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Posts: 1522
December 18, 2008 1:22 PM
Morris Wanchuk
DeMayonnaise wrote: I'm reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini right now, and it's a really good book. Dunno if it qualifies as "everyone should read", but it's really good... about a boy growing up in Afghanistan to one of the wealthiest men in the city, and then how his life changes when the Russians invade, among other things, without giving away too much.
Interact
Posts: 7062
December 18, 2008 1:30 PM
bielemaniac wrote: DeMayonnaise wrote: I'm reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini right now, and it's a really good book. Dunno if it qualifies as "everyone should read", but it's really good... about a boy growing up in Afghanistan to one of the wealthiest men in the city, and then how his life changes when the Russians invade, among other things, without giving away too much. +1 on this. His follow up "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is equally good.
Posts: 456
December 18, 2008 1:32 PM
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December 18, 2008 1:33 PM
Pretending to be an important person again.
December 18, 2008 2:24 PM
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December 18, 2008 2:35 PM
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December 18, 2008 3:08 PM
The Geek From 16 Candles Whose Name I Don't Remember
Posts: 10000
December 18, 2008 3:11 PM
Loudmouth Bastard "Cold pizza is for assholes. If the delivery guy brought it cold, you'd kick him in the fucking nuts."
Posts: 1569
December 18, 2008 3:20 PM
Tim Krumrie's Agent
Posts: 16994
December 18, 2008 3:24 PM
Posts: 1735
December 18, 2008 3:37 PM
"Pastor of the Church of the Red Kool-Aid."
Azree33 wrote: PassTheDutchie wrote: The only fictional protagonist I've ever wanted to physically harm. Have you ever read Updike's "Rabbit" series? There's two - a worthless waste of (fictional) human skin. Hated him. Of course, I think that was the point.
PassTheDutchie wrote: The only fictional protagonist I've ever wanted to physically harm.
Posts: 5945
December 18, 2008 4:00 PM
Posts: 6446
December 18, 2008 4:06 PM
Ed Nuttycombe
I truely enjoy anything by Bill Bryson but "A walk in the woods" is great. It basically is the author and a buddy he hasn't seen in 20 years planing and then heading out to walk the appalachian trail. His trip sounds exactly like what would happen if I went on the same trip with my old college roommates. I very rarely laugh out loud in public and did many times reading that. I also just finished The Worst Hard Times. A very good book.
Posts: 3095
December 18, 2008 4:07 PM
Mu Puppy wrote: Azree33 wrote: PassTheDutchie wrote: The only fictional protagonist I've ever wanted to physically harm. Have you ever read Updike's "Rabbit" series? There's two - a worthless waste of (fictional) human skin. Hated him. Of course, I think that was the point. Thomas Covenant. What a slimeball.
December 18, 2008 4:16 PM
PrepKick1 wrote: I truely enjoy anything by Bill Bryson but "A walk in the woods" is great. It basically is the author and a buddy he hasn't seen in 20 years planing and then heading out to walk the appalachian trail. His trip sounds exactly like what would happen if I went on the same trip with my old college roommates. I very rarely laugh out loud in public and did many times reading that. I also just finished The Worst Hard Times. A very good book. So you're a reader, huh?
Posts: 7742
December 18, 2008 4:19 PM
Chef Ameche
MontyFortyEight wrote: 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.
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.
December 18, 2008 4:28 PM
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December 18, 2008 4:41 PM
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