TBB Book Recommendation Superstation !!

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Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Good Guy Chucky posted:

I�m enjoying end of the world novels at the moment:

The Stand
The Road
Blindness
Earth Ebides
Lucifer�s Hammer
Day of the Triffids
World War Z
I am Legend

All great books (maybe apart from Blindness which was more choresome than the others). If anyone has other recommendations I�d love to hear them.

It sounds like you've got plenty of recommendations already, but I'd be remiss if I didn't try to push Alas, Babylon on you. It's different than a lot of post-apoc in the sense that it takes place right after a nuclear attack, as opposed to the years-later style of The Road, Fallout, etc, and deals with the immediate issues presented by such an attack. It's really good, it was my favorite book for a long time.

As for me, can anyone recommend me some good books about India/Indians/Indian-Americans/etc, etc? I don't even really give a poo poo what it's about, fiction, non-fiction, whatever as long as India's involved in some way. I'm not even above the chick-lit "Madhuri's in love with Raj but her parents want her to get an arranged marriage, whatever will she do??? :ohdear:

" crap, as long as it offers some insight into the culture of India and/or the lives of its people. For reference, here's what I've got on the subject:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/ZMBrown/india (I hope this works, I've never actually linked anything on LibraryThing before)

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Dec 31, 2010

# ¿ Dec 30, 2010 08:30

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 19:36

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

xcheopis posted:

Your link isn't working for me (don't know why) so I'll ask if you've read any of Prof. Divakaruni's books.

I haven't yet, but my roommate's actually going to let me borrow one of Divakaruni's books once we get back in the dorms after the break ends. And, looking into that Wiki link, The Palace of Illusions looks pretty interesting, I think I'll pick that up if I see it in stores. Thanks for the recommendation!

And the link is my fault, I have no idea what the hell I'm doing with LibraryThing.
edit: never mind, I think I fixed it: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/ZMBrown/india

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Dec 31, 2010

# ¿ Dec 31, 2010 01:24

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Chamberk posted:

Prof_Beatnuts: as far as depressing Hemingway goes, "A Farewell to Arms" is the classic recommendation. I found "The Sun Also Rises" a little soul-crushing, too.

WeaponGradeSadness: Have you tried Rohinton Mistry? His book "A Fine Balance," about 4 people of various rank/caste during The Emergency was brilliant. There's a little bit of arranged marriage talk, but that's maybe 10% of the book.

Hm, I had heard of him but somehow had it in my head that he was like Indonesian or something. That book sounds real interesting, especially since I know next to nothing about about Indira Gandhi/The Emergency. I'll keep an eye out for it next time I'm at the bookstore. Thank you!

Also, don't worry about the arranged marriage stuff, like I said I'm so crazy about India I even get enthralled by all that girly stuff. I have a couple books that are just straight-up marriage-centric chick-flicks-in-book-form that I bought, read, and enjoyed because it was about India. :gay:

# ¿ Jan 2, 2011 20:24

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

rasser posted:

These are all good reads:
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, India - a Million Mutinies Now, the two books before that and A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul (A bend... is set among Indians in East Africa though, but it's still very much about indians).

Have you considered The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga? Some Kipling?

Holy crap, thanks! I've read The White Tiger, and own but haven't gotten around to reading Midnight's Children and a collection of Kipling's India-centric short stories, but I'm definitely adding the others to my wishlist. Thanks again!

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Jan 3, 2011

# ¿ Jan 3, 2011 19:00

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy is probably exactly what you're looking for as far as modern/1950's India goes. It clocks in at something like 1500 pages, and it's something of a love story/romance, but mostly it's About India, and as such it's pretty much the king of India-themed fiction, as far as I've been given to understand at least (I haven't read it myself, though I've got a copy sitting on my shelf, waiting).

Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills is the collection of short stories that first made him a famous writer; may also contain his best overall writing, and definitely the best place to start if you're looking for Kipling on India.

Chamberk posted:

I saw Midnight's Children on WeaponsGradeSadness's list, otherwise I would have recommended that as well - loving fantastic book. "The Moor's Last Sigh" is another good one of his, although it has the same main-character-as-allegory-for-India approach.

And I will read A Suitable Boy sometime. Just when I don't have 50+ books sitting around and waiting for me to read them...

