"Call me by your name" & other good books

[slimjim]

 

[slimjim]

A wonderful book... highly recommended !:thumbs up:

Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry the troubled and bitter Rasheed, who is thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, in a climate of growing unrest, tragedy strikes fifteen-year-old Laila, who must leave her home and join Mariam's unhappy household. Laila and Mariam are to find consolation in each other, their friendship to grow as deep as the bond between sisters, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end it is love that triumphs over death and destruction. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an unforgettable portrait of a wounded country and a deeply moving story of family and friendship. It is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond and an indestructible love.

 

[RuG]

I finished Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho and Legend of a Suicide by David Vann. Both are very good pieces of literature. Especially the Legend of a Suicide one... so detailed, so graphic, it's a story within a story.. my former high school english teacher would have orgasm reading it LOL

 

[madguy7]

Last book I read was World War Z. A zombie infestation has take overr the world. The story is told by a reporter interviewing people from around the world. But I guess you could wait for the movie, that will be starring Brad Pitt.

 

[slimjim]

[URL=http://www.pimpandhost.com/image/9137611-original.html] [/URL]
The year is 1969 in the state of Kerala on the southernmost tip of India, Fraternal twins Esthappen and Rahel fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. Their lonely lovely mother, Ammu, fled an abusive marriage to live with their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), and their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and inbent grandaunt). When Chacko's English ex-wife brings their daughter for a Christmas visit, the twins learn that things can change in a day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river....

 

[bloop2]

A wonderful book... highly recommended !:thumbs up:

Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry the troubled and bitter Rasheed, who is thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, in a climate of growing unrest, tragedy strikes fifteen-year-old Laila, who must leave her home and join Mariam's unhappy household. Laila and Mariam are to find consolation in each other, their friendship to grow as deep as the bond between sisters, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end it is love that triumphs over death and destruction. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an unforgettable portrait of a wounded country and a deeply moving story of family and friendship. It is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond and an indestructible love.

I love this book! Did you take my recommendation reading this? xD hehe. Great book

 

[bloop2]

I was currently reading eat, pray love. Not particularly too sure if I might be able to finish it, has anyone read it or finished it? I may just go over to the girl with the dragon tattoo I hear good things. I have the book but I just haven't started yet.

 

[slimjim]

No I haven't read that one Bloop... currently reading Are You Experieced by William Sutcliffe again, and I still haven't read The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night (Mark Haddon); Refugee Boy (Benjamin Zephaniah) or The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Mohsin Hamid)...I want to read the excellent Life Of Pi and awesome A Fine Balance again

 

[slimjim]

The 7th out of 26+ Discworld novels. This one set on the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi featuring Ptettic, Ptraci the ghost of King Ptettic XVII and the best mathematician on the discworld - a camel called You Bastard

:rofl::rofl::thumbs up::thumbs up:

 

[slimjim]

At a café in Lahore, a Pakistani man converses with a stranger. As dusk falls he tells the tale that has brought him to this fateful meeting. As one of the best of his graduating class at Princeton, Changez is snapped up by an elite firm and thrives in New York and his work. His infatuation with Erica promises a way into Manhattan society, similar to the status his own family held back in Lahore. For a while, it seems nothing will stand before Changez's rise to both personal and professional success: the fulfilment of the immigrant's dream. But in the wake of September 11, he finds his position in the city he loves suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez's own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and perhaps even love...

 

[personalhalo]

i've read anthony zuiker's level 26: dark origins. he's the guy who created csi, its a great thriller and there are passwords scattered in the book that you could use to open videos in their website you should read it

 

[CottonCandyKiss]

I will def check it out =P Thank you.

 

[CottonCandyKiss]

Just to let you know, I picked up a lot of your suggestions. I'm not gonna ruin it for you readers but many of them are so touching <3 Thank you for all the suggestions!

Here are the ones I haven't seen being mentioned (or my eyes lied to me hehe) and they are AWESOME. The first one is deep, touching. The second one is HILARIOUS.

I hope you enjoy and special thanks to jim <3

 

[CottonCandyKiss]

Woo hoo, in stock. I'll grab this one next

Thank you jim.

A wonderful book... highly recommended !:thumbs up:

Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry the troubled and bitter Rasheed, who is thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, in a climate of growing unrest, tragedy strikes fifteen-year-old Laila, who must leave her home and join Mariam's unhappy household. Laila and Mariam are to find consolation in each other, their friendship to grow as deep as the bond between sisters, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end it is love that triumphs over death and destruction. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an unforgettable portrait of a wounded country and a deeply moving story of family and friendship. It is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond and an indestructible love.

 

[CottonCandyKiss]

Scott Heim's "We Disappear" makes me all choked up and shed tears every time. Please do check it out.

