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I'm looking for a general history of the Nazi's SA, the brownshirts.
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Oct 9, 2009 03:40
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Cap. Monocle posted:I was wondering if someone could recommend some good and possible entertaining books on British history. I am patriotically interested in Medieval period stuff but anything about Britain will do. Also anything about British life and culture, as It is looking more and more like reading about it is as close as I will come to visiting. Terry Jones's Medieval Lives is a good introduction to the era, a useful corrective to some of the more persistent myths. It's an entertaining read. Another breezy read is Robert Lacey's Year 1000, which surveys the world view of people from that era. Not as breezy but much better written is Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, which is about 14th century France, not England. But hey, that's where all the action was in the late medieval. This book is regarded as a classic, as is Trevelyan's English Social History, which also may interest you.
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Oct 27, 2009 06:33
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kinkster posted:So, what's a decently-written book that would keep me turning the pages? Da Vinci Code? Well, that may keep you turning the pages, but it is one of the worst-written books I have ever finished. Doesn't seem to matter: a lot of people like the story so much they can ignore the infelicities in the prose. Harlan Coben's thrillers are, in my opinion, much better. "Tell No One", "The Woods", "No Second Chance". Lee Child's Reacher shoot-em-ups are pretty good, and although they get close to 500 pages, they have enough thriller elements to keep the pace moving. Michael Connelly's Bosch books are very well written, and if you like police procedurals with thriller elements, the stand-alone "The Poet" is a good place to start.
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Oct 31, 2009 19:09
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Facial Fracture posted:I really like historical biographies/autobiographies and eyewitness accounts of history either about or written by obnoxious liars, loudmouth windbags, failures, and other people whose lives are invariably more interesting than successful, kindly old dears. Anything that's simultaneously edifying and gossipy, preferably with an author whose bias is evident all over the place. This is a stretch, but David Lee Roth's autobio "Crazy From The Heat" was hilarious. It is essentially a sequence of unrelated anecdotes. He says in the introduction that readers should not take him entirely seriously, that he will sacrifice honesty for the sake of an interesting story every time.
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Nov 4, 2009 20:44
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Encryptic posted:I just saw Frost/Nixon recently and I realized I don't know that much about Nixon aside from Watergate. Any good books? I'm planning on reading All The President's Men. Been awhile since I read that, but remember it being excellent. Rick Perlstein's Nixonland was released last year, to mostly great acclaim. Does a great job of broadening the context of Nixon's political innovations (as opposed to merely being a straight bio), tracing his influence to today. I learned a lot about the other, non-Woodstock 1960s from the book.
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Nov 22, 2009 05:05
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CheerGrrl92 posted:1) This is really general. I just want to read something nonfiction that can give me knowledge or appreciation for a subject. For example, I read Cosmos and now I have a deep appreciation for why we know what we know about space and how we know it, along with tons of things ordinary people don't know. I could read about anything nonfiction, be it history, a biography, anything, as long as I come out knowing something I didn't know before. If you haven't, you should sample Sagan's other books. Goons seem to love Sagan's anit-superstition polemic The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. I liked Pale Blue Dot as well. Stephen Jay Gould's collections of essays wander all over the place, from history to pop culture to geology, but primarily biological evolution. He was a professional scientist and historian, not a Gladwell-esque dilettante, and wrote with authority on all these subjects. He is the closest thing to Carl Sagan that exists, I think. There are a number of his essays online if you want a taste. I loved his early collections, especially Ever Since Darwin and The Flamingo's Smile, but his non-essay books are also great (esp The Mismeasure of Man).
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Dec 1, 2009 16:55
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wldmn13 posted:
The further reading section of the wikipedia page looks like it has a few potentially useful titles: Aloni, Shlomo (2001). Arab-Israeli Air Wars 1947–1982. Osprey Aviation. ISBN 1-84176-294-6 Bar-On, Mordechai, Never-Ending Conflict: Israeli Military History, ISBN 0275981584 Bowen, Jeremy (2003). Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-3095-7 Hammel, Eric (1992). Six Days in June: How Israel Won the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7434-7535-6 Herzog, Chaim (1982). The Arab-Israeli Wars; Arms & Armour Press. Morris, Benny (1997). Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-829262-7 Oren, Michael (2002). Six Days of War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515174-7 Pollack, Kenneth (2004). Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948–1991. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8783-6 Segev, Tom (2005). Israel in 1967. Keter. ISBN 965-07-1370-0. quote:-A book or books on the Civil War from the soldiers' perspective. First hand accounts would be great, but not statistics, battlefield maps, and other dry things. I liked Joseph Glatthaar's General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse, which focuses on the confederate side. I includes many excerpts from soldier's letters and such (not my favourite aspect of any military history), but also makes liberal use of your dry things that put these into perspective.
