My sister just finished The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks and said it was as good as A Walk to Remember. I also want to read Eragon, a fantasy written by teen homeschooler, Christopher Paolini.
Tommy Frank's autobiography, American Soldier is excellent and there's so much in it, I wouldn't mind reading it again.
A while back I read the first book in Newt Gingrich's Civil War duo, Gettysburg and was pleasantly surprised by how captivating it was, still haven't read the second, though. Staying with the historical fiction theme, The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great by Steven Pressfield looks interesting.
I read Left Illusions by David Horowitz last year...it was pretty heavy, would love to read it again and be able to discuss it with others (actually, any of his books would be worthy of discussion...he's absolutely brilliant).
Tear Down This Wall: The Reagan Revolution (compiled by eds. of National Review) looks good. Also, just picked up at my favorite used book store, Patriots: The Men who Started the American Revolution by A.J. Langguth.
Regardless of what's ultimately chosen, I love to read and I think this group is a wonderful idea!
Don Quijote was a brilliant satire on the Quest Novel and its stereotyped hero. Stereotyped at that timer with such overblown things as Amadis De Gaula etc. But he really was on a quest, and that's what makes the book more than just a satire.
Quest novels are wonderful in that they always invovlve those who help us and those who hinder us, and the heroes' ability to distinguish.
Even the Wizard of Oz is a quest novel. There ar einfinite variations.
But thehero/heroine must set out from home -- either forced to or voluntarily --- there has to be a treasured goal, and an animal companion.
I used t wonder what the animal companion was in Old Man and the Sea but then realized it was the old man's memory of the lions on the beaches of Africa.