Book Recommendations Thread

[Krazy Kat]

Roger's Profanisaurus

from the pages of
VIZ


The blurb reads:
A fully revised, expanded and bang up-to-date edition of the most foul-mouthest dictionary of swearing ever to shame the shelves of a bookshop.

[Shaun das Schaf]

The Sorrows of an American, by Siri Hustvedt.
And What I Loved, also be Siri.
Actually pretty much anything by Ms Hustvedt is okay by me.

Fun Home, by Alsion Bechdel.
(There's probably a 'Graphic Novel Recommendation' thread somewhere, but I'm still finding my way around, so it's going here!)

For those of a maths/science bent...
The French Mathematician, by Tom Petsinis.
(Speaking of Maths/Science, is there a favourite non-fiction books thread floating around somewhere?)

Orpheus Lost, by Janette Turner Hospital.

And for some reason, a weird little Australian book nobody's probably heard of.....
Helen Garner and the Meaning of Everything, by Alex Jones.

Plenty more, but that's it for now

[sgt.null]

The novel fictionalizes Albert Einstein as a young scientist who is troubled by dreams as he works on his theory of relativity in 1905. The book consists of 30 chapters, each exploring one dream about time that Einstein had during this period. The framework of the book consists of a prelude, three interludes, and an epilogue. Einstein's friend, Michele Besso, appears in these sections. Each dream involves a conception of time. Some scenarios may involve exaggerations of true phenomena related to relativity, and some may be entirely fantastical. The book demonstrates the relationship each human being has to time, and thus spiritually affirms Einstein's theory of relativity. - from wiki

my all time favorite novel.i have enjoyed all of Lightman's books. (some pure science and a handful of novels) read it if you haven't and thank me later.

[Shaun das Schaf]

Thanks Sgt, I haven't read it and it sounds like it's right down my alley. Most of my non-fiction reading is science/pysch etc.

Along the lines of fictionalized accounts of historical/scientific figures, I really enjoyed When Nietzsche Wept, by Irvin Yalom.*
Set shortly before the birth of psychoanalysis, it tells the story of an imagined relationship between Joseph Brewer and Friedrich Nietzsche. A young Siggy Freud is in there too.

*I would have attached the book cover but I'm struggling with making the tags work. Anyone want to interrupt their busy schedule and talk the new sheep through the image attachment process?

[lucimay]

i'll have to check that out sarge, looks right up my alley!

and

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

And I can not overemphasize: RICHARD MATHESON Some that should be required reading:

I Am Legend: Forget Twilight, this is the real deal among vampire novels. It also spawned the entire flesh-eating zombie genre by inspiring Night of the Living Dead!

What Dreams May Come: The movie completely destroys Matheson's well-thought out, intriguing vision of the afterlife, don't settle for the imitation, go for the real thing!

i totally concur on these suggestions!!

i'll go one further and say that John Irving will probably always be one of my favorite writers for The World According to Garp, Hotel New Hampshire, Cider House Rules, and A Prayer for Owen Meany.
and i think i'm going to read his newest, Last Night in Twisted River, although i haven't read any Irving since A Prayer for Owen Meany. the ending of that book touched me so deeply that i just did not want to read any more Irving for fear it would not live up to that reading moment for me.
that was many years ago now. the new Irving looks good to me and i think i'm ready to read more.

What Dreams May Come is also one of my all time favorite books. not so much for the writing (tho it's very good) but more for how much it helped me to view death in a way i hadn't before. i have given that book to many friends who have lost loved ones. it's one of those kind of books.

[Avatar]

*I would have attached the book cover but I'm struggling with making the tags work. Anyone want to interrupt their busy schedule and talk the new sheep through the image attachment process?

Can't attach images I'm afraid. Image has to be hosted somewhere else and called with the [img] tags like so:

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.imageURL.whatever[/img]

Where the URL is the URL of wherever the image is on the web.

To see it in action, quote sarge's post and you'll see the code.

Helpful?

--A

[Shaun das Schaf]

Thank-you Master Av. I thought I tried that but obviously screwed something up somewhere. I am now unscrewed.
Baaaaaaaa......

[Avatar]

No worries.

--A

[Krazy Kat]

Peace and War

Joe Haldeman

OMNIBUS EDITION

Forever War
Forever Free
Forever Peace

If you like Heinlein's, Starship Troopers. This book has lots of moments of mindblowin realism. And may be of some interest to readers of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles, as Forever Peace has a One Tree (in this case, a collective mind!!!)

[Avatar]

Never seen that one, but have enjoyed a few of his other books.

Tool of the Trade springs immediately to mind.

--A

[Krazy Kat]

Hi Av

The Peace and War edition was the first J.Haldeman books for me. I'd looked at it in the local library but put it back on the shelf. Then after reading Heinlein's Farnham's Freeholding, I give it a second look.

I'm glad I read it without knowing it was a Hugo and Nebula winner. It was good to discover it without the "blue riband" background noise.

Actually, I haven't read Forever Peace yet. It isn't actually part of the sequence of the other two. It was added so as to tie up some loose ends, I think.
I read a few pages but then felt I needed a cooling-off period first.

One other thing, I meant to include in the previous post, was the dates of all three books:

Forever War (1974)

Forever Free (1999)

Forever Peace (1997)

...which has me flummoxed!
But will enjoy reading the third one over the Christmas holidays.

