Forums » Smalltalk » What books do you recomend?

I don't read much aside from manga so....

Death Note (Volume 1 - 4)
Soul Eater (the prequels)

The inheritance cycle - Christopher Paolini

Book of dust - Philip Pullman

Cat woman, soulstealer - Sarah J. Maas

One of us is lying - Karen M. McManus

Any Rick Riordan books are fun to read, even though they’re technically for young teens I still enjoyed them.

I really recommend the Maze runner series

(Includes The scorch trials and death cure, haven’t read the other one yet)

And believe me when I say they are Way better then the films

I second that, m'dude. Same for the Divergent books. The movies were so bad, the third one got a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes!

I have to recommend Sherlock Holmes all the way. I absolutely loved the books.

One of my other favorite books series which I actually was just able to purchase is (The) City Trilogy by Laurence Yep. As the name implies there are three books, City of Fire, City of Ice, and City of Death. They're a really nice little fantasy series that dabbles briefly in a variety of things. Dragons, goddesses, shapeshifters, talking animals, reincarnated Chinese warriors, legends, great beasts that mean the end of the world, ect.

My other favorite series to reccomend is The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica (literally "Imaginary Geography") by James A. Owen. There are 7 books in the series. They took wonderful inspiration from Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, Peter Pan, Arthur and the Holy Grail, ect.

Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series. The first book is called "Too Like the Lightning." The series has a learning curve, so I strongly encourage you get 150 pages in before you give up. Some of the realest near-future sci-fi I've ever read. Deeply political and philosophical, complex, weird magic, war, fascinating 18th century style writing, peppered with kennings and poetic language. I've never had such an emotional response to fiction before in my life, even in my formative years. Rated R!

If you like mature speculative fiction, I strongly recommend the MaddAddam trilogy (Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam) by Margaret Atwood. It's not your everyday dystopian apocalypse story, and in typical Atwood fashion you get to delve deep into the fascinating minds of the main characters as the world falls apart around them. Warnings for sexual content, depictions of pedophilia, human trafficking, and cults.

If sociopolitical satire with vampires is more your thing, try A People's History of the Vampire Uprising by Raymond A. Villareal, which I'm currently halfway through reading. It's part pandemic thriller, part mystery, part commentary on modern society, and it uses a particularly interesting version of vampirism to drive the story. Again, the character development in this book is fantastic. No warnings necessary as far as I've read, aside from the ones that always come with political satire.

If you want a violent sci-fi thriller, read the Valhalla trilogy (Valhalla, Ragnarök, and Guðsríki) by Ari Bach! This series will get your adrenaline pumping and wrench your heartstrings all at once, and the characters are deliciously flawed and complicated people. The main character is a lesbian, so if that bothers you, you can buzz right off. Warnings for extremely graphic violence, cannibalism, attempted rape, incest mentions, terrorism, religious fanatics, descriptions of surgery, cruel and unusual deaths, and probably more I'm not thinking of.

If you're fond of modern fantasy, The Magicians trilogy (The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician's Land) by Lev Grossman is the darker, college-age cousin of The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. It's a delightful foil to the whimsical fantasy and childlike innocence of those two series, and it comes from a place of love. I don't recommend the TV show based on it that can be found on Netflix, though. It deviates from the books in ways that defeated the entire message and purpose of the books. Warnings for sexual content, drug and alcohol abuse, graphic violence, pedophilia mentions, and potential suicide (it's been a while since I read it, so I don't quite remember), and possibly more I'm forgetting.

I can't even begin to read everything here (The books you all mention, or your comments) but this all makes me so happy. Feels good man.

Yeah, keep it coming!

ohohoho, one of my favorite pastimes.

"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" a memoir by Haruki Murakami - a good read for athletes and writers alike, also just good life inspiration

"Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut - it's Vonnegut, so satire! and really weird sci-fi

"Marathon Man" by William Goldman - thriller, assassins, confusion, conspiracies

"Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Montgomery - a good read even as an adult, in some ways even better

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou - lovely, lovely poetry that can't be matched

The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende

lol.

