good book recommendations
 

I highly recommend anything by Jodi Piccoult. Her works are well researched timely topics with a TWIST at the end of each. They are not difficult reading, but not fluffy either.

Her characters are always well developed and she takes her time to share their perspectives well.

When i read the titel of this thread i was like oooo Jodi Picoult thats who id suggest but you me to it. . . Anyway another good one is Jennifer Weiner specifically "good in bed" but it is a bit fluffy

I recently read "Winning the Future" by Newt Gingrich. It's been out for a while, but I found it to be a great read.


Another good read is "Inside Greek U.:Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure, Power, and Prestige' by Alan DeSantis. Dr. DeSantis is a professor of communications at UK. He uses code names, but it's about greek life at UK and for the most part figure out what the codes are. I felt the book to be on the mark. I have taken a communication class by Dr. Desantis and he's awesome. He's a Sigma Pi alumni (and the UK Sigma Pi chapter advisor).

I read the Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs recently. It was great!

I recently discovered Jen Lancaster's books. They are so hilarious! I'm finishing up Dream When You're Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg. It's an easy read, but pretty enjoyable.

I just finished The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillippa Gregory, and I really liked it.

^^ Read that last month, and really liked it. Question: how is "Phillippa" pronounced?

I can't say enough about Ken Follett's World Without End and Pillars of the Earth. If you like longer books, these are made for you.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven: by Mitch Albom. I couldn't put it down...a short, captivating read!!

Philippa is my mom's birth name but like all her brothers and sisters she now uses an American name. It's pronounced with the accent on the second syllable. (Phil-LIP-ah)

I've read that Philippa Gregory was born in Kenya. I haven't been able to find out her ancestry. She may pronounce it differently than Italians, such as my mother, would but it's a safe guess that it's similar.

Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt - The Story of a daughter and a mother in the Gilded Age by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart. Fascinating biography and social history.

Here are a few older ones when I used to get time read, "The Time-Travelers Wife" is one of the better books I've read, as was "Mutant Message from Down Under", "Snow Falling on Cedars", and "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"

As for me & more guy-type books, I loved "Jesus' Son", "Among the Thugs", and "A Clockwork Orange"

Cormac McCarthy, Charles Bukowski, Hemingway, Doystoevsky.

Each is...timeless and has had a huge impact on literature and society in his own way.

Currently reading the Kim Harrison urban fantasy series (Dead Witch Walking, The Good, The Bad and the Undead, For a Few Demons More etc.)

I second Bukowski strongly...and the others as well, I guess.

Thank you! Just to make sure, it's LIP, not LEEP, right? There seems to be dozens of Phillippas in English history (including Chaucer's wife), and I've always gone out of my way not to say the name out loud!



For non-fiction fans, I'm reading Blood On The Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It's quite possibly the best book on the Lincoln assassination I've ever read - and I've read a lot of them.

I just read "Summer at Tiffany's" by Marjorie Hart. It was so cute!! The author and her friend in the book were Kappa's at Iowa. It's very old New Yorky, in the 40's when people dressed up for every occasion and were so much more formal. It's a great read!!

Light hearted and even a little silly.. I'm reading the whole "murder she baked" series.. starts with Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder. I'm on the 8th in the series, Cherry Cheesecake Murder and I've read all of them since February 23rd, so they are clearly quick and easy reads. The fun thing about them is that every few chapters there is a recipe for a baked good that has had prominence in the previous chapter! These books make me hungry!

I consider this book to be one of the most influential, important books I have ever read in my life. I have given this book to many a friend who is going through a tough time with the loss of a loved one....

Along the same vein...his book "For One More Day" is equally good, exploring mothers and sons. I gave it to Sageofages Son #1 (who we all know has had his challenges over the years...just search my posts from 2005)....he cried and slept with it under his pillow for many weeks, it is next to his computer now to see everyday ;).

im on the last 50 or so pages... woo wee! what a read!

i can just tell the movie won't be as good.

I also recently read "I know this much is true" by Wally Lamb. My daughter read it, and gave it to me. I didn't get around to reading it for probably...1.5-2 years. It sat, literally, on my piano for that long. (I just moved it from one side to the other when I dusted :).

Finally, I broke down and read it after she kept nagging and nagging and nagging me. WOW. It is an excellent book...well actually a story within a story ending with the redemption of the human spirit.

