Author Topic: Recommended Books?  (Read 179088 times)

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Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #465 on: August 22, 2016, 07:15:48 PM »

Offline BudweiserCeltic

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TP for writing though rr4ys. Good on ya

Gracias. What kind of writing do you do?

Urban Fantasy stuff mostly. Haven't put real pages together in a year or so though. Some sci-fi stuff but mostly dystopian themes or post-apocalyptic.

What UF series have you been reading in recent years if any?

The Iron Druid series is okay. There is some half-elf series too that is okay. I burned through all the Dean Koontz Odd Thomas stuff pretty fast. Obviously the Dresden books as they come out.

I read Storm Front recently.  Very pulpy, but really crisp and lean.  Well-crafted. 

Then you passed the most difficult test since Storm Front if not the weakest, it's among the weakest in the series.

In general as a rule, each book gets better and better. It's book 3 where I felt the series had a big breakthrough though and when the plot starts cementing itself.

Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #466 on: August 22, 2016, 07:20:21 PM »

Offline PhoSita

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I mean, it's very clear that Storm Front is the pilot episode, so to speak.  But as pilot episodes go, it's really well done, and mercifully short and to the point.  A nice blending of genres with a clear understanding of what it is and what it isn't.  Not great literature, but if I'm going to read not great literature, I'd much prefer a 50,000 word fantasy detective story with an amusing tone to a 150,000 word tome with extensive "world-building" (aka unsupported exposition) and largely wooden, knitted-brow characters.
You’ll have to excuse my lengthiness—the reason I dread writing letters is because I am so apt to get to slinging wisdom & forget to let up. Thus much precious time is lost.
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Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #467 on: May 20, 2018, 06:22:10 PM »

Offline Eja117

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I just finished Shores Beyond Shores. It's the Holocaust through the eyes of a child. It's almost like Anne Frank the sequel. Pretty inspiring. Self published cause the woman is really old and couldn't wait for the process of going through publishers.

Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #468 on: May 20, 2018, 07:59:39 PM »

Offline SHAQATTACK

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Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #469 on: May 20, 2018, 08:44:10 PM »

Offline liam

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Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Valis - Philip K. Dick

Women - Charles Bukowski

The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith - Cordwainer Smith


Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #470 on: May 20, 2018, 08:51:40 PM »

Offline liam

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This book did not help me. ;D

Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #471 on: June 24, 2018, 09:01:52 PM »

Offline greece66

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So we have had a lot of discussions on movies and music lately, and I was wondering about books?  I am currently looking for a new one to read and wanted to see if there were any suggestions or recommendations anyone had to offer.

The most recent one that I finished was Geoffrey Robertson's "The Tyranncide Brief".  It's a non-fiction that centers around the lesser known John Cooke and his role in bringing Charles I to trial.

If you are into 17th century English history, I strongly recommend Christopher Hill's books, in particular "God's Englishman" and "The world upside down". Hill was one of the best postwar Marxist historian, although he usually gets less credit than Hobsbawm. He is now seen as old-fashioned, and as someone who tried to impose patterns taken from the history of the Russian Civil War to the English Revolution. His books are very well written and offer valuable insights regardless.

Other than that, I can't really make recommendations, unless I know what you like. I often read books on modern European history, I guess I can help if our interests overlap.

Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #472 on: June 24, 2018, 09:20:57 PM »

Offline wiley

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So we have had a lot of discussions on movies and music lately, and I was wondering about books?  I am currently looking for a new one to read and wanted to see if there were any suggestions or recommendations anyone had to offer.

The most recent one that I finished was Geoffrey Robertson's "The Tyranncide Brief".  It's a non-fiction that centers around the lesser known John Cooke and his role in bringing Charles I to trial.

If you are into 17th century English history, I strongly recommend Christopher Hill's books, in particular "God's Englishman" and "The world upside down". Hill was one of the best postwar Marxist historian, although he usually gets less credit than Hobsbawm. He is now seen as old-fashioned, and as someone who tried to impose patterns taken from the history of the Russian Civil War to the English Revolution. His books are very well written and offer valuable insights regardless.

Other than that, I can't really make recommendations, unless I know what you like. I often read books on modern European history, I guess I can help if our interests overlap.

Wow!  You answered a 10 year old book advice post!   10 TPs.  One of each year...

On my list is Shahnameh:  The Persian Book of Kings
Looong book.  Again matching the 10 year wait..  :)

Here's a blurb:
Among the great works of world literature, perhaps one of the least familiar to English readers is the "Shahnameh: ThePersian Book of Kings," the national epic of Persia. This prodigious narrative, composed by the poet Ferdowsi between the years 980 and 1010, tells the story of pre- Islamic Iran, beginning in the mythic time of Creation and continuing forward to the Arab invasion in the seventh century. As a window on the world, "Shahnameh" belongs in the company of such literary masterpieces as Dante's "Divine Comedy," the plays of Shakespeare, the epics of Homer- classics whose reach and range bring whole cultures into view. In its pages are unforgettable moments of national triumph and failure, human courage and cruelty, blissful love and bitter grief.

In tracing the roots of Iran, "Shahnameh" initially draws on the depths of legend and then carries its story into historical times, when ancient Persia was swept into an expanding Islamic empire. Now Dick Davis, the greatest modern translator of Persian poetry, has revisited that poem, turning the finest stories of Ferdowsi's original into an elegant combination of prose and verse. For the first time in English, in the most complete form possible, readers can experience "Shahnameh" in the same way that Iranian storytellers have lovingly conveyed it in Persian for the past thousand years.

Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #473 on: September 09, 2018, 05:25:18 AM »

Offline greece66

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Maxim Gorky, My childhood (1913-4)

The book to read to understand Gorky's bitterness (Gorky means bitter in Russian).

He lost his father at a very young age, and he moved to a village to live with his grandparents. There he was exposed to the cruelty that was the norm of life for 19th cent. Russian peasants. He received very little formal education, was regularly subjected to sadistic floggings by his grandfather, and witnessed all sorts of vile things: his uncles' drunk indecencies, his grandfather punching his grandmother, and bitter fights for petty financial differences. His mother died when he was 11, Gorky had to live on his own after that. This is where the book ends.

This is a masterpiece of socialist realism, and in this sense it is partisan work written for the men and women of the early 20th century. Gorky wanted a book that was both relevant and understandable to the common folk of his times, that was typical of every day life without literary fancies, and supported the socialist cause.

Having said this, this book remains a valuable read today.Young Gorky's affectionate relationship with his maternal grandmother makes for some moving passages. Moreover, there is a lot to learn from this book if interested in the history of the late Tsarist Empire. I have the vanity to consider myself well read on this topic, but I was shocked by the sheer amount of violence detailed here. There are moments you catch yourself wondering, was it really that bad, how was this possible?

I had to read this is in a mediocre Greek translation from the French, I trust the Penguin edition fares better on this front.


Gorky with Stalin and Voroshilov


Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #474 on: September 20, 2019, 11:07:32 AM »

Offline Greenback

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Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends

by Peter Schweizer
Everyone wants truth on his side, not everyone wants to be on the side of truth.

Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #475 on: September 20, 2019, 11:26:39 AM »

Offline Somebody

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Thinking Basketball by Ben Taylor. This book will absolutely change the way you perceive the sport.
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Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #476 on: September 20, 2019, 01:55:54 PM »

Offline footey

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The Man Without a Face, The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, by Masha Gessen

The Problem of Democracy, by Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Bursten (about the views of John Adams and John Quincy Adams confronting the cult of personality)

Say Nothing, by Patrick Radiffe Keefe, about the rise and fall of the IRA in Northern Ireland.

I highly recommend all three, although I am just in the middle of the Adams' book. 
« Last Edit: September 24, 2019, 08:44:24 AM by footey »

Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #477 on: September 20, 2019, 02:04:24 PM »

Offline Donoghus

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"In the Garden Of Beast: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin" by Erik Larson (same author as "Devil in the White City")

"Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World" by Michael Lewis

"Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts" by Julian Rubinstein


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Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #478 on: September 20, 2019, 03:22:29 PM »

Offline nickagneta

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The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin.

Some of the most original science fiction I have read in quite some time. Tremendous world building and a fabulous twisting ending that makes you want to read the second book of this trilogy(The Broken Earth) immediately.

Truly worthy of the Hugo Award it won. On to books 2 and 3, also Hugo Award winners!

Re: Recommended Books?
« Reply #479 on: September 20, 2019, 10:14:09 PM »

Offline Greenback

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Inconvenient Facts: The science that Al Gore doesn't want you to know

by Gregory Wrightstone

Its a great book to read if you think the sky is falling.
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