Telling the tale

A good writer is also a good reader

I have cobbled together a short list of novels that are, in my opinion, particularly well written. Some have been made into Hollywood movies - please do not confuse the two: the film scripts are usually changed to broaden audience appeal. For example: “Out of Africa”, “Chocolat” and “The English Patient” are all different from – and superior to - their excellent film renditions.


“Out of Africa” by Izaak Dennison
A writer who can transport you to her world.

“Chocolat” by Joanne Harris
a magical story tastier than the delectable movie of the same name.

“Blackberry Wine” also by Joanne Harris
remarkable.

“Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson
A plot as thick as a snowflake, but the words! The words! Poetry masquerading as prose.

“Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden
fiction disguised as history, and a moral lesson too

“Wicked” by Gregory Maguire
a delightful romp through “The Wizard of Oz” , and a lesson in how point of view makes a difference to a story

“Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” by Louis deBerniere
Like a Renaissance painting: overblown, elegant and beautiful. I was sorry when it ended.

“The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco
No one writes like Umberto Eco.

“The Painted House” by John Grisham
A masterpiece of storytelling unlike anything Grisham has ever done before.

“The English Patient” by Michael Ondaatje
As close to perfect as a novel can be.

“Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain
Timeless story telling rooted in truths And an incredible piece of character development and dialog

“The Stone Diaries” by Carol Shields
This book won the Pulitzer Prize and the Governor General’s Award.


Now, you will probably say "What the F#$ does this have to do with BDSM?
Well, this site is packed with people who want to write, who need to write. The men and women who wrote the above works are just the same as you and me. They need to express themselves, their thoughts and emotions.
You will also notice that most titles here are quite contemporary, that just reflects the books I have read recently.

If you have any suggestions to add to this list, by all means, do so. I'm always interested in a good read.
But please, no Anne Rice and Stephen King and Patricia Cornwall, etc. - although "Hearts in Atlantis" by Stephen King is a very well written tale.

"Frostflower and Thorn" by Phyllis Ann Karr -- My favorite swords and sorcery fantasy, which incidentally has a fairly explicit rape scene.

"The Idylls of the Queen" by Phyllis Ann Karr -- my favorite Arthurian novel and favorite mystery, starring my favorite knight, Sir Kay.

"The Final Reflection" by John M. Ford -- My favorite science fiction novel, set in the Star Trek universe, but before the Enterprise was built, covering decades of Klingon history, since invalidated. A book about chess.

"How Much For Just the Planet" by John M. Ford -- Robert Asprin ("Another Fine Myth") writes funny stories, but this one made me laugh so hard I couldn't breath. A must for anyone who's ever even heard of Gilbert and Sullivan.

There are others, but I'd list them by author, rather than by story.

Probably the best story you're never going to get to read is "The Fire Inside" by John Faylo, who can't get it published. Hard science fiction, set in a Machiavellian future where North Americans, Asian Indians and Japanese are struggling for control of known space. A love story, with a lot of religious/philosophical overtones, and both a hero and an anti-hero. Good stuff.

I'd have to add some John Steinbeck personally. His writing style is fantastic and great stories too.

It's impossible to resist this thread. Some pretty standard stuff from me:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude

Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being

John Irving - The World According to Garp

(This is the novel that got me reading, the one that woke up my 'adult' soul.)

James Joyce - Dubliners

And one for the Canadians, possibly my favourite writer:

Robertson Davies - any of the trilogies.

It's hard to say how these have influenced me, though John Irving certainly has.

Having seen Andrew Black's post, I must add the Grapes of Wrath. It's as relevant today is it was in the 30's.

The Dune series by Frank Herbert. All of them, some were better than others, but I liked them all.

The Once and Future King by T. H. White

Don Quixote de La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes both parts (the sequel is actually better than the original)

Any short story by Enrique Anderson-Imbert (an Argentinian author who makes me cry with laughter)

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings The movies were great, but the books are better as always.

