I need some new book suggestions, please!

[sethp]

I need some new book suggestions to read. Just finished re-reading the whole Harry Potter series, getting ready to start the Hunt for Red October and have finished re-reading the 1st 3 Jack reacher books. Fiction...could be fantasy. More action oriented. Really open to anything though.

Suggestions?

 

[sharingfantasies]

Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler
Stone Barrington series by Stuart Woods
Jesse Stone by Robert Parker
Anything by Greg Iles
Joe Pickett Series by CJ Box
Anything by Carl Hiaasen
Troubleshooter series by Suzanne Brockmann

If you like westerns
Chet Byrnes series by Dusty Richards

If you like historic novels
William Monk series or Thomas Pitt series by Anne Perry
Benjamin January series by Barbara Hambly

 

[Zodia195]

If you can handle classical Literature, I recommend reading Dante's Divine Comedy, but at the very least, do the first book, Dante's Inferno. It is the more entertaining of the 3 books.

 

[SamScribble]

John Le Carre - especially Smiley's People

 

[Haulover]

Based on the books you've mentioned, I would strongly agree with these:

...
Anything by Greg Iles
...
Anything by Carl Hiaasen
...

Also - try reading James Lee Burke - particularly the Dave Robicheaux series. The stories are quite good, but I love his prose. The way he expresses everyday activities, the environment he's in, and so on. It doesn't distract attention from the action and the story-telling, yet he's incredibly expressive.

As a writer, I learn a lot every time I read Burke.

 

[uksnowy]

Any thing by Lee Childs.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

John Le Carre - especially Smiley's People

Start with CALL FOR THE DEAD. It introduces Smiley and the Circus.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

TRY THE GIRL by Raymond Chandler. THE LITTLE SISTER and THER LONG GOOD BYE are first rate too

OUT THE WINDOW by Lawrence Block.

HUNTER by Richard Stark

THE INVESTIGATORS, and FALSE WITBESS by Dorothy Uhnak.

THE GRIFTERS by Jim Thompson

BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy,

COGAN'S TRADE by George V. Higgins

 

[Nezhul]

I'll recommend a few webnovels for you.

If you like superheroes but in a darker setting, try "Worm" by wildblow. That's really, a very good webnovel, but it's very long too. It has a great worldbuilding and realistic depiction of superheroes, superpowers and public reactions to them.

If you want to try xiaxia (chinese fantasy) - read "Coiling Dragon". It's very european in style and a good story. You can find in on wuxiaworld,

If you want something rich in worldbuilding, technomagic fantasy with a very scientific approach to magic, read "Mother of Learning". It's not finished yet though. But it's very good.

 

[Handley_Page]

I need some new book suggestions to read. Just finished re-reading the whole Harry Potter series, getting ready to start the Hunt for Red October and have finished re-reading the 1st 3 Jack reacher books. Fiction...could be fantasy. More action oriented. Really open to anything though.

Suggestions?

Try these :-
Clancy: Rainbow 6.
T. Pratchett: the Guards trilogy: Men at Arms, Guards, Guards, Feet of Clay

 

[oggbashan]

Many of the Sean Dillon novels by Jack Higgins:

http://www.bookseriesinorder.com/jack-higgins/

 

[ChloeTzang]

Try Ian Hamilton. The Water Rat of Wanchai is the first book in the Ava Lee Series and they just had me hooked. He's not the best writer around but he tells a great story and he tells it well. There's a series of them if you like the first. Not as much action as I'd like but what there is is really good.

Action oriented? Try "Ghost" and "Kildar" by John Ringo.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Any of the John D. MacDonald Travis McGee novels...

