VANITY Need Book titles

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[BenLurkin]

History -- and an interesting story too --

[leda]

patton has written/posted some great stories... :D

[mollynme]

For animal humor, you can't beat "The Dog Who Wouldn't Be" by Farley Mowat.

[SW6906]

Conservative talk show host (Seattle) Kirby Wilbur has his reccommended reading list that includes some great historical books.

Then there's the Rush Limbaugh list too.

[Niuhuru]

Here are some good authors:

Carolly Erickson (history)
Pearl S. Buck (fictional history)
Margaret George (fictional history)
Tim Lahaye (biblical fiction)
Jerry B. Jenkins (biblical history)

I can't think of any more, so I will write here again when I can.

[RightWhale]

Only history I can stand anymore is stuff like Holy Blood/Holy Graal, DaVinci Code, Keys to Avalon, etc. We know it's not real, but the real stuff isn't either. The Great Triumvirate is satisfyingly long and detailed: Webster, Calhoun, Clay in their prime.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I just finished "1776" by David McCullough and can recommend it highly.

[mewzilla]

Animal humor: Cleveland Amory's cat books.

Geography/history: Simon Winchester's natural history books, Krakatoa and A Crack In the Edge of the World.

[widowithfoursons]

"Pillar of Iron" Taylor Caldwell.

[BenLurkin]

Funny you should mention Pearl Buck in this context.

When my daughter, ('Princess' Lurkin), was in middle school she resisted reading "The Good Earth" until I read the first couple chapters aloud to her.

It is a very good oral read and a great story.

[cripplecreek]

Sci fi is more my style but if he's looking for descriptive writing that takes him away, Edgar Rice Burroughs can't be beat as far as classic sci fi goes.

Edgar Rice Burroughs online library

[Tennessee_Bob]

Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield. It's the story of the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae. As silly as it sounds, I read it based on a recommendation by Bruce Willis on his website. It's a first person point of view story not only about the battle, but the Spartan lifestyle.

[pillut48]

http://tinyurl.com/rar47
"1776" by David McCullough--I just finished reading it and it was GREAT! Put a human face on history, and it was interesting to see how close America came to losing the Revolutionary War, and the hand of God at work throughout... Humanizes George Washington as well, and how much he is like our current President in that he never wavered in his beliefs, despite terrible odds, problems with the army, loyalists (we call them liberals nowadays) back then--really nice. I felt like I was right there next to the real life characters of the book.

I see that the author has written many historical books, I bet they're good too! :-)

[pillut48]

GMTA! :-)
LOL.

[Huntress]

Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
Anything by Jon Krakauer
Anything by Mark Bowden

[Huntress]

For pictorials, I would suggest a book of photographs by Matthew Brady.

[DeFault User]

I second your vote for David McCullough. His biography of John Adams is also excellent.

[brewer1516]

These three books have history and geography and all have a great deal of REAL swashbuckling types of adventure.

Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival by Dean King.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316835145/002-9914666-3036052?v=glance&n=283155
Dean King refreshes the popular nineteenth-century narrative once read and admired by Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and Abraham Lincoln. King’s version, which actually draws from two separate first person accounts of the Commerce's crew, offers a page-turning blend of science, history, and classic adventure.


Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions by Charles Gallenkamp
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670890936/002-9914666-3036052?v=glance&n=283155
What Andrews and his colleagues found has propelled dozens of scientific missions ever since: huge caches of dinosaur bones at places such as Mongolia's Flaming Cliffs. These fossils helped demonstrate geological connections between Asia and North America, and they added dozens of new species to the paleontological record.

All the while, Andrews contended with bandits, corrupt officials, invading armies, disease, and other dangers. After finishing Gallenkamp's vigorous book, readers will understand why Andrews should have served as the model for the movie character Indiana Jones--who, if anything, pales by comparison to the real thing.

Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone by Martin Dugard.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385504519/sr=1-31/qid=1156693314/ref=sr_1_31/002-9914666-3036052?ie=UTF8&s=books

Dugard presents thoughtful insights into the psychology of both Stanley and Livingstone, whose respective responses to Africa could not have differed more. Stanley was bent on beating Africa with sheer force of will, matching it brutality for brutality, while Livingstone, possessed of spirituality and a preternatural absence of any fear of death, responded to the continent's harshness with patience and humility. Descriptions of the African landscape are vivid, as are the descriptions of malaria, dysentery, sleeping sickness, insect infestations, monsoons and tribal wars, all of which Stanley and Livingstone faced. More disturbing, however is Dugard's depiction of the prosperous Arab slave trade, which creates a sense of menace that often reaches Conradian intensity. This is a well-researched, always engrossing book.

[P.O.E.]

Might like the "All Creatures Great and Small" series.