recommend me some good fiction

[Guest kylewilliam]

any type... just got a kindle as a gift and need some good reading for my europe trip! i enjoy a wide range of fiction, from vince flynn and john grisham to harry potter.

[xadamhudsonx]

the china town death cloud peril - paul malmont (Malmont's debut thriller reads like pages torn from the pulp magazines to which it pays nostalgic homage. It's 1937, and the nation's two top pulp writers—William Gibson, author of novels featuring caped crime fighter "The Shadow," and Lester Dent, the creator of do-gooder hero Doc Savage—are trying to solve real-life mysteries that each hopes will give him bragging rights as the world's best yarn spinner. Gibson follows rumors that pulp colleague H.P. Lovecraft was murdered to the fog-shrouded Providence, R.I., waterfront. Dent tracks clues to an impossible killing through the bowels of New York's Chinatown. As the two adventures dovetail, they spawn sinuous subplots involving tong wars, secret chemical warfare, pirate mercenaries, kidnappings, revolution in China and weird science run amok. Lovecraft, L. Ron Hubbard, Louis L'Amour and Chester Himes all play prominent supporting roles and offer piquant observations on the penny-a-word writing life that conjure a colorful sense of time and place.)

Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold (Gold's debut novel opens with real-life magician Charles Carter executing a particularly grisly trick, using President Warren G. Harding as a volunteer. Shortly afterwards, Harding dies mysteriously in his San Francisco hotel room, and Carter is forced to flee the country. Or does he? It's only the first of many misdirections in a magical performance by Gold. In the course of subsequent pages, Carter finds himself pursued by the most hapless of FBI agents; falls in love with a beautiful, outspoken blind woman; and confronts an old nemesis bent on destroying him. Throw in countless stunning (and historically accurate) illusions, some beautifully rendered period detail, and historical figures like young inventor Philo T. Farnsworth and self-made millionaire Francis "Borax" Smith, and you have old-fashioned entertainment executed with a decidedly modern sensibility.)

The Somnambulist - jonathan barnes (Set in Victorian London, this superb debut from British author Barnes raises the bar for historical thrillers, starting with its curious opening line: Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. A page-turner, it's full of peculiar characters, notably Edward Moon, a highly unorthodox detective, and Moon's bizarre sidekick, known only as the Somnambulist. Moon, a conjuror by profession whose act has fallen on hard times, has cracked some of the city's most notorious murders. Now, he's leading the investigation into a shadowy religious group aiming to overtake London and do away with its oppressive, bourgeois tendencies. Moon is a remarkable invention, a master of logic and harborer of all sorts of unnatural habits and mannerisms. The Somnambulist—a giant, milk-swigging mute—doesn't appear to be human at all, yet serves as Moon's moral as well as intellectual compass. Together, they wend their way through a London rich in period detail. Barnes saves his best surprise for the story's homestretch, when he reveals the identity of his narrator, who's been cleverly pulling strings since the opening. )

[scotterson]

Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis

A professor of linguistics is kidnapped by a physicist and taken to another planet as a sacrifice, but he escapes once there and learns to community with the inhabitants of the planet. First in a trilogy, this one is quick and easy, they get progressively longer and harder, but the entire trilogy is fantastic.

Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde

In a futuristic world where everyone is partially colorblind, people are divided into social classes based on what colors they can see. It's a comedy (brit-humor), but incredibly interesting and well written.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet - Reif Larson (this relies heavily on footnotes and diagrams, so I'm not sure how it would do on the kindle...but I imagine it wouldn't be an issue. It is a fantastic book.)

A boy who obsessively draws maps sets out on a trip across the country, train hopping with hobos, etc. This book is super original, and the main character is awesome. All of the footnotes just add to the greatness.

[thedavidescapeplan]

Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski

Ishmael - Daniel Quinn

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

Not fiction but also awesome:

Newjack - Ted Conover

Columbine - Dave Cullen

[Guest kylewilliam]

if you feel like including a description of the type of book / plot, thatd rule as well

[kidamnesiac]

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead's protagonist, Howard Roark, is an individualistic young architect who chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision. The book follows his battle to practice what the public sees as modern architecture, which he believes to be superior, despite an establishment centered on tradition-worship. How others in the novel relate to Roark demonstrates Rand's various archetypes of human character, all of which are variants between Roark, the author's ideal man of independent-mindedness and integrity, and what she described as the "second-handers." The complex relationships between Roark and the various kinds of individuals who assist or hinder his progress, or both, allow the novel to be at once a romantic drama and a philosophical work. By Rand's own admission, Roark is the embodiment of the human spirit and his struggle represents the triumph of individualism over collectivism.

[oakland]

1. I really enjoyed "Catch 22."

2. Also, "Gentlemen of the Road" by Michael Chabon. Really good historical fiction. And Chabon is awesome.

3. "The Yiddish Policemen's Union " is alwao a really good Chabon book.

4. "Juliet, Naked" is great Nick Hornby book I read recently.

5. Also reading "How to Be Good," another Hornby book.

[hankmurphy]

Ishmael - Daniel Quinn

Ishmael deals with philosophy and human society in the form of fiction. I would highly recommend this book to anybody.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami: kind of sci-fi adventure? Murakami creates very dream-like settings and his novels have very mysterious qualities.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: a mystery written from the point of view of a 15 year old autistic boy. This is a pretty emotional story and a very easy read.

