Owen Meany, awesome book. I am smiling thinking about that little guy and his BIG VOICE. I am a John Irving fan and this is probably my equal favorite book of his. It's largish but the ending is great. There would be plenty of discussion on the web about it, like all of them I suppose. and just to correct you on some English, it's write an essay.
You can't go wrong with John Irving. He will run you through every emotion that you can think off; you'll laugh and you'll cry when you read his books. Owen Meany is a great book. I tore through it in two days.
I guess you are referring to Hannibal Rising, I just started reading it last night so am only about 100 pages in. I wanted to get a feeling for what made Hannibal into the monster that he became and so far it has delivered. Now I'm worried it won't deliver in the end as I expected. Everybody's tastes are different so we will see. I'll let you know what I think....
This is the only one I read, but I thought it was very good. If you know the story of Beowolf it helps. It gives the story through the eyes of the "monster".
Bump, it's been over a year since we had a book discussion and I am sorry to say that I haven't read anything but the newspaper for the last year. I need a new book. I will read almost anything, crime, drama/suspense, science fiction, humour, a good biography. I have a $100 book store voucher needing to redeem What have you read in the last year that you can recommend?
Actually that's what made me bump this thread. I like my star Wars but also wanting general discussion across all genres.
I've been reading a lot of Bernard Cornwell lately. He writes historical fiction, and it's pretty fuggin' awesome. Czech out: The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, Lords of the North, and Swordsong -- in chronological order . . . very satisfying stuff. They take place during the reign of Alfred the Great. Cornwell's Archer's Tales books are kick ass too, as well as Stonehenge.
Ehhh... go for a classic. Go for some stream-of-consciousness-existential-teen-angst and buy "Catcher in the Rye" by JD Salinger. He still sells a quarter-million copies a year of the thing. Not bad work if you can get it.
It sells so many copies because it's on the Required Reading lists for high schools. I barely read that book. I don't think I even bothered to finish it. Just like Lord of the Flies, totally overrated. I highly suggest the Bane book suggested in the Star Wars thread
I'm currently reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma": by Michael Pollan.... If you're at all in touch with or interested in the Clean/Local Food movement, you might want to check it out... Not so much a fun read as a really interesting one...
Dunno if you'd be interested in early American history from your vantage point down under, Syd, but Joseph Ellis' books on the early years of the US are uniformly excellent. If you're interested, I would start with American Brothers, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. It also makes a nice complement to the recent John Adams series on HBO.
Sorry to say but American history is about the only history we didn't study at school so it is a great suggestion. I will have a go at it. Jeff, I did a quick search. Is it called 'Founding Brothers'?
Catcher in the Rye sucks and I hope JD Salinger goes to hell for it. As far as stuff I've read lately, I read Pulp by Charles Bukowski and I plan on picking up Ham and Rye and maybe some of his other stuff when I have the time.
Sorry about that - the one I'm currently reading is American Creation, and I screwed up the title. Yes, it is Founding Brothers, and you should be able to get a used paperback version cheap. It's a wonderful narrative on how the "Founding Fathers" (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton) were truly great men in many ways, but were also most definitely human and flawed. Thomas Jefferson, in particular, has gotten a remarkably favorable view from history that glosses over some of the despicable things he did to his great friend Adams in the late 1790s.