Travis McGee novels
Main article: Travis McGee

(1964) The Deep Blue Good-by
(1964) Nightmare in Pink
(1964) A Purple Place for Dying
(1964) The Quick Red Fox
(1965) A Deadly Shade of Gold
(1965) Bright Orange for the Shroud
(1966) Darker than Amber
(1966) One Fearful Yellow Eye
(1968) Pale Gray for Guilt
(1968) The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper
(1969) Dress Her in Indigo
(1970) The Long Lavender Look
(1971) A Tan and Sandy Silence
(1973) The Scarlet Ruse
(1973) The Turquoise Lament
(1975) The Dreadful Lemon Sky
(1978) The Empty Copper Sea
(1979) The Green Ripper
(1981) Free Fall in Crimson
(1982) Cinnamon Skin
(1985) The Lonely Silver Rain

I've read most of these and they were pretty good, even though they can be considered Pulp Fiction.

He also wrote a few novels that were made into movies...

. MacDonald's novel Soft Touch was the basis for the 1961 movie Man-Trap.
. His 1957 novel The Executioners was filmed during 1962 as Cape Fear featuring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. Martin Scorsese directed the 1991 remake of Cape Fear starring Robert DeNiro and Nick Nolte.
. The novel Cry Hard, Cry Fast was adapted as a two-part episode of the television series Run for Your Life during November 1967.
. A 1970 movie adaptation of the novel 'Darker Than Amber was directed by Robert Clouse from a screenplay by MacDonald and Ed Waters. It featured Rod Taylor as the main series character: Travis McGee
. The novella Linda was filmed twice for television, during 1973 (with Stella Stevens in the title role) and during 1993 (with Virginia Madsen).
. The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything was adapted for a 1980 TV movie. It resulted in a 1981 sequel, The Girl, the Gold Watch and Dynamite.
. The 1980 TV movie Condominium, based on MacDonald's novel, featured Dan Haggerty and Barbara Eden.
. Sam Elliott played Travis McGee in the TV movie of The Empty Copper Sea, titled Travis McGee (1983). It relocated McGee to California, eliminating the Florida locales basic to the novel.
. The 1984 movie A Flash of Green featured Ed Harris. Victor Nunez, who wrote the screenplay and directed the movie, was nominated for Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival.

 

[jomar]

If you like Reacher, you'll probably like these:

Michael Connelly - Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer series

John Sandford - several series, all good

Bernard Cornwell - several good series...Sharpe (read in his chronological order, not published order. Fun fact, my poem here, Seringapatam, was inspired by Sharpe's Tiger), Saxon (Uhtred), couple of others

I am currently reading a Stewart Woods Stone Barrington book...if you look into this series be forewarned that they are cotton candy...breezy beach books super light on detail and often enough stilted dialogue...entertaining enough, though.

 

[Privates1stClass]

"bonk" by Mary Roach.

On the cover--"The curious coupling of science and sex."

There are a lot of plot bunnies in it, plus it's interesting reading.

 

[Ezpickins]

Chiefs

I really enjoyed "Chiefs" by Stuart Woods. A small town in Georgia appoints their first police chief in the 1920's. Soon after a murder is committed, followed by a string of other random body's found over a period of several years. All remain unsolved into the 1960s.

 

[beachbum1958]

If you liked Harry Potter, then perhaps you should give Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Amber Spyglass, The Subtle Knife) a look. I'd also recommend Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's 'Good Omens', which is a really good, really funny pastiche of 'The Omen', and Neil Gaiman's own 'American Gods', 'Neverwhere', and if dark fantasy is somewhere you'd like to explore, then I recommend his 'The Ocean At The End Of The Lane'.

 

[Weird Harold]

I need some new book suggestions to read. ... Fiction...could be fantasy. More action oriented. Really open to anything though.

Suggestions?

Action oriented? Try "Ghost" and "Kildar" by John Ringo.

I can second Chloe's suggestion. There are several more in the Paladin of Shadows series as well. Fun reads, if a bit unrealistic, BSDMy, and slightly misogynistic.

John Ringo authored several other series, and I have enjoyed all of them.

