What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

So I usually tend towards my usual genres of scifi/fantasy, but I recently picked up Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. This historical, nonfiction knocked my socks off and made me think that it really wouldn't be so bad to pick up more of these types of books in the future.

Any recommendations for other similar genre breakers? A book in a genre that you wouldn't normally read, but for some reason you did and it was totally worth it?

Game of Thrones #3 is one of those books for me. I've habitually not been a fantasy reader. However, since my husband talked me into GoT and I watched the show I've found myself picking up and enjoying all manner of books that I would have never thought of picking up. I've been reading all sorts of alternate universes and time travel books of late and loving it.

It may sound cliché but a really unique book for me in my library has to be Lolita.
Normally it´s not my thing to go with non fantasy or paranormal reads, but after many reviews praising the writing and the controversial subject I just had to read it. It was a real great experience.
I must warn you that the subject of the book is disturbing to some.

I find that what really draws me to fantasy is the feeling that I'm visiting another world, and that sometimes historical fiction can feel just as alien.

Books like Aztec by Gary Jennings (warning - very violent and lots of sex) or Shogun by Clavell, Colleen McCullough's Roman Republic series, Wilbur Smith's The Seventh Scroll, can seem just as fantastical.

Also Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is an amazing story, and I don't read Westerns.

Did I mention I like great big fat novels?

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before by David Yoo
I don't tend to enjoy normal, modern books. I'm an escapist reader so of course fantasy and similar is where I usually gravitate.

But I read this neat little book because it was given to me by a friend who worked in a book store. I'm not saying it was exemplary, if anything it's proof that I could totally enjoy normal-setting books if I gave them half a chance, but it was fun, digestible, and a clever concept.

The main character is an immature, awkward, teen boy and it shows, don't read if you don't like flawed protagonists in first person.

Ok, for me, one book that pulled me totally out of my comfort zone was Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. I had to read it for a book club and was convinced that I would totally hate the book. But it sucked me totally in. (It's a YA and deals with child abuse, something which I can not bear to read about normally.)

And one book (well series) that I've never been able to read past the first one is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. But that's more because of what was happening in my life/the real world when I was reading that first book. (A total downer for what was going on, but one of the things that happened while I was reading it was 9/11. And yes, I lost friends in that horror.)

This isn't really a genre breaker since I read a lot of literary fiction already, but it's kind of a style breaker. The Road is written in what some readers found a very stilted, artificial style, the dialogue lacks quotation marks, and if it had been a poorly written or executed novel the style would have really grated on me, but somehow it really works with the desolate subject matter.

Here's a random sample:

He watched the boy and he looked out through the trees toward the road. This was not a safe place. They could be seen from the road now it was day. The boy turned in the blankets. Then he opened his eyes. Hi, Papa, he said.

I'm right here.

I know.

I went from Judy Blume to Stephen King (it was the mid 80's, and he was on fire). Then one day I pulled Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders off of my mom's bookshelf. I was in 9th grade and looking for a long book to keep me company during a lot of downtime I would be having at summer band (we lived far away, and I would be dropped off and have to keep myself busy during the times I wasn't needed there). I got so caught up in it. I knew the outcome, but it became a game to me to try and figure out how they would catch them, and to try and get inside their heads to see why they did it, and how they got so many people to go along with it. Then I enjoyed playing armchair attorney during the trial phase. That book got me hooked on true crime. I still love it. When I do read, it's what I most often stick to.

Helter Skelter got me hooked on true crime too! I think I read it as a teenager. (Why are teenagers so drawn to it...) I don't read all that much true crime anymore though because it's hard to find really good quality true crime.

It's a fairly shocking crime, but if you haven't read it, Death Cruise is a good read. I remember seeing the case on Unsolved Mysteries and another similar show over the years and it always stuck with me because the youngest girl strongly resembled a friend of mine. The way they caught the perpetrator is simply amazing and interesting.

I have a true crime book about 3/4 finished right now that has just put me off the genre and I'm taking a break. I'm not sure I'll finish it. It's another case I was fascinated with, but the book is TOO graphic and I just had to stop for a time.

I find that I sometimes read true crime as a palate cleanser between more serious literary works. Horrible, I know. There is something ghastly and voyeuristic about it. And whenever you read a book where some unsuspecting person let the electrician in - who then raped and murdered them - you will never again have an electrician in your house without other people present.

Read this book Judgment Ridge: The True Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders and you will never again open your door to teenagers doing a survey.

I think I'm going to give up on the one I'm on now. I know how it turns out, and it's a horrifying miscarriage of justice, and no disrespect to the fine Canadians out there (seriously, I love Canada), but I don't understand your justice system completely. I don't like to give up, but it's been almost a year, and I'm ready for a new good book. I'll check out the one you recommended.

And no, it's not horrible that you read true crime for that. People have often looked at me weird because I enjoy it, but in most of the books the person is caught and some form of justice is meted out, as it should be. It took a LONG time for the case in Death Cruise above that I mentioned to be solved, but the whole process was fascinating. I would NEVER get on a boat with a stranger, but I know families as trusting as the Rogers family, and I sometimes wonder how something horrible hasn't happened to them.

I found a story on the youtube about Death Cruise - had to watch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8CvC...

Sad sad case. The newspaper article written after the case was solved by one of the Florida papers won an Pulitzer:

http://www2.sptimes.com/Angels_Demons/

Hal Rogers is a better person than I ever could be.

I rarely read biographies and I never read "parenting" books, but I picked up The Spark: A Mother's Story of Nurturing Genius last year and was really engrossed by her experience with her son and her quest to find ways to communicate with/educate this unusual child.

Have you looked at Hillenbrand's other book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption? More excellent writing.