Looking for a good book to read

smuehlbauer
smuehlbauer Posts: 1,024 Member
edited September 2024 in Chit-Chat
Hey there.
I am looking for a good book to read.
Doesn't have to be diet related or anything like that.
Just not a fan of romance and I don't want to get into any series.
I'm debating re-reading Eat, Pray, Love - so any books that are similar would be good.
Let me know your suggestions!
Thanks!
Stephanie
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Replies

  • lisafrancis629
    lisafrancis629 Posts: 287 Member
    Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah. One of my favs. About lifelong friends.
  • jillybeanruns
    jillybeanruns Posts: 1,420 Member
    Oh man, I am a book fiend. I have a bunch I could recommend but the first book that comes to mind...

    The Help by Kathryn Stockett
  • gambitsgurl
    gambitsgurl Posts: 632 Member
    Sweet Potato Queens (any of em)
    Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro

    Comedy
  • PoshTaush
    PoshTaush Posts: 1,244 Member
    "A Million Little Pieces" can't remember the author. It was an Oprah book a few years ago. It's kind of harsh though. Its about a guy who was a drug addict and his life in rehab. I really enjoyed it though. It's semi-autobiographical. The author did go through most of what he wrote, but his true life story ends a little differently.
  • PoshTaush
    PoshTaush Posts: 1,244 Member
    Oh, I also love "Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver. A novel about a family who's father is a preacher, they become missionarys....the battle between thinking whether they should be there or not....It's good and not at all preachy or religious. I personally am not offended by religious things though.
  • karenjoy
    karenjoy Posts: 1,840 Member
    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!!

    Everyone in our office has read it and also it's gone round the husbands too, mine is now on the third book of the trilogy, but start with this one. Excellent read.
  • JodiS75
    JodiS75 Posts: 284 Member
    My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes - anything by Jodi Picoult

    Over My Head by Claudia Osbourne - About a doctor that suffered a brain injury very similar to my mom's. Facinating and eye-opening.

    I DIDN'T love Mennonite in a Little Black Dress.
  • BeautifulScarsWECHANGED
    BeautifulScarsWECHANGED Posts: 749 Member
    Woman, food and God (can't remember author)

    Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen I think)
  • 4lafz
    4lafz Posts: 1,078 Member
    Best books I have read over the last few years that come to mind RIGHT NOW....

    Time Travelers Wife (WAY better than the stupid movie)

    The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (funny name - fabulous can't put down book)

    Both are fabulous books!
  • vanzeem
    vanzeem Posts: 106 Member
    I just read Mistaken Identity- good book. Or it's not about the bike, by lance armstrong. Both books are true stories and motivating.
  • nelsaphine
    nelsaphine Posts: 212 Member
    Battlefield of The Mind by Joyce Meyer. It's a great book for any situation! Our mind is involved in everything we do and this book teaches/helps define the thoughts that help us and more importantly the ones that HURT us!!
  • BeautifulScarsWECHANGED
    BeautifulScarsWECHANGED Posts: 749 Member
    I also just picked up The Windup Girl by Paulo Bacigalupi which is award winning. Haven't started it yet though.
  • stenochick
    stenochick Posts: 142 Member
    Well, I know this is nothing like Eat Pray Love, but I loved the book World War Z by Max Brooks. It's fiction. It's an oral history of the Zombie World War. It sort of walks you thru from the beginning of where the first infection happened to how it affected the world and how humanity fought against it, taken from different perspectives - military, civilian, children, doctor, etc. I thought it was a great read. I also loved Old Man's War by John Scalzi. It's sci-fi. It's set in a futuristic world about how a man at retirement age enlists in the military (most enlistees are retirement age) and the wars he fights in other planets, etc. Those are my favorites from this year. Happy reading!
    Melanie
  • smuehlbauer
    smuehlbauer Posts: 1,024 Member
    Holy response!
    I love this site!
    I might have to start at the top and work my way down the list you guys gave me!
    Thanks everyone!
  • PamelaHoneyHuggy
    PamelaHoneyHuggy Posts: 37 Member
    Divine revelation of Hell. I loved it. Can't remember the author....
  • mcrawley22
    mcrawley22 Posts: 128 Member
    good thread!

    My favorite book I have recommended to people for years now is The Lovely Bones. I know it is a movie now but there is just no comparison between the book and the movie.
  • karen1003
    karen1003 Posts: 22 Member
    There are some great suggestions here. I would have also recommended two already mentioned - The Help and Water For Elephants. Both excellent books!
  • lilRicki
    lilRicki Posts: 4,555 Member
    This is my list to santa...all books lol I haven't read any of them but I really want to


