Best fiction urban life books according to redditors

We found 312 Reddit comments discussing the best fiction urban life books. We ranked the 92 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

Next page

Top Reddit comments about Fiction Urban Life:

u/MillurTime · 29 pointsr/videos

You should read Trainspotting. I thought I ordered the wrong language when I first got it.

u/ehchvee · 13 pointsr/horrorlit

(On mobile so hopefully my formatting isn't borked!)

Everyone's nightmare fuel is different, of course, but here are a couple that gave me some freaked out nights for very different reasons:

COWS by Matthew Stokoe
This book is sick. But it's also well written, which is what takes it beyond shock value. Pretty much everyone who has read it can recite a scene that really messed them up.

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jack Ketchum
I took this out of the library several years ago. I had to renew it multiple times because I could only read it in small sections. It made me cry more than once and I definitely had nightmares. I've never read any other Ketchum, but I've seen folks around here saying he's got other books that will mess you up. I know OFF SEASON and THE WOMAN get mentioned quite a bit; maybe someone who's read those can chime in.

HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Z Danielewski
This one is divisive, but it's one of my favourites. I buddy-read it with several long distance friends in various time zones (I'm in Toronto, and they were in Ohio, California, Washington State, Colorado and Australia!), so we spent many nights texting about how creeped out we felt being home alone while reading it. We likened it to a long, terrifying drug trip.

HAUNTED by Chuck Palahniuk
A collection of short stories that have a through line narrative. Each story is about/written by one of the characters, and each is its own kind of disturbing, creepy, or upsetting.


I used to moderate a massive book club on Livejournal (!!) that was devoted to the most disturbing books in the world; I wish we could've migrated all of the 4,000 members to Reddit successfully, because we had a hell of a list! (ETA: here are a few posts about books with a captivity theme - THE GIRL NEXT DOOR is mentioned a couple of entries down. I'm amazed our massive archive is all still intact! You can search it by tag, too.)

u/coffee_n_books · 6 pointsr/bookclub

Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann
National Book Award Winner 2009: It's an interesting story that weaves multiple plots together, and even tells the stories through multiple POVs. The plots are all brought together by a tightrope walking feat between the Twin Towers.

u/greginnj · 6 pointsr/startrek

>I'm an African American woman that loves EVERYTHING sci-fi.

Please tell me that you've already read Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist.

u/Atlas_Schmatlas · 6 pointsr/asheville

Let me go in depth into what I meant:


I don't care about Zeb Vance. Well, I do hope that he's taught about in Asheville schools, but I don't care about his legacy. He is not so important to the current city of Asheville that his name must adorn the downtown obelisk. But that's exactly my point. We don't have a statue of him downtown. We have an obelisk, that, asides from a plaque, does not carry any kind of Vance memento on it. It is a simple stone structure.

I don't see any reason to tear that down. Like you noted, Vance's legacy is already much forgotten. Why tear down the monument, when it can be edited? To most Ashevillians, the monument is more a place marker than a reminder of slavery. THAT BEING SAID, Vance's legacy is one of oppression. I don't see any reason for the monument to have to be related to Vance anymore, but there can still be information around it about the man.


In fact, if the monument was taken down, I expect there would be an plaque or something talking about the former monument. Luckily, we don't have to take it down in order to change its meaning. If you're interested in how the meaning of a particular era or structure can be changed very quickly, I recommend reading Confederate post-war revisionism, or this book.



edit: You're right my analogy about the building wasn't great. I guess what I'm trying to say is that an obelisk is more like a building than a statue. It carries no meaning that can't be repurposed. To me, it's more of a tool than a memorial. Cleopatra's Needle for example, may have been constructed using slave labor, and may have been used a tool of propaganda during Egypt's rule. But now, it sits in Central Park, a beautiful structure and nothing more. In short, obelisks, have no race, class, gender, or borders (unlike a statue, or at least, less like a statue). It's like having a fountain, and then destroying it because it honored a racist. There's no need! Just rename it, and everyone will still enjoy it.

u/languagejones · 6 pointsr/linguistics

>Is there a place where I could find a large text written in AAVE?

It sounds like you're specifically asking for authored text, so I'm not going to suggest spoken corpora that linguists use. Others have mentioned Twitter (which I've used in past research), but there are some serious confounds if you're just trying to gather as much AAE text material as you can.

