[Tuco]

I'd like to know what others have as their favorite books. I'm always looking for reccomendations for a great read. Here are a few of my favorites that I've recently read.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet:
This book is the best epic that I have ever read. It is set in 12th century England and takes place over a period of 40 years. The story is fascinating with political upheaval as well as internal church politics. This is a long book coming in at about a thousand pages, but I have read it more than once.

Weave World by Clive Barker:
This book is a fantasy-horror novel that is about a race known as Seerkind that live undetected and unnoticed to humans. They are on the brink of destruction and thus weave their entire world and themselves into a magical carpet, which is then placed in the hands of a human woman for protection against an evil force. As the woman dies, the evil force seeks the carpet to destroy it and a granddaughter of the woman protecting the carpet manages to steal it and must run for her life. I really liked this book and I'm not much of a fan of horror or fantasy.

The Beach by Alex Garland:
This is the book that was made into the movie of the same name. The book is much better than the movie. It concerns a backpacker that finds a Garden of Eden in Thailand known as the beach. It reminded me of a modern day Lord of the Flies.

Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch
This book I can say had a very profound effect on me spiritually. It spoke to me in a way that no other book has. The author speaks as a modern day prophet and answers some of the questions about the nature of God. Some with hard core fundamentalist religious beliefs may dislike the book however.

[linskyjack]

Haven't read anyone of them, but I have heard of all those guys. This summer, I read a couple of good books---re-read the Federalist Papers and I am convinced that righty has no idea of what the intent was of the Founding Fathers. I also read a book on the plague, called the Great Mortality. Then I read a book called How to Abuse a Right Winger Without Even Having to Think.

[LuckyStrike]

A General's Life - Omar Bradley

Crusade In Europe - Dwight Eisenhower

My Three Years With Eisenhower - Harry Butcher

Soldier - Matt Ridgeway

Swords And Plowshares - Maxwell Taylor

Lightning Joe - Joe Collins

Command Decisions - Lucien Truscott

On To Berlin - James Gavin

Eisenhower's Six Great Decisions - Walter Bedel Smith

Past Forgetting - Kay Summersby Morgan

[tohm]

The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomasson

The DaVinci Code - Dan Browne

Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi

From Beirut to Jerusalem* - Thomas L. Friedman

*Favorite.

[Gabriel]

Re-reading....Art of War....Sun Tzu
Re-reading....Care of the Soul..Thomas Moore
Reading........The Art of Pilgrimage...Phil Cosineau

Browsing through...almost forgot about the Chilton Manual for my little Mazda I got in today...I love it.

[linskyjack]

LuckyStrike seems to be a WW2 Fan--Check out John Keegan's World War 2---the worlds foremost military historian--great read.

[A_erised]

linsky, the Federalist Papers. Are those the ones written by Hamilton who used a pen name? Have not read them since college. Believe they were quiet lengthy. Worth going back and rereading? It was during that college semester that I learned what Washington received as pay, while President.

Lucky Strike you stuck on DWE and WW2? Learn anything we didn't already know?

Tuco, Barker's works always make me thing about the possibilities.

Tohm good choices, I've done three of the four.

[Fidelista]

The last three books and good ones.
It doesn't take a hero >>>Gen. Norman Schwarkoff.
The Hungry Years. >>> T.H. Watkins.
And a outstanding book, extremely interesting>>>>
The Coming Plague:Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance >>>Laurie Garret. A review here >>> http://www.cesmi.org/public/reviews/books/book9.html
All three of these of books say a lot about today-- and future. >f

[Gabriel]

I will give The Coming Plague a look for sure Fidelista

[Fidelista]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

I will give The Coming Plague a look for sure Fidelista

You wont be sorry . Its a book that you can't put down, and changes the way you view things---impossible not to.
Everybody that I have lent to, feel the same. Now, how to get it returned >f

[linskyjack]

Originally Posted by A_erised

linsky, the Federalist Papers. Are those the ones written by Hamilton who used a pen name? Have not read them since college. Believe they were quiet lengthy. Worth going back and rereading? It was during that college semester that I learned what Washington received as pay, while President.

Lucky Strike you stuck on DWE and WW2? Learn anything we didn't already know?

