Absolute Chaos Discussion Boards
Fic Talk => General Discussion => Topic started by: honey on April 18, 2008, 02:01:03 PM
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OK, my dealio is that I need to figure out which books out there sound like me so I can figure out who are the best publishers for me.
PROBLEM... Kelly hardly ever reads and thus has no idea which books are like hers.
SO, I have to start reading/researching some books.
QUESTION...
Does anyone here read a lot of fiction? Do you have any recommendation s of Books or Authors that you like? More specifically any young adult fiction/romance you could recommend?
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I love reading!
Read Nineteen Minutes by Jody Piquolt. It's an excellent novel about a school shooting and it's told from everyone's point of view. I know it isn't necessarily your syle but it's an excellent book lol
As for romance, think Double Day books. I think they take manuscripts from people without agents.
I would also recommend Anne Tyler. She's an excellent romace-ish type writer who has a great comedic style. Back When We Were Grownups and I think the other one was called Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant are two great books she has written.
Wally Lamb's I Know This Much is True and She's Come Undone <-- he's my hero. He's my JK Rowling lol
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver was a great book as well. Although I have found some of her other ones to be kind of on the snorefest side.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson MCCuellers is a classic, great read.
The Secret Life of Bees is also fantastic.
I haven't read very many books directed at teenagers so I can't really help you out in that reguard. but I have read a TON of books so f I think of anything else i'll add it to the list.
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thanks Mare. Anywhere is a place to start, but I've also made it a goal to just read more in general, even if it's not necessarily my genre, because it will still help me with my own writing. Plus, it's almost the real beach season and my kids and I will go probably once or twice a week here shortly, and I love taking books to the beach so I'll need a good summer reading list lol.
And I know you're always talking about Wally Lamb, so what kind of writer is he? Like mainly drama? Are most of these books dramas?
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Oddly enough most of my reading has been in the action adventure category. Like I've read most of Michael Crighton and a lot of the Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler. Not romance at all lol.
but yeah, I know there are some teenagers here on this board. What are you guys reading these days? Oh lord that just made me sound so old. LMAO.
I really do need to find some good books that are geared toward teenagers. Like the twilight series or the Traveling Pants series... stuff like that.
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Anne Tyler's books are more conedy then drama but yes, the others are more drama centered.
Wally Lamb just does a great job writing in first POV as a woman in She's Come Undone that you almost think it was written by a woman. It's a drama but there are a lot of very funny parts in it as well. I Know This Much is True is an incredibly huge book but a great one. It's a story in a story about identical twins but one of them is mentally ill. Those are the only books he's written actually lol I don't know, maybe because of my upbringing and my families dysfuntion but both books really spoke to me and inspired me to write Mel's. The first draft lol
Deception Point is another great book. It's Dan Brown and a suspense action one and I read it in about three days lol I couldn't put it down.
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Oddly enough most of my reading has been in the action adventure category. Like I've read most of Michael Crighton and a lot of the Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler. Not romance at all lol.
but yeah, I know there are some teenagers here on this board. What are you guys reading these days? Oh lord that just made me sound so old. LMAO.
I really do need to find some good books that are geared toward teenagers. Like the twilight series or the Traveling Pants series... stuff like that.
one of my 6th graders was reading the third book in the Twilight series today. I thought of you lol She was reading the first book last Friday so it didn't take her long to get through them.
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aww. Mare thinks of me. :) haha yes. I just devoured those silly books. and 6th graders... that sounds about right lol. Though I know a ton of adults that love those books as well. Stephenie Meyer is actually publishing a new book soon in the Adult market and she actually went through a different publisher and everything. I don't know if she's going to use another name or not for that one, but I will be curious to see the genre switch.
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on a random note about teens. They enjoy big print lol little print scares them.
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Jennifer Crusie is one of those beach/chick lit authors, and she's part comedy/drama/mystery/romance...one of those that's a perfect mix of it all lol
Megan McCafferty writes this series that started off in high school. It's the diaries of this one average teenage girl and pretty much follows her musings and what goes on around her in school and life lol There's only 4 books and they move fairly fast. I loved the first two: Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings.
I know every time I'm in Target, I always check out the book section and Gossip Girls and this other set of teen fiction (TTYL I think is the name of one of the books lol) are always right up there at the top of the teen reads.
