BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 07 Aug 03 - 12:55 PM

Helen, thanks for the reminder of C.J. Cherryh. I like the Gate of Ivren series, too (a/k/a The Morgaine Saga), but my favorites are the Chanur series. What I like about her writing is that she lets you figure things out for yourself instead of feeding all the answers to you.

Anything by James Crumley (more hardboiled than Mike Hammer, but lots better written).

And anything by Dick Francis or James Lee Burke, two of the few authors I buy in hardback.

Rick, hope the treatment is going well.

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Aug 03 - 11:46 AM

Micca, do you mean the Frederick Brown who is known for the world's shortest short story:

The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.

LOL,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: South Side
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 05:04 PM

Try anything by Tim Sandlin. He wrote about six fiction novels and they are all a little twisted. "Social Blunders" "Sex and Sunsets" I forget the rest right now but he made me laugh. Carl Hiasen ?? on the spelling but extremely funny stuff as well.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Micca
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 05:58 PM

Endymion ? Jenny Islander.. you mean
" a Thing of beauty is a Joy forever
Its beauty increases it will never..."??
Thats John Keats that is

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Jenny Islander
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 05:03 PM

Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael mysteries. There are about two dozen of them, set in and near the Monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul, in Shrewsbury, during the terrible civil war in England in the 12th century. They are about people and faith and miracles and everyday choices and another world you sort of fall into. No preaching, no dogma, no chunks o' exposition--just ordinary souls and beautiful writing.

Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mysteries--absolutely! They're hilarious no matter where you're from, but if you are Alaskan the in-jokes will have you snorting apple juice out your nose. She also makes you cry.

The novels of Father Andrew Greeley. He's an opinionated geezer with deep understanding of human nature, great faith, and a long love affair with Chicago. You can gobble them up like potato chips, but they stick in your mind. My favorite is The Cardinal Virtues.

Who wrote Endymion--Shelley? Anyway, it's a huge long poem that is basically about sleep. Which is what I use it for when my everything hurts.

The Chinese fantasies of Barry Hughart: Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. There's nothing like them. Just go read. But not with your mouth full.

Hope this helps!

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 04:29 AM

Anything by Dean Koontz, he has a new book out today, good reviews, i forgot what its called, but I'm sure it will be in the bookshop windows.john

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Micca
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 12:52 PM

1952!!! Rick!

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 10:59 AM

Liz was a distraction, Peter. That was definitely HER year. What year was it?

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Leo Condie
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 10:04 AM

read 45 by Bill Drummond. One of the funniest books there is.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Peter T.
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 10:00 AM

The only problem with Ivanhoe as a book is that Elizabeth Taylor isn't in it. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Micca
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 03:18 PM

I omitted, in my list above Frederic Brown,a master of short stories with an interesting, and often surprising, twist
and
Eric Frank Russel for his really odd sense of humour, try "Wasp", "next of Kin"(novels), or "and then there were none" a short story in I think "The Great Explosion" collection

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Burke
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 06:27 PM

I second Lois McMaster Bujold. Space opera at it's best. About half of our English faculty have been caught up in it. Be careful when reading The Vorkosigan Series, several of the earlier books have been reissued in compilations. Start with Cordelia's Honor (Shards of honor and Barrayar combination) or Young Miles (Warrior's Apprentice, Mountains of Mourning, and The Vor Game).

For mind candy I've also been reading Alan Dean Foster's Pip and Flinx series. It starts with The Tar-Aiym Krang.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Helen
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 05:57 PM

pdc said: "Jane Austen wrote satire -- her stories were merely vehicles to satirize the society of her day."

When I first had to try to read Pride and Prejudice, when I was in high school, I totally agreed with Gargoyle:   "Jane Austin - Pride and Prejudice - that first paragraph about a man who has money needs a wife makes me gag so I can't get past the first page because of waves of high-sea-nausea". Part of the problem, I realised much later, was that the teacher seemed to have no idea that it was satire and therefore that incredible idea was never conveyed to us, her students. I knew far too many high school girls, i.e. my classmates, who lived and breathed some of Austen's words in reality, not with their satirical meaning, and the mother in the story - she made me gag even more. Here was I, the potential new age career woman in the making, in an all girls' school being forced to read novels about women who are forced by society and their families to get married at any cost. The horror!

