I've got another hankering to immerse myself in a book.
One book recommendation per poster.
Cheers / Thanks / Many ta's
Book 1 of the Amtrak wars by Patrick Tilley
Light but enjoyable reading with 5 more to follow if you enjoy it.
A directional hint might help. Bulgarian erotic fiction? Angolan romance? The combined workshop manuals to British Leyland models from the 1970s?
T.
The first two might be titillating but the last one will be really dirty.
My favourite book ever is "Wind, Sand and Stars" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Autobiography, by a pilot who flew in the 1930s
> A directional hint might help.
This absence of a directional hint is the critical part of this cunning plan. Stripped from any context and with only one recommendation available for you, I'm hoping for a broad and eclectic selection of excellent reads!
In reply to Dax H:
>Book 1 of the Amtrak wars by Patrick Tilley
Cheers, is it a page turner?
One book ordered already!
Keep the suggestions coming though.
Its not the nicest of subjects but I got Midnight in Chernobyl recently out of the library and it was absolutely engrossing. Ours had it as an ebook.
> One book recommendation per poster.
Good luck identifying that one!
> Cheers / Thanks / Many ta's
In lieu of aliases:
I'm enjoying The Iron Hand of Mars at the moment, detective story set in ancient Rome, I'd start with The Silver Pigs and go from there (later ones in the series aren't quite as good)
That sounds appealing, I drive around Chester quite a bit and if I become unsure of where I am I repeat the mantra 'All roads lead to Rome' to myself. It's a period of history I think I'd find fascinating, in fact I think I'd rather be a Roman citizen than a modern day Brit!
I have just been totally immersed in Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield.
Here's a quote for you, you'll either love it or run a mile...
"As is well-known, when the moon hours lengthen, human beings come adrift from the regularity of their mechanical clocks. They nod at noon, dream in waking hours, open their eyes wide to the pitch-black night. It is a time of magic. And as the borders between night and day stretch to their thinnest, so too do the borders between worlds. Dreams and stories merge with lived experience, the dead and the living brush against each other in their comings and goings, and the past and the present touch and overlap. Unexpected things can happen."
Good shout, that's a beautiful book.
If the OP likes that and wants similarly dreamy stuff, though a bit more magical realism, then it's worth giving Borges a go, maybe The Aleph. Similarly Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown.
They're my favourite go to recommendations anyway.
Edit. Whoops, sorry, you get two from me.
Bearing in mind the recent heatwave and the sweltering temperatures, I would recommend 'One day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Quite short but with a huge impact.
I recently read 'Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks who Plotted Hitler's Defeat' and can thoroughly recommend it.
Well written with a good mix of history and anecdotes of some of the mad stuff they got up to.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Churchills-Ministry-Ungentlemanly-Warfare-Maverick...
Just read Otherlands: a world in the making by Thomas Halliday. It's a fascinating exploration of prehistoric worlds, their flora and fauna and what has been learnt in paleobiology recently. Much of it is written in the present tense which takes away some of the potential dryness and makes it feel a bit more "Attenbourough-ery" and accessible. Would recommend if that's your bag. Draws lots of parallels to modern day ecology and climate. May not be everyone's cup of tea but have enjoyed it and learnt just how many chickens there are in the world now .
I love that book. Ideally read in one sitting, in the middle of a miserable drizzly winter day when you're feeling sorry for yourself. You're transported to Siberia, then when you come back real life doesn't seem so bad any more.
Dead Lies Dreaming - Charles Stross
I really enjoyed This Eden by Ed O'Loughlin - a spy thriller for the surveillance society. Elements of Le Carre and Greene, even Fleming, with a contemporary edge like some of William Gibson's very-near-future novels.
The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
Horizon, Barry Lopez. Wisest book I’ve recently read and easy to read.
'As I walked out one midsummer morning'......by Laurie Lee....my favourite all time book...!
Richard Feynman - "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman"
The chapter on Los Alamos safecracking is particularly good.
“The shortest history of England” by James Hawes.
engrossing history which can anger and amaze
> My favourite book ever is "Wind, Sand and Stars" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
> Autobiography, by a pilot who flew in the 1930s
Perfect gift for my brother who used to fly competitive aerobatics . Ta .
I have just been recommended the novel Q by Wu Ming. It is one of a series of Italian novels by a collective of anonymous authors, attempting a "new epic" novel form that rearticulates important historical conjunctures through the lens of class struggle. It sounds great to me, but I'm yet to order and read it.
Aurora - Kim Stanley Robinson. Poignant hard sci fi with an optimistic ending.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt.
