I Need a Good -- No Great -- Book

Hi P.,
I also couldn't put down A Thousand Splendid Suns or the Kite Runner. If you like those, I think you will really enjoy:
The Twentieth Wife & The Feast of Roses (sequel)by Indu Sundaresan in 2002. They are fiction, but rooted in historical fact from the Mughal Empire in India. I love reading great fiction and learning about life in other cultures and times. I was given these books by a stranger I met in an airport lounge in India who overheard us talking about the history of the Taj Mahal. She said we would love these books and she was right. Great female characters.
Another great book is Snowflower & the Secret Fan by Lisa See - fiction that takes place in China during the time of footbinding. It's also a compelling look into women's lives in the past. Enjoy!

2 moms found this helpful

okay, I don't know your type of books, but I have a greatly varied interest. Really varied. My best friend's 13 year old has me HOOKED on Stephenie Myers books. You will be slightly embarrassed to read them, but they are pretty entertaining (warning: vampires and werewolves abound. I do apologize if this is seriously horrifying you now.)

I also really liked The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian. It's definitely weird, it's about the end of the world and a floating hospital. Along those lines is Geek Love, which I read a long time ago and it also stuck with me. Recommended if you are secretly slightly twisted.

If you are into historical fiction, the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon will keep you turning pages and staying home from work.

Yeah. Okay. Slightly embarrassing, but great stuff.

on we go.

I love Paul Auster. If I could marry him, I would. His prose is gorgeous. My two favorite books were Moon Palace and In The Country of Last Things. Moon Palace is a voyage of self discovery and magical realism. Country is a short, bittersweet, story about a girl who goes to find her brother (the books gently intertwine, but you won't know until you read one where) in a war zone, in a city on lockdown. Very scare, dismal, sad, but there is an element of hope that makes me think our current war torn areas in the world will find some salvation from within.

Another beautiful book that I read awhile ago that stuck with me is "But Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?" By lorie moore. Also bittersweet, about friendship. Quick and easy read.

Others I have really enjoyed recently: Omnivore's Dilemma, Eat Pray Love, Stiff, Freakonomics and The Deep Economy (this last one by Bill McKibben who also wrote an inspiring book called Hope: Human and Wild.)

When all else fails, I grab a fat Jane Austen that I haven't visited in awhile and settle down into the 17th century with my prudes and naifs abounding.

Someone above said Feast of Roses. GREAT BOOK! Although the sequel was lacking somehow.

I also really like Lisa See (Snowflower and the Secret Fan was amazing--I got very interested in that regional culture as my daughter is 1/2 Chinese), I think Mimi and I have a lot of books in common!

2 moms found this helpful

The only books I've ever read like that (stayed up reading so much I was neglecting my house) are the Harry Potter Books. The first two are short and more "child like" but necessary for background. Once you get to book 3 you can't help but laughing and crying out loud. It took me a week to read book 6, I read every free moment I had. The boys thought I was constipated I spent so much time in the bathroom. :-)

Hope you find what you are looking for.

2 moms found this helpful

One author I LOVE is Jhumpa Lahiri.

Two of her books i have read are:

Interpreter of Maladies
The Namesake

I could not put them down.

Some others of the top of my head that i have loved are:

The Secret life of bees

the memory keepers daughter

some of anita shreve's books are good:the pilot's wife, the weight of water

jodi picoult is good too: The Pact

poison wood bible and prodigal summer by barbara kingsolver, she is awesome, one of my fav author's.

Into the Wild and Into thin Air by John Krakauer..great!

the red tent is a fav of mine too.

so here is a random list...sorry for the rambling :)

1 mom found this helpful

I read all the other responses---

Twilight by stephenie meyer
Any thing by James Patterson
Like john sandford for Mysteries
Pactrica Cornwall
Lisa scottoline is good too

Read the outlander series too
Liked harry Potter series too

1 mom found this helpful

The last great book I read was "Eat, Pray, Love". It was so good that when it was over I felt like I had lost a good friend. It is a quick and easy read. Everyone I know that has read it, loves it!

1 mom found this helpful

Jane Porter - Flirting with Forty (to be a Lifetime movie in December) Odd Mom Out and Mrs. Perfect which actually go together. OMO and Mrs. P. take place in WA (think Bill Gates and Microsoft type of community) and deal with mommy issues that we have all probably experienced at some point in time, especially with school age children. Very good reads!

Janet Evanovich and Stephanie Plum series is so freakin' hilarious that my husband always tells me I'm reading too loud when I'm into one of the books. I have read all thirteen now and am waiting for #14 from the library. Lots of swearing though, so if that offends you, don't read them. Mayhem, humor, touching and did I mention humor? These books will have you laughing till you cry they are so funny.

