Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Discussion Forums - Book Bazaar Book Bazaar

Topic: ****What are your top 5 bookshelf suggestions?*******

Club rule - Please, if you cannot be courteous and respectful, do not post in this forum.
  Unlock Forum posting with Annual Membership.
AmiLu avatar
Subject: ****What are your top 5 bookshelf suggestions?*******
Date Posted: 2/9/2009 12:51 PM ET
Member Since: 8/8/2008
Posts: 347
Back To Top

List the best 5 books on your bookshelf. Maybe someone will order them. Please only list 5 that you have available and a small description if you like. Here are mine.

The Long Walk by Stephen King ---- 100 boys start out on a walk across 3 states. If they stop they die, if they slow down they die. Who will live? Who will win? And is he really a winner?

When Rabbit Howls by Truddi Chase ---- 92 different personalities in one woman to help her cope with the severe child abuse she suffered. The personality named rabbit doesn't talk......only screams!

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold ----- A 14 yr old girl is murdered and tries to help her family solve her murder and deal with her death from heaven.

Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz ---- Secrets and loving devotion that hold two sisters together and the tradgedy that tears them appart.

Chang and Eng by Darin Strauss ----- The life of conjoined twins who tour with a side show, marry and raise two "separate" families. But what happens when one brother secretly loves the others wife?

jeremysgirl avatar
Date Posted: 2/9/2009 4:10 PM ET
Member Since: 7/1/2006
Posts: 349
Back To Top

Here are mine....I don't know that they are the top 5 of everyone's choice on my shelf but they are my top 5 so far. I really did like each of these. The Piper's Sons was a little confusing at first but I soon caught on, but I will admit, it keeps you guessing pretty much the whole way through, just when you think you've got it figure out, think again cause chances are, you're not even close..I was never close till the very end. And the other 4, I was going to keep them in my own collection until I got the 2 books that had 2 stories in each one, then I decided to let the 4 single ones go to new hands.

Thanks, Melissa

The Piper's Sons :: Bruce Chandler Ferguson   What would you do if you discovered you were adopted...and that your biological father was a serial killer? Paul Sinclair's real father is the Pied Piper, a mass murderer never caught but presumed dead. Now, decades after his disappearance, it seems the Piper is back...

Sea Swept (Chesapeake Bay, Bk 1) :: Nora Roberts    three brothers from the Maryland shore, Cameron, a champion boat racer, returns home at the behest of his dying father to care for Seth, a troubled young boy.

Rising Tides (Chesapeake Bay, Bk 2) :: Nora Roberts   Eager to honor their father's dying wish that their other brother, Seth, be cared for, the three settle into life with a 10-year-old. Of all the brothers, it is Ethan who finds himself drawn to the young boy, because both suffered horrific abuse before being adopted by the Quinns.

Inner Harbor (Chesapeake Bay, Bk 3) :: Nora Roberts  They honored their father's wish to raise young Seth as their own. And with all of the brothers home again the Quinn family has never been so strong. But...

Chesapeake Blue (Chesapeake Bay, Bk 4) :: Nora Roberts  Seth Quinn is finally home. It's been a long journey. After a harrowing boyhood with his drug-addicted mother, he'd been taken in by the Quinn family, growing up with three older brothers who'd watched over him with love.



Last Edited on: 2/9/09 4:16 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
familiagarduno avatar
Date Posted: 2/9/2009 8:19 PM ET
Member Since: 3/18/2008
Posts: 14
Back To Top

BUMP ~~

AmiLu avatar
Date Posted: 2/10/2009 11:32 AM ET
Member Since: 8/8/2008
Posts: 347
Back To Top

bumping

AmiLu avatar
Date Posted: 2/12/2009 11:03 AM ET
Member Since: 8/8/2008
Posts: 347
Back To Top

Anyone else? This is a great way to draw attention to your bookshelf!!

thatsMrsBtoyou avatar
Date Posted: 2/12/2009 12:42 PM ET
Member Since: 10/9/2008
Posts: 112
Back To Top

 

All Books 2 for 1!

The Queens Lady by Shannon Drake

She desired him above all others . . .
Would he now be her executioner?