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Dec 6, 2009 03:09
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oceanside posted:Can anyone reccommend me any non-fiction books on the mafia? I don't know if this is for you, but if you like looking at things from a sociological/economic angle, Diego Gambetta is a sociologist whose book "The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection" is kind of a classic in the field. Here's an article by Gambetta on the mafia (pdf) if you want to see if you dig his kind of work.
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Dec 15, 2009 15:44
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LuckySevens posted:Anyone have any good recommendations for man vs wild adventure books, even books about ambitious travel expeditions? Preferably more modern stories, but I'm open to anything if its good enough. Any traveling books through remote areas would be great too. You need to find a collection of Jack London's short stories. Not modern, but no one did the man vs nature thing better. Ever.
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Dec 23, 2009 13:41
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Ghost Boner posted:I know this a probably a long shot, but I'm a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino and I was wondering if there were any good books that have the same kind of feel as his films, particularly Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. I know Pulp Fiction is a homage to the old-school pulp tales, so suggestions from this genre would also be great. As the previous reply said, Elmore Leonard is pretty much exactly what you're looking for. Carl Hiassen and Donald Westlake also do crime novels with a comic edge. A couple of other writers who capture the grit of gangster noir (although without most of the humour of Tarantino): Ross Thomas's crime novels and Richard Stark's Parker books. And this one is kind of out there, but George V Higgins does for dialogue in novel form what Tarantino did for dialogue in movies. He's not for everyone, but if the back-and-forth between characters is what you really like about the movies, you may want to give Higgins's books a try.
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Jan 3, 2010 19:31
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Shnooks posted:I need recommendations for a really awful topic. You will probably need to acquaint yourself with the Nanking Massacre. There was a well known book written about it that I enjoyed, Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking". However, it has been widely criticised (and not only by Japanese!) as being full of inaccuracies and misguided interpretations of the facts. In any case, that book led me to "The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe" which "contains the diaries that Rabe kept during the Nanking Massacre, writing from his personal experience and observation of the events that took place". Here is a review of that book and outlines some of the controversies surrounding it and the event itself.
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Jan 3, 2010 20:39
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roffles posted:1. US/Latin American relations You should start with Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano, written in 1971 and still in print. roffles posted:3. Books about US politics during JFK/LBJ's terms , or post-Cold War/Reagan politics (I've found a bunch of stuff about Nixon/Reagan and the Cold War earlier in this thread already) One place to start is The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam, which focuses on the origins of the Vietnam war during the JFL and LBJ governments and how it grew exponentially, even though nobody particularly wanted it to. Because Halberstam is a journalist, he spends a lot of time on the personalities of the higher ups in power, and it is very well written. roffles posted:I guess basically I want a better idea of how some of our more disastrous current relations with a lot of countries came to be, and also how internally our country became so polarized. I really don't have any idea how to start looking for sources that are somewhat objective and hopefully provide an engaging read. Another book that may help you is Nixonland by Rick Perlstein, which really looks hard at the polarization part of your question. It is enormous but thorough, and a cheap paperback version came out a year ago.
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Jan 6, 2010 16:11
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Syle187 posted:I just want something that ties the series together, a villain, plot points that affect character development for the rest of the series, a character's overall goal, etc... I don't want each book to be a standalone novel that doesn't effect anything else in the series. As noted, mysteries (or more generally, the crime fiction genre) doesn't really work that way. The whole point is to have a satisfying resolution at the end of each book. There are plenty of series that have long character developments that take place over many books (I'm thinking here of Robert Parker's Spenser or Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder), but the plot is generally self-contained within each book. Even a recurring antagonist is something of a rarity because of the expectations of the genre: a resolution requires some kind of decisive ending, and a recurring antagonist implies that the previous ending wasn't decisive and was therefore unsatisfying to some degree.
