Your Book Recommendations
This page is for you! I’m looking for books to read too. If you’ve got a book you’d like to recommend, leave a comment below.
Readers most recent book recommendations are at the bottom of this page.
[You can buy any of the recommended books with free delivery worldwide by clicking on the links below]
x Julie
Book Reviews – Reading Like Rabbits
Books You’ve Recommended:
Click to buy The Secret History
Click to buy My Family & Other Animals
Click to buy The Time Traveler’s Wife
Click to buy Each Peach Pear Plum
Click to buy The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Click to buy Phoebe and the Hot Water Bottles
Click to buy Damaged by Cathy Glass
Click to buy Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Click to buy My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Click to buy Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Click to buy Precious by Sapphire
Click to buy Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
Click to buy Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
Click here to buy Remembrance by Jude Deveraux
Click here to buy Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Click here to buy English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
Click here to buy The Women’s Room by Marilyn French
Click here to buy Palestine by Joe Sacco
Click here to buy A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
Click here to buy Essays In Love by Alain de Botton
Book Recommendation by Shoaib Chadkhan
Click here to buy The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Book Recommendation by Shoaib Chadkhan
Click here to buy the book Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
Book Recommendation by Shoaib Chadkhan
Click here to buy the book The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
Book Recommendation by J King
Click here to buy the book When Kingmakers Speak by Nathan Veerasamy
Here’s a quote from the first words of the novel:
“It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured.”
Hi Jason,
I would recommend:
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell- that’s a really sweet book, and some books come with an owl soft toy.
Peepo and Each Peach Pear Plum both by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
and
The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr – this one has a CD with the audio recording of the story.
I read all these books to my children when they were young.
Your nephew and niece are not even 2 yet, so their parents will of course have to read aloud to them, but they will grow into reading them by themselves.
Have you read the kids book – Phoebe and the hot water bottles? another one of my childhood favourites, nicely illustrated.
I came across your site after watching your latest play – “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Must have said i loved your acting, and its my first time going for a play, courtesy of my school. Thanks to you and Jae for making me fall in love with plays.
One book that i’ll recommend, is “Damaged” by Cathy Glass. Cathy writes under a pseudonym and she poignantly chronicles her time together with this girl called Jodie. Cathy is a foster mom. Jodie isn’t your average child, she’s a bit slow and you know, kind of mentally retarded.
Reading the struggles that both Cathy and Jodie, as well as Cathy’s three children face with the coming of Jodie into the family, it really brings tears to your eyes. Its so well written you wouldn’t believe its like, one of Cathy’s first books. The way she writes, it really connects with your heart. It kind of made me want to be a foster parent in the future, but i guess i’ll start fostering some children once i grow old. Ha! Ha! I’ve still got a long way to go, i’m not even 15 yet.
I hope you do pick up the book and read through it, its really worth a read. One of my most favourite books of all time.
Thank you so much for your comment and recommendation. I’m really glad you enjoyed the play and I will pass on your message to Jae =)
I haven’t heard of ‘Damaged’ before, but I will definitely read it a.s.a.p. after your rave review. I looked Cathy Glass up and she seems to have written quite a few books about children with troubled pasts. Have you read any of her other books?
Feel free to recommend more books, and tell your friends about the site!
x Julie
Today marks one week and one day since i’ve watched the play
Its so funny as i read your comment that i can actually visualize you talking. Hmm, really my idol!
I’ve got all her books!
There’s ‘Hidden’, ‘Damaged’, ‘Cut’, ‘The Saddest Girl in The World’ and i think she has a few more books planned out for the next few years. You can check you http://cathyglass.co.uk for a list of all her books. The only book i do not have is her self-help guide. There’s two books scheduled to be out this year so i’m really crossing my fingers that it’ll arrive FAST at Kinokuniya! It takes forever to see her new book appear on the shelves of Kinokuniya.
And i’ve another favourite author - Jodi Picoult! The first book i read, was “My Sister’s Keeper”, around 2 years before the movie came out. I’ve fallen in love with her style of writing that i currently have all her books and i just blew another $30 yesterday getting her latest book, “House Rules”.
Thank you very much for your site because i’m a fussy reader too. (:
Hi Kimberly,
Wow, you read a lot! Maybe you can check out when the Cathy Glass’s new books come out on ‘The Book Depository’. You can click on any of the titles or pictures on my site to get to there. You can pre-order books from there. It may take a week or two after the release date to arrive, but it may be faster than Kinokuniya. And there’s free delivery.
