Book recommendations, anyone?

[billy_pilgrim]

At the end of June, I am going on a week-long fishing trip to Ontario. I'm looking for a medium to long-ish novel to read. I'd also settle for a good book of non-fiction history to read. I've been thinking about reading this new biography of Alexander Hamilton, for example. If any of you have any recommendations, I'd be glad to consider them.

I'm looking for something engaging. Books I've taken fishing in the past include: The Lord of the Rings, The Naked and the Dead, All the King's Men, The Caine Mutiny, Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, In Cold Blood.

[nomad7674]

For non-fiction, I usually gravitate toward political stuff for some reason. They are philosophical enough to be challenging, but have enough of a story to keep you interested when the brain is not running on full charge. As such, I'd recommend Thomas Friedman's FROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385413726/qid=1085404241/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/102-5707608-5277706?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) or anything by Bob Woodward (who always tells a good story (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Woodward%2C%20Bob/102-5707608-5277706).

If you are looking at fiction, what about C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743234901/qid=1085404433/sr=1-26/ref=sr_1_26/102-5707608-5277706?v=glance&s=books), DUNE (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441172717/qid=1085404520/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-5707608-5277706), or Philip K. Dick's DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345404475/qid=1085404633/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5707608-5277706?v=glance&s=books) (this was the basis for the film BLADE RUNNER, but is better, in my opinion).

Keep in mind, since you have a long time until you need the books, that all of these are available used for a FRACTION of the cost of buying new. I think you can get a used DUNE thru Amazon.Com for 0.98! :smile:

[Vorkosigan]

Well, _Cadillac Desert_, about water policy in the US west, is absolutely great.

_Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War_, is the best piece of nonfiction writing about the war. The last chapter on fear always makes me cry. _Japan at War_, Cook and Cook's oral history of the Japanese side, with many different voices talking, is also deeply moving.

Steven Shapin's _The Scientific Revolution_ is a serious and challenging academic work on the topic.

I dunno. What do you like??

[billy_pilgrim]

_Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War_, is the best piece of nonfiction writing about the war. The last chapter on fear always makes me cry.
Thanks for recommending this. I couldn't wait until my vacation to read it, so I am already about half-way through it. This book came as a revelation to me. I am skeptical of any attempt to say, "this is how it really was," but I think Fussell offers a much-needed antidote to much of the writing about the second World War. What I like about it is how Fussell reports on the details of history that we don't often hear about. For example, here is a quote from a page I just read:

One reason the services were so concerned about morale, a reason that would never appear in Time, Yank, or The Stars and Stripes, was the Allied desertion rate. At one point there were said to be around 12,000 armed deserters in Italy alone, 2000 of them British. Of the 19,000 or so acknowledged deserters from the American Army, only 9,000 had been found by 1948, while at the same time some 20,000 in flight from British chickenshit and onerous duty remained unapprehended. As Pete Grafton reveals in his book You, You, and You, the British, having fought longer, came nearer than Americans to exhaustion and despair. Grafton quotes a man from Glasgow: "If Churchill instead of his blood, sweat, and tears thing had said 'Any man or woman in the forces who would like to give it all up and go home, can'--he wouldnae have got the microphone out of his mouth before he'd been trampled to death by the rush."

[themuzicman]

Red Storm Rising or Patriot Games or Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy.

Michael

[billy_pilgrim]

Red Storm Rising or Patriot Games or Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy.

Michael
Thanks. I like war novels and war non-fiction. I read literary fiction, too, as evinced by my original post. Someone else suggested Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, so I have that one on my list of possibilities, as well as Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. Also Tuchman's The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam. All good recommendations. I am a Tolkien lover, but have read his three main works, The Hobbit, LOTR, and The Silmarillion. Is there anything else by Tolkien worth reading? The suggestion of reading some C. S. Lewis was a good one. Anyone else vote for Lewis?

[TuckEverlasting]

Steven Shapin's _The Scientific Revolution_ is a serious and challenging academic work on the topic.

:thumb: Read this one for school this year... will change the way you think about what 'science' is (if you like non-fiction, of course, which I do)

[Technomancer]

My own recommedations:

"The Sparrow" and "The Children of God" by Mary Doria Lewis. The books about the first Jesuit mission to another world and its aftermath. I highly recommend these books.

"A Telling of Stars" by Caitlin Sweet. A fantasy novel, but told in a very literary style. One girl's quest to avenge the murder of her family.

[WillowPeredhel]

Hi!

I loved Tolkien's 'Unfinished Tales', and especially the two stories (I think they are actually short stories) 'Farmer Giles of Ham' and 'The Smith of Wooton Major'. I haven't read 'Unfinished Tales' in about two years, but from what I remember it was essentially Silmarillion light. 'Farmer Giles of Ham' is a humorous story about a farmer who ends up chasing after a dragon, and 'The Smith of Wooton Major' is sort of a nostalgic fantasy story.

I've recently discovered and fallen in love with Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation' series. They tend to have thickly complicated plots that keep my brain cells working with a just fast enough pace to keep me reading fast. I'm on the third book right now (Second Foundation), and can't wait to get back to it.

Willow

[MysteryProf]

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco. I relished every moment of it.

[DarwinianJihadi]

Startide Rising by David Brin. It takes place in the 24th Century where Earth is a third world nation compared to a trans-galactic civilization that's two billion years old. An Earth research ship stubles upon the discovery of the eon and is set upon by dozens of the Galaxies' major clans who hope to capture that knowledge for themselves. It's a book where humans are the underdogs. It's part of a trilogy. The first one is Sundiver. Startide is the second. The Uplift War is the third. There is also a second trilogy, the Uplift Storm Trilogy.

If you want non-fiction, read The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand. If you want to find out modernity's effect on American thinking and the role of scientific thinking in modern America, then this is for you.

[Superbug]

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. It's fantasy in a medieval setting with fascinating and complex characters, action, and political intrigue. But it's not always happy story (bad things happen to good people) and it's extremely violent sometimes (as real wars are).