The books I seem to recommend more than any others are the works of Terry Pratchett (fiction) and Mark Kurlansky (non-fiction.) Guards! Guards! and Salt, if you want to be specific.
The Milagro Beanfield War, by John Nichols: quite possibly the funniest book I’ve ever read
Travels in Alaska, by John Muir: the great naturalist doing what he does best
Mila 18, by Leon Uris: the harrowing novel of the Warsaw ghetto
Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose: the great exploration of the Lewis & Clark expedition
Cradle of the Storms, by Bernard Hubbard, S.J.: one of the great books of Alaska exploration
The White Nile, by Alan Moorehead: One of the best books on African exploration ever written, by one of the most respected writers of British history.
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The ending of this book still gives me the most delightful shivers.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
I made it to my mid 20s before I read this book. My boyfriend at the time was shocked I had never read it and said I had to read it immediately, he was right.
Love is a Mix Tape - Rob Sheffield
Did you grow up in the 80s? Do you like music? Do you want a book that makes you laugh and cry?
Stiff - Mary Rooach
It’s about dead people and dead bodies! No, really, it’s FUNNY.
Secret History - Donna Tartt
Creepy, gothic and delectable.
(I’ve also recommended Replay a lot, that book is great!)
:: smacks The Tooth with aforementioned Carl Sagan tome ::
You took one of mine, you bastard!
“The Barmaid’s Brain” by Jay Ingram. For whatever reason, those small science essays just really hit the spot with me!
Also, “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie.
Someone has already mentioned “Catch-22,” so I won’t, even though it is brilliant and about the only stream-of-consciousness book I’ve ever enjoyed.
“Finding Darwin’s God” by Dr. Kenneth Miller I found to be compelling and fascinating. Miller’s ability to explain sophisticated scientific concepts revolving around evolution, geology, and quantum physics in a manner that even a schmuck like me can understand was excellent. His attempt to reconcile the scientific world and the religious world is defintiely worth a read, IMO, regardles of what your beliefs are (or aren’t).
“In Custer’s Shadow” by Ronald Nichols provides an excellent and comprehensive biography of a fairly ordinary soldier thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Major Marcus Reno was the second in command of the 7th Cavalry in 1776 on the day in late June when Col. Custer’s luck ran out. The part that most people don’t seem to know was that about 2/3 of the 7th Cavalry, commanded by Reno, walked away from the Little Big Horn; only the men who rode with Custer were wiped out. Reno’s life up to that point, his subsequent trial for making the unforgivable mistake of not dying alongside Custer, and the deterioration of his career and life following that event are well documented, with little editorialising and no attempt to make Reno out to be anymore than he was – a career soldier and dedicated family man whose life probably would have gone unnoticed had he not been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“The Lord of The Rings” trilogy by JRR Tolkien was decent, if you go for that sort of thing. I think they made a cartoon about it back in the 70s or something?
I keep trying to get people to read A Night in the Lonesome October for ages - my boyfriend finally took me up on it a few weeks ago.
Fiction: Days of Atonement by Walter Jon Williams, Ariel by Steven Boyett.
Non-fiction: 6,000 Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby, The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan.
Midnight’s Children has already been mentioned, so I’ll throw out The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov. It’s so hard to describe - set in 1930’s Moscow, with a subplot / book-within-a-book about Pontius Pilate. Although it’s partially a satire on the Soviet system, it’s very enjoyable even if you don’t know much about that time frame. Plus it’s got gun-toting cats and naked witches.
I recommend these every chance I get:
Marilynne Robinson - Housekeeping
Wallace Stegner - Angle of Repose
Louise Erdrich - Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
Jennifer Egan - The Keep
Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
Iris Murdoch - The Sea, The Sea
I also give them as gifts all the time.
Great idea for a thread!
Here is a list of books I’ve not only recommended, but have given as gifts:
Non-fiction
The Joy of Not Working - Ernie Zelinski (common sense approach to retirement)
The Wealthy Barber - David Chilton (financial security for everyone)
Crimes Against Logic - Jamie Whyte (short and snappy look at everyday fallacies)
Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell (any of his books really)
South Beach Diet - Arthur Agatston (easy recipes plus information about nutrition)
Fiction
Life of Pi - Yann Martel (terrific storytelling)
Hunger - Knut Hamsen (compelling insights into the workings of ego and mind)
The Road - Cormac McCarthy (bleak and raw)
The Cider House Rules - John Irving (witty exploration of morality)
For the Sake of Elena - Elizabeth George (British mystery at its best)
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham (fun sci fi)
Jack Reacher series - Lee Child (loner mysteries with a flawed protagonist)
My all-time hit parade:
- The Master and Margarita
Satan comes to Moscow during the Stalinist era, and all hell breaks loose; wicked satire “for the drawer” - and devilishly funny to boot.
- The Man Who Was Thursday
How can you have a detective novel and a religious allegory in one work? And how can a man literally “be” Thursday?
- If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller
A play of styles without peer.
- Invisible Cities
Is it about Marco Polo describing his travels to Kublai Khan - or not? These cities only exist in the mind, but they describe aspects of the real world better than any map.
- Cloud Atlas
The connections between events seperated in time, but united in theme.
- Ficciones.
Perhaps the best short stories ever written. Each one a gem.
- The Periodic Table
Indescribably pogniant memoir by a working chemist about his life and miraculous survival, told through the lens of the elements he worked with.
Herman Wouk’s two books about the Henry family and the people they encounter in World War II: The Winds of War and War and Remembrance.
I not only read this one years ago, I bought it, I liked it so much! It is VERY odd and imaginative!
Uncle John’s Bathroom readers. I buy two every Christmas and I fear someday they’ll run out of new volumes. Right now they’re branching out to specialty subjects - New York, national parks…so if they do one for every country and every state, there should be some kind of new volume for years to come.
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. It’s just a kind of fairy tale and I had to read it a couple of times before I ‘got’ it, but I just LOVE it. And I wept bitter tears of frustration that the live-action movie planned fell through (I pictured Jonathan Rhys Myers as Schmendrick…but he kind of fell through IRL, too.)
Really? I thought Tom Gordon was horrible. I started reading it when it was new, and stopped because I couldn’t get into it. I MADE myself read it this year.
Some of my most common recommendations have already been mentioned, like Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman and Demon Haunted World.
Others include:
Patrick McManus’s collections of his magazine columns - for anyone who grew up hunting and fishing and spending time in the great outdoors, the humor here really connects.
Death in the Long Grass by Peter Capstick - gripping stories from a big game hunter in Africa.
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn - for anyone I know who is a fan of weirdness.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry - an American epic tale with great, memorable characters.
Ooh! I’ll see your Impro and raise you an Audition. I keep finding myself recommending it to people who have nothing to do with theater but do have to do with fast psych takes.
Just now reading Traffic and trying to make other people read it before I’ve even finished, for similar reasons – brilliant human insight stuff.
And I would love to recommend this more, but rarely meet anyone I think would enjoy it, vaguely because my mental standard is Dopers… A Short Sharp Shock by Kim Stanley Robinson. And if you read it, would you talk to me about it, please? I really want to.
Oh man, I used to recommend this one all the time and gradually forgot about it! Thanks for the reminder ::goes off to find own copy::
Completely agree with this one. I literally could not put it down.