Lady Gwyneth Macleod has staked her fortune and her reputation to help Mary, Queen of Scots take her rightful place on the throne. But her struggle to guide the reckless, defiant queen has put her at perilous odds with Rowan Graham, a laird dangerously accomplished in both passion and affairs of state. And the more Gwyneth challenges his intentions, the less he can resist the desire igniting between them. Now, with her country in turmoil and treachery shadowing her every step, will Gwyneth's last daring gamble lead her to the ultimate betrayal -- or a destiny greater than she could ever imagine?

 

Sisters by Danielle Steel

Four sisters, a Manhattan brownstone, and a tumultuous year of loss and courage are at the heart of Danielle Steel’s new novel about a remarkable family, a stunning tragedy—and what happens when four very different young women come together under one very lively roof.

 

The Davinci Code by Dan Brown

With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoteria culled from 2,000 years of Western history.

 

The Duke and I (Bridgerton book 1) by Julia Quinn

Simon Basset, the irresistible Duke of Hastings, has hatched a plan to keep himself free from the town's marriage-minded society mothers. He pretends to be engaged to the lovely Daphne Bridgerton. After all, it isn't as if the brooding rogue has any real plans to marry -- though there is something about the alluring Miss Bridgerton that sets Simon's heart beating a bit faster. And as for Daphne, surely the clever debutante will attract some very worthy suitors now that is seems a duke has declared her desirable. But as Daphne waltzes across ballroom after ballroom with Simon, she soon forgets that their courtship is a complete sham. And now she has to do the impossible and keep herself from losing her heart and soul completely to the handsome hell-raiser who has sworn off marriage forever!

 

The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgerton book 2) by Julia Quinn

1814 promises to be another eventful season, but not, This Author believes, for Anthony Bridgerton, London's most elusive bachelor, who has shown no indication that he plans to marry. And in all truth, why should he? When it comes to playing the consummate rake, nobody does it better...
--Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, April 1814

PIZZELLEBFS avatar
Standard Member medal
Date Posted: 2/12/2009 1:54 PM ET
Member Since: 7/23/2005
Posts: 8,444
Back To Top

Great idea!  I think these are five of my most interesting books:

 

Bachelor Girl : The Secret History of Single Women in the Twentieth Century :: Betsy Israel

Journalist Betsy Israel paints remarkably vivid portraits of single women -- and how they have been perceived -- throughout the decades using primary sources, including private journals, newspapers, and other materials from popular media. From the nineteenth-century spinsters of New England to the Bowery girls of New York City, to the career girls of the 1950s and 1960s, single women have fought to find, and feel comfortable in, that room of their own. One need only look at Bridget Jones and the Sex and the City gang to see that single women still maintain an uneasy relationship with the rest of society -- and yet radiate glamour and mystery.

 

The Dead Father's Guide to Sex and Marriage :: John Scott Shepherd

Joe Way Jr., an assistant district attorney who is being groomed by his father for Congress, is shocked when he discovers his father in a hotel room with his mistress. The next day Joe wakes to learn that his father died of a heart attack, and he is left to sort out his now-conflicted feelings for the father he once adored. He gets help from an unlikely source: the ghost of his father, who is growing younger every time Joe sees him. As Joe learns some shocking things about his father--he was never in love with Joe's mother; his past was much less privileged than Joe was led to believe--he also wrestles with his own feelings for his fiancee, Beth, a beautiful teacher who is tougher than she seems, and Mara, a liberal muckraker who couldn't be more different from Joe. A whimsical and charming novel.

 

Journal of the Plague Year (Dover Thrift Editions) :: Daniel Defoe

Classic 1722 account of the epidemic that ravaged England nearly 60 years earlier. Defoe used his considerable talents as a journalist and novelist to reconstruct--historically and fictionally--the Great Plague of London in 1664-65. Written as an eyewitness report, the novel abounds in memorable and realistic details.

 

Lord Of The Dead :: Tom Holland

Lord Byron as a vampire? That notion may not explain the aberrant behavior of the much-revered Romantic poet, but it definitely provides a racy foundation for Holland's engaging and sophisticated debut novel. The story begins in London in the present, as lovely young Rebecca Carville petitions her lawyer for the keys to the family crypt, where she hopes to find the sole existing copy of Byron's memoirs. Instead, she finds Byron himself, who proceeds to tell her the story of how he became a vampire during his journey to Greece...

 

Specimen Days :: Michael Cunningham

In each section of Michael Cunningham's bold new novel, his first since The Hours, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. "In the Machine" is a ghost story that takes place at the height of the industrial revolution, as human beings confront the alienating realities of the new machine age. "The Children's Crusade," set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band that is detonating bombs, seemingly at random, around the city. The third part, "Like Beauty," evokes a New York 150 years into the future, when the city is all but overwhelmed by refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth.

