Read any good books lately?

[Karlynn]

I have jury duty on Tuesday and am in need of some suggestions for a good book to keep me rivited as I wait - fiction preferably, but will take any suggestions.

My taste?
My favorites of late -
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Samurai's Garden
A Year In Provance (nonfiction)
All Over But the Shoutin' (nonfiction)
The Red Tent

I also love good mysteries.

My all-time most read:
Shogun (8 times. Must be spiritually connect to someone from the Feudal Era of Japan. )
Little House in the Big Woods (can't even hazard a guess I got the whole Little House series, hardbound, for my 21st birthday, have had the Big Wood volumn since kindergarten. It takes me "away".)

 

[geebee]

Karlynn,

A book I read recently that I could not put down - "The Time Traveler's Wife". Although it has the background of time travel, it is not a sci fi book, it is a love story.

I just read it again (second time in 2 months) and I WANT MORE .

 

[Barry]

I'm a nearly obsessive reader, but my tastes run towards non-fiction.

A fairly obscure but excellent mystery novel that I really really liked is "Fatherland", a murder mystery in which the protagonist is a Gestapo agent c. 1960. Germany won the war, reaching an accommodation with the USA and England, Joe Kennedy is president of the USA, the Soviet Union is no more and there is chronic guerilla fighting there. Interesting alternative history and an excellent detective novel. (read another novel from the same author, forget the name, and it stunk)

Mark Kurlasky (sp?) has done a series of excellent histories of commonalities that are just fascinating. His best-known are "Salt" and "Cod", the former a history of, well, salt. The latter a history of the fish. And with each the way they've affected history.

"Guns, Germs, and Steel" is an excellent non-fiction book in which the author seeks to answer the very interesting question of just why it was the Europeans who colonized the New World and Africa instead of the other way around.

Hard to go wrong with a browse in your local public library. Zillions of books and all for free, you just gotta bring it back.

 

[Abbanabba]

Hi Karlynn, if you enjoy the "oriental" theme, you might enjoy "The Sun Rises" by Chrisopher Nicole. I think there were a couple of sequels to this book with titles along the same lines (to do with the sun). Another in this genre is "The Magician" by Raymond E Feist, which was brilliant and also spawned a whole series of sequels.

Personally I'm a huge Steven King fan and even if you don't enjoy horror, I highly recommend "The Shawshank Redemption" (..which I think he originally wrote under his pseudonym Richard Bachman..), "The Green Mile", and "The Gunslinger" series. None of these are horror, but they are ripping good yarns!


Cheers
Anna : )

 

[Karlynn]

Looks like I'm going to be coming back from the library with a car load!

Thanks for the suggestions!

Anna, The Shawshank Redemption is one of my all-time favorite movies. I'll have to read the book now.

 

[Abbanabba]

Anna, The Shawshank Redemption is one of my all-time favorite movies. I'll have to read the book now.

I guarantee you won't be disappointed! I was impressed that the movie was was so faithfully reconstructed from the book, so you won't be in for any surprises - just far more insight.

A : )

 

[Abbanabba]

....oh, just checked my bookshelf, "The Shawshank Redemption" was part of another book comprised of 4 stories in all called "Different Seasons" (..just in case you can't find it on its own..). One of the other stories (The Body) became the movie "Stand By Me" - a "coming of age" story about 4 boys and the summer they found a body by the railway tracks.

Happy reading.....

A : )

 

[PapaHappyStar]

In the SciFi/Fantasy genre -- a friend gave me a bunch of books by Lois McMaster Bujold for post surgery reading -- The Miles Vorkosigan saga -- if you want addictive reading this is that kind of space opera...

 

[tommy]

Karlynn,

Try any of the John Grisham books.
Most are about the legal system.
I've read these and they are great!

The Runaway Jury
The Summons
The King of Torts
The Last Juror

 

[hensylee]

David Kent has written two books. He's a new kid on the block, writes mysteries. The tall red haired detective is patterned after my sister. Can't recall the first book's title, but second one is Mesa 3. (or The Mesa). It's about an unusual number of infant twins buried in a cemetery in a small town.

If you read John Grisham, his very first book, his favorite and mine, is A Time to Kill. It's way long and he admits to some rambling, but it has all the good things a book needs - tragedy/drama and comedy. This one came out for the second time, after he was already famous.

 

[Gemma]

Try "Waiting" by Ha Jin - on the Oriental theme - a man marries, goes away to the army leaving his wife at home (waiting) and falls in love with another woman in the army who waits for him to divorce his wife.

 

[JimL]

Although it may not be extremely appropriate for jury duty, I agree that Grisham's are page-turners. I thoroughly enjoyed the Runaway Jury, and thus was highly disappointed with what the movie did to the story line.

 

[hensylee]

me too, Jim.

 

[Karlynn]

David Kent has written two books. He's a new kid on the block, writes mysteries. The tall red haired detective is patterned after my sister.

Ann, that is SO cool. I will definately look up the author.

 

[Sherry]

Karlynn,
I just finished Little Bitty Lies by Mary Kay Andrews. It's about a upper middle class Southern woman whose husband leaves her penniless and the various lengths she goes to in order to get by. It's hilarious, believe it or not.

 

[Barry]

You could consider finding a book on Jury Nullification and very conspicuously reading it while waiting to be called for voire dire . Jury Nullification is the legal principle by which a jury can find a defendant not guilty even though the defendant very clearly is guilty - but the law or the way it was implemented is unjust and justice is best served by a "not guilty" verdict regardless of whether or not the defendant dunnit.

Weird thing is that in Federal courts, and I believe in every state, neither the prosecution, the defense, nor the judge is allowed to tell the jury that they have that right. Even though it's a sort of fail-safe mechanism to prevent judicial tyranny.

Guaranteed way to get dismissed.

The OJ Simpson case, BTW, is viewed by many as a recent example of jury nullification.

 

[Georgia]

"Honeymoon" James Patterson

"The Broker" Grisham

Both are can't-put-downers.

If you're one of the two literate people in the world who hasn't read it, "The DaVinci Code"

 

[Harpoon]

You know, I don't think the judge will let you read while you're sitting in a jury...


I read John Grisham's "The Chamber" a few years ago, that was pretty cool.
Read Stephen King's "Green Mile" in it's original serial form, small paperbacks with just a few chapters at a time, released over a period of weeks or months.

I'm partial to Tom Clancy. Lots of books on Buddhism....

Shipping News was good.

 

[PapaHappyStar]

Karlynn --

Lois Lowry "The Giver" -- good, easy reading and pertinent given the current debate about the fate of Terri Shiavo.

I am enjoying Ammina's english classes -- I get to read the books her professors assign without having to take exams and write papers All fun....

Burair

 

[Karlynn]

Karlynn --

Lois Lowry "The Giver" -- good, easy reading and pertinent given the current debate about the fate of Terri Shiavo.

I am enjoying Ammina's english classes -- I get to read the books her professors assign without having to take exams and write papers All fun....

Burair

Burair - that's the book I recommended people read in the Schiavo thread. Great minds think alike! It's a great story of just how far bad law can go in forming society.


I'm getting so many great recommendations we should do this every now and again. I'm always looking for good recommendations and get frustrated because I'll go through periods where I can't seem to put my hands on a good book (other than the Good Book )

Thanks again everyone!