What's the best book you've read in the last couple of years?

[TNDemo]

Something you just couldn't put down or really made you think. I need a recommendation for my book club. Fiction would probably be best but doesn't have to be. It would also be best if it is already in the library so we don't all have to buy it. Can even be on old book. Just needs to be a great read.

[Eureka]

1. Catch-22

Best. Book. Ever.

I must have read it a million times already.

It explains everything you ever wanted to know about war, including the current batch, which is quite cool.

[MrSoundAndVision]

2. One Hundred Years Of Solitude

Gabrial Garcia-Marquez. Best! Book! Ever! Guaranteed! You'll love it.

[Alpharetta]

18. great thread! I decided I need to read this.

Ordered it used on Amazon just now.
thanks!

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Perhaps either The Red Tent or Ahab's Wife

both were very compelling, and I hated to stop reading either one.

The River was also excellent, though not fiction: it's the story of a guy's experience as an English teacher in the peace corps in Fuling, China, in the late 90s (96-98 I think, or perhaps 95-97). Phenomenal.

Also loved Secret Life of Bees.

And I pulled out some old classics which I'd never read, and want to add them as well:

Old Man and the Sea (which I hadn't read since high school, and WOW that book is still incredible)

Farewell to Arms

Death in the Afternoon

[stanwyck]

12. Great choices

I really liked both Ahab's Wife and The Red Tent. Ahab's Wife is a truly wonderful read. It has so much: adventure, interesting characters, history, whaling, vivid locations. A wild ride. Anyone looking for an exciting book should read this book.

[U of M Dem 07]

13. I was going to say "The Red Tent"

Very good book.

[BlueStateGirl]

16. The Red Tent is an amazing book. Good choice.

[Badger1]

4. One very good one

It's older, mabey not a classic but a page turner. And The Sea Will Tell by Vincent Bugliosi.

[Insider]

5. A Little Piece of Sky

by Nicole Bailey-Williams

-snip-
Nicole Bailey-Williams' compelling debut novel, A Little Piece of Sky, is a welcome addition to contemporary African-American fiction. It's an engaging novel with richly drawn characters.

Song Byrd, an African American girl, lives in a Latino neighborhood in North Philadelphia. Song spends as much time living inside her imagination as she does in the real world. The youngest of four children, Song is frequently left home alone, locked in the bathroom with a determined parade of roaches and rats. Her only solace is the little piece of sky she's able to see through the skylight.

Song's siblings--Caramia, Freeman and Sojourn--are each caught in their own psychoses: drugs, sex, prison and other means of escape. When her mother is murdered, Song takes the blame and assumes the burden throughout her adolescence. Song moves in with her father's family, and slowly begins some semblance of normalcy. Her father, some much-needed therapy, a loving former neighbor--Miss Olga--and a warm, patient male friend, Anthony, provide the stability she needs to triumph.
-snip-
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0HST/6_4/94224174/p1/article.jhtml

[The Lone Liberal]

6. I liked the Cheating Culture

Also,

Worse than Watergate, John Dean
Absolute Friends, John LeCarre
Cadillac Beach, Tim Dorsey
The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
Bandit Country, Toby Harnden
Fraud, Paul Waldman
Almanac of the Dead, Leslie Marmon Silko
Bowling Alone, R Putman
Night of the Avenging Blowfish, a Novel of Covert Operations, Love and Luncheon Meat. John Welter. (I gave you the complete title because I love the title.LOL)

I could go on and on, because I seldom read a book I dont like. LOL

[DemoTex]

7. "Light in August"

Read three, I think. William Faulkner's best, IMHO.

[Alpharetta]

8. best 3 books I've read in past 10 years.

Eve's Tattoo. Emily Prager (awesome writer) (Eve gets a numeric tattoo which becomes the centerpiece to discuss how many other organizations were complicit in the Holocaust)

Geek Love. Katherine Dunn (a former boxing journalist. very strong writer) (Carnival family celebrates its specialness very weird and true)

Bel Canto. Ann Patchett ("shining path" type organization takes hostages at an operatic recital in South America. you will love the descriptions of opera, politics, ethics, love, and more)

[beachbum]

9. Plum Island, Nelson DeMille

Actually, DeMille has many good books, many of which I have read! Plum Island was the best! But I really enjoyed Charm School, Spencerville, Gold Coast, Generals Daughter, Up Country... All GREAT!

[Kimber Scott]

10. "There Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston

I'm reading a lot of Black literature right now. The above book is fantastic. Also try, "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, or "Giovanni's Room" by James Baldwin. These books give a lot of fodder for deep reflection and conversation.