It wasn't until I studied Austen again at university with a Professor who had specialised in and who obviously loved her work that I realised it was satire. I had steered clear of her between high school and then.

Another author to add: Fantasy/SF author C. J. Cherryh - especially the Gate of Ivrel series (can't remember the series name, but I think that this is the first title in it).

And Richard Matheson rules! One of the best writers of short stories that I have ever read. I think he also writes screenplays, sometimes for the tv show called The Outer Limits, which pushes the boundaries of ethics and philosophy and the meaning of life, IMHO.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 03:05 PM

I'm reading both Sam Pepys and Scott's Ivanhoe at the moment and even though I've read them so many times The characters feel like relatives, they're both great. They're both books "of their time", and I suspect Sam would also not be allowed in yer average high school. Shame.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 02:33 PM

Statement about Jane Austen:

(Jane Austin - Pride and Prejudice - that first paragraph about a man who has money needs a wife makes me gag so I can't get past the first page because of waves of high-sea-nausea)

Jane Austen wrote satire -- her stories were merely vehicles to satirize the society of her day.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 11:22 PM

Skip the paper-backs Rick.

If it is worth your time and eyes - don't buy 35cent paperbacks....pay the price and get premium books in hard-bound - second-hand.

Considering your request, "can't put down" books....avoid the intellectual crap (I love Thomas Pycheon but it takes you three books to get addicted to Cherry-Coke) (Jane Austin - Pride and Prejudice - that first paragraph about a man who has money needs a wife makes me gag so I can't get past the first page because of waves of high-sea-nausea)

If you are looking for one book (three?) -one that is... drop, pickup, drop, pickup, three minutes.... thirty minutes the Wallace Wallechinsky, People's Almanac can keep you amused in the toilet or the waiting-room.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

As you read through it....you can see why...in our PC world of the 21st Century Ivanho is no longer read in the public schools....but a damn good read it is!

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Midchuck
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 09:18 PM

The Peter Bowen "Gabriel DuPre" (how do you do an acute accent in HTML, anyway?) books that I mentioned above, in, I believe, both order of publication and chronological order within the stories, are:

Coyote Wind
Specimen Song
Wolf, No Wolf
Notches
Thunder Horse
Long Son
The Stick Game
Cruzatte and Maria
Ash Child
Badlands

The first two are available in a "double" trade paperback, and I believe the second two are also.

They're the type of books where you get to thinking of the characters as your drinking buddies and get upset when you reach the end and remember they're fictional.

Peter.

PS: I'd also second, with gusto, the mention of Lee and Miller's Liad Universe space operas. Those of you who listened to the Woodchucks' Paltalk concert a year or two or three ago might recall a rather confusing song of my own, "Seven Silver Bracelets," that I did as an encore; which was actually a filk on those stories.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Grab
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 07:20 PM

Nice work, Garg.

Since someone else has broached Stephen King, I'll own up to liking his stuff too. His short stories are a bit spotty, but the "Diff'rent Seasons" collection is brilliant (not supernatural horror, more "character horror" like Dolores Claiborne). Green Mile is pretty good too, but not a patch on the similar story in Diff'rent Seasons. For supernatural, "Firestarter" is OK. Most other horror writers (James Herbert, Dean Koontz, etc) can safely be ignored.

One other horror writer worth reading though is Richard Matheson. "I am Legend" is amazing, and many others worth reading too. Don't bother with "Hell House" though, stick to the original story (by Shirley Jackson I think?).

If you're a *very* fast or dedicated reader, the "Gap" series by Stephen Donaldson is worth a go. He's a pretentious SOB and the writing is often slow, but the scope of the series is seriously impressive. Similarly a bit slow but over a grand scale (and less pretentious) is Tad Willams' "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" series. The former is space-opera S/F (loosely themed on Wagner's Ring), the latter is traditional fantasy.

Changing theme, a book to be appreciated by singers and drinkers is "Whisky Galore" by Compton Mackenzie. Very funny.

