The BEST books you ever read (or are reading)

I'm just going to stay with Science Fiction save one final comment.

I do not find Enders Game to be anywhere near the top. I think it gets a lot of votes because many like the message. The basic idea fails for anyone who knows either human nature or the most basic military strategy.

I'd go with something form Heinlein. Here are a few off the top of my head.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Heinlein turns some themes upside down. Setting is the moon where most inhabitants are the decendents of prisoners shiped off. The end is bloody and I at least found it interesting just whose death touched me most. Heinlein has been accused by some of being racist. In this book it is made clear he is not and is not fond of racists.

Farnhams Freehold. Got to include this as it one of the few books I'm sure will never be made into a film. The story starts in the cold war, think Cuban Missle crisis that went very bad. Africa is the least impacted and the resulting civilization is Black dominated. This is the work that likely leads to the accusations of racism. Dead wrong, unless one considers it racist to think those now the underclass will be saints if they come to power. Time travel is involved.

The Door into Summer. My mothers favorite of Heinleins works. One of the few time travel works that uses a method that does not raise the question of why we are not having time travelers poping in all the time. It comments on corporate greed (and foolishness) and also has some interesting twists on romance, including a solution to the situation where a child is in love with someone older.

I will fear No Evil. What happens if you are old, rich, famous and made the mistake of letting them get you to the Hospital? Pain killers no longer work, euthanasia is not permitted and your death will not be swept under the carpet. You are looking forward to many more years of pain. Until a physician in South Africa swaps the brains of 2 apes. People die of blows to the head all the time. An attempted transplant into such a body is a sure win. Eitehr a new start or death, either a win. Even the most niave reader knows the result. But not the twists.

A few other works from other Authors.

The Cold Equations. Perhaps the most hated Science Fiction work ever. Or at elast the one wher people try to chance the result.

Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. One of the more unique stories out there. What happens to a world in a trinary star system where relative to the planet teh suns are all in hte sky only once every 2,500 years or so. Or put differently where there is night only once every 2,500 years?

My one closing comment. The Prince is well known. The Discourses is much more educational. But it is longer and a harder read. That The Prince is better known and more touted would not have surprised Machavelli.

Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska - Divine Mercy in my Soul

Story of a Soul - Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux

Autobiography of St. Anthony Mary Claret

You can click them if you want to read them, they're in pdf format

Amazing book, gives food to my soul that is thirsting for Christ

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Mexico by James Michener

LAD: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune (kind of a sentimental favorite from my childhood)

and by far my favorite book of all time: The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy

Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief" is my favourite book. I have never cried so much over a book before or since. Of course, it helped that it had elements of both my favourite genres - WWII stories and fantasy - and I love the narrative style and imagery.

However, my favourite author is Peter S. Beagle, as the only author I've found so far who writes extraordinary lyrical fantasy... playing with language so skilfully that he often makes me laugh and cry in the same sentence, or making me cry because the tale's so wonderfully-told even though the tale itself is happy. Another thing I love about him is that his stories are often as far from being cardboard cut-outs of The Quest To Save The World (TM), the Unlikely Hero (TM), et cetera ad nauseum, as it is possible to be. (Even his almost-straight quest story "The Last Unicorn" manages to thoroughly lampoon the quest genre... whilst never straying from it!) Third thing I like: bittersweet endings. I am forever looking for other fantasy authors who can pull off what Peter Beagle manages to pull off. So far, I have had little success. He seems to be pretty much one-of-a-kind. (sigh)

Humour... "The 13 Clocks" by James Thurber. I don't think I should have read it for the first time with the cat on my lap, though; I terrified him with loud and constant explosions.

catzetier said:

Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief" is my favourite book. I have never cried so much over a book before or since. Of course, it helped that it had elements of both my favourite genres - WWII stories and fantasy - and I love the narrative style and imagery.

However, my favourite author is Peter S. Beagle, as the only author I've found so far who writes extraordinary lyrical fantasy... playing with language so skilfully that he often makes me laugh and cry in the same sentence, or making me cry because the tale's so wonderfully-told even though the tale itself is happy. Another thing I love about him is that his stories are often as far from being cardboard cut-outs of The Quest To Save The World (TM), the Unlikely Hero (TM), et cetera ad nauseum, as it is possible to be. (Even his almost-straight quest story "The Last Unicorn" manages to thoroughly lampoon the quest genre... whilst never straying from it!) Third thing I like: bittersweet endings. I am forever looking for other fantasy authors who can pull off what Peter Beagle manages to pull off. So far, I have had little success. He seems to be pretty much one-of-a-kind. (sigh)

Humour... "The 13 Clocks" by James Thurber. I don't think I should have read it for the first time with the cat on my lap, though; I terrified him with loud and constant explosions.

