Best book you've read in a while? (in Off-topic)

Eventually you run out of BA. And maybe your fingers hurt and the computer screen has given your face a tan. And you think, well, maybe I'll read something. I'm always looking for something new.
What's the best book you've read in a while?

Last year I discovered the S.KING series, THE DARK TOWER. A set of 7 book that he started in 1970 and finished in 2004. It's a tough read at times (some books are better than others) but with a pay off unlike any series has ever given me before. The best reading I've done in a while.

And you?

i am now reading "the shadow of the wind" by carlos ruiz zafon. it is very compelling and well-written so far.

Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart

The Ultimate Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Ultimate because it has all 5 books in one volume.

Come to think of it, I should go finish that.

hmmm lets see:

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
The Death of Artemio Cruz, by Carlos Fuentes
The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Waiting, by Ha Jin
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
and currently am reading The Waves, by Virginia Woolf

I read Snow crash the other day because a lot of my friends told me to.

I recently finished The Sandman series. I may be breaking the rules by including a graphic novel series, but it is simply the most amazing thing I have ever read.

Deception Point by Dan Brown

(Goodonya, Daz!)

I recommend The Baroque Cycle or, if you need to go about it backward, Cryptonomicon first, then The Baroque Cycle. Also, The Baroque Cycle is best read in three volumes, not eight.

Just finished re-re-re-re-reading the Wheel of Time series by the late Robert Jordan. ;)

The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series by Michelle Paver:

Wolf Brother
Spirit Walker
Soul Eater

The Parrish Plessis series by Marianne de Pierres:

Nylon Angel
Code Noir
Crash Deluxe
A minor warning though, book 2, and especially 3 aren't quite PG...

:)

Hyperion (I am finishing the first book in the 4 books series)

The Baroque Cycle was awesome!!!

Currently reading Mistborn
by Brandon Sanderson (The guy who is going to finish the WoT series)

So far I really like it...

Side note:
Any one else notice how paperback books' paper keeps getting thinner and thinner?

Discworld series - Terry Pratchett

"A Murder in Amsterdam", addresses the European issues with the Muslim population

I think this will be my 1000th time reading "Shogun".

I can safely say it's my favorite, based on the observation above :)

There is something that really gets me about a dude who arrives in a totally new world, literally without anything to his name, and manages to not only climb the social ladder of a place he does not even fully understand, but also learns to view things in a totally new light.

If character development ever had a name, I am sure it would be John Blackthorne.

Brilliant book, and while not 100% historically correct, it will teach you a couple things about Japan in the 1600's. Not as glamorous as mangas present it :)

Actually, the last best book I'm reading is the last book of "Banned an banished" series of writer James Clemens.
It's about a girl who gains possession of witchcraft during her first period. As of that moment her life gets turned upside down.
I really recommend it if you like fantasy books.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Totally different from the movie in so many ways. I don't want to give them away. If the movie followed the book closer, then I think the movie would have been even better. The ending totally blew my mind because of... oh yeah; you have to read it. If you liked the movie, you have to read the book.

"The Heart of a Goof" by P.G.Wodehouse

I have his entire collection sitting around, but have read only a few of them, but plan to wolf the rest down in the coming days.

The sword of truth novels by terry goodkind and the magic of recluse series by L.E. Modsitt jr. are pretty good if you like adventure/sword and sorcery kind of things

I'm reading Transcendent by Stephen Baxter. It's good though I like some of his other books better. One of the best books I've read recently would have to be Accelerando by Charles Stross. Glasshouse by Stross was also good.

"The Golden Age" series by John C. Wright. This is probably the hardest SF I have ever seen, and it is so bloody good it just kills me.

It's just... amazing. Read the first page, nay, paragraph of the first book, if you don't love it, you'll hate the rest of the books ;)

Baen ftw!

/\88/\

The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny

He is one of the most brilliant writers I have ever come across and I have read most in the science fiction/fantasy genre.

"The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever" by Stephen R Donaldson.

