Please recommend me a book to read. I see many recommendations for movies and games, but hardly find one for books.
I like Harry Potter, James Patterson's thrillers like Blow Back, the President is Missing, The First Lady. I don't really enjoy other genres from him, like twelve days to Christmas.
I also like some of Stephen King's books.
In general I like thrillers, except horror/ghost/supernatural story. I don't enjoy fantasy, except Harry Potter and LOTR.
If you liked Colourless Tsukuru, you'd probably like South of the Border, West of the Sun by the same author.
And don't forget Norwegian Wood.
That one was so heavy
@idonotknowwhy: Yeah not one of his lighter novels but not as dark/heavy as Wind-up Bird Chronicle… and Norwegian Wood is probably his best known work so worth reading just for coverage.
The Expanse book series. I just finished book 7, good continuation of the TV series.
I've had good luck recently by listing some books to ChatGPT and asking it for suggestions.
Actually seems pretty good at this.
Project Hail Mary
World War Z
11/22/63
Dungeon Crawler Carl
A few of my personal faves:
Thriller:
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
Eye of the Needle by Ken Follet
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Sci Fi:
Wool by Hugh Howey
Pines by Blake Crouch
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Fantasy:
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett
True Crime (Non Fiction):
People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry
Painted man series is pretty awesome.
I don't read much these days, except for the occasional free book on Kindle.
I did like Thomas Harris and James Herbert
I like some YA books:
Skulduggery pleasant series & demon road both by derek landy
Fablehaven, beyonders by Brandon Mull
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Recommended by others however I couldn't finish it
Books tend to be more visceral, chilling and just better than their movie counterparts… I watched the movie and it still sits uncomfortably with me and couldn't imagine what the book might do!
Yes! The sense of foreboding was just too much to bear.
Full Metal Panic
My thing is more spy/espionage/thriller
Anything in the Scott Havath Series - By Brad Thor
Anyting in the Gabriel Allon Series - By Brad Daniel Silva
Anyting he's pretty much written, particurlarly in the Smiley Series - By John le Carre
The Odessa File - By Frederick Forsyth
Nightfall Berlin - By Jack Grimwood
Odessa File a great read… pretty much anything by Forsyth is un-put-downable
Have you read Robert Ludlum (Bourne series etc). He's written some great stuff imo. My favourite Frederick Forsyth book is The Day of the Jackal.
I read these books about 25 years ago and i can still remember how awesome they were, Another one i read in that time period that stayed with me till now is The stand by Stephen king and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel
Taking me back. I had completely forgotten many…many years ago I read The Bourne Identity. Then the movies came out which have ruined the suprise of the plot.
Day of the Jackal is on the list, I'll have to put a hold on it, a lot of my reads are just finds on whatever is available from Borrow Box or Libby at that time….and the popular books are rarely free unless you get the holds queue.
Frederick Forsyths autobiography is a good read, and you can see where his plots derive from his experience.
Count of Monte Cristo.
It's difficult at times but amazing once it ties together.
If you like fiction, it's most likely that you're a female. I suggest the books written by Jane Austen or Bronte sisters.
Anything stronger?
Congrats on the dumbest comment on the internet this week.
Wizard's First Rule series is pretty good but it becomes repititive and goes downhill after the 2nd or 3rd book. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/43889 it gets fairly dark in the second half of the book.
Thriller/crime genre:
Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Jeffery Deaver - Lincoln Rhyme series are great but he also has a bunch a very good stand alones
I used to alternate reading Patterson and Deaver novels for a decade or so. Also love the Jack Reacher series which was already mentioned
On a related note, which online libraries can I easily join to borrow some of these books?
I have 'city of Melbourne' and 'connected (Casey/Cranbourne) libraries but neither seem to have many of these books at all… I remember some people having luck with some international ones like L.A or New York? But can't remember how.
11/22/63 by Stephen King (it's the date in US format of when JFK was shot).
This book is amazing. Historical time travelling history fiction.
Yeah that is a very good book
In general I like thrillers, except horror/ghost/supernatural story. I don't enjoy fantasy, except Harry Potter and LOTR.
hmmm bestsellers are fireplace fodder - I usually never read mainstream
The Expanse - Space Political Mystery Thriller Etc
I'm reading Zelda Twilight Princess Manga currently - it's okay
Now if u said movies, I can recommend some nice classic thrillers from 80s/90s :)
Any of the earlier works of John Grisham (legal drama). I would recommend The Runaway Jury. If you like it then continue with his other classics.
