Posted on 07/10/2021 8:35:53 AM PDT by Don@VB
Sometimes it's hard to find interesting reading. Any recommendations you care to share? I have a suggested book about the air campaign during World War II: more below...
(Excerpt) Read more at amazon.com ...
Re reading John MacDonald’s Florida books
And Laurence Sanders NY books
Stoner is one that was worth every minute
Miss Read gives a great perspecive on Post War England, and in it you can see the seeds of the rot that permeates it now.
We ordered today American Marxism!
Always happy to recommend Glen Cooker Annals of the Black Company. Fine, fine, supervise fantasy!
Everything by Makos is good.
Just finished “Facing the Mountain” by Daniel James Brown. About the Japanese American internment the formation and history of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. An interesting read.
I’ve listened to Several of Robert Sapolsky’s lectures on YouTube. He’s impressive, one of the most knowledgeable speakers on the brain, civilization, language, and psychiatry I’ve ever heard, comparable to Jordan Peterson. His ability to put together facts from different domains is remarkable.
I’ve listened to Several of Robert Sapolsky’s lectures on YouTube. He’s impressive, one of the most knowledgeable speakers on the brain, civilization, language, and psychiatry I’ve ever heard, comparable to Jordan Peterson. His ability to put together facts from different domains is remarkable.
These are some of the books I’ve enjoyed the most and recommend to others:
1. Truman Capote. Great southern writer, though not normally thought of as such. Best writing is “In
Cold Blood” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. Both are easy and compelling reads. “In Cold Blood” is
one of the finest novels ever written and essentially defined the genre of non-fiction written as if it
was fictional.
2. “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov. One of the top 10 novels ever written in the English language. Easy
and completely compelling read.
3. “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas. Perhaps the greatest novel ever written. Can be
a bit tough to get into because so many characters (with hard to pronounce French names) get
introduced so quickly. Worth reading more than once. The only edition that should be read is the
modern, unabridged Penguin Classics edition that was just released a few years ago. The abridged
versions chop out some important matters that are clear only when you read the Penguin edition.
4. Everything written by John Steinbeck. All are easy reads. Great writer and one the greatest
American story tellers ever.
5. Everything by Sinclair Lewis, another great American author. Some books are better than others.
“Elmer Gantry”, “Babbitt”, “Main Street”, and “Arrowsmith” are among the best. Great story teller,
fabulous American writer.
6. Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”. Starts great, but grows tedious.
7. “Catch 22”, the WWII novel by Joseph Heller. Nothing else by Heller is worth a crap in my opinion.
8. Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Some Times a Great Notion”. Cuckoo is the
better of the two.
9. Jack Keroack’s “On the Road”. Fine story based on real events.
10. Tom Wolfe’s “Electric Koolaid-Acid Test” (non-fiction) and “The Bonfire of the Vanities” (fiction).
I think the rest of his fiction is utter crap, particularly his later stuff like “I Am Charlotte Simmons”
which is truly atrocious garbage.
11. Jack London. Everything he wrote. “The Complete Jack London” is a great collection. JL was
WAY ahead of his time, both scientifically and culturally. An all-time American great.
12. I love the police-story fiction (and non-fiction) by Joseph Wambaugh. Good writer and great story-
teller. Fun, light-weight reads. Dark comedy.
13. John Grisham can be a good writer and good story-teller. One of his best books is “A Painted
House”, which is about a young boy growing up in the Arakansas low cotton lands in the late 50’s
and has nothing to do with lawyers or legal thrillers. This is a compelling book that is hard to put
down. Best lawyer books are “A time to Kill” & “Sycamore Row”. Most of the others are pretty
lame; the latest ones are just pure, pathetic propaganda: very badly written with zero research and
essentially unreadable.
14. Leon Uris. Everything he wrote. Great American writer and great story-teller. Historical fiction.
Some of the best ever written.
15. Everything written by Pat Conroy. Great modern southern writer. Easy to read. Everything is thinly
disguised autobiography. He finally comes clean in an actual autobiography titled “My Losing
Season”, which is every bit as wonderful as his novels.
16. Stephen King’s earlier works are all great. Great writer and great story teller. The last twenty years
have been total dreck, utter crap churned out on a word processor by a WAY burned out author who
I suppose simply needs the money.
17. Some of Ken Follet’s fiction: The Kingsbridge Triology: “Pillars of the Earth”, “Worlds Without
End” and “ Column of Fire”, which are essentially historical novels, and very different from his
usual formulaic spy novels. Awesome books that are difficult to put down.
18. Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M. Auel. Historical novels about a pre-historic, outcast female
who invents fire-making, the domestication of dogs, horses, and cats, among her many other
discoveries and inventions. Scientifically accurate. Incredible writing and compelling story-telling.