I wish I could write a first book as good as this one, actually I'd be happy to have written anything as good.
Dave
How many people have read Edward Whymper's classic "Scrambles amongst the Alps"?
If you never have, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, first of a trilogy but stands alone wonderfully. Brilliantly dark 'odd fiction'
Simon Mawer has a long list of books, largely novels set in a real time frame eg Cyprus during the 1950s. I think his best is The Glass Room, set in Eastern Europe as WW2 approaches, but there are many others.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying -- Orwell.
... because 1984 gets lauded too much, anyway, (and for the wrong reasons because 1984 is far more about the insiduous horrors of double-think than those of mass of surveillance) and, in my opinion, the Aspidistra is perhaps even more relevant.
If 1984 explains the mechanism -- control of the proles through exploitation of the human tendency to resort to double-think, perhaps best stated as "bull-shit baffles brains" -- then the Aspidistra explains the reason why controlling the proles is a desireable dominant strategy for anyone, anyway.
Both books, taken together, pretty much explain today.
Not saying you should use amazon, just using this link so you can see the blurb
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023...
If I was twenty years younger I'd hoover that up!!
Couch to 5K is probably more appropriate for me 😕
> I recently read 'Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks who Plotted Hitler's Defeat' and can thoroughly recommend it.
> Well written with a good mix of history and anecdotes of some of the mad stuff they got up to.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Churchills-Ministry-Ungentlemanly-Warfare-Maverick...
>
I was going to recommend the very same book, which I recently read for the second time.
By complete coincidence, I am having my car serviced next week at a garage in Whitchurch, Bucks, which I have never visited. When I Googled the garage, I found that it is right next door to The Firs, which features large in this book, so I will have a thorough snoop around while my car is being fixed!
> How many people have read Edward Whymper's classic "Scrambles amongst the Alps"?
> If you never have, you might be pleasantly surprised.
I still think it's about the best mountaineering book ever written - which is remarkable, given that it was one of the first.
Any of David Mitchell's stuff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mitchell_(author)
eg. Cloud Atlas
> Simon Mawer has a long list of books, largely novels set in a real time frame eg Cyprus during the 1950s. I think his best is The Glass Room, set in Eastern Europe as WW2 approaches, but there are many others.
His climbing novel The Fall is well worthwhile too.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - the best thing I've read in ages. Don't read the blurb or any reviews or anything, it's way better if you just go in completely blind. You'll like it
Totally magical book, and a good recommendation to go in onsight.
Her first novel about the restoration of respectable English magic is similarly brilliant.
For my suggestion I'll go for 1Q84 by Murakami, totally emersive and pretty much undefinable. Of all of his books this feels like the most complete. Technically a trilogy but one book really...
I recently enjoyed Klara and the Sun. A first person story from the perspective of an AI robot trying to make sense of humans, relationships and the world.
The Salt Path, and the follow-up The Wild Silence are books I've just finished - a couple's account of being made homeless and deciding to walk the South West Coast Path. There's a third book due out later this year about them walking the Cape Wrath Trail.
Helter Skelter: the shocking story of the Manson murders. By Vincent Bugliosi and Kurt Gentry. Very good if you like true crime. And Manson is the spitting image of my neighbours wife
Just finished the Grapes of Wrath. Well worth a read I think.
Steinbeck! Love it. Have you read Cannery Row?
> I'm enjoying The Iron Hand of Mars at the moment, detective story set in ancient Rome, I'd start with The Silver Pigs and go from there (later ones in the series aren't quite as good)
The BBC radio adaptations with Anton Lesser as Falco are not half bad either
Yes, I was gonna suggest anything by Murakami. Such an amazing imagination.
> His climbing novel The Fall is well worthwhile too.
Yes, I’ve read it twice. The impressive thing about it is the realistic nature of the climbing episodes. I don’t believe he is a climber so I think he must have taken a lot of expert advice. The details all ring true.
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge.
This would be my if you only read one sci-fi book recommendation.
The Breaking of Northwall, Paul O Williams.
Post-apocalypse, the first of a series of 7 books.
Flowers for algernon by Daniel Keyes, have some tissues at hand, it's a tear jerker.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummings
I'm reading it now, almost finished. It's intense, relentless, gripping, hard to put down.
Usually I just read nonfiction books about running or climbing so I didn't want to read it, but my wife persuaded me!
I have read Cannery Row. It didn't grab me so much but glad I read it nevertheless.
Other Americana I've enjoyed recently (breaking the one book rule here) are A Prayer for Owen Meany (Gary Irving) and The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt).
