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MontyFortyEight wrote:

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I've noticed that when the topic of books comes up on this board, almost all of the recommendations are non-fiction. Certainly nothing wrong with that, and I've seen (and used) some excellent suggestions made here - just interesting that not many who post here seem to read novels.

The problem I have with recommending fiction vs non-fiction is a matter of style. I can always rely on the content to be of interest when making a recommendation, I am never so sure about literary style.

A list of short story collections I have read in the last several years gives an indication of what I mean. John Updike, E.L. Doctorow Sweet Land Stores, Mark Helprin The Pacific, Truman Capote, Annie Proulx. The style is all over the place, but I think each recommendable.

As for novels I have had success recommending Pete Dexter (Paris Trout, Train and God's Pocket), Mark Helprin (Winter's Tale and Refiner's Fire first, Freddy and Fredericka is a bit arch) and Ian McEwan, starting with Amsterdam and working back. I thought Atonement a poor effort. If you like McEwan then check out reviews for Barry Unsworth's better novels. Christopher Buckley's novels are always a hoot, I think Thank You for Smoking, Wry Martinis and Little Green Men the best of the bunch. I never understood why Eric Ambler's thrillers aren't as well known as Graham Greene's.

Back to the original subject - a highly subjective list of well- written books worth reading:

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Samuel Eliot Morison, The Admiral of the Ocean Sea - a life of Columbus

Rick Atkinson - so far two volumes on the U.S. army in the ETO; An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle

John Keegan; The Face of Battle and the Price of Admiralty

Paul Murray Kendall's medieval histories; Louis XI, Richard III and Warwick the Kingmaker

GG Marquez; The General in his Labrynth

Anything by A J Liebling - start with a recent collection Just Enough Liebling

CV Wedgwood's 3 volumes on the English civil wars; The King's Peace, A Coffin for King Charles and right now I can't think of the title she gave her third volume.

John Julius Norwich; A History of Venice

Garrett Mattingly; The Armada

Edmund Morris; The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt - great writing, less great history

The bizarre, roller coaster novellas / stories by Mark Leyner, I Smell Esther Williams, Tooth Marks on a Corn Dog, Et Tu Babe, My Cousin My Gastroenterologist, Tetherballs of Bougainville.

Chernow's two great biographies Titan and Alexander Hamilton

Simon Callow's (so far) two great volumes on Welles; The Road to Xanadu and Hello Americans. Great writing.

Ran out of time, need to add a few essayists, history of science types, poetry. Southfew should archive this so we can add titles as we go.