Good books
I'm going to be taking my own trip to South Africa in a few days. Lots of time sitting in airplanes required.
So....anybody read any good books lately they'd recommend to soak up all the air time? I just started the latest Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) book, Lethal White. It's good and it's long but I can tell I'm going to blitz through the last third or so of the book.
FYI. I'm a fan of fiction and non-fiction books.
Thanks, MGoBoard.
If you're the "popular biography of the moment" type, Grant by Chernow is (as would be expected) very good. Nice and thick, too.
Dune books 1-6. The best science fiction ever written.
agreed. Dune is a masterpiece and my degree from Michigan is in english literature.
Dune, favorite scifi series, books much better than any of the movies. Battlefield Earth is a great read by R.L Hubbard (the movie was just awful). Ron was a good scifi writer before he got caught up in scientology.
I've been reading an H.P. Lovecraft compendium. He wrote some pretty crazy stuff almost 100 years ago that is the inspiration for a lot of current horror and pop culture. Very unique writing style and some really twisted stories.
Also he's pretty racist, so be forewarned. His stories are good but I always throw this caveat in.
Is that caveat really needed, though? He lived 100 years ago. Who wasn't racist back then?
While this is definitely true, there are always degrees. Lovecraft’s exceptional imagination is unfortunately balanced by the degree to which his (virulent) racist and sexist beliefs enter his stories. Look no further than the furor over his bust-as-award and how that played out.
If you like these sorts of stories but could do without the white male supremacy, a quick trip through the Stoker awards for the last few years might serve you well.
Blind Man's Bluff. Frickin AWESOME!
https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Mans-Bluff-Submarine-Espionage/dp/1610393589
Yep... It's true, every bit of it. I lived that life in the mid 80's, at the tail end of the Cold War. I did a fair amount of what is described in that book - it does not exaggerate.
War and Peace
... if you want a single book to keep you occupied for the next year. It’s a good story but not worth the time commitment.
Three and Out - Bacon... his take on the "naughty years"
Timeline - Crighton, one of my favs
Dr. Zhivago - Pasternak, for the Russian connection
The Martian - Weir, much better book than the movie
Otherlands - Tad Williams, older futuristic books so it's a little strange to read since we're already getting into VR these days.
Am I the only one that thinks The Martian movie completely sucked ass?
Yes.
Anything by Chuck Tingle.
Horror fiction by Clark Ashton Smith or HP Lovecraft.
The Expanse series. SCI-Fi. Currently an Amazon series.
Off the top of my head...
There There by Tommy Orange. A great novel about modern Native American Life in northern California.
The Hellfire Club By Jake Tapper. Political intrigue/thriller by the renowned CNN anchor. It's a decent page turner.
Manhattan Beach - Jennifer Egan. She is a stellar writer and this story about a female diver during WWII, a mafioso, and the strange way their lives cross is pretty great.
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. If you haven't read this, you must.
Lush Life by Richard Price. Great crime/detective novel by the dude who brought you the Wire.
While not necessarily new, the Thomas Covenant chronicles by Stephen R. Donaldson are some of my all-time favorites. In the vein of Lord of the Rings, but written in a less grandfatherly tone.
Assuming the main character’s behavior doesn’t disgust you past the suspension of disbelief. I definitely enjoy his writing, but this series won’t be for everyone.
Science Fiction - The Three Body Problem (followed by The Dark Forest and Death's End)
Anything by Frederick Backman (A Man Called Ove, Beartown, Us Against You -- great author)
If I Never Get Back
Great baseball fiction (mixed with some non-fiction)
Bo’s Lasting Lessons! It’s a whole ton of advice about leadership straight from Bo Schembechler himself, lots of funny stories, and most importantly talks a lot about Michigan football from Bo’s days. I always recommend it.
Other non-UM books I love:
- Catch-22. Really funny book where the characters get into increasingly absurd situations as they try to deal with WWII in their own ways.
- Slaughterhouse 5
- Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
- And Then There Were None
Read a book about climate change and contemplate the irony of doing so on a jumbo jet.
plenty of great stuff out there, obviously.
if youre looking for easy, entertaining reads rather than something more instructive, reflective, etc, i recommend pretty much anything by mark bowden or michael lewis - 2 favorites are doctor dealer and liars poker.
i read fearless by eric blehm fairly recently and thought it was great
Nothing to Envy.
A LA time journalist gets unparreled accesss with several people that have defected North Korea. Each characters story is excruciatingly interesting. Great read
The entire “Repairman Jack” series by F. Paul Wilson. Be sure to start with the three book prequel series when Jack is still in high school.
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Strategies and points of view, from the North and South, during the battle of Gettysburg.
14 by Peter Clines
I read All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren in grad school at UM and it's still one of my favorites. It takes place in a state that is Not Louisiana during the 1930s and has a character who is Not Huey Long, but it's not really a book about politics per se. It's a great read, lots to chew on, and some really excellent prose.
If you're into nonfiction/analysis, White Trash by Nancy Isenberg is a good one.
I'd also like to second the nominations of American Gods and Catch-22 that others brought up, they're fantastic books.
More Than Just a Game - about soccer league created by political prisoners at Robben Island
Fascinating and pertinent to your destination.
I really liked White Fragility, The Color of Law, Make it Stick and Whistling Vivaldi. My favorite science nonfiction books were Venomous and Caesar's Last Breath. Another unique read was Madame President which is about Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia who was the first female president of an African country and it was a hell of a story.
Any of John U Bacon's books. Absofreakinlutely.
You're going to SA. How has nobody mentioned Trevor Noahs "Born A Crime". It is historical, funny as hell and eye opening.
Anything and everything by Dan Simmons or Brandon Sanderson.
If you like sprawling, gritty fantasy. Malazan Book of the Fallen is 16 books of awesome (10 by one author, 6 by another, look up somewhere online the best order to read them in or go by publication date) and the series is finished.
I read the first 8 Malazan books all in a row, then got stuck on Dust of Dreams, which is far and away the worst entry in the series. Planning to start it up again so I can make it to The Crippled God, which I hear is excellent.
Glen Cook’s Black Company novels are great too (he’s Erikson’s favorite author as it happens).
The Lord of The Rings. Just finished my second session through Middle Earth..now on to the Silmarillion. Reading these books will harvest peace.
Excellent choice along with The Hobbit.
The Count of Monte Cristo is my all time favorite.
Dracula is excellent.
East of Eden is a good one as well.
Do you read the popular abridged Count of Monte Cristo or the original 1,500 page monstrosity that began as a serial novel in newspapers? I loved the abridged but couldn’t get through the continuous drawn-out cliffhangers of the original on first attempt.
Both. I read the abridged first and then the unabridged several years later...twice.
Agreed on the Count of Monte Cristo! Favorite book of all time!
Pairs nicely with Les Miserables, for the revenge-redemption combo, though Les Mis takes a little while to get into.
The Bible.
Favorite book! I need to read that one again. The One Year is my favorite version because I love to get all the different types of literature in it at the same time.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Harari...very intriguing.
Station 11 by Emily St John Mandel
There's an edited anthology series, "Best American Short Stories 2019" that is always good. A different writer edits the anthology every year. There's also "Best American Sports Writing" and "Best American Essays." If you have a short attention span, this is a great way to go. Look for the short stories series edited by David Foster Wallace. I recall a phenomenal story about a fire, but can't remember the author.
Any of the CJ Box Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett novels. The writing clarity, character and plot development along with the description of the wilds of Wyoming and its people are very well done.