book recomendations

[sumas]

Looking for suggestions on good books to read.

I recently read Ishmael and The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. Both great reads. Mostly I like fiction. Suggestions anyone?

[Pam]

Mostly I like fiction. Suggestions anyone?

This book is non-fiction, but it's an amazing story. Truth is stranger than fiction.

http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-...mm_hrd_title_0

[sirrealone]

Olive Kitteridge: A Novel In Stories by Elizabeth Strout is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Strout has two earlier ones that I read afterwards and also enjoyed.

Some Things That Stay by Sarah Willis was a great book I enjoyed last year.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski was phenomenal - at the top of the bestsellers list for many weeks and with good reason.

Duma Key by Stephen King was released a few years ago. A lot of his books [[including his most recent, Under the Dome) have been lacking from a character development perspective, but Duma Key hit a home run and was a good read.

Ethan Canin is another author who I picked up one of his books and liked it and have gone back and read others that my library had.

[Eastside]

- Any books by Richard Russo
- "Revolutionary Road" by Richard Yates
- "The Day of the Locust" by Nathanael West - Hard to find, but worth tracking down.
- "The Outsider" or "Native Son" by Richard Wright - Both stunning reads
- "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
- Short stories of Raymond Carver - Considered by many to be America's best short story writer

Enjoy!

[sumas]

Some of the books suggested I have already read. But I'll make a list and head to Kings Books.

Currantly am reading "The Girl Who Plays With Fire" It is a sequel to "The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo.

Curious story... Larsson is a Swedish author and his books get translated. He intended to write a series of books but tragically died young. Hope to read all he got published though.

I really enjoyed Estalman's Detroit series. I really thought Whiskey River was the best though.

[Jimaz]

• The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, by Julian Jaynes
• Gödel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas Hofstadter
• The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
• Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco
• Zen and the Beat Way, by Alan Watts
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig
• Kafka, The Complete Stories, by Nahum N. Glatzer
• My Dinner With Andre, by Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory
• The Little Prince, by Antoine deSaint-Exupery
• The Invented Reality, by Paul Watzlawick
• I Hear Voices, by Paul Ableman [[the short story)
• Metamagical Themas, by Douglas Hofstadter
• Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo
• anything written by Noam Chomsky
• A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
• Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
• Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell
• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
• Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes Saaverdra
• The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli
• The Foxfire Book, by Eliot Wigginton
• Gödel's Proof, by Ernest Nagel and James R. Newman
• The Prisoner, by Patrick McGoohan [[the television series)
• Epistemology and Cognition, by Alvin I. Goldman
• Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll

[ronaldj]

jimaz:
that is a great list of books. How long did it take you to compile the list?

I suspect that if you went to school in Detroit, it was at Monteith College at WSU. Tried Godel, Escher and Bach when it first came out. It was loaned to me by a friend. Had to return it before I finished. Will try to battle it again.

[Hermod]

Some books on the auto industry:

Keats, "The Insolent Chariots" [[very old-1960)

Halberstam, "The Reckoning"

[sumas]

Jimaz, thank you for your list. Of your 25 recommendations, I have already read 15. I must say I was surprised to see "godel, escher, bach" on the list, I thought I was the only one to read it.

I will add your other suggestions to my list of must read.

[LodgeDodger]

Unto the Daughters: The Legacy of an Honor Killing in a Sicilian-American Family
Author: Karen Tintori

>>From Publishers Weekly : Tintori's poignant memoir of the recent discovery of her great-aunt's murder deeply underscores her Sicilian culture's troubling subjugation of its women. Tintori recounts how in 1993 her aunt and mother reluctantly told her of an obliterated name from her great-grandfather's passport to America. Gradually Tintori discovers the fate of the missing youngest daughter, Francesca, by working backward in time to when the Costa family first made its way to Detroit from Corleone, Sicily, in 1914. The family settled into comfort in Little Sicily: the girls enjoyed scant education and were married off early, while the boys worked at the Ford factory and ran with rum-runner gangs. Although her sister Josie made a successful love match, Francesca pined for the barber's son, but was forcibly engaged at 16 to a scion of the Mafiosi in order to better her family's fortunes. Francesca eloped, to the family's dishonor, and was probably murdered [[shackled, dismembered and thrown in the waters of Belle Isle) by her brothers when she dared to return. Because of her family's wall of silence, Tintori finds no sense of catharsis here, only a harrowing tale of sorrow and shame.<<

[Jimaz]

jimaz:
that is a great list of books. How long did it take you to compile the list?

I suspect that if you went to school in Detroit, it was at Monteith College at WSU. Tried Godel, Escher and Bach when it first came out. It was loaned to me by a friend. Had to return it before I finished. Will try to battle it again.

ronaldj, sorry, I almost missed your post. The "Go to first new post" feature here doesn't work well for me.