Jodie Picoult is an excellent author, but her books are not light reads. All of them deal with real life events that she has studied, researched and turned into fiction. My favorite of hers is Second Glance. Romance with a little ghost story, but dealing with prejudices back east with Native American Indians and government forced sterilizations of them. Very compelling.

Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald is funny, enlightening and interesting. A look into the cultural differences between Iranian women and American women.

Emily Griffin - Baby Proof
Jennifer Weiner - Little Earthquakes

I'm currently reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. It's a series ( I didn't realiz this when I read Brother Odd first!) Excellent mystery, paranormal, lots of humor and something entirely endearing about Odd Thomas.

Next up is Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane. She's also written English As a Second Language (very funny) and Everyone Else's Girl.

You can't go wrong with Jane Austen, or the Bronte sisters for that matter.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy are my all time favorite, but those aren't quick, light reads!

So many books, so little time. Hope your library card is current!

1 mom found this helpful

My favorite authors are:
Danielle Steele
Janet Evanovich
Janet Dailey
Wendy Markham
Lori Foster

They all have a range the 1-13 series by Janet Evanovich
is really funny, and very hard to put down. I read the first one in 48 hours.
W.

1 mom found this helpful

I second Eat, Pray, Love; I also second Water for Elephants.

Another suggestion, The Secret History by Donna Tartt. GREAT book! Worth reading more than once, and WOW's you each time.

Another one I really enjoyed, though it wouldn't be great literature, is by Sophie Kinsella... The Undomestic Goddess. I also stayed up reading Blessings by Anna Quinlen. Again, not great literature, but a touching story, and a P.-turner.

1 mom found this helpful

I love Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum Series for fun reading. Makes me laugh out loud.
Also if you like historical fiction try Lauren Willig and her "history of pink carnation" series.

1 mom found this helpful

I love to read! And have spent many late nights devouring a good story. I loved "The Girl With the Pearl Earring" and "A Girl Named Zippy." Two very different books, but both extremely good. The pearl earring is a historical fiction about the artist Vermeer and a servant girl whom some speculate to be the subject of his famous painting of the same name. The girl name zippy is a memoir of sorts written in the author's pre teen voice about her childhood experiences growing up in the 70's in a small midwest town. This book made me laugh and cry at the same time. One of my all time favorites, and it is a quick read. Also, if you're interested, I've found a great book lovers website, called www.Shelfari.com, that lets you list all your fav books, plus you can get book suggestions and reader reviews of books you are interesting in reading. Another great seris of books that I just loved where by author Francine Rivers. The first book is called, "A Voice in the Wind". It's another historical fiction set in Roman times, about a young Jewish girl who was taken as a slave. Very good. I couldn't put this one down for anything, and could hardly wait to start the next two when I was done. Here is a list of some of my other most recent reads:

"Vahallia Rising"- Clive Cussler (action/adventure, not my normal genre, but I love Cusslers books. This is my fav)

"The Other Boylen Girl"- Phillipa Gregory (historical fiction about Henry VIII, Anne Boylen and her sister Mary)

"Step on a Crack"- James Patterson (crime/suspense about a group of rich and famous taken hostage in NYC)

1 mom found this helpful

Hi P.!

Veil of Roses - Laura Fitzgerald

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (ok, we all read it in high school... but it's so worth reading again!)

I just started reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco and I absolutely can't get through it. My sister in law read it in Italian (the show off!) and said it was great, so I feel it must have lost something in translation...

1 mom found this helpful

I liked:

"Emma", by Jane Austen
"Redeeming Love", by Francine Rivers
and the Christ Clone Trilogy, by James BeauSeigneur
(that trilogy includes "In His Image", "Birth of an Age", and "Acts of God")

Glad you asked the question. Now I've got a whole list of books to check out. :)

1 mom found this helpful

I can't think of the author, but The Glass Castle, was a very good book. Also, I love any of John Grisham books, and his last one was very good. I believe it was called "The Appeal". I will be watching your post for other responses since I am always looking for a good book.

1 mom found this helpful

So my taste is very varied.
For humor/some sexiness & a bit of mystery, the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evonovich are addicting and had me staying up all night reading and trying not to wake my husband I was laughing so hard! The series starts with "One for the Money" I think, and then Two For the Show, something like that, but you get the picture.
I have been discovering all the books by Jodi Picoult- pick one up, if you like one you will probablly like them all. she creates these really interesting stories, and there is always multiple perspectives, and a bit of a twist at the end.
So I said I was varied- my all-time favorite Author is Stephen King. If you decide to go there, dig up his older books as opposed to the newer.
I also am a fan of the Harry Potter series.

1 mom found this helpful