Alas, the library does not seem to have that. :|

The library does have it!

Just a quick question, though, since it looks like an adult book: there are no sex scenes, right? I really don’t want to read or see or whatever a sex scene.

Ah, I did not see that edit! Thanks. (Unfortunately, I did not care for the writing of that.)

(I’m a real ray of sunshine, shooting down all the suggestions, eh?)

Read the Spellman books by Lisa Lutz. They’re very funny and difficult to put down. However, they work better if you read them with long breaks between them because they are less entertaining when read all at once, kind of like Jeeves books.

Between Spellman books you might consider reading Jonathan Rabb’s mysteries starring Detective Nikolai Hoffner, which take place in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis. The first one is called Rosa, after the anarchist Rosa Luxembourg, who plays an important role in the plot.

For non-prose (or semi-prose) on 1920s/‘30s Berlin, you might also consider reading Jason Lutes’ City of Stones and City of Smoke . These you should probably read one after the other because there are many, many characters to keep track of running around the city. Of course, this presumes you have no prejudice against comic books. These are upscale comic books, but if you don’t like your words and pictures together, never mind.

You could read David Benioff’s City of Thieves, which is a regular old prose fiction book about the 900-day Siege of Leningrad. Very exciting, but not for the squeamish. People who eat people are the hungriest people in the world. Mr Benioff’s name may be familiar, since he also wrote the original book and screenplay for The 25th Hour, and is currently writing the script for the TV version of Game of Thrones.

I wonder if you’re okay with a “young read”? I forget how old you are.

Oh okay. Well, there’s Scorched by Josephine Poole. It follows the story of twins during their summer vacation. The brother, Robert, who’s damn negative about life, eventually meets up with a pretty mysterious character, Nick. As they become closer each day, Rob slowly finds himself doing almost anything to please his “friend” who is soon revealed as being extremely manipulative and cruel. He constantly veils his more violent nature beneath a mask of beauty and charm. Rob eventually begins to draw further away from everyone else around him and who he once was. I don’t think I made it too spoilerish, I just about gave you what you’d probably find on the cover.

I wonder if it’s too young a read…

Hm. I don’t really think it is. I’d suggest something I read more recently, but I’m a little worried about the content.

Wow, Soup I thought you were older.

Yaaay.

I’ll check out those other recommendations now! (And wow did I forget about the ImpishIdea Recommends thing.)

I bought it at the Scholastic Book Sale and didn’t care for it.

I bought it at the Scholastic Book Sale and didn’t care for it.

Oh dear.
We can’t be friends.

I did the same thing when I first started reading The Book Thief. Tried it again a year or two later and now it’s one of my favorite books. Give it another shot, it might surprise you.

Soup, you’re only 14? Wow, I also thought you were older. Hmm. Have you read The Thief of Always? I remember that one was pretty good and aimed for a younger audience. Or maybe Lloyd Alexander’s The Iron Ring? That one’s interesting because it takes place in mythical India and not in the (often) overdone medieval West.

Oh yes, The Iron Ring is great. If you like it, you can also try The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, which is set in a fantasy version of China; and The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha, which is set in a fantasy Persia.

The Avengers has compelled me to read more superhero comics. Don’t know which ones, though.

Which superhero comics? If you’re looking for Marvel suggestions, I can’t help you, but if you’re up for any in general, I’ve got plenty of Batman suggestions!

Read Transmetropolitan, of the two-headed smoking cat featured recently somewhere on the forum. The writer is named Warren Ellis; he also wrote Nextwave and The Authority, and you should only read the first dozen or so issues of that before it runs out of steam.

Have you read Garth Ennis’ Punisher series? Garth Ennis wrote the best Punisher comics ever, if you’re into that sort of thing. His most recent series is called The Boys and the titular characters are a superhero containment force hired by the government. The Boys is drawn by Darick Robertson, the same man who drew Transmetropolitan .

Have you read Asterix? They’re really funny and written by Rene Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uzero about the adventures of a Gaulish barbarian fighting the Roman Empire with magic invincibility potion and puns.

EDIT: More may appear as they occur to me.

Have you read Asterix? They’re really funny and written by Rene Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uzero about the adventures of a Gaulish barbarian fighting the Roman Empire with magic invincibility potion and puns.

I second that.

Speaking of comics, I highly recommend that all of you read Understanding Comics by Scout McCloud. It’s an excellent graphic novel that really made me appreciate all the effort and detail that goes into a comic book.

Not convinced? Understanding Comics also has Niel Gaiman’s, Matt Groening’s, Alan Moore’s, Art Spiegelman’s, and Warren Ellis’s recommendation, too.

Speaking of comics, I highly recommend that all of you read Understanding Comics by Scout McCloud. It’s an excellent graphic novel that really made me appreciate all the effort and detail that goes into a comic book.

I recommend it as well. Even as a non-comick, this book opened my eyes to a whole new way of understanding language and perception. Absolutely brilliant stuff, and if you want to write your own comics, definitely the first place to go.

