"Must Read" Novels

[empther]

Our women out here may be feathery and a little furry but at least they can cook!

Maybe I’ll drive over there and eat something.
Any restaurants in Hollis? Anything at all in Hollis?
:extrahappy:

Great Caesar’s Ghost! You actually have a website!

hollismaine.org/

 

[styrgwillidar]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention my favorite Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, which I appreciated far more than Atlas Shrugged. It’s a funny thing, on this forum if you mention reading and appreciating Ayn Rand’s FICTION, you are branded as a heretic. Haven’t quite figured that out. I agree Rand’s books are somewhat odd and contrived but they are extremely thought provoking and made me flip about 180 degrees on my outlook and understanding of society.

…

Yeah, the reaction to Ayn Rand seems to discount that you can read and consider ideas without automatically accepting them or adopting them. I find it challenging to read works with ideas/concepts foreign to my way of thinking, to analyze them critically often deepens my own understanding of my position on various things.

 

[Kay_Cee]

My personal favorite is Watership Down by Richard Adams. As a child, I was always drawn to the fantasy genre.

The Shack (ok shoot me but I thought it was outstanding)
Lisa

I was completely taken aback to find my ebook compared to The Shack in an Amazon review. Since I’ve never read it, I have no idea how it measures up, but anybody who wants to can read the review here: amazon.com/Rain-from-Heaven-ebook/dp/B00DPO6A3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1376778440&sr=1-1&keywords=rain+heaven+avila

 

[PaulGH]

This book A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller] will probably go near the top of my list of books to read next, as I was already considering reading it, based on good things I have heard about it from several people.

I just finished reading A Canticle for Leibowitz. Wow. I expected it to be good, and it was much better than I expected. I was amazed at the way that this book is saturated with a Catholic worldview, Catholic moral teaching, Catholic characters, and even Catholic prayers in Latin – given that this book is regarded as a classic by the wider culture, not just by Catholics. This book not only tells a compelling story, but in doing so it presents profound insights into human nature and sin. And while the plot is in many ways tragic and could lead one to despair for the human race, it does hold out a ray of hope, even in its darkest moments.

There certainly were flaws in the book, but they were not too hard to overlook. I would get into specifics, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read it. If you haven’t read it, I definitely recommend it.

 

[PaulGH]

So, now that I have finished reading A Canticle for Leibowitz (mentioned above), does anyone have a recommendation on what novel I should read next? I am thinking that I would like to read another book that is considered a classic or at least a semi-classic, and preferably one that is positive and uplifting. (I need a change of pace after A Canticle for Leibowitz.)

I will look back through the earlier suggestions in this thread to see if anything jumps out at me, but any additional suggestions would be appreciated too.

 

[StudentMI]

I’m a big fan of mysteries and can’t recommend the novels of Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, and G. K. Chesterton enough.

A Tale of Two Cities is great, though the baroque prose style may not be to everyone’s liking.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a must read in my opinion. Still one of my favorite books. I’ve not read as much of his other work as I’d like to, yet, but An Outcast of the Islands was good too.

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner is a great novel. Formally it’s difficult at times but it’s worth the read.

One bizarre book I’ve been thinking of rereading The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. It’s sort of sci-fi, in a sense.

The Trial by Franz Kafka is a surreal masterpiece.

 

[iheartdance]

I definitely gotta say “The Hunger Games Trilogy”

 

[MarcoPolo]

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. If you can grasp all the strategies of the devil and the entire business of getting souls to avoid confronting the question of “right or wrong,” you can see much better what’s going on in the world.

 

[kantus12]

As a child I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of The Complete Chronicles of Narnia, and I still have that battered, dog-eared book today, about twelve years later. I read it through from beginning to end several times per year, I just love it that much. Aslan was probably my first step along the road to a better understanding of Jesus, and whenever I feel my appreciation and awe at Christ’s Passion begin to fade or be wearied, I turn back and read them again. In them I find goodness, sanity, and strength. You might even say that I retreat into them at times. So yeah, if you can find all seven books, or all seven compiled into one, it would definitely be worth getting.

 

[Seachange]

I would recommend Colleen McCullough’s ‘Masters of Rome’ series.

The First Man in Rome
The Grass Crown
Fortune’s Favorites
Caesar’s Women
Caesar
The October Horse
Antony and Cleopatra

For those who like historical novels, these paint a very vivid picture of what life was like in the ancient world shortly before the birth of Christ. (110BC to 27BC) Some people have found them a bit difficult with the triple-barrelled names everybody sports (Gaius Julius Caesar, Gaius Cornelius Rufus, Gaius Lucius Ahenobarbus) and also with the fact that they run 900-1000 pages each. The history is accurate as she researched it for 20 years before even starting to write them.

I found them quite engrossing and could not put them down.