Word of advice: bring a dictionary...

movie of the hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy, and the book i'm reading, the restaurant at the end of the universe, and probably (though i haven't read it) the rest of the ultimate hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy

The Bible. Especially Matthew chapter 24, John chapter 3, Romans, Hebrews and 1&2 Timothy. It has the answers to everything and is a fascinating and enlightening read to anyone wise enough to understand it. Daniel chapter 8 and Revelation 14 are very sobering as well.
I never stop reading it. I'll read it over and over again until the end of my days.

Can't beat it :)

The Inheritance books by Christopher Paolini are among my favorites, along with the Pendragon books by DJ MacHale and the Mithgar series by Dennis L. McKiernan. (All of them are fantasy style books). If you're a Lord of the Rings fan, you should especially like the Inheritance or Mithgar books.

If you're a Lord of the Rings fan, you'll also love the Sword of Truth series of books by Terry Goodkind. It's my all time favorite book series. There are a total of 11 books in the series with the last book being published in November 2007 so it's still very current.

What's interesting about this series is that the story just flows from one book to the next like a single story if you read them in order. If you don't you can still understand whats happening but you don't have the background to draw from when he refers to past events.

Yesterday I finished "Fleet of Worlds" by Larry Niven and Edward H. Lerner" - Set in Niven's "Known Space" universe. Anything by Niven is good for me.
I'm half way through Terry Pratchett's "Making Money" now. Anything by Pratchett is pretty much guaranteed to be brilliant.

If you need to plan your next several years worth of between-BA time, "A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen is a fantasy series written by Canadian author Steven Erikson, consisting of seven books as of 2007 and projected to be ten books long in total. "

Or, if you need to read one book between each set of BA, Patrick Suskind's "Perfume" and "The Pigeon" make quite an impact, for all they're also quite compact.

just wondering...

anyone read anything BESIDES sf/fantasy/so on???


I may be wrong, but all the books posted so far fit in those genres...something else!!

Diary of Anne Frank.

There :-P

i do read mainly in scifi/fantasy, but the book i posted above does not fit into that category.

Clockwork Orange (British Edition, the US version skipped a chapter)
Catch-22 by Heller is always good...
Animal Farm - George Orwell (in case you become nostalgic for communism)
Harry Potter (the entire series.... and yes I am 29 and own them all, got a problem with that?)
Bright Shining Lie - Neil Sheehan (very interesting insight into the Vietnam war...)
Halsey's Typhoon - (historical recount of a major typhoon running over the US Pacific fleet in WWII)

There, that ought to provide some variety for all.

Yeah, dudemus, I knew there was somebody who had posted something I had googled, and saw it wasn't sci-fi or fantasy...

PGW isn't sci-fi or fantasy, its pure fiction at its best.

The Necroscope series (13 books) by Brian Lumley. His Wamphiri are vicious, savage, ruthless, and unrepentantly evil.

World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. Told as individual stories in the form of interviews this is without a doubt one of my favorite reads.

City of the Dead by Brian Keene. A new twist to zombie horror, and the evil leader is named OB!!

Midnight Blue: The Sonja Blue Chronicles by Nancy Collins. Gothic punk vampire chick out for revenge, my only regret is that Ms. Collins no longer writes.

Watchmen by Mark Moore and Dave Gibbons. One of the best graphic novels ever, if you haven't read it then your life is not complete.

I just read "The Pillars of the Earth", Ken Follett. I don't recommend it.

Sam Keen's "To Love and Be Loved", is meditative and quite good.

Dr. Alexander Elder's "Trading for a Living" is entertaining, given that's it's basically a text, but it's very expensive.

Neither "Perfume" nor "The Pigeon" are sci fi/fantasy/etc.

"How to Read and Why", Harold Bloom, is worth it just because Bloom is such a ... well, you know.

Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" has an inconvenient typesetting problem on page one of the introduction.

Chris Hitchens' "letters to a young contrarian" is worth it, if you can find it. There's a "new" offering as well, which may or may not be your cuppa. It's just not as offensive as it "seems".

Alex Stoddard's "Gracious Living in a New World" is a truly lovely volume. I'm not sure about the softcover, but the hardcover has been detailed down to ink tone and typeface.

There's a whole lotta Howard Gardner that's quite enlightening -- I'd recommend starting at "Frames of Mind" and proceeding by published chronology.