The body of a teenage boy is discovered in a Kansas field. The murder haunts Donna—a recent widow battling cancer—calling forth troubling details from long-suppressed memories of her past. Hoping to discover more about "disappeared" people, she turns to her son, Scott, who is fighting demons of his own. Addicted to methamphetamines and sleeping pills, Scott is barely holding on—though the chance to help his mother in her strange and desperate search holds out a slim promise of some small salvation.

But what he finds is a boy named Otis handcuffed in a secret basement room, and the questions that arise seem too disturbing even to contemplate. With his mother's health rapidly deteriorating, he must surrender to his own obsession, and unravel Otis's unsettling connections to other missing teens . . . and, ultimately, to Scott himself.

 

[CottonCandyKiss]

"The First Verse" by Barry McCrea is such a delightful read and it leads people down on the path to reminisce their youth and college time.

This memorable debut novel explores Dublin's every corner, including a first-of-its-kind portrayal of its thriving gay nightlife, through the eyes of a young man seduced by a secret society's ancient reading rituals, based on the sortes virgilianae. In brilliant prose, author Barry McCrea gives readers a psychologically gripping tale set within the intertwining worlds of literature and the living. When freshman Niall Lenihan moves to Trinity College, he dives into unfamiliar social scenes, quickly becoming fascinated by a reclusive pair of students—literary "mystics" who let signs and symbols from books determine their actions. Reluctantly, they admit him to their private sessions, and what begins as an intriguing game for Niall becomes increasingly esoteric, dramatic, and addictive. As Niall discovers the true nature of the pursuits in which he has become entangled, The First Verse traces a young man's search for identity, companionship, and a cult's shadowy origins in the pages of literature and the people of a city. Fans of Donna Tartt's The Secret History or Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley will be mesmerized by the strange, page-turning world of this astonishing first novel from a dazzling new literary voice.

 

[slimjim]

Mmm.. some interesting ones there guys, looks like my "to read" pile will be getting taller.

 

[slimjim]

Firozsha Baag is a block of flats in Bombay and these 11 linked stories, tell the tales of its tenants as seen through the eyes of Kersi, a boy living with his parents and brother in the flats, and then later as a writer who has emigrated. Mistry sucessfully captures the imagination of a child, and the adventures he has. The book is not just a collection of short stories, but an interweaving saga of the building and its inhabitants hopes, dreams and fears. Though in my view his best work is the excellent "A Fine Balance" this novel is a very good read, the kind of book with it's mixture of traditions and Indian cultures, pathos and humour, you won't be able to put down.

 

[slimjim]

Alem is on holiday with his father for a few days in London. He has never been out of Ethiopia before and is very excited. They have a great few days togther until one morning when Alem wakes up in the bed and breakfast they are staying at to find the unthinkable. His father has left him. It is only when the owner of the bed and breakfast hands him a letter that Alem is given an explanation. Alem's father admits that because of the political problems in Ethiopia both he and Alem's mother felt Alem would be safer in London - even though it is breaking their hearts to do this. Alem is now on his own, in the hands of the social services and the Refugee Council. He lives from letter to letter, waiting to hear from his father, and in particular about his mother, who has now gone missing...A powerful, gripping new novel from Benjamin Zephaniah

From the Author

It’s a hard life being labelled ‘political’. It seems that because I’m constantly ranting about the ills of the world I’m expected to have all the answers, but I don’t, and I’ve never claimed to, besides I’m not a politician. What interests me is people. When I hear politicians saying that we are being ‘flooded’ by refugees, I always remind myself that each ‘refugee’ is a person, a person who for some reason has left everything they know and love to find safety in a strange, and sometimes hostile country. I wrote ‘Refugee Boy’ because I realised that every day I was meeting refugees, and each one of them had a unique, and usually terrifying story to tell. I have seen refugee camps in Gaza, Montenegro and other places around the world but when I met Million and Dereje Hailemariam, two teenagers who were being denied asylum in Britain, I knew that I had to write a story that would illustrate the suffering and the struggles that many asylum seekers have to endure. Million and Dereje’s parents feared for the lives of their boys, they did not want them to grow up in an environment where they would witness war on a daily basis. I have also met children whose parents were executed in front of them, or who themselves had been kidnapped and tortured. For ‘Refugee Boy’ I borrowed from the many stories that I have heard and created a story that I believe many refugees would recognise. I would like to know that anyone who reads the book would think before they accuse refugees of looking for a free ride. We all want to live in peace, we all want the best for our families. The Celts, the Angles, the Saxons, the Jamaicans are all refugees of one sort or another. What kind of a refugee are you? And what are you scared of?

 

[slimjim]

Just to let you know, I picked up a lot of your suggestions. I'm not gonna ruin it for you readers but many of them are so touching <3 Thank you for all the suggestions!

I'm curious which ones you enjoyed as I also picked up some of them.