Currently reading Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Obviously it is viewed as a classic but I have been surprised at how just plain enjoyably readable and funny it is.
Perhaps my favourite novel although I could never get anywhere with 100 Years of Solitude.
Not tried that one (just as well by the sound of it!)
If you want to get totally immersed in a series, then just pick anything by Brandon Sanderson. Easiest to start with Mistborn series if you like fantasy or Skyward series if you are more into sci-fi. (sorry two suggestions)
> That sounds appealing, I drive around Chester quite a bit and if I become unsure of where I am I repeat the mantra 'All roads lead to Rome' to myself. It's a period of history I think I'd find fascinating, in fact I think I'd rather be a Roman citizen than a modern day Brit!
Might be worth then looking up the Robert Harris books about Cicero, and Pompeii. Impeccably researched but with a good readable story too.
Circe by Madeline Miller. The best book I have read in ages.
I’m currently two thirds of the way through Cairngorm John by John Allen.
It’s a great account of his life in the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team. I’m really enjoying it - definitely worth a read if you haven’t already.
Ignition! by John Clark
It's just bonkers what they tried, and how they tried it.
My usual recommendation for best book threads,
Quartered Safe Out Here, by George MacDonald Fraser
interesting and very funny.
Also, The Siege of Krishnapur by J G Farrell
Another very funny classic.
> Book 1 of the Amtrak wars by Patrick Tilley
> Light but enjoyable reading with 5 more to follow if you enjoy it.
> Also, The Siege of Krishnapur by J G Farrell
> Another very funny classic.
I had to dissect that for O level English lit. Kinda knocked the gloss off, if you know what I mean 🙄
I enjoyed it, post apocalyptic world, one civilisation underground in a massive set of cities and bunkers under the control of their leaders, a second set of tribes above ground living a hunter gather existence.
I recently started reading CHARGED. Co-written by Matt Foot and Morag Livingstone. A retelling of the how the Police try to suppress protest.
The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead.
The Crow Road by Iain Banks.
(But I bet you've already read it.)
> My usual recommendation for best book threads,
> Quartered Safe Out Here, by George MacDonald Fraser
2nd that, it's very good. I reread the McAuslan stories from time to time too.
I haven't! I did read The Wasp Factory though. The Crow Road is now on the list. There's a good few years worth of recommendations above 🙂
Just finished "4000 weeks" by Oliver Burkeman and realised I've nearly used them all up.
Dave
Stuart Russell's "Human Compatible" - ethical treatise on the challenges to humanity posed by AI. Not a jolly read, but makes a compelling case for how we need to be actively addressing these now and urgently.
Here's something a bit off the wall. The Executioner's Song, by Norman Mailer, about Gary Gilmore. A bit of an insight into the other side of the American Dream.
Any of Donna Leon but the first is "Death at La Fenice". Detective stories embeded in Venice. Author wont let stories be translated into italian becuse "because she regards celebrity as irksome and doesn't want locals to read them"
Salt by Mark Kurlanski
> I have just been recommended the novel Q by Wu Ming. It is one of a series of Italian novels by a collective of anonymous authors, attempting a "new epic" novel form that rearticulates important historical conjunctures through the lens of class struggle. It sounds great to me, but I'm yet to order and read it.
Say what?
> Say what?
We're talking about books! You know... those papery things with words written inside? Don't worry: there's this great one I know about a caterpillar with an appetite that we can start you off on!
> We're talking about books! You know... those papery things with words written inside? Don't worry: there's this great one I know about a caterpillar with an appetite that we can start you off on!
Thanks...I'll get stuck in.
> One recommendation per post ain't easy but;
> The sea: John Banville
It’s worse than that, one per poster, not per post.
still:
Mr. Midshipman Easy by Captain Marryat
Crikey!
Let's Do It - Bob Stanley (history of popular music)
> The Salt Path, ..... - a couple's account of being made homeless and deciding to walk the South West Coast Path.
I've just read that vicariously as my wife recounted huge chunks of it to me while she read it during our holiday over the last week or so. What an undertaking, and what funny comments about Paddy Dillon.
I'll recommend the book that I was reading at the same time: Why Evolution is True, by Jerry Coyne. I watched an interview with him as part of a course I did on evolution a couple of years ago. He is erudite, witty and very readable. The book is full of astonishing facts, like: each ancestral species would only have to have split into two descendants once every 200 million years in order to account for the 10-100 million species that exist on Earth today, assuming lie started with a single species 3.5 billion years ago.
Another vote for The Glass Room. I'd also recommend Prague, same author.