There. (see also: The Diary of Anne Frank)

"Watchmen by Mark Moore and Dave Gibbons. One of the best graphic novels ever, if you haven't read it then your life is not complete."


I think it's time, and I think you'll agree Ed, that The Watchmen lost the 'graphic' prefix to novel. It's just a fantastic story well told. I've been reading it for 20 years and I still find something new in it's pages. And it's created by two Brits. Proud? You betcha!


2007 was the year I sort of stopped reading for a while. I don't know why; too many other things going on. Plus the rediscovery of music as a love, not just an obsession.

But I'm back on the bus again, and lots to dig into. The Complete Lemony Snicket books, a couple of James Ellroy, the latest Jonathan Carroll (go and find any book by Jonathan Carroll...my all time favourite writer); and a box of books that I had stored at my parents'. Books I haven't seen in ten years or more. Ancient paperbacks with very yellow pages, including my childhood favourite Ray Bradbury. "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is probably one of my favourite books of all time.

I've just been reading R.A. Salvatore's books about Drizzt Do'Urden's exploits... Very enjoyable books. I just went to Border's the other day to buy Siege of Darkness, saw Passage to Dawn, failed to pick it up, and now I need it and they don't have another one. Kinda kicking myself in the face for that.

Other than R.A.S.'s books, I've been reading a lot of Dragonlance. Just picked up Dragons of a Fallen Sun due to the absence of Passage to Dawn.

"A Short History of Progress," by Ronald Wright.

Bast:
I had just meant I saw in general lots of sci-fi and fantasy :) I knew there were some books I had missed that weren't...

Also Loch and Bast, your lists really intrigue me :) If I had time I'd try and read a lot of those..

I love Animal Farm :D

"Yukk, 5:06 PM EST
Yesterday I finished "Fleet of Worlds" by Larry Niven and Edward H. Lerner" - Set in Niven's "Known Space" universe. Anything by Niven is good for me.
I'm half way through Terry Pratchett's "Making Money" now. Anything by Pratchett is pretty much guaranteed to be brilliant."

You win a cookie. Niven was amazing. I prefer older Pratchett work to a lot of his newer stuff, but it's still good.

"[RX3] RedX13, 7:13 PM EST
I've just been reading R.A. Salvatore's books about Drizzt Do'Urden's exploits... Very enjoyable books."

Sorry. No cookie for you. I was given the drizzt trilogy to read. I managed to fight my way through the first one, and then proceeded to fight my way through the first half of the second. I gave up about there. I really did not enjoy that series. I can get into more details about why i hated it if you like.

World War Z

I'm a big zombie fan.

I'll just list the books I've read lately.

Free to Choose, Milton Friedman. Required reading for all small-government and fiscal conservatives, and highly suggested for all the statist types out there.

Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds. A mixture of hard SF and space opera, Revelation Space is based around a space-faring human society that has found their corner of the Milky Way to be curiously lacking in intelligent races. Revelation Space is Reynolds' intersection point for the Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox.

Nightside series, Simon Green. A somewhat stereotypical private detective series in a dark fantasy setting. Not the hardest read imaginable (not even close, really), but the goofy humor and quick pace make for an amusing series of novels.

The Carpet Makers, Andreas Eschbach. The rather strange story behind a pre-industrial planet devoted to making hair carpets for a galactic empire. Though I disagree with the author's conclusions about human independence, I liked the book.

Helix, Eric Brown. While the setting is original (a helix structure with hundreds of individual worlds) the plot isn't terribly gripping. Average space opera.

The Baroque Cycle, Neal Stephenson. An excellent series of books. I highly recommend them, even if certain members of this forum might take exception to my thoughts vis a vis a certain main character.

Darwinia, Robert Charles Wilson. Hard to say much about this one without completely blowing the plot, beyond the introductory information about Europe disappearing overnight and being replaced by an alien wilderness dubbed Darwinia. Short, but worth the read.

Pandora's Star, Peter F. Hamilton. While the main point of the novel is the discovery and subsequent dealings with an alien race, Hamilton spends a significant portion of the book describing a complex confederacy of human worlds and the social problems humanity faces in the wake of rapid colonization and universal life extension treatments. I recommend this one.