I had always wanted to get A Suitable Boy, but had been intimidated by its length. I didn't realize it was that well-regarded, though, so it'll get added to my collection. I've also got a couple dozen books that need to get read, so I'll probably tag out and finish something else every couple hundred pages like I had to do with Sacred Games (since ya'll seem to be interested in India, too, I'll return the favor and recommend Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games to you, it's like this awesome mix of detective story, Godfather-style gangster movie, and Bollywood film. Real fun book, but a little over 1000 pages long). I'm glad to hear that The Moor's Last Sigh is good too, I was at a crossroads trying to figure out whether I wanted to get that or The Enchantress of Florence for my next Rushdie.
Thank you both!

# ¿ Jan 3, 2011 22:26

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Chamberk posted:

One India book I've been meaning to read for a while is The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell - it's about the Sepoy revolution. Most of my India reading has been about pretty recent history, so I should get into some of the more colonial-era stuff as well.

I'm not entirely sure why I'm so into India myself, but drat if they don't write good novels about it...

A good book about the Sepoy rebellion is Flashman in the Great Game by George MacDonald Fraser. If you've never read a Flashman novel, don't let the fact that it's an adventure story throw you; it's extremely historically accurate. It's framed as the memoirs of a fictional "war hero" (he's a womanizing, cowardly thief, who manages to bluff, blunder, and luck his way into looking like a great hero), complete with several pages of footnotes to explain historical background. In this one, he's sent to India in 1856 to investigate possible Russian activity (The 'Great Game' of the title was a Cold War of sorts between Russia and Great Britain, complete with the same level of paranoia as the American cold war) and gets swept up in the middle of the Rebellion. The whole series is great, but Great Game is one of the better ones.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2011 00:08

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

ShutteredIn posted:

Serious Men by Manu Joseph came out last year, it's a really interesting look at caste relations in modern India. It's also a satire on the science and technology boom in India, with the powerful wealthy classes pushing to establish India more on the global stage while completing ignoring most of their problems at home. And it's loving hilarious.

Ha, cool, reading Swarup's Six Suspects has got me wanting to find out more about the caste system. I could use some humor, too--Swarup and Rushdie can be clever and humorous, but I wouldn't call either of them hilarious. Thanks!

# ¿ Jan 4, 2011 02:18

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Thanks to both of you, those were very interesting. I'm glad to hear all that caste restrictions are easing up a bit--I'm planning on living and working there and have been sort of worried about where I'll be sitting as someone who doesn't even have a caste. And rasser, you should get that book if you're interested. I don't know about that one in particular, but the whole history of that time is interesting and kind of sad. I had always thought of it as Gandhi's protests and civil disobedience making the British realize they were a bunch of dicks and leaving, when in reality it was that combined with the fact that Britain had sucked the whole country dry for war-fighting resources in WWII and so were losing money since nothing was coming in from India. While I still think Churchill's good outweighs his bad, he's definitely a more complicated figure than the hard-drinking, wise-cracking badass that won WWII that I always thought of him as. Thanks again to you both, that was some good reading!

edit: India takin' over this thread

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Jan 4, 2011

# ¿ Jan 4, 2011 17:03

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

ShutteredIn posted:

Yeah this happens online too, this is a hugely popular Indian matrimony site: http://www.shaadi.com Pick Hindu for religion and look at the caste list.

Jeez, that's crazy. How do they even keep up with that? :psyduck:

Also, to Orange Guy, I heard Stephen King's On Writing and The Elements of Style by William Strunk are really highly respected. I haven't read either one of them so I can't give you any first-hand accounts, but Amazon users have rated them both 4.5 out of 5 stars, and they've got hundreds of votes each, so they can't be that bad.

~~ninja~~ regular edit: On Writing is partly Stephen King's memoirs, so it's not 100% writing guide, but what is there is apparently really good.

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Jan 4, 2011

# ¿ Jan 4, 2011 21:29

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

xcheopis posted:

Apu's World has some reccommendations for books about India (fiction and non-fiction) by Indians (instead of Westerners).

There are probably more blogs out there with better recs, but this is one that I read fairly regularly.