Tuco, Barker's works always make me thing about the possibilities.

Tohm good choices, I've done three of the four.

Yes--Hamilton and Madison were the chief architects of the Federalist papers. They consist of a set of editorials and broadsides that were meant to get Americans to vote for the passing of the Constitution. There are also anti-Federalist papers----very interesting in their own right.

[LuckyStrike]

Originally Posted by linskyjack

LuckyStrike seems to be a WW2 Fan--Check out John Keegan's World War 2---the worlds foremost military historian--great read.

Thanks, I'll check it out. I was mostly interested in reading the autobiographies of the generals and general staff members of WWII. I think it was Bill Mauldin who said that for the typical soldier the war consisted of what was happening within twenty feet of where ever he was. Reading books authored by the commanders gives you a broader picture.

Originally Posted by A_erised

Lucky Strike you stuck on DWE and WW2? Learn anything we didn't already know?

I'm not sure what you mean by that. If this were 1944 I might ask you "who do you know that I know?", which in it's time had a particular meaning.

One advantage of going to the source is that you bypass the political bias of historians to familiarize yourself with the thinking of the participants. By comparing and contrasting the views and accounts of a variety of commanders and staff members of the time, you begin to get a sense of when their writings are honest and straightforward and when they are self serving. For the leaders and commanders of the time, WWII was a great distillery. Those who rose to the top throughout the struggle were the best, most competent, and honest men. I found that most of the writings of these men were honest, modest, and straightforward.

One must remember however that general officers never really retire in the usual sense, and can be recalled to duty at any time. At the times when they wrote their autobiographies, the events were still fresh in most peoples memories, and the people they wrote about were still alive, many of them serving in positions of great authority and responsibility. An indiscreet comment could have international consequences.

One of the most honest and revealing autobiographies, I believe, is Omar Bradley's "A General's Life". He finished the book just before he died and most of the people both here and abroad that he wrote about were dead. One of the aspects of the war that I found most fascinating was the political struggle, mostly caused by Bernard Montgomery, that waged within the allied command throughout the campaign in Europe. This was dealt with fairly thoroughly by Bradley in his final book. (Bradley authored a previous memoir of the war entitled "A Soldier's Story") I believe that if Harold Alexander had been in command of British forces in Europe instead of Montgomery, the war might have ended much sooner with much fewer allied casualties.

[valley]

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Dont knock it til you try it!

Bunyan wrote the classic in just one year while he served a sentence in prison in 1676. All in all, Bunyan spent more than a decade in jail for "unlawful preaching" and for going against the Church of England.

The story is about a man named Christian who embarks on a journey to the Celestial City of Mount Zion. Everything imaginable happens to him on the way. He meets people who try to help him onward, meets some who try to prevent him from going further, has to fight against man and beast. The characters and places are as rich as they sound (a giant cannibal named Despair captures him and puts him in a dungeon, where he has to be rescued, A travelling companion is put on trial and then killed in a town called Vanity Fair, He has to travel through dangerous places like the Valley of Humiliation and the City of Destruction) The whole book just comes alive when you read and you can relate to the characters. Its almost poetic but still hits you hard because even though its all done as an allegory, it is so "true to life" that it keeps you riveted. Its a pretty powerful book, given that its almost 350 years old!

I dont often read books for entertainment but when I do, I enjoy a good mystery/suspense novel that keeps you guessing until the end (thats so hard to find in a book, imo!) so if anyone knows of any books like that, then please share the titles!.

[teengeekgrrl]

Originally Posted by valley

I dont often read books for entertainment but when I do, I enjoy a good mystery/suspense novel that keeps you guessing until the end (thats so hard to find in a book, imo!) so if anyone knows of any books like that, then please share the titles!.

Same goes for movies! Almost anytime I watch a movie I see a flashing red and yellow "DUH" sign pointing at the screen. I'm sick of predictablility!

[valley]

Originally Posted by teengeekgrrl

Same goes for movies! Almost anytime I watch a movie I see a flashing red and yellow "DUH" sign pointing at the screen. I'm sick of predictablility!

hehehe, thats a great way to describe it! I agree.