My current book is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke.

Sword of Shadows series by J.V.Jones, waiting to go and buy the final book of the trilogy now that it is out after several years of thumb-twiddling.

I read some of Jonathon Strange....it got pretty boring after a while.

It's so detailed in it's world, that, while it's nice, it seems a bit overdone..

Hmm, I have the whole Baroque Cycle here, unread. I keep putting it off. I don't know why. I've read all of his other popular stuff, and these have been recommended at least 3 times. I guess I'll start them next week.

Daz, what else would you recommend ? I hardly ever find any sci-fi to read these days that can hold a candle to Niven.

Great thread j'bob !

What, no Spider Robinson yet? sheesh!

/\88/\

Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand.
trust me.

i would recommend it towards someone of the fairly literate and intelligent crowd.
such as someone who completed all of the Dark Tower Series

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

No comparison.

Also: Ender's Game (and subsequent 3 books)
Ender's Shadow (and subsequent 3 books)

"Daz, what else would you recommend ? I hardly ever find any sci-fi to read these days that can hold a candle to Niven. "

Yeah, I have the same problem. What I started doing to try and get around this was to look at all of the people Niven regularly Collaborates with and try their work. If they're good enough for Niven, they're probably good enough for me. The problem is that a lot of the work from these authors can be hard to find, so I haven't done as much of this as I would like.

I have been told that Roger Zelazny is very good. Most of what I have read of his are short stories. In short stories, he is Amazing at creating a good universe/setting full of life and characters with good backgrounds. Because of this I tried out "To die in Italbar" when i saw it cheap at a market. It was very similar in that the setting was well crafted in a fairly short amount of time, but had a few plot issues and holes that annoyed me a little bit (read: a LOT). Though I have heard that is one of his less favoured works, so I guess it can be okay.

Something else I HIGHLY reccomend doing (if you havent already) is having a look at the Baen Free Library (http://www.baen.com/library/). Baen are one of the bigger sci-fi/fantasy publishers, and here they have ~110 books available for free download. The authors involved picked their own book, I think.

''Daz, Jan 30 [collapse]
Sorry. No cookie for you. I was given the drizzt trilogy to read. I managed to fight my way through the first one, and then proceeded to fight my way through the first half of the second. I gave up about there. I really did not enjoy that series. I can get into more details about why i hated it if you like.''

The Legend of Drizzt books 1 - 3 were kind of bland because of the nasty murky setting of Menzobarranzan. I'd be the first to agree with someone if they had said that those were hard to get through. I can see that R.A.S. 'tried' to make The Underdark more livid with his descriptions of the infrared spectrum, or that's how it seemed to me, but I don't think there are many ways to describe stalactites, stalagmites and rock tunnels.

*recommend. I missed that in all the names and repeated use of "sci-fi"

Neil Gaiman's "Ananzi Boys" and "Neverwhere" are recommended.

Neal Stephenson's "The Big U", "Snow Crash", "The Diamond Age", "Cryptonomicron", and "The Baroque Cycle" are favorites. I have an original printing of "The Big U" that I purchased in 1984.

Laurie Anderson's "Stories from the Nerve Bible" has tons of performance art photography from 1972-1992.

Michael Azerrad's "Our Band Could Be Your Life" covers the American Indie underground from 1981-1991.

Jeff Noon and "Automated Alice" named a minion for me, and I fondly remember "Vurt", "Pollen", "Pixel Juice", and "Nymphomation" as some of my favorites from 1993-1997.

Elizabeth Hand, starting with "Winterlong", "Glimmering", and "Waking the Moon", is recommended.

So is "Grunts" by Mary Gentle and the entire "Mythago Wood" cycle by Robert Holdstock.

Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon published a interesting book about the origins of the internet titled "Where Wizards Stay Up Late." I stayed up late one night and read it from cover to cover. Willie Crowther for the win!

Red, to be honest, I didn't mind the setting. I actually found the writing style a little bit annoying.

It has changes of pace at a speed that's just amazing. There was a fight sequence that has been going for three-four pages - This is what it felt like to me; He details the shimmer in the air every second time the swords move, he details all of the movements of the characters. And then, after all of this, the fight ends with, "and then he tripped on a rock and hit his head.".

