# Another thread about books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-thread-about-books/219980 "2003-12-19T16:05:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-thread-about-books/219980/1 "2003-12-19T16:05:39Z")
So I’m going up north this weekend to hang out in a cottage with my oldest friends, who can border on really annoying. So I’d like to bring some reading material. And y’all are always full of good ideas ! What do I want: a contemporary novel, interesting characters. Prefer books not by American males because I have read so many (John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Wolfe, William Styron) - I’m trying to read more by women, and authors from the Third World. I have read a number of past Booker Prize winners but was disappointed by the last one I read (_The Bone People_) so I thought I’d try another direction. A list of authors I like, to tell you (a) what kind of thing I like, and (b) what not to recommend because I’ve read it already, and © so you get my recommendations too!) : Peter Carey (Oscar and Lucinda was phenomenal) Rohintin Mistry (A Fine Balance - very good) Margaret Atwood (everything) Vonnegut (likewise) Arundhati Roy (The God Of Small Things) Thank you, as always ! ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-thread-about-books/219980/2 "2003-12-19T16:48:33Z")
Rohinton Mistry’s _Family Matters_ was quite good. It was in the same vein as _A Fine Balance_, but still good. _House of Sand and Fog_ was also good. I’m drawing a blank on the author right now, but I see they’ve made it into a movie coming out very soon. I just finished _The DaVinci Code_, by Dan Brown (current bestseller) and I loved it. I know you said no male authors, but it was a good story. _Girl With a Pearl Earring_ by Tracey Chevalier was good. I think that’s also being made into a movie. It’s not contemporary, but it was a great book. She also wrote _Falling Angels_, and I just picked up _The Virgin Blue_, but haven’t read it yet. Have you ever read any Barbara Kingsolver? _The Poisonwood Bible_ is probably her best-known book, but _The Bean Trees_ and _Pigs In Heaven_ are good, too. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-thread-about-books/219980/3 "2003-12-19T17:21:48Z")
Try Christopher Moore’s **Fluke** and **Lamb**. Best books I’ve read in years. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-thread-about-books/219980/4 "2003-12-19T17:26:53Z")
Try Louise Erdrich, Jane Smiley, or Isabel Allende. If you want something just light and fun, Carrie Fisher’s books are surprisingly good. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-thread-about-books/219980/5 "2003-12-20T17:35:03Z")
_The Crimson Petal and the White_\*, by Michael Faber. Long, but a page-turner. Whore makes good in Victorian England. Not contemporary, and not a female author – but really good. Then come resurrect our thread on it. (I would’ve linked, but there are spoilers galore.) ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-thread-about-books/219980/6 "2003-12-20T17:50:24Z")
_Geek Love_ by Katherine Dunn. Very bizarre novel about a family of purposefully-bred sideshow freaks. A megalomatic boy with flippers for arms and legs who develops his own cult, Siamese twin girls looking for ways to top their older brother, the albino hunchback dwarf narrator, and the normal looking little brother with telekinesis. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-thread-about-books/219980/7 "2003-12-20T18:21:21Z")
If you liked **Alias Grace** , you’d probably like **Madness of a Seduced Woman** by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer. It’s about a woman who steps off the curb in turn of the century Vermont. And the good part is, besides the spiralling insanity, mayhem and murder, it’s gorgeously written. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-thread-about-books/219980/8 "2003-12-23T16:42:01Z")
Sorry I’ve been away … went up north before I could come back to the thread ! My friends made me read _Metamorphosis_, which happened to be lying around, so it was okay in the end. Thanks for the sugestions ! I will add these to my list.