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Jan 13, 2010 06:49
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SaviourX posted:Recommend me some good mystery/detective/thriller novels. Like any genre fiction, I know 90% of it is schlock, but there's got to be some good ones out there that make excellent use of the form. Richard Stark's Parker series. Parker is a heister, and the books all revolve around some caper that goes disastrously wrong. The charm here is that Stark revolutionised the genre by writing in a total amoral way -- there is no justice in Parker's universe, just a kind of craftsman's code of getting the job done right. The books vary in quality, but Stark's writing is so unique that any book you start with will blow your mind. Really. (The first book, The Hunter, is my favourite.) Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. Tightly plotted police procedurals. Bosch is a loner, and part of the tension in these books comes from having him deal with the machinery of the LAPD from the inside, not always comfortably. Dark and gritty, but not in that mannered James Ellroy way. The mid series books are the best, but really, all of them are excellent. Robert B Parker's Spenser series. Revolutionised crime fiction in the 70s the same way Stark's Parker series did in the 60s. Spenser is a dramatic re-imagining of the classic Private Investigator archetype: he is tough (of course), but also very funny and emotional. The first ten or so books are great -- there is nothing else like them in the genre.
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Jan 21, 2010 18:30
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Blurred posted:Try Europe: A History by Norman Davies. At 1400 pages it's hardly a light read, but it's written in an engaging style and much of the detail that doesn't directly affect the narrative comes in independent boxes of text that you can skip (along with the first and last 300 pages) if you just want the broad outline of major political events from 500-1700, but it really is worth the time to read the whole thing. I want to second this. One of the great things in the book is its balanced approach to easter europe (I think the author is Polish), which goes to show how biased standard European histories are balanced towards the western states.
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Jan 25, 2010 18:07
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Hand Row posted:I am looking for any light history book. I tend to prefer ones where they describe in detail the people involved, ie what type of person they were, why they made the decisions they did, etc. That is a pretty vague request. Three random selections from my library that fit that description. Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson review here Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel review here If A Pirate I Must Be: The True Story Of Bartholomew Roberts, King Of The Caribbean by Richard Sanders review
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Feb 8, 2010 18:49
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Dancingthroughlife posted:You misunderstand me. I would now like my eyes opened and am looking for any books on Christianity, religion and atheism. Recently watched Julia Sweeney's showtime special and am amped to learn more. It seems like you're looking for books on Christian apologetics and replies to apologetics? There are probably thousands of books like that -- you may want to start with one of the classics in the genre, Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not A Christian. On the sociology of religion and religious people, try Michael Shermer's How We Believe. On the psychology of religion, try William James's classic The Varieties of Religious Experience.
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Feb 12, 2010 06:53
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miniskirts posted:1. Books on Architecture: Fiction, non-fiction, textbook, anything and everything. This is a budding interest for me and I'm looking for information (technical and theory). If fiction, I prefer something where architecture is a main part of the plot (much like The Fountainhead by Rand, which I've already read). If it's non-fiction or a textbook, I prefer something relatively simple and basic, as I'm new to this. But, if there's a really good technical or theory book that delves deeper, I'm willing to give it a try. I recently read and loved Why Buildings Stand Up. quote:Here is a clear and enthusiastic introduction to building methods from ancient time to the present day, illustrated throughout with line drawings. In addition, Mr. Salvadori discusses recent advances in science and technology that have had important effects on the planning and construction of buildings. miniskirts posted:3. Books/biographies about Kaiser Wilhelm I and II quote:A tad on the dry side for the average reader, this scholarly account of the Kaiser clearly explains the influences that came to bear on the man--his family history, his personality and the society in which he lived. Just as his grandmother, Queen Victoria, embodied 19th century Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II was Germany at the turn of the century. His behavior was in keeping with the beliefs and expectations of the Prussian upper class. Although he is not fully responsible for World War I, his flaws were the flaws that lead his country into World War I. This book is a good account of one of history's great failures.
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Feb 14, 2010 16:34
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Let's just say this: all national histories are plagued with ideological biases that leave major flaws. That said, Paul Johnson's complrehensive A History of the American People is also flawed. It is ambitious, sprawling, tendentious, and drove me crazy in many ways on every page. It is probably the best all-in-one history of the USA, which may or may not be saying much, but unless you're looking for more specialised material, you should probably start with this one. The Zinn book will taste like a refreshing ice cream sundae after Johnson's meat and potatoes book, but you can't live on deserts.
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Feb 16, 2010 05:26
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Hand Row posted:Are there any good books on early Australia history and the New South Wales colony? I want me some good penal colony history. Asked a friend, he says: The convict ships, 1787-1868 by Charles Bateson and this site. Also, this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nWdUl-F4dw
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Feb 22, 2010 17:40
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Sweet Baby Ray posted:So could anyone recommend some autobiographies or biographies on black leaders from the past or present that would be accessible to 7th-8th graders? Thomas Hauser's biography on Muhammad Ali.
