# The last good book you read (and a mini description) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 11, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347 "2010-11-11T19:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/21 "2010-11-14T02:16:01Z")
_Blind Man’s Bluff - The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage_ by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew The title says it all. Very interesting, exciting, well told history. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/22 "2010-11-14T03:53:37Z")
The Elephant To Hollywood, memoirs by Michael Caine. He had previously written a doorstop of an autobiography, but this new shorter one includes some updates on his life since then. A real pleasure to read, he’s led a happy, productive, busy life. Years ago he saw a coffee commercial featuring a beautiful woman, and he immediately fell in love. He was making arrangements to fly to Brazil to try to find her; a friend just happened to come by, and when he heard this plan, he laughed. Said the beautiful woman wasn’t Brazilian, he knew her from the agency that handled her career - she was English and in fact lived just a short distance from MC’s house! :eek: What are the odds??? So a meeting was arranged, they got together, married, had a child, and have been happy and inseparable for many many years. Awww! ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/23 "2010-11-14T05:01:37Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I like most of Moore’s books, and the irreverence of this one makes it even better. His last couple of books (_Fool_, _You Suck_) have been…well, not _stinkers_, really, but certainly not up to the level of _Lamb_ or _The Lust Lizard Of Melancholy Cove_. The last really good book I read was _Trainspotting_, Irvine Welsh. Not so much a novel as collection of sketches linked by common characters - much like John Dos Passos’ _U.S.A_. It takes a while to adjust to the thick Edinburgh dialect the book is written in, but boy is it worth it. The standard synopis is “it’s about a bunch of Scottish heroin addicts”, but it is so much more than that. Moving without being sentimental, and darkly funny. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/24 "2010-11-14T05:47:22Z")
I just finished “The Hunger Games” series. It’s written for a younger audience, teens actually, by my God I couldn’t put it down. I read the three books in as many days. Sometime in the future a country arises, where the U.S. is now, that has the Capitol and 12 district. Each year the districts have to offer up a boy and a girl to fight to the death for the Capitol’s amusement. ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/25 "2010-11-14T12:31:15Z")
_Frankenstein_ by Mary Shelley. Much better than I thought it would be. Not particularly scary, but thought-provoking. ---
**Author:** ![PeskiPiksi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/26 "2010-11-14T16:43:50Z")
_The Help_ by Kathryn Stockett. Set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960’s, tells the story of the relationship between several black maids and the white women they work for. Funny, heartbreaking, and suspenseful. Can’t recommend it enough. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/27 "2010-11-14T19:26:02Z")
[Baking Cakes in Kigali](http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Cakes-Kigali-Gaile-Parkin/dp/0385343434) by Gaile Parkin. A local store I love to shop at had a deal where if you joined their book club, you got a tab good for 20% off future purchases after reading on book and attending one discussion group. I was so blown away by this book. In telling the tale of an elderly woman who makes cakes for special occasions, the writer gives a history and cultural overview of the country. I was one chapter into the book before I started wishing I could get the film rights and get Whoopi for the lead. This is not a book I would have pciked up on my own, but I am so glad I read it. ---
**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:** [November 15, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/28 "2010-11-15T15:08:36Z")
**Weedy** , the man who allegedly inspired _Frankenstein_ is a key figure in _Blood Oath_, the vampire book I mentioned. **PeskiPiksi** , my wife and another friend both read _The Help_ and really liked it. You may know that it’s now being filmed, with Emma Stone in the leading role. **Zsofia** , if you like sea stories I urge you to read Nicholas Monsarrat’s _The Cruel Sea_, a gripping novel about the officers and crew of a Royal Navy corvette (small warship), HMS _Compass Rose_, during the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII. Unforgettable. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/29 "2010-11-15T15:32:51Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > I was very taken by [Every Man Dies Alone](http://www.amazon.com/Every-Dies-Alone-Hans-Fallada/dp/1935554271/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289510336&sr=8-1) by Hans Fallada. It was quite something. > > The book was based on the true (and remarkable) story of a middle-aged couple in Nazi Germany during WWII who wish to make some form of protest. Besides providing an amazing and essentially real-time view of Germany at the time (Fallada wrote it immediately after the war), it’s also moving, suspenseful, and altogether unique in the way it reads. Definitely worth a try if the ‘subject’ is not one you avoid. +1 It’s excellent. Another odd note - the author’s own story is almost as bizzare as his fiction. During the war, the authour survived internment in a Nazi insane asylum, where he was able to avoid the harhser Nazi “treatments” by pretending to write an anti-Jewish novel on Gobbels’ orders - while really writing (in code!) a novel deeply critical of the Nazis, _The Drinker_. The authour dropped dead shorty after publication of _Every Man Dies Alone_ ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/30 "2010-11-15T15:51:02Z")
I’ve been reading the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. (I had heard about it here, and stumbled across a short story that got me hooked.) Harry Dresden is a wizard, and a hard-boiled detective. The series is a great blend of the dark urban fantasy and noirish mystery genres, with a lot of humour and pop-culture references mixed in. Start with the first novel, _Storm Front_. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/31 "2010-11-15T15:56:49Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/32 "2010-11-15T18:13:57Z")