I recommend it as well. It is not a fast read, as it can be complicated when you are reading in first person voice (and the side story is in first person voice of another). Very image-filled and emotionally evocative.

I've read this series, too. Another cute line in the same vein is by Diane Mott Davidson... Goldilocks Catering.

I am a sucker for the Thursday Next series by Welsh author Jasper Fforde. If you like literary puns and can understand the term "willing suspension of disbelief," then these are great books. You might have to read them a second time to fully appreciate them. Each time I read these books (I think I have read each about 4-5 times), I pick up something new.

The Eyre Affair
Lost in a Good Book
The Well of Lost Plots
Something Rotten
First Among Sequels

Another series is the one by Diana Gabaldon. If you like Scotland, Bonnie Prince Charlie, a good love story and yes, time travel, then this is the one for you!

Outlander
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager
Drums of Autumn
The Fiery Cross
Breath of Snow and Ashes

If you would like an insider's look into her books, Diana also wrote The Outlandish Companion as a sort of guide.

All of these are links to amazon.com using the Greekchat support link.

i concur - it's one of those "someday ill read that one" books, but boy what a great read.

I recently read Paula Deen's "It Ain't All About the Cookin'"----and it was wonderful. It meant a lot to read about someone who I have a few things in common with......

Stupid and Contagious by Caprice Crane. Absolutely hilarious! And then there's The Washingtonienne by Jessica Cutler. Guilty pleasures, for sure, but very very fun to read!

I LOVE Jennifer Weiner, especially Good in Bed and In Her Shoes. Both made me laugh, cry and get really angry in parts.

One of my favorite books of all time is The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay.

If you like spy novels, anything by Robert Ludlum is a good read.

As someone else suggested, Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth .

Aso by Ken Follet, Hornet's Flight.

I'm a biography nut! Currently reading My Friend Leonard by: James Frey. It's the follow up to his first book A Million Little Pieces I have the hardest time putting his books down!

Isn't he the author that fabricated parts of the books in a A Million Little Pieces?

John Grisham never disappoints. never. He's my official airport/flight author

Tamar by Mal Peet. Officially a YA novel but I disagree, it's absolutely brilliant. Won the Carnegie medal.

Atonement and Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. That man is just a literary feast. I was almost sad when Atonement ended, it's such a beautiful book. I'd read anything by him now.

I'm actually bored by Jodi Picoult now. Her books are so similar that I've grown restless reading them. There's a new one coming out soon, I got an advanced reader's copy from my brother's ex's mom who owns a bookstore. Didn't even get a quarter-way through it because I got bored.

Occasionally I re-read Bill Bryson because the man is brilliant and writes the books you don't read in public because you'll laugh too hard.

I gotta admit this-I'm sort of a book snob. I cannot bring myself to buy any trashy chick lit, be seen reading it, be seen considering it, any of it. Well that and the blatant consumerism in the Shopaholic series sickens me, but yeah...uh...I can't bring myself to read the popular fiction like that. Sometimes I steal other people's books instead. I read so fast they can have it back in a day. It's all formulaic anyway. Woman, late 20s, bad dating life, works in publishing or marketing, neurotic about shopping/weight/food/alcohol or all four, meets guy, he's the boss, gets promotion, falls in love, solves major conflict, the end. Boom, I just wrote some chick-lit. 30 second novel.

I used to feel that way when I was in college. Now that actual, like, work has got me busy and thinking about buildings and money like, all the time, I would rather read Sophie Kinsella and Jennifer Weiner than Freakonomics. It's good subway reading.

Hence why I borrow them from friends :P I'm too ashamed to even look at them in the bookstores, even in airports.

I have to wonder, do Americans understand the Shopaholic books well? They are very English, even if they're trashy chick-lit.

I've seen some of the second and third editions adapted for American audiences. But, I've read most of them as first editions, and they are pretty English, but not impossible to understand.

Bridget Jones's Diary had all kinds of British slang, too, but was easy to understand.

I love all of those - Follett (have you tried World Without End or Night Over Water?), David Baldacci, Brad Thor, Vince Flynn - the whole genre.

Have you read The Innocent Man yet? It's the first Grisham I haven't totally loved.


Just an idea: on another message board, people keep track of every book they read within a year. It's inspired me to keep a list - maybe we can compare at the end of the year?

I like that idea!!!