Closest thing to a superwoman ever written about. First five books in the series; must be read in
order. The sixth book, arriving decades later, is an utter piece of trash; total leftist claptrap; don’t
bother reading – it will just piss you off.
19. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. The only thing she ever wrote. Highly likely (in my
opinion) to have been co-authored by Truman Capote, her childhood neighbor when they lived next
door to each other in Dipshit, Alabama in the early 1930s. (OK, it was actually Monroeville,
Alabama.)
20. John Nichols’ New Mexico Trilogy.
21. “Peyton Place” by Grace Metalious. “Return to Peyton Place” is not quite as good.
22. The original “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson. Also, “Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped” by Stevenson.
23. Almost everything ever written by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).
24. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
25. “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd. This is a must-read for anyone who grew up in the
1960’s in the South, particularly South Carolina. Unfortunately, her subsequent books are complete
crap. Looks like she had only one book in her.
26. “Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver. Many of her early books and short stories are good too,
though latter work is pretty much just unadulterated leftist propaganda.
27. “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden.
28. “Dune” series by Frank Herbert. Really great if you like science fiction. The first is the best. Must be
read in order. Some of the best science fiction ever written.
29. “The Sand Pebbles” by Richard McKenna. One of the all-time great stories.
30. Everything by Elmore Leonard. Easy, fun, hilarious, dark crime comedies and truly great westerns.
One of the finest American story tellers ever.
31. Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. Should be read in order. Very, very funny, whacky crime
comedy series set in contemporary New Jersey.
32. Kinsey Millhone “alphabet” series by Sue Grafton about a female PI in California.
33. Everything written by Michael Crichton. All are easy and fun reads. Great story teller. Great science
fiction.
34. Dan Simmons original “Hyperion” series, assuming you have a taste for science fiction. His science
fiction work right after that wasn’t good, but then Dan switched to other genres and has written some
really great stories. “The Crook Factory” is an absolute must-read book, and after you read it and
then read the author’s afterwards, your mind is going to be blown! I also recommend his latest book,
“Flashback”, but was a bit disappointed because I thought it could have been a MUCH better story
with deeper development of some of the important themes. “The Terror” and others are worthwhile
as well. Most of his later books have been truly atrocious, though.
35. Issac Asimov “Foundation” series and “Robot” series. Really excellent science fiction. Good story
telling. Easy to read. Classics.
36. Most everything written By James Clavell, e.g., “King Rat”, “Shogun”, etc.
37. “The Thin Red Line” by James Jones. WWII novel.
38. “Run Silent, Run Deep” by Edward L. Beach. WWII novel.
39. Most of Hunter S. Thompson’s books.
40. Lewis Grizzard’s humor books – compendiums of his newspaper columns. Southern humorist. He is
REALLY funny.
41. “Forrest Gump” and “Gump & Co” by Winston Groom.
42. Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker to the Galaxy series.
43. Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon series.
44. “Charlie Wilson’s War” by George Crile. One of the most amazing stories every told. 100% true.
(non-fiction)
45. “Somebody’s Gotta Say It” (non-fiction) by Neal Boortz.
46. Gore Vidal’s “Burr” and “Lincoln”.
47. Irving Stone’s “The Agony and the Ecstasy”.
48. “The Complete Edgar Allen Poe” has some fine stories.
49. Most everything written by Joseph Conrad. One of the collections such as “Tales of Land and Sea”
is a good way to read Conrad.
50. Most everything written by Herman Melville, obviously including “Moby Dick” and “Billy Budd”.
51. Many of Arthur Miller’s plays, such as “Death of a Salesman”, “All My Sons”, and “The Crucible”.
52. George Orwell: “1984” and “Animal Farm: a fairy story”. (These are must-reads for conservatives.)
Many of his other books are worth reading as well, such as “Down and Out in Paris and London”.
53. Alexander Scholzehitzen: “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, “August 1914”, “Cancer
Ward”, and “First Circle”. All are remarkable and compelling.
54. Ayn Rand: “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged”. These are must-reads for conservatives, even
though “Atlas Shrugged” is deeply flawed as a novel, with stupid, steamy, juvenile sex scenes that
are best to just skip, as well as many multi-page repetitive diatribes that, likewise, are best to skip.
55. Margaret Mitchell: “Gone With the Wind”.
56. J. K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter series.
57. Charles Dickens: “A Christmas Carol”, “A Tale of Two Cities”, “David Copperfield”, and “Oliver
Twist. I never could get into “Bleak House” or the “Pickwick Papers”.
58. H. G. Wells: most everything, but especially “The Time Machine”, “War of the Worlds”, “The
Invisible Man”, and “The Island of Dr. Moreau”.
59. H. P. Lovecraft: maybe the best 20th century horror writer. There are several published collections of
his short stories.