This is pretty awesome, thanks! I think I'm going to bookmark this and add it to my regular rotation, she sounds like she knows her stuff. I like her recent focus on murder mysteries; I just finished Six Suspects, which is the first Indian murder mystery I've ever read and was wondering if there was any more. Also good to get more Indians on there...I'm always so ashamed to see LibraryThing telling me only 5% of my library is by Indian authors since it counts Rushdie as British, Jhumpa Lahiri as American, etc. :negative:

Would anyone be interested in a separate thread for Indian literature? We've sort of overrun this thread and I think it might be cool if I made one to have our own place to recommend and discuss South Asian lit. If no one's interested I'll just let it go, though.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2011 05:22

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

rasser posted:

South Asian lit. Nice thread, will die out after a while - as did the Russian and Japanese lit threads - but I'll read it with great interest. Anyone up for it?

I just tried to make it and got autobanned. Not sure what I did wrong and too scared to try again.

If someone more familiar with the rules wants to give it a shot, go right ahead.

edit: wait, I think I saw what I did wrong. I may have used the "Hot" tag without realizing it was mod-only. I am retarded and didn't see the giant flashing sign saying not to use it right next to the text-entry field :saddowns:

. I was just going for a dumb pun about how popular Indian lit is in this thread and how hot it is in India/how spicy their food is. Yeah, I know, I've got a terrible sense of humor. Gonna try again.
edit2: Thread's up now!

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Jan 5, 2011

# ¿ Jan 5, 2011 17:09

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

ManMythLegend posted:

I don't know if this is the right thread for this or not, but has anyone read City of Thieves by Benioff? If you have can you think of any books it's similar to?

Have you read A Thousand Splendid Suns? It kind of reminds me of City of Thieves, or, rather, CoT reminded me of ATSS. the plots aren't really similar, but it's the same style of "two extremely different people forced together and trying to survive in a war", but ATSS is set in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and the mujaheddin infighting afterwards.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2011 04:12

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

schoenfelder posted:

For the past year or so I've become very interested in the history and culture of the Western Balkans, i.e. the former Yugoslavia (with a particular focus on Serbia).

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good book on Serbia and/or Bosnia-Hercegovina, especially on the lifes of ordinary people. Can be fiction or non-fiction, academic or popular. English, German and Italian are fine.

To give you an idea, here's what's on my shelf about this broad topic:

Andric, Ivo: The Bridge on the Drina
Barnett, Neil: Tito
Becker, Jens: Serbien nach den Kriegen
Cohen, Roger: Hearts Grown Brutal - Sagas of Sarajevo
Glenny, Misha: The Fall of Yugoslavia
Handke, Peter: Abschied - Reise - Nachtrag
Handke, Peter: Rund um das Gro�e Tribunal
Judah, Tim: The Serbs - History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia
Kapor, Momo: The Magic of Belgrade
LeBor, Adam: Milosevic - A Biography
Markovic, Barbara: Ausgehen
Mazower, Mark: The Balkans
Norris, David: Belgrade - A Cultural and Literary History
Popov, Nebojsa: Srpska strana rata
Sundhaussen, Holm: Geschichte Serbiens - 19.-21. Jahrhundert
Thomas, Robert: Serbia Under Milosevic - Politics in the 1990s

Any help would be appreciated, thanks a lot!

Maybe try My War Gone By, I Miss It So. It's an account of the Bosnian war, where the embedded journalist is really embedded right in the middle of the action. It's pretty good. It's just about the war, not the culture or the lives of ordinary people, but it's probably one of the best for that particular point in Bosnia's history.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2011 16:54

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Pantsmaster Bill posted:

I just came into this thread to ask a similar question, but based on my recent reading of The Inheritance of Loss and Shantaram, neither of which you seem to have.

Thanks, man! Shantaram's been on my to-buy list for a while, but I've been hesitant because of its size. Nice to hear that it's good, though, I can deal with a long book as long as it's good. I'll check out Inheritance of Loss, too, I've never read anything by Kiran Desai.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2011 21:08

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Pantsmaster Bill posted:

Everyone I know who's read Shantaram has loved it. It seems you get a very good feel of the culture from it, because it's apparently a true story. It's one of those stories that made me very happy for humanity, and moved me in parts.

Inheritance of loss is...a hard read, but worth it, for me. It's not particularly happy though.

