Have you read a really satisfying novel lately?

[Jon-of-arc]

I read an excellent little novella the other day, called "An Eye for an Eye", by malorie blackman.

Tightly plotted mini-thriller, aimed at kids. Not normally one for kids books, but this one covers some very interesting themes. Based in a world where a black ruling class has an apartheid like grip over a white working class, in 40 pages it covered revenge, redemption, racism, sibling rivalry, class hatred and numerous other topics that should be of interest to the average urbanite. Also, any kid who reads this would have to be pretty smart - many an adult novel have I read which this would make look like Roger Red Hat, dumbed down for dyslexics (spot the stolen quote...).

It's part of a series, a series which I fully intend to seek out sharpish, called Noughts and Crosses - award winning shizzle. Check it ppl.

 

[Jon-of-arc]

I've just finished the Dice Man and enjoyed it loads, but realize I'm years late with that one.

Everyone on urbs seemed to hate it when I looked it up the other day. I think its a wicked book. Funny, pretty subversive (especially for its time) and just a fantastic idea executed more or less perfectly.

 

[Fez909]

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

It's possibly the best book I've read this year

I tried to read this and it bored the pants off me. Everyone raves about it, though. I still have it so might give it another go one day, but I doubt it.

Tried to give it away on here and nobody wanted, either.

 

[feerd]

people's act of love- james meek

 

[miniGMgoit]

I recently read The Gospels According To Biff; Christs Childhood Pal and loved it. Absolutly brill

 

[dolly's gal]

try the secret history by donna tartt. excellent novel. highly satisfying

 

[Santino]

try the secret history by donna tartt. excellent novel. highly satisfying

I was highly unsatisfied by that novel.

I thought it was going to be good because I like classics and crime stories, but I was massively disappointed.

 

[dolly's gal]

I was highly unsatisfied by that novel.

I thought it was going to be good because I like classics and crime stories, but I was massively disappointed.

i have never heard anyone say that of that book. i'm shocked!

 

[DotCommunist]

Donna Tartt is fit in a dominatrix kind of way.

 

[Santino]

i have never heard anyone say that of that book. i'm shocked!

*leads dolly to a chair and pats her hand like a heroine in a Jane Austen book*

 

[HackneyE9]

Ian McEwan's Saturday was rather good too, although I felt he kind of copped out on the ending.

spoiler>

What - psychotic rapists can't be fended off by reciting obscure 19th century poetry?

 

[HackneyE9]

My missus really rated this. Personally I thought it was a bit lukewarm.

Yeah - also full of Blairite pro-war bollocks. Gripping read, though.

 

[sojourner]

I've just finished the Dice Man and enjoyed it loads, but realize I'm years late with that one.

If I would do Alex B the biggest favour of all time, I would tell him never to bother wasting a second on this pile of shite

 

[Santino]

If I would do Alex B the biggest favour of all time, I would tell him never to bother wasting a second on this pile of shite

Years too late

 

[DotCommunist]

Why not brush up on your Roman history with a bit of Decline and Fall?

 

[ovaltina]

I finally got around to Tales from the City and thought it was great. Found the rest of the series on sale for £1 each in a charity shop so will get through them at some point.

It's very lightweight but enjoyable

 

[Santino]

Why not brush up on your Roman history with a bit of Decline and Fall?

Is that a novel? No.

 

[DotCommunist]

I find when I'm being a fussy bitch about my reading that a decent history fills the space and stops my bitching.

 

[Santino]

I find when I'm being a fussy bitch about my reading that a decent history fills the space and stops my bitching.

I read mostly non-fiction and I haven't read a novel for ages. Now go back and talk about Heroes powers more.

 

[marshall]

Picky, aren't you?




How about Southern Gothic then?

Twilight by William Gay, necrophilia and grave robbing in 1951 Tennessee or Winter's Bone by Woodrell about the daughter of methamphetamine-cooking Dad growing up in the backwoods of the Ozarks.

Both excellent.

 

[Dillinger4]

((((Alex B))))

 

[Diamond]

people's act of love- james meek

This is an excellent book too, especially if you're a history fan.

Civil War Russia - Siberia - Strange Christian Sects - Lost Czech Armies - Trans-Siberian Railway.

What's not to like?

 

[Dillinger4]

This is an excellent book too, especially if you're a history fan.

Civil War Russia - Siberia - Strange Christian Sects - Lost Czech Armies - Trans-Siberian Railway.

What's not to like?

Here is how one Amazon Reviewer described it:

A few pages in and I was wondering why anyone should feel the need to rewrite Doctor Zhivago.

At times it feels like someone took all the Russian greats of the novel: Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pasternak, etc whizzed them up in a blender and poured away the best parts, then watered what remained down to leave this rather thin bland insipid juice.

 

[Diamond]

Yep, people seem pretty split on it according to the Amazon reviews. But I'm always a little bit wary of reviews like that. You know, when the review starts to look more like a comment on the reader than the book.

 

[kropotkin]

Just finished the Poisonwood Bible the other day. Pretty good that. (Southern US 1950s christians take the word of Jebus to the middle of the Congo and it all gets rather messy)

Also I may as well insert my default reccomendation of Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Murakami (surreal Jap war time to present day ghost saga)

I got to ask the author of the poisonwood bible some questions on radio 4's Book Club- she was really nice. It is one of my favourite novels that.

 

[phildwyer]

If I would do Alex B the biggest favour of all time, I would tell him never to bother wasting a second on this pile of shite

"Dice Man" is actually brilliant. You just don't like it cos of the misogyny, which is there alright, but so what really? If you don't read any novel that contains misogyny you'll read very little indeed.

Dostoevsky is all-time King, and I think "Devils" is his best, though obviouly a life spent without reading "Karamazov" is a life wasted.

The contemporary novelist I like best is DBC Pierre, who won the Booker with "Vernon God Little" a couple of years ago. Imo the follow-up, "Ludmilla's Broken English" is even better.

 

[moonsi til]

I read 'A Thousand Spendid Suns' really enjoyed. I felt like I was there and could feel the people in the story. Enjoyed it so much I bought it as my secret santa gift at work.

 

[sojourner]

"Dice Man" is actually brilliant. You just don't like it cos of the misogyny, which is there alright, but so what really? If you don't read any novel that contains misogyny you'll read very little indeed.

No, I just don't like it because it's a flimsy excuse of a novel

And you think it's brilliant? Why am I not surprised?

 

[kropotkin]

i have never heard anyone say that of that book. i'm shocked!

me too I'm afraid- I was suffciently bored by it that I stopped reading it about 2/3 of the way through. I never do that with novels-I think this is the only one.

 

[Riklet]

Not just "novel" as such, but I read Down And Out In Paris And London by Orwell recently, and I thought it was fucking brilliant! Really interesting and entertaining read, and written with such skill; simple and yet so much is conveyed.

Hmm.