The HA Book Club

[Kabuki]

Can anybody recommend a good book? I was at the library today, and I just couldn't decide on what I should check out. I'm more of a fiction person at the moment.

My current favorite books:

Battle Royale by by Japanese author Koushun Takami

One of Japan's best-selling and most controversial novels. Battle Royale takes place in an alternate timeline; according to the book's prologue, Japan is a police state, known as the Republic of Greater East Asia (大東亜共和国 Dai Tōa Kyōwakoku). From time to time, fifty randomly selected classes of secondary school students are forced to take arms against one another until only one student in each class remains. The program was created, supposedly, as a form of military research and population control, though the outcome of each battle is publicized on local television. A character discovers that the program is not an experiment at all, but a means of terrorizing the population. In theory, after seeing such atrocities, the people will become paranoid and divided, preventing an organized rebellion.

Made into a movie and graphic novels...manga actually.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

A parallel novel by Gregory Maguire. Based upon the writings of L. Frank Baum, it is a revisionist look at the land and characters of Oz, best known from Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Wicked, published in 1995 with illustrations by Douglas Smith, presents events, characters and situations from Baum's books and the film in new and surprising ways. The events described in the book rarely contradict anything from the original story, and some detailed events come directly from Baum's book. However, Wicked gives Oz and its inhabitants a new context, which often changes or inverts the meaning suggested by the original texts.

The Footprints of God by Greg Iles

In this compelling, science-based entry, Iles (Sleep No More; 24 Hours; The Quiet Game) gives his own particular spin on biblical mayhem. "My name is David Tennant, M.D. I'm professor of ethics at the University of Virginia Medical School, and if you're watching this tape, I'm dead." Tennant works for Project Trinity, a secret government organization attempting to build a quantum-level supercomputer. Using advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques, Tennant and five other top scientists have supplied Trinity, the experimental computer, with molecular copies of themselves as models for a neurological operating system. As Trinity comes to life, the men who control the experiment begin to split into competing factions, each determined to use the computer for his own ends. When Tennant tries to shut the project down because of ethical considerations, he is marked for death by the beautiful but physically and psychologically scarred Geli Bauer, head of security. Iles writes himself onto a high wire that stretches over a dangerous fictional chasm as Tennant begins to have narcoleptic seizures and see life through the eyes of Jesus Christ. That this talented author makes it to the other side without falling is testament to his ingenuity and intelligence. Armageddon looms as nuclear missiles streak toward the United States, and the fate of mankind rests on Tennant's ability to reason with the omnipotent Trinity. Readers interested in the exploration of religious themes without the usual New Age blather or window-dressed dogma will snap up this novel of cutting-edge science.

I would recommend these books to anyone.

[WendyWilliams]

Autobiography (sp) by Meghan Chavalier:

Confessions of a Transsexual Pornstar

also

Hillary Rodham Clintons book Living History

I enjoyed both!

[stillies77]

Battle Royale is amazing!

I recommend (if you are into Graphic Novels)

Blankets By Craig Thompson

[Kabuki]

Battle Royale is amazing!

I recommend (if you are into Graphic Novels)

Blankets By Craig Thompson

Have you read Battle Royale the book or just the manga? I still haven't read the manga, but I own the first film.

Blankets is a great graphic novel. I see copies of it in various libraries.

[qeuqheeg222]

do a title search for "guns,germs and steel" -i dont know the author but this is a great book of history and anthropology.

[stillies77]

i read the book...best book (non graphic novel) cover i have ever seen i love the all red...the lettering...EVERYTHING its awesome haha

[Kabuki]

Autobiography (sp) by Meghan Chavalier:

Confessions of a Transsexual Pornstar

also

Hillary Rodham Clintons book Living History

I enjoyed both!

I should read Meghan's book. I may have to buy that one. I doubt I'll find a copy at the average library.

[MrsKellyPierce]

How To Be A Pornstar - Jenna Jameson
Kelly Van Der Veer's Autobio
Caroline Bassey's Autobio
All the Harry Potter books lol

[Kabuki]

do a title search for "guns,germs and steel" -i dont know the author but this is a great book of history and anthropology.

by Jared M. Diamond...sounds interesting...the theories and what not. I think you would enjoy The Footprints of God. Interesting theories in a book of fiction.

[Kabuki]

How To Be A Pornstar - Jenna Jameson
Kelly Van Der Veer's Autobio
Caroline Bassey's Autobio
All the Harry Potter books lol

I still need to read the Potter series. I'll do it before the next film comes out. I need to buy the series. eBay time