BS: Good Book

Subject: BS: Good Book
From: Herge
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 04:50 PM

Just finished an assignment and have promised myself a few weeks without study - apart from chilling out / drinking more beer / playing more music - anyone recommend a good read? I like travel books, thrillers (not horror), humour, history.

Whats top of your must read book list?

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Beer
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 05:10 PM

Pure History or Historical Novels?
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 05:21 PM

Thrillers and history? Try the Patrick O'Brien sea stories - they're highly addictive. Search this site for more on O'Brien; he inspires fierce devotion.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Wesley S
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 05:44 PM

Ragtime by EL Doctrow

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Becca72
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 06:06 PM

I'm a big fan of the "Prey" series by John Sanford. Detective stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Barb'ry
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 06:37 PM

The Book Thief
Can't put it down

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: heric
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 10:20 PM

Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Amergin
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 10:36 PM

I've been reading the Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove...he is a master at alternate history.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Cluin
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 10:43 PM

There's always the Bible. A good thing to read, even if you don't hold much faith in it being gospel.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Herge
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 03:28 AM

Thanks for the recommendation - didnt like Patrick O'Brien (get chased - get away - attack ship - get chased - get away - attack ship!). Like the idea of 'edge of the world' - Bible a bit too far fetched!

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: JennyO
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 06:40 AM

The first thing I thought of when you mentioned humour, was Terry Pratchett and the Discworld novels. I started off with the stories of the witches - Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Equal Rites, Carpe Jugulum - but they are all good - you can't go wrong with a Pratchett.

Or you could explore an alternative universe with the works of Douglas Adams. All good stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 06:44 AM

I enjoy Ruth Rendell although I am not keen when she writes as Barbara Vine.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Crystal
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 07:15 AM

Jim Butchers "The Dresden Files" Supernatural detective stories which are excellant!
I agree that the Discworld books are good if you like humour!

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 08:32 AM

War And Peace, that should keep you occupied for a while.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 08:46 AM

The 'Left Behind' series took away much of my interest in the rest of society so I had to limit my reading to stay sociable. I became addicted once I had my head in the first book.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: GUEST,Seiri Omaar
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 01:31 PM

Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma series (written by Celtic scholar Peter Berresford Ellis, Tremayne is a pseudonym). They are a series of detective novels about a 7th century AD placed fictional Irish religieuse named Fidelma, who is qualified in Brehon law as an advocate.    They are excellent reads. The first one is called Absolution by Murder, but reading them out of order doesn't hurt all that much.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Anne Lister
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 04:01 PM

Jasper Fforde ... anything by him, really.
Dorothy Dunnett, if you want something more complex with fantastic historical detail.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Mississippi Saxaphone
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 04:24 PM

"I Claudius" and "Claudius the God" by Robert Graves.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: ranger1
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 04:53 PM

Any of Peter Millman's travel narratives are good. I especially liked "An Evening With Headhunters" and "Last Places."

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Dazbo
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 07:31 AM

The Falco books by Lindsey Davies are detective/thriller/comedy set in Rome and are enjoyable light reading.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 07:56 AM

Michael Norton's "365 Ways to Change the World"

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Riginslinger
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 06:41 PM

I'd like to recommend one of my books. They can be found at:
http://www.riginslinger.com

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: GUEST,Canadienne
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 02:59 PM

I was loaned this book last night by a fellow catter - a stunning read and should be "above the line"

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:13 PM

The book I just finished and should have read a long time ago is "The Story of a Bad Boy" by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. It was written in 1869 and is autobiographical fiction about a 13 or 14 year old boy growing up in Portsmouth, NH in the 1840s. It is an absolute delight!

He entitled it "Bad Boy", of course, not because the author was a scamp, but to differentiate from the books for boys of that era that held up prim little prigs as boys to be emulated. His book is about a realistic boy of the 1840s in a smallish port city disguised as "Rivermouth", NH.

Now I need to spend some more time at the Aldrich house at Strawbery Banke Museum now that I know what I'm looking at.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 04:52 PM

Ellis Peters' detective series with Cadfael the Twelfth Century monk might hit the spot. (And her other nom de plume as Edith Pargeter for historical novels.)

And I always recommend Alexander McCall Smith's Ladies First Detective books.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Bert
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 05:59 PM

Just a few that spring immediately to mind.

Wilt by Tom Sharpe
Trapp's War by Brian Callison
Hot Ice by Nora Roberts
Air Bridge by Hammond Innes
73 North by Dudley Pope
Golden Keel by David Higgins
Any of 'The Dover' books by Joyce Porter

and of course, all the Harry Potter books, which I'll have to read again before the final one comes out in July.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 08:59 AM

I've just finished a stunning novel, called 'The King's Last Song' by Geoff Ryman. It's set in Cambodia.

