[SBeakon]

Originally Posted by gelflinggirl

what is it about?

It's about a couple of carnival geeks (geeks are the ones who bite the heads off of chickens) who take drugs and expose themselves to toxic chemicals so as to create a family of real carnival freaks: the most extreme of which is a fish-boy. The most normal, a girl with a tail, becomes the black sheep of the family (ah, irony). It's funny, weird, poignant, and completely captivating.

That is hands-down the worst book review I've ever written. Trust me, it's great. You'll love it. That is all.

[BabyBoredom]

Gracelin O'Malley
Leaving Ireland
'Til Morning Light

Trilogy by Ann Moore about a young woman in nineteenth century Ireland & the stuggle there & emigrating etc.

[SugarKane]

I absolutely loved "Twelve Bar Blues" by Patrick Neate.

I also loved "Generation X" by Douglas Coupland.

[fifi l'amour]

"How I Make It And Fake It As A Girl For Hire" by Sarah Katherine Lewis is a really great book about working in the sex industry.

[feppybunny]

The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Salman Rushdie

I reread it every year religiously and Rushdie has a vivid and enchanting way of writing

[Aphaea]

Originally Posted by rosieholic

may i ask what the zoo story is about? im doing an essay on a group of texts that explores 'the human experience of: breaking free of supressing regimes' and yeah, i need a play- im no theatre buff.
it might help me alot.

Perhaps you should try some of Ionesco's plays? Rhinoceros is about social norms and expectations where the people turn into Rhinos which is against social expectations and then becomes the desired social norm. I haven't explained that very well at all, but you get the idea. It's 'absurd' in the same manner as the zoo story is.

[modelactress]

i'm really into milan kundera at the moment, i've read "the unbearable lightness of being" and "immortality" and recommend them both.

[kesh]

Originally Posted by Stella Maris

Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go

i'm reading this at the moment. it's breaking my heart

[catatonicx]

kurt vonnegut: slaughterhouse five, cat's cradle, hocus pocus, god bless you mr. rosewater (not mrs. rosewater, that's an entirely different book by him.)

stephen king: the stand, it, the shining, pet semetary, on writing

douglas coupland: hey nostradamus! (it's all i've read by him so far, but it was really good, kinda depressing though)

jodi picoult: vanishing acts, second glance, my sister's keeper

sylvia plath: ariel, the bell jar (did i really need to say it?)

j.d. salinger: nine stories (my favorite of all the stories in there were: a perfect day for bananafish, for esme with love and squalor, and that one about the drunken housewife in conneticut who had the daughter with the imaginary friend, i forget the name of it.)
and catcher in the rye

hunter s. thompson: the rum diary, fear and loathing in las vegas

charles bukowski: ham on rye, the night torn mad with footsteps, basically everything he's ever written

there are others but im tired and can't think of them right now.