I’m currently working on the second book of Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy, Royal Assassin. Hobb is about the only author I’ve read who can successfully write first-person present tense of a man having a magical far-seeing vision in which he is sharing the body/mind of another man who is in turn having a magical far-seeing vision. It boggles the mind, and yet the prose and ideas are so smooth and well-defined.

I was wondering, has anyone here read any of Chuck Black’s “Kingdom” series?

I haven’t read them, but I saw them in a Christian book store and thought their description seemed like they would be very generic.

140 pages?! That really is quite short! I don’t subscribe to Gloria Tesch’s “more pages = better” belief, of course, but that is surprisingly short for novels, even if they are YA.

The Book Thief is… strange so far. And d’aww at Hans.

I love/hate it. It got less and less enjoyable towards the end. What I loved so much about it though was that unlike any others, the style was more … abstract? There’s more than a few senses tied to experiences that aren’t usually put into words. For me, the book accomplished a lot in that area, if that makes any sense.

....I just bought A Knights Guide to Chivalry written by some guy in the sixteenth century. So, it’s actually a source …and a book of Koren folktales. I’m hoping for to get The Book of Five Rings and The Art of War at some time as well, along with some more Native American folklore and Italian folklore…

Say what you will about my tastes, but you cannot say that they are mainstream.

I’m currently reading Book of Five Rings online. I can link it if you like.

http://www.miyamotomusashi.com/gorin.htm

I didn’t even know it was a book. I’ll have to track it down now. How faithful is the movie to the book?

Not all that faithful. I liked the movie an awful lot (I saw it first), but I do like the book a bit more. They’re different and both good, IMO.

Reading this military/scifi gem called Odyssey One.

And I'm writing a book. Not for myself, Im publishing it.

The Dresden files. Oh. Yeah.

Yes. Didn’t you know we all collect scalps?

@Armourer: Yes. Out of curiosity, which book?

All of them.

Yes.

@Armourer:

Clear and Present Danger baby

What is fullmetal alchemist exactly?

A good manga.

A better anime though.

I think it’s more about which version of the anime is better. Then again, I’m not that involved with the fandom.

It’s the newer one that follows the manga plot, yeah.

Brotherhood’s the good one, right? I think.

They’re both good, but yeah, Brotherhood is the more faithful one.

A better anime though.

I have to disagree(assuming you’re talking about Brotherhood). It was really faithful, but I don’t feel like it actively improved on the manga(which, hey, I don’t think it really needed much of). However, Brotherhood suffers overall in comparison because of the truncated nature of everything up ‘til Lab 5 or so.

Kenshin is good so far too.

Seriously though. I love this manga. My story doesn’t even exist without it.

Currently Reading Cornelius Ryan's A Bridge Too Far. WW2 novels don't et any better. It tells the story of the largest airborne operation in history from all sides of the fighting. There's no dramatic flourish, no suspension of disbelief, just the complex, moving, and honestly presented story.

:[

It’s raining.

Do I even want to read the rest?

You must.

I lack the energy to pick up volume five.

I’d grab volume two of Kenshin but my brother has it in his room and it’s like 1:30 AM so I can’t.

EDIT:

Thrawn is so awesome, isn’t he? I can’t help but love the guy, even if he is, you know, evil.

The Book Thief. I just love Hans Huberman. He is the best.

Read the Dark Phoenix Saga in one go. While the ending floundered a bit, I really liked it. The Hellfire Club made great villains with quite a baroque feel, while the shift into the story becoming a space opera was quite well-done. Sucks that neither the 90s cartoon nor X3 could do justice with it though.

Now go read Outbound Flight. And then Survivor’s Quest. In order.

Thrawn is such a great villain precisely for that reason, IMO—you can’t help but like him, even if he is the bad guy. He’s definitely and obviously on the bad side, but honestly? He’s just so cool and brilliant, you have to admire him.

That is how you do a really good, yet undeniably “evil” villain, by the way. You don’t need cartoonish evil (the kind where there’s practically neon signs saying “THIS IS THE BAD GUY” flashing every time the villain is on the page) or even unlikable people to have effective villains. The fact that everybody thinks Thrawn is awesome makes him that much more effective. Of course we want the heroes to win. But man, do we ever want Thrawn to only lose in a stylish way.

More Fullmetal Alchemist FEELS/Flailing:

Another Fullmetal update

I finished The Book Thief.

Herein lie spoilers:

So, non-spoilery opinion?

The Book Thief is really good. When I first started reading it, I was intrigued by the strangeness of the writing style and the narrator (Death). I started to think it was probably overrated and only stayed interested because of the strangeness. Then somehow, I became hooked. I was invested in the characters, and I realized that it’s not over-hyped. It really is great. I think it took a lot longer than normal to get invested in the story and the characters because of how detached the narration is, but the detached narration is what makes some parts so heartbreaking once you are invested. So, I think the detachment is definitely a good thing in this case.

Also, the prose is beautiful. The sentences are great. I don’t usually focus on the actual prose and how the sentences flow and whatnot when I’m just reading for fun (unless they’re bad enough to distract me from the story), but here, I kept reading sentences that I felt like I needed to write down so I wouldn’t forget them. It’s very well-written. I few things were a little convenient to me or possibly over the top, but mostly, it was a really great book.