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Tim

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NOT a Bracken, Vince Flynn, TEOTWAWKI, or other SHTF genre...whatcha got? I've read of bunch in that mode lately and need something that's not just filling the space.

Have read most of the classics. I like Hemingway, never got around to Kipling. I don't mind a deep dive non-fiction piece like Jared Diamond or Edmund Morris.
 
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Tagged.

I am quite tired of that genre too.

I would suggest anything from Lee Child, John Sanford, Robert Crais or James Lee Burke for Mystery.

Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne or Richard Kadrey for urban fantasy.

Carl Hiassan, Christopher Moore or Dave Barry if you want to laugh.

Since I have read all of those I'm looking for more too.
 
Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series.

For mystery, P.D. James' Adam Dalgleish series or Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin series or the Gordianus the Finder series by Steven Saylor.

Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle-Earth set.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas or I Promessi Sposi by Manzoni.

Any Alan Furst novel, e.g. Night Soldiers or Steven Pressfield e.g. Gates of War.

The Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson
 
The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas or I Promessi Sposi by Manzoni.

This is more along the lines of what I'm after. REALLY enjoyed Monte Cristo, but have read it a couple times over the years. Maybe I'll pick up another of his.
 
This is more along the lines of what I'm after. REALLY enjoyed Monte Cristo, but have read it a couple times over the years. Maybe I'll pick up another of his.

Oh, well ...

The Power and the Glory by Graham Green
Cat's Cradle by Maurice Baring (NOT the Vonnegut by the same title)
Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Newman (be sure to get an edition that includes the prior exchange between Newman and Kingsley)
Crime & Punishment by Dostoevsky though The Idiot is, I find, an underrated novel of his compared to C&P and the Brothers Karamazov.
Divine Comedy
of Dante. The Dorothy Sayer's translation has excellent commentary & notes.
 
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Try to find something by George Shipway, has an excellent series about Agamemnon and another set in Medieval England. Most of his stuff was published in the 70's so you may only find it in kindle.
Richard Fox's Emberwar series is very solid sci-fi entrant. Won a Dragon Award for it last year, here again kindle is your best bet.
I've got kindle unlimited and now do almost all of my reading on a tablet.
 
Have you read Herman Wouk, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance?
 
Have you read any of these:
James A Michener - Caribbean, Poland, The Covenant, Tales of the South Pacific, etc
Herman Wouk - The Caine Mutiny (much better read than the movies)
Robert Ruark - Uhuru, The Honey Badger, etc
Leon Uris - The Haj, Trinity, etc
John Steinbeck - East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, etc
Frank Delaney - Ireland
Ron Chernow - The Warburgs
 
Dante trilogy is a favorite of mine ! Re-read and find different translations, truly staggering books once you look at the historical conditions associated. A lot of the content is thinly veiled attacks on politicians or papists.

Any of the Sherlock Holmes books by Doyle are just fun reads as well.

I'm currently re-reading all of the 20 something Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I had read them all as a kid, and just wanted to read them again. On the topic of Burroughs, the John Carter books are great, fun, and interesting reads.

If you like classics, you can't go wrong with Gallic Wars by JC, or read several translations of the Illiad.

Any or all of the George Smiley books by LeCarre will definitely fill a rainy afternoon too !

Just bought Hunting Evil by Shepherd about the nazis after WW2. I know it will make me mad, but can't wait to start it.
 
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Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series.

For mystery, P.D. James' Adam Dalgleish series or Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin series or the Gordianus the Finder series by Steven Saylor.

Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle-Earth set.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas or I Promessi Sposi by Manzoni.

Any Alan Furst novel, e.g. Night Soldiers or Steven Pressfield e.g. Gates of War.

The Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson

The Black Count by Tom Reiss has been a page turner so far. It earned a Pulitzer Prize for either history or biography several years ago. One can’t always judge a book by the often politically charged nature of book awards, but in this case the prize was well deserved. I agree with Rick Atkinson (an ECU grad)...he’s a great writer.
 