Well, that's good to hear. I was definitely intrigued when I read Roberts's biography--anyone who broke out of an Australian jail after a long crime spree in Germany and Australia and then fled to join the Bombay Mafia has to be able to write a hell of an interesting book!

# ¿ Jan 10, 2011 03:31

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

ShutteredIn posted:

Serious Men by Manu Joseph came out last year, it's a really interesting look at caste relations in modern India. It's also a satire on the science and technology boom in India, with the powerful wealthy classes pushing to establish India more on the global stage while completing ignoring most of their problems at home. And it's loving hilarious.

I know this was from weeks ago, but I just finished this a couple hours ago and wanted to thank you again for the recommendation--it was fantastic and I never would have heard of it if it weren't for your post.

And to Coldharbour, have you read any of the Dexter novels by Jeff Lindsey? They're not comedies per se, but Dexter has such a dark, dry sense of humor that I've actually laughed out loud at some point in each of them. Except the third one, don't read that.

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Jan 21, 2011

# ¿ Jan 21, 2011 07:52

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Okay, guys, I've got a pretty weird one for you. I may need to pretend to be Catholic for a while. Possibly forever.

Is there a comprehensive...'how-to' guide, in essence? Like a Catholicism for Dummies, that would teach the basics of being Catholic. Now that I look at it, there is literally a Catholicism For Dummies book that seems pretty well regarded, do you think a book like that would help? I certainly wouldn't mind a history of the Church or anything like that but I'm primarily looking for something that would help me keep my cover. :ninja:

# ¿ Jan 26, 2011 00:53

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

barkingclam posted:

Have you considered The Bible?

Seriously, I was raised Roman Catholic and if you can at least remember the 10 commandments and most of the new testament, you're probably okay.

Well, that's good news, I was raised Baptist in a small conservative Texan town so I actually read the Bible to have something to do instead of listening to the preacher scream about gays and brown people. Thanks!

Radio! posted:

Try to pick up a Catechism book? They're what people who are converting need to read before they can convert, so you should be covered.

Awesome, thanks! Found one updated by John Paul II, think I'll pick that one up.

DrGonzo90 posted:

I think Walter would prefer you just convert.

I would but if it doesn't work out I'll be saddled with her Pomeranian and not able to roll on Sabbath. Faith isn't like a library card, Dude!

# ¿ Jan 26, 2011 05:54

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

rasser posted:

I don't know about your taste but John Paul II was very conservative (and so is his heir) so a catechismus written by him might not be very modern in integrating belief into modern thought.
For different kinds of protestants there's like a zillion readers, self-help, easy-read, philosophy whatever subject in a Bible context so searching a bit on Amazon or somewhere else might be a good idea?
If you're pretending to be catholic for a while because of a partner my guess is you might also want to have some everyday views of incorporating the religion in order to play it well.

You could also go another way about it: read some of the classical texts that I, as a 'cultural protestant', have missed: Thomas Aquinas, Fracis of Assisi. Descartes perhaps? I don't know. Desiderius Erasmus is a nice read, and the only of those mentioned I've read.

ps. Whatever you do, try not to describe the present pope in Robert Fisk's words: 'Anti-Divorce, Anti-Gay, Anti-Aircraft'.

Interesting, I always thought John Paul II was more liberal. No idea how I got that in my head, though. I'll definitely check out Aquinas, I remember a quote from him someone posted on these forums about the non-literalism of the Bible that got me intrigued to find out more, he seemed like a very smart man, and more progressive than a lot of religious leaders today. I'll keep an eye out for Desiderius, too. Thanks!

# ¿ Jan 29, 2011 19:47

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Ticonderoguy posted:

Alright I just have finished a 3 month stretch of reading where I have only read non-fiction and Heart of Darkness however I am in dire want of something like a Steve Berry or Dan Brown book which I can finish in a short time. Anybody have any kind of recommendation?