In this book archeolgists discover the autobiography of the 12th Century Khmer king, Javayarman. Before the book can be deciphered it is stolen by an ex-Khmer Rouges cadre who also kidnaps a French archeologist and a Cambodian General. Two Cambodians, Tan Map and William, who both bear the mental scars of Cambodia's recent history, set off to recover the book. Their story is interwoven with that of Javaryarman.

In my opinion this novel is a truly amazing achievement - highly recommended!

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 10:52 AM

I don't much find a lot of good fiction to read. Most authors recycle the same protagonist through as many as 26 books a la series television; after 2 or 3 tomes the character is generally exhausted from a literary perspective. Often they cannot write in complex sentences, nor can they convey a feeling of time and place.
Generally, I read non-fiction. My current interests are:
How and why Paul invented Christianity, separating it from normative Judaism of the period;
History and archaeology of the ancient Middle East, especially Assyria and Babylonia;
History of the immediate post WWI construction of the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: autolycus
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 03:52 PM

Since humour is your thing,(and given that humour is a terribly personal thing), the first two,South African-set Tom Sharpe novels did it for me (Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure).

   Also Alan Coren and Miles Kington and Michael Frayn in their short pieces.

   Every time I find a P.G.Wodehouse quote in a quotations Dictionary,I laugh.

   And the short pieces that Muir and Norden did for the BBC radio prog. My Word were brilliant, and many were published,fr example in the collection You Can't Have Your Kayak and Heat It!






       Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: kendall
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 05:11 PM

Anything by Bill Bryson or Dave Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Riginslinger
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 11:00 AM

I agree with autolycus. I love P.G. Wodehouse. The material is funny generations later.

          Also, I can read anything by Robert B. Parker and be thoroughly entertained, though I've never been able to figure out exactly why.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 12:09 PM

If you like travel books, Eric Hansen is a vivid and entertaining travel writer. "Motoring with Mohammed" is the best travel book I have ever read. "Stranger in the Forest" and "The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer" are excellent as well. "Orchid Fever" is not strictly a travel book, but is a riveting read nonetheless. Hansen is a first-class writer.

Pico Iyer is another excellent travel writer, although some books are better than others. He is more cerebral and philosophical than Hansen, who is marvelously descriptive and often humorous. "Video Night in Kathmandu" and "Falling Off the Map" are both wonderful.

Elmer

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: kendall
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 07:41 PM

Bill Bryson wrote about his hiking trip around England. It's titled, "Notes from a small island". After spending some time there, I found it quite entertaining.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: kendall
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 09:56 AM

You know what they saw about opinions...

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: kendall
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 10:04 AM

If you are not into light humor, try "Customs and crises in Communication". Heavy and dry as a Baptist picnic.
Guest, what have you read of Bryson that causes you to put him down?

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 10:46 AM

The very book you mentioned and one about Australia. I just don't care for his humour. It seems full of the owrst sort of cliches and sterotypes. I know a lot of people enjoy his work, but I guess I just don't get .

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Metchosin
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 11:06 AM

While humour is not the first thing that comes to mind, oddly enough Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky is a damned good read and might cover a lot of your listed interests.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: GUEST,Canadienne
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 11:17 AM

A great Xmas present last year - "Narrow Dog to Carcasonne" by Terry Darlington
Travel, humour AND a narrow boat!
- not for Francophobes :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: gnu
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 03:46 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Elaine Green
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 03:55 PM

Though I'm only 1/3 of the way through it, I highly recommend 'Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu' by J. Maarten Troost. I bought it on sale this past weekend, and it is a marvel of humor and insight.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Cluin
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 08:02 PM

Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, I highly recommend.

Also: Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, Walter Mosley's R.L.'s Dream, Anne Ross' Folklore of the Scottish Highlands, John Myers Myers Silverlock (if you can find it), Farley Mowat's The Farfarers, Leonard Shlain's Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time and Light, William Horwood's The Stonor Eagles...

To name just a few

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Riginslinger
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 10:55 AM

Barnes and Noble is reproducing classics in paperback--real cheap to buy--which are extensively footnoted for some of the more obscure references in the text.
          I just finshed Thomas Hardy's "Return of the Native"--a book I gave up on many years ago--and found it fascinating.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: mick p r.m s.c
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 05:50 PM

flashman books if you not P.C.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Riginslinger
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 08:58 AM

Flashman?

