Books , authors , let's discuss

[fotoguzzi]

Opps I forgot to mention the question at hand....too many favorite authors...but I'll mention the last few years I've been reading biographies and autobiographies mostly from musicians, as I've been one all my life

George Harrison I me mine
BB King  Blues all Around me
Phil Lesh Searching for the Sound
Paul McCartney The Life.......also The Love We Make
Bruce Springsteen Born to Run ......Long Walk Home
Rory Block Prove It On Me
Warren Zevon Nothing's Bad Luck
Eric Clapton The Auto Biography
Robbie Robertson Once Were Brothers
Les Paul In His Own Words
Jerry Garcia Jerry on Jerry
Frank Sinatra, All or Nothing at All......His way

etc...

I'm sure you'd like this,

[larrys]

I read to decompress from my daily stress. I go through a couple of sci-fi paperbacks a week. There is a used book store near me that has shelves and shelves of old and new sci-fi paperbacks. Cost to buy is $1. They will buy them back for $.25 store credit.
Just finished an H Beam Piper and an Orson Scott Card. Reading a compilation by Pournelle of early (1950's) short stories.
Larry 

[mobiker]

I mostly read fiction. Some authors I like are: Michael Connelly; Karin Slaughter; Bernard Cornwell; J.D. Robb; Elmore Leonard; John Sandford; Dexter Colin; Elizabeth George, etc.

Two of the best books I ever read are The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk. If you like historical fiction these are fantastic.

[SIR REAL ED]

The Tiger by John Valliant.

It would take me days to write a review that would do the book justice.  991 ratings at the link below.

Lets just say read it.  Animals, human nature, tales of hardship, failure and triumph, philosophy, history, economics, this book has it all.

https://www.amazon.com/Tiger-Vengeance-Survival-Vintage-Departures/dp/0307389049/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&hvadid=77721782327906&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&keywords=the+tiger+book&qid=1614606778&sr=8-1

[Don G]

A couple of Canadian authors come to mind, Farley Mowat and W.O.Mitchell, their work is outstanding. DonG

[jbell]

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

 

[larrys]

A couple of Canadian authors come to mind, Farley Mowat and W.O.Mitchell, their work is outstanding. DonG

I read Never Cry Wolf in high school. Was a fascinating tale. I still remember the part about overloading the plane with beer.
Larry

[Don G]

Got to have beer!   DonG

[kirby1923]

Just finished,

ZERO, by C Seife
The biography of a dangerous idea...

 I found it a fascinating bit of history.

:-)

[LowRyter]

Anything by Cormac McCarthy but Suttree is at the top.
The Sicilian by Mario Puzo
Everyman ,Exit Ghost ,and Indignation by Philip Roth
American Meteor by Norman Lock
The Son and American Rust by Philipp Meyer
The Sisters Brothers and French Exit which is a new movie by Patrick deWitt
ANYTHING by E.L. Doctorow - Homer & Langely ,The March , Billy Bathgate ect.

"Ragtime"  fantastic. 

I'm also a big on the Gore Vidal Narratives of Empire (US History) series.  Seven books, from "Burr" - "Golden Age" (none written chronologically). 

"Lincoln" much of it was written from view of the Surratt family and "Empire" set at the turn of the 20th Century were my two favorites.  Lincoln had very little of the fictional Burr family lineage.  Gore also portrays a sympathetic view of Burr shooting Hamilton. 

[normzone]

I'm back, and just finished going through this thread looking for spy/detective author recommendations.

I like modern spy more than WWII/Cold war stuff.

Which leads me to my latest enthusiastic recommendation - Mick Herron, and the Slough House/Slow Horses series.

MI5 veterans and wannabes who it's impolitic to fire for their various misdeeds get sent to an old house in Slough, a London suburb.

The stories of these well intentioned unfortunate souls make for great reading - They work for Jackson Lamb, a slow horse in his own right. We learn their back stories eventually, and the author does not hesitate to kill them off and substitute for them as soon as you've gotten used to loving them. I now own the set and yearn for the next one.

Any fresh recommendations in a similar vein appreciated.

[berniebee]

For fun I like Michael Crichton's novels: There are so many, but I remember Airframe, Andromeda Strain, and of course Jurassic Park. At the time I worked with DNA analysis Instrumentation, so Jurassic Park really peaked my interest. I still remember a few fantastically suspenseful scenes in the book which I was disappointed to find were completely absent from the movie.