I can't say I'm familiar with Steve Berry, but as far as Dan Brown goes, you might like the Ethan Gage adventures by William Dietrich, starting with Napoleon's Pyramids. It's kind of like a mix of Dan Brown and the Sharpe's Adventure series by Bernard Cornwell. The main character is a Han Solo or Indiana Jones type 'charming rogue' sort of character, who travels to Egypt and the Holy Land alongside Napoleon's army in the late 1800s as he tries to find an ancient magic artifact before the bad guys can get their hands on it. It's got a nice mix of action, humor, history, and intrigue (the Masons and their secrets are a pretty big part of it, which is what made me think of Dan Brown and his shadowy conspiracy groups), and is better written than Dan Brown, too (I don't have the hatred for Brown that a lot of people here do, in fact I quite like his books, but still). The first two need to be read in sequence, but the latter two seem to be stand-alone, although I've only read the first couple so I might be wrong about that.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2011 03:22

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Radio! posted:

I know this has probably been asked before (but I don't think too recently?), but does anyone have any recommendations for basic overviews of recent Middle Eastern/North African history and politics? I've been trying to follow the protests/revolutions as closely as possible, but it's difficult since I have no background knowledge whatsoever of the entire region.

I want to pick up Inside Egypt and in the meantime I've got a couple books on Al-Jazeera, but that's it. Even super broad, basic overviews are fine. Seriously, I know nothing and I want to fix that.

What Every American Should Know About The Middle East by Melissa Rossi is really good, despite the author's obnoxious liberal bias. I mean, she's not wrong about anything, really, it's just a little jarring to see how she just absolutely doesn't give a poo poo about hiding it if you prefer a little objectivity in your history. It starts off back in the very beginning when human civilization first started to form in Mesopotamia, but pretty quickly moves into more modern issues--colonialism, etc. It came out in 08 so it won't have anything about the current protests, but it might be able to put it all into a historical context for you.

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Feb 22, 2011

# ¿ Feb 22, 2011 01:28

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

I don't know about that first one (seriously :wtc:

was that) but your second example reminded me a lot of Hugh Laurie's book The Gun Seller, which is a pretty funny parody of spy novels. I'm not a huge humor-book fan, but I thought Gun Seller was hilarious.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2011 17:17

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

MAS Abdel Haleem's is a really good translation of the Qu'ran, too. Extremely readable, the best translation I've seen easily. I wish I could help you with the Bible, but I don't know as much about that.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2011 01:53

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

gameday posted:

There have been some fantastic recommendations in this thread so far, and I want to thank all the goons who have contributed. Now I have a request:

I'm looking for some good books about India. I think I'd prefer non-fiction, but if there are some especially great novels I will look at those, too. Anything you guys have read that just had you rapt the entire time?

Gonna shamelessly promote my own thread on the subject here. To actually answer your question instead of just advertising, William Dalrymple is my favorite non-fiction author about India--everything from travel essays to history. Nine Lives might be a good place to start with him--it looks at the religious life of 9 Indian people, and is a pretty good look at spirituality in India.

As far as fiction goes, Jhumpa Lahiri's my favorite by far. She's Indian-American so most of her stories are about first- or second-generation Indian immigrants reconciling their heritage with their new home, so if that's your thing definitely check her out.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2011 23:03

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Bruiser posted:

I was interested in checking out some alternate history? I'm not really familiar with the genre, so I'm being pretty vague here. I don't know where to really begin, but the idea of "what happens if X happens instead of Y?" Sounds really interesting to me. I pretty much only read airport fiction

You might want to check out Robert Conroy's stuff. I've only read 1945 and 1945: Red Inferno but they were both good. Usually alternate history like Harry Turtledove has a lot of time travel and aliens and bullshit like that, so I like Conroy's approach of just changing something up in a way that could conceivably happen. For example, both the books I listed show alternate ends to World War 2: In 1945, he looks at the invasion of Japan after Japanese military officers kill the emperor to prevent his surrendering after the A-bombs while Red Inferno is a war between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union sparked by the Allies sending in a unit to a Berlin suburb to try and prevent the USSR from moving past Berlin, which the Soviets mistake as an attempt to take Berlin by force. They're pretty good if you like military fiction.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2011 21:37

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

foundtomorrow posted:

I very much enjoy the two authors Vince Flynn and David Baldacci. I have read all of the books written by those two authors now. I also enjoyed reading the whole Bourne series. I have found through searching this forum that Lee Child might be a good one to try out next, so I will give him a shot for sure.

Any suggestions similar to these two authors I might enjoy?

