The Girl on the Train
A debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives. Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good? Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut. paulahawkinsbooks.com
Stats for nerds
2recommend
5mentions
5people
2015–2020years
40% recommend60% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- True originality will be so different that barely anyone will like it.
Evolution is the way to go.
I'm an aspiring writer and when a random internet person comments on my short stories, they're focused on "oh it is like X Y" "oh it is like Z movie"
They're obsessed with finding which story it relates to rather than enjoying the story (and it isn't like I'm a pathetic writer)
I'm not saying I'm the best writers ever, but why I don't like such morons is that they don't have any otger constructive criticism like "your character sucked ass" or "dogs don't fall in love with cows"
No. Their entire problem is "oh I saw a movie like this and that's why this is a shitty story"
These morons fail to realise that LoTR derives heavily from Mythology, GoT is literally a fiction version of War of Roses
But these snobs will love and swear by LoTR because "that's original" and other books are "copy cats"
The idea doesn't matter, execution does.
Sure Gone Girl came first but girl on the train is also a good book. It isn't "copy cat" just because it has a untrustworthy narrator. Gone girl wasn't the first one to have untrustworthy narrator, I think
- For Fun: The Girl on the Train - Just finished it, kept me interested not bad. http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Train-Paula-Hawkins/dp/1594633665...
For learning: Automate the Boring Stuff http://www.amazon.com/Automate-Boring-Stuff-Python-Programmi...
- I started Jan 2016 jobless, I still am. hence the long reading list! Apart from these I've read lots on AngularJS, React, Redux, Python.
* The Short Drop (The Gibson Vaughn Series) - Matthew FitzSimmons
* The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
* Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution - Neil deGrasse Tyson
* Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future - Ashlee Vance
* Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries - Neil deGrasse Tyson
* The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest To Understand, Enhance and Empower the Mind - Michio Kaku
* An Innocent Client (Joe Dillard Series Book 1) - Scott Pratt
* WIRED - Douglas E. Richards
* Phantoms - Dean Koontz
* Breakthrough - Michael C. Grumley
* Knots And Crosses (Inspector Rebus) - Ian Rankin
* Founders at Work - Jessica Livingston
* The Tumor: A Non-Legal Thriller - John Grisham
* Kick the Drink... Easily! - Jason Vale
* Hide And Seek (Inspector Rebus) - Ian Rankin
* Tooth And Nail - Ian Rankin
* Nexus (The Nexus Trilogy Book 1) - Ramez Naam
* Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow - Yuval Noah Harari
* Biocentrism - Bob Berman
- Most Highly Recommended:
Cosmos - !!!
The Measure of Reality - How quantification has completely changed the face of society. Very interesting stuff. This has probably been my favourite read this year.
Nightfall - Interesting ideas of the role of religion in society and mass hysteria
Speaker for the Dead - Really fascinating book. I love sci-fi where there is an alien species that humans have trouble understanding for whatever reason
Books I unrecommend:
Heretics of Dune - Ugh. Tedious. I actually couldn't finish it. Didn't start Chapterhouse either.
Information Doesn't Want to be Free - Pretty basic. How many footnotes do you really need before you just include them in the text?
Was on maternity leave this year so there are quite a few. Those marked * are also recommended.
Guns Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond *
The Vital Question - Nick Lane *
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath *
Convergent Series - Larry Niven *
Cosmos - Carl Sagan *
World of Ptaavs - Larry Niven
The Integral Trees - Larry Niven
The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
The Girl with Seven Names - Hyeongseo Lee *
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values - Robert M Pirsig *
The Thrilling Adventures Of Lovelace And Babbage (Comic) - Sydney Padua
The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 - Roger Zelazny
The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250 - 1600 - Alfred W. Crosby *
Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C Clark *
The Time Dweller - Michael Moorcock
Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card *
Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card *
Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible - Tim Gunn *
The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimon *
The Hugo Winners vol. 3 - Various
Between Planets - Robert A. Heinlen
The Martian - Andy Weir *
Perelandra - C S Lewis
Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert (Unfinished, couldn't do it.)
Nightfall - Isaac Asimov *
Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov *
Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov *
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlen *
Information Doesn't Want to be Free - Corey Doctorow
Currently Reading
Engines of Creation: The Coming Era Of Nanotechnology - K. Eric Drexler *
Planets for Sale - A.E. van Vogt
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Here are all the ones I read this year
My 5 favorite ones from that list areA Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire) by George R. R. Martin A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin The Confident Speaker: Beat Your Nerves and Communicate at Your Best in Any Situation by Harrison Monarth House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewsk To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War by Jeff Shaara Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance Finders Keepers: A Novel by Stephen King The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I by Barbara W. Tuchman The Wright Brothers by David McCullough Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson Hitler's Last Day: Minute by Minute by Emma Craigie The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins Robopocalypse: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) by Daniel H. Wilson Robogenesis by Daniel H. Wilson In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel PhilbrickIn the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War by Jeff Shaara Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
