Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion
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What 4 books do you most vividly remember reading?
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - as a boy this helped turned me on to books
Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov - not normally big on the science fiction genre but this one just sparked my imagination
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - 10 people on an isolated island being murdered one by one. Who is the murderer? What a great mystery
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - opened a whole new world. A terrific tale. What an imagination Tolkien had! Never too old to read this
A Wrinkle in Time, The Secret Garden, Bright of the Grand Canyon, Harriet the Spy
Gail wrote: "... I remember loving a book by Isaac Asimov too, even though I hadn't read much science fiction, but can't remember which one. I've debated trying to find it...? It was more than 30 years ago... "Assimov was a prolific writer. It was probably 40 years ago that I read Fantastic Voyage. Another of his novels I enjoyed was I, Robot. I have never seen the movie but I don't it can touch the book. Even though it has been decades since I read either book they stayed with me. To me that says something about the impact they had.
1. Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner2. Eleven Hours
3. The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
4. The Talisman And Black House
Loads of wonderful books listed here. I loved Agatha Christie and the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes growing up -- amazing what inspires you and it definitely set me for life as a mystery lover. More recently I have to say that I loved reading the Harry Potter series and have to say that seeing them as children's books is doing a disservice because the writing and storylines have so much for every age.
This year, I finally read To Kill a Mockingbird and that really impressed me a bit and right now I'm reading Burial Rites and I have to say, I think this one is not only five-stars but one I will remember for a long time!
And Then There Were None by Agatha ChristieThe Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
LOL. Looks like we have an avid Agatha Christie fan, Marwan.
Janet wrote: "LOL. Looks like we have an avid Agatha Christie fan, Marwan."Yeah, it's been more than 10 years since I read these books, but I still remember them, which indicates how a good writer she is.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Salem's Lot by Stephen King
The Drop by Michael Connelly
The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz
Tough to narrow it down to four.The first thriller I remember reading and being unable to put down was The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth.
Fantasy: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
SF: a tie between Dune and The Foundation Trilogy
Mystery: Murder on the Orient Express
The book I hated reading the most was required in high school...The Lord of the Flies...you couldn't get me anywhere near that book ever again.
The Sun Also RisesThe Sound and the Fury
Winter's Tales
Wizard of Earthsea
A Time To KillTo Kill a Mockingbird
Gone With The Wind
Goodbye Mr. Chips
, [bookcover:To Kill a , [bookcover:Gone with the Wind]
I have never read a book twice but if I did these four (to date) would be the books that I would read again. All of them are EXCELLENT story telling!!!
Shouldn't certain authors be required to add 'team' or 'staff' on their books? You get successful and hire a staff to crank out 800 page cookie cutter copies of first book, so you have a literary assembly line. Patterson, Michener, Rowling ....
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest HemingwayMona - Lawrence Block
An Equal Music - Vikram Seth
The Long Walk - Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
Marwan wrote: "Janet wrote: "LOL. Looks like we have an avid Agatha Christie fan, Marwan."Yeah, it's been more than 10 years since I read these books, but I still remember them, which indicates how a good write..."
So true! As I have all of her books, I should start reading them again!!
D.B. wrote: "To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeSalem's Lot by Stephen King
The Drop by Michael Connelly
The ..."
Have read a lot of Michael Connelly and always enjoy. I recently bought The Drop and look forward to getting into the book.
Mary wrote: "To Kill a Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights, The Outsiders, and Burial Rites."Goodness, Mary! I forgot Wuthering Heights -- another terrific book!
Mary wrote: "To Kill a Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights, The Outsiders, and Burial Rites."mary i liked evergreen ,message in a bottle and wuthering heights
John Sandford-"Storm Prey"Gone Girl - "Gillian Flynn
Irene Hannon - "Buried Secrets"
Dony Jay - " The Warrior Spy"
Gail wrote: "Jim wrote: " The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - as a boy this helped turned me on to books[bookcover:Fantastic V..."
GoodReads has a "Find me a book" Group. They are True Wizards. You describe the book as you remember and post.
Kevin wrote: "Shouldn't certain authors be required to add 'team' or 'staff' on their books? You get successful and hire a staff to crank out 800 page cookie cutter copies of first book, so you have a literary a..."Agree! Just like when you see a book that says "abridged" when its been edited down.
Wendy wrote: "John Sandford-"Storm Prey"Gone Girl - "Gillian Flynn
Irene Hannon - "Buried Secrets"
Dony Jay - " The Warrior Spy""
So is the book better or worse than the movie? Re: Gone Girl.
Gone Girl: The book is much better than the movie. It is a book that is very hard to turn into a movie very well because much of the story is the internal monologues of the 2 characters. Really, the book is excellent.
I guess what you vividly remember changes maybe every year. I put in a mix of books from long ago and from recent reads. I think Gone Girl is a book that I will remember vividly for a bout 3 years. I remember The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo vividly also, mostly because I liked the film also. This could be true for most books in the mystery genre.
