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most books by by gordon korman are hilarious!!
🙂 Bump 🙂
Rav Lau’s autobiography has recently come out in English:
“Out of the Depths: The Story of a Child of Buchenwald Who Returned Home at Last”.
iBump- TOTALLY maskim!!!!
cynic613: you are probably correct that it is not technically — that is halachically — apikorsis. I don’t remember the book too well. however, my main point is that much of the book represents many aspects of Judaism in a incorrect, and even perverse, way. Your point that he was orthodox, is mainly irrelevant to whether his book is apikorsis.
supergirl613 – I was waiting for someone to mention Miracle Ride – best Jewish book out there. Also, her other one, Invisible Me was really good.
I don’t like Footprints in the Sand though. Probably because my mom gave it to me when I was like nine, and it traumatized me, being the first book I’ve read where someone dies (sorry if that’s a spoiler!) I like your taste in general though ;D
i say, optical illusions beats ’em all! Mexico file, Lone star, invisible me, freedom to be are also great! depends if u like the espionage ones.
really – I thought optical illusion was so dumb!
recently I liked cash or charge adn Freedom to be
Sparks of Glory on the holocaust.
All For The Boss
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I’m suprised nobody has mentioned Jeffrey Archer
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Falling off the Cliff by Illene Dover
6 Of The Best by Ben Dover
10 meters to safety by Willie Makit and Betty Wont
I Need Insurance by Justin Case
Advanced Math by Smart E Pants
Animal Illness by Ann Thrax
Armed Heists by Robin Banks
How To Defend Yourself by Marsha Larts
Chinese Apathy by Hu Cares
Hot Dogs by Frank Furter
Mathematics by Adam Up
That was awesome shticky!! really top notch!
Shticky, I mentioned Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer, one month ago.
moi aussie sorry I must have forgotten but anyways whats a month when talking of reading cane and abel? Its a million pages long! But most of Jeffrey Archer’s books had me gripped and the others were also awesome!
Goq thanks but I cant claim any of them. They were copied. And there’s many more on that list, I only posted a few.
Hanoch Teller has great books.
Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are the two best series ever written. Both science fiction, not jewish, but UNBELIEVABLE!
I agree with yekke2 and would like to add Inkheart. it as an amazing fantasy book but very different then most fantasy books in that is is not about witches or dragons or stuff like that. it is a very clean book and i highly recommend it.
MICHAEL CRICHTON!!!
My dad introduced me to those and they are awesome!
I’ve only read Jurassic Park and Sphere so far, and they are both fantastic pieces of writing— really smooth, like you can just keep reading and reading and all of a sudden, three hours have gone by. (Though Sphere did creep me out of my mind.)
The problem is, they are literally 99% appropriate. LITERALLY. You basically need a permanent marker to black out maybe five (if that many, seriously) words in each book, and after that, LET YOUR KIDS READ THEM. Then read them yourself. They are incredible.
And oh, yes, I nearly forgot one of the best writers of all time (Jewish, surprisingly enough— I’m not a big Jewish lit person): HAIM SABATO.
If you have never read one of his books, please do yourself a favor, go to Amazon.com, and buy The Dawning of the Day. You will not regret it.
There are no evil neo-Nazis or Muslim terroists out to destroy the world, there’s no shidduch in jeopardy, there’s no marriage in jeopardy; in short, this is not a typical Jewish book. (Sorry, I just had to say that.)
It’s just the story of the tzaddikim of old Yerushalayim, tzaddikim in the story without being sappy or predictable. It’s the story of a pure and simple man, a professor of piyutim, a somewhat bombastic yungerman, and a blind fiddler, with the shadow of the great writer following them in their lives.
Sabato has other fantastic books, like Aleppo Tales, Adjusting Sights, and From The Four Winds, but I recommend that you read this one first to get a feeling for the flavor of his works and of the Jerusalem of old.
the mexico file is an amazing book and also the shadows.. both jewish..
