Do you have any GOOD books to recommend please?

mrsdewinter

I just finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and I'd definitely recommend it to an intelligent 16-year-old reader.
If you liked The Time Traveler's Wife, there's a chance that you like fantasy - and American Gods has it in spades.

Swiper the fox

Some very strange recommendations there for a sixteen year old girl, Anthony Beevor, Foucault, Proust!!!!

I would agree with THe Brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao, The Life of Pi, Atonement, all very good books and relevant to teenagers.
Vernon god Little is another, Star of the sea, The Grapes of Wrath is a classic that everyone should read at an early age.

old hippy

Anyone mentioned the Philip Pullman books yet?

Ormus

The Catcher in the Rye

tbh

another vote for the book thief, and for a good yarn, the pillars of the earth by Ken Follett.

musicnerd3

I can't remember the author right now, but I really liked Chasing Miracles. On the opposite spectrum I really like the books from Ellen DeGeneres and Chelsey Handler.

Ecarg

"Dissolution" and "Dark Fire" by C.J.Sansom are excellent reads, murder mystery based in tudor times, great characters and plots.
If you lioked the time traveller's wife you will enjoy Kate Morton's "The forgotten Garden" and Abraham Verghese's "Cutting for stone".

The game of Thrones series are thoroughly enjoyable if you want to try something a bit different.

fonkalei

I'll second suggestions like brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao, atonement, life of pi.

Another great book that I passed onto a friend and then she passed onto her teenage kids was Star of the Sea - Joseph O'Connor. Apparently they all loved it as much as I did.

Id also suggest classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies.

Unoriginal Choice3

I'll add another vote for life of pi, the book thief and cloud atlas, and the wonderous life of oscar wao.

I also really enjoyed 'never let me go' and the 'art of fielding', don't be put off by the baseball thing its a great book!

Voodoo_rasher

Eleni by Nicholas Gage. One must have a heart of stone not to be moved by this true life-story..

Anything by Michael Crichton will get one thinking.

Ormus

Voodoo_rasher wrote: »

Anything by Michael Crichton will get one thinking.

Seriously? 90% of his books are simple techno thrillers.

I have enjoyed him at times but he is about as deep as Dan Brown.

zyanya

I agree with Unoriginal. Never Let me Go was great.

Also, don't know if anyone has posted about this book already, but a couple months ago I read Purge by Sofi Oksanen and greatly enjoyed it. An old lady at the Estonia/Finland border finds a young lady in lamentable state laying on her front yard, and... that's just the beginning.

If you fancy thriller, you may want to "chase" a serial killer in Monaco, a killer who likes to call his favourite radio station and play songs that give hints about the people he's going to kill. Sounds appealing? Read I Kill, by Giorgio Faletti.

Flaker

Ecarg wrote: »

"Dissolution" and "Dark Fire" by C.J.Sansom are excellent reads, murder mystery based in tudor times, great characters and plots.
If you lioked the time traveller's wife you will enjoy Kate Morton's "The forgotten Garden" and Abraham Verghese's "Cutting for stone".

The game of Thrones series are thoroughly enjoyable if you want to try something a bit different.

Love all these books!

My recommendations would be;

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser - Dickensian style novel with amazing twists and turns. And it doesn't turn out how you'd expect it to....

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - Retelling of the Arthurian saga, really, really good. Again, goes in directions you wouldn't expect.

Lonesome Dove by Larry Mc Murtry - my favourite book EVER. It's a western (was my Dad's) but don't let that put you off. It's sad, funny, brutal and unexpected.

I read all these at about 16/17. They are all massive books but at that age I loved that! Big juicy reads I could really get my teeth into.....

zyanya

Another good one: title translation should be something like "swimming naked", by Carla Guelfenbein.