AAH! Meg Cabot! How could I forget her?! She wrote the Princess Diaries books along with a bunch of others, and I think your stories mirror hers in a lot of ways as well.
Wow, it's been a while since I've touched young adult lol and I'm only 20
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Anne Tyler's books are more conedy then drama but yes, the others are more drama centered.
Wally Lamb just does a great job writing in first POV as a woman in She's Come Undone that you almost think it was written by a woman. It's a drama but there are a lot of very funny parts in it as well. I Know This Much is True is an incredibly huge book but a great one. It's a story in a story about identical twins but one of them is mentally ill. Those are the only books he's written actually lol I don't know, maybe because of my upbringing and my families dysfuntion but both books really spoke to me and inspired me to write Mel's. The first draft lol
Deception Point is another great book. It's Dan Brown and a suspense action one and I read it in about three days lol I couldn't put it down.
haha well I might have to read that one. I mean I am the queen of mental illness. :D And as for him writing well as a woman? My hats off to the man. Because I just wrote a book from the boys perspective and he's soooo girly. That's hard to do. Really fun, channeling my inner boy, but hard.
The only Dan Brown I've read is the Da Vinci Code. But I really enjoyed it. Much more than the movie. I'll have to put Anne Tyler on my list first then cause I tend to flock to the more humor and less drama books.
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on a random note about teens. They enjoy big print lol little print scares them.
hahahahahahaha little print scares me too. man I have issues.
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Jennifer Crusie is one of those beach/chick lit authors, and she's part comedy/drama/mystery/romance...one of those that's a perfect mix of it all lol
Megan McCafferty writes this series that started off in high school. It's the diaries of this one average teenage girl and pretty much follows her musings and what goes on around her in school and life lol There's only 4 books and they move fairly fast. I loved the first two: Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings.
I know every time I'm in Target, I always check out the book section and Gossip Girls and this other set of teen fiction (TTYL I think is the name of one of the books lol) are always right up there at the top of the teen reads.
AAH! Meg Cabot! How could I forget her?! She wrote the Princess Diaries books along with a bunch of others, and I think your stories mirror hers in a lot of ways as well.
Wow, it's been a while since I've touched young adult lol and I'm only 20
Some one else was telling me Meg Cabbot. I was looking at her publisher the other day too. Thank you ladies. My list is already starting to grow. Yay! Oh, man, maybe I should go to the beach now... I wonder how warm it is right now.
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I think, if I were you (and I'm obviously not lol), I'd go to Barnes and Noble or Borders and look through their Young Adult section. Usually, they separate out their bestsellers in each section, so you could peruse through those as well and get more ideas. There's a ton of books out there in YA land that I'm sure not all of us know of or have read, so what better place than a bookstore to find more books, right? ;D
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I liked the Sweet Valley High Books!.... I don't read much anymore. I suck! lol
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My favorite books ever are Harry Potter.
As far as adult romance goes, I like Nicholas Sparks. My favorite book by him is "The Guardian," probably because it has a good suspense/mystery subplot, so it's not all romance (his books that are all romance tend to get boring for me), and it has good characters.
My favorite young adult author is Lurlene McDaniel... she writes romance, but it's the sappy, tearjerkery type (my favorite! LOL). Favorite book is "Don't Die, My Love."
My other favorite young adult author is Elizabeth Chandler. She also writes romance, but with a supernatural/suspense/mystery twist. She has a series of books called "Dark Secrets," but my absolute favorite by her (one of my favorite books of all time) is a trilogy called "Kissed by An Angel." I have the Collector's Edition, which is all three books in one, so I tend to think of it as one book, but technically it's a trilogy. It's soooo good. It's technically young adult; the main characters are in high school, but I can read it now, as an adult, and enjoy it as much as I did when I was in 8th grade and read it for the first time.
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I loved the Nancy Drew books when I was a kid. And those Goosebump books are pretty good too.
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I think, if I were you (and I'm obviously not lol), I'd go to Barnes and Noble or Borders and look through their Young Adult section. Usually, they separate out their bestsellers in each section, so you could peruse through those as well and get more ideas. There's a ton of books out there in YA land that I'm sure not all of us know of or have read, so what better place than a bookstore to find more books, right? ;D
I think that's a great idea. The titles/authors I'm recommending for young adults are things I enjoyed a decade ago as a teenager. I'm sure there's tons of great, more current stuff out there to read too. I have read a lot of kid books this year, but not so much young adult romance cause most of it is too old for fourth grade. But you could spend an afternoon just browsing and reading the backs of books to see which ones sound like your kind of story... then take notes of authors and publishers and maybe buy some that sound especially good to actually read.
