Please Recommend a Few Books For Me

xifar

You are a very keen reader, I see!
I love Kurt Vonnegut, too. You seem to be doing the same thing as I did when I discovered him - Rapidly reading my way through all he wrote. I can recommend his other books, including : Mother Night, Welcome To The Monkeyhouse (Excellent short stories) & the rest!

I'll be back to suggest other authors after a bit of a think!

xifar, I can not recommend strongly enough You Can't Win, by Jack Black. It is an exceptional book, fast-paced, and an enthralling look at a part of life at the turn of the century that you normally don't see.

I've been trying for quite some time to get members of this site to read this book, but so far, to the best of my knowledge, my suggestion has fallen upon deaf ears.

Please read it and get back to me.

Here are some reviews

James Clavell's "Shogun"- Never met a man that didn't like it.
Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment"- Never met anyone who didn't like it.
Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"- People either love it or hate it. It will take much more than 100 pages of sacrifice; but it may very well change the direction of your life. Check out the reviews on Amazon.com (or what people here have said about it) and you'll see what I mean about Love/Hate. There seems to me no middle ground.

Since you've enjoyed one of John Irving's books, might I suggest another? It's called A Prayer for Owen Meany. Another would be Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport.

Uhm...that's about it for now. You sound like quite the sophisticated reader!

Try John LeCarré - especially the Smiley trilogy (Tinker, Tailor,Soldier Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy; and Smiley's People).

Read Balzac's "The Magic Skin" (LA PEAU DE CHARGIN).
Try no to read too much - I know it's hard to resist, but try not to become 'book shredder' like some people I know ..

xifar
My first recommended book follows---BumbleBeeBoogie

The River That Flows Uphill: A Journey from the Big Bang to the Big Brain
by William H Calvin

Editorial Reviews - From Publishers Weekly:
This is an account of a two-week river voyage through the Grand Canyonin the company of fellow scientistsand a vehicle for discoursing on earth history and evolution. "Readers who enjoy adventure stories may discover they also enjoy good scientific writing," PW observed.

The New York Times Book Review:
"Mind-boggling, a unique piece of science writing."

Book Description:
Written in the form of a scientist's diary of a two-week float trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. There we find rocks of great age, fossils, dwellings of Stone Age peoples, and experience the land much as our ancestors did during all those untold generations in the dimly remembered world from which we somehow took flight.

xifar
My second book recommendation follows---BBB

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
by Dava Sobel, an award-winning former science reporter for the New York Times, whose work has appeared in Audubon, Discover, Life, and the New Yorker. She lives in East Hampton, New York.

Book Description:
During the great ages of exploration, "the longitude problem" was the gravest of all scientific challenges. Lacking the ability to determine their longitude, sailors were literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Ships ran aground on rocky shores; those traveling well-known routes were easy prey to pirates.

In 1714, England's Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone whose method of measuring longitude could be proven successful. The scientific establishment--from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton--had mapped the heavens in its certainty of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had been able to do on land. And the race was on....

Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com:
The thorniest scientific problem of the eighteenth century was how to determine longitude. Many thousands of lives had been lost at sea over the centuries due to the inability to determine an east-west position. This is the engrossing story of the clockmaker, John "Longitude" Harrison, who solved the problem that Newton and Galileo had failed to conquer, yet claimed only half the promised rich reward. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly:
This look at the scientific quest to find a way for ships at sea to determine their longitude was a PW bestseller for eight weeks.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal:
YA?Opening with a chapter that outlines what follows, Sobel whets readers' appetites for hearing the colorful details of the search for a way for mariners to determine longitude. In an age when ships' stores were limited and scurvy killed many a seaman, missing a landfall often meant death?as, of course, did running aground. Sobel provides a lively treatment of the search through the centuries for a ready answer to the longitude problem, either through using lunar tables or through making an accurate clock not subject to the vicissitudes of weather and ocean conditions. Her account includes not only scientific advances, but also the perseverance, pettiness, politics, and interesting anecdotes that figured in along the way (it wasn't limes, for example, that first prevented scurvy on English ships, but sauerkraut). A pleasing mixture of basic science, cultural history, and personality conflicts makes this slim volume a winner.?Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal:
We take so much for granted. Few of us have ever thought about why and how sailors navigate without becoming lost the moment land is no longer in sight. In fact, prior to the 18th century, whole navies, thousands of lives, and great fortunes were lost because no one knew how to measure longitude. Here is the story of the growing need, the parliamentary offers of huge awards, the politics, the frustrations, and the eventual success of John Harrison. An unschooled woodworker, Harrison developed the chronometer, which was much criticized at the outset in part because competition for the princely rewards was so fierce. The interlocking histories of astronomy, clocks, and navigation reveal the significance of the problem to the seagoing world, the parallel efforts to find answers, and Harrison's drive for perfection and resolution. While the complexities of the problems and personalities are not always easy to follow here, this abridged recording is nonetheless an interesting chronicle of scientific achievement. Reader Jane Jacobs consistently narrates in a clear and distinct manner. Libraries with collections in seafaring and scientific adventure should acquire.?Carolyn Alexander, Columbia Lib. System, Monterey, Cal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

xifar
You don't say where you live but my third and forth book recommendations follow---BBB

The Nine Nations of North America
by Joel Garreau

and

Edge City : Life on the New Frontier
by Joel Garreau

These two books can be found at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395291240/qid=1077040938/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-1149725-1881610?v=glance&s=books

Hey Xifar: I loved 'Garp' and 'Catcher in the Rye' too....

