The 'recommend me a book' thread

Black mamba boy -nadifa mohamed
An interesting read about coming of age with adventure, romance, and the power of a great mind.
The prestige-Christopher priest. If you've watched the movie, prepare to be astounded. It's WAY better than the movie.

 

Can someone recommend me a short book (<200 pages)?

 

Genre?

Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton is pretty good, if you like literature. It covers the life of a British boarding school teacher, may seem a bit dry, but it's actually quite deep.

ETA: 144 pages, or thereabouts, depending on the edition

 

Coraline by Neil Gaiman is a personal favorite novella of mine. Granted, the prose is underdeveloped as the book is technically geared towards a younger audience, but once you grow accustomed to it, Coraline is a properly entertaining novella.

 

Actually, let me just go ahead and say to read anything by Neil Gaiman in general. I especially love Neil Gaiman in Wonderland-- I-I mean, his London Below, The Land of Neverwhere series.

 

Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince. James Thurber's The Last Flower.

 

Tarzan of the Apes if you're looking for a how-NOT-to write dialogue in fiction example.

 

Roald Dahl's Switch Bitch has some of the best short stories I'v read. Very colorful and macabre.

 

I'm looking for a good novel, something exciting, but not horror.
The biggest criteria is that the book follows one main character and doesn't jump around everywhere.

I'm reading a book where it begins in some third world country and then the next section starts with a lawyer and a court case. Then it would jump back and forth. Oh my word with my dyslexia that drives me nuts. So What I'm doing is skipping pages and reading only about the lawyer. Wow, I love it.

I want a novel/story where it sticks with one mc. I loved The Martian and A Man Called Ove.
Any recommendations? Thanks.

 

I suggest Little Big Man by Thomas Berger. The only "jumping around" is the prologue and the epilogue, which are written in a different voice, that of the person who transcribed the story of Jack Crabbe, the main character. (And don't think that if you've seen the movie, you don't need to read the book. As good as the movie was, the book is far, far better. It is, in fact, a classic.)

 

Out of interest, shout out if you've ever gone to the trouble of reading any of the recommendations in this thread.

So often in 'recommend me' threads, it's page after page of folk recommending books (or requesting a specific recommendation) but no one ever returns to say they tried such and such a book recommended by whoever and loved/hated it.

 

Looking for a good book about Tesla, Edison... basically the war of currents. Google recommends War of the Currents by Stephanie McPherson and Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes.

Anyone knows anything about these books or can recommend some others?

 

I've read Empires of Light. It's a good read and very informative.

 

Hmm, I read Man Out of Time by Margaret Cheaney a long time ago, but Wikipedia says it's more focused on Tesla the man than his inventions. I do remember enjoying it though.

 

Looking for earth-set (or at least a setting which could be earth) sci-fi / futuristic novels.

I'm not really into aliens or spacey-wacey stuff, so please leave out all the hardcore sci-fi. I think in truth it's visions of the future I prefer, rather than out-and-out sci-fi.

I love the look and feel of Blade Runner and feel this is the best guide I can offer in terms of the kind of thing I'm after. I've read a lot of PKD (including Do Androids...) and I'm currently reading William Gibson's Neuromancer.

If at all possible I would love to read some current visions of the future, rather than the rain/Chinese lanterns/neons/film noir impression, which paradoxically dates this 'vision of the future' very much in the 70s / 80s.

Finally - yes I have a lot of conditions - I have a strange dislike of series, as in: Book 1 of the Whatever trilogy. Makes them sound too much like fantasy (sorry fantasy fans).

Thanks in advance.

 

A Canticle for Leibowitz by William Miller. The grand-daddy of post-apocalypse fiction, and still one of the best.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz

 

Thanks, JLT.

Perhaps I should have stressed I've grown a little tired of PA stuff. I'm also after something far more current.

 

Try King Rat.

 

I'll recommend a couple books that I don't think as many people might have read, but I still found to be pretty good.

Sci-Fi: Earthseed by Pamela Sargent was an interesting young adult novel about a bunch of kids who were born on a sentient spaceship. The ship was designed to continue the survival of the human race and left a slowly overpopulating earth behind. Throughout the book, the kids prepare themselves for colonization of a planet the ship had found and begin to face problems with keeping the peace amongst themselves without the ship's guidance.

Fantasy: Deerskin by Robin McKinley is based on Hans Christian Anderson's Donkeyskin which is what Cinderella was loosely based upon. The writing was truly moving in my opinion and is one of my favorite novels. It does have sexual violence, though, so it's not for the faint of heart.

Other books I really liked reading were The Little Prince, The Glass Castle, and Racing in the Rain

 

@mashers - I'm approaching the end of William Gibson's Neuromancer and looking for something fresh to start on when I finish. Can't say I've really enjoyed Nueromancer so probably not looking to try Gibson again just yet.

Can you recommend any earth-bound sci-fi / futuristic fiction?

Thanks in advance.

 

I was considering reading neuromancer but got put off by the reviews. I strongly recommend Existence by David Brin. He creates a detailed and believable future earth and I absolutely love it.

 

Gods, I absolutely love Neuromancer and the rest of The Sprawl Trilogy. Maybe its an age thing, I read them when they came out, no one had heard of the internet yet, and Japan was busy buying Los Angeles.

If you don't like early Gibson though, don't read Paolo Bacigalupi. I love that his style and cadence are very similar to Gibson, but you'll probably dislike him for the same reason.

 

I'll go look this up and order it if the synopsis appeals, but is it the source for the Cronenberg film eXistenZ?

It's okay, I now see it isn't.

 

Magical Bears in the Context of Contemporary Political Theory - Jenna Katerin Moran

I was intrigued by this essay collection by the writer of my beloved Nobilis rpg. It's available as a free e-book or in physical from for a small fee. The bizarre stories tell a lot about our time and I adore it.

 

Interested in reading some teen fiction since I'm still in high school. Anyone know of anything good that isn't dystopian? (anything along the lines of Hunger Games and Divergent)