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Please recommend a book

Wow, this thread is kind of old. :p 😌
Anyways, if anyone's interested I just finished reading a book entitled "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by an author named Zora Neale Hurston. I love the use of langauge, she switches between the narrative and how the way the characters speak. Black English or what is now known as African American Vernacular English is spoken by the characters, but Hurston writes the narrative in Standard English. It's a really interesting novel. :)

I'll shut up now, but I recommend this novel. :p
 
lol, I visited this thread because I looked at the thread about "how many books do you buy a year?" and realised that I hardly do any reading any more. :( Thanks for the recommendation Ma Cherie! 👍 It sounds interesting especially the use of the different "voices"...
 
Kinsao, as a musician you might want to read "I Hate Myself and Want to Die" by Tom Reynolds. It is about the 52 most depressing songs you've ever heard. I found it very amusing, especially the image of him and a friend performing "The Shortest Story" at a Lutheran church. In fact I was in stitches and had to put the book down for a couple of minutes while I composed myself.
 
Oh, and I want to recommend already a book that I accidentally bought today (boring train journey)! I haven't read it, only a part of the first chapter, but I think it is very interesting so far, I don't know yet what the author will put forward, but... "Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour", by Kate Fox. It's an anthropological study written for the layman. :)
 
"THE CAPE And Other Stories From The Japanese Ghetto"
by Kenji Nakagamil; Tr. by Eve Zimmerman
The author was born into the burakumin class.
There are 3 stories in this book.
Writing style was chyotto muzukashii, kedo omoshiroi.

If your library doesn't have it, "Cheng & Tsui" online does.



or

by non-Japanese

"The Crying of Lot 49"
by Thomas Pynchon

& "If on a Winter's Night a Wanderer..."
by Italo Calvino
This book: every other chapter is numbered, every other chapter is titled.
The main character in #ed is You, and You buy a book and begin to read
it - first titled chapter, its not the book You thought You bought, thus return it. Something like this keeps happening and the #ed chapters You seeks to find out what is going on. omoshiroi da yo.
 
I just read "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami, and enjoyed it - I'd definitely recommend it! 👍
 
I just finished a book called Snow Wolf Very good Cold War espionage book!

Now I'm just starting Angels & Demons after reading the Da Vinci Code...
 
danfaz said:
I just finished a book called Snow Wolf Very good Cold War espionage book!

Now I'm just starting Angels & Demons after reading the Da Vinci Code...

The Angels and Demons is worth a read I agree....I actually liked it better than the Da Vinci Code..Have you read this bestseller?
 
Miss_apollo7 said:
The Angels and Demons is worth a read I agree....I actually liked it better than the Da Vinci Code..Have you read this bestseller?

I've read that and I agree with you but I'm still looking forward to the movie version of the Da Vinci Code.

What I like about Dan Brown is the energy that you feel when you're reading his work. So let me recommend another of his work, Deception Point. :)
 
sadakoyamamura said:
I've read that and I agree with you but I'm still looking forward to the movie version of the Da Vinci Code.

What I like about Dan Brown is the energy that you feel when you're reading his work. So let me recommend another of his work, Deception Point. :)

I am also looking forward to seeing Tom Hanks in the upcoming film!!!:)
 
Miss_apollo7 said:
Da Vinci Code

Yes, I've read that. I liked it alot! So, I decided to read Angels & Demons. So far, the beginning is very similar to Da Vinci Code.
 
I've just finished readin the Da Vinci code. I can see why it upset a few people. Prefered Digital Fortress. Currently reading the Emperor Series by Conn Iggulden. All about the early life of Julius Caeser set in a fictional way instead of historically accurate. He has taken a few liberties, but does apologise at the back of each book.
 
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My favorite Japanese-related books (that I can think of right now) are:

Shogunby James Clavell
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

I just started reading the Dalai Lama's book The Universe in a Single Atom. Has anyone read this? Any thoughts?

Also, I'm starting my second year of Japanese next semester. Does anyone know of some beginning books, without too much kanji, that would be good practice?
 
danfaz said:
Yes, I've read that. I liked it alot! So, I decided to read Angels & Demons. So far, the beginning is very similar to Da Vinci Code.
I liked Angels & Demons better.
 
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I watched an interesting documentary on Dan Brown's Da Vinci code the other day.

It turns out that a lot of the stuff he presents as historical fact is just garbage. The Priory of Scion, which he states in the foreword is an actual historical body formed in 1191 whose leaders have included Da Vinci and Isaac Newton, was actually a hoax created in the 1950s in France by someone trying to prove he was descended from French Royalty. It was exposed years ago as such but he presents it as uncontested fact.

The stuff about the hidden messages in Da Vinci's "Last Supper" is also complete BS. So is the stuff about the Knights Templars tunneling under the Temple mount in Jerusalem, the stuff about the Cathars, some of the stuff about Mary Magdalane....its all made up.

It was an interesting show, hosted by the guy who played Baldrich on Blackadder. Kind of ruined the book for me though.
 
senseiman said:
I watched an interesting documentary on Dan Brown's Da Vinci code the other day.
It turns out that a lot of the stuff he presents as historical fact is just garbage. The Priory of Scion, which he states in the foreword is an actual historical body formed in 1191 whose leaders have included Da Vinci and Isaac Newton, was actually a hoax created in the 1950s in France by someone trying to prove he was descended from French Royalty. It was exposed years ago as such but he presents it as uncontested fact.
The stuff about the hidden messages in Da Vinci's "Last Supper" is also complete BS. So is the stuff about the Knights Templars tunneling under the Temple mount in Jerusalem, the stuff about the Cathars, some of the stuff about Mary Magdalane....its all made up.
It was an interesting show, hosted by the guy who played Baldrich on Blackadder. Kind of ruined the book for me though.

Who produced the show?
 
bareto said:
Also, I'm starting my second year of Japanese next semester. Does anyone know of some beginning books, without too much kanji, that would be good practice?
Well, I kinda like A Japanese Reader
As you'll see from the reviews, it's a bit dated. But it builds you up from simple hiragana to very complex text.
 
senseiman said:
I watched an interesting documentary on Dan Brown's Da Vinci code the other day.
It turns out that a lot of the stuff he presents as historical fact is just garbage. The Priory of Scion, which he states in the foreword is an actual historical body formed in 1191 whose leaders have included Da Vinci and Isaac Newton, was actually a hoax created in the 1950s in France by someone trying to prove he was descended from French Royalty. It was exposed years ago as such but he presents it as uncontested fact.
The stuff about the hidden messages in Da Vinci's "Last Supper" is also complete BS. So is the stuff about the Knights Templars tunneling under the Temple mount in Jerusalem, the stuff about the Cathars, some of the stuff about Mary Magdalane....its all made up.
It was an interesting show, hosted by the guy who played Baldrich on Blackadder. Kind of ruined the book for me though.
I've watched and read some commentaries about Da Vinci after reading it. As far as I'm concerned it was only novel in which he tried to inject historical facts(?). :)
Now another book I'd like to recommend is: Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber. It is a story of a woman with a multiple personality, the trauma she suffered as a child which caused her dissociation and her road to becoming whole. As I was reading the book, I was awed by how the mind works (she had 16 distinct personalities). You see, Sybil's other selves were a defence against the cruel environment she grew in. Sybil only knew of the "other selves" at the course of her therapy, but since the beginning, those "other selves" were aware of her. Her road to recovery was long and hard but she survived.
 
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