[Avatar]

OH, I've read the Forever War I think...sorta novella length? Think it was in an anthology of sci-fi, and I struggled with it.

--A

[Horrim Carabal]

The Fellowship of the Ring was my introduction into fantasy. I was about 11.

Lord Foul's Bane changed the way I looked at fantasy forever. Between reading LotR and LFB there were about two years, during which I read Dragonlance and some awful D&D books. Also read The Summer Tree by Kay. But LFB was a game-changer. I was 13.

Sailing to Sarantium was the next (and so far, last) game-changer for me. I was 35.

I would encourage everyone who hasn't read Guy Gavriel Kay's two-book duology to do so. I'm not big on trying to explain how something affected me, but like I said Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors changed how I saw fantasy again, something that Erikson, Martin, etc etc couldn't do, no matter how much I liked their worlds or stories (and I do like them a lot).

After reading the Sarantine Mosaic, however, I was just... "Wow" for a few days.

[peter]

Must get round to this thread - no time now but sooon.......soooon!

Starting to realise that I might never actually have the time to do this in the way it deserves to be done and that my mind may be too mercurial to fix on any particular books to recomend. (Thinks "What do they want. To be challenged, entertained, shocked, educated or all of these.")

[deer of the dawn]

These are stand-out books, ones that got me excited about reading. (I'm not going to re-list obvious jewels like The Lord of the Rings, etc.)

The Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by Sigrid Undset. Historical fiction for Fantasy lovers... takes placed in Norway of the 15th century. Characters and descriptions are lush, a literary tapestry.

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. Unique in that the same story is told by three different people, each of whom thinks they really know what happened. Mind-blowing.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Nonfiction, a unique and important overview of the history of civilization.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. A guilty pleasure because she invites us into the bedroom a little more often than I'm comfortable with, but since characterization is key for me, I fell in love with these books. I was even angry with the author after the initial book (Outlander), saying "How could she do that to them (the main characters)?" That's how engaging the series is.

Horrim, based on your recommendation I downloaded the Sarantine Mosaic. Really enjoying it so far, thanks!!!

[Horrim Carabal]

Horrim, based on your recommendation I downloaded the Sarantine Mosaic. Really enjoying it so far, thanks!!!

You're very welcome. I'd be interested in discussing your thoughts on it when you finish!

[lucimay]

i'm glad this thread got bumped cause i have a few books i'd like to recommend to anyone.

i've always enjoyed memoir and here's a few that i thought were great reads by extremely interesting people:


The Liar's Club - Mary Karr

Published in 1995 and a New York Times bestseller for over a year it tells the story of Mary Karr's childhood in the 1960s in a small industrial town in Southeast Texas. The title refers to her father and his friends who would gather to drink and tell stories when not working at the oil refinery or the chemical plant.

this book turned me on to mary karr, she's an extraordinary woman and writer and one of her books of poetry, Viper Rum, is absolutely brilliant
and my favorite book of poetry (next to ann sexton, of course)


My Dark Places - James Ellroy

part investigative journalism and part memoir, Ellroy's mother Geneva was murdered in 1958, when he was 10 years old, and the killer was never identified. The book is Ellroy's account of his attempt to solve the mystery by hiring a retired Los Angeles County homicide detective to investigate the crime. Ellroy also explores how being directly affected by a crime shaped his life - often for the worse - and led him to write crime novels.

warning: when ellroy says "dark places" he MEANS it. this book is NOT for the faint of heart

i was already a fan of ellroy's writing when this book came out and had read all his books, but none of it prepared me for the startling honesty that ellroy
displays in the pages of this book. once again, not for the faint of heart.


Wild - Cheryl Strayed


the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she'd lost everything when her mother died young of cancer. Her family scattered in their grief, her marriage was soon destroyed, and slowly her life spun out of control. Four years after her mother's death, with nothing more to lose, Strayed made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone.

i read this one last week and enjoyed it very much, it's not fraught with adventure but strayed is an engaging writer (also check out her "dear sugar" column on therumpus.net/) and it was extremely interesting
and insightful regarding her grief over her mother's death.
i admire her extraordinary moxie in walking 1100 miles to deal with that grief.


Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson

it's difficult to find a brief and concise summary of this book online right now as it's fairly new so everything online is review and gives way too much synopsis. i'll just say that if you've never read any jeanette winterson this is a marvelous place to start. it will definitely make you want to read more.
for those of you familiar with the name, jeanette is the author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit which is also semi-autobiographical as it is both memoir and fiction, published in 1985 when winterson was only 25 and won her the Whitbread Award for First Novel.

jeanette is was an adopted child and wrote Why Be Happy... while searching for her birth mother.

she's an intensely brilliant woman and also exceedingly funny.

[Obi-Wan Nihilo]

Welcome back, and some very interesting reviews. You hooked me on the first three books for sure...

[Vader]

Lewis Grizzard - Shoot Low, Boys - They're Ridin' Shetland Ponies (In Search of True Grit)

"Imagine Andy Rooney with a Georgia accent." The Houston Post



John Wayne had it. True Grit, that is. Bestselling humorist and philosopher Lewis Grizzard looked for other Americans with true grit. What he found will make you laugh and perhaps even wipe away a tear. True Grit. The people in this book have it. And so does Lewis Grizzard,

www.goodreads.com/book/show/147432.Shoo ... and_Ponies

[sgt.null]