My most recent read was an odd one, at least for me: I discovered "How to change your mind". (Michael Pollan)  at a friend's cottage this summer.  In part it's about how modern day scientists have revived the study of psychedelics like LSD and the Psilocybin mushroom in the search for effective treatments for depression and alcoholism. Apparently psychedelics were seen to have huge potential in the mid twentieth century and were unknown outside academic circles until they escaped into the public in the late 1950's. Whereupon they were promoted by some strange people, became a counter culture drug and as a result the whole field of study was shut down for decades. And then it went underground. I was astounded at how much progress we have made in understanding the brain's function since 2001 using fMRI and other tech.  The eye opening theories of "self" from different scientific and cultural viewpoints, and the compelling people (Timothy Leary too, but he's far from the most interesting.)  make for a page turner. 

[krglorioso]

"The Blue Nowhere" by Jeffrey Deaver.  Computer whiz tries to track computer hacker serial killer.  Could not put it down (really).

Ralph

[John A]

I'm back, and just finished going through this thread looking for spy/detective author recommendations.

I like modern spy more than WWII/Cold war stuff.

Which leads me to my latest enthusiastic recommendation - Mick Herron, and the Slough House/Slow Horses series.

MI5 veterans and wannabes who it's impolitic to fire for their various misdeeds get sent to an old house in Slough, a London suburb.

The stories of these well intentioned unfortunate souls make for great reading - They work for Jackson Lamb, a slow horse in his own right. We learn their back stories eventually, and the author does not hesitate to kill them off and substitute for them as soon as you've gotten used to loving them. I now own the set and yearn for the next one.

Any fresh recommendations in a similar vein appreciated.

Welcome back.

[normzone]

Thank you John, that's very kind of you. I'll be riding and reading this weekend - not at the same time, of course.

[bad Chad]

Some of the best, most riveting fiction I’ve yet read:
The Stand by Stephen King

The Dark Tower series, Stephen King

[Stretch]

Wow. Lots of familiar authors in the threads above.

I liked Stieg Larsson's books very much, too.

And I, too,  like almost anything by Louis L'Amour.
"The Serpent's Coil" by Farley Mowatt is a great read.

The Kurt Wallander series by the late Henning Mankell is also good.
"The White Lion" might be my favorite.

"The Dogs of War" by Frederick Forsyth
"The Day of the Jackal" by Frederick Forsyth - brilliant novel, and movie is pretty good, too.
"The Eye of the Needle" by Ken Follett
"Hornet Moth" by Ken Follett

I love short stories: (Short attention span?!    )
"No Comebacks" by Frederick Forsyth
"Ford County Stories" by John Grisham
"Lord Peter" by Dorothy L. Sayers

Rudyard Kipling - "Complete Verse"
Rudyard Kipling - "The Jungle Books"
Any of the Spencer novels by the late Robert B. Parker

Anything by the Australian author Morris West. What a talent!
I'm surprised he wasn't more popular in the US....

"Feast of Bones" Daniel Bolger

Tony Hillerman, Jack Higgins, and the late Dick Francis are some other authors who've kept
me amused.

And more and better besides.

Some great suggestions above, too.

                                                                -Stretch

[drw916]

I am a chronic rereader.  I read very fast with minimal retention so I can read books many times.  I favor series and my all time favorite is the Jack Aubrey series by Patrick O’Brian.  22 books based on an English captain’s life during the  turn of the 19th century.  Other favorites:

Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell
Hornblower series by CS Forester
Saxon series by Bernard Cornwell

Enough books to get me through most of the winter

[ScepticalScotty]

Huge Orwell fan - have all the novels apart from "Burmese days" and also have the 4 volumes of collected essays, letters, reviews, articles. Oh and Homage to Catalonia, Down and Out In Paris and London, The Road To Wigan Pier.

I thought "Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason was superb. For a unique view of a different conflict "Troop Leader" by Bill Bellamy is excellent (British tank commander in Cromwells and Chaffee, retired from service in the Centurion).

I just read a lot, as does Jill. My current books are "Three Men and a Boat" by Jerome K Jerome, "A World of My Own" by Robin Knox-Johnson (first person to sail around the world non-stop) and err.....The Great Tank Scandal by David Fletcher (of Bovington fame).

[larrys]

I don't have much interest in non-fiction but recently read Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer. Talk about an insider's view! He wrote the manuscript in secret while imprisoned in Spandau.
Larry