Another Book Recommendation?

[Kidd]

I'm back at school now and that means I need new books and you guys saved me so much last time with a bunch of good ones. I kinda want to read something serious, something sort of like Girl, Interrupted? I'm open to whatever though, except fantasy and sci-fi. What do you guys think?

[Messed Up]

Mrs. Dalloway!

[pancake111]

Not sure of what you've read , but here are some of my favorites

Sea Wolf- Jack London
No Country For Old Men- Cormac McCarthy
Catcher In the Rye- J.D. Salinger
one flew over the cuckoos nest- Ken Kesey
Gone Baby Gone- Dennis Lehane
Misery- Stephen King
Mystic River- Dennis Lehane
the Shining- Stephen King
Prozac Nation- Elizabeth Wurtzel

[kirbycat]

Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides.

I cannot recommend this book passionately enough. The main plot line is about an intersex individual, and it offers a fascinating, intelligent look at the history and biology of hermaphroditism and transsexualism. It's also an outstanding story of a multigenerational Greek immigrant family and their engagement with the social and cultural issues facing America over the course of the 20th century.

Basically, it's one of the smartest, sexiest books I've ever read.

It also takes place in Michigan...so I may be somewhat biased there.

[Doctor Faustus]

"Atonement" by Ian McEwan.
Or "The English Patient" by Michael Ondaatje.
Both are beautiful books.

Originally Posted by kirbycat

Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides.

I cannot recommend this book passionately enough. The main plot line is about an intersex individual, and it offers a fascinating, intelligent look at the history and biology of hermaphroditism and transsexualism. It's also an outstanding story of a multigenerational Greek immigrant family and their engagement with the social and cultural issues facing America over the course of the 20th century.

Basically, it's one of the smartest, sexiest books I've ever read.

It also takes place in Michigan...so I may be somewhat biased there.

I am so glad that somebody else loves this book as much as I do!! Have you read his new one? "The Marriage Plot." I haven't yet, but I want to. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about it.


Some of my other favourite books and ones I highly recommend are:

- The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
- Horns by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son)
- The Green Mile by Stephen King
- Room by Emma Donoghue
- Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
- Anything by Augusten Burroughs - my favourite is Possible Side Effects
- Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

[Fisnou]

I'm reading "Middlesex" now! I'm loving it! It's so entertaining and so well written!
READ IT!

Two other really entertaining books I recommend:

One Big Damn Puzzler - John Harding (it made me laugh out loud a lot)
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris (gay author)

Originally Posted by Fisnou

I'm reading "Middlesex" now! I'm loving it! It's so entertaining and so well written!
READ IT!

Two other really entertaining books I recommend:

One Big Damn Puzzler - John Harding (it made me laugh out loud a lot)
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris (gay author)

Glad to hear you are liking Middlesex! I also love David Sedaris. If you like him, you should check out Augusten Burroughs (also a gay author.) They have very similar writing styles.

[Fisnou]

Originally Posted by Pigme1788

Glad to hear you are liking Middlesex! I also love David Sedaris. If you like him, you should check out Augusten Burroughs (also a gay author.) They have very similar writing styles.

Oh ok, cool, thanks

[Tiny Catastrophe]

The book Scars by Cheryl Rainfield is actually really good. I've read it 3 or 4 times. It's a bit of a messed up story but it's really good and actually has lgbt characters (but that's not the main focus of the story).

[Noir]

I just looked up Middlesex and it sounds amazing!! I've been trying to find some interesting LGBT novels in my school library--I'll be sure to look it up!

Originally Posted by Noir

I just looked up Middlesex and it sounds amazing!! I've been trying to find some interesting LGBT novels in my school library--I'll be sure to look it up!

YAY!! I guarantee you'll love it.

[steel03]

Originally Posted by Pigme1788

Room by Emma Donoghue

+10000000000 READ THIS
I came to this thread specifically to recommend Room.
It's about a young woman who has been kidnapped and locked in a small room, basically as a sex slave. And it's told from the point of view of her five-year-old illegitimate son Jack, who has never known anything outside of the room. Which brings up all kinds of amazing psychological questions and it's suuuuuch a great book!

More recommendations:
Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist - This is a zombie book, but it's not a slasher or a thriller (though there is one really terrifying attack sequence). In the near future, some kind of parasite or something has caused the recently dead to reawaken in Stockholm. Instead of writing a killing spree, Lindqvist explores how society would actually react to such an event. The plot centers on several families of recently deceased (and now reawakened) people, and how this affects their grieving process. One major character is the mother of a toddler who fell off a balcony and died a couple months previously - she goes to the graveyard and digs up his decomposing body, wanting to care for him as long as she possibly can. It's a surprisingly moving book.

In a similar vein... The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier - The premise here is that after we die, we go to this gigantic city with hundreds of millions of other former people, and we stay there until there is no one left alive on Earth to remember us (at which point no one really knows what happens to you; you just leave). This has been going on forever, apparently. In the course of the book, a pandemic wipes out the entire human population of Earth, except one scientist in Antarctic. So we go back and forth in perspective from this last scientist trying to understand why she can't find anyone and the remaining people in the City (the people she has memories of). It's a quick, fascinating read.