Book-recommendation-filter: help me choose a book to get for my dad for Christmas. [more inside]
posted by synecdoche on Dec 20, 2009 - 28 answers

I am looking for recommendations for a sequence of novels that might lead an adult fan of very trashy action to the real gold. [more inside]
posted by hifimofo on Oct 29, 2009 - 11 answers

Can you recommend American female novelists who've had their debut novels published within the last 3 years or so?
posted by Kattullus on Sep 26, 2009 - 30 answers

What are some or how can one best find science-fiction novels that are good by general literary standards? [more inside]
posted by colinmarshall on Aug 18, 2009 - 75 answers

Recommendations for erotica [more inside]
posted by ninebelow on Aug 6, 2009 - 8 answers

My uncle recently mentioned to me that he's never read any book written by a woman. Apparently this is because he doesn't think they'll be any good - he seems to think women can only write romance novels. I find this both horrific and hard to believe, but he seemed serious. So, Hive Mind, I need your help in drafting a list of the very best books written by female authors. Help me teach him the error of his ways! [more inside]
posted by badmoonrising on Jul 29, 2009 - 92 answers

Apparently I'm a fan of graphic novels now, but I don't even know where to start. I love (LOVE!) Preacher; I liked Watchmen. What should I read next? [more inside]
posted by wonderyak on Mar 12, 2009 - 52 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. [more inside]
posted by taramosalata on Feb 5, 2009 - 31 answers

How does one sell a (mystery) novel? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Jan 13, 2009 - 7 answers

Robinson Crusoe was originally published without reference to Defoe, seemingly pretending to be a genuine account (see the original opening page). Would the readers of that first edition have genuinely thought the story was true? How many early novels relied on this kind of blurring between reality and fiction? Was this an important element accounting for the initial success of the novel form? As a side note, does anybody know of any good and accessible written histories of the novel format?
posted by deeper red on Jan 6, 2009 - 6 answers

Why do publishers slap on "A Novel" to the titles and/or covers of, well, novels? [more inside]
posted by CKmtl on Oct 16, 2008 - 22 answers

What are some reasonably well-known, preferably famous, examples of novels with evil first-person narrators? All that's coming to mind is Humbert Humbert, but he's too aware of his own nastiness for my purposes. I need novels where the undiluted dastardliness of the first-person narrator affects the entire moral framework of the story, so that you might be forgiven for suspecting that the author actually sides with this monster. Cheers!
posted by Beardman on Sep 13, 2008 - 61 answers

ProseFilter: Nabokov's Lolita was once hailed as "a love letter to the English language." I'm looking for modern and contemporary authors with similar aspirations. [more inside]
posted by zoomorphic on Sep 12, 2008 - 43 answers

Help balance my male dominated library. Looking for authors that happen to be female and great reads (either literature or very good genre). Specifics inside. [more inside]
posted by Gratishades on Mar 10, 2008 - 60 answers

Looking for the name of a sci-fi book. Man is injected with a serum that causes him to shrink forever, eventually discovering there are universes smaller than atoms. [more inside]
posted by Gudlyf on Feb 7, 2008 - 9 answers

Why do/did certain old novels censor names of towns/shires/boroughs? [more inside]
posted by haveanicesummer on Sep 28, 2007 - 17 answers

What novels are on the middle school syllabus these days? or What novels should be on the middle school syllabus? [more inside]
posted by Wayman Tisdale on May 23, 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 by orange swan on Apr 11, 2007 - 60 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 by orange swan on Sep 17, 2006 - 25 answers

Bookworm MeFites: I'm looking for novels, short stories, and plays by white authors where their non-white characters speak in a dialect. For instance, the slave Jim in Twain's Huckleberry Finn. [more inside]
posted by rossination on May 25, 2006 - 45 answers

I'm looking for the longest sentence in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. [more inside]
posted by rorycberger on Mar 24, 2006 - 16 answers

How does one go about publishing a novel (specifically a first novel) in the literary market? [more inside]
posted by deafweatherman on Mar 8, 2006 - 15 answers

Recent Canadian Lit. Recommendations? [more inside]
posted by misozaki on Feb 25, 2006 - 24 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 by 0bvious on Jan 17, 2006 - 63 answers

LitFilter: Please help me find books, preferably novels, in which the narrator has some sort of mental disability. [more inside]
posted by nobody on Nov 20, 2005 - 47 answers

I'm looking for high quality erotic fantasy/sci-fi novels. Any recommendations?
posted by alms on Sep 14, 2005 - 22 answers

Please recommend some good novels about people between 25-35. [more inside]
posted by callmejay 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 by orange swan on Jul 19, 2005 - 47 answers

Solve This! I love mystery novels and have a hard time finding some that I like. What do you recommend? [more inside]
posted by orange swan 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 by orange swan on Mar 1, 2005 - 17 answers

What are your favourite historical fiction novels? [more inside] [more inside]
posted by Johnny Assay on Dec 11, 2004 - 46 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 by orange swan on Oct 30, 2004 - 16 answers

IMDB.com has a list of top-grossing movies of all time. Is there a similar list of best-selling novels anywhere? The DaVinci Code topped the lists for ages...but does it approach the record?
posted by rushmc on Oct 23, 2004 - 6 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 by twine42 on May 7, 2004 - 28 answers

What are some examples of Victorian novels with elaborate (and ridiculous) chapter titles? I know these ("In which our hero meets an extraordinary figure, who resolves some puzzles, and at last explains the purpose of his life, and the meaning of his many adventures") are satirical examples, but what about the genuine article? Are there particular authors (or genres) notorious for the practice?
posted by Aaorn on Mar 29, 2004 - 14 answers

Please recommend fantasy novels for someone who doesn't like fantasy novels (more inside). [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on Mar 23, 2004 - 58 answers

This is yet another "help me identify a book I read in childhood" question [more inside]. [more inside]
posted by orange swan on Dec 19, 2003 - 6 answers