Sarah .A
I've been interested in the 1950s lately and wanted to see if anyone knew of a good books based in the 1950s?
They can be any genre.
Answer
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. It is a memoir about the author's childhood and mother.
http://www.amazon.com/Prize-Winner-Defiance-Ohio-Mother/dp/B000Q6GY2Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245904620&sr=1-1
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. It is a memoir about the author's childhood and mother.
http://www.amazon.com/Prize-Winner-Defiance-Ohio-Mother/dp/B000Q6GY2Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245904620&sr=1-1
Any good book recommendations?
I use goodreads.com, and I love the site. However, a lot of the book ratings and recommendations don't correspond with my opinion and what I like. I started using the site about six months ago and this is the list of books I read so far:
1) "Now You See Me" (S.J. Bolton)
2) "Annie On My Mind" (Nancy Garden)---> {I'm not a lesbo, and this book was absolute shit. Poorly written}
3) "My Enemy's Cradle" (Sara Young)
4) "The Fiddler" (Beverly Lewis)
5) "The Smile" (Donna Jo Napoli)
6) "A Separate Peace" (John Knowles)
7) "The Immortal Highlander" (Karen Marie Moning)
8) "The Sandcastle Girls" (Chris Bohjalian)
9) "Perks of Being a Wallflower" (Stephen Chbosky)
10) "Chasing the Sun" (Tracie Peterson)
11) "Don't Breathe a Word" (Jennifer McMahon)
12) "The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History" (Joseph, M Marshall)
13) "1984" (George Orwell)
14) "Olive Kitteridge" (Elizabeth Strout)
15) "Eleven Minutes" (Paulo Coelho)
16) "Romeo and Juliet" (William Shakespeare)
17) "To Kill a Mockingbird" (Harper Lee)
18) "Embers of Love" (Tracie Peterson)
19) "Hearts Aglow"
20) "Hope Rekindled"
21) "Lord of the Flies" (William Golding)
22) "The Alchemist" (Paulo Coellho)
23) "The Scenic Route" (Binnie Kirshenbaum)
24) "Hearts Desire" (Laura Pedersen)
25) "The Big Shuffle"
I wrote the list so you don't say something I've already read. I'm a sophomore in high school, so I like to read Teen books from time to time (even though I think books like the Hunger Games and Twilight is F*CKEN bullshit and lame). I'm reading the Catcher in the Rye (which is funny as hell) and I read Perks of Being a Wallflower which almost made me cry :(.
Answer
Try any of these:
"One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" -- Ken Kesey
--interesting social criticism about the 1950s through the perspective of an schizophrenic person...
"Bright Light Big City" -- Jay McInerey
-- a intersting story I am currently reading, it's written in 2nd person and is about a failed life in New York during the 80's. Reminds me of The Great Gatsby which you may read in school later.
"Slautherhouse 5" -- Kurt Vonnegut
--Story about aliens, a WWII veteran, time-travel and pornstars (well kind of)... A very strange way for someone to write about his experiences in WWII, specifically the Dresden bombings.
"The Things they Carried" -- Tim O'brien
--Great novel about a man's experience with the Vietnam War. Interesting writing -- excellent stories and at times almost seems like he's arguing a point essay style. If anything just find the first chapter online. This is an excerpt from the 1st chapter and some of the best writing I've ever read:
"At night, on guard, staring into the dark, they were carried away by jumbo jets. They felt the rush of takeoff. Gone! they yelled. And then velocity -- wings and engines -- a smiling stewardess -- but it was more than a plane, it was a real bird, a big sleek silver bird with feathers and talons and high screeching. They were flying. The weights fell off; there was nothing to bear. They laughed and held on tight, feeling the cold slap of wind and altitude, soaring, thinking 'It's over', 'I'm gone!' -- they were naked, they were light and free -- it was all lightness, bright and fast and buoyant, light as light, a helium buzz in the brain, a giddy bubbling in the lungs as they were taken up over the clouds and the war, beyond duty, beyond gravity and mortification and global entanglements -- 'Sin loi!' they yelled. 'I'm sorry, motherfuckers, but I'm out of it, I'm goofed, I'm on a space cruise, I'm gone!' -- and it was a restful, unencumbered sensation, just riding the light waves, sailing that big silver freedom bird over the mountains and oceans, over America, over the farms and great sleeping citis and cemeteries and highways and the golden arches of McDonald's, it was flight, a kind of fleeing, a kind of falling, falling higher and higher, spinning off the edge of the earth and beyond the sun and through the vast, silent vacuum where there were no burdens and where everything weighed exactly nothing -- 'Gone!' they screamed. 'I'm sorry but I'm gone!' -- and so at night, not quite dreaming, they gave themselves over to lightness, they were carried, they were purely borne."
Lot's of stylistic patterns and themes throughout the novel -- weight being a primary one. It is incredibly sad -- not at all the standard men dying in war kind of sad either (obviously there is some of that though). I read it as a junior in high school and was able to appreciate it (and I hated to read).
Try any of these:
"One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" -- Ken Kesey
--interesting social criticism about the 1950s through the perspective of an schizophrenic person...
"Bright Light Big City" -- Jay McInerey
-- a intersting story I am currently reading, it's written in 2nd person and is about a failed life in New York during the 80's. Reminds me of The Great Gatsby which you may read in school later.
"Slautherhouse 5" -- Kurt Vonnegut
--Story about aliens, a WWII veteran, time-travel and pornstars (well kind of)... A very strange way for someone to write about his experiences in WWII, specifically the Dresden bombings.
"The Things they Carried" -- Tim O'brien
--Great novel about a man's experience with the Vietnam War. Interesting writing -- excellent stories and at times almost seems like he's arguing a point essay style. If anything just find the first chapter online. This is an excerpt from the 1st chapter and some of the best writing I've ever read:
"At night, on guard, staring into the dark, they were carried away by jumbo jets. They felt the rush of takeoff. Gone! they yelled. And then velocity -- wings and engines -- a smiling stewardess -- but it was more than a plane, it was a real bird, a big sleek silver bird with feathers and talons and high screeching. They were flying. The weights fell off; there was nothing to bear. They laughed and held on tight, feeling the cold slap of wind and altitude, soaring, thinking 'It's over', 'I'm gone!' -- they were naked, they were light and free -- it was all lightness, bright and fast and buoyant, light as light, a helium buzz in the brain, a giddy bubbling in the lungs as they were taken up over the clouds and the war, beyond duty, beyond gravity and mortification and global entanglements -- 'Sin loi!' they yelled. 'I'm sorry, motherfuckers, but I'm out of it, I'm goofed, I'm on a space cruise, I'm gone!' -- and it was a restful, unencumbered sensation, just riding the light waves, sailing that big silver freedom bird over the mountains and oceans, over America, over the farms and great sleeping citis and cemeteries and highways and the golden arches of McDonald's, it was flight, a kind of fleeing, a kind of falling, falling higher and higher, spinning off the edge of the earth and beyond the sun and through the vast, silent vacuum where there were no burdens and where everything weighed exactly nothing -- 'Gone!' they screamed. 'I'm sorry but I'm gone!' -- and so at night, not quite dreaming, they gave themselves over to lightness, they were carried, they were purely borne."
Lot's of stylistic patterns and themes throughout the novel -- weight being a primary one. It is incredibly sad -- not at all the standard men dying in war kind of sad either (obviously there is some of that though). I read it as a junior in high school and was able to appreciate it (and I hated to read).
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