I'm looking for more authors for pleasure reading. Favorites are Michael Chrichton, James Patterson, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, David Gemmel, John Steinbeck and (somewhat) Stephen King (not really into horror, though). Can anyone recommend another author similar to those above? Hopefully one that is a prolific writer!

Thanks in advance!

How about Ken Follet - his books are more spy thriller types?

Bond. James Bond.

(Sorry, couldn't resist! I think Ian Fleming is unbearably campy, but lots of people like them.)

There are the George McDonald "Flashman" books (I haven't read any of these, but one of Frenchie's uncles likes them--don't know how appropriate they are). There's a hilarious spy novel by Hugh Laurie called "The Gun Seller". You could try classic crime fiction, like Raymond Chandler (I love these), or Dashiell Hammett. There's "A Man Called Intrepid," (not fiction, but incredibly gripping) about Bill Stephenson (but I forget who wrote the actual book). Oh, and Alistair Maclean (I think?), who wrote "The Guns of Navarone" and a bunch of other stuff. Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havana" is a spy book, but quite unlike the rest of these. There are also all the John le Carré books--those are nice reliable reads. My obsession about that age (which has continued, I'm afraid!) was the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout--not spy books, but good "guy" books--nice period piece mysteries.

Hope that helps a bit!

peace
minnie

Has anyone mentioned Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress"?

What about the talking animals of Animal Farm? If he's politically savvy, he might find the condemnation of communism to be very interesting. I did when I was around that age. (Though I don't know how politically savvy I was...)

How about the foreparents of those thrillers he likes? Classic mysteries like Sherlock Holmes and Wilke Collins's The Moonstone? Or adventure lit like H.Rider Haggard's Allen Quartermaine stories. (King Solomon's Mines is the first in the series.) The language can be challenging to today's readers. That might be a problem.

I also thought of James Bond. I haven't read one in years, so I can't remember if it's too graphic.

I'll keep thinking...

If he hasn't read Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game' he is in for a treat, if he doesn't mind the 'SF' end of the pond. It has 4 sequels and a parallel series with 4 books in it as well. Plenty of politics. DS12 read them over the summer and I re-read them all - very fun for us.

Smiles,
Grinity

I know it doesn't sound like his style, but you might want to get him into the "Great Books" list.
http://www.anova.org/ is one source of lists and online access. You can also probably ask a librarian.

If your son knows even a little bit about cryptography then stay away from this book. It's full of factual errors. Dan Brown doesn't seem to grasp even the basic understanding of exponential complexity. I was ready to toss the book across the room after reading only a few pages. I finished it but only because I was curious how much more he can mess it up.

Animal Farm made me think of 1984, but it may be too intense.

H.G. Wells!

We have an avid reader or 3 in our family

However, DS (almost 10) is strictly a fantasy reader. Talking animals are among his favorites

I'm struggling right now with letting him get books from the adult section in the library and bookstores. So many have a bit too much adult content for me to be completely comfortable. But he has outread the Children's and Young Adult sections LOL. I'm spending alot of my reading time reviewing and previewing to see if I think they are OK. I tend to be a bit more liberal regarding sex (nothing explicit, but implied tends to pass) since he ignores most of that but stricter when it comes to descriptive violence.

For those of a fantasy bent he is working through
The Redwall Series
Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern (as a side note, the books by Her son Todd are much more science based although do still have talking dragons)
Mercedes Lackey selected books in her Heralds of Valdimar series. Some have too much adult contect for a 10 year old in my opinion
Anything Tolkien
Selected books by Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickmann (spelling)
He loved Ender's Game (which by the way still remains one of those books that haunts me. It was a read I couldn't put down and have never forgotten.)
David Eddings

By the way, has anyone else found that the young adult sections seems to have more adult content that alot of the adult sections or have I just been previewing the wrong books?

Has he tried any of Patrick O'Brian's sea stories? Those are good stuff--and there are lots of them!

The John Dunning bookseller mysteries are good, too--Booked to Die, The Bookman's Wake, etc.

Any interest in classics like Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, Gulliver's Travels? How about John Buchan (The Thirty-Nine Steps, etc.)?

There's a series called Boys Own from Penguin--oldies-but-goodies--She, Greenmantle, Man Who Was Thursday, Treasure Island, Prisoner of Zenda, Tarzan of the Apes, Around the World in Eighty Days--that might be worth a look.

bye for now
minnie

edited to add: What about Rumpole (John Mortimer)? Those are fun, and pretty innocent, really.