Have you read any of Alex Berenson's novels? They're pretty good spy stories. I've read the first three out of five, and the first, The Faithful Spy might be my favorite spy novel, maybe tied with The Bourne Identity. The second was a little weaker but I'd still recommend all three of them. I haven't gotten around to reading the next two, but I've heard they're good as well.

As for me, I've been wanting to start reading an eighteenth-to-nineteenth century naval series--Aubrey/Maturin, Hornblower, Lord Ramage, something like that. I plan on reading at least parts of each of the three series eventually, but for now, which of these is more action-y? I've just hit my annual reading slump and I want to break out of it with something that's more "broadsides and boarding" than cerebral.

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Mar 31, 2011

# ¿ Mar 31, 2011 05:41

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Quantify! posted:

What are some good books about modern Arab or Arab-American women? Themes of "oppression" and "sexuality" are most useful. Fiction or non-fiction.

I have a bunch of stuff by Hanan al-Shaykh ordered already.

I realize that Afghani and Arab aren't the same thing, but Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, about two Afghan women living through the Soviet invasion and mujaheddin infighting, Taliban rule, etc., with a pretty heavy focus on womens' oppression in that society. I'd definitely check it out if you're willing to go for the Muslim world as a whole instead of something about Arabs specifically.

If you're set on Arabs specifically, I have a couple friends who said Randa Abdel-Fattah's Does My Head Look Big In This? was really good. I haven't read it personally, so this is more of a second-hand recommendation, but it's all about a Palestinian-Australian teenager's decision to wear the hijab full-time, so I'd imagine it brings up a lot of questions about the woman's place in Islam/Palestinian culture and so on. Sorry if neither one is what you're looking for, I'm just starting to get into Middle-Eastern/Islamic literature myself.

Also, if The Story of Zahra is one of the books you're ordering by al-Shaykh, let me know how it is! Some dick on Amazon spoiled the whole thing for me in a review, but I'm still really interested in reading it (partly out of spite for that spoiling rear end in a top hat :argh:

# ¿ Apr 11, 2011 19:34

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

DrGonzo90 posted:

I'm interested in military non-fiction, specifically dealing with unconventional warfare and special forces groups. Really any small, highly trained military group (like Green Berets, snipers, etc.) that can affect a combat situation in an unconventional way is of interest to me. I'm also looking for good books on military strategy, both large-scale (tactics of the most successful military leaders) and small-scale.

Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm looking to put together a nice big reading list so feel free to suggest anything that's good even if it's only slightly related.

As far as special forces go, have you read Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell? It's really good, one of the best military memoirs in my opinion. It's about the SEALs mission to capture a Taliban bomb-maker that goes horribly awry and ends with the largest loss of life in SEAL history, written by the only survivor of the first SEAL team to go in. Roughneck Nine-One by Frank Antenori and Hans Halberstadt is good too. It's about Army special forces and their Kurdish allies fighting off an Iraqi armored task force in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2011 03:52

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Mung Dynasty posted:

I'm in the mood for a story in which people are put into strange life-or-death survival situations, primarily pitted against each other in a remote or unfamiliar location, possibly for the amusement of a third party.

I have of course read The Most Dangerous Game and absolutely loved it. I also read Battle Royale and thought it was a squandered opportunity, but maybe I read a bad translation.

Thanks in advance!

They're pretty popular so I'm almost hesitant to ask, but have you read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins yet? It's a lot like Battle Royale, though I honestly prefer the Games.

# ¿ May 1, 2011 01:06

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Mung Dynasty posted:

I don't read as much as I should, so no, I haven't heard of it. Sounds great, though! Ordering it from the library now. Thanks!

No problem, I hope you enjoy it! The whole series is great, but I love the first one especially.

who cares posted:

I would like to read an interesting memoir that isn't ghost-written or co-written. Any ideas?

If you like Bruce Campbell, his If Chins Could Kill is hilarious and exactly the kind of quirky, off-beat book you'd expect from him. I haven't sat down and seriously read it yet, but I've read a few chapters and they were great.

# ¿ May 1, 2011 05:33

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

My favorites from high school were:
The Count of Monte Cristo (we read the abridged version, though, I'd imagine the unabridged would be better for someone not reading for class)
Dante's Inferno
The Iliad (The Odyssey was good, too, but I preferred Iliad)
And for more modern stuff:
All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, which I read in the same position as you: didn't read it when we were assigned it (I was put off by his unconventional style), came back to it later, loved it.
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.