I'm currently re-reading the entire Magic of Recluce series by L. E. Modesitt. I also enjoyed all five of the Spellsong Cycle by Modesitt (Beginning with The Soprano Sorceress.)

 

[Laurel]

I need some new book suggestions to read. Just finished re-reading the whole Harry Potter series, getting ready to start the Hunt for Red October and have finished re-reading the 1st 3 Jack reacher books. Fiction...could be fantasy. More action oriented. Really open to anything though.

Suggestions?

If you're open to a fun supernatural thriller - I picked this up on a friend's recommendation and really enjoyed it:
https://www.amazon.com/Touch-Claire-North-ebook/dp/B00KVK30QU/

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I'd suggest Guy Vanderhaege's trilogy: The Englishman's Boy, The Last Crossing, and A Good Man. Enough action in a thoughtful and interesting context of the older US-Canada West.

 

[sethp]

Thanks Everyone.

Anything out there similar in quality and tone to the Harry Potter books?

 

[oggbashan]

Thanks Everyone.

Anything out there similar in quality and tone to the Harry Potter books?

Ursula K Le Guin's EarthSea books.

 

[Nezhul]

Thanks Everyone.

Anything out there similar in quality and tone to the Harry Potter books?

You can check out Max Frei - they are translations from Russian into English, so I wouldn't know how good the quality is, but the stories are really good.

 

[ChloeTzang]

If you want some action/fantasy books with an interesting twist, try these ones by Kylie Chan (Here she is on Amazon). She's an Australian author whose husband is chinese, she lived and worked in Hong Kong for ten years and her books are mostly set in and around Hong Kong. Here's her first three - if you like these, she has nine in the series overall. I found them an entertaining read and in the reading I learnt quite a lot about the chinese pantheon of gods. (I copied the summary of each book from her website)

http://79.170.44.121/kyliechan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/cover_whitetiger.jpgWhite Tiger: When 28-year-old Emma Donahoe becomes a nanny to John Chen’s daughter, Simone, she does not expect to be drawn into a world of martial arts, magic, and extreme danger, where both gods and demons can exist in the mortal world. Emma gradually realises that John Chen is no ordinary businessman and that nearly all the demons in hell would like to see him dead. John and his American bodyguard, Leo, begin to teach Emma their particular brand of martial arts and special defensive techniques … they also begin to realise that there is something that is different about Emma but exactly what it is, nobody can say.

http://79.170.44.121/kyliechan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/cover_redphoenix.jpgRed Phoenix: The intrigue deepens as the demon threat closes around mortals and gods alike…When Emma Donahoe took the position of nanny to John Chen’s daughter Simone, she never expected to be caring for the child of a Chinese god, and she didn’t expect that demons would want him dead. Nor has moving from nanny to partner in his heavenly realm made Emma’s life any easier. Now a powerful race of demons has been created to hunt her and her family from Hong Kong to Europe. And she and Simone have become targets – pawns to be used in a deadly celestial power play.

http://79.170.44.121/kyliechan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/cover_bluedragon.jpgBlue Dragon: The forces of Hell are poised to strike…When Emma’s relatives come to visit her, they are totally freaked out by what they learn…Emma’s beloved, John Chen, is a 3000 year old Chinese god. Not only that, John is becoming weaker by the day. Demons pursue him relentlessly, hoping to use Emma, and his child, Simone, as bargaining tools against him. Emma battles to defend Simone as John’s energy is drained by the effort of both living in the mortal world and protecting them. While Emma is nagged by doubts about her own nature, she must find the courage to go on…

 

[beachbum1958]

Thanks Everyone.

Anything out there similar in quality and tone to the Harry Potter books?

The 'Artemis Fowl' series by Eoin Colfer; they're written for children and young adults (as was the Harry Potter series), but still witty, inventive, and absorbing, plus he also wrote 'And Another Thing', the final book in 'The Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy' series, using Douglas Adams' original notes and with Adams' wife permission.