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Mar 3, 2010 19:48
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Danger posted:I'm a sucker for hardboiled private eye stuff. You must must must try Richard Stark's Parker books. Not private eye, but a heister, and as hardboiled as it gets. I love Ross Thomas, but some can take him or leave him. Read this description to see if he interests you. Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch books are hardboiled police procedurals. John Burdette's Bangkok series are excellent crime novels set in an unusual location. Lawrence Block's early Scudder books are explicitly an homage/continuation of the Chandler/Hammett style.
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Mar 3, 2010 23:57
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bitt3n posted:I've never read a general overview of the WWII, and I am looking for recommendations of books that will give me a broader understanding of what caused the conflict, how it unfolded, and the aftermath. I would also be interested in learning about books considered to be outstanding introductions to or commentaries on specific topics (eg Antony Beevor's Stalingrad). Mazower's acclaimed Hitler's Empire may be exactly what you're looking for. It's really long, but excellent. It covers 1925-45, entirely from the German perspective. It concentrates on the German reasons for the war, like grievances from Versailles, desire for a "Greater Germany" encompassing all ethnic Germans in Europe, ethnic hatred of Slavs. It is not a military history (like Stalingrad, which I liked a lot), and doesn't cover that aspect at all, and also gives short shrift to the Allied actions and reactions during the period. But at 800 pages it's pretty much all you'll ever need for the German side. Also recommended to me was William Shirer's classic The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Haven't read it but it seems to have maintained a high critical opinion despite being 50 years old.
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Mar 17, 2010 21:05
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Leovinus posted:I've been getting into the Jack Reacher novels, and I'd love some recommendations for similar thrillers - unrealistically badass ex-military or ex-cop main characters getting caught up in things is good. I've been looking for similar books as well. The trouble is, most thrillers are about vulnerable people unwittingly getting themselves in trouble, and the resolution is about them finding inner reserves of strength to extricate themselves from the predicament. Reacher is of course invincible, which removes a lot of the tension. The fun in the Reacher books, at least for me, is the solutions he comes up with, not so much the inevitable rear end-kickings he dishes out. I've never really found another book that balances the rear end-kicking with a McGyver-like problem solving aspect.
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Mar 19, 2010 14:32
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Legs posted:I've just recently found that most of the books on my shelves have one thing in common and that's they in one way or another involve survival in harsh or uncharted lands, ether in a realistic, sci-fi, or fantasy setting (one classic example being Dune by Frank Herbert). I have no clue if there is even a classification for this type of book. Here's a recommendation from left field: Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H F Saint. A freak nuclear accident turns a man invisible, and he spends the entire book learning how to survive. He is also being chased by some malignant government force, but the best parts are how he learns to how to get a place to live and an income, despite not being a person at all. I understand they made a lovely Chevy Chase movie from the book, but I've never seen it. The book is excellent.
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Mar 29, 2010 15:13
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pwnyXpress posted:
This one is also a terrible read. I would add JS Mill's On Liberty to your list. Not a political book itself, but Darwin's Origin of Species is a pretty decent read and had an immeasurable effect on the political discourse on the 100 years following its publication.
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Apr 1, 2010 15:59
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CommunistMojo posted:So after an unsuccessful trip to the library I'm still looking for a book detailing how other cultures/religions have influenced christianity. It's embarrassing being able to think of things off the top of my head but I can't find a book on it for the life of me. I am not an expert in this but maybe I can point you in the right direction. Zoroastrianism was the major religion in the area and time of the captivity -- there are clear points of similarity between it and Judaism. The internet is full of poo poo information on Zoroastrianism and I don't have the time or knowledge to sift out the good stuff, so I'll just direct you to the sources listed in the Religious Tolerance link above. Also relevant is the pagan influences. I haven't read Robin Lane Fox's Pagans and Christians, but it seems to deal with the interaction of early christians and pagans -- it may be what you're looking for. For theological similarities between pagan cults and early christians, see Robertson's Pagan Christs.
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Apr 3, 2010 15:44
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Cap. Monocle posted:I am looking for a book that gives a basic rundown of evolution and lists the evidence that supports it. There are lots of these books. Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution Is True is a terrible title but a good recent example of the genre. I also liked The Triumph of Evolution: And the Failure of Creationism by Niles Eldredge. Both of these authors are players in the field, and bring a lot of personal credibility to the discussion of evolution.