Oh. What about Michael Crichton's books. They are good page turners.

http://classics.jameswallaceharris.com/Lists/ByRank.php

This is science fiction, but several very worth reading, my faves:

A Canticle for Leibowitz - tiny bit preachy, end of man-wise, and a little grim.

Ringworld. - fun, iirc.
Fahrenheit 451 - just a good book about book burning.

I, Robot. Of course.

Dune.
___________


Also, not science fiction....I haven't read the books, but the pbs series was very enjoyable. Good for a young man, I'd think:

Admiral of the Fleet Horatio Hornblower, 1st Baron Hornblower, GCB, is a fictional protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester, and later the subject of films and television programs. Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying, "I recommend Forester to everyone literate I know."[1] and Winston Churchill signalled "I find Hornblower admirable."[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Hornblower

And some info on the Captain Jack Aubrey books mentioned above..I very much enjoyed these. I kind of thought O'Brian writes like Jane Austen for the Sailing man. Tight, funny writing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_and_Commander

Oooh, elh, I *loved* "Ender's Game." What an amazing book.

Hitch hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Books by David Brin ("Earth")

Maybe William Gibson "Neuromancer" & others

My son and my daughter�s most highly gifted friend love this series.

I enthusiastically second The Prisoner of Zenda! Also try The Scarlet Pimpernel. And the James Herriot books (All Creatures Great and Small) if he hasn't already read them (they aren't thrillers but I can't resist recommending them anyway). Can he handle Dick Francis? The protagonists are always getting beaten to a pulp and they usually sleep with somebody, but I don't remember anything too graphic.

How about,

William Gibson, "Neuromancer" and others

Mutiny on the Bounty

The Mysterious Benedict Society

Does he like historical fiction: "Escape from Warsaw" was a favorite of mine.

The Giver

The Chocolate Wars - might be too young for him but I have just heard reviews that they're fabulous.

The Book Thief

Jerry Spinelli books

A Wrinkle in Time

If you want a good intro into crypto, then try some books by Neal Stephenson. Neal was a GT kid himself. Neal weaves in culture, ethinicity, history, language, computers, and crypto into his a books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson

Good suggestion, Austin. Neal Stephenson is DH's current favorite author.

I really like his works. His Baroque Cycle has several hidden messages encoded in the text. His writing is often hilarious!

Some of his circumstantial history and historical figure characterization is wrong so the sketches must be taken with a grain of salt. OTOH he gets many, many things right. ( I feel sorry for the parent whose pre-school child searches maps for Qwghlm as I once looked for "New England" )

His "The Diamond Age" is very accessible for kids due to Nell and the Mouse Army. If they can read "A Wrinkle in Time," then TDA will be a good next step.

Another good book is "The Mote in God's Eye" by Niven and Pournelle.

Life of Pi is my newest favorite. The main character is a child (16yo) but deals with incredible challenges. It's reminds me of an imaginative cross between Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick and Lord of the Flies.

I was just thinking about that. Thanks. There are a couple of sections in the each of the Baroque Cycle books as well.

Maybe some nonfiction, like The Cuckoo's Egg. A hacker breaks into a top-secret computer, and the hero tracks him down. It's been years since I've read it. I don't rememeber anything inappropriate, but you might want to read it first just in case.

I thought of another:

The Seems - it is a very clever SciFi.

Twelve-year-old Becker Drane has definitely got the coolest job of any seventh grader in Highland Park, New Jersey. He works as a Fixer for The Seems. From the Department of Weather to the Department of Sleep, The Seems is a secret organization that makes sure our world keeps running�and more importantly, sticks to The Plan that�s been made for it. But The Plan, and The Seems for that matter, would be nothing without the people in it, and that�s where Becker Drane comes in. When a Glitch is reported in the Department of Sleep, Becker is dispatched to Fix it, but he�s not so sure this is a routine mission. Could the Bed Bugs, who are behind our Worst Nightmares, be responsible for the problems? Or maybe it�s The Tide, an underground organization bent on destroying The Seems? No matter what, Becker�s in for quite an adventure, and it�ll take all his training, a little luck, and the coolest Tools� known in (or out of) the Seems to Fix the problem.