Back to S/F, John Wyndham. Nuff said. Although I will mention a few for Garg's spreadsheet ("Day of the Triffids", "The Chrysalids", "The Midwich Cuckoos").

Graham.

PS. I must confess to not seeing the attraction of Ian Banks. I read them and think "So what?" - it feels like a mental McDonalds meal.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 04:56 PM

I don't find it as ironic that Bibles and Qurans are stolen as much as I find it worrisome that folks steal the study guides for the police exams.

With cops like that....

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: MAG
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 02:49 PM

Yeah, people steal Bibles all the time. Either because it's a version they disagree with, or because they need it for their good work more than the public does.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Deda
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 12:21 PM

By Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park.

Did no one mention Douglas Addams, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and all sequels)?!?

Well, Rick, if you're still checking back on this thread, this should keep you busy! Quite a required reading list. Looks like fun, if you happen to have several years of free time. Hope all is going well.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 11:50 AM

People STEAL the Bible and the Quran? Does anyone else find that funny?

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 08:29 AM

I think, Garg, that it depends upon your library.

"ALA Surveys Most Stolen Books Staff -- 5/21/2001

An informal American Library Association survey of libraries' most-stolen books has struck a chord with librarians. After receiving a query from the NPR show "On the Media" about most-stolen books, ALA Press Officer Larra Clark sent out a question to an electronic mailing list regarding library public relations. In about 80 responses, the librarians most often cited books regarding witchraft/occult/dreams/astrology, as well as exam preparation books. The latter category, as well as car repair and sex books, share a characteristic, as one librarian observed: "They all require extensive practice at home, and it takes longer than the four-week checkout period to get good at it." Clark said the list also raised some intellectual freedom questions, and she would talk to the Office for Intellectual Freedom about how libraries might respond. In some cases, libraries have taken measures to actually sell exam books or put books on reference-only shelves."   --from the "Library Journal" website.

Other categories mentioned in an earlier report which is available on the "LJ" website are military entrance study guides, police exam study guides, and religious writings such as the Bible and the Quran.

This agrees with what I've noticed in 30+ years librarianing. The titles you mentioned might well be taken from a school library or from a specific public library and I'd be interested in knowing which one.

Thanks for preparing a bibliography. I'll see that the Reference Dept. gets it, as it will save them time. I want to purchase as many as we can.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 12:01 AM

Helen & Amos - Thanks for the updates - it will take moments to add - but let the thread continue for awhile....so the list isn't redundant...ANYONE can move the corrections into their D-Base.

Hess - Beneath the Wheel (a life-changing book for me - and only found out the definition after visiting the Museum of Torture Germanic/Rothenberg)all of his others Novels are grand, also.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 11:43 PM

Helen, thanks for catching my errors there!

A

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Helen
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 09:06 PM

Good work, gargoyle. I haven't read all of your list, and I will come back and do it properly after I get some work done today, but

Under Nevil Shute you have: On the Beach our Requiem for a Wren. It is two books called On the Beach, and Requiem for a Wren. And I said "Too Disdained" but it should have been "So Disdained"

And Amos added this one but it should be Bradley, Marion Zimmer - Mists of Avalon (not Philips, Jenifer) and Heller, Joseph- Catch 22 (not Hellerman)

Also, my own private measure as a former public library librarian of how good I was at selecting books was measuring how long it took for each book to be stolen. Damn that was frustrating! So thanks for the other list.

Also, a couple more to add: I second Amy Tan (not "Tang" as someone said above) - I've read all of hers, and also I read all of Mary Stewart's novels years ago, both the Arthur/Merlin stuff and the potboiler mysteries. One of the few authors I can read and re-read.

Herman Hesse, although maybe he is a bit d & m (deep and meaningful) for this list, and Margaret Atwood, and Dean Koontz, and some of Stephen King's like Dolores Claiborne where he gets away from the sensationalist gory bits.

And...and...and...