One more addition: " No Country for Old People" by Cormac McCarthy (who recently died). It was made into a good film but as always one should read the book first. I have read 2 other novels by Cormac (Blood Meridian and The Road) but they are more literary/arty. The Road was also turned into a film. It is another end of the world type story, like Stephen King's The Stand. The Stand was made into a mini-series a few years ago, and is interesting because most in it of the world's population is wiped out by ''Covid" err I mean Captain Trips.
The Stand was made into a mini-series a few years ago
That was a remake. The original mini series in 1994 is way better.
OzBookClub
Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
Besides Terry Pratchett, I did enjoy the :
Silo Series by Hugh Howey (now a TV series on Apple)
The Nightwatch series by Sergei Lukyanenko
The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, as well as the Dirk Gently series
42!
Have you seen the Dirk Gently series in Netflix? Season 1 is really awesome.
Loved it.
Though my understanding is that there won't be a season 2
Glad to hear it. There is already a Season 2 out. It’s not as good as the first, imo, but I enjoyed it and I think it’s worth a watch. It ended on a huge cliffhanger though and it’s almost certain that there won’t be a season 3.
Good thrillers by S Craig Zahler:
Mean Business on North Ganson Street
The Slanted Gutter
Welcome to Sex by Dr Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes - $16 at Big W
Some sci-fi recommendations… Old Man's War series and Redshirts by John Scalzi, the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton, Accelerando by Charles Stross, the Culture series by Iain M Banks, Reamde (not a misspelling, the book is called that!) and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames.
Everyone seems to be raving about Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros these days. It's next on my list!
The Expanse, quite accessible sci-fi
Thats it… you are like the 4th person to recommend this. This is going on top of my reading list
The Road (as well as everything else Cormac McCarthy has written!)
The Road is one of the best things I've ever read. I couldn't get into Blood Meridian though..
I too made it through only a few chapters of Blood Meridian my first go, but I came back to it and it's now my favorited book- Definitely try it again when you're up for it!
I recently finished Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey Into Space, which I thought was very enjoyable.
Currently reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Never seen the film, but the first book (the most well known one) was very enjoyable.
I am currently reading In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton. It's a non-fiction about the sinking of a US battleship during WW2 and it's incredibly good.
Highly recommend just walking in to your local library and speaking to a librarian or library assistant. Unlike movies/streaming services from randoms on the internet (although I highly recommend Deadloch as a murder mystery/comedy on Amazon), these are paid and trained professionals that your (or your landlords) council rates/state/federal taxes actually go towards employing.
If you were to walk in and just say exactly what you did in your OP you will get highly educated and curated recommendations for the princely sum of $0. They may even show you how to borrow the books for free and/or how to loan it across multiple platforms, including tablets, phones and audio books.
What is this Ozbook
Clive Cussler novels have great action and suspense. they always hook me in, i like the Dirk Pitt series.
The Stand for a serious read…. the directors cut which has the extra content
'The wandering inn' series by Pirate Aba is amazing.
It's a fantasy series about people from earth suddenly appearing in a crazy game style world and having to survive/thrive.
There's a website where the story is published for free, but personally I prefer to listen via Audible. The narrator is fantastic.
Milo Weaver series - Olen Steinhauer. Spy thriller series but just read the first 3. The last book is rubbish.
Victor the Assassin series - Tom Wood. Action thriller. Similar feel to Jack reacher except character is not a goody too shoes helping random strangers achieve justice but a paid assassin killing people for money
The Gray Man series - Mark Greany. Action thriller about an ex Jason Bourne style spy/assassin
Zoey Ashe series - Jason Pargin. Hard to describe. A mix of comedy/Sci-fi (but not hard core sci fi). A lot of brutal violence at the end of the first book
Boy Swallows Universe - Trent Dalton. Also hard to describe but about a boy growing up around the drug trade in Brisbane.
Expeditionary Force Series by Craig Alanson was very entertaining in the Sci-Fi genre. But admittedly I consumed them all as audiobooks, so R.C. Bray's character performances contributed significantly to my overall enjoyment.
I liked the first few books but after a while they got repetitive so did not finish the series
Agreed: insurmountable problem->all hope is lost->crazy Joe idea->problem solved. I mainly listened to them on long drives or flights; even with the repetition there were some good twists - they relieved the tedium quite well.
If you liked A Gentleman in Moscow, you might like another more recent novel by the same author, The Lincoln Highway.