Another 4 that I vividly remember reading:13 Days by Robert Kennedy
PT 109 by Richard Trigaskis
The Federalist Papers (I have a family connection to this book as one of the authors, John Jay, is up the family tree several generations.)
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi
It's hard to pick just 4, but here goes:2001: A Space Odyssey--Arthur C. Clarke
Private Down Under--James Patterson
Elixir--Gary Braver
North and South--John Jakes
Olivia I agree John Jakes North and South was a really good trilogy
Harry potter (any of them) - J.K RowlingThe Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Before the storm - Diane Chamberlain
Fallen Grace - Mary Hooper
Kiss the Girls - Casanova was a sick puppy.The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - a great mystery.
A time to kill - A masterful story teller.
Arlene wrote: "Olivia I agree John Jakes North and South was a really good trilogy"I have been a fan of John Jakes since he was writing the Brak the Barbarian series of sword and sorcery tales back in the 1970s, prior to his hitting gold with The Bastard the first of The Kent Family Chronicles.
Still AliceExit to Eden
Chances
Now You See Me
David, I love A Time To Kill it is one of the best books I have ever read!
Yes, Arlene. I thought the book was better than, the movie. One of the things I've always loved about Grisham's work is the masterful way he sets of time and place, and how deeply he goes into the characterization of the people in his books. Do you like anything else by him?
Hi, mainly his early work, The Chamber I thought was really good because it was along the same lines as A Time To Kill . I read the client but I was very unhappy with the ending so I stopped reading his books. :(
Something similar happened to me, Arlene, when I read Da Vinci Code. The ending freaked me out so bad, I haven't read anything else from him, as of yet...
Probably a bit old school but here goes...1. Jaws by Peter Benchley: Read it over two nights as a 14 year old and couldn't put it down, though didn't go swimming in the sea for a long time afterwards.
2. A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin.
Levin is just amazing. No one particular genre but each of his books is unique and riveting. This one was the first though, with a twist halfway through which they couldn't carry off in the film but as a reader makes you gasp.
3. The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre
An absolute masterpiece about recruitment to a terrorist organisation and the chesslike work of superspies. One of very few books I've read twice.
4. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
A scenario which has been repeated many times since, but never quite as brilliantly as this... man wakes up on a beach, with no identity, and no clue as to who he is. Gradually finds out the shocking truth. Run a close second by The Osterman Weekend, three friends meeting for a weekend are tipped off that one of them isn't who he says he is. But which one? Paranoia abounds...
It's hard to choose four so I slipped in five! See what I did there?
Very slick. Sort of like my doing a fiction 4 and a non-fiction 4 in seperate messages.
Gary wrote: "Very slick. Sort of like my doing a fiction 4 and a non-fiction 4 in seperate messages." Yep, that's cheating, too! Selecting 4 is pretty difficult when you've been reading seriously for over 40 years, though
I think I may have a few years on you. My 4 changes all the time too. Thinking back maybe I should have included Treasure Island which I read at age 6 or 7. I'll be 62 in May. My first Hardy Boys book was book 1, The Tower Treasure. That book started me on the whole mystery reading binge I've ben on all these years.I agree with you on Ludlum, the man wrote good stuff. I'm pretty sure Osterman was the first Ludlum book I read, it might have been The Scarlatti Inhertance
Gary wrote: "I think I may have a few years on you. My 4 changes all the time too. Thinking back maybe I should have included Treasure Island which I read at age 6 or 7. I'll be 62 in May. My first Hardy Boys b..." I didn't really take reading seriously until that Levin book. I was slouching around the house complaining of being bored and my mum said to read a book. I said "that will be boring, too" and she replied she would get me one I wouldn't put down. She was right!
My "problem" was that I read above grade level. See Dick run after Spot was boring stuff Give me Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver looking for buried treasure or Frank and Joe Hardy looking into a mystery any day.
Mine is a mix of some I read in my youth and some read recently: To Kill a Mockingbird
The Sound and the Fury
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
When Saigon Surrendered: A Kentucky Mystery
Defending Jacob, The Nightengale, Little Women, Lady Chatterley's Lover
Most memorable books:The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Lying Tongue by Andrew Wilson
The Budayeen Cycle by George Alec Effinger
Revival by Stephen King
J by Howard Jacobson
Just a few...
Someone commented on reading upbove their grade level etc. Respite struggling with a learning disability, I was a bookworm from grade school on. I read because specialization was difficult. Imagine my shock in HS to test below my reading level! I realized although I was devouring books, they were below my grade level... so I launched myself into Dumas, Jane Eyre etc. Needless to say by Freshman College my vocab was at College Senior level.
Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers
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Me, too. "When Will There be Good News" will be my next read after I finish my current read.