Posted on 05/29/2006 7:13:54 PM PDT by thefactor
Hello FReepers. I am done with my grad school classes for the summer so I have some time to get back to reading for enjoyment.
Just looking for some suggestions. I am a 30 year old male btw, so no romance novels. Are you reading anything interesting? Let me know. Fiction, nonfiction, whatever. I love Tom Clancy but am looking to diversify.
Thanks for you help!
tf...
i seem to remember some talk that JDR was a massive anti-semite. does the book address any of that?
Tough luck, bud. You're a grad and used to difficult assignments.
That's the assignment - Read the Bible.
If you want some good summer reading for relaxation, try anything by Fredrick Forsythe. Daniel Silva is also good reading. For junk try Vince Flynn or Lee Child.
There's also All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder by Frank Miller.
Non-Fiction
Political Humor: Peace Kills by PJ O'Rourke
Social Commentary: Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today by Lynne Truss
Political history: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell (His wife was a Saint)
For Americans Only by Samuel Pettengill and Paul Bartholomew (out of print but you can find a used copy. You think you knew what was going on during WWII politically? Believe me, you have no idea.)
Theology/Social Commentary: The Religion of a Gentleman by Charles Dole (out of print)
Fiction
The Last Legion by Valerio Manfredi (historical fiction set in Romanized 5th century Britain)
The Last of the Breed by Louis L'Amore. (cold war novel about a American Pilot)
The Ender's Shadow Series by Orson Scott Card (Sci-Fi)
A Kiss Gone Bad by Jeff Abbott (Not a Romance, honest!)
Ender's game is in my all-time top 3. Never read anything else by Card so it wouldn't spoil my experience.
I found it much more accessible then his off world series
If you can find it," The Devil's Horsemen" about the Mongol invasion of Eastern Europe in 1241-1242. Great book, fairly short, highly readable. Also "Washington's Crossing". One of the best history books I've ever read.
I read that, it was very good. It really made you think about things. Biography is a great way to learn about history. Very well written and readable.
You rock!
Both are relatively short easy reads that would make for a good introdution.
The book addresses his life in full and shows him to be many things- religious, kind, ruthless, anti-competitive, cold, philanthropic, and so on, but I do not recall reading that he was anti-Semitic.
Find a collection of letters written by soldiers on both sides during the Civil War. Reading these letters brings these men and their families to life and to human scale in a way even the best histories cannot accomplish.
Dreadnought
History of the English Speaking People
Mao the Untold Story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah... lots of "good" books here. Or you could just spend your summer sitting around watching paint dry.
If you want some fun and excitement, read the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser - plenty of action, babes, and fun, all set in the historical context of the nineteenth century with enough swash-buckling to buckle anybody's swash. They're all great - take your pick.
Non-fiction? If you want somethin fast and fascinating that you can't put down, try Dick Couch's two books "The Warrior Elite" and "The Finishing School," giving a close-up view of the way the navy's SEALS are being trained right now, as I write these words, for the war on terror, written by an author who got access because he's a former SEAL himself from the Vietnam era.
Like history? Another book-you-can't-put-down is Evan S. Connell's "Son of the Morning Star," which features a broad-brush telling of the Custer legend set against its era, with no PC BS - just the straight stuff.
Then there's Daniel P. Mannix's "The Way of the Gladiator"; deliciously scandalous and utterly salacious, unexpurgated story of the Roman games and the part played by the gladiators in the spectacle. Astounding? It'll take you the rest of the summer to get your jaw up off the floor.
Something more modern in period? Try D'Arcy O'Connor's "The Secret Treasure of Oak Island" for a treatment of one of the most perplexing, bizarre, and utterly mystifying phenomena ever discovered. No flying saucers, no Kool Aid, no Bigfoot, no tinfoil hats; all genuine and nothing that isn't thoroughly documented. Fascinating from first page to last.
Also take a look at Michael Capuzzo's treatment of the early twentieth century incidents that spurred the creation of the movie Jaws - it's titled "Close to Shore" and is for those who love to read about real-life East Coast tourists getting eaten alive by a large fish with big teeth.
All of these are the type of books which you get two pages into and can't put 'em down; about which you say when you reach the end, "I wish there were more."
Or you could spend your summer reading the Encyclopedia Britannica - or just watching paint dry.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah... lots of "good" books here. Or you could just spend your summer sitting around watching paint dry."
LOL.
OK, it's summer. Enjoy it.
Shogun - James Clavell
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
"The Kite Runner"
"The Hungry Tide"
"The Known World"
"Middlesex"
"Interpreter of Maladies"
Those are just some of my favorites from the past few years.
I recommend Stephen Ambrose's D-Day or Band of Brothers. You will learn about the greatness of "ordinary" Americans.
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