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 08:37 PM

Garg:

For your spreadsheet, dude:

Rand, Ayn -- Fountainhead
Umberto, Eco-   Name of the Rose (mystery)
Orwell, George- 1984
Hellerman, Joseph- Catch 22
Scott, Sir Walter- Ivanhoe
Philips, Jenifer- Mists of Avalon
Marquez , Gabriel Garcia - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Varous- 1001 Arabian Nights
Nathanson, E.M. - The Dirty Dozen
Lewis, Roy- The Evolution Man
Barrett, Andrea - Voyage of the Narwhal
Burke, James Lee- White Doves at Morning

A

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Micca
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 07:43 PM

Rick, Have you Got the " Para Handy" stories? if not i may have a spare p/b I would be happy to donate!!,(PM me) If you dont know them , asj Duckboots, she will!!

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 07:30 PM

As a librarian, Repaire, perhaps you are familiar with lists of books most commonly stolen? I believe some are popular because they are assigned reading in schools.

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
Sharon Flake's The Skin I'm In
Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries
Caroline Cooney's The Face on the Milk Carton
Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass
Michael Brooke's Concrete Wave: The History of Skateboarding
Jack Canfield's Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul
Thia Luby's Yoga for Teens
Stephen King's The Green Mile
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit
John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Shiloh
Louis Sachar's Holes
Gary Paulsen's Hatchet
Lois Lowry's Number the Stars
J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series
S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders
Avi's Something Upstair
Sharon Draper's Tears of a Tiger
Carl Deuker's On the Devil's Court
Lurlene McDaniel's Dawn Rochelle
David Pelzer's A Child Called "It,"
Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts
Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" series
Lois Lowry's The Giver
Jacques's "Redwall" series
Wilson Rawls's Where the Red Fern Grows
Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963

Sincerely,

Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 06:56 PM

Personal remark deleted. -Joe Offer-

---

Here you go - a quick compilation - it took less than an hour:

Abbey, Edward   - The Monkey Wrench Gang
Alger, Horatio - Mark The Match Boy
Anderson's Fairy Tales (unabridged)
Archer, Jeffery - Kane and Able
Asbury, Herbert -   Gangs Of New York
Bagley, Desmond - The Golden Keel
Bahr, Howard -   The Black Flower
Bahr, Howard   - The Year of Jubilo
Bellamy, Guy    - The Secret Lemonade Drinker
Bergren -   Louis Armstrong: An Extravegant Life
Berton, Pierre   - Arctic Grail
Bonfiglioni, Kyril -   The Mordecai Trilogy
Bowen, Peter    - Gabriel DuPre
Bowen, Peter   - Gabriel DuPre
Bradley, Marion Zimmer
Brilliant, Ian Banks - Espadair Street .
Brilliant, Ian Banks - The Crow Road
Brilliant, Ian Banks - The Wasp Factory
Burke, James Lee   - Black Cherry Blues
Burke, James Lee   - Heaven's Prisoners
Byatt, A. S. - Possession
Callison, Brian - Trapp's War
Capote, Truman -   In Cold Blood
Carpenter, Richard   - Catweazle
Carr, Ian - Miles Davis
Carroll, Jock   -   The Shy Photographer
Chaucer   -- The Canterbury Tales (at least the ribald ones)
Cisneros - Don Quixote
Clarke, Arthur C. - Childhood's End
Clarke, Thurston - Equator
Cohen, Patricia Cline - The Murder of Helen Jewett
Collins, Wilkie - The Woman in White
Cornwell, Bernard    - Arthurian stuf
Cornwell, Bernard
Cornwell, Bernard   - Arthurian stuff
Cornwell, Bernard - Vagabond
Crowley, John - Engine Summer
Cussler, Clive - Dirk Pitt adventures
de Lint, Charles
Deaver, Jeffery
Dickens, Charles - Oliver Twist
Dobie, J. Frank
Doig, Ivan   - Dancing At Rascall Fair
Doig, Ivan   - English Creek
Doig, Ivan   - Ride With Me, Mariah Montana.
Doogan, Mike -   Fashion Means Your Fur Hat Is Dead
Doyle, Arthur Conan - "Sherlock Holmes" any story
Dumas, Alexander - Count of Monte Cristo
Dumas, Alexander - Man in the Iron Mask
Dumas, Alexander - Three Musketeers series
Durrell, Gerald   - Two in the Bush
Ellis, Bret Easton -   Less Than Zero
Ellroy, James - The Black Dahlia
Elton, Ben
Faulkner, William - The Reivers
Fleming, Ian    - Pied Piper
Freuchen, Peter - Adventures in the Arctic
Goddard, Robert
Gordimer, Nadine   - The Pickup
Goudge, Elizabeth - The Dean's Watch
Grafton, Sue   -   A is For Alibi" up to "Q is for Quarry" series
Grey, Zane -   Riders of the Purple Sage
Grey, Zane - Fighting Caravans
Grimm's Fairy Tales (unabridged)
Grossmith, George and Weedon - The Diary of a Nobody
Guareschi, Giovanni   - Don Camillo
Guareschi, Giovanni   Don Camillo
Haig, Brian - The Kingmaker
Hardy, Thomas -   Mayor of Castlebridge
Hardy, Thomas - Tess of de Ubberville
Harper, Lee   - To Kill a Mockingbird
Harris, Thomas - Red Dragon
Harris, Thomas - Silence of the Lambs
Harry Potter
Hawks, Tony -   Round Ireland With a Fridge
Heinlein, Robert
Hillerman, Tony
Hoban, Russell -   Riddley Walker
Hughes, Robert -   Fatal Shore
Hugo, Vicor   - Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hugo, Vicor   - Jean Val Jean (Les Misrables)
Innes, Hammond -   The land God Gave to Cain
Innes, Hammond - Air Bridge
Irvine Welsh, Irvine - Trainspotting
Irving, John - A Prayer for Owen Meany
Irving, John - Hotel New Hampshire
Kahn, Roger - Boys of Summer
Kingsolver, Barbara
Kingsover, Barbara
Kipling, Rudyard - Jungle Book
Kipling, Rudyard - Jungle Book
Kipling, Rudyard - Kim
Knight, Bernard   -   Crowner John series
Koenig, David,   -   Mouse Tales: A Behind-The-Ears Look At Disneyland
Koonst, Dean
Ladies and Gentlemen, Lennie Bruce
L'Amour, Louis -   The Walking Drum
Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steven - Agent of Change
Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steven -   Carpe Diem
Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steven - Conflict of Honors
Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steven - Liaden Universe
Locke, William J. -   The Belovéd Vagabond
MacDonald, John D   - Ballroom of the Skies