He details things I don't care at all about excruciatingly and then skips over things that I actually find interesting.

I also don't like the way he had Drizzt created. I thought it went against everything the idea of Drizzt held. The point of Drizzt was that he actually grew up believing everything about Drow life, and then had a huge internal struggle later in life. Instead, it felt to me like, "Aha! His eyes are purple, therefore he will rebel against drow ideals FROM BIRTH".

My complaints are very badly written at the moment, though, because I'm in a hurry.

Thrak recommended Neil Gaiman; I'll second that and add my favourite Neil: American Gods, which is the first book in the loose series that Ananzi Boys is part of. Basically all the Gods that people believed in, before they came to America came with them to America and still live out there, despite people not believing in them anymore.

Wow, the response has been awesome and I've got a lot of research ahead of me. I'm definately going to try and make sure my next few books come from this list.
As for other recommendations from me.
For fiction but non fantasy sci fi;

Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. (odd but interesting)

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. IMHO an amazing book about the battle of Thermopylae told from an interesting point of perspective. I've been told by a friend who read his other books Virtues of War and Tides of War are equally excellent reads. Pressfield is also the writer of The Legend of Bagger Vance

Back under the fantasy umbrella I'm surprised Anne Rice hasn't gotten mentioned yet. Her Vampire series was overall excellent. The first two books being the best but the Tale of the Body Thief was a great read also.

I have spent the better part of the last year and a half starting and finishing the Dark Tower series, finishing the Harry Potter books (ok, that only took a week and yes, I love them too!) and rediscovering some older favorites like The Great and Secret Show (BARKER). As well as more thoroughly browsing some books on Sinatra and Elvis that always litter my house. :)
I do urge anyone who loves a series to look into the Dark Tower Series. I wasn't a big Stephen King reader until I got swallowed by that series. In a subtle yet amazing way The Dark Tower series ties together everything he's ever written. It made me appreciate how his mind works.
All for now.

Claire surprised me with the last David Gemmel book for my birthday. I might actually get over my block and read the second now ( if I'm honest with myself, I could never bring myself to read his 'last' book, especially as it was the second in a trilogy).

I've also got James Barclays' (if you liked Gemmel, Barclay with the Raven series is a great author to check out) second in his new series to read.

And the fifth of the Horus Heresy (Warhammer 40K) to get around to.

:/

Too much to read.

Not a fan of Robert Jordan any more, bored by the length of the wheel of time series, I've forgotten what happened in the previous book by the time the next one is released. Plus the last couple of books have seemed to go nowhere. And do that slowly.

I was turned off of Terry Goodkind, for being almost a carbon copy of Rober Jordan.

Dan Brown was ok to start with, but by the time you've read Angels and Demons and move on to things like Deception Point, you realise that his plots are all exactly the same, even the ultimate antagonist has the same relation to the protagonist. Just the settings change. :(

Ian Banks is good. But I've not read a book of his in ages. My sister picked up his documentary about travelling the Scottish Whisky distilleries, which was a good read by all accounts.

I've not touched a Terry Pratchet book in years. And I wierdly pride myself for not having read any of the Harry Potter books. ;)

On a whim I picked up Electric Church, a nice 'cyberpunk' book, but it left me wanting, something.

As for best book I've read in a While.

I'll plump for the Raven series by James Barclay and the Harliquin Trillogy by Bernard Cromwell (historical tale about an English Lonbowman and the Holy Grail).

I also had the immense pleaure to find that a Trillogy (Horse Lord, Demon Lord and Dragon Lord) I read as a kid (my dad's books) actually had a fourth and two prequals written, and I managed to nab them off E-bay. ;) Read the fouth, not got round to the prequals yet.

As for Anne Rice, while Interview with the Vampire might have been ok, I picked up Telling of the Bones (it was on offer) and it was IWtV, but with Ghosts instead of Vampires. I shelved it and haven't found it in myself to go back to her yet.

Yeah, j'bob, Gates of Fire was great.
I'm now reading "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell.
The cover kind of sums it up:
"The eyewitness account of Operation Redwing and the lost heroes of Seal Team 10". So far, it's pretty good.