Another option is blogs. You'll find higher register (but AAE) stuff places like very smart brothas, and more basilectal AAE on blogs like this one. Keep in mind that for both, there's an element of performance of identity.

>Maybe asking for a book entirely in AAVE would be too much,

It's mad books written in AAE and you can get them on Amazon. Most of them won't be good from a literary perspective, but that's not the point. I'm thinking specifically of page turners similar to the bodice rippers you see in drug stores. I'm not sure where you live, but in NYC, Philly, and DC you can get 'em on the street in the right neighborhoods (there's usually guys with tables on the sidewalk in Harlem, for instance).

I'm partial to Beastmode, which, among other things, has racist white cops who think in AAE because the author of the (self-published) book seems to not know that white people generally (and racist ones especially) don't speak (or always understand) AAE. The book itself is awful, but both the speech and the narration of these pulp novels are in very vernacular AAE.

Just follow the links.

That said, what I recommended are not high literature. People have written using AAE (do you specifically want vernacular, and no other registers?) in the past, so for instance, you get a lot of AAE flavor in Toni Morrison's books, or Zora Neal Hurston's books, but what I just pointed you towards are self-published pulp fiction.

Obviously I shouldn't have to say this, but I'm sure you know generalizing about black people from these books would be like generalizing about white people from Rocky Mountain Romance. Beastmode, in particular, is a sort of anti-authority crack-is-a-CIA-conspiracy retaliatory fever dream. I will say that while I haven't (yet) read it, in my neighborhood Honor Thy Thug seems to be pretty popular.

EDIT: I'm intentionally steering you away from publications where it's a white imagining of black styles.

u/tephdee · 5 pointsr/steampunk

I enjoyed Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, another light-weight summer read - the quality of story varies between the books but they're fun and mostly enjoyable. Bonus werewolves and vampires, because... why not?

u/fierywords · 4 pointsr/Fantasy

This one skews more towards women, but Gail Cariger's Parasol Protectorate series is phenomenal. I also love Steven Harper's The Doomsday Vault. And I just read A Study in Silks--it was really well promoted at NYCC last year.

u/jodi_coder · 4 pointsr/booksuggestions

Let the great world spin by colum mcCann (one of my favorite books)

also "motherless brooklyn" by jonathon lethem
and "Lucia, Lucia" By adriana trigiani


u/zabloosk · 3 pointsr/booksuggestions

Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann.

Bunch of different intertwining stories of the people of New York City, centering around Philippe Petit's tightrope walk of the Twin Towers in the 70's.

u/sn0tface · 3 pointsr/punk

American Skin by Don Degrazia

American Skin: A Novel https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684862220/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_hAHmxbB22J6A9

It's about being a young skinhead in Chicago. It's kinda fucked up, but a very good, and easy read.

Also anything by Aaron Cometbus

DOUBLE DUCE https://www.amazon.com/dp/086719586X/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_7CHmxb6Q25WF6

Double Deuce is my favorite, but it's about being punk in the 80s/90s in California's Bay Area.

u/taozero · 3 pointsr/reddit.com

Cool post - I first came across the idea of the Panopticon from a series of books by John Twelve Hawks starting with The Traveler.

If you are interested in a good (Sci-Fi fiction) read that incorporates your premise, I would recommend these. I am open to anyone who has some non-fiction reads regarding this.

u/Mazzystr · 3 pointsr/Futurology

Highly recommend this fiction book on elevators

https://www.amazon.com/Intuitionist-Novel-Colson-Whitehead/dp/0385493002

u/sentanta · 3 pointsr/AskReddit

Let The Great World Spin - Colum McCann

The Walking People - Mary Beth Keane

u/dickscraper · 2 pointsr/chicago
u/adamadamadam · 2 pointsr/books

Try any Irvine Welsh book, but I'd start with Trainspotting.

u/xEDIBLExWOOKIESx · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

It’s only $15 if you have prime: Cows

u/Rhynosaurus · 2 pointsr/chicago
u/HepMeJeebus · 2 pointsr/tipofmytongue
u/jdpirtl · 2 pointsr/books

Since I have no idea what kind of books you like I made a short little list of books I generally recommend to people for any reason. All linked to amazon so look for a review or synopsis there.

