What is the last book you really enjoyed? I need two weeks’ worth of reading for my Kindle while the wife and I TGV our way across France. Genre honestly does not matter to me as much as good writing, so any and all suggestions are welcome. Topical reading that pertains to Brittany, Meurthe-et-Moselle or Labourd in the French Basque country* might work especially well.
Chat about whatever.
(*) I know, that sounds sort of like visiting Florida, Michigan and Arizona in one go. In-laws.
HeartlandLiberal
Albert Bell, Jr. The Blood of Caesar: A Second Case from the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger .
Fairly short, outstanding historical novel. Pliny the Younger is protagonist, with his friend Tacitus. Flavius Josephus makes and appearance. And the plot swirls around a murder, and the emperor Domitian. Marvelous and clear exposition on the customs, character, politics, attitudes, and human interactions of the time in the years shortly after the Vesuvius, and the Elderly Pliny is dead as a result of that event.
Highly, highly recommended. Just finished it today.
steve s
It wasn’t the one i just finished, that’s for sure
http://www.amazon.com/Eight-Novel-Katherine-Neville/dp/0345366239
It’s like somebody said “Let’s make a book like The Name of the Rose, except _even crappier_!”*
Very few books make me smile. This one did:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585677469/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0140284087&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=041027AQ93XPE8FY7TB7
*It’s not that The Name of the Rose was written poorly. But there’s a big plot twist at the end which is the lamest reveal in the history of fiction. I can’t say any more out of a general hatred of people who spoil plots.
sarah in brooklyn
i’m re-reading Madame Bovary right now and it’s really great. plus, very French.
erlking
Suite Francaise. Here’s the NYT review: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/books/review/09gray.html?_r=1
Really engrossing book. Can’t speak highly enough.
jrosen
Any of the novels of Alan Furst, but particularly the ones that are set in France.
DougJ
All the King’s Men
Before that, Jesus’ Son and American Pastoral.
arguingwithsignposts
I actually enjoyed Rehnquist’s “The Supreme Court” and Rosen’s recent book about the court was pretty interesting, although a bit shallow, IMHO. I also enjoyed “What Liberal Media” by Eric Alterman. Haven’t read any in a couple of years, but I like John Irving in general.
arguingwithsignposts
oh, also, although I listened to them on audiobook, David Sedaris has several sections of his books that deal with living in France.
Kathy
A lot of my reading is either hard core political or chick-lit, but, Jeff Sharia’s “The Family,” (the book about the creepy C-streeters) is pretty good. Angler about Dick Cheney wasn’t bad. I also enjoyed Libby Riddles “Race across Alaska” (nothing to do with Sarah Palin, she was the first woman winner of the Iditorod.) Oh, I forgot, Septembers of Shiraz (not sure of the author) was terrific. It is a fictional story that takes place in Iran, just after the fall of the Shah.
eric k
If you haven’t read Nixonland it is a must for anyone interested in politics.
As for French settings I just read Forgetfulness by Ward Just It is a stretch to say it has much to do with France, it’s about an American artist who lives with his French wife in the Basque region of France, but it is actually about terrorism and how we deal with it, the setting is just coincidental.
Probably the most interesting book I’ve read in the last few months is The Terror by Dan Simmons. The HMS Terror was a real ship that disappeared while trying to find the Northwest Passage. Simmons takes that as a jumping off point and mixes in Inuit mythology to create a horror story about the sailors slowing being killed off while frozen in over a couple winters.
Linkmeister
See, if you started in Paris you could go to Shakespeare & Co. and pick up a slew of used (sorry, pre-owned) books to carry on the train, but no, you have to use that newfangled e-reader thingy.
I wonder if there’s a history of Mt. Ste. Michel for Kindle.
dwetzel
For good writing (as in Literature) I always recommend Guy Gavriel Kay. Especially the Lions of Al Rassan (set in a fictional version of Moorish Spain). That’s the only book that ever made me cry and it did it again the second time I read it and knew what was coming.
Kay does have a book set in Provence, France (Ysabel) but it’s not really my favorite. His novel, A Song for Arbonne is set in a fictional version of medieval France (Languedoc region) that one’s quite good.
It tends to take me a long time to read a Kay book. I’m a slow reader under the best of circumstances and Kay’s way with language always makes me pause to savor the taste of his phrases.