I just read Delayed Reaction by Yair Weinstock – IT’S AMAZING! It’s so good I couldn’t put the book down! I think I’m going to read it again! I absolutely love it! Although it is sad…
Harry Potter and Twilight are the best and well written series!!!
one of my favourite books is “the shidduch- G. Halevi”
The mysterious Benedikt Society. No Jewish and geared more to ages 12-15 but its an incredibly well written and exciting book.
Harry Potter and Twilight are the best and well written series!!!
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I agree with OneOfMany. I never read Twilight but the excerpt I saw was hardly worth being called writing.
I don’t object to people liking those books, but if insist on naming them the BEST series then I will be forced to beat them over the head with my hardcover single-volume The Lord of the Rings. and drop the collected Discworld works on their toes.
OOM –
I don’t object to people liking those books, but if insist on naming them the BEST series then I will be forced to beat them over the head with my hardcover single-volume The Lord of the Rings. and drop the collected Discworld works on their toes.
And I shall then inform them that there is such a thing as The Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales before asking them to play spot the difference between Twilight and True Blood.
oom- i would have to first beat them on the head with The Hobbit 😉
The hardcover single-volume packs more of a punch, don’t you think? 😉
Considering that there are 39 Discworld books, whoever got that threat should pay attention… 🙂
And OOM: do I have permission to copy-paste that awesome scary …THING for further use? It is so ….awesome and scary.
And the one time I tried Twilight, I literally fell asleep. Harry Potter I didn’t find quite as bad, even though I don’t generally like wizardy types of fantasy (when you have beings who can theoretically create whatever they want, you usually end up with a lot of plot holes and convoluted rules in order to create an actual plot and not a whole bunch of wizards just conjuring up bigger and bigger explosions). JK Rowling definitely knows how to write so that people will want to read, which is an enviable skill, even if it’s not necessarily equal to Nobel Prize-worthy skill.
writersoul- im not sure about others but it was defiently a challenge getting through the first 2 books of HP,but after that was really worth it.
oom- yes i guess, but if they dont know The Hobbit first,they wont understand what hits them 😉
Do you mean my post? Sure. ^_^
and speaking of Nobel prize-worthy skill…I always say I don’t pick favorites in books, but Beloved by Toni Morrison has been it for about three months now. have been trying to dislodge it but to no avail. 🙁
ym613: I actually liked the first four the best. From the fifth on it was more of a matter of seeing it to the end…
and lol
ym613: I happened to like the first one the best! I’m the only one I know of who does, but I think it’s a very good first novel. I think it might be because by then she hadn’t gotten so overwhelmed by her universe yet.
But even with my disdain of the genre, you can still find me arguing over minutiae in the series and arguing why Harry is a flat character and Draco is much better (especially towards the end).
Oh, and am I the only person who LOATHES the Hunger Games? It was so overrated and really full of itself. Dystopian literature should not be a satire of current life. That just makes the author sound stuck-up. It should be different, whence the coolness comes. The problem is that people want to feel sophisticated talking about societal problems and how this could “really happen” (gimme a break), so they read this kind of dystopian novel. I did like the plotline where it turned out she was played by the opposition party and they were the ones who had the problems- it got the series away from its whole beatific outlook.
I kinda liked the first two novels, but the third one was like. lolwhut. And the draaaaaaaawn out agonizing teen romance thing really just put me off the whole thing. I didn’t have any problems with the premise, though.
What plot twist are you talking about? I can’t remember.
writersoul-well you would be the first and probaboly last person i know of who likes the first. Its not that i hate it i just didnt find it that exciting i only read it cause i wanted to know what was giong on the rest of the time. i get what your saying about the hunger games,i havent read them becasuse hearing about it just made it boring for me i guess,i did watch the movie however and found it interesting. i think if people find that they wonder about the future and what kind o difrent things could happen and be diffrent they are welcome to write,my personal all time favorite book is “the Giver” and then the rest of Louis Lowry’s writings,
oom- well seing it to the end was part of it,and trying to see if i was right that voldemort was going to die(i mean with a writer diffrent like jk i thought she would surprise us all). and the romance just wasnt needed and always extra,never helped the plot at all,i think she should have thought about that a second time.
writersoul – when I used to read one of those Chrichton’s, I couldn’t get it out of my heads for weeks!
