Other Recommendations - for the unenlightened

[Marky Lazer]

I recently finished The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Go read that.

[Connavar]

Anyone that knows good Brit crime? Not those mysteries in the country they are so famous for. Looking for cop,PI stories hardboiled or not. Stuff like Ian Rankin.

[Rosemary]

Originally Posted by woodsman

Another series I've read recently are the books by Gervaise Phinn:
The other side of the Dale,
Over hill and Dale,
Head over heals in the Dales,
Up and down in the Dales,
The heart of the Dales.

The books describe the authors life as a School inspector for English and Drama in the Yorkshire Dales. Acounts range from the deeply moving tales of children, negltected, fostered and unhapy and their tribulations, through to hilarious tales of innocent mistakes made by children.

A superb insight into the British education system and a look at the ways and thoughts of children form 4 to 18, whilst also recounting many of the authors own troubles, including: courting attempts, Clashes with superiors and living life as a strnger in the Dales.
I've enjoyed these more than anything else I've read over the last year and would highly recomend them to anyone looking for something, fairly different and light-hearted.

That sounds like a wonderful series Wood I shall have to see if I can get them over here. Thanks for letting us know about them.

[woodsman]

No probs, I really enjoyed them.
laughed a lot and wanted to cry a couple of times as well. For the Scientificialistographers amongst us, the Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. (Drat that post above of mine had a lot of typo's)

[Snow]

The site is still in Beta mode, so it's not yet open to the public, but if anyone reads this and wants to get into it, I'm currently a Beta Tester & could probably get you in as one.

[jneni]

I'd like to recommend Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

Not very good at writing reviews, so I'll just be brief.

Offred isn't her real name, it is merely a patronym that is given to her (read it as "Of Fred"). The background is in Boston, and during that period, the Congress was overturned and some military junta (at least that's how I name them) ruled the country. They believe that women is a lowly creature, so they confiscated all of the women's properties and money and they do not allow women to go to school or work.

Offred lost her husband and her daughter during the revolution. She was deemed 'fertile', as such, she was somewhat 'lucky' that she did not need to go to the Colonies - a place where 'infertile' or old women were collated to clean up radioactive wastes. However, she went into a school, something like a rehabilitation center. There, she was 'reformed' and 'remade' into a Handmaid, whose womb is more important than anything else.

The Handmaid's Tale is a story about the lifetime of Offred as a Handmaid. It's a science fiction and it's classified as a dystopian novel. Although it's short, I think it's very well written. Highly recommended to anyone who wants an interesting and provoking short read

[UltraCulture]

Great Apes by Will Self, bonkers stuff.

From the Back Cover
Like Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, Great Apes is a strange and twisted tale, a surreal satire on the human condition, and an omen for those who wander too far. After a long night of partying, Simon Dykes, a successful British painter, wakes up to find that his girlfriend has turned into a chimpanzee. In fact, the world Simon once knew has become a planet of apes. Convinced he is still human, Simon is confined to the emergency ward of a hospital and put under the care of Dr. Zack Busner, clinical psychologist, radical psychoanalyst, maverick drug researcher and media personality. Written with the glittering satiric edge that is Self's hallmark, Great Apes is a hilarious, disturbing, and truly unforgettable novel.

[iansales]

During 2008, I'm going to read each month a book by a classic author I've not read before. So I've been mooching books for it. Already I have Joseph Conrad, DH Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Patricia Highsmith, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway... and I hope to get hold of Rudyard Kipling, Wyndham Lewis, Ford Madox Ford, Vladimir Nabokov and Cervantes...

[AE35Unit]

I used to have a big Ed McBain omnibus of his 87th Precinct books,like Cop Hater etc. Good stuff! He also wrote one early SF book under his real name of somebody Marsten.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by AE35Unit

I used to have a big Ed McBain omnibus of his 87th Precinct books,like Cop Hater etc. Good stuff! He also wrote one early SF book under his real name of somebody Marsten.

My only complaint against McBain's 87th precinct stories is his handling of sex in some of them, which just seemed ... awkward, almost amateurish; especially when it came to less-than-savory characters. However, on the whole, very enjoyable books, and some very good characters indeed....

[AE35Unit]

Oh I always skip those bits in books/films anyway, just boring to me with nothing to do with the story.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by AE35Unit

Oh I always skip those bits in books/films anyway, just boring to me with nothing to do with the story.

Well, they generally have to do with the story -- certainly, in Lightning, they're an integral part of it (though handled there with much more skill) -- if nothing else, they can be a very strong indicator of character development... but that's where he usually falls down (especially with the Deaf Man, who he otherwise handles with great skill).....

[AE35Unit]

I've read a lot of James Herbert books and he always has a 'naughty bit' as we would call it. My brother would read the books then hand them to me with a note where the 'naughty bit' was!

[j. d. worthington]

Well, to take the thread a little further down the primrose path....

Yes, sex can (and has been) used extraneously in books, even by relatively good writers. However, most of the time, if it's a genuinely good writer, it really is an integral part of the tale, giving a lot of insight into characters, building an emotional connection to them (or a barrier to such, with some characters), as well as often having much to do with later motivation for their actions. In other words, as in life, so in literature: sex often plays a very important role, and is considerably more than a "naughty bit"... in fact, I'd say that with most, it's anything but "naughty", instead being one of the best insights into the emotions of a character that you can have....

[pyan]

Ever read any of the John Norman "Gor" series, j.d.?
Gave me a shock as an impressionable teenager, I can tell you....