Glass’s next book is out in 25 days: The Girl in the Mirror
And she’s also got another book out in 207 days. It’s yet to be titled.
x Julie
Making this a quick one before my chinese tuition
I don’t think i read a lot – its just that most youngsters now don’t even touch a book :/ My friends don’t read at all! And i’m like the odd one out, the “bookworm”, some one that will lose her sanity if she doesn’t touch a book for more than a month. Well i nearly did lose my sanity until To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee saved me life, ha ha ha!
I lent my friend my story book somewhere in the first week of January and three months later? She’s still at page two.
That’s seriously awful but i guess this is how people are nowadays. I’ve resisted the temptation of getting a Kindle or those type of electronic readers cause i totally love the feel and the smell of a new book, but my friends don’t even appreciate reading. Hmm…
I think i’ll get my next few books from The Book Depository! I just need to get my dad’s credit card and i can start my book spree. Tee hee! Thank goodness the March holidays are only 3 days away… *glee*
Kimberly x
p/s; by the way, do you have an email address where i can write to? I’d like to ask you some things about theatre.
Thanks!
hi julie,
i’m currently reading “flowers for algernon” by daniel keyes. it’s about a low IQ boy named charlie who underwent an operation to become smarter. algernon is the name of the lab mouse who had the very first operation and became a lot smarter. but as algernon’s condition took a sudden turn for the worse, what would become of charlie?
what i like very much about the book is the style of writing – like “Precious”, the beginning of the book (when charlie was still not smart) was written in bad english. and i like charlie’s innocent views of his so-called ‘friends’ at work who really were bullies, and the issue on science and playing god.
hope you like it too
Hi Angelina,
Thanks for your contribution! I’d never heard of ‘Flowers for Algernon’ till today, but when I mentioned your recommendation to a friend, he said he loved that book too. It sounds interesting.
If you read any other good books, do recommend them here! Thanks Angelina!
x Julie
I’ve just finished reading your book recommendation ‘Flowers for Algernon’ by Daniel Keyes. Click here to check out my review of it.
Cheers,
Julie
i quite like movie tie-ins and here are some of the recent titles i’ve read:
-shutter island (really can’t wait for the movie! the book is good.)
-Precious by Sapphire
-American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
-also realised that “flowers for algernon” was made into a movie called “charly”
“american psycho” is on the ‘top 100 books you must read before you die’ list.
well, i read it but i don’t really like it – too much meaningless violence and sex so i really don’t get why it’s supposed to be good? the movie starred christian bale (banned in sgp but i got it from amazon) is also just as meaningless with plenty of sex and gore.
check out “precious”. it deals with illiteracy, incest, courage and hope. very real issues. i strongly encourage students who hate school (i was one of them) to read it – the protagonist had to go through so much just to receive an education; it really made me appreciate the things we sometimes take for granted in life.
gonna start working on my next book – it’s a trilogy translated from swedish language.
book 1 – the girl with the dragon tattoo
book 2 – the girl who played with fire
book 3 – the girl who kicked the hornet’s nest
very thick books, gonna take some time to enjoy
“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never. Pass into nothingness; but still will keep. “
Hi Angelina,
Thanks for your movie-tie in recommendations. I’ll put Precious and Shutter Island up on the book recommendations page.
I’d seen Stieg Larsson’s Milliennium Trilogy in stores, but didn’t realise that it was the famous Swedish crime series that I’d heard about ages ago. I also didn’t realise that the books were written posthumously. Do let me know what thought of them once you’ve finished. (even if it may take you a while! =)
x Julie
I see My Sister’s Keeper has already been recommended, but anyway, here are another two of Jodi Picoult’s books which are (to me) really awesome!! They’re Change of Heart and Handle with Care, both of which really get me thinking about life as I read them.
In Change of Heart, the protagonist has to choose between her beliefs (or maybe in other words, pride) and well, common sense, to save her daughter. (Mind my phrasing, I think it would be more useful if you read the blurb) In Handle with Care, however , the protagonist has to choose between her close friendship with her best friend, and her daughter’s life.
Another reason why both are delectable reads is that they both offer multiple perspectives of the various characters, especially Change of Heart, where you can see the so-called “bad guy” in a new light, through the eyes of a fellow prisoner.