And you are going to laugh, but I love the Tarzan books. Reading about a half-naked dominant male who hunts the wild creatures of the jungle with nothing but a knife and his bare hands and speaks French and English to boot sets me on fire. <sigh>
hmm..... I wonder how Woodsman would look in a loincloth? <pulls out her sewing machine>

Sheesh, i'd be here all night on this one if i let myself....so, a few of my faves on recent times are:

The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

White Trash - John King

A Certain Age - Rebecca Ray

After You'd Gone - Maggie O'Farrell

Bird Song - Sebastian Faulks

Emma - Jane Austin

Anything by Dickens

'Memoirs of a Geisha' is one of my favourite ever books. In terms of Joanne Harris, 'Chocolat' was great, but i preferred 'Five Quarters Of The Orange' to 'Blackberry Wine'.

sl

Interesting thread. It's nice to see that others share a few of one's tastes. Lucy mentioned Dickens, who is a great favorite of mine; I've read all of his novels save for 'Barnaby Rudge'. Dickens, of course, was the past master of the installment method of story-telling, which many of us have put to use here.

Steinbeck, like Dickens, sent his novels out to battle for social justice. Everyone knows of the seriousness of "The Grapes of Wrath", which, in my opinion is THE Great American Novel, but Steinbeck had a wonderful comic touch, too. "Cannery Row" is probably the best example. Don't let the mediocre film of some years ago keep you from reading it. It is a true delight.

"Huckleberry Finn", as Fox wrote, is Twain's masterpiece, but I think "Roughing It" is his most humorous book.

I could write on this subject for hours, but let me just observe that I think that reading plays is very beneficial for an aspiring writer in a couple of respects.

First, plays are virtually all dialogue, which is probably the hardest part of writing, at least for me. One so wants one's characters to be distinctive and individual, not to sound 'ordinary'.

Secondly, reading plays thoughtfully (at least those without overlong stage directions, like Shaw's or Williams') forces one to do a little set design in one's mind -- which is a very useful habit to get into when it comes time to write one's own stories.

A few particular favorites: "Death of a Salesman", "Cyrano de Bergerac", "Raisin in the Sun", the Theban trilogy, and, of course, Shakespeare, who is to writing in English what the Bible is to Christianity.

Boccaccio

These are novels:

Time Enough For Love, by Robert Heinlein.

The Halloween Tree, by Ray Bradbury.

Dream Brother, by David Browne.

Bringing Elizabeth Home, by Ed & Lois Smart with Laura Morton.

These are comic books:

Strangers In Paradise, by Terry Moore.

Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl?, by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming.

32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics, by Adrian Tomine.

The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank, by Garth Ennis.

Sanctuary, by Sho Fumimura and Ryoichi Ikegami.

Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid & Alex Ross.

"The Thief of Always"-second favorite book of all time, by Clive Barker. It might be difficult to find his work, though. This book is a great book that really blew my mind.

"Without Remorse"-favorite book of all time, by Tom Clancy. This book seriously kicked my ass. It's my favorite book of all time.

PERSONAL NOTE: I personally hated Grapes of Wrath. I made it about 30 pages in and became quite tired of reading the description of the tree (i.e, the first 29 pages). But that's just a personal note, nobody has to agree with me.

All right I'm gonna go the patriotic way and recommend a few Danish authors....

Everything by Hans Christian Andersen, not just his fairytales are good, several of his novels are just mindblowing!

Miss Smillas Sense of Snow - Peter Høeg

Out of Africa - Isak Dinesen (actually a pseudonym for Karen Blixen)

Seven Gothic Tales - Isak Dinesen

On a wider scope I also enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.

A Tree grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is another all time favorite.

Alexander Kent and C.S Forester both writes historical naval fiction and I absolutely love their books!!!

The list is of course much longer....

Duetta

I am a devourer of books. Thank you for the titles so far ... let's keep them coming!

Miss Smilla's Sense of Snow ... very good choice, a great mystery with an unusual setting. I very much enjoyed the movie too ...

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Sohlzhenitsen (sp?) is compelling and frightening

There are so many well written SF novels by Herbert, Heinlein, Aasimov, Clarke, et al, we could be here forever, so I'll propose a collection of short stories:
A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison

To the play list, two nominees:
Equus
Sleuth I think that's the right one - a mystery tale

Gawd, my mind has gone blank!