Two other books I love are "Caramello" by Sandra Cisneros and Amy Tan's "The Bonesetters Daughter."

On edit: I forgot the one I just finished today, "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest J. Gaines. That book was quite painful for me. It deals with social and racial issues, religion and the death penalty.

[neoteric lefty]

11. Darwin's Dangerous Idea

non-fiction, evolution book written by Daniel C. Dennett. Even though he is a great philosopher, he writes a great scienific look into evolution. Probably not great for a book club but a great book IMO.

[Jeebo]

14. "River God" by Wilbur Smith...

It's a historical novel about ancient Egypt several hundred years before Moses, but it reads like a science fiction novel. It has that same sense of wonder at new things and new ideas and new technology and new concepts that science fiction has. And also the feeling you get in science fiction when you get acquainted with an utterly alien culture. I didn't get much sleep for a couple of nights when I was reading it. It's really long, but it's just as good as it is long. There were some artifacts some archaeologists dug up when they found the tomb of the queen, Lostris, who is one of the main characters in the novel. There were some papyrus records written by Lostris' long-time slave Taita that were found rolled up in her tomb. The author Wilbur Smith started with those papyrus writings as a sketchy outline, fleshed in a lot of details and imagination, and the result is one of the most unforgettable novels I've ever read. If this sounds like the kind of thing you think you MIGHT like to read, I am 100 percent sure that you WILL love this one.

Ron

[TahitiNut]

15. "The Painted House" (John Grisham)

Almost Faulkneresque, it's Grisham's best. (It's not about lawyers.)

[beachbum]

19. Glad to hear someone say that

I loved Painted House. I do also love his legal thrillers. But I truely enjoyed his departure from the norm.

[camero]

17. The Cilistine Prophecy

Can't remember the author but it's a story about a theory on the Mayan Indians extinction and the search for an ancient text. A really good book.

[Catholic Sensation]

20. Real Anita Hill

i'm kidding of course... I would say "Live From New York"

[Gildor Inglorion]

21. "At Swim, Two Boys" by Jamie O'Neill

A very good novel of Ireland just before and during the Easter Rebellion of 1916, class and religious conflict, and a rather sweet love story of two naive young men. I highly recommend it.

[Faygo Kid]

22. "Against All Enemies;" "Confederates in the Attic;" "Explaining Hitler"

Clarke's book is a must read. Loved "Confederates in the Attic;" "Explaining Hitler" one of the most incisive books ever. These are off the top. When I am not on DU, I am reading. Probably read 100 books the last couple of years; do re-reads count? Then, I can list more.

[Red State Rebel]

23. She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

I've never know a man who could write about women like he really understands.

[Donkeyboy75]

24. "All Quiet on the Western Front"

An oldie but goodie.

[Zorra]

25. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver n/t

[Madrone]

26. CROSSING ZION - without a doubt.

Written by my new friend, Keith Mark Johnson. It's self published, and I am helping him edit his 3rd edition (2nd edition was too choppy), and he hopes to get it off to print in the next couple of days. That doesn't work for me very well with the EDITING thing - but I'll do my best to find those errors right up until the last minute.


It is seriously one of the best things I've ever read - I plan on posting about it when it is complete, because I'd like some DUers to buy it.

[HuckleB]

27. "The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire" by Khassan Baiev

I highly recommend "THE OATH: A Surgeon Under Fire" by Khassan Baiev
It's an incredibly intense and well-done book about Baiev's experiences as a Chechnyan surgeon during the two Russian-Chechnyan wars of the 1990s. That atrocities that surrounded him must be witnessed by those of us who can spread word of what war is truly like. He was chased from his homeland because both the Russians and Chechnyans wanted to kill him for treating the wounded regardless of what side they fought for. Of course, most of the time he treated innocent civilians caught in the middle of it all. He also discusses the process that Putin used to curry Bush to ignore Russian atrocities by labeling the Chechnyans as terrorists. I can't recommend a book more than this one. It's a must read, in my opinion, and it would lead to some wonderful discussion in your book group.

Here's the link to it on Amazon for a more thorough review:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0802714048/qid=1070666228//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/102-1607923-8939304?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Also, there's an interesting review of the book by a fellow physician in the February 12, 2004 New England Journal of Medicine on pages 738-740.

[scottcsmith]

28. Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them"

I read it, and then a few days later re-read it.

[grannylib]

29. That for non-fiction; for fiction, Robbin's "Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas"