Recommend A Book - General

[Phool]

To compliment the other thread I thought I would also start a general reading thread.

[Phool]

I am a member of a historical fiction book group and I really enjoyed the latest book. (I usually don't lol)

It is Some Luck by Jane Smiley. It is the first in a trilogy about an American farming family from Iowa that spans 100 years.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00L...dingTag=1&fp=1

I really enjoyed it and fans of 100 Years in Solitude, The Little House on the Prairie books or tv programme or even The Waltons will love this. It starts in the 1930s and so assuming part of the 3rd book will be in the future.

[red_kites]

I'm currently swamped with books to read but my personal recommendation is Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keynes. Ignore the fact it's sci-fi; it merely uses science to explore aspects of the human condition.

Flowers For Algernon

Also if you don't want to buy it, I'm happy to lend-just PM me.

[flumpsy]

I dont really do fiction.

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, non fiction book that explains how the media, drug companies and quacks manipulate us with stats and dodgy trials.

It is quite an easy read considering.

[Redrick]

Originally Posted by red_kites

Flowers For Algernon

both amazing and a great shame that it's the only novel he ever wrote.

Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut - Liked Watchman? Read the novel it was ripped off inspired by

[Phool]

Originally Posted by AuroraSky

Both threads a great idea Phool. My suggestion is very atypical of me, since I avoid war films and am not into military things (maybe I feel military people are right-wing or macho and not people I would get on with?). However I read an article about Major Richard Oliver who wrote a memoir about facing down one of the scariest situations most could imagine, the WW2 Normandy landings where his men were looking to him for leadership so he had to be prepared in body, mind and spirit. Reading his own words was very interesting and oddly gave me a bit more insight into my Dad who was an extrovert and very much enjoyed the cameraderie and "esprit de corps" of his days as a paratrooper or in the TA.

Cool. Do you read in Spanish? I tried reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Spanish once. I did not succeed lol

[flumpsy]

God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
by Christopher Hitchens

The title pretty much covers it but this is such a well written book I almost wish Dawkins books were not so popular. Dawkins is easy for the religious to ignore because his books do have a slight scientific arrogance to them that puts peoples backs up.

If you give a religious person Dawkins book they will argue every point and by the end you just wish you hadn't bothered.

If you give a religious person Hitchens book they will go quiet, and you may not see them for a while. It tests faith and also does a bit more to explain why religion is where it is and why it shouldn't be.

Actually I will stop here, the amazon customer reviews do far better job at explaining this :-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/God-Not-Grea.../dp/1843545748

[SociallyAwkard]

Originally Posted by Abigail Hobbs

Kazuo Ishiguro has such an amazing and unique way of drawing you into a story by making you so invested in the character, you almost feel like you're experiencing it yourself. I cried and slept with the lights on for a few nights after reading Never Let Me Go.

I love that book.

[Amplexor]

I recently read 'Mein Kampf' by Adolf Hitler - I don't necessarily agree with his ideologies, but an interesting read nevertheless.

I'm currently reading 'Don Quixote' by Miguel de Cervantes. I've not read enough to form a proper opinion, but so far so good.

[Silhouette]

The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death and Happiness by Mark Rowlands. Welsh philosophy professor moves to america and gets a pet wolf (as you do). Thoughts on life and death, humans and animals, misanthropy, alcoholism.

[flumpsy]

^^ it is somewhat direct isnt it

[Amplexor]

Just a tad ha ha!

[Silhouette]

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti.

[db838]

I'm currently reading the new Bernie Gunther detective novel. They're always entertaining reads though this one has been a bit slow so far.

[Silhouette]

Originally Posted by silenus

Heh. This is the last book I would recommend to anyone suffering with depression. I did enjoy it, in a perverse sort of way, but if ever a book should come with a health warning...

Have you read Ligotti's short stories? I thought Teatro Grottesco was an impressive collection. This story in particular seems to have stuck in my mind: The Red Tower

Oh I don't know. He expresses things that I think better than I ever could. And it's always good to find someone far more intelligent than me who thinks the same way. I have read Teatro Grottesco. Interesting, disturbing and The Red Tower was a story which stuck in my mind as well. He's always compared to Lovecraft for some reason, though he reminds me more of Kafka.