This thread def. says a lot about a person.
Do people really think JKR stands up to Roald Dahl ?
ym613: The first is probably also my favorite. 🙂
The romance in HP isn’t really what bugged me (it doesn’t really eat at the plot, and let’s face it, it’s pretty much unavoidable for books of the YA genre). I think it was as writersoul said, the lack of meaningful character development. Honestly my favorite characters are Snape and Aberforth (and of course TONKS ^_^). Also, I much preferred the simpler style of the novel. More complicated doesn’t make it better.
and if are annoyed by gratuitous romance then you probably shouldn’t see The Hunger Games through to the end. :/
and heyyyyy I love Lois Lowry! I read her when I was going through my dystopian phase (along with The Hunger Games trilogy, actually). Definitely superior to The Hunger Games, though.
ym613: The difference between The Hunger Games and The Giver (which I love) is that nobody’s claiming that the scenario in The Giver is a natural result of our current society or making a pseudointellectual societal parallel cuz they think it makes them sound cool and smart.
OOM: Snape was not so much predictable as unpredictable- his plot didn’t develop at all until the last thirty seconds of the book when it did a complete 180 and I was like, “WHAT?!?!” It’s like she was trying too hard. Aberforth should’ve been explored much more deeply than he was, though.
And like you said (wow- we seem to agree on everything! Are we related?!?! 🙂 ), HP wouldn’t have sold without the romance; witness those internet forums full of Harry-Hermione “‘shippers.” *eyeroll* It sells books.
Logician: I haven’t read Crichton for a while- I started not liking it as much after a while, I don’t know why. But Sphere did, as you say, stick with me for a while. And they’re extraordinarily readable. “Rowlingesque.”
Logician: What does my favorite novel say about me? Let me hear. 🙂
And never really thought about it, but I can hear Dahl and Rowling being in the same league…what does Dahl have on Rowling besides age?
writersoul: C’mon…don’t tell me you didn’t see the Snape revelation coming. And I don’t think we are related (don’t have any relatives in your school :P) but it would be neat if we were. 🙂
Also, I would cut The Hunger Games a little slack–I don’t know if you’ve ever dabbled in the dystopian genre, but pretty much everything bearing that label deals with the issues of current society: 1984–Communism, Brave New World–eugenics, etc. I think Farenheit 451 actually shares a lot of themes with The Hunger Games. The whole pseudo-intellectual vibe you are getting might be more a function of it being so popular and so prolifically discussed. In my opinion, it’s not a bad series on the whole.
oom- you might be right that HP might not have sold without the romance,but it was originally ment for adults and i think adults are mature enough to read things without romance,the romance was added after it became a big seller and teends started reaning it and became attached to the romances in the series, it doesnt bother me i just feel it wasnt needed.
For me i awlasy liked Luna and prof mcgonagall they just added much to the story,Snape everyone should have relised would come back to prove himslef,there had to be a reason for all that self loathing.
i will be getting through the hunger games,once i start a series i must finish it, over last two days of yom tov i finished Brisingr and started Inheiratance ,long reads but worth it by far!
writersoul- see thats where i think one of the many reasons i like it comes up,who is to say that what is happening now couldnt lead to that happening to our world,i mean if you look at the world from non jews perspective it would def make things easier for many people….the way Lowry makes you feel for the charachters and learn as they do makes you really attach to the books and i really enjoy them(especially teh one that just came out :D)
OOM – they were billed the best two children’s authors of 20th century. by I don’t remember which publication.
