Book recommendations

after years of searching I've only just got hold of a lovely vintage Penguin copy of Day of the Triffids (uk, de), the classic sci-fi by John Wyndham. Good stuff, if you don't disdain all sci-fi (and there's no reason why you should)

Hmmm - Was looking at Day of the Triffids, wished I'd bought it now. The thought crossed my mind how a bunch of plants started taking over, surely a bought of Weedol would have seen them off?

Almost finished reading Fellowship of the Ring (uk, de) - then on to Red Storm Rising (uk, de), I want a break before reading The Two Towers (uk, de)

I've been reading The Bunny Book of Suicides (uk, de)

Lots of great sick ways that bunny can leave this world and pass onto a better life...

Sick - yes
Funny - yes

P

True Crime (uk, de) from Jake Arnott.

It's the 3rd in the series of The Long Firm (uk, de) and He Kills Coppers (uk, de).

This times it's set in 90s "Cruel Britannia" rather than "Swinging Sixties" London and it gets all drug and rave culture, old lags, slags and posh floppy haired upper middle class boys from Chalfont St Giles going all "Mockney" - GEEZER !

Tristes Tropiques (uk, de) by Claude Levi-Strauss

Hotel Pastis (uk, de) by Peter Mayle

A Room with a View (uk, de) by E. M. Forster

1421 - The Year China Discovered the World (uk, de)
Gavin Menzies
Published by Bantam Press, London

Finished up David Sedaris' latest opus (uk, de); not as page-to-page funny as Me Talk Pretty One Day; but good moments and some more poignant recollections. Essays are a bit shorter; the one on Dutch St. Nicholas was great:

[D.S. comparing Santa Claus myth vs. St. Nicholas myth]

Anything by Bukowski.

Troublesome Words (uk, de) by Bill Bryson.

I picked it up in the airport for a quick read and found it quite interesting. It may also be of interest to "interplanetjanet' as it explains the use of 'fillet' and 'filet'.

Just finished A Short History of Nearly Everything (uk, de) by Bryson. Great book, should be required reading for (nearly) everyone on the planet.

Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere (uk, de) and American Gods (uk, de). Am reading the latter at the moment. I really enjoy his style.

Lake Wobegon Days, Garrison Keillor of NPR's Prairie Home Companion (available online at mpr.org -- Minnesota Public Radio). Used to think that only grandmas listen to this kind of stuff but then I really got into it. Wry humor, not as aggressive as David Sedaris, but still making fun of people. Gently. (Keillor "outed" himself recently as a Democrat. Who knew?)

I'll be bringing this to the first ever TT Bookswap Sept. 27 (see separate thread in Events) at Bondi -- but I'll want it back.

Hitler and Churchill Secrets of Leadership (uk, de) by Andrew Roberts

This book is fascinating on a number of levels but one thing in particular caught my interest, which is the willingness of even well educated Germans to believe that there really was a giant Jewish conspirarcy to cause Germany´s defeat in the First World War. On Page 22 he relates that the Prince of Pless, one of Germany's greatest aristocrats, hada a conversation with his father, in which his father claimed that the rich Jewish hostess Frau von Friedlaender had told him that Germany lost the war because after th Balfour declaration of 1917 the Jews switched to Germany's enemies, and his father seemed to genuinely believe that all his Jewish friends ahd been conspiring against Germany and was quite upset.

Now are we any better these days? When I first heard about the death of Princess Daina , I said to my neighbour "I bet there is already all kinds of conspiracy theories going round on the internet" Sure enough , rumours like she was killed because she was pregnant by a muslim etc were circulating. Then there are the old favourites like the moon landing was faked, Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbour beforehand and more up to date that September the 11 was staged by Mossad to get the USA in the war.

Why are people so willing to believe this kind of crap? Is it an attempt to try and feel wiser and better informed than other people? The thing is it is not harmless as the Jewish Conspiracy example shows. I actually think it is frightening to have a conversation with someone who at first sight seemed to be normal, and yet can believe such outrageous nonsense.