    BOOK LIST



    Vanishing Country - Mel Hurtig



    Hardcore Zen - Brad Warne



    Ideas: Brilliant Thinkers Speak Their Minds



    The Spiral Staircase - Karen Armstrong



    Zero - Charles Seife



    Letters To A Young Poet - Rainer Marie Rilke and M.D. Herter Norton



    Tiny Dancer - Anthony Flacco



    Ten Thousand Lovers - Edect Ravel



    A Blade of Grass - Lewis Desoto



    The Time in Between - David Bergen



    In Cold Blood - Capote



    Papillion - Henri Charriere



    Simulation and Simulacra: Jean Baudrellard



    Looking Backwards – Edward Bellamy



    The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley



    What Evolution Is - Ernst Mayr



    Pilgram - Timothy Findley


    Manufacturing Consent – Edward S. Herman & Noam Chompsky


    Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power – Joel Bakan


    Pride – Michael Eric Dyson


    Envy – Joseph Epstein


    Anger – Robert A. F. Thurman


    Sloth – Wendy Wasserstein


    Greed – Phyllis A. Tickle


    Gluttony – Francine Prose


    Consumed – Benjamine R. Barber


    Even the Rat was White – Robert V. Guthrie



    Beautiful Losers – Leonard Cohen



    Energy of Slaves – Leonard Cohen



    Junky – William S. Burroughs



    Generation X – Douglas Coupland



    Feakonomics – Steven Levitt



    The Subterraneans - Kerouac




    The Outsider - Albert Camus




    Notes from The Underground - Fydor Dostoevsky



    The Old Man and the Sea – Earnest Hemmingway



    Naked Lunch – William S Bouroughs



    Why I Am So Wise – Friedrich Nietsche



    Erewhon – Samual Butler



    Herland – Charlotte Perkins Gilman



    Island – Aldous Huxley



    Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro



    Children of Men – P.D. James



    The Dispossessed – Ursala K. le Guin



    The Giver – Lois Lowry



    Utopia – Sir Thomas More



    News From Nowhere – William Morris



    Women on the Edge of Time – H.G. Wells



    We – Yevgeny Zamyatin
  • kiekokay
    kiekokay Posts: 101 Member
    I would highly recommend Eay Pray Love, particularly to women like us who are watching what we eat. Its just a good reminder to enjoy food and life!!
    Well, my favorite book is Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg!
    Some that I have read recently though are;
    The Elegance of the Hedgehog ~ Muriel Bradberry (or something like that) ~ it was good
    The Scent of Rain and Lightning ~ Pickard (don't quote me on any of the author's name spellings!) ~ this one was really good!
    Great House ~ Nicole Krauss ~ really good, but not exactly uplifting..
    I am currently reading The Darkest Evening of the Year ~ Dean Koontz and it is really good so far!!
    Oh and I also agree with the people who listed The Girl Who... series and A Million Little Pieces, they are awesome!
    Ok, thats all, have fun! :happy:
  • LynnBirchfield
    LynnBirchfield Posts: 581 Member
    The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. There is a movie of this book that came out a few years ago. Both the book and the movie is great.

    Thanks for asking the questions as now I have a new list of books to read. :)
  • LynnBirchfield
    LynnBirchfield Posts: 581 Member
    Oh yeah -- this one came out in 2004 -- Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells.

    I also like any book from Adriana Trigiani.
  • keysr
    keysr Posts: 19 Member
    I am a huge fan of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It was so amazing and I recommend it to everyone.
    Into The Wild is also very good. I loved the way it was written.

    I also really like books like Freakanomics, Outliers, Blink, The Tipping Point. They are very interesting and really make you think. I am reading Atlas Shrugged right now and I think it is a great book if you are interested in politics and economics (and also have some time, its over 1,000 pages)

    The next book on my list is 127 Hours (which was just made into a movie) It is a true story of a young man from Colorado that was pinned by a boulder while rock climbing and he had to amputate his own arm to survive. Not for the squeamish. My friend just read it and said it was so inspiring. Another friend had just saw the movie and said it was very well done.
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,294 Member
    bump! WOW Lots of suggestions here!
  • tristalin
    tristalin Posts: 108 Member
    Oh man, I am a book fiend. I have a bunch I could recommend but the first book that comes to mind...

    The Help by Kathryn Stockett

    I second The Help--it is a wonderful book!

    If you are looking for a lighter read, The Starter Wife was pretty funny.

    If you don't mind a longer book, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet (sp?) is pretty amazing.

    Other books I've read that I really enjoyed:
    "Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons," by Lorna Landvik
    "Pilot's Wife," by Anita Shreve
    "The Count of Monte Cristo," by Alexander Dumas
    "The Devil in the White City," by Erik Larson
    "Three Cups of Tea," by Greg Mortenson
    "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle," by David Wroblewski
  • Steph_Anie
    Steph_Anie Posts: 82 Member
    I read a lot on matern. leave-
    The Help (couldn't put it down!)
    Room
    Life on Hold
    Her Daughters Dream
    Her Mother's Hope
    Drowing Ruth
    A scattered Life
    I am reading the Anne of Green Gables series right now--- all 8 books on kindle for like 98 cents
  • tristalin
    tristalin Posts: 108 Member
    Best books I have read over the last few years that come to mind RIGHT NOW....

    Time Travelers Wife (WAY better than the stupid movie)

    The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (funny name - fabulous can't put down book)

    Both are fabulous books!

    I read Guernsey as well & it was fantastic!
  • nam14uk
    nam14uk Posts: 556 Member
    Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts I think. It's long but a good read. Semi-autobiographical.

    Freakonomics - Steven Levitt. An interesting read.

    An Audiobook I downloaded ages ago was the count of monte cristo which was a great time pass on my commute to work.

    Others have recommended books to me but I haven't got around to reading yet are - notes on a scandal, the believers, the namesake. Will get to these eventually.
  • apeman
    apeman Posts: 82 Member
    The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

    awesome.
  • last25
    last25 Posts: 83 Member
    Oooh. I'm just about to start Eat, Pray, Love so I don't know what it's like yet to be able to compare to other books you might like. But I will recommend gods in Alabama - Joshilyn Jackson. It was a fantastic read. I also second the My Sister's Keeper recommendation. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters is a HUGE novel but very good if you don't mind 400+ pages. I love to read so I have a huge list of to reads. Let me know if you want more...
  • crlujan
    crlujan Posts: 59 Member
    Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Funniest book I've ever read.
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