book recommendations~♥

[acqua]

so i have been going on a reading binge recently, and i'm looking for some great reads. so lemme hear what you recommend~

we can talk about awesome books and what makes them awesome, and then read said awesome books and experience their awesomeness~ it'd be like a book club, except probably not, idk 100% how book clubs work b/c i have unfortunately never actually been in one

anyways, i'll start us off with a few recommendations of my own.

perks of being a wallflower - i literally stayed up the entire night reading this book. by the time i finished it it was past 6 am and the sun was coming up, and i felt like death the following day. so worth it.

looking for alaska & the fault in our stars - okay john green is a super great author, and i plan to read every one of his books, but these are the two i have read so far. great books, but incredibly sad. i shamelessly cried reading both of them, and one i actually had to close and put down for a bit before i could finish reading it.

fly by night - this novel is a bit different than the ones listed above, but still fantastic. it's set in a fictional land and follows the adventures of a twelve year old girl named mosca who steals a vicious goose and frees a smooth-talking criminal and escapes with him. it's such an underrated novel, and i just want it to get all the love it deserves.

i'll probably recommend more later, but i wanna hear what you guys recommend~

[kaira]

mkay so i've read all of john greens books. all of them. not that there are too many. i wish there were. they're all lovely. and perks of course. anyway, i recommend....

paper towns – by john green. other than the two already mentioned this is my favourite. i didn't like an abundance of katherines as much. and will grayson will grayson just made me so mad at tiny cooper. but they're good. //breathes. they're good. they're all good. but paper towns again has that lovely strong narrative and some mystery. margo is a little bit like alaska (the girl).

invisible man – ralph ellison. this book changed my life. it's beautiful. and incredibly relevant, even though it's more than fifty years old. i don't suggest it for people who don't like confusing books. because wow there is so much in it that is troubling. i suggest you listen to some of the recordings too. the reader has a lovely rich texture to his voice.

fight club – chuck palahniuk. i can't talk about it. heehee. just kidding. i liked to book. there are some great pieces of imagery, "a skeleton dipped in yellow wax." that you won't get in the movie. i devoured this book. and i hope to read it again soon.

[pidge03]

CACKLES READING SOMETHING I DON'T DO!! irregardless i'm lame and this thread is cute so i have a bunch of suggestions! this is a book club enough: TIH BOOK CLUB FULL OF CUTIES. so i'd like to suggest:

brave new world by aldofus huxley. dystopian books are great and i pretty much rate this one above all others. totalitarianism, caste systems, drugs - this book has it all!! one of my friends said it was a book that made him angry while reading, but angry in a good way! it's written beautifully and precisely and woooow i could go on forever! genuinely a great read

we by yevgeny zamyatin is absolutely brilliant too. it's the same genre of totalitarian states where free will is exchange for the happiness of people but this one is a lot more character focused. c'mon, it was banned in the soviet union - that should make you wanna read it if anything!!

the premises of totalitarian societies are a little similar between the books and that'll be because huxley was copying zamyatin a bit! sometimes dystopian fiction is just a long line of people copying off each other ahaha from h.g. wells to zamyatin then huxley then george orwell! but no seriously even if huxley totally ripped zamyatin off (huxley himself says he was just ripping off h.g. wells but orwell was like "HE'S SO LYING HE SO RIPPED ZAMYATIN OFF") both are totally legit books.

the handmaid's tale by margaret atwood is totally on my top list of recommendations! it's also another totalitarian regime dystopian but specifically focusing on women in a christian theocracy where their bodies are regulated and put in caste system in regards to their fertility etcetc it's fantastic (the book itself, obviously not the treatment of women omfg). it's one of the most challenged books in recent times (parents of high school kids keep trying to ban it lmao) but it's worth it

but about those other books, wow, i have to say enjoyed reading the fault in our stars by john green. he's got a nice, fluffy & charming way of writing books that's pretty satisfying!! maybe not enough horrific political regimes in it for my tastes but i was grossly sobbing so much at the end it was absolutely HORRIBLE! so props to john green, i'd totally suggest that to people if you want to break yr heart! also my mum is an A+ fan of the fault in our stars you needed to know

and kaira i've always meant to read the invisible man, i think i'll have to get a copy for sure now! it's always sounded amazing ahhh

[rinne01]

the wind up bird chronicle • haruki murakami - i've been reading this book on and off for the past few months because of time constraints which is a shame because it's really good. murakami's prose is really fluid and easy to read, and there's a lot of interesting little tidbits about japanese culture everywhere, and the plot's pretty original too. :'3

on the map • simon garfield - nonfiction, but it's about maps. and i'm a cartography geek. so, i gotta recommend this.

ack someone else's heard of fly by night? i never finished the book which is a shame. really should get around to that. isn't there a sequel too?

[acqua]

paper towns was the next john green i planned to read. i really should just get it already, but i'm still recovering from looking for alaska. (of that and tfios, i think looking for alaska ripped my heart out the worst. i guess 'cause i could relate to it a bit more than tfios.)

and i've heard of invisible man before, but never got around to reading it. definitely gonna add it to the list though.

yesss, dystopian books are excellent~ ♥ i'll definitely have to check those out sometime. i should just add all these books to my kindle app as samples and go through them one by one.

and omg rinne you've read fly by night?? ;D you really need to finish it! it's such a great book, i love it omg. and yes, there's a sequel called fly trap. not as good as the first book impo, but it's still very good.

[mint]

Ahh, John Green such a good author. I think the only one I have left of his to read is The Fault in Our Stars but I'm already prepping myself to cry from all the small stuff I've heard. Plus, it's John Green.

My favorite book right now would have to be The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It's just so different. The basic premise is there are these two young magicians who are basically in a 'contest' starting from when they are young. The whole thing takes place at a circus that opens at midnight and closes and dawn. The book is just so beautiful and I made myself read it slowly because I didn't want to finish it!

Unwind by Neal Shusterman is another amazing book. I believe there is a sequel out to it now as well? It's been a while since I've read and I'm honestly too lazy to Google it, but in a sense there is a law that allows children to be 'unwound' or killed in this universe. You follow three different characters who are all in danger of being unwound. I finished that book in one night it was so good.

The Name of the Star or anything by Maureen Johnson really. Her newest series just happens to be a favorite of what she's written. All I'm gonna say is Jack the Ripper and ghosts. Plus, the second book in the series just came out as well.

Acqua, LOVE Perks of Being a Wallflower. I think that was one book that I finished in like a day or so well, such a beautiful story.