Need Good Books to Read...

[buddhaboy12]

Hey, can you guys give me some suggestions of TWO novels i can read to make a report on in English class (CPT)...

1) I need two books that have similarities (i.e. themes, plot, etc.)
2) These two books have to be written by foriegn authors (out of North America) and be written in the Post-Modern Period (1945-today)
3) Needs to be atleast Grade 12 material (no Harry Potter or LOTR... already asked :lol: )
4) Short books would be a bonus, since i will have to read both in about a month or so

Thanks.

[mattpiloto]

Hey, can you guys give me some suggestions of TWO novels i can read to make a report on in English class (CPT)...

1) I need two books that have similarities (i.e. themes, plot, etc.)
2) These two books have to be written by foriegn authors (out of North America)
3) Needs to be atleast Grade 12 material (no Harry Potter or LOTR... already asked :lol: )
4) Short books would be a bonus, since i will have to read both in about a month or so

Thanks.

You might want to get a better definition of "Grade 12 material". I would consider LOTR to be slightly above the level of Harry Potter.

How about something like Brave New World (Aldous Huxley, British) and 1984 (George Orwell, British). They have quite a few similarities.

[sw1ft]

How about something like Brave New World (Aldous Huxley, British) and 1984 (George Orwell, British). They have quite a few similarities.
or substitute:
A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess with one of the above.

Main themes of censorship, propaganda, etc.

[x86asm]

Damn it, I was about to recommend "Freakonomics"

My friends seem to like it.

[johnnyepy]

sophie's world

[buddhaboy12]

Thanks for the suggestions guys... oh, and they have to be postmodern

I'll check the summaries out.

Keep up the recommendations

Edit: oh and 1984 will not be an option as it will be a mandatory book in the ciriculum, but thanks for the input

[mlc2000]

I just finished reading Me Write Book (It Bigfoot Memoir)
Dark and disturbing subtext.


http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0452286859.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[Txiasaeia]

Heh heh... Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (Italian) and The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Spanish)... no, kidding, I'm being cruel. Fiasco by Stanislav Lem (Russian) and Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (also Russian, I believe) might be an interesting comparison, as they both deal with similar themes. Roadside Picnic, for those interested, is the basis for the upcoming game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Bit hard to find at the moment, however, and this might be a bit of a toughie for a high schooler - but the teacher would be very impressed by the attempt.

Ooh, ooh, I've got it: Special[i] by Bella Bathurst (brit; book is a remake of Lord of the Flies but with girls instead of boys) and something like J. G. Ballard's [i]High Rise would also be a fair comparison. England's foreign enough, eh? Both are fairly short, pretty interesting, and are *at least* high school material.

[b0rk]

1984 and there's another one I think called, animal farm, both of which are about 100 pgs thick...so you can usually finish it in under 10 hrs for both. :)

Good luck you lazy mofo!

[chicken_little]

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

[quikkid]

I would suggest Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, we are gonna be reading it for AP English, and it's short; unfortunately not quite post-modern:(

[Txiasaeia]

I would suggest Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, we are gonna be reading it for AP English, and it's short; unfortunately not quite post-modern:(

Nope, that would definitely be a modernist text. Hmm... now that you've got me thinking about Africa, Efuru by Flora Nwapa and Nervous Conditions (one of my all-time favourite books) by Tsitsi Dangarembga would be an interesting and fairly straightforward comparison as well, being that they're both bildungsromans and both have postcolonial themes.

[pakwan]

I would suggest Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, we are gonna be reading it for AP English, and it's short; unfortunately not quite post-modern:(

I did that book for my grade 12 paper. It's a good book..

Read some Paulo Coelho books..

[Kurtz7834]

or substitute:
A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess with one of the above.

Main themes of censorship, propaganda, etc.

Very good book, much better than the movie, although the movie was also good. The movie changed the ending substantially, for the worse IMHO.

If you want something contempary, try Trainspotting - the film was based on the novel by Scottish Irvine Welsh.