# Random Recommended Book Lists are Useless to Me. Please Dopers, Recommend Me a Book. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080 "2016-10-19T22:16:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/21 "2016-10-20T19:11:18Z")
Ok, here’s some from my list of great non-fiction/histories. _The Guns of August_ by Barbara Tuchman _All the President’s Men_ by Woodward and Bernstein _A Bright Shining Lie_ by Neil Sheehan _The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon Whitehouse_ by Seymour Hersch _A Bridge Too Far_ by Cornelius Ryan _Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy 1944_ by Max Hastings _Assassination Vacation_ by Sarah Vowell \*The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall \* by Mary Elise Sarotte ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/22 "2016-10-20T19:27:37Z")
The River of Doubt is an amazing read. - > [@Amazon](#): > > At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/23 "2016-10-20T20:23:05Z")
An Unnecessary Woman. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/24 "2016-10-20T21:05:37Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > If you haven’t yet, read _The Murder of Roger Ackroyd_, the best English drawing room mystery. Digression: The customer service department of the publisher I used to work for kept a list of the strangest requests they received. Several callers asked for _The Merger of Roger Ackroyd_ or _The Murder of Dan Ackroyd_. My favorite, though, was a customer who was looking for _Lame as a Rob_. Say it aloud. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/25 "2016-10-20T21:21:07Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > I read a wide spectrum actually. I love history, current events, pop culture, comedy. For a fun, easy history/comedy mix, [How to Fight Presidents: Defending Yourself Against the Badasses Who Ran This Country](https://www.amazon.com/How-Fight-Presidents-Defending-Yourself/dp/038534757X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1476998078&sr=1-1) offers the same style of information-as-entertainment found in some [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com) articles. > [@swampspruce](#): > > Anything by Bill Bryson, but I particularly like [A Walk In the Woods](https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Woods-Bill-Bryson-ebook/dp/B005PRF5G2/ref=sr_1_9?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1476980389&sr=1-9&keywords=bill+bryson) or [At Home](https://www.amazon.com/At-Home-Short-History-Private/dp/B0045XYQAS/ref=sr_1_7?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1476980389&sr=1-7&keywords=bill+bryson) Good call. I assume from the OP that you’re already familiar with Bill Bryson, but make sure you don’t miss _At Home_, or [The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid](https://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Thunderbolt-Kid-Memoir/dp/0767919378/ref=pd_sim_14_13?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0767919378&pd_rd_r=FRPDY8NH9FTF6HJVG927&pd_rd_w=c9kwu&pd_rd_wg=OAXai&psc=1&refRID=FRPDY8NH9FTF6HJVG927), which, though accurately billed as memoir, is also of historical interest as a look at middle America in the 1950s. > [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > _Assassination Vacation_ by Sarah Vowell Good call. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/26 "2016-10-20T21:36:32Z")
A couple by China Mieville that I just finished and loved the hell out of… **The City and the City** - A detective gumshoe novel set in an alterna-future eastern Europe with strange sci-fi stuff going on **Kraken** - A fun tongue-in-cheek London romp where doomsday cults vie for their own respective armageddons. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/27 "2016-10-20T21:44:31Z")
For everyone’s suggestions, thank you. I’ll take a closer examination of them after work. I am not only familiar with Bill Bryson’s works, I already own all of them save for _A Dictionary of Troublesome Words_. I used to own _Made in America_, but it fell apart while I was re-reading it. I even have his slim African notes thing that he did for charity. My copy of _At Home_ is autographed by him. Not sure why I didn’t pick up “Troublesome Words” when I had the chance. I have a slight superstition against owning **all** an author’s works. Like it will make them die or something. I don’t really believe that, but I’m just weird that way. I’d also like to add that I like anything centered around food history and descriptions as well. Anyway, some more recommendations in return for your help: _Homer’s Odyssey_ by Gwen Cooper. I don’t read many animal tales, but this one about a blind cat is excellent. _End of Watch; Chicago Police Killed between 1853 and 2006_ by Chicago alderman Ed Burke and somebody named Gorman. Holy crap, this book is up on Ebay for 64.95! And a copy is lying next to my papasan where my cats can sit on it. It’s a engrossing read for anyone into Chicago history, but it is slipshod in typos. Somebody didn’t proofread very well. Still, one of my favorites, and especially relevant today, what with the Ferguson Effect and all. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/28 "2016-10-20T21:48:28Z")
Just thought of another: My Father’s Gun: One Family, Three Badges, One Hundred Years in the NYPD by Brian McDonald. Basically the history of the NYPD through the eyes of one family of cops. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/29 "2016-10-20T21:52:11Z")
I recently finished [The Nix](https://www.amazon.com/Nix-novel-Nathan-Hill/dp/110194661X) by Nathan Hill. I think it may be my favorite book ever. It’s just completely delightful, and sorta historical. I can’t imagine anyone not loving it. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/30 "2016-10-21T00:21:35Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > I read a wide spectrum actually. I love history, current events, pop culture, comedy. > > Mostly, I read non-fiction, but now, I would love to read a really good novel. Or a novelization of true events, like historical fiction. Something like _The Emancipator’s Wife_ by Barbara Hambly which portrays Mary Todd Lincoln. Or _I, Claudius_, or _The Red Tent_. By the way, I’ve read those already, and recommend them. Some non-fiction I’ve read somewhat recently and loved: _Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference_, by Cordelia Fine. Witty and smart exploration of how little studies of neuroscience really show gender differences. _How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee_, by Bart Ehrman. If you like biblical history. I’m an atheist, so my interest is purely historical. _You’re Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger_, by Roger Hall. Recommended to me here on the dope. This is a brisk, funny story about a man becoming a spy during WWII. _The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science_, by Natalie Angier. Very funny primer on the physical sciences. _Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime_, which seems almost naive now but is a great read. Really good novels: _The House of Mirth_, by Edith Wharton. You’ve probably read it, but I hadn’t until very recently. Outstanding. _Sailing to Sarantium_ and _Lord of Emperors_, by Guy Gavriel Kay. Ostensibly fantasy, but they are essentially historical fiction about the Byzantine empire’s Justinian and his empress Theodora. Very highly recommended. _Brat Farrar_, by Josephine Tey. Lighter than the previous two, but I think it’s stellar. A friend of a friend of mine wrote _The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing_. I haven’t read it yet, but your mention of pop culture brought it to mind and I feel like Bill Murray is in the news so much right now. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/31 "2016-10-21T01:10:45Z")