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Depending on what one calls bittersweet Heinlein might have quite a few.

Science Fiction Rather than Fantasy, well depending.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, The Long Watch, Stranger in A Strange Land and Gulf are all Science Fiction with Bittersweet in the ending.

Glory Road Is Fantasy where the ending could be Considered Bittersweet. A rather different kind of bittersweet. No huge someone dying sadness, total success. But not 'and they lived happily every after either'.

Interestingly critics complain that the last third of the book drags, which shows many critics are idiots.

Thanks Keith99. I have never heard of these books and will now have to try them!

catzetier

I really love Philip Yancey's books

catzetier said:

Thanks Keith99. I have never heard of these books and will now have to try them!

catzetier

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If yuo like Science Fiction at all I suggest the older greates. Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury all come to mind. They wrote in a differetn era, before the series was the rule. So If you find one yuo like yuo may find several truely differrent stories.

It happens that all 4 of the Science Fiction works of Heinlein I listed depend on us either colonizing the Moon or getting to Mars. Stranger in a Strange Land depends on a Mars a bit less hostile that reality. For some this may ruin a work, for others it is fine.

I love Ted Dekker's 'Circle Trilogy' and Frank Peretti's 'This Present Darkness/Piercing the Darkness'. I suppose they'd be in the genre of Christian fiction/fantasy/action.

beccyW said:

I love Ted Dekker's 'Circle Trilogy' and Frank Peretti's 'This Present Darkness/Piercing the Darkness'. I suppose they'd be in the genre of Christian fiction/fantasy/action.

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Have you read Prophet and The Visitation? Those are Peretti's best, IMO.

Speculative said:

Have you read Prophet and The Visitation? Those are Peretti's best, IMO.

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Yep, I have. They're pretty cool, but I still way prefer present darkness, but maybe that's just me.

Did you read any science fiction books?

Oh, my very fav is The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay - beautifully written fantasy novel

I also loved The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill - such wonderful, alive characters. I wanted the story to go on and on.

And Abba's Child by Brennan Manning. I absolutely love that he knows he is completely loved and looked after by our Abba Father.

Honestly the best book I've ever read that's had the most impact on me whenever I read it is: "HINDS FEET ON HIGH PLACES".

The best books that I have read this past year:

• "The Breath of God"
• "Unbroken"
• "Shadow of the Wind"

My number one favorite book is Les miserables! Man, I enjoyed it so much! And another one might be "God doesn't believe in atheists".

the best books ive ever read are the Wheel of Time(impatiently awaiting the next one) books and The Chronicles of Amber. there are also many others i like very much as well but these two series stick out above the rest as my favorites.

The best book I've read so far this year is 1000 Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. That book was beautifully written in a historical context. It was a real tear-jerker.

My runner-up is Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier. That's probably my favourite book of hers

Hmm...let's see...

Fantasy: The Lord of the Rings is probably the best, though it's gotten its first real competition with the A Song of Ice and Fire novels. And for urban fantasy, The Dresden Files books are great.

Science Fiction: The Knife of Never Letting Go is one of my favorites. Dune, Ender's Game, Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light are awesome. (I recently read The Sirens of Titan. It's good if you like your humor black and your worldview cynical. Very cynical.)

Drama/Comedy: Catch-22 maybe. (I also just finished Lolita, which almost made me cry, and is much better than I thought it was going to be.)

Also something of a drama/comedy is the graphic novel I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly. Very sweet, fun book with a lot of heart.

Post Apocalyptic: Has to be the graphic novel series Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. (Also great for sci-fi/fantasy fans. If you liked Dune, you will likely enjoy this; it has some ecological themes, and a heroine who is on a messianic journey.) Princess Nausicaa is one of my favorite heroines in literature.

Now, I don't know where to put this one. It's kind of a horror-comedy, but there's a bunch of science fiction and urban fantasy elements to it. It's called John Dies at the End, and it's one of the weirdest, coolest books I've read. (Be warned, it contains a bunch of swearing and a few gory scenes.) A film based on the book is upcoming; Paul Giamatti is acting in/producing it. If you're not too squeamish, I would really recommend it. I rented it from the library, and liked it so much I went and bought it from Amazon the very next week.