I’m looking to compile as large a list that I can of books that you think are among the best you’ve ever read. Can be fiction or non-fiction, any topic will do. I have more recently been reading historical non-fiction (including Skeletons on the Zahara, Endurance, In the Heart of the Sea, Undaunted Courage, Unbroken). I thought these were all excellent.
Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. Boyd was the godfather of the F15, F16, F18, and A10. Without him the USAF is back to making crap fighters like the F35.
Gilead. Brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning novel.
A Thousand Spendid Suns - (Khaled Hosseini)
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
Angel in the Whirlwind. the best book I've read on the American Revolution.
Only book I've ever read twice.
And
Seal of Honor: Operation Red Wings and the Life of Lt. Michael P. Murphy
IMV from what I've read Murphy is the real hero of Lone Survivor, though Luttrell was the survivor.
Gilead. Brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning novel.
that was a great book.
The World According to Garp - John Irving
The Stand - Stephen King
The Dark Tower (series) - Stephen King
Tai-Pan - James Clavell
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco - Bryan Burrough & John Helyar
The Lord of the Rings (series) - Tolkien
The Speaker of the Dead (series) - Orsen Scott Card
Trinity (historical fiction) - Leon Uris
Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific -- Eric Bergerud
The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won -- Victor Davis Hanson
The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme -- John Keegan
Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars -- Daniel Bolger
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 -- Lawrence Wright
Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal -- James D. Hornfischer
The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success -- Rodney Stark
Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45 -- Peter Caddick-Adams
The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece -- Victor Davis Hanson
Fiction
Anything by Dickens
Anything by Austen
George Garrett's Elizabethan trilogy: Death of the Fox, The Succession, and Entered from the Sun
I'm a spy, thriller, and crime novel junkie, so anything by the following: John Le Carre, Alan Furst, Mick Herron, Olen Steinauer, Charles Cumming, Philip Kerr, Robert C. Wilson, Ted Lewis
Mere Christianity -- C.S. Lewis (also loved his "Screw Tape letters")
I am Pilgrim -- Terry Hayes
- Pillars of Earth (Follet)
- The Night Circus (Morgenstern)
- Starship Troopers/Time Enough for Love (Heinlein)
- Killer Angels (Shaara)
I've read the first three installments of Furst's "Night Soldiers" and the first six of Kerr's Bernie Gunther books; all fantastic reads.
David Downing's "Station" (John Russell) novels are a good read and I also have enjoyed the first three installments of Volker Kutcher's, Gereon Rath books.
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts (Fiction, mostly)
Communion: A True Story - Whitley Strieber (Alleged Non-Fiction)
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City - Nick Flynn (Memoir)
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley is another book I loved.
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I've read the first three installments of Furst's "Night Soldiers" and the first six of Kerr's Bernie Gunther books; all fantastic reads.
David Downing's "Station" (John Russell) novels are a good read and I also have enjoyed the first three installments of Volker Kutcher's, Gereon Rath books.
Furst and Kerr are terrific. I've been meaning to read Downing. If you like the interwar Germany setting, I highly recommend Jonathan Raab's Nikolai Hoffner trilogy: Rosa, Shadow and Light, and The Second Son.
He is a treasure trove of historical fiction that someone on BBI recommended to me (Bill2?) and it was one of the best recommendations I've had on here.
My favorites by him:
Redcoat: a single book story about American revolution, but a love story
The Saxon Tales/Last Kingdom. Series (still going - 12th book coming out this year) about the Viking/Saxon/English relationship and battles. Uhtred of Bebbanburg is my favorite protaginist in any story/series I've read.
The Warlord Chronicles. Series (3 stories) about Arthurian Britain - including Merlin, Arthur, Lancelot, Guinnivere, and his own protagonist Derfel Cadarn. Great series.
I'm looking to work through more of his stuff, but not a bad book yet out of any of them
ALL VONNEGUT.
- Pillars of Earth (Follet)
- The Night Circus (Morgenstern)
- Starship Troopers/Time Enough for Love (Heinlein)
- Killer Angels (Shaara)
Kay is my favorite author. I've read everything he's written (I think), including the Silmarillion (edited, not written). Just started A Brightness Long Ago.
I like Dickens. I love Terry Pratchett. I like Terry Brooks. Liked David Eddings before I loathed him. Like most of Tom Clancy. Grisham is great for an airplane or a beach.
Cornwell is just a lot of fun to read. The last of his I read was [url=https://www.amazon.com/Fort-Novel-Revolutionary-War/dp/006196963X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Cornwell+The+Fort&qid=1562682916&s=gateway&sr=8-1]The Fort[/url], a Revolutionary War tale set on the coast of Maine. (Note: the Brits are the good guys in this one.)
His medieval stuff is great too. If you're interested in a good fictionalized treatment of the Wars of the Roses, try Sharon Kay Penman's [url=https://www.amazon.com/Sunne-Splendour-Sharon-Kay-Penman/dp/003061368X/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=Sharon+Kay+Penman&qid=1562683040&s=gateway&sr=8-10]The Sunne in Splendour[/url]. Sympathetic to Richard III, but well done in my opinion.
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Great story beautifully written.
Gilead. Brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning novel.
that was a great book.
Second (or third) that one too. Wonderful writing.
The Great Santini (Pat Conroy)
I thought the movie was outstanding but they left out some characters that are worth your time to investigate.
Agreed. Have you ever read Jonathan Tropper. Lots of similarities. If you start with one, I would recommend The Book of Joe.