I'm not a big reader but found this great:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (uk, de) by Mark Haddon

By Brian Thacker
Rule No.5 ; No Sex on the Bus

Rule No.5: No Sex on the Bus (Confessions of a Tour Leader) at amazon.co.uk
Rule No.5: No Sex on the Bus (Confessions of a Tour Leader) at amazon.de
Rule No.5: No Sex on the Bus (Confessions of a Tour Leader) at amazon.com

PublisherAllen & Unwin - ISBN 1 86508 533 7

Memoirs of a Tour Leader taking groups of young adults on 28 day camping trips in an old London Double Decker bus.

Theres lot of drinking and sex tales but very funny nonetheless as Brian whisks you around the main cities of Europe reciting tales of how dumb, drunk, and naked people could get, and thats just the drivers and leaders.

I read it twice in 24 hours and have no problem in recommending it.

Munich gets a good mention - and see what happens when he goes naked in the Englischer Gardens.

Anything by William Boyd and Robert Harris.

The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics

Excellent book. Probably best for the for the advanced undergraduate level physics student. Not really for the layman, but possibly good for a non-physicist with great enthusiasm for the subject (and some background in physics).

just finished The Constant Gardener by John le Carre. first book of his i've ever read!! was pressed into my hands by someone. a very good crime story, couldn't put it down. end a tad disappointing but i'll say no more...

Am currently reading Vendela Vida's "And Now You Can Go" (amazon.co.uk).
The story is certainly somewhat kooky, the book is about the effects that an encounter at gunpoint can have on the life of a (previously) assured young woman.
The writing style is just beautiful, the phrasing is sharp, smart, funny, clever but also touching and quite tender. The story doesn't carry the novel, should really be a novella but hey, it is a debut and the style and prose is really quite wonderful.

If I may recommend a good book:
Code to Zero By Ken Follett

...Three days that could chage the world's political landscape...

Deals with one of the most ruthlessly contested arenas of the Cold War.

Just finished Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials

Part 1 : Northern Lights
Part 2 : The Subtle Knife
Part 3 : The Amber Spyglass

It's childrens books (I'm a Harry Potter fan) & I really enjoyed these books, they are magical.

have just read "in the cut" by Susanna Moore.
thought it was very disappointing. "Hey look I am writing about kinky sex and brutal murder Look Look isn't that shocking!!!""

If'n its kinky sex and brutal murder you want. go for "The Story of O" a French book that was a shocker of an S&M book in the 50s, still one IMHO. Had to read it in Uni and was completely bothered by it...and not in a good way eh. The basic outline of this story is the enslavement of a woman named O. Or perhaps, more accurately, it is the willingness of O to become completly enslaved. Anyhoo, get the complete version- the ending was sanitized for the US version.

Heres the Background, copy and pasted from some site or another.

"Story of O" first appeared as 600 copies published by Jean-Jacques Pauvert in Paris in 1954, and the English translation by Baird Bryant was published at the same time. An improved translation appeared in 1957 as 'Wisdom of the Lash.' The USA edition (by Grove Press) with a translation by Sabine d'Estree appeared in 1965.

For 40 years the true identity of its author 'Pauline Reage' was kept secret by a handful of friends close to the writer. The author's real name is actually Dominique Aury. Aury was both very well known & a feminist in France in the 50s, which adds fuel to the controversy of this book...

There are still questions regarding the 'truth' behind this work. Many speculate if the story is based on the author's experiences, or if the book is in fact a 'handbook' for the practice. Some even claim it is a history of secret sex societies. Aury herself was very mum on the subject of the book, and with her death in 1998, the questions still continue.

O has often been banned, but, like many banned books, is considered to be a classic. There are also several films/videos as well.

I am a huge James Patterson fan, cannot wait for the newest one London Bridges to come out, it will wrap up two ongoing story lines. Its mindless, but we all need mindless intrigue once in awhile.