[oakland]

Einstein's Dreams is awesome too. An interesting concept that was well developed. The author is a physicist who writes fiction. He did another awesome book called "Reunion."

[lechevre]

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead's protagonist, Howard Roark, is an individualistic young architect who chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision. The book follows his battle to practice what the public sees as modern architecture, which he believes to be superior, despite an establishment centered on tradition-worship. How others in the novel relate to Roark demonstrates Rand's various archetypes of human character, all of which are variants between Roark, the author's ideal man of independent-mindedness and integrity, and what she described as the "second-handers." The complex relationships between Roark and the various kinds of individuals who assist or hinder his progress, or both, allow the novel to be at once a romantic drama and a philosophical work. By Rand's own admission, Roark is the embodiment of the human spirit and his struggle represents the triumph of individualism over collectivism.

+1 Also, pretty much anything Ayn Rand, at least in my opinion. I totally dig Anthem, it's an easy start to her philosophy.

[lonesomexloveus]

extremely loud and incredibly close - jonathan safran foer

(Oskar Schell, hero of this brilliant follow-up to Foer's bestselling Everything Is Illuminated, is a nine-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist. Like the second-language narrator of Illuminated, Oskar turns his naïvely precocious vocabulary to the understanding of historical tragedy, as he searches New York for the lock that matches a mysterious key left by his father when he was killed in the September 11 attacks, a quest that intertwines with the story of his grandparents, whose lives were blighted by the firebombing of Dresden.)

what is the what - dave eggers

(Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war-the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath-of the 1980s and 90s. In this fictionalized memoir, Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) makes him an icon of globalization. Separated from his family when Arab militia destroy his village, Valentino joins thousands of other "Lost Boys," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on their march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, where Valentino pieces together a new life. He eventually reaches America, but finds his quest for safety, community and fulfillment in many ways even more difficult there than in the camps)

[oakland]

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead's protagonist, Howard Roark, is an individualistic young architect who chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision. The book follows his battle to practice what the public sees as modern architecture, which he believes to be superior, despite an establishment centered on tradition-worship. How others in the novel relate to Roark demonstrates Rand's various archetypes of human character, all of which are variants between Roark, the author's ideal man of independent-mindedness and integrity, and what she described as the "second-handers." The complex relationships between Roark and the various kinds of individuals who assist or hinder his progress, or both, allow the novel to be at once a romantic drama and a philosophical work. By Rand's own admission, Roark is the embodiment of the human spirit and his struggle represents the triumph of individualism over collectivism.

+1 Also, pretty much anything Ayn Rand, at least in my opinion. I totally dig Anthem, it's an easy start to her philosophy.

Yes, Anthem is an awesome book and quite short. I'd definitely recommend reading that before jumping into "Atlas Shrugged."

[oakland]

If you like audio books, I can't recommend "Wigfield: The Can-do town That Just May Not" strongly enough. It's available as a hardcover book from Amazon, but the audio is just hilarious. It was written (and read) by Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello. I've listened to it about 20 times.

[hankmurphy]

If you like audio books, I can't recommend "Wigfield: The Can-do town That Just May Not." It's available as a hardcover book from Amazon, but the audio is just hilarious. It was written (and read) by Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello. I've listened to it about 20 times.

Funniest book I've ever read. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

[oakland]

If you like audio books, I can't recommend "Wigfield: The Can-do town That Just May Not." It's available as a hardcover book from Amazon, but the audio is just hilarious. It was written (and read) by Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello. I've listened to it about 20 times.

Funniest book I've ever read. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

I've read it and listened to it and I'm telling you, download the audio from iTunes. It's so much better with those retards doing all the voices.

[Guest markovianprocess]

You can't go wrong with Nick Hornby and his books are reasonably priced for Kindle. Juliet, Naked was really good. Check that out.

Not a recommendation of fiction, but for something for on-off reading, you should get Hell of it All by Charlie Brooker, his latest collection of columns for The Guardian. I really love his work.

[mclz]

the bible

[monk0nuggets]

+1

[kidamnesiac]

+1 Also, pretty much anything Ayn Rand, at least in my opinion. I totally dig Anthem, it's an easy start to her philosophy.

+1 back at ya. Anthem is really really good and a short easy read, Atlas Shrugged is undoubtedly her masterpiece, but The Fountainhead is my favorite.

[oakland]

You can't go wrong with Nick Hornby and his books are reasonably priced for Kindle. Juliet, Naked was really good. Check that out.

Not a recommendation of fiction, but for something for on-off reading, you should get Hell of it All by Charlie Brooker, his latest collection of columns for The Guardian. I really love his work.

I just recently read "Juliet, Naked." Good stuff. I'm reading "How to be Good" right now, and it's pretty good too.

[kittenmittons]

[fourfourtwo]

the bible

That's what I came to post!

[raistlinn]

No Vonnegut love here?

[oakland]

I was trying to think of newer stuff, but yes, I've read and own every single thing he ever wrote. I even went to the special collections department of the University of Delaware to read a huge collection of his letters and handwritten drafts of books. Sirans of Titan is a good one, so is Breakfast of Champions, and God Bless You Mr. Rosewater. All of them really are excellent, although he kind of went on a rant there at the end.

Also, read Last Exit To Brooklyn and The Demon. Super good fucked up fiction.

[rtw88]