Non-fantasy/SF recommendations thread (literary, non-fic etc)

[bloodsteel bitterraven]

I am done reading "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein. A brilliant book that explains in great detail how corporatism is out to destroy any dignity that we may have left.

[Arakan]

I would like to recommend "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andric.

If someone has an interest in the (bloody) history of the Balkans, the sometimes brutal but always passionate and compassionate mentality of its people and the deep-lying Background (i will not causes) of the Yugoslaw Wars 1991-99, he or she should read that book.

Regarding Cormac McCarthy...if there is some living novelist out there who DESERVES the Nobel Prize then it is this gentleman. As he already is 80 years old i hope that the committee finally find their common sense and give the prize to him (but maybe he already is too popular for that snobbish bunch).

[Sambal]

i just finished Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and it's really, really good. Especially when you haven't seen the movie, as I hadn't.

[Kyoshi]

Fiction:

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

Historical fiction. If you like THE GAME OF THRONES part of ASOIAF then you'll definitely love this book.

The Known World - Edward P. Jones

A black slave owner (also the son of a former slave) in a fictional county in USA dies and leaves his young, inexperienced wife to deal with the plantation, along with the politics of the town. Very good prose, amazing characters (both black and white) and it leaves you questioning the nature of humanity.

[Night's_King]

Wait, six pages and no mention of I, Claudius by Robert Graves?

[HexMachina]

Fiction:

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

Historical fiction. If you like THE GAME OF THRONES part of ASOIAF then you'll definitely love this book..

I enjoyed Fall of Giants more than Pillars of the Earth.

[Ser Harly of Southwell]

I'm three books into The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell at the moment and I think this is one that I should recommend, especially to people into ASOIAF.

It follows a Anglo-Saxon Lord, Uhtred of Bebennburg asin late 9th century England during the time of King Alfred the Great. During this time the future of England hangs in the balance as it's four kingdoms, Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia and Wessex are being attacked by Danes (Vikings). Uhtred is and Anglo-Saxon, but was raised by Danes and so has conflicted allegiances.

This series has great cast of dynamic characters. Politics, war, revenge, love and religion are it's themes. So far there are 8 books and more are to come.. GRRM has praised Cornwell for his excellent battle scenes. If you like ASOIAF I am sure you will really like this series.

[Astromech]

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, by Barbara Tuchman

Tuchman traces the tumultuous and horrific 14th century by following the life of Enguerrand VII de Coucy, a French nobleman from Picardy who seems to have been present or involved in many of the events and tragedies of the time.

[Jo498]

I highly recommend A Distant Mirror. I had read some of it many years ago but re-read it about 4 years ago after I had read ASoIaF. It shows that real history was as brutal and crazy or even more so.

(I also like Tuchman's "Guns of August" about the outbreak and first weeks of WW I, I planned to read others of her but never got around and I think those two are the most famous anyway.)

[girlfrommonday]

I would like to recommend "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andric.

If someone has an interest in the (bloody) history of the Balkans, the sometimes brutal but always passionate and compassionate mentality of its people and the deep-lying Background (i will not causes) of the Yugoslaw Wars 1991-99, he or she should read that book.

Regarding contemporary history of the Balkans: I recommend Like Eating a Stone by Wojciech Tochman about a postwar Bosnia and emotionally destroyed survivors. The part about exhumation and body identification was very moving and very disturbing at the same time.

[Cold Hands warm heart]

The series "A Dream of Eagles", a total of six books. The story chronicles the Arthurian legend. It begins around 385 AD. The Roman Legions are beginning to leave Briton and the Saxons are raiding in the south east, the scotti from the west and Barbarians over the Wall in the north. Yes GRRM fans I said the Wall, "Hadrians Wall" , stretching coast to coast in the north, 83 miles. Arthur, like Jon Snow was raised in secrecy. His lineage hidden but raised to know battle and leadership. Oh, there is a sword Excalibur whose blade shone like the sun. Like say Lightbringer. And we learn of the Celts and Druids.

The story tells of the building of community and of all the warring factions in the land. And the one man to lead them.

Jack Whyte is the author. I find him to be a good story teller. The historical facts on the Romans that are woven through the story left me wanting to know more. The main characters were well put together.

ps. hold a map of Westeros next to a map of England

[TheReal_Rebel]

Hey, i just watched all of the movies in Hannibal triology (didnt count hannibal rising), and now i am looking for a good stand alone book or a series similar to that one.

I tried to find some on goodreads but they i didnt find any that looked really good. Every suggestion would hugely appreciated :)

watch #Hannibal the TV series

[TheReal_Rebel]

I am about to start teaching American history from 1870-1914. I know nothing about this so having to do a lot of homework over the summer. I'd like to read a well-written fast-paced piece of fiction around the time period. Anything to do with the American civil war, the expansion into the west, slavery, or Native American/West relations would be fab. Love a bit of dark romance but I suppose it isn't essential.

Civil War to 1914 in order of time, more or less

The Red Badge of Courage

Huckleberry Finn all Mark Twain

Walden Henry David Thoreau

Little House on the Prarie

Little Women

Harriet The Moses of her People

Bury My Hrart at Wounded Knee

Gore Vidal Novels from Lincoln onward

Age of Innocence Edith Wharton

Call of the Wild Jack London generally

Devil in the White City

The Alienist

East of Eden Steinbeck

[Cold Hands warm heart]

mistake

[Astromech]

Civil War to 1914 in order of time, more or less

The Red Badge of Courage
Huckleberry Finn all Mark Twain
Walden Henry David Thoreau
Little House on the Prarie
Little Women
Harriet The Moses of her People
Bury My Hrart at Wounded Knee
Gore Vidal Novels from Lincoln onward
Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
Call of the Wild Jack London generally
Devil in the White City
The Alienist
East of Eden Steinbeck

I really enjoyed The Alienist. I would add Lonesome Dove and Cold Mountain to that list.