Movies that are not as well known as they should be:
M. Butterfly
The Red Violin
Smilla's Sense of Snow
Le roi danse


More! more! more!

I'm not a big fan of Harlan Ellison, but I did read a graphic novel adaptation of his sort story "A Boy and His Dog" that was so good I was looking for a sequel.

I liked "Huckleberry Finn", but preferred "Tom Sawyer" and "Puddinhead Wilson" (a story of dealing with prejudice in the post-Civil War era) among Twain's novels, and also the shorts "The Ransom of Red Chief" and "The Incredible[?] Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". Red Chief was another 'can't breath' story.

I'm a huge fan of Asimov, but for his histories, Mysteries and science essays (which are the most comprehensible for a layman that I've ever read). His comedy relied too heavily on puns to be truly punny...er...funny, and his science-fiction was very solidly Golden Age and seems quite dated now, with the exceptions of one third of "The Gods Themselves" (a collection of three connected novellas) which was told from the point of view of an alien, and a longish short story (novellete?) that I think was called "The Ugly Child", that was later liscenced by his wife to another writer to be expanded to a novel. "The Ugly Child" is about an anthropology researcher who becomes too close to her subject (a Neandertal child) and does something drastic about the child's situation. I've often wondered if the researcher was based on Jane Goodall.

I'll have to give some thought to plays and movies.

Nicholas Monsarrat: The Master Mariner

All of Val McDermid

Oh and I really like J. K. Rowling too.....

Duetta

This is hard. So many choices...

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Grendel by John Gardner
Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
The Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol
The Nose by Nikolai Gogol

Although everyone had such great choices, I've especially got to agree with Curtis on O'Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief"--that's an all-time favorite of mine. And with Fox on Equus.

-acissej

Well, most of the books that I like probably wouldn't appear on anyone else's list but here goes.

The Halfblood Chronciles by Andre Northon and Mercedes Lackey (3 books in all)
The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Blackwood Farms by Anne Rice

It's funny that this thread should come up. I was actually thinking of putting up a book and mvie review page on my website and asking people to review any books that they may have read.

Ooh, yes, Joy Luck Club.

My recommendation is the novels of Elizabeth Berg, especially Never Change, Range of Motion, and Open House. Very sweet, sad and funny.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andibabe

I can't believe I forgot to mention Elvenbane, which is my favourite out of the trilogy!

Oh and how about The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey, as well? that's a good one.

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I have the first three books of the Halfblood Chronicles, but I am under the impression, after reading the last one, Elvenblood, that there is going to be a fourth. I love Mercedes Lackey. I used to have all of the Valdemar Chronicles, but I had to seel them :( I have not read The Fire Rose, but I have read Firebird which is also by her and it is based on a Russian Fairy Tale. I also have a HC copy of The Black Swan signed by her.

Right now I am reading Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. It's good, but long, about 835 pages I think and I am a slow reader.

i'm currently reading the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.
they're kind of hard to get into at first (like, six weeks to get past the first chapter!) but i stuck with it, and it's so easy to get caught up in the magic and romance. i actually felt sick for the hero when he was in trouble. now for me, that is good story telling :p

for me, my top list has to be:

'Dust', but Charles pellegrino

'Prey' and Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

'Men at Arms' and 'Nightwatch' by Terry Pratchett

'Fandom of the Operator' and 'Nostrodamus Ate My Hamster' by Robert Rankin

'Day of the Triffids' By Jon Wyndam

basically science thrillers and humourous books do it for me

Oh, also the World War series by Harry Turtledove, probably the best alternative history writer out there.

Fox and I have been following this thread with great interest. There are some very very good books here, that you as writers can learn from.
That is the pupose of this thread. It is not supposed to be a list of FAVOURITE books, it is intended to be a list of WELL WRITTEN books that can teach.

I quote andibabe to demonstrate what is intended:

"The Other Boyelyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
The Queen's Fool - Philippa Gregory

She's excellent at writing seduction; and also the wavering of loyalties and the conflict it causes within a person. Very good at first person point of view; not many authors are."

Thank you.

