Great book suggestions?

Question

I have an entire summer to read my cares away.

So, I am looking for some great book suggestions..

I am a college student who is majoring in English so don't be afraid to bring on the tough reads.

Classic or contemporary, I am willing to try anything once.

Answer 1

the twilight series is a must



by stephenie meyer



(includes 'twilight', 'new moon', 'eclipse' and the soon to be released 'breaking dawn')



although i havent read it yettt



cause im so busy lately



a few of my friends have and are hooked



and from what i've heard



i cant wait to get into it

Answer 2

WEBSITE BELOW HAS LOTS OF DIFFERENT LISTS.



John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968; American):

The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

Cannery Row (1945)

East of Eden (1952)

Of Mice and Men (1937)

The Pearl (1947)

The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)



Ernest Hemingway (1899 - 1961; American):

The Old Man and The Sea (1952)

The Sun Also Rises (1926)

A Farewell To Arms (1929)

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)



Margaret Mitchell (1900 - 1949; American):

Gone With the Wind (1936)



Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892; American):

Leaves of Grass - A Collection of Poetry



George Eliot (1819 - 1880; English):

Silas Marner (1861)

The Mill on the Floss (1860)



Sinclair Lewis (1885 - 1951; American):

Main Street (1920)

Babbitt (1922)

Arrowsmith (1925)

Elmer Gantry (1927)



F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940; American):

The Great Gatsby (1925)



William Faulkner (1897 - 1962; American):

Light in August (1932)

Absalom, Absalom (1936)

The Sound and the Fury (1929)

As I Lay Dying (1930)



Upton Sinclair (1878 - 1968; American):

The Jungle (1906)



John Updike (1932 - ; American):

Rabbit, Run (1960)

Rabbit Redux (1971)

Rabbit is Rich (1981)

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

Rabbit Remembered (2001)



Virginia Woolf:

To the Lighthouse

Mrs. Dalloway

The Voyage Out

Jacob's Room

The Waves

Orlando

A Room of One's Own

Three Guineas



Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832; Scot):

Ivanhoe (1819)

Rob Roy (1818)



Herman Melville (1819 - 1891; American):

Moby Dick (1851)



Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832; German):

Faust (2 Parts; 1808 and 1832)



Henrik Ibsen (1828 - 1906; Norwegian):

A Doll's House (1879)



Albert Camus (1913 - 1960; French-Algerian):

The Stranger (1942)

The Plague (1947)



Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885; French):

Les Miserables (1862)

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831)



Moliere (1622 - 1673; French):

Tartuffe or The Imposter (1664)

The Misanthrope (1666)

The Miser (1668)

The Imaginary Invalid (1673)

The Bourgeois Gentlemen (1670)



Leon Uris (1924 - 2003; Jewish-American):

Exodus (1958)



Boris Pasternak (1890 - 1960; Russian):

Doctor Zhivago (1957)



Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904; Russian):

The Seagull (1896)

Uncle Vanya (1899-1900)

The Three Sisters (1901)

The Cherry Tree (1904)



Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910; Russian):

Anna Karenina (1877)

War and Peace (1869)



Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918 - ; Russian):

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)

The First Circle (1968)

The Cancer Ward (1968)

The Gulag Archipelago (3 Volumes; 1973 - 1978)



Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 - 1881; Russian):

The Brothers Karamazov (1880)

Crime and Punishment (1866)

The Idiot (1869)



Homer:

The Iliad

The Odyssey



Virgil:

The Aeneid



Geoffrey Chaucer:

Canterbury Tales



Dante:

The Divine Comedy - Paradisio, Purgatoria, Inferno

Answer 3

You could try some of these:



Neil Gaiman is an amazing author!



Edgar Allen Poe is a really good author. Check out his poems and short stories.



William Shakespeare is good too.



How To Kill A Rock Star by Tiffanie Debartolo



The Princess Bride by William Goldman



The Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen) by Garth Nix



His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman



A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and The Far Sweet Thing by Libba Bray



Holes by Louis Sanchar



The Chronicles of Narnia (7 books) by C.S. Lewis



The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien



The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien



Impulse by Ellen Hopkins



The Sight and Fell by David Clement-Davies

Answer 4

If you're majoring in English then you should

definitely read Lolita by Nabokov.



David Sedaris is a great contemporary author but, in my mind, can get a little formulaic.



