I thought there should be a thread to recommend good books to one another. I strongly recommend:

The Five People you meet in Heave by Mitch Albom

About a man that dies and goes to Heave and meet a bunch of people who he knew (some well, others he barely knew) throughout his life and each had affected him in someway. It's a lovely read.

A series that is excellent (kind of old, but still wonderful) is Anne Rice's The Mayfair Witches. Comprised of The Witching Hour, Lasher and Taltos.

Engaging, comprehensive and believable.

Heard she has a new collection starting with a release date of September. A new look at the life of Christ. Usually not my cup of tea, but could be very interesting, indeed. Should at least stir up some controversy.

Mr. Nice by Howard Marks

Autobiography by a Tommy, who made it big time in the 60's and 70's dealing pot all over the world.
Had connections with the IRA, MI-5, MI-6, the mob , the CIA and ended up being one of the most-wanted people in the 80's.

Great read

All time sci-fi greats.. Asimov - Robot Novels and Foundation Series ( and how they merge into one long epic)...panoramic.

Most -re-read in my life ( maybe 8 times ) - The Iluminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson.. described as a literary acid trip and its not far off. Deep, funny, colorful and sexy.

Recent ( last year or two ) favs..
Diamond Age, Snowcrash, and Cryptominicon all three by Neal Stephenson. Brilliant mind. Wish her would back to writing sci fi. Diamond Age is buzzing around the office here now.

Also Earth by David Brin.. Love thinking about near future scenarios.

The Alchemist ; Siddhartha; the entire 'Conversations with God' series; Tuesdays with Morrie; The Lotus Sutra; The Kamasutra; Outlaws of the Marsh....

Life of Pi is pretty good.

And while not offering any value at all, Shopoholic series is laugh-out-loud funny!

If you like diamond age and such then try the cyberpunk books by Richard Morgan. They are great!

Anything by Dan Simmons is also highly recommended. He wrote so many cool books, all in different styles. From hard core sci-fi (hyperion and such), to horror (carrion comfort) to psuedo-historical (the crook factory -- about Hemmingway). He only wrote one book that disappointed me -- Darwin's blade. Don't bother with that.

FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER, by Loung Ung
An amazing autobiographic book about a Cambodian 4 year old girl when the Khmer Rouge took over the country. The title is a bit of a spoiler tho (in Spanish the titled it "They took him away" a bit softer).

Also, To The Edge of the Sky, by Anhua Gao. Of all the books about the cultural revolution that I've read, this is the one I enjoyed the most but it didn't get as much coverage as others such as Wild Swans or Fallen Leaves...

And so the list goes on: Sinuhe the Egyptian by Mik? Waltari, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, 100 years of solitude by Garcia Marquez, The family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo Jose Cela...

Magnolia wrote:A series that is excellent (kind of old, but still wonderful) is Anne Rice's The Mayfair Witches. Comprised of The Witching Hour, Lasher and Taltos.

Love Anne Rice! Although I like her <B>Vampire Chronicles</B> the best... Read every single one of them!...

<b>Memnoch the Devil</B> is simply exquisite!

Laura Esquivel Books.... Like Water for Chocolate and
THE LAW OF LOVE (my all time fav!)

Life of Pi, Interview with a GEisha, Scarlet (GOne with the wind part2)

sorry, it's memoirs of a geisha not Interview with a geisha.... that sounds like a novel gone bad.

I just finished "Red Poppies" by Alai (translated by Howard Goldblatt) and I thought it was fantastic. It reminded me of a t¡betan version of "100 Years of Solitude"

Hoolioh, I also loved "First they Killed my Father" though I think I cried through the whole book.

"The Man who Stayed Behind" is a unique perspective on the Cultural Revolution and "Dragon Village" is also good one...and of course "Life and Death in Shanghai" as a good memoir. I was really impressed with the CHina Interest section at the new Charterhouse books on HuaHai Zhong Lu.

It is funny, Red Poppies is also the last book I've finished (in Spanish: Las Amapolas del Emperador, in case any Spanish is reading this). It was difficult to dig at first, but once I got into the story it was fascinating.

I cried from the second page onwards while reading "First they killed my father", funny thing coming from a big guy. But the book was amazing.

For those who loves war/history books, try "Fly Boys" By Steve Ambrose, the guy who wrote "Band of Brothers"
"Life of Pi" is awsome if you interest in religion philosophy.
Of course the "daVinci Code", if you haven't read it yet!!