1. Awesome book, about the America’s before the arrival of Columbus. You will learn so much about pre columbian culture in North, South and Central America. The author was inspired to write the book when he discovered his teenage son was being fed the same nonsense story he’d been taught. An archeologist and scholar, the book is heavily footnoted, referencing current research and finds. He does an outstanding job of placing the cultures into relation with each other, in both time and location, a very challenging task, indeed. Great read. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/33 "2010-11-15T18:48:50Z")
Well, _The Sea Wolf_ went and fell all up on that Victorian novel stumbling block - a woman showed up. It was still good, though. ETA - Ha! Here’s what Ambrose Bierce said about it: “The great thing—and it is among the greatest of things—is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen… the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is enough for a man to do in one lifetime… The love element, with its absurd suppressions, and impossible proprieties, is awful.” ---
**Author:** ![Chum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@Chum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chum)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/34 "2010-11-15T18:56:22Z")
_War for the Oaks_ by Emma Bull. Set in Minneapolis and written in the '80s, it’s a story about pop/rock music and good vs. bad fairies fighting for control of the Twin Cities. Eddi, rock star extraordinaire, gets dragged into the fairy fight by a phouka who becomes her guard/protector. It’s well written, warm, funny, and exciting. Realistic fantasy. Anyone from Minnesota will love the references to our fantastic urban parks and other locales and to Prince music. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/35 "2010-11-15T19:10:48Z")
I always feel the need to separate audio books from regular book. Regular book: \*Farm City \*by Novella Carpenter (I was sure this must be a pen name, but no.) The true story of the author’s trials and tribulations trying to grow crops and raise livestock in downtown Oakland. A very fun read that never goes too far into the hippie-dippy stuff. Audio book: _Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell_ by Susanna Clarke. A story of magic, set in England during the Napoleonic wars roughly (The story starts about 1806.) Assumes a rich history of magic in the Isles that has died out and the title characters are reviving the use of magic. Not a lot of excitement but a rich, somewhat dark, intricate story with dozens of smaller stories woven in. This is my second time through the 26 CDs and I may just start over again when I’m done. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/36 "2010-11-15T19:12:52Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > I always feel the need to separate audio books from regular book. > > -snip- > > Audio book: > _Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell_ by Susanna Clarke. A story of magic, set in England during the Napoleonic wars roughly (The story starts about 1806.) Assumes a rich history of magic in the Isles that has died out and the title characters are reviving the use of magic. Not a lot of excitement but a rich, somewhat dark, intricate story with dozens of smaller stories woven in. This is my second time through the 26 CDs and I may just start over again when I’m done. Just out of curiousity: how do they handle the lengthy footnotes in an audiobook format? ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/37 "2010-11-15T19:33:00Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Just out of curiousity: how do they handle the lengthy footnotes in an audiobook format? Good question. They basically read them out as they arise (this is explained at the beginning.) In practice this means that the reader sometimes digresses into a longish side story which is a little hard to follow. But the main story jumps around somewhat anyway and the footnotes contain great little stories of their own so they are sometimes more entertaining than the main thread. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/38 "2010-11-15T21:50:58Z")
“Wet Desert”: a real page turner about environmental activists trying to restore the Grand Canyon to its “natural state” by blowing up the Glen Canyon Dam. J. ---
**Author:** ![katie1341](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/91b2a8/32.png) [@katie1341](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katie1341)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/39 "2010-11-15T23:12:50Z")
Just yesterday finished reading “Innocent” by Scott Turow. Sequel to “Presumed Innocent” and very, very good. Also recently read “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” series and could not put it down. Blew through the three books in a week. Last summer I read “The Art of Racing in the Rain”. It’s about a racecar driver and his wife and daughter, told from the POV of the racecar driver’s dog (who eventually becomes the family dog). Sounds silly but it was wonderful. I cried most of the way through it. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347/40 "2010-11-15T23:20:59Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > **Zsofia** , if you like sea stories I urge you to read Nicholas Monsarrat’s _The Cruel Sea_, a gripping novel about the officers and crew of a Royal Navy corvette (small warship), HMS _Compass Rose_, during the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII. Unforgettable. I’ll pick it up! Of course, the last WWII sea story I read (_In Harm’s Way_) left emotional scars, so I may pick it up _gingerly._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-good-book-you-read-and-a-mini-description/560347.md?page=3)