60. ”BRAVE NEW WORLD” by Aldous Huxley
61. ”THE NAKED AND THE DEAD” by Norman Mailer. One of the all time great WWII novels. I
don’t like his other work, though.
62. ”TOBACCO ROAD” and “GOD’s LITTLE ACRE” by Erskine Caldwell.
63. ”STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND” and “STARSHIP TROOPERS” by Robert Heinlein, as well
as several others.
64. Mickey Spillane: “ONE LONELY NIGHT” and ”THE BIG KILL”.
65. ”ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE” by Robert Pirsi.
66. Tom Robbins: “ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION” and “EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE
BLUES”.
67. Clive Barker’s horror novels.
68. Raymond Chandler: ”THE BIG SLEEP” and “FAREWELL, MY LOVELY” and others.
69. ”DELIVERANCE” by James Dickey
70. ”DOG SOLDIERS” by Robert Stone
71. I don’t particularly recommend William Faulkner. Reading should in some part be fun and
enjoyable. Reading Faulkner is hard work, akin to digging ditches by hand with a short-handled
shovel. Sure, when you get done, you’ve dug a ditch the hard way, but you’re completely exhausted,
and what’s the big deal about a hand-dug ditch anyway? However, ”THE REIVERS” is actually
mostly enjoyable and not too difficult to read. And as it turns out, Faulkner’s earlier short stories are
a true joy to read.
72. “THE DAY OF THE JACKAL” by Frederick Forsyth, who is sometimes labeled as the “British
Tom Clancey”. Actually, I like most of Forsyth’s other books too.
73. “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” by John Berendt.
74. “American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis. Very, very interesting book. Great movie too.
75. ”Lonesome Dove” and others by Larry McMurty. McMurty has written dozens of novels, almost all
of which are enjoyable to read.
76. “Trainspotting” by Irvine Welsh.
77. “The Virgin Suicides” by Jeffrey Eugenides.
78. I’m not a big fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemmingway, which is why I’ve not listed
anything here for them.
79. “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” by D.H. Lawrence.
80. John Brunner – “Stand on Zanzibar”.
81. Philip K. Dick – “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, “We Can Remember It for You
Wholesale”, “A Scanner Darkly”, “Minority Report”, “Second Variety”, all of which were made
into movies, and many other PKD stories as well. PDK is a unique story teller in the pantheon of
American authors.
82. Everything by Carl Hiaasen, except his last book, “Sick Puppy”, which wasn’t very good. Helps to
read in order. Funny, whacky, low-rent crime characters in dark crime scenarios in Florida.
83. Everything by Tim Dorsey. Should be read in order. Funny, whacky, dark crime comedies in
Florida.
84. Everything by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. A truly great Southern author. Easy to read. Classic in the
sense of being timeless. Powerful and evocative. “The Yearling”, “Cross Creek”, and “South Moon
Under” are among the best of all her great works. Marjorie is one of the all-time great American
authors.
85. “Rocket Boys”, “The Coalwood Way”, and “Sky of Stone” by Homer Hickam, Jr. Truly amazing
autobiographical books about an amazing life and an amazing place. Brilliantly written. These are
must-read books.
86. Most everything written by Michael Lewis, whom I consider the top American non-fiction writer
right now. Great books include “Blind Side”, “Moneyball”, “The Big Short”, and “Flash Boys”.
Michael’s non-fiction stories unfold as if they were fiction and the outcome is unknown.
87. Jules Verne. Everything he wrote. Brilliant science fiction writer: most of his science “fiction” has
actually come true!
88. Robert Louis Stevenson: “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, “Treasure Island”, etc.
89. Michael Ruhlman: “Walk On Water: Inside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unit”, “The Making of a
Chef”, and “The Soul of a Chef”. Non-fiction, but totally compelling stories. Ruhlman is in the same
category as Michael Lewis: writers who write non-ficion stories that unfold as if they were fiction.
90. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Most books and short stories. Especially “Welcome to the Monkey House”, and
even more especially “Harrison Bergeron”, which is a must-read for anti-leftists.
91. Anthony Bourdain: “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly” and “The Nasty
Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones”.
92. Jean Shepherd: “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash”. This is the book that the movie “A
Christmas Story” is based on, and which Shepherd himself narrates.
93. Especially if you like cats: “The Cat Who Came for Christmas” by Cleveland Amory, as well as the
other Amory cat books.
94. “Dirty Dozen” by E. M. Nathanson.
95. “Caine Mutiny” by Herman Wouk.
96. “A Streetcar Named Desire”, “The Glass Menagerie”, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and others by
Tennessee Williams.
97. Ray Bradbury: “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, “Fahrenheit 451” and many, many others.
98. “Schindler’s List” by Thomas Keneally.
99. “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker.