Thank you for the clarification, Xue Lan. In that case, I will recommend "Sorcery and Cecilia" by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. It was written as a series of letters back and forth between the two authors, each pretending to be a Victorian-era sorceress/debutante. There's magic (of course) and a mystery to solve, and the milieu to keep consistent. This is a technique that would be easily adaptable by modern authors collaborating on stories via the Internet.

Each one tells what happened to their character over a two or three day period, then sends the letter off to their friend to tell their next part of the story. In this particular instance, the girls are friends who have been seperated for the summer, one rusticating in the countryside while the other "comes out" in London, so there's no problem (until the end) with stepping on each other's toes or pirating each other's characters.

Most authors would probably do this instead with both characters experiencing the same things (roughly), and each telling from their own perspective how events transpired, but you could do it with the two authors playing the parts of e-mail "pen pals" who live far apart but know some of the same people.

I had completely forgotten about this well written book until I watched the movie last night. (Though, as always, the book is way better). That one is

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. It is also known as its full title The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders.

A Canticle for Leibowitz , by Walter M. Miller jr. This gets my vote for the best Science Fiction novel ever written, and not just mine; it has been voted such by four different surveys since it's writing.

Might I also suggest anthing by Chekhov. His imagery is superb, and he isn't quite as overly verbose as many of the Russians.

I know this is an old thread but I’m new here and so are lots of others who could probably contribute to everybody’s reading pleasure so it can usefully be revived. (Besides, I can’t sleep right now so I may as well do something useful.)

The story so far: a thread is looking for well-written books that teach about writing. Now read on:

For writing a difficult character simply and clearly:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

For huge themes and potentially confusing science fiction ideas made clear:
Diaspora by Greg Egan

For simple moral ideas we should all be reminded of expressed in an amazing landscape, and an understanding of how to develop a series:
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency By Alexander McCall Smith (and its various sequels)

Plus, here are some bad examples who aren’t necessarily bad writers, just not to be copied: Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway, Olaf Stapledon, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Martin Amis.

And here is a very good book by a very good writer which also falls into the not to be copied category:
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

Don’t do that, you’ll never wake up.
Spike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spike

Plus, here are some bad examples who aren’t necessarily bad writers, just not to be copied: Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway, Olaf Stapledon, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Martin Amis.
Spike

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You can put Gabriel Garcia Marquez at the top of that list. :eek:

I read too damn much, so a list of my fave books would take up half a page. But my absolute favorite has to be 'The Black Jewels Trilogy' by Anne Bishop. It's 3 books: 'Daughter of the Blood', 'Heir To The Shadows', and 'Queen of the Darkness'.
I wouldn't recommend it to everyone; it paints Saetan and Hell in a sympathetic light that I as a witch find unique and refreshing, while one Christian friend I recommended it to said it was blasphemous. It's about a female oriented magickal society, where females with strong magickal gifts rule, and males serve them, both physically, emotionally, and sexually. Their main law, between male and female, is for the male to cherish, honor, and protect. The second law is to serve. The third law is to obey. And if obedience interferes with the carrying out of the first two, they toss obedience out the window. The conflict arises when males begin to believe that they are stronger than females, and they start taking advantage and subjugating females, which doesn't work in their society because the females really are the focal point of their society, both physically and magickally. Anne Bishop writes with a uniquely insightful look into the subject as well as a subtle touch of humor as the High Lord of Hell finds himself trying to teach a powerful young Witch how to do the most basic spells like levitation, vanishing, etc. I woudn't recommend it to everyone, but its a must read for anyone with an open mind.
Just my two cents.
Oh, and Jacqueline Carey's 'Kushiel's Legacy' trilogy comes in a very close second.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jaeangel

Oh, and Jacqueline Carey's 'Kushiel's Legacy' trilogy comes in a very close second.

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I was just going to mention that one...
gorgeous sensual language, Carey manages to draw vivid pictures without endless paragraphs of description, which just drive me batty.
No other author has made me cry over beauty.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spike

Plus, here are some bad examples who aren’t necessarily bad writers, just not to be copied: Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway, Olaf Stapledon, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Martin Amis.