I love living in Europe where I have been exposed to alot of the European writters, particularily the Irish Women writers like Marian Keyes and Cathy Kelly. Funny and down to earth.

Currently reading The Mist of Avalone by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Its good but not as good as my favorites by Jane Austin, or Anna Karinina by Tolstoy.

Will bring many books on sunday to the swap.

@ JML to be honest no, I do not look for brutal murder etc in a book

The Dark Arena by Mario Puzo. This actually isn't his greatest but it's interesting because it's about an American in post WW2 Germany and how difficult and sinister it must have been. A good read.

The Godfather and The Sicilian are better reads with Godfather obviously being the best.

The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons by Dan Brown were also very entertaining.

If you liked Dan Brown then try Pompeii by Robert Harris. Similar in style: short chapters with a hook at the end. Good for the S-Bahn.

i'm off to peru in 12 days and have not yet got any reading material. i've been passing by "pompeii" for awhile and am enticed, but maybe i should buy a book about the area i am going to visit. anyone got any tips? it can be thin or fat, truth or fiction, biography or auto, doesn't matter, just got to be in english.
otherwise i will just pick up david baldacci's latest (not very travel friendly though).
thanks in advance!

A.A. Gill is Away.

He's a cheeky bastard, but highly entertaining.

"The Celestine Prophecy" by James Redfield

so no one can recommend a book about peru or south america for me? i did watch "touching the void" a few weeks back, not like that was good preparation.

SA books, if you're interested, there is a great read called Savages and another called Running the Amazon, both by Joe Kane

Not specifically on Peru, but have you read Bruce Chatwin (In Patagonia or others)? Bel Canto by Ann Patchett is a good novel; I'm a big fan of Isabelle Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, both excellent authors who write on SA themes (they're each originally in Spanish, if you're up for that). 100 years of solitude, Love in the time of cholera, and the General in his Labyrinth are three of my favorites by him. For Allende, House of the Spirits, Eva Luna, and of Love and Shadows are her more SA theme books - she's moved on to transitional cultures in NA these days (if you like to cook, check out Aphrodite, A memoir of the senses). Paula, her book on her daughter is wonderful, but very sad...

all i can think of now...

Anything by Mikhail Bulgakov but perhaps most relevant at the moment is the White Guard. The Master & Margarita is probably my favorite book.

Philip K Dick esp
Do Androids dream of electric Sheep
Ubik
A Scanner Darkly
The Man in the High Castle

Sebastian Haffner
The Meaning of Hitler
Defying Hitler

Anything by George Orwell esp
Down and out in Paris & London
Burmese Days

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

A house for Mr Biswas by VS Naipol

Chain of Command - Sy Hersch

Very, very worrying indeed.

Sin

Depth Takes A Holiday: Essays from Lesser Los Angeles by Sandra Tsing Loh.

Chinese-German performance artist/commentator/personality with a series of essays about L.A. from the viewpoint of a starving artist living in the armpit (S.F.V.) of the L.A. basin. From the early to mid-90's.

Normally, I wouldn't put this up since the humor is specific only to a minority of people; but coincidentally someone from San Diego asked me just tonight what I was reading since I was laughing on the ubahn. Small world, I 'spose. So this one's for you

This book will be progressively funnier if you are A) American, B ) from SoCal, C) from L.A. and D) remember the 90's.

She's also a radio commentator, and there's several 2-minute clips of her essays online. Like Viva Las Vegas and Shoulder to shoulder with Howard Stern, or the chock-full-of-sexual-innuendo Self-empowered Cleaning.

[COLOR=red]Lie down with lions
Den Follett

Acton and throbs galore with a hint of a romantic thriller.

Lie down with lions
Den Follett

Acton and throbs galore with a hint of a romantic thriller.

Lie down with lions
Ken Follett- sorry, keep getting it wrong!!

