Books you should read

Here is my "must read" list (in no particular order):

• "50 Jobs in 50 States" by Daniel Seddiqui
• This guy was in his early 20's and couldn't find a job that had anything to do with his degree, so he had the brilliant idea to get a job in every state's major industry for 1 week and document his experience.  He was a coal miner in West Virginia, a weatherman in Ohio, a model in North Carolina, and a corn farmer in Nebraska, amongst other things.  Although people he knew originally scoffed at this idea, check out how impressive his resume is now.
• "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
• Unlike modern-day romance authors who set their romances on the North Carolina coast and gives movie roles to eye-candy like Ryan Gosling and Channing Tatum, Jane Austen has truly original plot-lines and character development.  Her novel can be easily placed in modern times and still make perfect sense.
• "Harry Potter series" by J. K. Rowling
• I know they're technically children's books, but the series deals with many adult issues.  Plus, it's set in a universe that allows your imagination to run wild.
• "Southern Vampire Mysteries/Sookie Stackhouse novels" by Charlaine Harris
• "True Blood" found its inspiration and characters from these novels, but after the second season started deviating greatly from the plot lines in the novels.  I love "True Blood," but the books offer somewhat of an alternate universe to what's on the show.  Something about the way Charlaine Harris writes makes it impossible for me to not read an entire book in one sitting.
• "The Harper Connelly Mysteries" by Charlaine Harris
• I'm actually starting to like this series better than the Sookie Stackhouse novels.  Harper Connelly was struck by lightning when she was a kid, and as a result can sense the dead.  She can sense the final location of a person who's passed and see their last moments on Earth when she finds them, so she uses this ability to solve murder cases and provide closure to families as an independent detective.  
• "The Hunger Games Trilogy" by Suzanne Collins
• There are pros and cons to the movie and the book.  I loved the political implications of what our world could turn into and the complexity of how the government/districts operated (better explained in the book than the film).
• "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown
• Religion vs. Science = favorite interest of mine
• "The Venetian Betrayal," "The Alexandria Link," and... well everything by Steve Berry
• Steve Berry's novels follow the life of Cotton Malone, a former Justice Department operative, in his quest for uncovering secret ciphers, societies, etc.  Many compare his novels to the likes of Dan Brown, but I think Steve Berry does it better.  He writes novels not only dealing with American history conspiracy theories, but also incorporates world history.  
• "The Postcard Killers" by James Patterson
• James Patterson does excellent thriller novels; if you have a long flight, I suggest bringing 1 or 2 of his books.  Couples are killed seemingly at random and the killers send postcards to the police from where they will kill next to taunt them.  This one is my favorite of his writings because of the location (all over Europe), suspense, original plot, and unpredictable ending.  
• "Garden of Eden" by Ernest Hemingway
• I love Lost Generation writers; in many ways, I feel our generation is the "lost generation" of the new millennium.  "Garden of Eden" was Hemingway's last work, published posthumously because it was unfinished.  Coincidentally, the book "ends" right at the climax, leaving the reader's mind racing at how Hemingway would've ended it.
• "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Great Gatsby," anything by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• "The Sign of Seven Trilogy" by Nora Roberts
• "Written on the Body" by Jeanette Winterson
• Read this for my film and literature class; I promise it's unlike any novel you'll ever read.
• "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
• "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" by Salman Rushdie
• Another book labeled as a children's novel, but has amazing metaphors for political situations and censorship.  
• "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
• "Who Goes There?" by John Campbell
• This is a short story that was the inspiration for "The Thing."  The story is much more suspenseful and scarier; worth your time.  

I'm sure I'll think of more later.  I had fillings done so the entire right side of my mouth is completely numb.  I'm trying to give myself things to do that don't require me talking/sounding like Sylvester from the Looney Tunes.