Those were good ones that I think you might like now.

edited for legibility

edit2: VVVV Yeah, that was another good one. I had the option to read that or another book that turned out lovely and I made the wrong choice but read Life of Pi on my own later and it was good. VVVV

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 04:51 on May 4, 2011

# ¿ May 3, 2011 19:24

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Gravy Jones posted:

I haven't read them but you might enjoy the works of Andy McDermott (who is a goon - Payndz I think). They're all about the kind of stuff you're talking about. Although be warned, the first one has "Atlantis" in the title. It might not be that far removed from Reilly but... in his favour Payndz has a sense of self awareness (which is obvous in his posts, he seems like a jolly nice chap) that Reilly is completely lacking.

There's also the airport fiction megathread lurking around here somewhere (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3282164) that may have some crossover with this kind of stuff.

Yeah, I've read the first one and it was awesome, I had a lot of fun reading it. It is about Atlantis, but I'd give it a shot anyway, Hedrigall--I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's not your typical under-the-water Atlantis-hunting story.

# ¿ May 12, 2011 20:06

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

incogneato posted:

Although my to-read list is long, I need some post-finals mind numbing action (I'm envisioning scifi, but that's flexible for sufficiently good action).

I'm looking for a highly competent protagonist and copious awesome action scenes. I don't care if it's totally gratuitous and lacking in the plot department (although it doesn't have to be poo poo). I've never really sought out anything like this, so the only things that immediately come to mind for comparison is Bourne in the movies (not really the books), or Culture agents in Iain M. Banks' stuff.

Recommend me some badass-ness with a healthy sprinkling of violence!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm gonna recommend The Hunt for Atlantis again, because it's exactly what you're asking for. Other than that, there's the Sharpe' Adventure series which I'm particularly fond of because it's basically just guns and explosions but not really mindless because you can still learn poo poo about the Napoleonic Wars and what have you. It starts chronologically with Sharpe's Tiger, but you can pretty much read them in any order with only a few exceptions (if you're going to read Sharpe's Triumph, read Tiger first, and if you're going to read Sharpe's Fortress read both Tiger and Triumph) but other than that they're mostly stand-alone. Personally, I think Tiger is the best that I've read so far, but I might just be biased since it's in India.

Both of them have extremely awesome protagonists and a lot of poo poo blowing up, and are a hell of a lot of fun.

# ¿ May 12, 2011 22:49

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Soul_Doubt posted:

re True Crime, I thought The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher was absolutely fantastic and I would highly recommend it.

I'm hoping that someone will be able to recommend me a book or two. I like literary fiction, and these are books I've read in the last couple of years that I've loved:

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

However, there's a couple of books I've tried to get into recently that I thought would be perfect for me but just weren't:

The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil

In my younger years I loved Dostoevsky / Knut Hamsun etc. Hope that gives you all a decent picture - am about halfway through Freedom by Jonathan Franzen at the minute and after that I have nothing so any recommendations would be most welcome!!

If you liked Blood Meridian you should check out other McCarthy's, his stuff's all really good. Personally, my favorite was No Country for Old Men, but you really can't go wrong with anything by McCarthy.

# ¿ May 15, 2011 18:28

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Are there any good books about Turkey? I'd prefer fiction, but good, readable nonfiction would be cool too. I don't care if it's modern or in the Ottoman period or whatever, either, just any good books about Turkey would be appreciated, thanks

# ¿ May 24, 2011 02:19

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

tookie posted:

You might want to try Bliss by O. Z. Livaneli. It's an interesting novel that gives you several different aspects of Turkish society.

Just looked it up and it sounds like exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the recommendation!

# ¿ May 24, 2011 20:09

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

geegee posted:

Orhan Pamuk is always the first answer to a request like yours. If you'd prefer Ottoman era fiction there's MY NAME IS RED and SNOW for more contemporary but still topical fiction. If you're interested you could see his page in Wikipedia for the rest of his writing. He's brilliant.

Sorry this is so late. I don't get into this thread as often as I'd like.