If you like classics, you can't go wrong with Gallic Wars by JC, or read several translations of the Illiad.

Definitely

Any or all of the George Smiley books by LeCarre will definitely fill a rainy afternoon too !

Gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there. Leave it to the Brits to make even their spies dull and uninteresting. I read Call for the Dead a couple months ago, thought it was slow...gave it another try with Tinker Tailor... and gave up a couple chapters in.
 
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Dante trilogy is a favorite of mine ! A lot of the content is thinly veiled attacks on politicians or papists.

Dante certainly dealt firmly with specific individual popes and various other clerics and secular (or worldly) politicians, but no one of any credible scholarship (or who has read the Purgatorio and Paradiso in addition to Inferno) suggests that Dante was attacking "papists" as such, if by that you mean the pejorative equivalent of Catholics in general.

The Iliad is, of course, the classic of classic epic.
 
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Definitely



Gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there. Leave it to the Brits to make even their spies dull and uninteresting. I read Call for the Dead a couple months ago, thought it was slow...gave it another try with Tinker Tailor... and gave up a couple chapters in.

We can agree to disagree on that one, to each his own...But, I will agree Smiley is no ball of fire !
 
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Dante certainly dealt firmly with specific individual popes and various other clerics and secular (or worldly) politicians, but no one of any credible scholarship (or who has read the Purgatorio and Paradiso in addition to Inferno) suggests that Dante was attacking "papists" as such, if by that you mean the pejorative equivalent of Catholics in general.

The Iliad is, of course, the classic of classic epic.

No, absolutely not referring to Catholics as a whole; his exile and forced travels were definitely tied to individuals ( clergy and political), to include the Guelf factions. It's nice to have a person who can discuss this with understanding; Thanks !!!! I definitely was not using the term as an insult to all Catholics; just tying it to historical considerations of Dantes time in reference to individuals who served a political Pope/Papal Government for personal gain. Not a contemporary term I would use !

Paradiso is my favorite, BTW.

And, your comment on the Illiad "wins the internet" for today. I couldn't have said it better !

SORRY, didn't mean to hijack the thread.
 
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The Jules Verne and H.G. Wells classics, and then on to Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, etc..., and on and on. Plenty of classics from 1918 to 2018 in the SF genre if you like it.
 
Just to piss off your local Democrats you should read some Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I likeDostoevsky more, but the Russians all have a certain style and wordiness.

When I get home in a few days I'll browse throught the shelves and come up with some other favorites.
 
Hmmm, I'm going to mention more modern things, so this is not likely your cup of tea, as you especially mentioned Le Comte de Monte Cristo.

"The Lair of the White Worm," and "The Jewel of the Seven Stars," two lesser known stories by Bram Stoker. The first deals with, essentially, a Grendel tail. The latter is an excellent early mummy tale. The early mummies in fiction were usually seductive women, the Boris Carloff movies were what changed it to guys. The Jewel is famous for having to be rewritten because of a downer ending, and there's some who believe that it wasn't Bram Stoker that rewrote the ending(I prefer the new ending).

"Apocalypse Troll" or "Out of the Darkness" by David Weber. Not his best work, he's more known for his Honor Harrington series. But they are individual books, that can give you an idea if you like his writing style.

The Kydd series by Julian Stockwin and the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. Both long series' set in Napoleonic times. The former deals with a pressed sailor going from landman to captain, the latter, a soldier in the army. Both are great series, and capture the flair of the era.

"The Completely Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant," series, or the "Tome of Bill" series. Both are fun "loser vampire" series(vampire movies always deal with cool, attractive vampires...this is when the rest of us become vampires). The former deals with an accountant turned into a vampire, who, while completely boring, gets dragged into bizarre problems. The latter is a snarky DnD nerd that becomes a vampire.

https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Moria...=1536116872&sr=1-6&keywords=sherlock+moriarty <---Because It's Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice(in the 1810's) helping Sherlock Holmes(in the 1890's) catch Moriarty. I haven't read this, but the authors lack of understanding about the difference between those two era's should make that book hilarious. :p
 
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Thanks to all for some great suggestions! I've tagged this thread to come back to later.