Presiding over each episode of this interrelated whole is the prophetic figure of the poet Walt Whitman, who promised his future readers, "It avails not, neither time or place . . . I am with you, and know how it is." Specimen Days is a genre-bending, haunting, and transformative ode to life in our greatest city and a meditation on the direction and meaning of America's destiny. It is a work of surpassing power and beauty by one of the most original and daring writers at work toda



Last Edited on: 2/12/09 1:55 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
Lynno avatar
Date Posted: 2/12/2009 2:02 PM ET
Member Since: 11/2/2008
Posts: 483
Back To Top

 

5 of my favorites>

Cell :: Stephen King -   I love Stephen King and I thought this was one of his best.  People using their cell phone turn into mindless zombies.  Seems far out at first, but he actually makes you believe it could happen.  Great read. 

 Cheaper by the Dozen :: Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Frank B. Gilbreth -  Excellent story about the trials and tribulations of a big family. 

The Delaney Christmas Carol :: Fayrene Preston, Iris Johansen, Kay Hooper -   More of the life of the Delaney family.  3 short stories.  Excellent!

Finding Joy: 101 Ways to Free Your Spirit and Dance With Life :: Charlotte Davis Kasl - I actually have 2 copies of this so I can swap one.  I read this whenever I need a pick-me up. Uplifing, spiritual feel good book. 

Legends 1: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy :: Robert Silverberg, Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, Raymond E. Feist--  Short stories by some of the masters of writing.  Great read!

 



Last Edited on: 2/15/09 8:54 AM ET - Total times edited: 1
DebKit avatar
Standard Member medal
Date Posted: 2/12/2009 4:27 PM ET
Member Since: 2/27/2008
Posts: 1,173
Back To Top

End in Tears (Chief Inspector Wexford Mysteries)
Author: Ruth Rendell
The killer had been seen waiting for the girl in a nearby wood. But when Chief Inspector Wexford discovers that Amber had been the driver right behind the crushed car and that shed been driving a silver Honda, while the car in front of her was a gray Honda, he knows that someone wanted the teenager dead badly enough to kill twice to get the job done. And as it turns out, this murderers plans are only just getting underway. Can Wexford unravel the complex knots that connect these murders in time to save future victims? Or is he, as he begins to fear, losing his touch and fast becoming a relic of another time?

 

Heartsick (Archie and Gretchen, Bk 1)
Author: Chelsea Cain
A Living Nightmare
Portland detective Archie Sheridan spent years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful and brutal serial killer. In the end, she was the one who caught him -- and tortured him -- and then let him go. Why did Gretchen spare Archie's life and then turn herself in? This is the question that keeps him up all night -- and the reason why he has visited Gretchen in prison every week since.

Look Closely
Author: Laura Caldwell
Look Closely
That's all the anonymous letter said, but attorney Hailey Sutter understands the meaning behind the well-chosen words. Someone wants her to investigate what happened to her mother, who died when Hailey was only seven.
The death was ruled accidental, but Hailey begins having flashbacks that tell a different story; a pounding at the door . . . her mother struggling to stand . . . a man with a gold ring that flashed in the night as he held her mother's lifeless body.

Thornyhold
Author: Mary Stewart

This old-fashioned gothic romance is as good as they get. When Gilly's witch aunt leaves Thornyhold to her, a house in the middle of the woods, Gilly finds that she has inherited far more than she realized. Along with the house comes a cat, a still room filled with herbs (and a missing recipe book), an attic chamber with carrier pigeons (who have secret messages), and an attractive neighbor whose young son offers the sacred and unique blessing of friendship.

Tourmaline
Author: Joanna Scott
Tourmaline transports us to Elba, an island off the northwest coast of Italy, in the mid-1950s. It is here that an American man, seduced by the wealth promised in the island's surfeit of semiprecious tourmaline, has traveled with his wife and four young sons, and now struggles to establish a homestead and a fortune. But the allure of one of Elba's other treasures--a bewitching local girl--derails his quest and threatens to destroy his family.

       

Lynno avatar
Date Posted: 2/21/2009 7:23 AM ET
Member Since: 11/2/2008
Posts: 483
Back To Top

Givin it the bump..  Anyone else want to add your top 5?