GOOD+BOOKS

Currently reading:
 * **name** || **title, author, comments** ||
 * Abhinav || * **1984 by** //George Orwell// (A totalitarian future society in which a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love)
 * **Les Misérables by** //Victor Hugo// (Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a police officer named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France)
 * **The Firm by** //John Grisham// (A young lawyer joins a prestigous law firm only to discover that it has a sinister dark side)
 * **Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?** //By Philip K. Dick// (Set in a fictional society where most humans have migrated away from earth, a bounty hunter attempts to 'take down' several androids who were created to replicate humans. Very intense, but with deep moral underpinnings.)
 * // (Adapted for screen as "Bladerunner for marketing purposes, w/ Harrison Ford, dir. Ridley Scott, FYI) -Evan //
 * **The White Tiger** //By Aravind Adiga// (A fictional Indian 'entrepreneur' narrates his rise in society through a series of letters and in turns makes a chillingly dark appraisal of modern Indian society.)
 * **Last Man in Tower** //By Aravind Adiga// (When a developer approaches a building's residents with a tantalizing offer, only one old schoolteacher remains to attempt to defend his right to keep the building he has lived in for most of his life. Again, a very morbid comment on society.)
 * **The Deadly Embrace** //By Bruce Riedel// (Non-Fiction: A former White House adviser narrates a tale that depicts the intricate diplomatic and militaristic relationship between Pakistan and the world, especially the United States.)
 * **A Clockwork Orange** //By Anthony Burgess// (Based on multiple recommendations below, really horrorshow read. A malenky bit gory with a whole lot of the old 'in and out' and some ultra-vilence. Apparently a great movie adaptation too. The library/English department has a bunch of copies.)
 * **India After Gandhi** //By Ramachandra Guha// (Pretty self descriptive title, but it's really long and will probably take me forever to get through. A narrative history of India after 1947.)

[|A cool Scientific Fiction/Fantasy Book list/guide by NPR] Also, a really cool table about [|magic]in books! || //(//Swedish translated crime fiction novel. When a second rape ends in murder, Chief Erik Winter starts a manhunt for a killer with a very specific method which reminds him of a case from many years ago...) ("The Lovely Bones takes the stuff of neighborhood tragedy-the unexplained disappearance of a child, the shattered family alone with its grief-and turns it into literature" ~New York Times Book Review) (Also a great film :D) * //Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult// || (A story about honor, love and redemption set in Afghanistan and the US) (A man who unwillingly travels through time, how he copes with life, family and love) (An autistic boy named Christopher sets out to solve the mystery of a murdered dog) (The story of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, and how their relationship evolved and changed across twenty years) (Michael Blomkvist, a journalist with a damaged reputation along with a Lizbeth Salander, a computer hacker sets out to resolve a murder mystery that took place four decades ago.) ||
 * Adrian || * **A Game of Thrones** by George R.R. Martin (A story about several lords who each claim a right to throne, which results in a massive civil war, throughout the story, we realize that the good guys don't always win)
 * **Gone** (set in a supernatural world where everyone over the age of fifteen mysteriously disappears and the children are left to fend for themselves, very much a massive scale modern Lord of the Flies type novel. Interesting.
 * The Millennium Series by Stieg Larson (great mystery novel set in Sweden)
 * A Dance with Dragons ( the fifth book in the series A song of ice and fire by George R.R. Martin)
 * 1984, George Orwell
 * Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
 * Screw Tape Letters, CS Lewis
 * The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien ||
 * Alice || * **Never End** by //Ake Edwardson//
 * **The Lovely Bones** by //Alice Sebold//
 * **Alice's Adventures In Wonderland** by //Lewis Carroll//
 * **The Passage** by Justin Cronin ( plot is similar to that of the tv series Heroes, where the author introduces you to a variety of disconnected character whose lives become interwoven through a universal catastrophe. (yes it is about vampire like creates. no it is nothing like the twilight series) It is a thriller and a tale about human survival. “Read this book and the ordinary world disappears.” **—Stephen King** ||
 * Avril || * Backroads by //Tawni O'Dell//
 * A Thousand Splendid Suns by //Khalad Hosseini//
 * The Friday Night Knitting Club by //Kate Jacobs// ||
 * Carl || * **Endgame by Samuel Beckett:** An existentialist play, similar to Godot with more existential angst, misery and self-deprecrating humour. The play is mainly dialogue between an old man in a chair who's paralysed and his ever-complaining servant. If you **aren't** on top of the world, then this play can make for a quiiite interesting read. The play gets even better if you're well versed in existential tropes and themes.
 * **1984** by George Orwell:
 * **A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick:** A fast paced about an undercover agent who is forced to spy upon himselfas his sanity slowly degenerates. ||
 * Crystal || * //Millennium Trilogy://
 * //The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo// (Mikael Blomkvist hired to solve a forty year old mystery)
 * //The Girl Who Played With Fire// (Revolves around Lisbeth Salander who has been accused of murder, and the only one who believes in her and can save her is Blomkvist)
 * //The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest// (Continued story from the second book)
 * Daisy || * //**The Kite Runner**// **by Khalad Hosseini**
 * //**The Time Traveler's Wife**// **by** **Audrey Niffenegger**
 * //**The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time**// **by Mark Haddon**
 * //**One Day**// **by David Nicholls**
 * //**The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo**// **by Stieg Larson**
 * Emily || * **The Castle** //Franz Kafka// (A man known as K. and his attempts to discover the secrets of The Castle, an edifice completely shrouded in mystery)
 * **The Giver** //Lois Lowry// (A largely utopian society in which only a few are chosen to retain all the memories; the pain and the pleasures of life)
 * **Crime and Punishment** //Fyodor Do//s//tovesky// (Raskolnikov commits a terrible crime to prove his theory that he can rise over the law and ends up in a realm of paranoia and regrets his actions)
 * **Atlas Shrugged** //Ayn Rand// (How talented minds struggle to survive in a dystopic United States)
 * **Touching Spirit Bear** //Ben Mikaelsen// (A story of how Cole, a juvenile delinquent, matures after being stranded on an Alaskan Island)
 * **Darkhouse** //Alex Barclay// (After Detective Joe Lucchesi shoots and kills criminal Donnie Riggs in a during kidnap and murder, Riggs’ best friend Duke Rawlins aims to get revenge)
 * **The Garden of Last Days** //Andre Dubus III// (Close to the 9/11 event, a young stripper named April suddenly receives a lot of money from a mysterious man named Bassam. )
 * **Echo Park** //Michael Connelly// (Detectives Harry Bosch and Jerry Edgar look into a case about the disappearance of a girl named Marie Gesto)
 * **Red Scarf Girl** //Ji Li Jiang// (An autobiography of the author’s life in China during the Cultural Revolution)
 * **In Cold Blood** //Truman Capote// (A novel based on the true story of the Clutter family's murder in Holcomb, Kansas) ||
 * Evan || * **Slaughterhouse Five** by Kurt Vonnegut, sounds like a bad horror movie but is a witty anti-war novel about a WWII soldier who lives his life non-linearly...and aliens
 * **Life of Pi** by Yann Martel, a religiously confused Indian boy finds himself trapped in a lifeboat with a tiger...hilarity ensues (just kidding), this is actually a philisophically heavy book about survival and the importance of a belief in //something//.
 * **The Catcher in the Rye** by J.D. Salinger, requires no further explantion. Read.
 * **Game of Thrones & Clash of Kings (Books 1&2 of A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin)-** A fantasy series less reliant on magical intervention but more on political intrigue and the incredible depth of Martin's characters (the first two books are narrated by over a dozen characters in total; this doesn't begin to describe the size of the cast). While Martin's writing has its dreadful moments, his story and characters are so well conceived I don't care. I recommend reading the books before watching the much-hyped HBO adaption.
 * Had a privilege to glance through the manuscript Stephen King's upcoming novel **11/22/63,** which is a historical fiction centered around the JFK assassination where the central character travels back in time in an attempt to prevent the event, begins a new life, meets Lee Harvey Oswald...see where this is going? ||
 * KBoyce || * //The Gravity of Sunligh//t by Rosa Shand (unfaithful expats in Uganda on brink of Idi Amin's rise to power)
 * //The Weight of Water// by Anita Shreve (details from a century-old murder case revealed through letters of the surviving woman)
 * //Drown// by Junot Diaz ( a collection of brutal short stories on a childhood as a Domincan and immigrant)
 * //Bee Season// by Myla Goldberg (a family attempts to find themselves through religion, spelling, and stealing)
 * //Lance Armstrong's War// by Daniel Coyle (insightful and often humorous commentary on the vicious world of competitive cycling)
 * //A Fine Balance// by Rohinton Mistry (an expansive and heart-wrenching story that addresses many social issues in India in the 1970s and 1980s)
 * //Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World// by Haruki Marukami (a trippy parallel narrative about secret places, genetically-altered workers, and clever librarians)
 * //Raise the Red Lantern// by Su Tong (three novellas focusing on individual and family struggles caused by cruelty, corruption, and addiction)
 * //Mudbound// by Hillary Jordan (a disturbing story about racism in post WW2 rural South US told in multiple perspectives and authentic voices) Review and excerpt on []
 * //1Q84// by Haruki Murakami (yet another romp romp through a parallel universe, complete with cats, spaghetti, ears, assassins, two moons, and a writer)
 * //China High: My Fast Times in the 010 A Beijing Memoir// by ZZ (starts as a relaxing day in SanLiTun ends in a Chinese prison with several thought-provoking musings)
 * Liam || * **Breakfast of Champions- Kurt Vonnegut** (Kurt Vonnegut visits the world of the characters that he has created. It sounds weird and it is but read it anyways; it satirizes everything imaginable.)
 * **Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger** ( A tennager runs away from his boarding school)
 * **The Chrysalids- John Windham** (Telepathic teenagers in a post-apocalyptic world (it's better than it sounds))
 * **One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- Ken Kesey** (a light-hearted patient at a mental hospital battles against the head nurses's strict rules)
 * ** Summer Reading: **
 * **Jailbird- Kurt Vonnegut** (An elderly man just out of jail reflects on his life and his involvement in the Watergate scandal during President Nixon's term. It is incredibly insightful and interesting)
 * **Hyperspace- Michio Kaku** (A non-fiction book about historical and present views of abstract physics such as alternate dimensions)
 * T**he Fantom of the Opera - By Gaston Leroux adapted by Frank Milaniand Paulette Collet** (A beautiful opera singer is loved by both a kind and rich noble and an ugly but incredibly talented man who lives in the Opera building. She has to decide between the former, who lives a normal life, and the latter, who is incredible at music but has a cruel streak) ||
 * Maura || * **A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess** (Teenage delinquent Alex is brainwashed in order to rid him of his violent and criminal tendencies)
 * **The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo** (Classic story of Quasimodo, the hunchback that lives in the bell tower of Paris' Notre Dame cathedral)
 * **Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer** (Young man travels to eastern Europe in search of the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis)
 * **The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins** (Follows Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old girl living in what was once North America that has been chosen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a competition in which twenty-four boys and girls are forced to fight each other to the death. The first two books (The Hunger Games and Catching Fire) are great, but the third (Mockingjay) left much to be desired.)
 * **The Stand by Stephen King** (A super flu designed by the military rapidly spreads, killing off the majority of the world's population)
 * **Misery by Stephen King** (Another great Stephen King book. A crazed fan nurses a novelist back to health in her home and then demands that he write a novel just for her...or else.)
 * **Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov** (A collection of short science fiction stories. A lot of them have been adapted into films.)
 * **The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker** (A memoir about a young mormon girl that tries to hang on to her religion as she tries a make a life for herself as an actor in New York City.)
 * **The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs** (Documents a man's journey to live by the rules outlined by the bible as literally as possible for a year, including all the outlandish rules such as not wearing clothes made of mixed fibers.)
 * **Red Dragon by Thomas Harris** (The first of the Hannibal Lector books.)
 * **Frankenstein by Mary Shelley** (A must-read classic about Dr. Frankenstein's misunderstood monster)
 * Pam || * I know Maura already recommended it but **//A Clockwork Orange//** is really good! (In a world ruled by teenage delinquents, a method is developed to "fix" the problem, one gang member Alex is subjected to this. note: there is a 21st chapter! the american edition has the last chapter ommitted, i prefer the full version of the book)
 * //**Five Quarters of the Orange**// (weird another orange book...but set in France, a woman struggling to keep her business from scheming relatives, flashbacks to story of three children of an angry, controlling mother who are informants for the Nazis)
 * //**The Road**// **by Cormac McCarthy** A father and son have a singular goal of existence in this post-apocalyptic world rife with violence and ruthlessness perpetrated by the few human survivors upon each other.
 * //**The White Tiger**// **by Aravind Adiga** Portrays the divide between those living in extreme poverty in India and those who live in India, the first-world country.
 * //**The Unbearable Lightness of Being**// **by Milan Kundera** Tomas and Tereza are in love during Cold War Era Europe. Tomas loves only Tereza but is a serial cheater, which he sees no problem with. Tereza alternates between forgiveness and heartbreak and as Tomas discovers he only wants to be with Tereza while his mistress Sabina asserts that she wants to live free of the entrapment of love.
 * **//Life of Pi//** **by Yann Martel**
 * **//The Surrendered//** **by Chang-Rae Lee** June Singer and Hector Brennan are one-time lovers who both lived through the Korean War and are emotionally damaged throughout the rest of their lives by the experience. They are united decades later by their shared love for a woman they met during the war and embark together to find the son that was the result of their tryst as June is mortally ill.
 * //**The Passage**// **by Justin Cronin** Portrays a medical miracle-turned killer virus and intricately illustrates the many different characters whose lives converge to unwittingly cause the outbreak and to attempt to end it.
 * **//Middlesex// by Jeffrey Eugenides** details how Callie Stephanides, a teenage girl, discovers her identity as Cal Stephanides, a hermaphrodite man. The story begins with generations of interbreeding with the Stephanides family, leading to the expression of the gene that makes Cal intersex. He struggles to deal with shirking the first 15 years of his life as a girl and truly becoming Cal.
 * //**Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet**// **by Jamie Ford** This is an easy read; a portrayal of innocent romance between a young Chinese boy and a Japanese girl in Seattle during World War II and the cultural differences between their parents. Kind of a Romeo/Juliet Montague/Capulet story.
 * //**Kafka on the Shore**// **by Haruki Murakami** (see other synopses)
 * **//1984// by George Orwell** (see other synopses)
 * //** A Visit from the Goon Squad **// **by Jennifer Egan** I read this book in one sitting; a story that spans several decades with many narrators and characters that appear in different narratives as they go through their ordinary lives (which in Egan's telling become extraordinary). The poignancy of each character's narrative makes the reader miss reading about that character only to be immersed in the engaging story of the next. There is even a chapter told in powerpoint slides and another told in gossip magazine format.
 * //**Watchmen**// Through different narrative points and perspectives, text as well as graphics, this is a unique and distinctly told story of a group of ordinary people who imitate superheroes in comics and set out to fight crime vigilante-style.
 * **//The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao// by Junot Diaz** A Domincan family, the Cabrals, have a curse which bestows upon them horrible luck in all aspects of life. Despite this, Oscar, the youngest member of the family, persists in his pursuit of love although he is plagued by an uncommon aptitude for repelling girls with his geekiness and obesity.
 * //**The Marriage Plot**// **by Jeffrey Eugenides** Madeline, a soon-graduating senior at Brown University, is pursuing her love for "the marriage plot" common in Victorian literature through classes and seminars when she meets Leonard, a snarky, intelligent manic-depressive. She becomes romantically involved with Leonard while her best friend Mitchell stays infatuated with her even beyond graduation. Madeline's story evolves over the course of a year into a love triangle/ marriage plot of her own. ||
 * So Yeon || * //**What Men Live By (and other tales)**// by Leo Tolstoy (an angel discovers “what men live by” through different incidents - love and a strong sense of community)
 * **//Ethan Frome//** by Edith Wharton (extended flashback to the past life of a man named Ethan Frome)
 * //**Pygmalion**// by George Bernard Shaw (play - a phonetics professor tries teaching ‘proper’ English and the art of speech to a flower girl)
 * **//The Hard Times//** by Charles Dickens (both social and economic pressures present in 19th century England are highlighted)
 * **//Please Look After Mom//** by Kyung-Sook Shin (a novel examining the endless love the main character’s mom shows for her children)
 * **//Les Miserables//** by Victor Hugo (already mentioned, a good book)
 * **//Momo//** by Michael Ende (a novel revealing the importance of time especially in modern societies through the adventure of a young girl named Momo)
 * **//The Pillars of the Earth//** by Ken Follett (a historical novel focused on the construction of a cathedral in an imagined city in 12th century - relevant historical events from the time are included in the plot (some of which were covered in European History class from grade 10..)
 * **//Scarlet Song//** by Mariama Ba (the inherent limitations in cultural differences are exposed while the characters struggle to overcome the differences through love) ||
 * Teresa || * **Kafka On the Shore** by Haruki Murakami (Tells the story of two odd characters; Kafka, a 15 year old boy who runs away from home, and Nakata, a finder of lost cats)
 * **The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle** by Haruki Murakami (Set in Tokyo, a man looks for his wife's cat and soon finds himself looking for his wife who leaves him. During his search, he encounters many bizarre people.)
 * **1984** by George Orwell (as mentioned before, a really good book)
 * **Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close** by Jonathan Safran Foer (A couple of years after his father's death in 9/11, a young boy finds a key in his father's room and embarks on a quest to unravel the mystery behind the key. His journey throughout New York allows him to encounter the interesting lives of many friends, relatives and strangers, as well as cope with his own grief of losing his father.)
 * **Room** by Emma Donoghue (The portrayal of life as a victim of imprisonment and abduction through the eyes of an innocent five-year-old boy Jack, who has only known life in an enclosed 11 by 11 foot 'Room' with his Ma.)
 * **Looking for Alaska** by John Green (A powerful story about dysfunctional teenagers who struggle to cope with pain and loss.)
 * **A Long Way Down** by Nick Hornby (Four people driven to desperation to end their lives on New Years Eve meet by chance at Toppers House and a series of crazy events unfolds as they struggle to work out their problems and continue living.)
 * **We Are All Made of Glue** by Marina Lewycka (A humourous novel about Georgie Sinclair, a woman struggling to stop her life from falling apart who finds herself responsible for trying to help put her neighbour's life back together as well.)
 * **[MUST READ!!!] Let the Great World Spin** by Colum McCann (A riveting novel about the intersecting lives of people in New York from all walks of life, all tied together by a single, monumental event that took place in August 1974.) ||
 * TJ || * **Animal Farm** by George Orwell (Old Major, the farms boar, gathers all the animals on Manor Farm to take over...)
 * **Lord of the Flies** by William Golding (During an ongoing war a plane full of evacuating British children is shot down, how will they survive?)
 * **Digital Fortress** by Dan Brown (Great action thriller, Dan Brown is also the author of the Da Vinci Code. NSA de-coding machine cant decode one Algorithm.)
 * **Deception Point** by Dan Brown (Similar to all his books, this is again a great action thriller about a meteor discovered in the arctic, which could help NASA get back on their feet, after a cut in their budget.)
 * **Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows** by J.K. Rowling (I think we all know what this is about.)
 * **Millions** by Frank Cottrell Boyce (A bag full of money drops from the sky, Damian and Anthony then find themselves very rich. Now the brothers can do anything they want, except one thing they really need) ||
 * **Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows** by J.K. Rowling (I think we all know what this is about.)
 * **Millions** by Frank Cottrell Boyce (A bag full of money drops from the sky, Damian and Anthony then find themselves very rich. Now the brothers can do anything they want, except one thing they really need) ||