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: GUEST,rob the roadie
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 11:26 AM

just re-read a great little book by Bob Davidson entitled " a diary from the wooden shed".
Contact him on www.bobdavidson.co.uk.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 19 Feb 07 - 10:36 AM

just finished reading three of les barkers books of poems . still have not recovered from laughing.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Lox
Date: 19 Feb 07 - 06:41 PM

If the Magellan story lights your fire you might appreciate "Nathaniels nutmeg" or "Big chief elizabeth"

Alternatively, "In Patagonia" by bruce chatwin or "songlines" by the same,

or Wiliam dalrymples "city of djinns" or "from the holy mountain"

All fascinating and challenging in terms of the information they contain, yet real roller coaster reads at the same time.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 04:53 PM

Rigingslinger queried "Flashman"
A series of sequels written by George MacDonald Fraser with the central character of Harry Flashman.
The stories have a quasi-historical background, and follow Harry Flashman (coward, bully, womaniser) through his many adventures where he seems to play a central part in any historic tableau.
The character may seem familiar to those who have read Thomas Hughes' "Tom Brown's Schooldays"

CHEERS
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: LilyFestre
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 08:09 PM

I don't know if this fits your criteria of likes, BUT I finished reading a book called "Knitting Circle" by Ann Hood earlier this week. It's a wonderful story of friendship. A five star book in my opinion. Mrs. Mike is another five star book (early 1800s, wilderness kind of story).

LQF

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Riginslinger
Date: 21 Feb 07 - 06:11 PM

Nigel - have not read either Thomas Hughes or Flashman. When were the Flashman books written?

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 06:56 AM

Incidentally, the vicious Edmund Spenser, in his book A View of the Present State of Ireland has a lot to say about the Brehon laws, for instance:

Eudox: What is that which you call the Brehon law? it is a word unto us altogether unknowne.

Iren: It is a certaine rule of right, unwritten, but delivered by tradition from one to an other, in which oftentimes there appereth great shew of equity, in determining the right betwene part and party, but in many things repugning quite from gods law and mans, as for example, in the case of murther. The Brehon that is ther judg, will compound betwene the murtherer, and the frends of the party murthered, which prosecute the action, that the malefactor shall give unto them, or to the child, or wife of him that is slaine, a recompence, which they call an Iriach; by which vile law of thers, many murders are amongest them made up and smothered. And this judg being, as he is called, the Lords Brehon, adjudgeth for the most part a better share unto his Lord, that is the Lord of the soyle, or the head of that septe, and also unto him self, for his judgment, a greater portion than unto the plaintifes or parties grieved.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: kendall
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 07:26 AM

My favorite is still SILVERLOCK by John Myers Myers.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 09:14 AM

An enthusiastic recommendation for The Autobiography of Henry VIII, by Margaret George.

This is (contrary to its title) a novel. The premise is that, after his death, his fool was able to save Henry's private journals from destruction by his daughter, Queen Anne. The fool inserts into Henry's text occasional comments and sidelights from his own knowledge and point of view. It's great reading, and gave me a much better idea of Henry's times, his actions, and his personality. Of course, since it's from his point of view, Ms George resolves some historical ambiguities and uncertainties in Henry's favor.

It's a big book, but at the same time all too short!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 11:42 AM

Since I recommended ONE book by Margaret George, I'll go further.

She also wrote these, which are excellent:
Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles
   and
Cleopatra

She also wrote Helen of Troy. It's pretty good, but not nearly as good as The Autobiography of Henry VIII, Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles, and Cleopatra.

The reason I say that is that those books are based on good historical bases, whereas almost nothing is actually known about Helen, (if she ever actually existed). Ms George, in Helen, builds the Greek gods in, who MUST be part of that story, although only as they appear to human senses and minds, which makes the mythological content easier to take.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: 3refs
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 12:04 PM

Billions and Billions.

Carl Sagan

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: David C. Carter
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 12:14 PM

A Confederacy of Dunces-John Kennedy Toole.

Sadly no longer with us.

David

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 08:53 AM

What David Carter said: A Confederacy of Dunces!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 01:14 PM

Just finished a book that combines history, legend, love, murder an revenge, revolution, destruction of a society, and development of an assassin, beautifully written with insight, compassion and humor.

Impossible? Not so when written in clear, poetic prose by Salman Rushdie.
"Shalimar the Clown."

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: David C. Carter
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 01:27 PM

Dave Oesterreich-I believe somebody did a one man show concerning that book.Did you see it,or know anything about it?

David

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: John Hardly
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 01:33 PM

Best book I've read in years -- The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch.

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 04:29 PM

David Carter:

No, I had not been aware of a stage production of A Confederacy of Dunces.

The one-man production might well be a very good thing, but I can't even remotely imagine that it could do justice to the book. (Which I've read three times now.)

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Good Book
From: David C. Carter
Date: 12 Sep 07 - 04:19 AM

I go along with your comments about a one-man production.

Thanks for getting back to me.

David