I'm in search of a new book by an author I've never read before. My favorite books tend to blend an engaging plot with good writing—literary but also page-turning.
Requirements:
– Has to be fiction
– Can't be by any of the authors I've listed below
Books I've Liked:
– Haruki Murakami: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Kafka on the Shore
– Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day, Klara and the Sun
– Ira Levin: A Kiss Before Dying
– James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice
– Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha
– Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, The Sirens of Titan
– Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The ABC Murders
– Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
– Neil Gaiman: American Gods
– Bret Easton Ellis: American Psycho
– Philip K. Dick: A Scanner Darkly, The Man in the High Castle
– Elmore Leonard: Stick
Authors I've Read Before (So, not them either):
– Blake Crouch
– Chuck Palahniuk
– F. Scott Fitzgerald
– Paulo Coelho
– Stephen King
– Frank Herbert
– Ernest Hemingway
-Mikhail Bulgakov
I appreciate any recommendations you can give. Thanks in advance!
by IsThistheWord
14 Comments
Try Wallace Stegner (Angle of Repose is one I enjoy) or Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove) or Peter Matthiessen (Shadow Country)
the employees by olga ravn, here goes nothing by steve tolz, station eleven by emily st. john mandel
James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia
Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
Dennis Lehane, Mystic River
Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children
Christopher Moore, especially Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal
Since you have some interest in sci-fi I’d suggest Lois McMaster Bujold. A great space opera awaits you.
Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe…. But you should also read the rest of Ira Levin’s books 😉
**The Orphan Master’s Son**, by Adam Johnson
I ran across this one when I had decided to read Pulitzer winning novels from the past few decades. The writing is literary, the characters and plot are compelling and a bit quirky. It won the 2013 Pulitzer, though I never really hear about it as being a popular book. Give it a go!
Emily St John Mandel – The Sea of Tranquility
Arabian Nights and Days – Naguib Mahfouz. Magical realism based around the Arabian nights mythology. Also not too long so easy to read in a few days. Very interesting and gripping !
George Orwell – 1984, Keep the Aspidistra Flying.
Octavia Butler – Kindred, Lilith’s Brood saga.
Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake.
But anything by them really.
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Farewell My Lovely – Raymond Chandler
The Postman Always Rings Twice – James Cain
**The Passion** by Jeannette Winterson
Nickel Mountain by John Gardner. Beyond the Bedroom Wall by Larry Woiwode.
The stone man by Luke Smitherd