I decided to re-read Cooper's Leatherstocking tales. I got waylaid with stuff, and am just wrapping up Pioneers.
 
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Hmmm, I'm going to mention more modern things, so this is not likely your cup of tea, as you especially mentioned Le Comte de Monte Cristo.

"The Lair of the White Worm," and "The Jewel of the Seven Stars," two lesser known stories by Bram Stoker. The first deals with, essentially, a Grendel tail. The latter is an excellent early mummy tale. The early mummies in fiction were usually seductive women, the Boris Carloff movies were what changed it to guys. The Jewel is famous for having to be rewritten because of a downer ending, and there's some who believe that it wasn't Bram Stoker that rewrote the ending(I prefer the new ending).

"Apocalypse Troll" or "Out of the Darkness" by David Weber. Not his best work, he's more known for his Honor Harrington series. But they are individual books, that can give you an idea if you like his writing style.

The Kydd series by Julian Stockwin and the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. Both long series' set in Napoleonic times. The former deals with a pressed sailor going from landman to captain, the latter, a soldier in the army. Both are great series, and capture the flair of the era.

"The Completely Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant," series, or the "Tome of Bill" series. Both are fun "loser vampire" series(vampire movies always deal with cool, attractive vampires...this is when the rest of us become vampires). The former deals with an accountant turned into a vampire, who, while completely boring, gets dragged into bizarre problems. The latter is a snarky DnD nerd that becomes a vampire.

https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Moria...=1536116872&sr=1-6&keywords=sherlock+moriarty <---Because It's Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice(in the 1810's) helping Sherlock Holmes(in the 1890's) catch Moriarty. I haven't read this, but the authors lack of understanding about the difference between those two era's should make that book hilarious. :p
I've read the Vampire accountant and the Tome of Bill series. The Tome of Bill is hilarious!
 
What one likes to read is so personal to the reader, but if you like science fiction I highly recommend Seveneve's by Neal Stephenson.
 
Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson

The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick

Berlin 1961 by Frederick Kempe

Brutal Journey by Paul Schneider

The Forgotten Nan by Amity Schlaes

This are some history books that I thought were all very good and readable.
 
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Just to piss off your local Democrats you should read some Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I like Dostoevsky more, but the Russians all have a certain style and wordiness.

When I get home in a few days I'll browse throught the shelves and come up with some other favorites.

I can't do Russian authors after Crime & Punishment. Broke-ass college student tries to burgle landlady, is discovered, kills her, then. Obsesses. About. It. For. The. Next. Twelve. Hundred. Pages. I love to read & can devour a 1000 page novel in 8 hours if you leave me alone, but that shit was painful.

Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache series.

Great series.

I've been on a Robert Heinlein kick lately. Glory Road & Farnham's Freehold are favorites. Reading Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes trilogy right. Good shit. They read more like crime novels than "Stephen King", but still very twisted. Revival was pretty good & Doctor Sleep is a pretty kickass sequel to The Shining.
 
I can't do Russian authors after Crime & Punishment. Broke-ass college student tries to burgle landlady, is discovered, kills her, then. Obsesses. About. It. For. The. Next. Twelve. Hundred. Pages. I love to read & can devour a 1000 page novel in 8 hours if you leave me alone, but that shit was painful.

ding! ding! ding! we have a winner.
 