Thanks for the recommendation! I had seen Orhan Pamuk's works in the "Other customers also bought..." section on Amazon when I ordered Bliss, but didn't follow up on it until this post. My Name is Red sounds really interesting, I think I'll order that one next time I'm buying off Amazon. Thanks again

# ¿ May 27, 2011 13:29

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

hunter x az posted:

This thread is so long, and search isn't helping. I am looking for some good reads regarding the following:

Politics (Democratic, Liberal/Progressive, Presidential Biographies, campaign reads, etc)
Wars (Particularly American involvement, WW1, WW2, etc)
Education (Cognitive theory, the politics of;, learning styles, etc)

For wars, do you want general overviews, or personal "Boots on the Ground" sort of thing? For overviews, Ken Burns's The War, the companion piece to the documentary of the same name, is really good. Don't worry about it being a companion, I didn't even know there was a documentary until I had finished with it and I still understood, learned from, and loved it, so it's not like it's just supplementary information or anything. For personal ones, The Last Good War is a collection of several WWII vets' stories and from what I've read it's pretty good--I haven't gotten around to sitting down and really reading it, but I enjoyed what I have read. With the Old Breed by EB Sledge is a good account of Peleliu and Okinawa from a mortarman's perspective, and Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell is a great story of a Navy SEAL operation in Afghanistan that went tragically wrong. For a mixture of both, Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden does a good job of balancing general overview with testimony from the soldiers involved. Hope this helps.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2011 05:01

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

euphronius posted:

My wife is looking for summer reading. She has said she wants some historical fiction that is women centered. Any ideas?

Does she want anything more specific than that? Historical fiction can mean a lot of things. To get started, the only historical fiction I read that isn't military fiction (I'm assuming she won't be into that, but if she is let me know and I can make a ton more recommendations!) is stuff about India, so for women-centric stuff I can recommend Beneath A Marble Sky by John Shors, about the eldest daughter of Shah Jahan, the emperor that built the Taj Mahal (full disclosure time, I've never actually read this one, it's in my unread pile of books, but I've heard a lot of good things and it sounds interesting) in the seventeenth century. For stuff I have actually read, there's Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna, about two childhood friends growing up and getting caught up in a love triangle in South India in the late 18- and early 1900s. This one's really good, and Mandanna's my favorite new author--I really loved this book.

As for me, I've got something to ask: can anyone recommend a sci-fi novel about space combat? I'd really prefer 'soft' sci-fi, you know, PEW PEW lasers and explosions/sounds in space and no explanation how anything works--not being a big sci-fi reader I don't really care about the technical details, I just want huge fleets of spaceships pounding the poo poo out of each other. Think more Star Wars than anything else. I'd also prefer if it was about fleets of battleships as a whole or at least a big battleship, rather than an individual fighter pilot, and if there weren't a whole lot of non-human aliens. I'd also prefer if it was an original work and not like Star Wars/Star Trek EU or anything like that. I guess picture Sins of a Solar Empire: The Book. I'd ask in one of the specific threads about this kind of thing, but I don't know if it should go in the Space Opera or just general sci-fi thread or even what the difference between those two are--like I said, I'm a sci-fi newbie when it comes to books :shobon:

. Also, I realize I've got a lot of criteria, so I think I should make it clear that I none of them are necessary--that's an idea of what I want but I won't turn my nose up at a good, fun, space battle book because it has aliens or whatever. Just whatever's good that kinda sorta matches up with this. Thanks

edit: also, should I buy The Golden Compass? I hope asking about a specific book isn't against a rule, I'm still asking whether you'd recommend it to me. :ohdear:

The thing is, I liked The Chronicles of Narnia as fun adventure stories and have heard TGC compared to those multiple times as an atheist alternative. The thing is, I'm a little worried because all the praise I've read about it have just been people gushing over how cool it is to have atheist fantasy and I don't really give a poo poo about that--while I am atheist, I don't really see a point in reading things to reaffirm that. So what I'm asking is, does it stand on its own merits as a fantasy adventure story and not just an atheist circlejerk?

Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jun 11, 2011

# ¿ Jun 10, 2011 22:36

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 19:36

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

Do Not Resuscitate posted:

I bet you'd enjoy the Honor Harrington series by David Weber.

Sounds awesome, thanks!

# ¿ Jun 11, 2011 00:44

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