I tend to like humor, but other genres are acceptable. If this is too broad a category, we can limit recommendations to those where being in one's mid-20s is somehow central to the novel.
posted by jtothes
on Apr 9, 2013 -
19 answers
Can you recommend me a book with interesting, well-drawn characters and a page-turning plot that is not horribly depressing? Maybe (but not necessarily) something of the chick-lit variety?
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posted by lunasol
on Jan 24, 2013 -
38 answers
Looking for specific book recommendations that are
superb and by female authors/female authors of color.
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posted by jsturgill
on Nov 8, 2012 -
53 answers
What are other modern fiction titles with superlatives? I'm thinking of "Everything is Illuminated" and "Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever".
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posted by whimsicalnymph
on Oct 31, 2012 -
24 answers
I just finished
Gone Girl the other day and am looking for similar reads. Without spoiling anything this book features intelligent and unpredictable characters with twisty plotting, including a significant script flip halfway through. Would love similar page turners that keep you guessing without being too formulaic or lowest common denominator!
posted by yellowbinder
on Sep 24, 2012 -
26 answers
Looking for novels about or by authors from the Central Valley of California.
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posted by psoas
on Sep 13, 2012 -
21 answers
Seeking novels about scientists! All genres welcome; women protagonists, protagonists of color and non-Western protagonists preferred; weirdos also acceptable.
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posted by Frowner
on Jun 7, 2012 -
45 answers
What are the great novels of Detroit? All genres welcome, but latter half of the 20th century preferred. Thanks!
posted by gerryblog
on May 9, 2012 -
11 answers
What are some contemporary coming of age novels? I am in a reading group and our current theme is "the adolescent experience." But most novels we have read thus far speak to the experiences of past generations. What are some novels, written for adult audiences, that might describe the experience of a modern adolescent in our society?
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posted by slopepheasant
on Apr 14, 2012 -
30 answers
Looking for novels with first-person narrators, in the style of Conrad's
Heart of Darkness (specifically Marlow), E.L. Doctorow's
Homer & Langley, Sandor Marai's
Embers, etc.
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posted by scody
on Jan 27, 2012 -
37 answers
Looking for some suburban/small-town fiction or memoirs - think Tom Perotta, Lake Wobegon, or Northern Exposure.
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posted by mippy
on Dec 11, 2011 -
38 answers
Help me MeFites! Help me find the books that will allow me to space out during the holidays.
I'm looking for some engrossing, non-taxing, but not stupid, novels to read that will take me away from my ordinary modern life and its attendant pressures. Can you help?
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posted by A Terrible Llama
on Nov 22, 2011 -
48 answers
I'd like to broaden my reading in Spanish, and would like recommendations for books, originally written in Spanish, which are canonical enough to have been on Spanish or Latin American high school reading lists, or canonical enough that someone educated in Spain or Latin America might assume familiarity.
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posted by Fiasco da Gama
on Nov 13, 2011 -
2 answers
I don’t get the zombie and vampire love at all, but there is one fantasy archetype that has always fascinated me: the witch. What witchcraft-themed fantasy fiction can you recommend? The novels can feature the witch as a sympathetic or heroic character or as the villain, and can be terrifying, erotic or funny. They just shouldn’t be poorly conceived or written. I’d like examples with of a readable calibre, please. To give you something to go by, I enjoyed Gregory Maguire’s
Wicked, but found Anne Rice’s
The Witching Hour horribly bloated.
posted by orange swan
on Oct 27, 2011 -
39 answers
Please recommend books you enjoyed that are 99 cents or less for the Kindle. Bonus: blogs that cover the same.
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posted by DarlingBri
on Sep 9, 2011 -
37 answers
What are some contemporary novels about potheads or that feature weed-smoking?
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posted by fryman
on Jun 9, 2011 -
19 answers
Give your best examples of the SF/ Survivalist/ Wish Fullfillment sub-genre "libertarian engineers do everything better" or "objectivist superman saves history". More specifically ones where someone is the last man on earth/sendt back in time and constructs a free market utopia through sheer smarts and rationality ( with himself on the top of it, of course).
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posted by The Whelk
on Jun 9, 2011 -
28 answers
Help me prove my friend wrong. What are some works of fiction (novels, short stories, even poetry) written by women, but from the first-person point of view of a male character?
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posted by Nixy
on Apr 1, 2011 -
61 answers
What indie/experimental/small-press/"weird" novels set in Los Angeles would you recommend for an "Alternative L.A. Literature" list?
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posted by colinmarshall
on Mar 20, 2011 -
17 answers
I love superhero fiction. I love stories that look into what superhero powers would be like--its psychological and social ramifications. I love the mythology that has developed around superheroes. I love the darkness and moral complexity many modern superhero stories involve.... But I just cannot get into comics or any visual storytelling of that sort. So, can you point me to any good novels about superheroes?
