Any books you really loved lately?

[mahina]

I don't read much fiction but just finished 'City of Thieves' by David Benioff and loved it.

Midway through "Peace Like a River" and it would be great to have a few solid recommendations as the end is approaching.

Mahalo DU.

[Ohio Joe]

1. I just finished Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe

Two books in one, Soldier of the Mist and Soldier if Arete. Good stuff... but then again, so is pretty much all of Wolfe's stuff.

About a soldier that suffers a head trauma during a battle and can form no new memories, by morning what happened the day before is gone. He developes a new ability though in which he can see and converse with gods and monsters that no one else can see.

[mahina]

10. Timely,

thank you!

[Courtesy Flush]

2. We listened to the City of Thieves audiobook

Really good story. My wife's book club weren't crazy about it, but I think it appeals to men more than women.

[mahina]

11. It's got its dark moments, for sure.

I loved it, and my Mom did too. Please add us to the data set :)

[Courtesy Flush]

19. Yeah, my wife loved it too.

[Sisaruus]

3. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

I seldom want to read a novel a second time but I want to savor this one again.

A nonfiction recommendation: Death of the Liberal Class by Chris Hedges

[mahina]

12. Hedges is brilliant.

The last book I read of his was "War is a Force that Gives us Meaning".

I'm sure after reading it that he suffers from some degree of PTSD.

Will look forward to "Out Stealing Horses". Poking around the web after your rec, it sounds excellent. Thank you.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America

by Adam Cohen

The title speaks for itself.

[mahina]

15. Right up my alley.

I have a copy of FDR's " On Our Way", which started off my collection of President's autobiographies. There is a small eight year break beginning Jan. 21 2001 which will remain unfilled.

Thank you for the recommendation.

[Ozymanithrax]

5. The Lost Gate - Orson Scott Card

A very good book.

[CTyankee]

6. Just for fun: Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m.

It's about the making of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." A nice reverie of a movie I have treasured.

It's not all Hollywood gossip. It discusses the director, screenplay writer, producer, costume designer and of course the stars themselves. An intelligent look at an American Classic. Nice touches about Truman Capote...

[frazzled]

7. The Hare with Amber Eyes

by Edmund DeWaal. Really one of the best nonfiction books I've read in a very long time. If you like history, art, and/or biography, you will be captivated by this story of a collection of netsuke and its journey through one family's history in late 19th century Paris and early to mid-20th century Vienna, with stops in Tokyo and Odessa bookcasing the whole affair.

[mahina]

9. That sounds lovely,

thank you.

[RainDog]

20. I second your recommendation n/t

[JFN1]

8. And Darkness Comes by D.J. Dupree

Excellent horror novel - found it at Amazon - a friend recommended it, one of the best stories I've read in years, totally original, and very well written. I found the link to the book's website: http://anddarknesscomes.com/

[Faygo Kid]

13. I recently finished "The Longest Winter," David Halberstam's last.

About the Korean War, so overlooked. Fascinating read.

I'm doing the Civil War Sesquicentennial thing now, starting with my beloved Bruce Catton. Again.

[mahina]

16. I'll definitely put that on my must read list.

My grampa was in Korea and even with my own interest in peace, war, and history, my understanding of that conflict is minimal. Thank you for the good suggestion.

[Bozita]

23. A history buff co-worker had a cabin near Frankfort, MI in the '70s ...

... and would often see Catton in town.

He said Catton was a friendly old fellow who was just one of the locals there.

I always envied that guy.

[taterguy]

14. Yes

[dionysus]

17. Bag of Bones by Stephen King.

[theHandpuppet]

18. Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls

Damn, that woman does some mighty fine writing!

[Courtesy Flush]

21. My wife is reading "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"

Looks interesting. Henrietta died in the 1950s, but while she was alive, a tissue sample was taken from her body. Before then, labs were not able to keep human tissue alive outside the body. But there was something different about her, and her cells lived, and are still alive today. They have been propagated for decades, and have produced hundreds of tons of tissue for research. They have been sent to space, and helped cure polio. Nearly all research using human tissue samples, even to this day, are conducted with her cells.

For decades, her family was not aware that the tissue was being used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRrNjHYxP_o

[RZM]

29. This was the subject of a Fresh Air segment that recently re-aired

Terri Gross had the author of a recent book (I'm assuming the same one you read) on the show. Pretty interesting stuff . . . I had never heard any of it.

[JitterbugPerfume]

32. I just finished that book

and it is one of the best books I have read in a while. You wont be disappointed

[annm4peace]

22. Right now I'm enjoying

"A Woman Among Warlords".. about Malalai Joya. She just came to US on her book tour. the US tried to keep her out and deny her a visa but enough people called the State Dept, the White House and their Reps.. that they have it to her on Thursday.