JKR invented precious few concepts in her books. 95% are regular magic/myths etc that she took further. Animals, spells, etc – its cute and imaginative how she does it, but…
Dahl simply came up with brilliantly new ideas. In a fraction of the words, he creates a world that draws you in. And all the more vividly, because like a good author, he makes you a partner in the process, forces you to imagine with him, and doesn’t just feed it to you, like JKR.
ym613: Honestly though–cheesy as it may be, it wouldn’t really be realistic without that element… 😛 But in The Hunger Games it is really not very well done. bleh
Yeah, Luna and McGonagall are my next favorites. And more power to you, reader! 😀
oom- true,but hey can always dream cant i,for without dreaming there would be no progress. It rarely is well done.
yup,i wonder if there are any out there who actually dont like those two… thanks you to:)
I don’t know the age range of the people whom these recommendations are for, but for the Harry Potter fan crowd, check out the works of Diana Wynne Jones, particularly Archer’s Goon, which is one of the best young adult books ever written.
Probably the best sci-fi/fantasy book for young adults is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
benignuman – The Ender Saga is one of my favourite series…
YM613
haarry potter was originally meant for kids! not adults.
btw the hunger games books are much better than the movie coz the movie went by so fast. Also the 3rd book rlly shleps on.
One of many how come aberforth is yuor favourite charachter? He is such a minor part! I love hermione!
Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy, Neville Longbottom, and the Weasly twins are my favorites. They add so much life to the story.
benignuman: Ohhh, I read one of Diana Wynne Jones’ books. I don’t remember what it was called, just that it was very funny :).
And I read Ender’s Game and thought it was a bit busy- it was when I was younger though… maybe I should revisit it.
And I disagree when you make distinctions based on age. Truly good books are ageless, both in their lifespans and their audiences. Kind of like Roald Dahl, Logician, who is really fantastic. I still love The Witches as the first book to really scare me out of my skin when I was younger- and it still does for me, sometimes, when I want it to. I happen to love the Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. I believe it’s meant for teens and it’s just so much more sophisticated, in a weird way, than most of the other books meant for teens. It was dark and not at all indulgent of his audience (which I think is why they’re so popular among kids in general).
OOM: You’re right that a lot of it is the discussion, but 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 weren’t a chick-lit adventure series- they were a lot more serious and well-written. (Hunger Games was so shleppy and self-absorbed!) Myabe I’m being irrational…
- HP: Fun series to read, although a bit untznius in later books.
- Discworld: Great series that doesn’t get enough love on CR
- Jewish “novels” that are not by Marcus Lehman: Hated each and every one of them. The contrived plots. The stilted conversations. The predictable “guy becomes frum” tropes. The even more predictable “The Rav was right from the beginning”. The bizarre characters who are super geniuses, know the president personally and work as top secret advisers yet never went to college and learn all day. After years of reading Tom Clancy et al before The Spiders Web started the whole “Jewish technothriller” thing, reading these books is an exercise in pain management.
- Twilight: A girl reading Twilight is roughly the equivalent of a man looking at unb’tznius material. The show a fantasy world of perfect people who can never exist and only serve to make the reader disillusioned with what the real world has to offer in terms of a soul mate. A guy reading Twilight is either funny or sad.
Writersoul,
I agree with your statement about the agelessness of books. Many of the books I loved as a kid are still great when I reread them as an adult. I used the age grouping so people who might take my recommendation will have some idea of the age floor for enjoying the books and to assure people of the relative kashrus of the content.
Do yourself a favor and reread Ender’s Game. It is a truly great book.
Yserbius: Discworld doesn’t get enough love here? Isn’t it the only series with its own dedicated thread (though Neil Gaiman does seem to have usurped it)?
benignuman: I get your reasoning for saying that- I just wanted to emphasize that just because people might not be the recommended reading age, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t read it. For me, this works both ways- I read a lot of great “grown-up” books (mostly nonfiction and “old books”) when I was younger (and I’m not all that old now) and there are some kids’ books I’ll continue reading for a long time.
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