Also, Cormac McCarthy is considered one of the greatest living authors. Any of his books, especially those after Blood Meridian are worth reading.



And Philip Roth is also one of the 'critics' darlings. I can't get into his style but he is considered a great contemporary author.



My favorite book is Shogun by James Clavell. You can't go wrong with that!



And I am going to be reading The Decameron as soon as I figure out the best translation.

Answer 5

Sci-Fi books are an awesome read. My favorites are the Bean and Ender series by Orson Scott Card.



Also, my biased opinion on a must read is the Rai-Kirah series by Carol Berg, the book titles are Transformation, Revelation, and Restoration. The last two of this particular series aren't as amazing as the first but are still an awesome story of growth, courage, determination, and ultimately the power of friendship.



Also, The Lighthouse Duet by the same author, it's a story about an unlikely hero; a traitor that cares only for himself but must learn the truth of who he is and accept his past in order to save the world.

Answer 6

Tim Dorsey is my current favorite. Start with "Florida Roadkill" warning Dorsey's books contain lots of violence, drug abuse, sex and Florida. Obviously his works are for more mature readers, but you will laugh.



Jimmy Buffett's "A Salty Piece Of Land" is a great book. Although not a difficult read, it does follow the journey of the protagonist to find his place in the world. With an English major, you might need some advice on the subject...



Donald Westlake is another good author. He is has developed the "comedy caper" into an art form. I highly recommend the Dortmunder series, but suggest you start with the later books like "Drowned Hopes" and "Why Me?"

Answer 7

I'm a former English lit. major and I encourage all lit. nerds to read Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. The book centers on a parallel universe where literature is a much more popular medium than in our world, and Thursday is a member of SO-27, the Literary Detectives or LiteraTecs. She has all these great adventures that center on literature and if there is a reference you don't understand then it makes for a great starting point for a reading list.



Some of my other favorites:



-Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. Its a composite novel so it doesnt have a linear timeline and is a collection of interconnected short stories that focus on a group of modern American Indians through three generations but its heartbreaking and wonderful.



-Lamb by Christopher Moore. Funny guy that lovingly satirizes religion by giving Jesus a sidekick and letting him tell his side of the story.



-Zorro by Isabel Allende. She reinvents him for a modern audience with a great back story to his life.



-East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Beautiful language.



-Gonzalez & Duaghter trucking Co. by Maria Amparo Escandon



-Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Patton



-The World Accoring to Garp by John Irving

Answer 8

Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer

Push Not the River by James Conroyd Martin

Anything by Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, or Jane Austen

Answer 9

Twilight Series

I have not read them but all of my friends have and are obsessed. There is a movie based on the books and is going to be released later in the year.

Rose By Any Other Name - Maureen McCarthy

This is a really good book, and I found it a great read. It is not too short or long, and gets you hooked.

Answer 10

The Abhorsen sequence-Garth Nix Eragon, Eldest-Chridtopher Paolini His darkish components-Philip Pullman Inkheart, Inkspell-Cornelia Funke The Bartimaeus Trilogy-Jonathan Stroud The Chronicles of historic Darkness-(can not bear in mind the author, sorry) the sting Chronicles-(ditto) Endymion Spring- Matthew Skelter Princess Diaries-Meg Canot and....um, it rather is all i can think of of precise now....

Answer 11

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Anything by Daphne du Maurier

Don't forget Uncle Bill (Shakespeare)

The Iliad by Homer

Answer 12

I love Meg Cabot (Heather Wells & Queen of Babble) and Sophie Kinsella's (Shopaholic [soon to be movie] & Remember Me) books. I am in the process of reading Emily Giffin's (Something Borrowed & Something Blue) books. They are all great authors!



For I teen I recommend Meg Cabot's young adult books. She is the best author. Also best selling. She wrote tons of books including the Princess Diaries (Movies based on her books), Mediator (upcoming movie), 1-800-Missing (TV show based on her books), Jinx, and more. She has adult books too, so you can grow with her.



If you want more info or meg cabot's website email me.

Answer 13

Ramtha:An Introduction by JZ Knight --mind expanding book about who we really are based upon channeled information transmitted by a being through the mind of an ordinary woman. A classic.

Answer 14

hmm good question! ive read so many books i wish i could tell you them all, but the one that comes to mind is the messenger and the book theif by markus zusak. also, a thousand splendid suns by khaled hosseini was a fantastic book. it really opened my eyes. arent books fabulous?

Happy reading!

xx