<p>Non vampire book ideas preferable!</p>
<p>List as Genre/title/author, if possible.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Crime/The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Stieg Larsson</p>
<p>Sci-Fi / Ender’s Game / Orson Scott Card</p>
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<p>Exactly what I planned to recommend - so I’ll go a step further and say the Ender series. :)</p>
<p>Thanks - Enders Game comes up repeatedly and yes that’s spot on!</p>
<p>I’m reading Girl with the Dragon Tattoo now and yes kinda thought it would translate for younger son. Great idea!</p>
<p>Anyone have some more current suggestions? I know I’ve queried before but for a different kiddo. This one loves history but is looking for something “non textbooky.” </p>
<p>No matter how much I push Moby Dick, they just won’t read it. Grrrrrr! Is there symbolism in that? Probably =).</p>
<p>A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. A hugely entertaining, laugh out loud book. A true story of Bill attempting to walk the Appalachian Trail. Full of info, but actual story about him walking is hysterical. My son read it and it is his favorite book of all time.</p>
<p>^^DH read Walk in the Woods and really enjoyed it. </p>
<p>Any books by Dan Brown would be good beach reading for a guy.</p>
<p>Just this week another someone 
recommended The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey ~ Candice Millard</p>
<p>Check out the reviews:</p>
<p>[The</a> River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey: Candice Millard](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/River-Doubt-Theodore-Roosevelts-Darkest/dp/0767913736/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273935103&sr=8-1]The”>http://www.amazon.com/River-Doubt-Theodore-Roosevelts-Darkest/dp/0767913736/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273935103&sr=8-1)</p>
<p>My husband read it also and highly recommends it.</p>
<p>How timely! Chapman University college president, James L. Doti, just wrote out to all the students (S-2 is among them) with his personal summer reading recommendations, with cc to parents.</p>
<p>While I haven’t read these books, I certainly trust the source, President Doti, who is in touch with student sentiment and IMO very cool. Plus he’s in California, where the beach reading never quits. </p>
<p>From his letter:</p>
<p>Dave Eggers, “Zeitoun.” Nonfiction…impact of Katrina hurricane through the real life experiences of one man…very sad…man’s inhumanity to man." Note: in prior 2 years, Doti also recommended 2 other books by Dave Eggers</p>
<p>David Benioff, “City of Thieves” - “warm, funny and gripping coming-of-age story”; Doti’s highest recommendation.</p>
<p>In correspondence with the gifted author/humorist David Sedaris who wrote “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” – Sedaris recommended for students: “On Chesil Beach” by Ian McEwan. On this, Pres Doti writes to recommend the audio version of book [can download at Audible.com], then adds, "McEwan’s narration is terrific…interview with him is included as an extra. On the book itself “how well the plot conveys the idea that our lives are determined to a great extent by the small, sometimes emotionally charged decisions we make early in life’s journey.”</p>
<p>Definitely recommend A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. It has mature content (language, sex) though. </p>
<p>American Lion, Adams, Truman, etc. are all good biographies that read pretty easily.</p>
<p>If he is into sports try - Seabiscuit- Hillebrand. I also liked Erik Larson- The Devil in the White City. Others by Larson are Thunder Struck and Issac’s Storm. (I may have spelled Larson wrong)
Some other good reads were Cod and also The Founding Fish. I am not a fisherman and enjoyed both. One was by John McPhee and the other may have been by Kurlansky?</p>
<p>Fiction/The Caine Mutiny/Herman Wouk</p>
<p>Crime/Mr. Majestyk/Elmore Leonard</p>
<p>Crime/Tourist Season/Carl Hiaasen</p>
<p>Both of these authors have written other books that are equally as enjoyable as the specific ones suggested here!</p>
<p>My S almost 18 loves all books by Pat Conroy.</p>
<p>I loved it, and my 15 year-old son says it’s his new favorite. Also coming out as a movie this year, which hopefully won’t completely ruin a beautifully written book.</p>
<p>The River Why</p>
<p>"The River Why is an 1983 novel by David James Duncan. While it initially starts off as a fishing story, The River Why, turns into the story of a young person struggling to come to grips with the modern world.</p>
<p>A coming of age story narrated by Gus Orviston, the oldest son in a fishing mad family. Frustrated with life in Portland and the constant bickering of his bait fishing mother and tweed wearing fly fishing father over the proper way to fish, Gus moves to a small cabin in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range. Once there he begins to follow an “ideal schedule” that has him doing nothing but eating, sleeping and fishing. In the course of doing nothing but what he loves to do he begins to notice the scars that humanity has inflicted on the river and woods he loves. As he wrestles with what to do he begins to relate with the people in his neighborhood, and discovers a beautiful fisherwoman that helps him discover that there is more to life than just fishing."</p>
<p>My son thought this book of short stories was terrific: Like You’d Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard</p>
<p>How about the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher</p>
<p>Here is a link to a discussion on historical fiction going on at Amazon
[What</a> are the best Historical fiction books you have read? - fiction Discussion Forum](<a href=“http://www.amazon.co.uk/tag/fiction/forum?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx35L6AIBJFGDP0&cdThread=Tx3AFXAOSAHYXF0]What”>http://www.amazon.co.uk/tag/fiction/forum?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx35L6AIBJFGDP0&cdThread=Tx3AFXAOSAHYXF0)</p>
<p>I second The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. Great Series. </p>
<p>A young adult series that is going through our house right now is The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I liked it along with my kids, but it might be a little young for your S. Another Young adult book we like is The Maze Runner by James Dashner.</p>
<p>American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and anything at all by Terry Pratchett (Prachett?). Also, Good Omens, which was co-written by both of them. :)</p>
<p>mamom, my sci-fi reading son likes Jim Butcher. He also read the entire Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (the last few books are being written by another author, since Jordan died in 2007)</p>