Han Yi
PS. Thanks for the website!! The recommended books seem really interesting, but a pity that my mother has banned me from reading English books because I have too many of them
PPS. I love your TKAM play!!
Hi Han Yi,
Thanks for your book recommendations! I have an idea, if you finish reading all the English books you already have, maybe your mum will let you read new ones!
x Julie
Reading Like Rabbits – Book Recommendations
During Levy’s talk, she recommended her favourite books:
> Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
[Levy said that to her, this book is perfection in literature]
> English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
[A vicar's ludicrous expedition in 1857 to the Garden of Eden in Tasmania.]
> The Women’s Room by Marilyn French
[The book that made Levy a lover of books and pushed her in the direction of becoming an author in her 30s]
A landmark in feminist literature, THE WOMEN’S ROOM is a biting social commentary of a world gone silently haywire. Written in the 1970s but with profound resonance today, this is a modern allegory that offers piercing insight into the social norms accepted blindly and revered so completely.
‘Today’s “desperate housewives” eat your heart out! This is the original and still the best, a page-turner that makes you think. Essential reading’ Kate Mosse
‘They said this book would change lives – and it certainly changed mine’ Jenni Murray
x Julie
Hi Julie, remembered you read Maus, have you read “Palestine” by Joe Sacco
I am recommending this (graphic novel) to you, it is excellent.
I have it in my room in Singapore, you can ask davina to collect. heh heh.
love from maroc,
T
Hi Tarn,
No, I havent read ‘Palestine‘, but I’ve heard of it. I’d love to read it, thanks, I will convince Davina to get it for me. Hope life is good in Morocco! Have you read the autobiographies ‘Stolen Lives‘ and ‘Freedom‘ by Malika Oufkir? The Moroccan King put her, her 5 siblings and her mother in jail for 20 years because her father tried to overthrow the king. Insane story!
x Julie
Hey Julie,
How are you? Anyway, I’m dead bored at work and saw another one of your review alerts on facebook and decided to drop a recommendation, which was recommended to me by Ian (Goon).
I’m not sure whether you’ve read/heard about A Million Little Pieces by James Frey but it was a book I knew I would read again long before I finished it the first time and I think you might enjoy it. Awesome stuff.
Enjoy!
Hey Ryan!
Yes, I’ve read A Million Little Pieces, I read it on holiday in Bintan and was completely hooked. It’s an extremely good book, great recommendation!
There was some controversy over it in January 2006 when it was exposed that the book contained fabrications and was not actually a completely factual memoir. The version of the book I have was published after this, and contains a forward by Frey with an apology for embellishing his memoir. So I read it knowing that it was part fiction. It didn’t matter, its a frightfully good book. The part near the beginning at the dentist’s…!!! And the end made me cry and cry.
Thanks for your recommendation Ryan. Be bored at work more often and recommend more! =)
x
Julie
Just finished Alain De Botton’s “Essays in Love” which was excellent…add it to your list!
“Essays in Love” will appeal to anyone who has ever been in a relationship or confused about love. The book charts the progress of a love affair from the first kiss to argument and reconciliation, from intimacy and tenderness to the onset of anxiety and heartbreak. The work’s genius lies in the way it minutely analyses emotions we’ve all felt before but have perhaps never understood so well: it includes a chapter on the anxieties of when and how to say ‘I love you’ and another on the challenges of disagreeing with someone else’s taste in shoes.While gripping the reader with the talent of a great novelist, de Botton brings a philosopher’s sensibility to his analyses of the emotions of love, resulting in a genre-breaking book that is at once touching and thought-provoking.
[Book Description courtesy of The Book Depository]
Recently read this book – WHEN KINGMAKERS SPEAK, a crime mystery based in Eastern Singapore.
Don’t know whether it’s available in Singapore but I got it from amazon.co.uk.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=when+kingmakers+speak&x=16&y=17
Rather good, fast paced thriller. It brought back memories of my early life in Singapore.
Has anyone else read this?
Thanks for your recommendation, I haven’t heard of WHEN KINGMAKERS SPEAK, even though I live i Singapore. I shall definitely get my hands on the book!
Cheers,
Julie
Nice blogs look =) my eyes love it
I’ve just finished reading, ‘Our Precious Lulu’ by Anne Fine and found it thoroughly enjoyable. It’s about an evil stepsister and her machinations within the family! Cunning dialogue and messy characters make this a great weekend read, I know you will like it!
xxoo
x Julie
I love this site!