrillers. My favorites have been The Client, The Rainmaker and The Appeal. Each is a stand-alone novel, so find a topic or subject that appeals to you. These are generally easy reads but they cover a lot of territory.

John Irving writes a lot of interesting stuff that is hard to categorize. I really enjoyed reading The World According to Garp, which is a kind of offbeat, funny, tragic story of the life of one man. Even though you have possibly discounted Irving, you might still want to consider this book at least. It is very quirky and different.

James Michener is a master of historical fiction and wrote a lot of books that I enjoyed as a teenager. Centennial was one of my favorites and covered the lives of several generations of a pioneering family in the 18th and 19th centuries. He has written on a variety of topics including space and  the histories of Texas, Hawaii, Poland and many other places.

I haven't read too many of the others, so can't really give you any specific recommendations. Zane Grey wrote mostly westerns. Tony Hillerman writes mysteries that center around Native American people and culture. Stephen King writes largely horror based novels. Robert Ludlum is known espionage thrillers, especially for the Bourne series of books.

You can find more information and bibliographies for each of these authors at:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/

I hope that this helps.