Can you help me set the writing soundtrack to my novels? [more inside]
posted on Jun 26, 2008 - 23 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 on Jun 10, 2008 - 46 answers
Yet another what-is-this-book/story question (sci-fi, possibly young adult, writen pre-1983) [more inside]
posted on Apr 22, 2008 - 15 answers
A novel about a computer that attempts to create art? Help me identify this sci-fi book. [more inside]
posted on Apr 22, 2008 - 5 answers 
If you please—I urgently require a few good recommendations of novels that have India as a backdrop. [more inside]
posted on Jan 13, 2008 - 55 answers
I know about road movies. What about road books? [more inside]
posted on Oct 29, 2007 - 50 answers
Best-selling childrens' novels of the last 20 years (age 8+)? [more inside]
posted on Aug 17, 2007 - 22 answers
BookFilter: I’m pregnant and would love recommendations for fictional books including or centering on pregnant characters. [more inside]
posted on Apr 20, 2007 - 24 answers
I loved fairy tales as a child, and now that I am (nominally) a grownup, I love the "retellings" of fairytales — the fleshed-out versions which, for example, feature actual character development instead of lines like "she was as beautiful as she was good". I love Robin McKinley's retellings of "Donkeyskin", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty and the Beast" (which she did twice for good measure), and Gregory Maguire's surprisingly political Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. What other good grown-up fairytales are out there?
posted on Apr 11, 2007 - 60 answers
I'm doing research (for a writing project) into Film Noirs and Mystery Pulps, and I'm looking for good selections of a certain plot type: the "missing person" scenario. [more inside]
posted on Mar 11, 2007 - 20 answers
What were some of the most influential novels of each decade of the 20th century? [more inside]
posted on Dec 21, 2006 - 59 answers
Please help me select a book as a present for my nephew. He's 19, and when I gave him a Chapters gift card for his high school graduation last spring, he used it to buy a complete set of Tom Clancy novels. Political espionage/intrigue/adventure has to be the genre I know the least about. If my nephew likes Tom Clancy's and Frederick Forsythe's works, what other books in the same genre would he enjoy?
posted on Sep 17, 2006 - 25 answers
Need suggestions for good reads to bring along on a two week vacation to (mostly) rural Germany for an American Lit and Creative Writing teacher. [more inside]
posted on Jul 10, 2006 - 12 answers
I'm looking for the longest sentence in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. [more inside]
posted on Mar 24, 2006 - 16 answers
What should my book club read next? [more inside]
posted on Feb 26, 2006 - 43 answers
Fiction usually comes in two flavours: 1st person narrative or 3rd person description.
What short stories or novels have been written in 2nd person perspective (i.e. from the reader's viewpoint)? Also, are there any movies shot entirely from this angle?
posted on Jan 17, 2006 - 63 answers
Please recommend some good novels about people between 25-35. [more inside]
posted on Aug 30, 2005 - 24 answers
What's your favourite work of trashy fiction? I'm looking for some good, fun, trashy yet smart reads in which I can unabashedly wallow. [more inside]
posted on Jul 19, 2005 - 47 answers
Please help me arrange a list of Post-World War II American Novels for a bookgroup. [more inside]
posted on May 13, 2005 - 32 answers
To all Philip K. Dick fans: Dick seems to have published a formidable amount of work, and rather than trying to read all of his novels/short stories, I'm wondering if any MeFites are familiar with his books and could recommend his best 5 or so. [more inside]
posted on Apr 28, 2005 - 38 answers
Solve This! I love mystery novels and have a hard time finding some that I like. What do you recommend? [more inside]
posted on Mar 8, 2005 - 35 answers
I'm trying to learn about the Edwardian era especially (but not exclusively) in England, Ireland, and Canada. What excellent materials (fiction and non-fiction books, movies, websites, etc.) have you read and seen about this period?
posted on Mar 1, 2005 - 17 answers
What are your favourite historical fiction novels? [more inside]
posted on Dec 11, 2004 - 47 answers
The lights along the dim hallway flickered as she walked toward the door at the end. The floor of the old house creaked underneath her webbed feet, but otherwise all was still. Until she heard the sound of footsteps behind her, and she turned and saw.... I love ghost stories. Can any of you recommend some good ones? To give you some idea of what I would like, I loved Edith Wharton's creepy tales and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, but I'll pass on any more Stephen King or Peter Straub. I want good writing, subtlety, suspense, and enough thrills and chills to scare the feathers right off me.
posted on Oct 30, 2004 - 16 answers
The 2nd Man. Can anyone think of any examples of literature which is written in the second person? We've had a think in this office and can't think of any 2nd person stuff that is pornographic. Surely there must be something?
posted on May 7, 2004 - 28 answers
I've just finished both David Gilmour's Sparrow Nights and Scott Spencer's Endless Love, each for the second time. They're even better than I remember them. What's your favorite book about unrequited love? I'd like to keep up the streak.
posted on Apr 27, 2004 - 17 answers
Please recommend fantasy novels for someone who doesn't like fantasy novels (more inside).
posted on Mar 23, 2004 - 59 answers
This is yet another "help me identify a book I read in childhood" question [more inside].
posted on Dec 19, 2003 - 7 answers