Spike

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The only one of those I've actually read is Robert Heinlein, and I think i agree. Heinlein I would say is far from a bad writer, though he has written bad books, but his style is just uniquely Heinlein, and anyone trying to copy him doesn't come across as anything except someone trying to copy Heinlein

(I read too much Heinlein at a formative age...dumping all of Heinleins ideas about sex on a 12 year old brain has consequences...I blame him atleast partially for my belief that there isn't really anythign wrong with casual sex.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spike

Plus, here are some bad examples who aren’t necessarily bad writers, just not to be copied: Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway, Olaf Stapledon, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Martin Amis.

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How can you say that? Beckett I understand. But Hemingway, Asimov, Heinlein? Some of the best fiction of the last century came from the minds of these men!

Heinlein's style inspired thousands to reach for space. Hemingway moved people's hearts to look deeper into themselves.

Asimov, well, he just wrote EVERYthing.

Asimov DID write everything, but he didn't write everything well. I love his histories, autobiographies (he wrote at least three) and science essays, and admire some of his mysteries (the longer ones, which aren't based on puns), but most of his science fiction and fantasy doesn't show well against modern competition. I liked one of the three novellas that made up The Gods Themselves (the one written from an alien viewpoint) and the short story, "The Ugly Child," but most of even his 'classic' works (like "Nightfall" and the Foundation trilogy) just don't make for enjoyable reading. His humor...well, the less said the better.

Speaking for Spike, I believe his point wasn't that Asimov, Heinlein, et al were poor writers, but that they were writers who apprentice writers should not be trying to copy. Their styles worked for them, but probably wouldn't work for others, especially newbies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Curtis

Asimov DID write everything, but he didn't write everything well. I love his histories, autobiographies (he wrote at least three) and science essays, and admire some of his mysteries (the longer ones, which aren't based on puns), but most of his science fiction and fantasy doesn't show well against modern competition. I liked one of the three novellas that made up The Gods Themselves (the one written from an alien viewpoint) and the short story, "The Ugly Child," but most of even his 'classic' works (like "Nightfall" and the Foundation trilogy) just don't make for enjoyable reading. His humor...well, the less said the better.

Speaking for Spike, I believe his point wasn't that Asimov, Heinlein, et al were poor writers, but that they were writers who apprentice writers should not be trying to copy. Their styles worked for them, but probably wouldn't work for others, especially newbies.

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Asimov's "Opus 100" was one of my favorites; his bios really grounded one as to what his world looked like then. His humor had to be more a taste thing; his first treasury is an instruction manual on how to tell jokes. Never liked his work on limericks, though.

I would agree about how long it takes to emulate a writer; I'd like to write like Spider Robinson... but it'll take me another 50 years to break my current style. Whatever that is.

Yeah, you're right about his humor (anyone's, I suppose) being a taste thing. He had a lot of good, self-deprecating humor in his autobios, as well as in many of his science essays. It was his limericks and puns that put me off.

If you want to look at style, then the real peaks of the 20th century were Joyce's Ulisses and Steins' the Making of Americans. These are both early 20th cent. For the latter half, the snow has most probably not yet settled, but my personal fav is Powell's 12 volume Dance to the Music of Time.

None of these should be emulated by anybody.

However, a good way of getting something our of your system is to try to write 'in the style of' for a set period of time - say a month or so. Then go back and read what you've written in comparison to the ideals : - )

Good luck all!

Shel

I would like to mention
Ernest Hemmingway
esp.:
To Whom The Bells Toll

Undependingly from beeing a great Author Hemmingways
shows a very good insight into realistic human behavior.
What makes the story different fom others is, that
Hemmingway doesn't write much about emotions
directly, but one can always conclude from the
action of the characters and their dialogues.
This sends the reader into the position of a very
informed spectator, which works good with erotic fiction,
too, I guess.

Hemingway, the master of short stories, was once asked if he could write a story on a post-card. He said he wouldn't need that much space and gave an example in 6 (!!!) words: "For sale. Baby shoes. Hardly used".

"The Hellfire Club" by Peter Straub

"Don Quixote" by Cervantes

"High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby

"The Elephant Vanishes" by Haruki Murakami

Anything by Salinger