Here are a few of my choices:

I'd second Occom's choice of 'Crime and Punishment' and also recommend 'The Idiot' too.

'Emma,' Austen: not everyone is a fan of Jane Austen's style, but nearly everyone to whom I have lent this book-- about a pompous but likeable girl who meddles in others' marriages although she doesn't want to marry herself-- have enjoyed its irony and humour.

'Collected Poems,' (or just 'Ariel') Plath. I know that this is not prose, but the diversity and brilliance of Sylvia Plath might just have you coming back to read her again and again.

'The Unconsoled,' Ishiguro. One of the strangest books ever, it sounds off like a surreal dream. A pianist arrives in an unnameable Central European city. He doesn't know it, but he is there for the biggest concert of his life, and we follow him through the alternately comical and eerie landscape that surrounds him.

'1984,' Orwell-- just needs to be read. As does 'One Hundred years of solitude,' Márquez.

'The Tin Drum,' Günter Grass-- a classic. Grass takes us through the life of Oskar, a magical midget who refused to grow when three to avoid becoming like the fascists. Poignant, darkly funny, we see the rise and fall of the Nazi régime through his eyes.

********'Les Liaisons Dangereuses,' Laclos. My favourite book, ever. A novel that consists on letters, it charts the misdeeds of two predators in period France, their savage deceit, comic humour, destruction of lives, and inevitable downfall. If I could recommend one book for everyone to read, it would be this. Words cannot do it justice.

Thanks everyone - these are some great reccomendations - I'm writing them all down on my list of books to read

xifar-

If you are interested in reading moderately difficult non-fiction that may change the way you look at the world, try some of the books covering the exciting field of evolutionary psychology--

I would begin with "The Moral Animal" by Robert Wright and follow with the brilliant and fascinating new book by Steven Pinker, author of "How the Mind Works" entitled------"The Blank Slate"

What is it about? It is about the "rediscovery of Human Nature" No one who reads it can fail to be impressed and become more thoughtful about who we really are and what drives us.

I liked "The Moral Animal", but if our friend is only 17 I'm thinking he might want to get through a little Freud first. Or maybe even some Shakespeare. Both of these authors will give him a solid understanding of human nature which he can then apply to "The Moral Animal". So I'd say start with "Macbeth" and "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life".

A good follow up in psychological reading might be "Notes from the Underground", by F. Dostoyevsky, whom if you seriously love literature you'll come to know sooner or later. If you get to like the Russians (I love them) go on to Turguenev's "Fathers and Sons", and if you like that then revisit Dostoyevsky in the wonderful "Crime and Punishment" and by the you'll be at least 19, which is the proper age for the first reading of "War and Peace"...wow! I hope you enjoy these.

For a completely different type of literature, try Jack London's short stories, they're great. If you like short stories try Borges' "Ficciones" or "the Aleph", also Julio Cortzar's stories, Hemigway's ("The Snows of Kilimajaro" is a good start but you might also like "In our Time"), and my all time favorite William Faulkner (his hunting stories are to die for). When you fall in love try reading Nabokov's short stories too, they're not as clever as Borges' or Cortazar's, but they've got this light dreamy touch.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Your reading habits seem similar to what mine were at your age. Try these

Lavengro-George Borrow(classic)
Foundation Trilogy-Asimov(sci-fi)
Silent Spring-Rachel Carson(science, ecology)

I am a scattershot reader, one way of finding absolute gems is to go to the library, randomly pick an aisle close my eyes, twirl around waving my hands and reach out and take whatever book my hand lands on. No matter what it is I take it home and do at least the first three chapters. weird, totally, but I sometimes pick out books I never would have, and loving them. Try it, you never know where it will take you.

I have addition to drom's list: read EVERYTHING by Marquez (well, almost everything, but you almost can't miss)
Orwell has some other great books as well but I read them all in croatian, so I don't know accurate translations - those that I particularly like would be DIRECTLY translated back to English as "Noone and nobody in Paris and London" and "Days in Burma"
As "Catcher in the rye" fan I could in some perfect world also suggest another Salinger's book but I could absolutely never translate this title back to English - maybe other's will help

"Visoko (high) podignite (podizati=lift) krovne (krov=roof) grede, tesari"

Dostoyevski is great, if you read him already and liked him I can also suggest Turgenyev, especially "Fathers and sons" I really liked that one.
Heh, now when checking what others suggested I see durriken already did it
I can add Borges on list as well.

And I am pretty amazed that of all Americans in this topic nobody suggested Raymond Carver - man was brilliant writer, read anything from him.

"The City and the Dogs" from Mario Vargas Llosa, very interesting, also "The Da Vinci Code" from Dan Brown.

Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda

I love Vonnegut too. He's the conscience of America. My favorites along with "Slaughterhouse Five" are "The Sirens of Titan" and "God Bless You Mr. Rosewater."

"Watership Down" is about a society of rabbits and is an endearing book for kids and adults.

"War and Peace" is one of my favorites. Read the unabridged version. It's proof that great writing doesn't have to be difficult, which is true for Vonnegut as well as Tolstoy.

There are just so many books out there, so I don't know what you would like to read....

But if you want to learn about friendship and to be seriously moved by the simple power of friendship, you should read these books:

Secret of the Bees
The Lord of Discipline.

I read these books in my crit issue class in school and I love it! Tell me what u think.