Let the Great World Spin

The Great War for Civilization

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

Oil!

The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Theodore Rex

Lincoln:A Novel

u/mdervin · 1 pointr/AskNYC

The Fuck Up by Arthur Nersesian and Slaves of New York for a look into a NYC of the 1980's. https://www.amazon.com/Fuck-Up-Arthur-Nersesian/dp/0671027638

For Non-Fiction, I suggest Divided We Stands about the building of The World Trade Center, it gives a good glimpse of how things are done in this city.
https://www.amazon.com/Divided-We-Stand-Biography-Center/dp/0465027652

u/2FishInATank · 1 pointr/pics

Reminded me of this book or the film which wasn't really as good.

u/jleonardbc · 1 pointr/IAmA

There's a couple like you in Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. You should check it out.

u/es0 · 1 pointr/PhilosophyofScience

The Intuitionist.
Not sure if this book addressed this, but awesome read nonetheless.

u/_an1sh · 1 pointr/videos

Better link to the preview the book

u/SRG7593 · 1 pointr/TwoXChromosomes

I know this is an old topic but I just stumbled upon it, I keep a few copies of this book to loan out to people; Household Gods by Harry Turtledove and Judith Tarr.

In typing this I thought of another one, in my opinion the main character is the female, but the action rotates between 4-5 characters. The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks. It is part of a trilogy, the first book is good, second better but weak ending and third just makes you want to ask WTF?

http://www.amazon.com/Household-Gods-Judith-Tarr/dp/0812564669/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311306302&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Traveler-Fourth-Realm-Trilogy-Book/dp/1400079292/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311306355&sr=1-1

u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/books

Er....maybe this?

u/sidecarfour · 1 pointr/books
u/dangerd3an · 1 pointr/tipofmytongue

The concept of the Panopticon is also a central concept in The Traveler, by John Twelve Hawks.

u/DickNickerson · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

I went through a phase where I was a huge fan of Thompson's work and read everything and went looking for similar items. A couple that were kind of "classics" in my own mind during that time were A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh.

A Clockwork Orange was always awesome to me when it was an edition that included the glossary in the back. Was difficult to find when I was into it, but amazon didn't exist yet either.

Trainspotting sent me through a phase with Irvine Welsh similar to the phase I went through with Thompson. I read as much as I could. He kept writing long after I finished the phase though.

Either way, both have plenty of sex, drugs, and violence and should suit him fine as long as he enjoys the challenge of dialect. I never really saw it as a challenge but loved the imagery created from words I wasn't used to.

u/bubas · 1 pointr/books

Out of curiosity, is this what the non-movie poster cover looks like?

u/amazon-converter-bot · 1 pointr/FreeEBOOKS

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

u/GimmeFunnyPetGIFs · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

The Trainspotting movie is based on a novel, but I didn't read it yet.

u/FakeHipster · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Recently Finished:

Colum McCann's Let The Great World Spin

Before that City of Thieves by David Benioff

Currently reading:

You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers

u/memejunk · 1 pointr/AskReddit

your post reminded me of this book.

u/rarelyserious · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

You know what was a nice little trilogy, The Fourth Realm Trilogy, by John Twelve Hawks. First book is The Traveler.

u/RedF0rman · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

The Fuck Up by Arthur Nersesian

u/lokisarrow · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

Here is the link to Buckyball, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A3CBZ3A

u/marble_god · 1 pointr/funny

Here's one I found while having my first Walmart experience in south Miami: Honor Thy Thug by Wahida Clark

"Urban lit’s favorite ride or die couple, Trae and Tasha, are back as they fight to hold onto their volatile relationship which gets closer to exploding with each passing day. Their friends, Angel and Kaylin, are caught up in their own dra­ma which pits brother against brother in a final showdown. Faheem and his wife Jaz, face their worst nightmare which almost takes them totally out of the game. Meanwhile, Kyron, who brought Trae to the brink of murder and Tasha to the edge of insanity, is back and hell bent on revenge."

I didn't really know what to make of it. That or the fact you could buy guns at Walmart :/

u/jackassinjapan · 1 pointr/japancirclejerk

This one is worse considering the cover.

u/Reyesjc04 · 0 pointsr/booksuggestions

I’m going to recommend the book I wrote lol it’s call Incapable and on amazon right now! Incapable