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I loved the Nancy Drew books when I was a kid. And those Goosebump books are pretty good too.
I loved Goosebumps!! I took all my old Goosebump books up to my classroom library, and the kids still love reading them. I still remember which ones were my favorites, and I have fun recommending them to the kids LOL.
I loved Babysitter's Club and American Girl books too. And I've turned on a few of my kids to the Boxcar Children. I liked some of those too.
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And it'll give you a reason to spend a day at barnes and noble and and excuse to buy some books! lol
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I was surprised to see how popular those Goosebump books still are. There is another book that all the kids were reading last year but I don't remember what it was called. I think it was a mystery book and had something to do with codes? AHH it's going to drive me insane! the cover is tan lol
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okay I think it's Artemis something? lol
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Artemis Fowl Thank GOD!!! that would have seriously driven me bonkers all weekend.
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Artemis Fowl? Haven't read it, but I've seen it.
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all my 6 through 8th graders were reading it last year. It seemed like a cool book from what I browsed. lol
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Artemis Fowl? Haven't read it, but I've seen it.
Was that the one written by a 17 year old? Or is that some other one...I swear, I think it's Artemis Fowl *goes to look it up*
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Was that the one written by a 17 year old? Or is that some other one...I swear, I think it's Artemis Fowl *goes to look it up*
No, i lied. Never mind. But, there IS a popular book out there that was written by a teenager...*goes off searching*
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Wow, I'm a nut.
Anyway, I figured out what book it was that was written and published by the time the author was 19 years old: Eragon.
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lmao I love how the two of us have just randomly talked to ourselves in this thread.
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I have worked at a bookstore and a library for a total of probably 7 years and am an avid reader of all levels of books.
There is a series out there now that I really really want to read because the idea of it just caught my interest by Scott Westerfield. The titles are Uglies, Pretties and Specials.
I love Gail Carson Levine as well.. she wrote Ella Enchanted...an d has many others :-D
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants are good books, same with the Princess Diaries. There is a series of books by Louise Rennison that are fabulous... Agnus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging...is the first book.
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I loved the BSC!!! ;D
I feel like Goosebumps is kind of classic. All the kids are into reading it.
What else did I like.... The Secret Garden and a Little Princess were amongst my favorites growing up...
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Oh that reminds me I LOVED the Anne of Green Gables series... Honey if you, as a red head, have not read those...I'm gonna have to hunt you down ;)
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hahaha no I LOVE anne of green gables! I read those so long ago though, I don't really remember the later books in the series.
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*sigh* I own them all and re-read them every now and then. *sigh* Gilbert... :-D
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lmao I love how the two of us have just randomly talked to ourselves in this thread.
was that referring to me and my odd rambling, mare? i often talk to myself...when no one else is watching lol I swear, I'm not weird!!
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I liked the Sweet Valley High Books!.... I don't read much anymore. I suck! lol
Sweet Valley High! I adored those books lmao. It's my twin thing, its so odd with me but I love reading about them, writing about them...I'm odd yes lol. I loooved those books. I have them on my bookshelves still lol. I took one down the other day and skimmed it, amused at how I used to devour them.
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Oh that reminds me I LOVED the Anne of Green Gables series... Honey if you, as a red head, have not read those...I'm gonna have to hunt you down ;)
I went to Green Gables and Avonlea last weekend actually. I took pictures of the house!
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I went to Green Gables and Avonlea last weekend actually. I took pictures of the house!
haha yeah, I giggled to myself when I read your post cause I TOTALLY would have hopped the fence too.
I was at this photo shoot a couple weeks ago and one of the models there was Anne's daughter. I missed Megan Fallows by like half an hour. Probably a good thing cause I would have giggled like a fan girl.
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Sweet Valley High! I adored those books lmao. It's my twin thing, its so odd with me but I love reading about them, writing about them...I'm odd yes lol. I loooved those books. I have them on my bookshelves still lol. I took one down the other day and skimmed it, amused at how I used to devour them.
I love twins too! Books about twins are always excellent! :D
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haha yeah, I giggled to myself when I read your post cause I TOTALLY would have hopped the fence too.