After reading all the recommendations for it and viewing the Wiki link for it (thanks, IA!), I've just purchased a few of the books of the Baroque Cycle. I hope you didn't let me down, CB'ers! ;)

*mumbles fractically to himself* Someone has to say it... might as well be me.... probably expected... grrr...


Are all the books on video yet? *smile*


Okay, as for my recent books.....

Harry Potter series (A quick note here, after the 4th book, it's no longer really.... Children material. Murder, evil, pain, suffering, torture.... That's up to the readers I guess...)

Ender's Game. Ender's Shadow. I -loved- both of those. I've read them both at least 10 times. I like a few of the sequels, but not all. After a.... Certain event in the series, I grew disgusted and stopped immediately. But it's good writing, I just didn't have the motivation after the "event".

A book called "Epic". It was written for a younger crowd, definitely, but I found myself surprisingly drawn in, and have read it a few times more.

Memnoch was good, though I read it many years ago and it was a bit over my head at times. The Vampire Lestat was fantastic. Both Rice books.

Wheel of Time series, I must agree, just got too long. If you have a life outside of the books, you're just going to get lost. Heck, if you somehow managed to read nonstop through the entire series, by the time you get to the last one, you have NO idea where/when/why thing tooks place in the first 5. Enjoyable, but some serious editting could have made the serious more manageable.

The Zombie War stuff is hysterical. Provides quite a few oppurtunities for conversation.

Jonathon Livingston Seagull. (not sure if I got the spelling right). It's a very... Different kind of book. I took quite a bit away from it. But that's to the invidual, of course.

Tons of other stuff, but I'm not in the mood to write more. Hope you enjoyed the spelling errors.

best books ive read in a while....

Stevie Ray - Vaughn Texas Flood Recorded Version Tab
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Guitar Tab Edition
Black Sabbath - Hits Recorded Version Tab

Just for the record, WoT is not that long.
I'm usually able to go through one book in three days or so.
Althought I will admit, the books at right around the middle are pretty...Boring...

Of course, I'm homeschooled and have WAY too much time on my hands.

Anything by the late great Hunter S. Thompson is worth reading.

One book in 3 days is a month of reading ;P

Well, some of them I finished in two, one of them (Book #10, I think) I finished in one day.

Well, since this is a thread about books, and the CB community seems to have a very vast library of books, I just thought I'd try and see if you guys can point me to the name of a book I've just thought of.

I read the books when I was in 7th grade ( that's been >5 years ago ). I thought the name was Wheel of Time, also thought the author had Jordan as either a first or last name, but that seems to not be the case. I'm not sure how many books there were in the series, but I read 3, and I think that was all of them. It was a fantasy book about a young - teenage girl I'd like to say, with her 2 brothers and they were involved in some crazy plot to save the world or some crap. I'm pretty sure it was based more in modern day than in the past. I also seem to remember that her brother gets caught or possessed in the last book.

I can't remember the name for anything. Think that is enough for you guys (and/or girls) to find a name? I'd try google, but I haven't the slightest clue of what to search for.

That doesn't sound like the Wheel of Time series which is by Robert Jordon. I believe that series is currently at book 11 waiting for book 12. Not really sure what your thinking of. Wheel of Time series really is good though.

A Brilliant non fantasy/sci-fi book I read ages ago was "Angry White Pajama's".

About an Oxford Poet in Japan, who along with his house mates decides he's lost focus in his life, and tries to reinstall a bit of discipline by deciding to take up a martial art.

So he blags his way onto a year long intensive white to black belt Akido course that the Japanese Riot Police use. And the book is his journey through the year.

Very interesting!

David Farland has a series that I found by being stuck at an airport one day and picking up a book in desperation from the store there.
Not the usual place to find quality books but I was pleasantly surprised.

best books I've read in a while have to be the Dan Brown books:
The Da-Vinci Code
Angels and Demons
and
Digital Fortress

The name just came to me. A Wrinkle in Time which is part of the Time Quartet.

I don't remember the other 3 titles, but I remember A Wrinkle in Time. From what I can remember, I enjoyed them (it, if I didn't read any of the others).