I resurrected that list from the code for a former website. I just rearranged the order roughly from most- to least-favorite of the cream of the crop. I wasn't familiar with Monteith College. Thanks for that reference.

Hofstadter is a genius. He sprung G.E.B. on an unprepared literary world. It was quite a surprise that he hadn't published more before that event.

sumas, we must be of like mind. A curious afterthought: in My Dinner With Andre, Wally condemns The Little Prince as Fascist literature. I disagree but it's interesting how they ended up together on the list.

[ronaldj]

Jimaz, Thanks for the explanation. I'm gonna start to get reading to continue my life long education.

[Fury13]

I'm currently enjoying The Given Day by Dennis Lehane.

[oldredfordette]

I'm in the middle of "just Kids" by Patti Smith. It's really good - she is a very sweet person [[at least she comes off that way).

[Pam]

I'm in the middle of "just Kids" by Patti Smith. It's really good - she is a very sweet person [[at least she comes off that way).

I just read that one too and enjoyed it.

[sumas]

I have reprinted the whole thread so I have a list of books to buy. Librarys are great but I am horrible at returning them on time and then I feel guilty. My sons share books with me that they enjoyed. I am terrible at returning those too.

[sumas]

Jimaz, The Little Prince fascist?? If we are thinking of the same book, no way. I read it in it's original french copy. Once upon a time I was going to be a french teacher. Studied French for 6 years, saddly over all these years my retention is only good enough for crossword puzzles.

If we are talking the same book, I think the greatest line was when the little prince went to the planet of the drinker. He asks the drinker, why do you drink? The reply was, "I drink to forget that I drink".

[Jimaz]

sumas, yes, we're talking about the same The Little Prince. My reaction to Wally's comment was the same as yours. I can't see The Little Prince as fascist literature without stretching the symbolism beyond reason. Maybe it was done in My Dinner With Andre to evoke just that stretching. I don't know why though.

I want to reread Zen and the Beat Way. That was one of those rare books that kept putting a light bulb over my head. I kept finding myself thinking he's so obviously right, why don't others notice that way of seeing things?!

[Gizmo]

Jimaz, have you read _Tao: The Watercourse Way_, by Alan Watts? That's a good read as well.

Also, I'd recommend any novel by Stanislav Lem. He lived in Krakow, Poland, and died recently [[2006). His novels [[including _Solaris_, which has been interpreted in two films) are generally humorous, strange, witty and philosophical. He also has an absurdist streak. Definitely one of my favorite authors!

[Jimaz]

Jimaz, have you read _Tao: The Watercourse Way_, by Alan Watts? That's a good read as well.

Also, I'd recommend any novel by Stanislav Lem. He lived in Krakow, Poland, and died recently [[2006). His novels [[including _Solaris_, which has been interpreted in two films) are generally humorous, strange, witty and philosophical. He also has an absurdist streak. Definitely one of my favorite authors!

Gizmo, thanks for the recommendations. I really appreciate it.

[amberknight]

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DÃ[az and Friendly Enemies by Victoria Taylor Murray might be of interest for you.

[Bigb23]

Boy - nice weather for this. I had to bring books and receipts out to the porch for this one !

Last IMPORTANT books read.

1) In Harms Way: Doug Stanton [[The Horse Soldiers ).

2) Flyboys: James Bradley [[Flags of our Fathers).

3) Unbroken: a Survivors story: Author unknown now, [[But please read). [[Olympics to the horrors of a prison camp).

I took a beating on reading these, but well worth it for the info I received on what REALLY happened.

These books on the Pacific war towards the end of WWII will astound you in their authenticity and research. Most of these papers have only recently been declassified. My hat is off to these 20 somethings that did or did not survive the horrors of war, but saved our country and a million men from further devastation.

There is so much more that can be mentioned from these books, but only now is the truth coming out.

[Mikeg]

...........

3) Unbroken: a Survivors story: Author unknown, [[But please read).
..........

That would be

"Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption"

by Laura Hillenbrand, who wrote "Seabiscuit - an American Legend". Here's an interesting article about the author.

I read this book earlier this spring and I also highly recommend it. At my urging, my wife also read it and found it to be very interesting, even though historical non-fiction is not her usual cup of tea.

"Unbroken" is the true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner and World War II bombardier who survived 47 days on a raft adrift in the Pacific after his plane was shot down in 1943. He was captured by the Japanese and was savagely beaten and starved by his prison camp guards. The book also describes how he successfully overcame post-traumatic stress disorder after the war.

[Bigb23]

Thanks - MikeG

Those other books kinda put that one to shame. I can't believe I read all those back to back. But I just recently I left a message on the USS Indianapolis board for the last of the survivors. We all know Fubar.

[Bigb23]

After reading the book, he went down in a PB4Y, my dad was on a B-24.

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