I'll give it try:

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

Se Una Notte D'inverno, Una Viagiattore/If On A Winter's Night A Travellor by Italo Calvino

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon

Raney by Clyde Egerton

CASH by Johnny Cash

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

The Biggest Game in Town by A. Alvarez

Positively Fifth Street by James McManus

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

A Moveable Feast by Hemingway

The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg by Nicholas Dawidoff

Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

I also like John Burdett's Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo

american tabloid- james ellroy

one of the top 5 books i have ever read in my life period.
LA-Chitown-DC-Florida-Cuba.....from the seedy 50s crime underworld through the jfk assasination, this seminal work of fact based fiction is the very definition of a hard-boiled novel. no, its not for everyone but if youre a like-minded criminal, this will book will haunt you for a long time. i guarantee you wont be able to put it down and youll fly through it in a day or two.
I have a copy if anyone wants to borrow as soon as i sort out the latest move.

for a taste, here is the prologue:

"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.

Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight.

The real Trinity of Camelot was Look Good, Kiss Ass, Get Laid. Jack Kennedy was the mythological front man for a particularly juicy slice of our history. He talked a slick line and wore a world-class haircut. He was Bill Clinton minus pervasive media scrutiny and a few rolls of flab.

Jack got whacked at the optimum moment to assure his sainthood. Lies to continue to swirl around his eternal flame. It's time to dislodge his urn and cast light on a few men who attended his ascent and facilitated his fall.

They were rogue cops and shakedown artists. They were wiretappers and soldiers of fortune and faggot lounge singers. Had one second of their lives deviated off course, American history would not exist as we know it.

It's time to demythologize an era and build a new myth from the gutter to the stars. It's time to embrace bad men and the price they paid to secretly define their time.

Here's to them."


now thats prose.

Se Una Notte D'inverno, Una Viagiattore/If On A Winter's Night A Travellor by Italo Calvino

That would make my top twenty. I remember reading that in college and being blown away by the descriptive narrative and the originality of the book. Might have to fish out a copy for old times sake.

^^^^

It blew my mind too. At the time I was living in Italy and I had a version where there was Italian language on the right page and English language on the left.

Farewell to Arms from Hemingway should be there somewhere. Pretty powerful shiat.

Factotum and also Dangling in the Tournefortia, both by Bukowski. Great prose, great poetry.

The Sabbath's Theatre and American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Deer Park by Norman Mailer is a good one.

Tropic of Cancer by H. Miller

Lolita by Nabokov, not only for the narrative but also the style

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

And just to throw in some Orwell: Homage to Catalonia.

The Importance of Living (éú????ò?ê?) by Lin Yutang (á?ó?ì?)

My all time favourite. Re-reading it now. Have read it for more than 4 times.

Lin rocks.

Pity I missed his time - classmates back in college always teased me that I were to be Lin's favourite student and Lin were to be my favourite professor if the fate and luck would have let me in his classes.

The next one gotta be his: My country and My people (?á1úó??á??)

Good spiritual book
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Replay by Ken Grimwood - good suspense and sci-fi. Great read and makes the reader really think a bunch of "what if's"

Its Not About the Bike - Lance Armstrong's biography. Despite latest allegations, it is a very very inspirational book to read about the strength of hope and love.

Don't Stop, Won't Stop - The History of the Hip Hop Generations by Jeff Chang - An interesting exploration of the evolution of Hip Hop and the culture surrounding it.

Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kyosaki - Good book to get a refernece point on how to look at money and how it affects our lives.

Black Coffee Blus by henry Rollins.
Tales of Ordinary Madness by charles Bukowski.
The Complete Poetry and Prose Of William Blake Edited bydavid V Erdman
Grapes of Wrath by john Steinbeck

business decision making in china by Huang Quanyu & Joseph Leonard & Chen Tong

Just Crazy!
Just Stupid!
Just Kidding!

All by Andy Griffiths.

Reading something a friend loaned me.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. One of the funniest books I have ever read.

The entire Discworld series by Terry Pratchett is pretty funny as well though
I prefer his old stuff. Its getting a little bit tired after the 10th book or so.
My favourites are "Moving Pictures" and "Pyramids"

Banged Grains - it tastes like cardboard with butter dripped over it but for some reason it feels right to be eating it while watching the clickers
(movies for those of you who don't know )

Exactly what my friend said... older stuff if far better but this one (1990) was worth reading because the collaboration gave it a different tone. Know my mother has several of the Discworld series at home... will plan on stealing them!

Oh... typo above... that should have read Good Omens.

Let me try that withough italics. Good Omens. For some reason it looks like Good Ornens with italics.

Because of the lack of selection in Shanghai, I've begun to read some of the Chinese literature or Chinese American literature found in stores here. I'm happy about this. I've become enthralled with Ha Jin. Both Waiting and War Trash are absolutely wonderful. The writing is so simple but politically and emotionally complex on so many layers. These are MUST reads for anyone that wants to have a better understanding about chinese history and the way the chinese mind works. Plus, his writing is staggeringly beautiful and heart wrenching.

Waiting is a good book. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Even think the cover with the woman with the long hair is well done. Haven't read War Trash but shall keep an eye out for it.