Can you recommend some interesting novels

[Amelia-dulzura]

Hello everybody,

I´m about to write my English exam this month. I intend to improve my style by being confronted with the English language all the time.
I thought that some of you already read an exciting book in English and I wanted to get some recommendations from you.

In case that you have another very good idea how to improve the language style without investing too much money - I´m all ears.

Best regards

[Keswick]

It is a bit difficult to recommend something as the rules state NOT to rate any products.

So what I would suggest is to find your favourite books in English. There must be some books you like. Why don't you read them again - but in English?

[michael123]

Well recommending a book is hardly rating a product really the problem is more that there are loads of great books, so it's hard to choose which to recommend...

My advice would be to find a book which was originally English which you have read in German and read that, something like Harry Potter for instance. That way you have a reference point if you don't understand a word or sentence.

Also remember to immerse yourself in the language in other ways, e.g. by watching films in English.

[FiendishMinx]

Which kind of exams are you taking? I wouldn't recommend Shakespeare if it was on American short stories if you know what I mean. So tell us about the exams and maybe we can come up with something useful for you

[Amelia-dulzura]

It´s a short story of like 900 words and I have to analyse the means that are employed by the auhtor as well as summarize and comment on that given story. So I guess reading shakespeare would be a great pleasure for me but not that helpful for my exam.

The idea with Harry Potter was excellent, but I already read all of them in English... I would like if you just call some examples of the books you read and enjoyed as well.
I´m grateful for any advice.

[Keswick]

I personally do like books by Nick Hornby. They're well written and interesting to read. One of his latest is called "A long way down" about people who want to commit suicide and when about to do so (they want to jump off a roof, hence the title) they all accidentally meet and start to talk and think about their situation. Nice book and not as negative as it might sound. But hey that's Nick Hornby .

[Lisa92]

I love the novels by Cecilia Ahern. I've just finished "P.S. I love you" and started with "Where rainbows end".

"P.S. I love you" is one of the greatest books I've ever read. It's funny and sad at the same time, humorous and heart-warmingly good! Her style of writing is impressing and while reading you get the feeling of identifying with the characters.

I do recommend buying this book, the pocket edition is really cheap and you can learn a lot (referring to your language skills)! You can understand many words out of the context and as reading "Where rainbows end" I now recognize her repeating many words. Your English will improve soon because you get to know to many new words and great sentence structures, which will be very helpful for your exam!

Best wishes and good luck with your exam!

[michael123]

One good, short, humorous and well written story which I just remembered is "The Lady in the Van" by Alan Bennet:

I believe extracts from this are currently in use in sections of English GCSE exams on short pieces of non-fiction prose.

Also if you have not already read them try "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" by J.K.Rowling, which make an interesting short read.

[Sophy]

I would recommend to practise talking - find somebody to speak with, because oral it´s much more difficult to find the right words! And when you read (also a very good idea), choose something you knew before - it´s very helpful to compare
greetings