We rarely get to read about war and occupation from the woman's view. And bravely taught girls to read during the Taliban reign, then ran and won for Afghanistan Parliament and denounced the Warlords when she was in only in her 20's. She continues to speak out even though she has had 4 attempts on her life.

Here is were she is going to be this week and next. Maybe she will be near or in your city.
http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1201

You can order book from co-op book store run by Vets.
http://www.maydaybookstore.org/ They don't take credit cards but it is nice to support local bookstores.

**
another book I found at an estate book sale and it was so captivating.

"the Escape on the Pearl"

the writer had done so much through research and included parts from letters written, newspaper reports, and eyewitness accounts taken from family members. It was really inspiring to read the struggles of the abolitionists, the slaves and their families against the law, popular belief, etc. You feel you are part of that time period and you feel the anguish, their hopes, their challenges, their little wins, their loses.. etc.

"On the evening of April 15, 1848, seventy-seven slaves attempted one of history's most audacious escapes--and put in motion a furiously fought battle over slavery in America that would consume Congress, the streets of the capital, and the White House itself. Setting sail from Washington, D.C., on a schooner named the Pearl, the fugitives began a daring 225-mile journey to freedom in the North. Mary Kay Ricks's unforgettable chronicle brings to life the Underground Railroad's largest escape attempt, the seemingly immutable politics of slavery, and the individuals who struggled to end it. All the while, Ricks focuses her narrative on the intimate story of two young sisters who were onboard the Pearl, and sets their struggle for liberation against the powerful historical forces that would nearly tear the country apart."

It helped to put in perspective the length of time it takes to fight back and to have patience.

[Versailles]

24. A bit less "heady" than some of the other stuff listed here...

I recently listened/read the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Outstanding young adult fiction, but still a good read for adults. It deals with some very serious issues and those with a good political head on their shoulders can see some interesting parallels.

[Bigmack]

25. "Before the Dawn"... by Nicholas Wade...

The DNA history of man...

[RZM]

26. That's really a landmark work n/t

[Richard D]

27. I just finished "One River"

by Wade Davis.

It's an amazing narrative that shifts between his amazing journey in the Amazon as an Ethnobotanist and the story or Richard Evans Shultes whose story is beyond amazing. 5/5 in my humble opinion.

[RZM]

28. 'Bloodlands' by Timothy Snyder

It's excellent scholarship on the massive killing that went on in the borderlands between Germany and the Soviet Union in the 1930s-40s. Snyder is one of the best there is when it comes to English-language scholarship on Central and Eastern Europe.

[geckosfeet]

30. Gabor Mate - 'In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts' - not fiction but quite interesting

[SheilaT]

31. Right now I'm reading

A Lost Wife's Tale by Marion McGilvary, and it has some truly wonderful phrasing in it.

She describes someone staring at a carpet as if she were paid by the hour to watch it, and in another place describes a townhouse in Manhattan as the sort of place God would live in if he moved to New York and cheated on his taxes.

I'm a little less than halfway through, and I hope this sort of thing continues.

Another work of fiction with remarkable writing is Lost Girls by Andrew Pyper. Amazing. I read it about ten years ago so I can no longer recall specifics, but I kept on reading portions out loud to my husband, who was not a reader of fiction himself.

[toddaa]

33. The Complete Stories of JG Ballard

I'm slowly (very slowly) reading through this massive tome and relishing ever word. I've read many of them before, but I can read stories like Concentration City or Terminal Beach a million times and never tire of them.

[Casandia]

34. The FEVER series by Karen Marie Moning

Fun, fantasy, and fae ... oh my! Could not put the books down. In fact, rereading them!

[Luciferous]

35. The Name of the Wind was really good

:shrug:

[Zoigal]

36. Am finishing Henning Mankell's last Kurt Wallander novel..

"Troubled Man". Have always loved his books. They are often
a bit dark, but great stories. Translated from Swedish....z

[fadedrose]

37. THREE SISTERS by James D. Doss

Mr. Doss is a wisecracking wiseass (excuse my language, but there is not another way to describe what he does after one of his characters says or does something kind of stupid), and there are 100 occasions (closer to 1000) where this is demonstrated.

If his characters could come to life, I swear they'd gang up and beat him up...

I jus' love 'im....

[WaitingforKarlRove]

38. Crusade by Greg Crites

I have a rare copy of the paperback because Crites prefers an audio book format. He reads his own books and not only are they hysterically funny, his voice is unbelievable. You can only buy them at http://www.veinarmor.com/ but it's worth the visit.