what are your favorite novels?

Question

I want some books to read!
Small description please (no spoilers)

Answer 1

Giuseppe di Lampedusa's "The Leopard": a brilliant, wry and somewhat cynical (with some comic moments) look at Italy in the context of its political unification in the 19th century, through the eyes of a nobleman who is watching the world he's always known being swept away. It's sometimes described as the "Gone with the Wind" of Italy, but that's an exaggeration. Available in a good English translation.



John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany": a meditation on faith, sometimes sad, but also extremely funny.



If you haven't read any Irving, I recommend him. The Lampedusa might appeal more to specialized tastes and knowledge levels.



Edit: Have you read any of Connie Willis's time travel novels? Most of them relate to one another. You can learn a little something about various periods of history from them.

Answer 2

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man



Written by James Joyce

Answer 3

In Cold Blood

Divergent trilogy

The Hunger Games

Fahrenheit 451

The Odyssey

Answer 4

The Book Thief: 10 year old Liesel Memminger is transported to a new family in Nazi Germany 1939. Never have learned to read, Liesel picks up a new hobby- stealing books and learning to read them with the Jew that her parents are hiding in their basement.



13 Reasons Why: Clay is a normal teenage boy until his friend and crush, Hannah, commits suicide. In his grief, Clay recieves a package with thirteen tapes in it, directed towards thirteen people who she claims are responsible for her death. These tapes are only sent to the people who were responsible, and Clay listens as he waits for his tape to play.



Looking For Alaska: Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.



Until "it" happens, and Pudge's world is turned upside down.

Answer 5

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Young Scout grows up in 1930's AL. with her widowed father and brother. Father must defend a black man on rape charges. Causes problems.



Wish You Well by Baldacci: Young girl and her brother go to live with their grandmother in VA., whom they never met, after their father is killed and mother in severely injured and in a coma. Culture shock. Mining company runs the town and wants to get their hands on grandma's property. Problems ensue.

Answer 6

The novels of ther Bronte sisters, Jane Austen and George Eliot.

Answer 7

The Wide Awake Princess by E.D. Baker.

In this new stand-alone fairy tale, Princess Annie is the younger sister to Gwen, the princess destined to be Sleeping Beauty. When Gwennie pricks her finger and the whole castle falls asleep, only Annie is awake, and only Annie—blessed (or cursed?) with being impervious to magic—can venture out beyond the rose-covered hedge for help. She must find Gwen's true love to kiss her awake. But who is her true love?



The Storybook of Legends by Shannon Hale.

At Ever After High, an enchanting boarding school, the children of fairytale legends prepare themselves to fulfill their destinies as the next generation of each fairytale character, whether they want to or not. Each year on Legacy Day, students sign the Storybook of Legends to seal their scripted fates. As the daughter of the Evil Queen, Raven Queen's destiny is to follow in her mother's wicked footsteps, but evil is so not Raven's style. She's starting to wonder, what if she rewrote her own story? The royal Apple White, daughter of Snow White, has a happy ever after planned for herself, but it depends upon Raven feeding her a poison apple in their future. What if Raven doesn't sign the Storybook of Legends?



Dragon Slippers by Shannon Hale.

When Creel's aunt sacrifices her to a dragon, Creel refuses to wait for a knight to rescue her. After bargaining for her escape and winning a pair of blue slippers from the dragon's hoard, Creel sets out to find her own fortune in the king's seat. Along the route, she meets and befriends another dragon, who helps her find her way. But when she arrives in the city, strange things start to happen, and Creel realizes that her mysterious slippers are more than just a pair of shoes.



Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renee Russel.

Nikki confesses all in her first diary ever: her epic battle with her mom for an iPhone, meeting her new soon-to-be BFFs Chloe and Zoey, falling for adorably sweet crush Brandon, dealing with her zany little sister Brianna’s antics—and the immediate clashes with mean girl Mackenzie, who becomes Nikki’s rival in a schoolwide art competition.



Rapunzel, the One with All the Hair by Wendy Mass.

The girl's stuck in a tower. The boy's stuck in a castle. There are two sides to every story... Rapunzel is having the ultimate bad day. She's been stolen by a witch, may have a ghost for a roommate, and doesn't even have a decent brush for her hair. Prince Benjamin's got it pretty tough, too. His father wants him to be more kingly, his mother wants him to never leave her sight, and his cousin wants to get him into as much trouble as possible (possibly with a troll). Both Rapunzel and Prince Benjamin are trapped--in very different ways. Once their paths cross, well, that's when things get really strange.



Sleeping Beauty, the One Who Took the Really Long Nap by Wendy Mass.

The girl's been asleep for a hundred years. The boy's got issues of his own. There are two sides to every story....It's not easy being Princess Rose. Especially when a fairy curses you and you find yourself avoiding all sharp objects . . . and then end up pricking your finger anyway, causing you to slumber for a hundred years or so. And it's not easy being The Prince. Especially when your mother has some ogre blood and tends to chow down at the most unfortunate moments.

Answer 8

Pride and prejudice by Jane Austen. great story of the romantic ups and downs of a family of sisters in regency england. memorable characters and wonderful dialogue.



Three Men In A boat by jerome k. jerome. hilarious story about three men going on a boating holiday in the 1880s, and the various mishaps they encounter. very funny.



The Code of the Woosters by p.G. Wodehouse. most of his novels are very funny, but this is my favourite, bertie Wooster attempts to steal a silver cow creamer for his uncle, and gets into all sorts of muddles, which of course are all sorted out by his brilliant manservant, Jeeves



hercule poirot's christmas by Agatha Christie. i like most of Agatha Christie's books, but this is one of my favourites. hercule. Poirot has to solve a very bloody murder at a family's Christmas reunion.



The boy Next Door by meg Cabot. very funny mystery/romance, told entirely in emails between the various characters.



fearless fourteen by janet Evanovich. Possibly my favourite in her hilarious series about Stephanie Plum, an incompetent bounty hunter in New Jersey.



Legend in green Velvet by Elizabeth Peters. exciting mystery set in Scotland, a young archaeologist stumbles on a murder and finds herself going on the run with a mysterious bearded young man.



A Traveller in time by Alison Uttley. About a young girl who finds herself slipping back in time to Elizabethan England and getting involved in a plot to rescue Mary, Queen of Scots



Witches Abroad by terry Pratchett. my favourite of his long series of fantasy novels set in the Discworld, but most of them are good (though personally I think some of the recent ones have been short on laughs).



Not a penny more, not a penny less, by Jeffrey Archer. ingenious story about four men who are conned out of large sums of money by a crook, and devise ingenious ways to get back exactly the amount of money he swindled them out of (hence the title).