MacDonald, John D.   - Wine of the Dreamers
Maclean, Alastair -   The Last Frontier
Maclean, Alastair - Guns of Navarone
Maclean, Alastair - HMS Ulysses
Madsen's, John -   Up on the River
Mallinson, Allan
Malone, Michael   - Foolscap
Malone, Michael   - Handling Sin
Marston, Edward
Mary Rose O'Reilley   - The Barn at the End of the World: Mathiessen, Peter – Travel series
McEwan, Ian -   Atonement
McInerney, Jay -   Bright Lights, Big City
McManus, Pat    - Real Ponies Don't Go Oink
McManus, Pat   -   How I Got This Way
McManus, Pat   - The Bear In The Attic
Merrill, Jean   - The Pushcart War
Michener, James - The Drifters
Michener, James - Tales of the South Pacific
Michener, James - Centenial
Miller, Edward - Canticle for Liebowitz
Milligan, Spike - Puckoon
Mowat, Farley -   Never Cry Wolf
Nelson, James L.   -   The Brethren of the Coast series
Nichols, John -   The Milagro Beanfield War
Nivens, David   - The Moons a Baloon
Nivens, David   - The Moons a Baloon
Nivens, David   Bring on the Empty Horses   
Norton, Mary -   The Borrowers
Parker, Robert B   - Spencer Boston detective novels
Patterson, James - The Beach House
Pepys, Samuel   - Diary
Pern, Anne McCaffrey   - sci fi
Poe. Edgar Allen short stories
Pope, Dudley - 73 North
Porter, Joyce   - Dover books
Pratchet, Terry - Hogfather
Pratchett, Terry
Price, E. H. -   The Devil Wives of Li Fong ghost stories by M.R. James
Proulx, Annie - Accordion Crimes
Pynchon, Thomas   - Fauqualt's Pendulum
Pynchon, Thomas   - Gravity's Rainbow
Pynchon, Thomas   - The Crying of Lot 49
Rabin, Jonathan – Travel series
Rees, Sian   - The Floating Brothel
Rhyme, Lincon
Robbins, Tom   - Even Cowgirls get the Blues
Robbins, Tom   - Another Roadside Attraction
Robbins, Tom   - Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
Robbins, Tom   - Jitterbug Purfume
Robbins, Tom   - Still Life With Woodpecker
Roberts, Nora - Hot Ice
Russell, Mary Doria -   The Sparrow and it's sequel, Children of God
Russo, Richard - Empire Falls
Russo, Richard - Nobody's Fool
Russo, Richard - Straight Man
Saylor, Steven    - The Gordianus and Finder series
Scarborough, Elizabeth
Schoonover,   Laurence   - Spider King
Sharpe Tom -   Wilt
Sharpe, Tom -   Vintage Stuff
Sherrin, Ned   - Theatrical Anectdotes
Shute, Nevil   - On the Beach our Requiem for a Wren
Shute, Nevil   - Too Disdained
Shute, Nevil - Slide Rule
Shute, Nevil - A Town Like Alice
Sledge, Eugene B.    - With The Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
Smith,   Thorne - Lady P's Night Life of the Gods
Soos, Troy -   historical baseball mysteries
Stabenow, Dana   - Breakup
Stabenow, Dana - Blood Will Tell
Stabenow, Dana - Kate Shugak series
Stabenow, Dana - Breakup
Steinbeck, John   - East of Eden
Steinbeck, John   - Travels with Charlie
Steinbeck, John - Cannery Row
Steinbeck, John - Grapes of Wrath
Steinbeck, John - Wayward Bus
Stevenson, Robert L. - Treasure Island
Stoker, Brahm - Dracula
Stuart, George - Earth Abides
Swiss Family Robinson
Tang, Amy
Tepper, Sheri S.   - Grass
Tepper, Sheri S. -   The Gate to Women's Country
The Bathroom Readers Institute
The General Danced 'Til Dawn
Toole, John Kennedy - A Confederacy of Dunces
Tornator - Silk and Ocean Sea
Trevanian   - Shibumi
Trumbo, Dalton -   Johnny Got His Gun
Twain, Mark    - Life on the Mississippi
Twain, Mark    - Short Story Collection
Twain, Mark - Huckleberry Finn
Twain, Mark   - Tom Sawyer
Upfield, Arthur W.   - mystery - Napoleon Bonaparte
Wallechinsky, Wallace -   People's Almanac
Wells, H.G. - Invisable Man
Wells, H.G. - Time Machine
Weygers, Alexander G - The Complete Modern Blacksmith
Waterhouse, Keith, -   Mrs Pooter's Diary, wife's version of the same events
White, Time   - Catch a Fire - Bob Marley
Youmans, Marly -   Catherwood

