What's a good book you've read recently?

Question

I'm so peeved the last 3 books or so I've gotten from the library I returned unread- dreck! I'm looking for good impartial biographies (nonfiction) or good deep novels, with good characters. Please recommend something I can sink my teeth into!

Answer 1

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

and

Anna Karenina by Tolstoy

both have fabulous character development and gripping stories

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

it might not be impartial, but it's well written and very interesting (and particularly relevant)

Answer 2

Just finished reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls last night. It's a biography.

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

Echo Park by Michael Connelly (I liked this one, very suspenseful.)

Answer 3

nope

Answer 4

A great Non-Fiction book with great descriptive characters is:

Bats, Brats, and Stats - George Brennan, Jr.

Answer 5

Kissing in Manhattan. It is one of if not my favorite book.  

Answer 6

Try some of these.

Children/Young Adult

Last Chance by Sarah Dessen

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Inkheart and Inkspell by Cornelia Funkt

Ingo series by Helen Dunmore

Whistling for the Elephants by Sandi Toksvic

The Book Thief by Markus Zusack

All the Harry Potter books

Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer

The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

The Railway Children - E Nesbit

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carol

Treasure Island and Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Dating Hamlet by Lisa Fielder

Adult

No! I don’t want to join a Book Club by Virgina Ironside

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir......and her other books

The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Neffenigger

Best of Fathers by Anne Baker

The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood

Cell by Stephen King

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Swimming with the Fishes and Swimming without a net by MaryJanice Davidson

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Mr Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

My Legendary Girlfriend by Mike Gayle and his others

Mr McGreggor, The Last Lighthouse Keeper, Animal Instincts, Only Dad, Rosie, Love and Dr Devon all by Alan Titchmarsh

Pillars of the Earth and the sequel World Without End by Ken Follett

Anything by Stephen King, John Saul, John Connolly, Alexander McCall Smith, Terry Pratchett, James Herbert

Classics

Lord of the Flies and The Inheritors by William Golding

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Gulliver's Travels by Johnathan Swift

Sons and Lovers - D H Lawrence

Great Gatsby - Scot Fitzgerald

1984 and Animal Farm - GeorgeOorwell

Mrs Dalloway - Virgina Wolfe

I Claudius - Robert Graves

Rebecca - Daphne de Maurier

Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh

Women in Love - D H Lawrence

Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad

A Portrait of an Artist as a Young man - James Joyce

Goodbye to all That - Robert Graves

Shirley - Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Brave New World - Aldais Huxley

Anna Karnina - Tolstoy

The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

Lolita - Vladimer Naborkov

Tarka the Otter - Henry Williamson

Burning Bright - John Steinbeck

Travels with my Aunt - Graham Greene

The Pearl - John Steinbeck

A Room With a View - E M Forster

Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo

Les Miseriables - Victor Hugo

Lorna Doon - R D Blackmore

Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe

Brideshead Revisted - Evelyn Waugh

War and Peace - Tolstoy

Anything by Jane Austin

Series

Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz

The Arthur Trilogy by Bernard Cornwall starts with Winter King

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind starts with Wizards First Rule

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King starts with The Gunslinger

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon starts with Cross Stitch

Answer 7

Some of my favorite books include:

Watership Down - technically it's from the viewpoint of rabbits, but they behave like rabbits and not like people.  I haven't read it in a decade, but I have fond memories of it.

Gone with the Wind - Nice deep plot and subplots.  Even though I saw the movie first, I was on edge when I read the part about the burning of Atlanta.

Atlas Shrugged - I love this book SO much.  But some people hate it because it portrays Ayn Rand's ideals of the philosophy of objectivism.  It all makes sense to me though and I love it.

Les Miserables - This is the only time I will ever recommend the abridged version of the book rather than the unabridged.  It's a great story and I thought it was compelling.

The Da Vinci Code - Some deeply religious people don't like that it challenges convention, but I enjoy challenges.  I like new ways of looking at things, even if they are just works of fiction.

Odd Thomas (series) - I don't remember how this book came into my possession, but I'm glad it did.  I really enjoyed it.  I've read the first one at least three times, and I love the sequals too.

And other honorable mentions: Wuthering Heights, Screwtape Letters, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet, The Neverending Story

Answer 8

She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb

Answer 9

Haha, watch now - people will recommend vampire books with that last comment you have up there!

Hmm, well if you are a teenager I would recommend the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, which includes:

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Rebel Angels

The Sweet Far Thing

Answer 10

My sister's keeper by jodi picoult it is an amazing book with deep plot line and very good characters i think you would enjoy it i have never met anyone who hasn't loved this book.