The best page turner novel you have ever read?
South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami The first impression I got from reading this book is that Haruki Murakami is the M. Night Shyamalan of novelists. If you read this all the way to the end, you'll see what I mean. To briefly describe the plot without major spoilers, it focuses on the life of Hajime, a Japanese boy living in a small town. One of his classmates is a girl called Shinamoto who he starts a friendship towards because they're both only children and she suffers from polio, which is why the teacher asked him to accompany her around the school. They both drift apart and never encounter each other again but she is always on Hajime's mind well into his twenties, which were the most bleak part of his life. The story fast-forwards to when Hajime is 36. He's a far happier married man with two children and the owner of two trendy and very successful jazz bars in Aoyama, Tokyo. Everything is going great for him until Shinamoto visits his bar one evening... Kensuke's Kingdom - Michael Morpurgo This book I had to read at elementary school but it was one of the ones where I read far ahead of the class (then later got told off for it). It's told from the first person perspective and is about a 11 year old boy named Michael who lives a normal life in Hampshire and recalls himself playing football with friends. His family decide to take him and the family dog, Stella Artois (Not kidding with that name) on a voyage around the world in their yacht, the Peggy Sue. After falling from the yacht into the ocean during a violent storm, Michael washes up on an unknown island somewhere in the Pacific. After discovering that food has been left out for him, he grows suspicious. He is stopped from lighting a signal fire by a man living on the island, then soon encounters the man again who teaches him how to survive in the wild. The man reveals himself to be a naval doctor from Japan who survived World War II and heard of the bombing of his home, Nagasaki. Eventually, a boat comes and they both light a signal fire, draw its attention and Michael is rescued. Kensuke stays on the island and Michael makes a promise to him not to tell anybody of his presence on the island at least over the next decade. The epilogue raises the question of whether this was actually based on a true story in Michael Morpurgo's childhood because it shows letters to and from Kensuke's family bringing the news that Kensuke is alive and well. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Collins Michael Gove recently announced he was going to take this off the UK English Literature curriculum at schools because he wanted there to be more British books. It's a shame, really. It's one of those books that shows you just how bad mid 20th Century America was in terms of racism and why there was a civil rights movement in the first place. It was the kind of place where if a black worker were grossly underpaid for a day of work then told his employer "I think you made a mistake"; he'd be beaten to an inch of his life.
I read that book in one setting, so I agree with you there. I might sound like a Murakami fanboy, but I happened to enjoy most of his novels so much that I couldn't wait to finish them, and when I did, was mad at myself for doing it so quickly. Along with South of the Border, my favorites are Norwegian Wood, the sheep books, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami
The first author to have that effect on me was Donald J. Sobol. His Encyclopedia Brown series nurtured my passion for reading.
Though it's considered a series, I treat each book like a novel. My most favorite - Ender's Game. Yes, I know it's sort of like the typical cliche "you're the chosen one!" sort of thing, but I really like how the story is written. The emotions played well with me in it and I was able to piece things together as the plot went by.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Have you ever spoken with someone and realized within a few minutes of speaking with them that not only were they far more intelligent than you, but they were also more educated, witty and articulate? That was this feeling, in book form. Absolutely brilliant work that can be enjoyed on multiple levels. The plot itself is well structured with good characterization and well written imagery. The history is first rate, although as a layperson, I could only see how much I wasn't seeing. The same goes for the view into medieval philosophy in play at the time. Which ties back into the characterization. The characters all think and act like people of time period. The atmosphere that his evokes is phenomenal. It helps when the author is a medieval historian. It is historical fiction that is actually historical.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell A tale of two magicians in Victorian-era England. Imagine Harry Potter minus teenagers and school. What I love so much about the atmosphere of the book is that magic is portrayed as something that's not instant and extravagant. It's something that seems almost realistic; it takes time, the ingredients so not include eye of newt, and the effects are sometimes very subtle. But enough about magic, the story is way more political, not boring, but there are several interesting story archs that carry you through to the end of this thick novel. For any graphic design nuts out there, the look of the book is pretty unique. The typeface is subtly uneven. The look of something that looks more handmade. It's simple and elegant, yet somehow pulls you right in to the time period when the story takes place (around the time of the Hundred Years War). I highly recommend giving this a read. It starts a little slow, but by 40 pages in, I was hooked.
This is one of my favorite reads. I too couldn't put it down and I've referenced it often in regards to the #hubskibookclub. You are right that it is a bit slow at first but then it really gets moving and I too was hooked. I imagine that this could make for an amazing film and I'd be surprised if it wasn't in the works. kleinbl00, what's shaking with the book club?
I decided that since it was me pushing the rock up the hill, I'd get the stuff done that was easy and fun, so I pushed animeclub first. The plan is to narrow the fiction down to three for voting and the nonfiction down to three for voting, and then do the shorter one first.
That sounds like a good approach, thanks for doing it. I'd say, let's get Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel in contention but it's a hefty book, pretty long but a quick read. You should check it out if you've not already.
I've got a laundry list of them, because once I pick up a book and it actually makes me invest, I'm all in. But the highlights are probably: Stay: A History of Suicide & the Philosophies Against It, by Jennifer Michael Hect - It's a short book on, obviously, suicide, a subject I find utterly fascinating. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin - About the political maneuverings of LIncoln, Seward, and many others during the civil war, specifically in passing the 13^th Amendment. Lincoln is based on this book. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls - Everyone's read this book, and everyone who reads it cries. I already read a lot when my third or fourth grade teacher assigned this book, but this was the first book I fell into. Two series have accomplished this for me: Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes isn't a series, but I'm going to treat it as such). Thomas Jefferson's Autobiography is also excellent.