-   Fountainhead
-   Name of the Rose (mystery)
- 1984
- Catch 22
- Ivanhoe
- Mists of Avalon
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- The Arabian Nights
- The Dirty Dozen
- The Evolution Man
- Voyage of the Narwhal
- White Doves at Morning

Your Humble Servant,

Sincerely,

Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 06:10 PM

James White's "Sector General" series.

Spider Robinson's "Callahan" series. Oh yeah. If you ain't read 'em, you should.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 05:32 PM

Micca, kewl! I've got a couple of hardbacks gleaned at library sales!

Thanks so much, Rapaire, not rush and only if it is convenient.:-)

kat

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: GUEST,celtaddict at work
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 05:06 PM

Count me in on those who want a copy of the list made from this thread!
Rick, you won't remember me, but I spent a Sea Music Festival (Mystic) weekend following you around like a puppy and have fond recollections of standing in the parking lot of Roaring Brook (Canton CT) talking (or listening) far longer than it took you to load up. I wish you the very best in your treatment. (It tickled me by the way to see one of my shots from Canton at Mudcat!)
So many great suggestions here; I certainly would second anything by personal favorites Robert A. Heinlein (get past the juveniles and the Stranger in a Strange Land, because the Methuselah series, culminating in Time Enough for Love, are my favorites), Tony Hillerman, and Ellis Peters. Remember Ellis Peters is Elizabeth Pargeter and her history-based stories of Wales and her nonfiction are definitely worth finding.   
I have not seen anyone mention some other favorites:
Madeleine L'Engle's books are definitely not for children, and do hunt up the others beyond the Wrinkle in Time series.
Saki (H.H.Munro) wrote perfectly brilliant short stories and some short novels, incredible wit with at times a bitter social-critic edge, but fall-down laughing quite often.
P. G. Wodehouse was possibly the most underrated master of English literature, probably because he wrote light comedy, but his mastery of the written word is incredible. Besides Jeeves and Wooster, look for all the Blandings Castle series, the Mr. Mulliner series, and the Psmith series. He thought his New York stories the best, but I would take his English countryside ones any time. His short stories fill volumes (often available in one big composite) and his novels are wonderfully carefree (and often available four or five to a volume).
And you MUST (and I never shout) hunt up Dorothy Dunnett. She is a Scot writer and my nominee for best author of English-language fiction. There is a series of contemporary (well, 60s-70s) mysteries, the Dolly series, featuring a portrait painter/James Bond type who lives on his yacht (the Dolly) and involves a series of extremely smart and quirky young females in mysteries with plots and characters you would never suspect; if I told you the first I read involved a dyslexic Scottish make-up artist telling her story you would scarcely have a hint of her imagination. They are currently out of print but I see them regularly in used paperbacks and on Amazon and have been published with different titles; one series (U.S. I think) are all "Dolly and the [something] Bird" but check the intro or you may get duplicates. She also wrote the six-volume Crawford of Lymond series, which was a cult item on a number of campuses years ago, but are all in print again and excellent; this series has chess-related titles (Game of Kings, Queen's Play, Disorderly Knights, Ringed Castle, Pawn in Frankincense, Checkmate). Her most recent series of eight volumes is the House of Niccolo series, massive and complex and fascinating; incredible reads. Both of these series are history-based and it is a revelation to check the character lists in the frontispieces and see how many of the characters are historic. Niccolo concerns the rise of international trade and intrigue, centered from the 14th century Brussels outward from Iceland to Asia Minor and North Africa, and Lymond starts in Scotland in the minority of Elizabeth I but ranges through most of Europe and Russia. And brace yourself, my nominee for Best English-Language Novel Ever Written would have to be King Hereafter, in 11th century Alba (now Scotland) and Norway; she starts with the same set of legends and scraps of history that Shakespeare used for MacBeth, but what a tapestry she weaves.
Good reading. Be well.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Micca
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 04:08 PM

Kat, Me too on Boney!! I have read almost all of them!1 and have p/b copies of a lot too!!

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 01:04 PM

Okay, I'll do it. It'll be a little bit, though - couple of weeks at the most.

I would have mentioned Napoleon Bonaparte, too, but I'd forgotten the author.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 12:38 PM

just finished a surprisingly good page turner -- The Kingmaker by Brian Haig (yeah, that Haig).

I think Barbara Kingsover is the best, most readable propagandist of recent memory -- her style alone makes the reading a joy and she can derive a plot from the thinnest (but most human) of activities.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 12:17 PM

One of my favourites I forgot to mention is Arthur W. Upfield. He wrote a bunch of mystery novels about a half-aborigine detective named Napoleon Bonaparte. The books are incredibly rich in detail about the Outback of Australia and the different cultures. Real page-turners beautifully written.

Rapaire, any chance you could post the list in its entirety after your department gets done? I haven't had time to make a full list from this thread and would appreciate it, IF it's not too much trouble.

Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 11:11 AM

Darn right Rapaire. It's a great memory jogger.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 11:02 AM

Rick started it. Seemed like such a great idea -- and one never done before, as far as I know -- that I've printed off the list as it was earlier this week.

Why? Because I gave it to our Reference Department (I run a public library); they're to recreate it as a bibliography, checking to see which titles we own -- and ordering those which we don't and which are in print.