_Precious Bane_ by Mary Webb. It’s a masterpiece of first person voice. Plot is patchy in parts, but Prue is so wonderfully told that you don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/32 "2016-10-21T16:39:41Z")
Just bumping up my own thread to get more book recommendations. Here’s another one of mine in return: _Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s so Difficult to Think Straight about Animals_ by Hal Herzog. This one really made me ponder animals differently than I usually do. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/33 "2016-10-21T19:12:25Z")
_ **The Sot-Weed Factor** _ by John Barth. Someone here, I want to say **RealityChuck** , has strongly recommended it in other threads. I read it recently and it’s great. It’s about the first Poet Laureate of Maryland and his traveling adventures in the late 1600’s. Very funny and very well written. I would also just say that I have found Goodreads to be really good at suggesting books based on what you like. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/34 "2016-10-21T19:57:33Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Just bumping up my own thread to get more book recommendations. > > Here’s another one of mine in return: > > _Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s so Difficult to Think Straight about Animals_ by Hal Herzog. This one really made me ponder animals differently than I usually do. You might want to check out _Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture_ by Marvin Harris. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/35 "2016-10-21T20:11:45Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Mostly, I read non-fiction, but now, I would love to read a really good novel. Or a novelization of true events, like historical fiction. Something like _The Emancipator’s Wife_ by Barbara Hambly which portrays Mary Todd Lincoln. Or _I, Claudius_, or _The Red Tent_. By the way, I’ve read those already, and recommend them. Ok, you’ll see a magic word in this description, and I know what you’re gonna do, but please don’t hate me. A book I love is called Visibility. It’s a murder/mystery set in 1940s London and it surrounds a police detective trying to solve a series of murders related to the discovery of DNA. It involves everything from pea-soup fog and Watson and Crick, to detectives and…um…just a slight bit of nazis. But like…very little of those. Seriously, it’s a cool historic fiction book. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/36 "2016-10-21T21:31:31Z")
Nazis appear to be the Kale Chips of pop culture right now. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/37 "2016-10-21T23:30:23Z")
I should have mentioned that if you like Barbara Hambly’s work, be sure to check out the Benjamin January mysteries, set in pre-Civil War New Orleans. She’s amazing at capturing atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2016, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/38 "2016-10-23T10:33:37Z")
A very British-flavoured suggestion here – maybe not to your taste, OP (and you express a distaste for kids’ books – but I feel that this one is for “kids of all ages”); and I don’t know how easy it would be to come by in America. Anyway, a discovery of mine a few months ago; by Kate Saunders, half a dozen novels by whom I have read and loved. Novel by her, recommended by me here: _Five Children on the Western Front_. Published 2014, “for a reason”. It derives from E. Nesbit’s IMO delectable stories written a little over a century ago – _Five Children and It_, and others – about the eponymous five children and their discovery of an ancient “sand fairy” or Psammead; a grouchy and irascible supernatural being which can, however, work feats of magic for the benefit of others. Kate Saunders, realising that the time-setting of Nesbit’s books meant that the older boys in the group of children concerned, would be of prime age to fight in World War I – follows that circumstance where it leads; plus involving, once more, the Psammead. A mix of finely recreating Nesbit’s style; plus much, delightfully, of the author’s own. A newspaper review of the work, says it well: “A simply brilliant book…beautifully crafted, funny, heart-breaking.” ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2016, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/39 "2016-10-23T12:42:17Z")
If you like historical fiction, I strongly recommend the Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O’Brian. They start with [Master and Commander](https://www.amazon.com/Master-Commander-Patrick-OBrian/dp/0393307050), and I can’t believe I’m the first to mention them. If you like history, my favorite book is [A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century](https://www.amazon.com/Distant-Mirror-Calamitous-14th-Century/dp/0345349571) by Barbara Tuchman. She explores the 14th century through the fascinating and well-documented life of an aristocrat named Enguerrand de Coucy. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080/40 "2016-10-24T02:11:25Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > …I read a wide spectrum actually. I love history, current events, pop culture, comedy. > > Mostly, I read non-fiction, but now, I would love to read a really good novel. Or a novelization of true events, like historical fiction… Thanks - that’s good to know. _Aztec_ by Gary Jennings - A sprawling, epic novel of the Aztec Empire in its last decades, told by a peasant with a talent for languages who rises to become a diplomat for Montezuma just as the Spaniards arrive. Lots of fighting, sex, intrigue, human sacrifice, sex, diplomacy, trade, exploring, sex, more fighting, etc. _Founding Brothers_ by Joseph Ellis - A fascinating, well-written collection of essays about the Framers in their relationships with each other, as friends, allies, frenemies and enemies. Ellis earned his Pulitzer with this. _Alexander Hamilton_ and _Washington: A Life_ by Ron Chernow - Excellent bios of two greats of the early republic. I could go on, but I’ll stop there for now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-recommended-book-lists-are-useless-to-me-please-dopers-recommend-me-a-book/769080.md?page=3)