Recommend me some fiction with 1st person POV

Cafe Society
1

I’m doing the 50 book challenge, and I’m getting really discouraged- a I just about want to stop reading for a while level of discouraged. I’m 34 books into it, so finishing on time is no problem, but… I’ve truly liked less than 1/2 of the books I’ve read cover to cover.

This might have something to do with scoring student writing for a living(too many months of that makes you critical of all writing), since I’ve identified the problem- the voice is usually what turns me off the books I have been less than thrilled with. So many authors have voices that are utterly un-engaging.

I think this is more a problem when books are in 3rd person POV, or it at least seems so since 90% of the books I’ve read this year have been. It’s time for a switch to first person narrators. Recommend me some books with entertaining first person narrators, please! Oh, if the narration is really engaging, the stray 3rd person POV recommendation will be forgiven, but I really do want mostly 1st.

Thanks in advance :stuck_out_tongue:

2

You didn’t mention what genres you like but:

Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series
The Assassins of Tamurin (can’t remember the author)
I think Sue Grafton’s alphabet series is 1st person

3

Oops, genres… Not romance novels, and no sci-fi that involves space-travel (other worlds/aliens are ok, but I hate space-ship center stuff), the internet or robots.

Any other scif-fi types, fantasy, drama, horror, YA, and humor are all fine by me.

4

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird

Herman Melville’s Moby Dick

All the canon Sherlock Holmes stories

Walter Moseley’s Easy Rawlins and Fearless Jones books

Octavia Butler’s Kindred

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage and The Oxherders’ Tale

5

The Jeeves stories by P.G. Wodehouse. The two that I have read and enjoyed are:

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit

Jeeves and the Tie That Binds

6

If you like light mysteries…

I recently tried out a couple of Carl Hiaasen novels. One of them, Basket Case, was 1st person narration. And pretty enjoyable, I thought – since the main character had a pretty good wit and was a bit of a smart-ass, especially when speaking to the bad guys…

7

If you like war stories, theres a really interesting book called Johnny Got His Gun. I’m about a third of the way into it and the story is just amazing. The reading is difficult at first because its not what you would consider commom structure, but when you see the things the main character is going through, it makes you rethink your views on war (if you are a gung ho type person).

8

The Great Gatsby and Lolita both come to mind.

9

I am currently reading A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and it is fast becoming one of my favorite books.

10

The Lee Child series of Jack Reacher, starting with “The Killing Floor”.

11

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein

12

Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club is written entirely in first person, even when it’s in third person.

13

The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll. Part mystery, part fantasy part horror and will stay with you forever. I think all his books are FP POV.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. You know this one.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. Maybe true, maybe not (in parts) but unique. Terrific narrative drive in parts - I felt like it had a beat behind it.

No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker. Quentin Tarantino says this is the best first person crime novel ever.

Life at These Speeds by Jeremy Jackson. The narrator is an eighth grader unlike any you have ever met.

The Monkey’s Mask by Dorothy Porter. A detective story told in free verse. The PI is a lesbian. Nice and steamy.

All have very distinctive narrative voices. Samples of most are available at Amazon.com so you can get a taste.

14

Any novel by Raymond Chandler. Hells, all novels by Raymond Chandler. The Long Goodbye is a personal favorite.

Most of The Sound and the Fury is in first person. All of As I Lay Dying is, even though it’s not just one person.

15

Anything by Roger Zelazny - his short stories especially, which are in first person as often as not. The excellent Amber books are also narrated.

The Book of the Short Sun (2 or 4 volumes) by Gene Wolf is also good, if bizzare to the extreme. Very, very stylized.

16

The Jhereg books by Steven Brust. Fantasy where the hero is an assassin.

Dead Until Dawn by Charlaine Harris. A modern fantasy mystery that was a fun read and the start of a series.

17

I thoroughly enjoyed the books I got through the book swap, and they both fall into your category:

Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers and
Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti

For a description look here.

One of my own contributions might be also fitting:

Through Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks

Exactly what it says it is. Hitchhiking through Ireland. With a Fridge. 'Nuff said.

That thread above also contained some interesting reading suggestions in general, by the way, though I haven’t checked them all out yet.

18

I recommend The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille.

A story of a man and his wife and what happens whan a mafia kingpin moves in next door in their wealthy community. Lots of drama, lots of humor.

Written in the POV of the husband.

19

Spencerville by DeMille IIRC is first person also.

20

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - the first person voice is a 14-year-old murdered girl watching the aftereffects of her murder. Amazingly engrossing story-don’t be scared off by the disturbing premise.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore - bizarre, well-written and really funny!