Rick's not the only one who might need this information!

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 06:26 AM

I totally forgot about Ian Banks Brilliant
The wasp Factory
The Crow Road
First class even if the wasp factory is a wee bit mental.
My fave is Espadair Street .

That man kept me going for 5 weeks out in Brunie totally unmissable he is all together a great author and so insightful he just has the way of illuminating the obvious and then you realise what it is he's trying to give you a grip on.

A wee book that I read as a child was
The Silver Sword by Ian Serrillier(wrong spelling) that was the book that really stuck woth me and even though its a kids book I still read it every now and then.
Dylan

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: lady penelope
Date: 26 Jul 03 - 02:48 PM

I've decided I'm off to find a copy of Samuel Pepys Diary. Between this thread and a bloke on the radio ( Danny Baker ) who's always going on about Pepys burying his parmasan cheese in the garden when London went up in flames, I'm intrigued.....

TTFN Lady P.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 26 Jul 03 - 10:42 AM

Just got Ned Sherrin's "Theatrical Anectdotes and read it in one sitting! The stories about British actor Donald Wolfit are wonderful. Thanks Seamus.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Amergin
Date: 25 Jul 03 - 09:48 PM

you know...im going to have to dig up on the beach and a town like alice....great books....

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Jul 03 - 09:08 PM

Good Lord! How could I forget Flashman??

And "The General Danced 'Til Dawn" is a great book by the same author.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Micca
Date: 25 Jul 03 - 07:55 AM

Rick, if you can find it in the 2nd hand shop
"The Shy Photographer" by Jock Carroll!! Hilarious, the Chapter headings give a flavour
"What did you give that starving old woman on the park bench?"
" oh 1/100th of a second at f11!!"
and Puckoon as mentioned,
and if you can find it also, " The Secret Lemonade drinker" by Guy Bellamy
I found also Robert B Parker's " Spencer " Boston detective novels good,easy,light reading, also Sue Grafton's " A is For Alibi" up to "Q is for Quarry" series too

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: alison
Date: 25 Jul 03 - 02:12 AM

you can read an excerpt from "Dirt Music" here

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: alison
Date: 25 Jul 03 - 12:47 AM

I love travel books... so I recommend some that have already been mentioned


around Ireland with a fridge _ Tony Hawke
anything by Bill Bryson, ( but especially "a walk in the woods" and the one about Europe "Neither here nor there")
A year in Provence (plus all the sequels) - Peter Mayle

loved Harry Potter, loved Mists of Avalon

there is a good recent Ozzie one - can't remember the writer ? Tim Winton called "Dirt Music" - couldn't put that one down either.....

also like "Frenchman's creek" & "Jamaica Inn" - Daphne Du Maurier... they are the ones that get reread every other year....


slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 11:39 PM

Helen: hope you've read Shute's "In the Wet," one of his best. We all should have pushed Shute for this thread -- he's an easy but very entertaining read.

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 10:04 PM

Another author who specialises in pdc's description "this is a young man's wet dream of a book. But it's fun!" is an Oz bloke called robert G. Barrett. If you mistakenly read them as serious fiction you'd probably hate it but it is all tongue in cheek, and a lot of other places too.

I forgot to mention Nevil Shute. I have read almost all of his books now. The famous ones were A Town Like Alice, and On the Beach, which were both made into Hollywood movies back in the previous millenium sometime, but it is his lesser known fiction which I like the best. My faves are Requiem for a Wren, and Too Disdained, and... Nah, the list is too long. I love his autobiography too, called Slide Rule. He was an aviation engineer/designer and he worked on the design and construction of an airship which takes up a lot of the story and is fascinating IMHO.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: A different kind of 'GREAT BOOK' thread.
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 09:22 PM

"Shibumi," by Trevanian was mentioned earlier in the thread. It really is a great book -- I've read it twice. But it must be emphasized that this is a guy book, a really, really guy book. The second time I read it, my feminism came to the fore, as I wasn't turning the pages fast for plot, and I snickered my way through it -- this is a young man's wet dream of a book. But it's fun!