Powerful Books

[Vans]

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Night by Elie Weisel
A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving
Perfume by Patrick Suskind

 

[PoppyAzura]

Beloved- Toni Morrison
Autobiography of Malcolm X- Alex Haley (?)
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee

 

[Alyssa*]

Recently, I read these two books and in my opinion they are both very powerful; each telling incredible stories of determination, strength & hope. You should check them out!

Dave Pelzer - A Child Called It
Souad - Burned Alive

 

[estherlouise]

Thanks guys, I am starting to make a list of all these books to check out
: ) xx

 

[Josephine]

sophie's choice by william styron

 

[lostgirl]

^^Oh Sophie's Choice and A Prayer For Owen Meany go on my list as well. Les Miserables is tremendously long but worth it. Of Mice and Men is a short book but packs a punch.

 

[Whitelinen]

Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates
Dharma bums by Jack Kerouac
That's all I can come up right at this minute.

 

[faust]

Persoanlly I don't care if a million Little Pieces is total fiction. It certainly packs a punch. They say all writing is lying so I don't see how James Frey is different from any other writers...

Ah, well, he claimed that those events were true. So, he basically lied... in an autobiography, which sold a lot of copies not because it was well written, but because people wanted the juice of reality... but instead it turned out to be a reality show.


My recommendations:

The Little Prince by de St.Exupery
The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger
The Fall by Albert Camus
The Plague by Albert Camus
Anything by albert Camus...

 

[Gincat]

The Invisible Man--Ralph Ellison

Native Son--Richard Wright

Manchild in the Promised Land--Claude Brown

The Catcher in the Rye--Salinger

 

[fashionista-ta]

Ian McEwan - Atonement
Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow

Just wanted to note that The Sparrow, which I read for my erstwhile book group, made me absolutely furious I felt that the book was written in an unfair, "stacked" way. Barbara Kingsolver (author of Poisonwood Bible) writes this way (constructs the novel to make the point she wants to make), but I find her books ring much truer. (My favorite of hers is Animal Dreams.)

PS Agree with To Kill a Mockingbird--one of the most elegantly constructed novels I've ever read. Hated Catcher in the Rye. I didn't read it when I was young ... I think you may need to be a teenager to appreciate it.

 

[PrinceOfCats]

Just wanted to note that The Sparrow, which I read for my erstwhile book group, made me absolutely furious I felt that the book was written in an unfair, "stacked" way. Barbara Kingsolver (author of Poisonwood Bible) writes this way (constructs the novel to make the point she wants to make), but I find her books ring much truer. (My favorite of hers is Animal Dreams.)

PS Agree with To Kill a Mockingbird--one of the most elegantly constructed novels I've ever read. Hated Catcher in the Rye. I didn't read it when I was young ... I think you may need to be a teenager to appreciate it.

No, the Catcher in the Rye is just quite bad. I couldn't even finish it. I hate To Kill A Mockingbird also though, I find it pretty unctious - why not just read something by BF Skinner?

The Bible is pretty powerful, largely because you can whack anyone who disagrees with you over the head with it.

American Pyscho was, I thought, quite a powerful novel, the same for Easton Ellis' mate Donna Dartt with The Secret History and The Little Friend.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Besides the writing (you guys probably already know that some people think Truman Capote really wrote it, Harper Lee was his cousin and never published anything else), probably the reason I found Mockingbird so powerful is the recent reality of the events it portrays. Contrary to what many city-dwellers believe, the Deep South and all that goes with it is still alive in pockets today. The horror and terror of lynchings is all too real and recent ...

Just the other night I heard an actor who got his start on the Cosby Show being interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR. He watched his biracial father kill a man who was strangling him in self-defense. This happened in Cleveland, OH, in **1972**, just before Christmas, feet away from Santa in a department store. Both fathers were being watched by their 3 sons, and the fight was over Dad being "a n* lover." I was in kindergarten in 1972.

 

[purechris]

ta-ta--I completely agree with you on To Kill a Mockingbird.....and it's prolly even more appreciated when you have been in the South (*said with a drawl*) I've spent plenty of time there myself.....as a matter of fact the school board tried to ban it when I was in 9th grade (1986) because of it's "language"

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides was quite possibly the best book I read last year....and it will really make you think!!!

adorefaith--Illusions is one of my favorite books EVER. While I love Johnathan Livingston Seagull, I always felt more connected to Illusions.

Happy Reading

 

[Manzaline]

Anything by Paulo Coelho gets to me.

I've just finished Eleven minutes by Paulo Coelho...i love!

And i've read Middlesex by Eugenides, it was a good book but not my favourite...

 

[fashionista-ta]

PS to my story above: Dad went to prison for defending himself and the family ended up in the projects on welfare.

 

[Gincat]

Catcher in the Rye[/I]. I didn't read it when I was young ... I think you may need to be a teenager to appreciate it.

I think you may be right about that. I read it when I was in high school and it certainly helped to alleviate some of my teen angst.

 

[scblonndie]

extremly loud and incredibly close
the stranger
1984
the unbearable lightness of being

and yeah, the poisenwood bible... my mind is kind of blank..

 

[faust]

No, the Catcher in the Rye is just quite bad. I couldn't even finish it. I hate To Kill A Mockingbird also though, I find it pretty unctious - why not just read something by BF Skinner?

The Bible is pretty powerful, largely because you can whack anyone who disagrees with you over the head with it.

American Pyscho was, I thought, quite a powerful novel, the same for Easton Ellis' mate Donna Dartt with The Secret History and The Little Friend.

Jonathan Livinsgton Seagull is definitely up there - thanks for bringing it up, Chris.

 

[Hard Core Dior]

You should try giving "Johnny got his gun" a try, it's a really powerful book.

 

[Little Star]

James Frey's A Million Little Pieces

John Knowles' A Seperate Peace

Victor Hugo's Les Miserables

Dave Pelzer's A Child Called It

A Child Called It is one I read on my last holiday. It's about a boy who was horribly abused by his mother, what he had to endure, and his life as an adult and how he was affected by his past. It's a really shocking, touching and amazing story. Non-fiction in case you hadn't guessed...