100. “And Then There Were None” and others by Agatha Christie.
101. “The Secret Garden” and “A Little Princess” by Frances Burnett.
102. “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
103. “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger.
104. “All Creatures Great and Small” series by James Herriot. Impossible to put these down.
105. “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes.
106. Ian Fleming’s “Bond” series.
107. “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” by Victor Hugo.
108. “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” by Homer. Reads like an actual account events; most likely “The
Iliad” was an account of a real war.
109. “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by Frank Baum.
110. The “Ripley” series by Patricia Highsmith. Read these in order. Also, they are difficult to put
down, and you can’t believe there are no more to read when you finish the series.
111. “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli.
112. “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu.
113. Mario Puzo: “Godfather” series and others.
114. “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll.
115. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl
116. “Robinson Crusoe” - Daniel Defoe.
117. “The Swiss Family Robinson” by Johann Wyss.
118. “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding.
119. “Mutiny on the Bounty” by Charles Nordhoff and James Hall.
120. The “Dexter” novels by Jeff Lindsay.
121. The “Sookie Stackhouse” novels by Charlaine Harris are totally addictive!
122. Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer are fun if you skip the reams of teen angst that badly clog
them up.
123. “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank.
124. “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream” and
others by Hunter S. Thompson.
125. “Heidi” by Johanna Spyri (though I have to say I’m still insanely prejudiced against the movie as
I still remember when NBC cut away from the Jets/Raiders cliffhanger on November 17, 1968 with
65 seconds left in order to show the fucking “Heidi” movie instead!)
126. Willa Cather’s “O Pioneer” and “My Ántonia”. Amazing writing and story-telling; you feel like
you’re being caressed by her language. There’s no one else comparable to Willa Cather.
127. “Drugstore Cowboy” by James Fogle. (Great movie too.)
128. “Midnight Cowboy” by James Leo Herlihy.
129. “Kim” by Rudyard Kipling. Remarkably modern spy/thriller set in late 1880’s in India. I swear
that this book seems to be the prototype for all modern spy/thriller books.
130. “Silas Marner” by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans Cross). In my opinion, this is a “must read”
story.
131. “Anne of Green Gables” by L. M. Montgomery. Truly heartwarming story.
132. “Little Women” by Louis May Alcott. What struck me about this book was how modern the
vocabulary, language, behaviors, situations and attitudes were. It was hard to believe that this story
was written in 1868.
133. “Tess of the D`Urbervilles” by Thomas Hardy. Powerful book. Hardy was an amazingly
insightful person. Also, “The Mayor of Casterbridge” and “Far From the Madding Crowd” are must-
reads in my opinion.
134. The spy/thriller novels by Brad Thor are really fun reads if you like that sort of thing.
135. Even though he was a megalomaniac sociopath, L. Ron Hubbard actually wrote several good
books, including “Final Blackout”.
136. C.J. Box’s “Joe Pickett” series about a Wyoming game warden and his family; each book
explores a different part of Wyoming as Joe pursues various kinds of criminals and crimes
indigenous to Wyoming, while his wife and family of daughters grow one year older. The books are
full of shooting, hunting, fishing, horse packing, and falconing as the backdrop to the pursuit of
various ne’er-do-wells. Compelling story telling and impossible to put down. Quite addicting as a
series, and especially appealing to those who love the outdoors, nature, horses, dogs, hunting,
fishing and falconing.
137. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series about a retired Army MP Major who elects to become a drifter
and runs into various bad guys in various small towns in various states, and who enviably becomes
embroiled with the local thugs and criminal kingpins. Super storytelling, hard to put down, and
addicting as a series.
138. Donald Ray Pollock’s fiction: “Knockemstiff”, “The Devil All the Time”, “The Heavenly Table”.
Dark, grim semi-fictional depictions of impoverished folks in southerner Ohio, northern West
Virginia, mostly in the 1960’s and 1970’s ... brilliant writing and powerful story telling, but very
disturbing ...
The three top things you come away with in this book:
1. Lot of people were fearful of Communist take-over, so there is an extra public gut feeling that Hitler’s crew were more acceptable than communists.
2. Lot of ill feelings still left over from the ending of WW I, with blame constantly coming up.
3. Hitler’s crew did not have use of radio, because of the laws put into effect in the mid-1920s. However, just as soon as they were voted into office...that gave them the right to have speeches or events on radio. From that point on, they had all the control they needed.
I should note....throughout this book and most all history I have gleaned....there was never a suggestion of a corrupt count from the election. There might have been peer pressure at the polling station, but zero evidence of fake ballots.
I’d check out The Cirrus Effect by KD (Kimball Davis) Michaels. Like Big Bang Theory meets Atlas Shrugged. Conspiracies & govt interference rule.
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