Because I ALWAYS have to suggest it. Not enough people have read it.

Howls Moving Castle by Dianne Wynne Jones is really good too. She wrote a LOT of very good books.

If you want something really dang strange, there's also Why Weeps the Brogan by Hugh Scott which is... really very bizarre. It's sort of sci fi... kinda... but it's really one of the most oddly written books i've ever read.

Can you tell I love kids books? lol.

Warrior Cats is good, it has cat murder mystery and starvation problems and angsty depressed characters very relatable

I feel "Khimera" should be an absolute must on the field of "Goddamn Awesome Sci-Fi".
As for specifically distopian fiction, "Fahrenheit 451" and "1998" are, in my opinions, obligatory titles. "1998" leaves you with a bitter taste on the mouth tho, so if you aren't a fan of gloomy literature or abandoning hope (???) you maybe should keep away from it.
"Tuareg" Is an epic tale of a tuareg man searching the desert to defend his honor and its one of the best books I've ever read.
Haven't finished "Father Brown's Candor" yet, bur C. K. Chesterton's policial tales of the mistery solving priest are a refreshing tune in a genre that usually deals with dark, gritty settings (I do love noir literature too though)

Maybe Tuck Everlasting? Olden fantasy with a bit of romance and drama sprinkled in if that's your thing.

Some might have seen me recommend the book before, but I'll do it again. It deserves it. It's amazing. Go read it.

The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty.

It's a soon-to-be trilogy(first two books are out), called "The Daevabad Trilogy" , and it ticked all of my boxes - and then some. I had just come home from Cairo, and was poking around my usual book dealer, when I spotted this gem. It's set in Cairo in the 1800th century, where con-artist Nahri accidentally summons a Daeva and shenanigans happens. It has an amazing historical setting(the author got help from the al-Azhar university in Egypt), mythology from the Middle East, and some extra, super amazing fantasy elements for spice.
It's likely the best thing I've ever read.

Go. Read. It.

Fiction:
- Les Miserablés
- to be completely honest every classic novel written by Jane Austen to F Scott Fitzgerald
- The Invisible Man
- The Time Machine
- The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
- and if you’re old enough and have the patience to read books with over 400 pages each...the entire Outlander series

Kings Go Forth by Joe David Brown

Keith Richards "life". Bob Dylan "chronicles".

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran (comedy)
On the Road by Jack Kerouac (drama)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (drama)
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (play)
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (The Folk of the Air series) (fantasy)
The Wicked King by Holly Black (The Folk of the Air series) (fantasy)
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan (Takeski Kovacs series) (sci-fi)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (drama)
Frog Music by Emma Donaghue (drama)
Lamb: The Gospel According to Christ's Childhood Friend, Biff by Christopher Moore (comedy)
jPod by Douglas Copeland (comedy)
A Love Letter to Whiskey by Kandi Steiner (dark romance)
King by T.M. Frazier (King series) (dark romance)
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice (fantasy)
The Complete Collection of Edgar Allan Poe (fantasy, horror, drama)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Louis Robert Stevenson (sci-fi, fantasy, horror)
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (drama, fantasy)
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Salem's Lot is my absolute favorite King novel, followed closely by Pet Sematary

My list of favorites is always changing, but here is my current Top 10 (in no particular order)

1. The entire Harry Potter series
**I said no particular order, but let's be honest, this is always number one!**

2. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr (historical fiction)

3. Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines - Nic Sheff (memoir)
**The movie Beautiful Boy is based off of this book and it's on my top list of movies as well**

4. Redeeming Love - Francine Rivers (religious fiction/romance)

5. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis (religious non-fiction)

6. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli (young adult fiction/romance)

7. Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult (contemporary fiction)

8. Bird Box - Josh Malerman (thriller)
**The book is a million times better than the Netflix movie**

9. The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood (dystopian fiction)

10. Crank by Ellen Hopkins - (young adult fiction/poetry)
**along with its sequel Glass**