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posted by meese
on Feb 6, 2011 -
33 answers
What are some novels in which the plot primarily revolves around a marriage?
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posted by Nixy
on Feb 5, 2011 -
46 answers
All great libraries have books in them, but how many great books have libraries in them? I just finished reading "Big Machine" by Victor Lavalle, and am currently reading "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami
(yes, finally!), and it's purely coincidental, but they both happen to feature libraries prominently. So now I'd like to know what other really good novels feature libraries in a significant way.
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posted by taz
on Dec 2, 2010 -
31 answers
Midwestern Urban Fiction: What are the great novels that exemplify or characterize (as opposed to "are set in") any of the industrialized cities of the U.S. Midwest (St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, the Twin Cities, etc.)?
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posted by jjjjjjjijjjjjjj
on Nov 3, 2010 -
25 answers
Saucy novel recommendations, please! I really liked Perfume, Les Liaisons Dangereuses and The Crimson Petal and the White. What are some other wry/dirty/dark period novels?
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posted by Ambrosia Voyeur
on Jun 19, 2010 -
29 answers
Looking for a new book or series to read, and I'd like a specific theme: that of a protagonist(ish) mastermind. More info included, as well as some minor spoilers for those who have never seen Lost, and would like to. (Just a friendly warning!)
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posted by thatbrunette
on Apr 16, 2010 -
25 answers
I'm making a reading list and I'm looking for some novels about English village life. What I have so far you can view
here. Any suggestions of books and authors I may have missed? I am looking for fiction that is in print and more than likely available at most public libraries in the states.
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posted by zzazazz
on Mar 30, 2010 -
34 answers
Book filter: can you recommend a good political/journalistic novel set in Washington, D.C. that meet the following criteria?
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posted by Tin Man
on Jan 10, 2010 -
17 answers
With NaNoWriMo looming ever nearer, I would like to hear your best tips, tricks, habits, and techniques for staying chained to the keyboard.
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posted by BitterOldPunk
on Oct 22, 2009 -
26 answers
Children'sBookFilter: Please help me identify these two young reader novels which I read many years ago.
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posted by dave99
on Aug 15, 2009 -
5 answers
[LibraryFilter] What are your
best resources for (fiction) reader's advisory (children, YA, adult)??
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posted by tamarack
on Jul 24, 2009 -
7 answers
I've just finished reading Let The Galaxy Burn, a collection of Warhammer 40k short stories, and I really liked it. What are some other good Warhammer 40k books?
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posted by thewittyname
on Jun 9, 2009 -
11 answers
Who are the new exciting, young novelists of the 21st century? I suddenly find myself with a lot more time on my hands for reading.
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posted by netbros
on Mar 2, 2009 -
24 answers
Seeking relatively well-known, canon-caliber fictional accounts of imaginary encounters between actual, historically significant figures -- especially encounters that could well have taken place, but which we know did not or remain undocumented. Philip Levine's poem "On the Meeting of Garcia Lorca and Hart Crane" typifies what I'm looking for. Mark Twain's _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ does not (respectable evidence out there of a historical Arthur notwithstanding). The literary field is rife with examples, I know -- say, some novel casting Charles Lindbergh and Adolf Hitler into a tete-a-tete. But, ack, I'm drawing a blank.
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posted by taramosalata
on Feb 5, 2009 -
31 answers
Since I began a reading life
(at about age eight), I have had a problem: my mind automatically places action in just a few places familiar to me from my life: my house, the main street of my hometown. Whether the action in a novel takes place in 16th century Scotland, or the Black Forest, or under the Unisphere. Are there ways to get around this, or to learn to read fiction more actively, and, fantastically/creatively?
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posted by Tufa
on Jan 29, 2009 -
30 answers
I want to read novels about pirates. I don't care about genre, I don't care about quality (much), I just want lots and lots of
Age of Sail pirates.
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posted by Katemonkey
on Nov 12, 2008 -
40 answers
I would like some good, engrossing, addictive, fast-paced fiction: thrillers, conspiracies, mysteries, anything.
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posted by turgid dahlia
on Oct 1, 2008 -
48 answers
I need a longish, interesting, well-written book (fiction) to read on an upcoming trip. Any suggestions?
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posted by mosessis
on Aug 21, 2008 -
58 answers
Two of my favorite books for summer are "Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin and "Smilla's Sense of Snow" by Peter Hoeg; I'd like suggestions for other (preferably hefty) novels with complex/absorbing story lines and wintry settings or themes to help me stay sane 'til September. Got an ice book to recommend?
posted by taz
on Jun 10, 2008 -
46 answers