The Great Santini (Pat Conroy)
I thought the movie was outstanding but they left out some characters that are worth your time to investigate.
Love hime. Prince of Tides is on my all-time top 10
Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis by Andre Alexis
The Unwinding, By George Packer (nonfiction)
Moonglow, by Michael Chabon
Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
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someone mentioned Cornwell.
Cornwell is just a lot of fun to read. The last of his I read was [url=https://www.amazon.com/Fort-Novel-Revolutionary-War/dp/006196963X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Cornwell+The+Fort&qid=1562682916&s=gateway&sr=8-1]The Fort[/url], a Revolutionary War tale set on the coast of Maine. (Note: the Brits are the good guys in this one.)
His medieval stuff is great too. If you're interested in a good fictionalized treatment of the Wars of the Roses, try Sharon Kay Penman's [url=https://www.amazon.com/Sunne-Splendour-Sharon-Kay-Penman/dp/003061368X/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=Sharon+Kay+Penman&qid=1562683040&s=gateway&sr=8-10]The Sunne in Splendour[/url]. Sympathetic to Richard III, but well done in my opinion.
thanks Russ, I just ordered The Fort. I loved Redcoat and all his other stuff, I'm sure I'll love this.
Plus, I've gone white water rafting on the Penobscott river in Maine, so geographically I can relate to an extent.
Thanks for the recommendation.
American Pastoral & The Plot Against America - Philip Roth
Infinite Jest & The Pale King - David Foster Wallace
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bordain
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
If you were a GOT fan, the books are worth the read. SO much more detail.
Tim O'Brien: Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried
Greatest 20th century writer was Phillip K Dick, his "classic" period was Man in the High Castle, Palmer Eldritch, and Ubik. He wrote straight up anti or metal novels later on, not because he was some pretentious pseudo intellectual, he was just straight up bat shit cray cray.
Being There - Kosinski
Gore Vidal's Lincoln
The Civil War - Shelby Foote
Blind Side
Moneyball
Big Short
John Carreyrou:
Bad Blood
The Sigma series is particularly enjoyable. As were three of his individual stories . Deep Fathom, Amazonia and Ice Hunt.
I also enjoy the Meg Series by Steve Alten. The books are much more enjoyable than last years movie. His other books that I have read have been good as well. The Loch and it's sequel Vostok.
James Rollins Sigma - ( New Window )
The Sigma series is particularly enjoyable. As were three of his individual stories . Deep Fathom, Amazonia and Ice Hunt.
I also enjoy the Meg Series by Steve Alten. The books are much more enjoyable than last years movie. His other books that I have read have been good as well. The Loch and it's sequel Vostok.
James Rollins Sigma - ( New Window )
Wow, thanks for the tip on James Rollins. I looked him up on Goodreads and his work looks to be right in my wheelhouse. I put "Sandstorm" & "Amazonia" on my to be read list.
Never read it and never saw the movie, but recently saw the mini series and wow as a vet it really spoke to me. Apparently they really SJWed the miniseries up, but it was good regardless. Wish I carried a copy of that around when I was deployed lol.
As far as the thread, Foundation by Asimov and the Culture series by Ian M Banks. Culture is absolutely thought provoking and makes our current set up here in America look barbaric.
Curios what Apple's version of Foundation is going to look like, seems tough to pull off without a huge budget and have no idea how much money they threw at it. I think Apple is looking to make a bang so hopefully a lot.
"A Distant Mirror" Barbara Tuchman. You may have read her Guns of August this is at least as good. Talks about the 13th century in western europe, fighting between england and france, crusades, plague. Outstanding.
Two WWII books.
"Stalingrad" Antony Beevor. Really outstanding telling of maybe the most important turning point of the war. Fascinating narratives and well researched from both sides of the battle.
"An Army at Dawn" Rick Atkinson about the invasion of north africa and the earliest american actions in the war. I had previously known nothing about this campaign and loved this book.
"Guns Germs and Steel" Jared Diamond. Didn't notice but probably already recommended by someone. An examination of how it was thatwestern european societies came to dominate most of the globe. I thought it was a compelling read.
"Parasite Rex" Carl Zimmer. Fascinating examination of parasites. My skin crawled a couple times but I couldn't put it down.
"I Contain Multitudes" Ed Yong. Microbes. All kinds but mostly bacteria. Focus on the microbiome. The microbiome has become sort of a faddish subject lately. This book though is the real deal without any of the dumbed down and oversold content found in most pop content on the subject.
Zimmer and Yong are long time science bloggers and writers of scientific articles for the layman and they both know how to be academically stringent but still interesting and accessible.
Another book about history I really enjoyed was "Half Moon Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World" by Douglas Hunter
(1) "Long Walk to Freedom - Autobiography of Nelson Mandela"
(2)Original 3 books in the Lisbeth Salander series by Steig Larsson, especially, the third book, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest."
(3) "The Day we Found the Universe" by Marcia Bartusiak - story of the discoveries that the universe was much, much larger than previously thought and that it is expanding.
(4) Science fiction novels by James P. Hogan, especially 3 books called the "Giants Novels" (not those Giants) and "Voyage from Yesterday."
(5) A series of mystery novels set in Ancient Rome by Steven Saylor - set in the years just before and during the time of Julius Caesar.
(6) Pretty much any of the WWII books by Anthony Beevor or James Hall
(7) Two mystery series by Charles Todd that follow a nurse in the British Army in the First World War and a war-damaged Scotland Yard detective in the years right after WWI.