Books You Can't Shut Up About

[BrokenQuill92]

All of Ursula K LeGuin's work

[ManMachine]

Ever come across a book that you can't stop trying to hand over to your friends, or convincing them to buy, or listen to, or at least listen to you go on and on about it?

My most recent one is "The Night Circus".

On the recommendation of a handful of friends, and several book podcasters, I picked up the audiobook with a refreshed Audible membership, and now I'm listening to it for the second time.

This book is one of the most sensuous (and subtly sensual) and beautiful and fantastical books I've ever read. It grabs you by the feels in that child-like wonder sort of way, and seduces you with nostalgia, and it's horribly bitter and achingly sweet all at once.

The only way I can succinctly describe the feeling you get when you read it, and return to it, when explaining to people who've never cracked it open, is to ask if they've ever seen the original Willy Wonka movie. Gene Wilder opens the doors to the inner sanctum of the factory and says softly, "Close your eyes...make a wish...count to three."

This is the book you want to read on a sharply frosty night, with a cup of the finest cocoa, maybe drizzled with caramel to complement the many mentions of it throughout the story. But also, you want to hear it read out loud, because the narrator is brilliant. He left me shivering.

Anyone got one they want to plug?

I have two from opposite sides of the literary arena...

My current 'best recommendation' is Rebecca Goldstein's, Plato at the Googleplex. - A book that explores what might happen if Plato was alive today...

N Y Times - Review, Plato at the Googleplex

The other is the Graphic Novel series Ethan Nicole's, Chumble Spuzz - A comic encounter with some fairly heavy religious themes (what happens when death commits suicide?).

Wiki - Chumble Spuzz

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The Bible.

Boru

[abaris]

The Bible.

Boru

Reminds me of Clockwork Orange. Alex was a big fan of the bible too. With good reason.

[Jenny A]

Night Circus is fantastic. Some, but by no means all of Ursula L'Guin's work is very fine. The Left Hand of Darkness, The Lathe of Heaven, the whole Earthsea series, and The Dispossessed are all very fine.

I like: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susan Clarke; an alternate English history in which magic is real but declines only to be rediscovered during the Nepolianic Wars told in a period style; Crooked Little Heart, by Anne Lemot, a growing up story about a teenage girl who cheats at tennis for fear of losing when she is ceded to win; just about anything by A.S. Byatt; The Warden, by Anthony Trollop, about a very good, moral, and timid clergyman---and hardly news as it's so old; The Once and Future King, T.H. White; even after all these years Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, a childrens book for grownups; Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt, another children's book for grownups about why everlasting life might not be such a good thing. . . can I just do a top 100 and call it half done?

[coldwx]

To a Mountain in Tibet and Solitude. I read them on a train to the Churchill, Manitoba in Canada a few years ago. I think the scenery plus the imagery in the book created moments I won't soon forget.

[Foxaèr]

I have not read anything in quite some time.

However, what I would most likely first recommend to anyone is Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series.

Next, just about anything by Dean Koontz

[The Valkyrie]

This is another good series for those who like fun twists on classic stories:

[Chas]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig

The Mind's I, Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett

[thesummerqueen]

No offense, Jenny, but Possession was just about the most pretentious bullshit I've ever read. I really, really, really wanted to enjoy that book, and I really, really really wanted to tie all the characters down and smash the over the head with a metal pole. It's completely turned me off Byatt.