I was at this photo shoot a couple weeks ago and one of the models there was Anne's daughter. I missed Megan Fallows by like half an hour. Probably a good thing cause I would have giggled like a fan girl.
Totally would have been right there with you giggling Kelly. Jullily I keep telling my husband that when he plans vacations for out of the country that I would rather go to Canada then Mexico and he has yet to figure out why despite me watching my Anne of Green Gables movies once a month. :-D
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Read Kissed by an Angel. It is AMAZING. I still love this book. It is totally fluff. (which I know you love), but so bittersweet and just..Ahhhh... .lol. It is by Elizabeth Chandler. Here is a synopsis of the book for ya.
Ivy always believed in angels. When she meets Tristan, it's the love of a lifetime. When he dies, her heart is broken and her belief in angels vanishes. And without that belief, she is unable to feel Tristan's presence when he returns--as an angel. Now Ivy is in terrible danger, and Tristan is struggling to save her. How can he protect her if she's lost her faith in angels?
Most of her books are pretty good. You should check her out. :)
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Okay, so I've never read this author's work before, but, after reading her reviews and finding out that people think she's one of the best YA writers to come along in a while, I'm definitely going to check her out. Her name is Sarah Dessen, and some of her works are "The Truth About Forever," "Just Listen," and "This Lullaby". Actually, the synopsis for Just Listen sounds along the lines of your stuff, Kelly. Well, sort of lol
Last year, Annabel was "the girl who has everything"—at least that’s the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf ’s Department Store.This year, she’s the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling.With Owen’s help,maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.
Gosh, i really need to go to the library lol
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lol that actually does sound a lot like me. you guys are pretty awesome. I was at the bookstore the other day and Meg Calbot, and another author named Kate Brian both seemed the most similar to me I think. And then this one book called Audrey, Wait by Robin Benway caught my interest and will be the first book on my list. ;D hehe it's about this girl (named audrey) who breaks up with this boy and then his band's song Audry, Wait! blows up huge on the radio and people find out that she's the Audry from the song. haha I was kind of excited in a I'm such a dork kind of way. But, seriously, keep em coming ladies! You all are fantastic!
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I love, love, LOVE "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath.. it's about a girl growing up in New York and yeah.. just being a girl. "I suck at summaries, just read it!" lol ;) but seriously it's very good. I enjoyed it a lot while I was going through that young adult "what am I going to do with my life?!" phase.
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lol that actually does sound a lot like me. you guys are pretty awesome. I was at the bookstore the other day and Meg Calbot, and another author named Kate Brian both seemed the most similar to me I think. And then this one book called Audrey, Wait by Robin Benway caught my interest and will be the first book on my list. ;D hehe it's about this girl (named audrey) who breaks up with this boy and then his band's song Audry, Wait! blows up huge on the radio and people find out that she's the Audry from the song. haha I was kind of excited in a I'm such a dork kind of way. But, seriously, keep em coming ladies! You all are fantastic!
I love that Barnes and Noble.com gives you excerpts of the novels because I loved reading Dessen's excerpts. To be honest, while the subject is totally you, the writing sounds a little more like an adult. So, almost like if I were to try to write a YA story (which, haha, I am lol), that's what it would sound like. Your stuff actually sounds genuinely like a teenager writing about his/her life, which is awesome and ridiculously difficult for adults to do...so you rock!
I love Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series..though my cousins stole my books so boo, but yeah, I was mad when the movies weren't as good and fabricated a lot of the story lol Hmm, the Aubry one sounds interesting. Wow, I'm totally going to have a summer reading list that isn't full of classic (and, to me, boring) books lol YAY!
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Read Kissed by an Angel. It is AMAZING. I still love this book. It is totally fluff. (which I know you love), but so bittersweet and just..Ahhhh... .lol. It is by Elizabeth Chandler. Here is a synopsis of the book for ya.
Ivy always believed in angels. When she meets Tristan, it's the love of a lifetime. When he dies, her heart is broken and her belief in angels vanishes. And without that belief, she is unable to feel Tristan's presence when he returns--as an angel. Now Ivy is in terrible danger, and Tristan is struggling to save her. How can he protect her if she's lost her faith in angels?
Most of her books are pretty good. You should check her out. :)
Yes!! I recommended this one earlier. You and I are like clones when it comes to taste in books. ;D
Kissed by an Angel sounds cheesy (especially from the title LOL), but it's really not, as far as YA romances go.