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Apr 8, 2010 20:19
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MrHyde posted:Does anyone have suggestions for a book about some kind of heist? Something along the lines of the Oceans 11 maybe? I kind of want to avoid the "Great Train Robbery" type books as I was hoping for a book with a slightly more modern setting. Thanks. Donald Westlake wrote two series about heisters: the Parker books are gritty and handboiled (he wrote them under the name Richard Stark), the Dortmunder books are lighter and more comic in tone. Both are excellent. Everyone who likes crime fiction should probably read The Hunter and The Hot Rock, the two books that open each of those series. More: The Getaway by Jim Thompson, Void Moon by Michael Connelly, Asphalt Jubgle by the writer who I can never remember. John Minihan also wrote a series of books on heists, from the perspective of the police investigating them. The first two were really good (The Great Hotel Robbery, The Great Diamond Robbery).
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Apr 27, 2010 04:17
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Sounds like you're looking for the "canon". Wikipedia's Western canon article may be a good start.
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Apr 27, 2010 21:49
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Inside Outside posted:I'm interested in reading a history of the Cold War. I'm looking for some that's fairly comprehensive without being too dense if that's at all possible. Suggestions? The Cold War : A New History by John Lewis Gaddis is the one most people recommend.
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Apr 29, 2010 14:09
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ArcaneMan posted:are there any other well known authoritative tomes like these that I should read? I don't know anything about the pacific, but as far as the eastern front goes, may I recommend Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad and Andrew Nagorski's The Greatest Battle about the battle of Moscow.
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May 2, 2010 17:11
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Namirsolo posted:Can anyone recommend me some good books about baseball? I already read Moneyball from a recommendation here and loved it. I'm particularly interested in understanding sabermetrics better. I'd also enjoy just general baseball history. Bill James is the answer to your query. He is not only the "father" of sabermetrics, but a terrific writer as well. I loved "Politics of Glory" (AKA "Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame") and the "New Historical Baseball Abstract". Real baseball guys say the original historical abstract was better, but it is hard to find. There are other books I like, although none by writers as good as Bill James. As an intro to baseball analytics, I thought "Curve Ball" by Jim Albert and Jay Bennett was excellent. Similarly, Wayne Winston's "Mathletics" is a really good intro to sports analytics, focusing mostly on basketball, but aslo has large sections on baseball and football.
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May 5, 2010 04:12
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Klungar posted:Has the info in this thread been posted anywhere for non-archives people to view? archive.org
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May 11, 2010 03:09
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Teddybear posted:I suppose it's mathematical, statistical, economical non-fiction. Does anyone have anything interesting on their bookshelf that is in the line of these? Yes. Yes I do. Numbers Rule Your World SJ Gould's Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin Once Upon a Number Moneyball Gerd Gigerenzer's Gut Feelings And my personal fave, Gilovich's How we know what isn't so And this one is a little different, but really good: Andrew Gelman's Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do, which is full of really cool graphs and transparent statistical analysis. I thought it would have been a much bigger hit.
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May 12, 2010 05:32
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I met a guy who couldn't stop talking about Timothy Ferriss's The 4 Hour Workweek. Said it gave him all kinds of epiphanies about his career and life path in general. I haven't read it, but I'm throwing it out there.
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May 13, 2010 17:31
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oceanside posted:I'm looking for books that are essentially a compendium of knowledge. I have and love the mental floss and QI books, as well as An Underground Education by Richard Zacks. Anything along these lines would be great. Ideas A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud By Peter Watson Bill Bryson – A Short History of Nearly Everything
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May 27, 2010 15:14
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doctor iono posted:Edit: Last one, I promise. I'm looking for a fairly comprehensive history of the French Revolution, what's out there and good? I don't know if William Doyle's Oxford History of the French Revolution has been surpassed. It is excellent.
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Jun 2, 2010 04:36
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Did That on Television posted:Awesome, this is the exact sort of thing I'm looking for! Thanks a lot. Google "On to Ottawa Trek". Also, this site seems to have a lot of references that may interest you.
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Jun 6, 2010 22:54
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Stoicinema posted:For my second request. Crime novels set in Asia. Hardboiled crime-fiction, who-dunnits, police dramas, whatever as long as it's set in places like India, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, China or anywhere in that area. Thanks in advance. There are a bunch of these now. Poster above mentioned John Burdett's Bangkok series, which are really good. Also see Christopher G. Moore's Calvino series, also set in Bangkok. James Church's Inspector O series is set in North Korea, and are great. Qiu Xiaolong's Inspector Chen series are set in Shanghai. Bookcloseouts.com has a bunch of these books super cheap. http://www.bookcloseouts.com/
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Jun 26, 2010 16:45
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