Acton and throbs galore with a hint of a romantic thriller.

I recently read Fingersmith by Welsh author Sarah Waters. The book is set in London circa 1860s. The well written suspensful plot revolves around thieves and a heiress. Lots of twists and turns. Theres a bit of everything, London slums, crumbly mansions, madhouses. Oh and a bit of lesbians and porn thrown in for good measure.

Reviews on Amazon.UK
Excerpt from the Guardian

just got done reading Angela's Ashes...now starting sequal "tis

I don't like fiction, so here goes:

"Shot in the Heart" by Gary Gilmore 's brother (writer for Rolling Stone magazine; exquisitely sensitively written imho). Gilmore family history.

"What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?" by Christine Maggiore. Self-explanatory title (...er, of no direct relevance to me, hasten to +)

"A Soldier's Song" by Ken Lukowiak. British para's experiences during the Falklands War. Stylish, not plodding (or should that be yomping? .

"Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness-A Soviet Spymaster " Pavel Sudoplatov et al. Memoirs of one of the key covert figures of the Stalin era. Considered of historical significance.

Errr...Relaxing bedtime reading all! (No, seriously, very informative and easy to read, thus enjoyable in my )

There is one book I’d like to recommend but you have to like a combination of the following topics:

Codebreaking, morphine, marines, computers, security, paranoia, WW II, love, diving, prison, the Philippines, dental surgery, conspiracies, data havens, military mindsets, submarines and a few others.

It might help if you are interested in computers but this book is so good it'll have you crawling out of the toilet after your legs have fallen asleep because you sat down and picked it up instead of concentrating on what you should be doing. You can even skip some of the really detailed stuff without ruining the story.

Cryptonomicon

Neal Stephenson

Cryptonomicon is the second book in a 3000 page trilogy, the first book of which, Quicksilver, I am reading at the moment. Also to be recommended, especially if you've got lots of time on the s-bahn and your reading habit is starting to get expensive! Should slow down your consumption a bit.

EDIT: Whoops. It (Cryptonomicon ) is not actually in the trilogy. But it is by the same author and good to boot.

@elfen

I would agree with biogeek. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is an excellent choice to put you in a SA frame of mind. My favs are:

The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor and In Evil Hour.

I can also recommend The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Bernieres. Not the Noble merit of Maquez, but it is such a fun read.

Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World form the trilogy the Baroque Cycle. Big hefty books, very hard to forget on the S-Bahn. should save you money as well as you'll reread them a few times, at 800 pages or so a pop it'll kill a few S-Bahn journeys unless of course you are engaged in one of those easy to start conversations with the locals.

Quicksilver is very good and I've just bought The Confusion.

For anybody who has ever wondered why his or her computer is out to raise their blood pressure try "In the begining ...was the command line" also by Neal Stephenson.

Anything by Kurt Vonnegut, but especially Slapstick and Galapogos
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb - Amazing character development, but a bit fat for my purse.

As a complete bookaholic (Ive been known to buy books I already have in order to kill an hour train journey, sad I know) I'm fighting against recommending too many books but two more great ones are "The woman light by fireflies" and "Julip" by Jim Harrison.

Short, interesting stories of people living on the fringe of whatever counts for civilisation these days.

And everything that Bruce Chatwin wrote:

In Patagonia
The songlines.
On the black hill.
Utz.
What am I doing here.
The viceroy of Quidah.
Patagonia revisited.
Anatomy of restlessness.

I'd forgotten that trilogy with the War of Don Emmanuel's nether regions -- great stuff!

A recent great read -- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things -- both are excellent

Last night I was in the English Hugendahl, and could not find any interesting books in my usual taste is Sifi or history, and so without any great expectations I bought "The five people you meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom and I have to say I think it is one of the most wonderful books I have ever read. I can not remember the last time a book moved me so much. Especially the chapter about forgiveness.
There is no way I am going to swap this book at the next swap.