book recommendations

catz · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 42 Location: London

has anyone read a good book they would like to recommend?

i've just finished reading 'perfect match' by jodi picoult, it's about a women who discovers her son has been sexually abused and what she does next.

it was a good read, it poses the question of 'what would you do in the same situation?'

i'm just about to start reading 'the historian' by elizabeth kostova, so i'll let you know if it's good soon!

sandmanching · Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:12 am Post subject:

hurray a book thread

l will read anything by italo calvino, an italian writer. ( translated )

his books are unlike any books l had ever read.

marcovaldo:- instead of chapters, it is divided into seasons.

invisible cities:-it is about the places marco polo described to kubla khan but
all the places are actually venice.

if on a winters night a traveller:-a book about the process of reading and the
nature of stories.
its hard to find in libraries as they are not popular fiction. l am afraid most books l read are like that....l can happily spit on dan brown...but l digress...

catz · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 42 Location: London

i think those sound interesting, if they don't have them in book shops, do you usually order them in or use internet?

dan brown isn't the most talented author i agree. i think his research is interesting with all the symbolism, as it's something i've never really known about. he seems to set the plot to fit in all of the research, so i found the charactors came second place in the book! at least it got people to read though!

sandmanching · Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:52 am Post subject:

catz, l said libraries not book shops...

l just noticed you live in London, so you should have no problems either way whereas here in some god forsaken town, there are no book shops. there is a library but they don't even have p.g.wodehouse...

l have to go to the nottingham city library which is about an hours bus ride to get anything decent.
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world losers and world forsakers
on whom the pale moon gleams
yet we are the movers and shakers
of the world forever, it seems.

PingPing · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Posts: 59 Location: KENT

tenpence · Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 173

what about favourite authors then? mine is George Orwell.

I like to read books by Chinese authors but I seem to find that most books that are published in the UK are along the 'Wild Swans' mould. Can anyone recommend any other types of Chinese books availalbe in English?

elle · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 334 Location: Nottingham, UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_b/202-2459903-6660662?url=search-a lias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=About+Chinese&Go.x=15&Go.y=8

Copy and paste into address bar! It is one address or browse Amazon.co.uk for many book offers.

Books by Amy Tan are very readible! Select free post and special offers.

catz · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 42 Location: London

PingPing · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Posts: 59 Location: KENT

catz · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 42 Location: London

i think a tip for reading shakespeare is to remember that it was written to entertain - so enjoy :) also so many of the plots are copied in modern day t.v, films and books, i try to think of it as eastenders from a previous age ;-)

i studied antony and cleopatra for a-level and had fun reading it.

if you enjoy reading english lit from different centuries i recommend reading 'the wife of bath' in 'the canterbury tales' by chaucer, it's great fun if you can get along with the language, as it's earlier than shakespeare.

assis104s · Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 144

has anyone read any BBC books? or even ABC books that they would recommend?

candide · Joined: 22 Nov 2003 Posts: 7

Haruki Murakami - one of my favourite authors of all time. He writes with simple but powerful words that have strong emotional depth. The three books I've read all have a theme where a man who is generally closed off and in love with a complicated woman who cannot return his love eventhough though she is attracted to him.

South of the Border, West of the Sun
Sputnik Sweetheart
Norwegian Wood

David Mitchell - a British author who has grown up in Japan. Beautiful writing with complex but engaging stories set in Tokyo and other parts of the world.

Ghostwritten
Number 9 Dream
Cloud Atlas

Jon Swain - River of Time
This is Times correspondent Jon Swain memoir of his time in Cambodia and Vietnam. Swain was there when Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975 (as depicted in the film The Killing Fields). He also covered the Vietnam War in Vietnam. The incredibly tense stories he tells and the deep love he as for Cambodia makes this one of my favourite books of all time.

Land of the Green Ghosts - Pascal Khoo Thwe
This memoir is written by a Burmese hill tribesman who endured horrific treatment by the Burmese government and finally escaped Burma with the help of a Britishman who saw the immense potential in the young man after learning of his love for English literature. He came to England and studied at Cambridge. He now lives in London. An incredible moving book.

Mr China - Tim Clissold
A British businessman tells the incredible story of his attempt to invest $400 million in the burgeoning Chinese market and almost lost it all in the recurring struggle with a business environment that the best of Western businessman will lose in. Great stories, great lessons.

PingPing · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Posts: 59 Location: KENT

I'd only got to the Preface of Frankenstein!!! The editor's introduction, note on the text and Mary Shelley's chronology then author's introduction and Preface by PB Shelley totalled to 64 page, in small print!!!! Finally, I can start to read page 1 of volume 1 tomorrow.

After reading the author's chronology, I found the author's family, Mary Shelley's husband, Percy B Shelley, shared a very similar life compare with the Chinese poet, Xu Zhi-mo. Our beloved Zhi-mo's life, the talent, the romance, the fame, the love triangle, even the unfortune death.
The discovery surprised me.
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The struggle, first to survive, and next, to make sense of one's survival .....

dianauni · Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Posts: 15 Location: Gibraltar/Spain

The Good Women of China by Xinran is an amazing book comprising real life stories - even tho' it exhausts you mentally and physically it is impossible to put down and when you have finished it I defy you not to cry your heart out for these women who have poured out their hearts and life experiences to Xinran.

Xinran has also written Sky Burial, set in Tibet -another fascinating insight into the life of a young Chinese woman as she searches over decades for her missing husband - The Mail on Sunday describes it as "an epic of love, loss and wisdom - almost unbearably sad but ulitmately uplifting".

I have just ordered her third book "What the Chinese don't eat" which is a collection of her articles which have been printed in the Guardian which are always interesting.

Tom Clissold's Mr. China is a great read about a Wall Street Banker investing in China and all the difficulties he encountered but told with humour and perception.

Having read and very much enjoyed The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan I have bought several of Amy Tan's books but have yet to find the time to read them.

I would also recommend anything by Adeline Yen Mah and on a lighter note Beijing Babes was fun to read - all of these books help, in their different ways, a Westerner to understand better the lives of Chinese and the country itself.

On a completely different tack I always enjoy Joanna Trollope and her so-called Aga Sagas. Maybe these are books which would help non-English readers understand the English way of life. For me, since I have lived away from England for many years, they bring back many memories of types of people and situations which exist in England.

I am still trying to get past the first few pages of The Da Vinci Code. I keep telling myself I must persist but then I wonder, why?!

Another title which I have yet to start but friends tell me is excellent is A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - from the writeup I cannot imagine how the author hit upon the title but no doubt all will be revealed when I read it -it sounds great fun and also tells of European history.

elle · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 334 Location: Nottingham, UK

dainauni, thank you! Xianran sounds very interesting. I will look for her books and surprise my wife with them. I am hoping I will find them at amazon.

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