[Happy Ent]

OK, I’ve finished some required reading in psychology and moral psychology (about which I knew little):

Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahnemann)

Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us (Green)

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (Haidt)

Deceit and Self-Deception: Fooling Yourself the Better to Fool Others (Trivers)

I loved this, but I think there would be diminishing returns from reading more. Trivers was crap, though.

I also finished

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (Dennett) This is the usual New Atheism, evolution, cognitive science, etc. stuff. It’s all good, but I feel I don’t learn much new anymore.

A bit about human evolution:

A Troublesome Inheritance (Wade). I know this and don’t need to read more. It makes me sick; I’d be happy to read a believable book that lays out the counterpoint to this.

History:

The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions (Walzer) About Israel, India, Algier’s revolutions.

Iron Curtain : The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-56 (Applebaum) Poland, DDR, Czech republic after WWII.

Better Angels of our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity (Pinker)

This lays out my tastes and interest pretty well. Question: now what? I want to learn something new, and preferably read something I don’t already agree with. Hit me! (Do not recommend Malcolm Gladwell.)

Of particular interest: I will live in the US in the Fall. Some US history, say?

[Zorral]

OK, I’ve finished some required reading in psychology and moral psychology (about which I knew little):

Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahnemann)

Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us (Green)

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (Haidt)

Deceit and Self-Deception: Fooling Yourself the Better to Fool Others (Trivers)

I loved this, but I think there would be diminishing returns from reading more. Trivers was crap, though.

I also finished

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (Dennett) This is the usual New Atheism, evolution, cognitive science, etc. stuff. It’s all good, but I feel I don’t learn much new anymore.

A bit about human evolution:

A Troublesome Inheritance (Wade). I know this and don’t need to read more. It makes me sick; I’d be happy to read a believable book that lays out the counterpoint to this.

History:

The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions (Walzer) About Israel, India, Algier’s revolutions.

Iron Curtain : The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-56 (Applebaum) Poland, DDR, Czech republic after WWII.

Better Angels of our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity (Pinker)

This lays out my tastes and interest pretty well. Question: now what? I want to learn something new, and preferably read something I don’t already agree with. Hit me! (Do not recommend Malcolm Gladwell.)

Of particular interest: I will live in the US in the Fall. Some US history, say?

Ron Chernow's Washington: A Life, which received the Pulitzer in 2011. It would be difficult to find such a fine, and well-written overview of how the colonies became the U.S., as told through the lens of the man commonly known as the father of the country. It also explains a great deal about why the country is the way it is, particularly its white supremacy, anti-tax, pro-gun obsessions, and its virulent politics.

Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer.

After that, Henry Adams's vast History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

Followed by Robert V. Remini's prize winning three volume biography - history of Andrew Jackson: Vol. 1 The Course of American Empire (1767–1821); Vol. 2 The Course of American Freedom (1822–1832); Vol. 3 The Course of American Democracy (1833–1845)

The end of the Jacksonian Era and Era of Good Feeling, i.e. emergence of new parties, the battle over the entry of California into the U.S. as a free soil state: America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union by Fegus M. Bordewich.

That brought on finally the inevitable -- Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War by James M. McPherson.

Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863 - 1877 by Eric Foner.

Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory by David W. Blight.

The rise of the plutocrats, a splendid biography, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles.

All of these books are so well-written they are easy to read, all of them by the most reputable of scholars and historians.

The possible exception to "easy to read" is Henry Adams, who, by the way, helped invent American History as a discipline, but he is a very fine writer too, just not what people have gotten used to. He is very conscious of the literary side of writing; he's also very funny and witty. But maybe he only works if one already knows a great deal about the history and the figures he's writing about. However, he's one of the most valuable historians of the U.S. because he's the great-grandson of the second president, and the grandson of the sixth president; his father was Lincoln's appointee as minister to the mission of St. James during the Civil War, and he served as his father's private secretary, whose efforts were most successful in keeping both England and France from interfering in the U.S. conflict. IOW, there is no historian of the U.S. who has such intimate knowledge of the matters about which he wrote.

[Don't Wake the Dragon]

No mention of Conn Iggulden in this topic (unless i've missed it!) maybe it's because i'm not as well read as many on this forum but i've really enjoyed his war of the roses books; stormbird and trinity, as well as his novels on Genghis Khan, the conqueror series. The prose is perhaps not the most imaginative at times, but the pace rarely lags in any of his books and the times he writes about are fascinating. He really comes into his own with his battle writing, where he seems to have a real knack for capturing tactics and as ASOIF has elements of the war of the roses and the dothraki are very similar to Genghis Khan's horse warriors, I think they are good books to recommend

[Astromech]

I highly recommend A Distant Mirror. I had read some of it many years ago but re-read it about 4 years ago after I had read ASoIaF. It shows that real history was as brutal and crazy or even more so.

 

(I also like Tuchman's "Guns of August" about the outbreak and first weeks of WW I, I planned to read others of her but never got around and I think those two are the most famous anyway.)

The Guns of August is a very good book. I'm a big fan of Tuchman's. I've been debating between her The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890 - 1914 and Stillwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45.

 

However, I do have several history books sitting on the shelf that I should read before buying more.

 

@ Happy Ent,

 

 Whereabouts in the U.S. will you be living? Maybe something dealing with the local or regional history may interest you.

[Darth Richard II]

Conn Iggulden s books are about as bad as historical fiction gets. 300 was more accurate. Fuck, Star Wars is more accurate.