Some call it Doritos for the mind but I enjoy the Clive Cussler books. He has a bunch!! He has multiple main characters that he writes about but they are clustered with multiple books per character.
Dirk Pitt adventures - Atlantis found is my favorite.
Sam and remind Fargo adventures
The Oregon files
 
Some call it Doritos for the mind but I enjoy the Clive Cussler books. He has a bunch!! He has multiple main characters that he writes about but they are clustered with multiple books per character.
Dirk Pitt adventures - Atlantis found is my favorite.
Sam and remind Fargo adventures
The Oregon files
I have read a lot of Cusslers books but they got to formulaic too fast. Always the megalomaniac trying to take over/ destroy the world using some ancient historical tech, the stalwart hero and sidekick (both paragons of virtue and better than you in every way) and the damsel in distress who turns out to be a genius scientist / key to victory and as ever an assist by the mysterious old man with the same name as the author.
 
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I have read a lot of Cusslers books but they got to formulaic too fast. Always the megalomaniac trying to take over/ destroy the world using some ancient historical tech, the stalwart hero and sidekick (both paragons of virtue and better than you in every way) and the damsel in distress who turns out to be a genius scientist / key to victory and as ever an assist by the mysterious old man with the same name as the author.
That's why it's Doritos.. so bad but good at the same time!
 
Just a few on the table in front of me:
His Master's Voice by Stanislaw Lem. Lem always plays on the theme of how little men can understand each other, let alone alien worlds. Solaris resonated deeply with me, but this one may have more universal appeal. If you can get caught up with a thousand abstract thoughts in an hour of work, you'll enjoy this book.

Flatland by Abbott. Just pure whimsy and fun, and a parody of being human. Most could read this in a couple hours and there is no reason not to.

Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. Read Watership Down when I was a kid, but this one was too heartbreaking then. It's an amazing story of adventure, written in a way that only the finest English authors can pull off

The Panda's Thumb. A collection of studies playing on the 'grand' design of evolution. You'll learn something, and all in the premise that nature is haphazard, but only moves in one direction.

Songs of A Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti. Surpasses Lovecraft in regards to beautifully phrased cosmic madness. Conspiracy Against the Human Race is a non-fiction piece that I would recommend for anybody that fancies themself a true misanthrope.
 
Since starting this thread back in August I've finished up all of the Leatherstocking tales (Last of the Mohicans...), that horribly disappointing Forstchen 48 Hours, a bunch of Tom Clancy (Red Storm, Patriot Games, Red Rabbit, Cardinal) and a couple more Dumas (3 Musketeers, 20 Years After).

I'm thinking of the Iliad next. I read it years ago, forget which translation.

What else are folks reading?
 
Dante trilogy is a favorite of mine ! Re-read and find different translations, truly staggering books once you look at the historical conditions associated. A lot of the content is thinly veiled attacks on politicians or papists

Which translation is the most "readable"? I'll confess that I hated this when forced to read it 30 years ago for a high school class. Sister Agnes Patrice could make any book seem like torture.
 
Since starting this thread back in August I've finished up all of the Leatherstocking tales (Last of the Mohicans...), that horribly disappointing Forstchen 48 Hours, a bunch of Tom Clancy (Red Storm, Patriot Games, Red Rabbit, Cardinal) and a couple more Dumas (3 Musketeers, 20 Years After).

I'm thinking of the Iliad next. I read it years ago, forget which translation.

What else are folks reading?
I got an audiobook copy of Don Quixote but it's almost 40 hours long, I'm just not sure I'm ready for that kind of commitment.
 
I got an audiobook copy of Don Quixote but it's almost 40 hours long, I'm just not sure I'm ready for that kind of commitment.

I reserve audiobooks for road trips. They make those long hours on the road much easier to bear.
 
W.E.B. Griffen, the Brotherhood of War series (8 books), and The Corps series (10 books)

The Brotherhood of War series is excellent.

And having no idea of what you may or may not have read over the years...

Gods & Generals, The Killer Angels, and The Last Full Measure.

Black Hawk Down, Band of Brothers, Street Without Joy.
 
Moore's The Hunt for Osama Bin Laden is a good read. Just finished The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle and have almost finished Masters of the Air...greatest generation books. Lots and lots of good books mentioned in this thread. Anthony Bordain books are hillarious even if his end was not.
 
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