But the last (as in most recent) book I really enjoyed was on of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files books. Now, that’s not Literature the way Kay’s works are, but they are good light reads.
kid bitzer
just finished “the elegance of the hedgehog”, which is set in the 7ieme arrondissement of paris and has lots of fun local color.
it is not as profound as it would like to be, but i found it a pretty entertaining read. and of course you can also read it in the original (l’elegance du herisson) if you’re into that weird stuff.
J. Michael Neal
Jon Courtney Grimwood’s Arabesk trilogy (Pashazade, Effendi, and Felaheen). It’s cyberpunkish, sort of, in an alternate history world in which the Ottoman Empire never fell. (World War One ended in 1916 with a Central Powers victory.) I actually prefer his book End of the World Blues, but that’s really quirky, and probably best attempted if one likes the Arabesk.
robertdsc
James Clavell’s Shogun. I read it years ago but can always pick up my copy and open to random pages and enjoy every bit. In fact, I dug out my spare copy and have it on the bookshelf for leafing through while I work on video things.
eric k
Didn’t read the other comments before posting, I’ll 2nd the Alan Furst recommendation, get them all and read them in order!
Davis X. Machina
The Henri Castang detective novels of Nicholas Freeling give a pretty good idea about what life in a good-sized provincial city in France is really like.
Oy Vey
Fiction: Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
Nonfiction: Beer School, by Steve Hindy and Tom Potter (founders of the Brooklyn Brewery)
rock
Hmmm…Alan Furst for some reason made me think of Erich Maria Remarque. “Arch of Triumph” had a French setting and was pretty good I thought. Although, if setting doesn’t matter, I really liked “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” better (even better than “All Quiet on the Western Front” in my opinion).
Anyway, he’s an author who wrote some really good stuff that you don’t hear much about anymore.
kyle
Just read Neil Gaiman’s “Smoke and Mirrors,” a collection of stories from the 80s and 90s. Liked it, but stay away if you can’t tolerate preciousness.
Jon
Lord knows that my taste in books probably isn’t yours, but read John Crowley’s *Four Freedoms*. (Crowley’s fantasy novels are brilliant, but this one is non-genre; it’s set in the US during WWII, and it’s terrific.)
res ipsa loquitur
Suite Francaise was great.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog was terrific.
I am reading Simon Schama’s Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution right now. Great, but there’s a lot of artwork in it, so not sure about the Kindle factor.
T. O'Hara
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Gibbon. The destabilizing effect of Christianity ought to appeal.
Bret
Charlie Huston – My dead Body.
Jon
Also: Haruki Murakami, *Kafka on the Shore*
David
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery and it takes place in Paris.
Keith G
Edward Rutherfurd writes brillant historical fiction centered on England and Ireland. My favs
Sarum
The Princes of Ireland
London
These are massive books that read fast. They suck you in to a historical narrative and let you live the stories.
Joel
Don’t read Furst! Read Joel N. Ross instead. He’s exactly like Furst, except not as good. On the other hand, he reads this blog. That’s gotta count for -something-.
Candyce
The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention that Changed the World , by Amir D. Aczel
A quick-ish read full of fascinating information as the author makes the case that the compass changed the world.
geg6
I always enjoy Jane Smiley, but anyone who has worked in academia should read”Moo.”. It has laugh out loud moments for me. I also highly recommend “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Any lover of literature will love this book. A beautiful bit of writing.
ruemara
Let’s see what I finished in the past 2 weeks.
Conservatives w/o Conscience-but I’m sure you’ve read that.
Princeps Fury by Jim Butcher
Man with the Golden Torc by Simon R. Green
meh, it was a slow 2 weeks
Ked
The last book I really enjoyed was Ilium, by occasionally spectacular sf author Dan Simmons.
It’s difficult to quite describe just how messed up this novel is, but… it involved the complete destruction of humanity and post-humanity, post-post humanity having some traumatic times, (probably-) not-greek-gods (probably) restaging the Trojan War from their terraformed palace on Olympus Mons and resurrecting twentieth-century scholars to document that it matches the poem, thick masses of blue worms, main characters getting eaten by dinosaurs, Burning Man, and jovian robots debating the deeper meaning of Shakespeare’s sonnets and Proust.
It’s one of those epic tangles where the first five hundred pages are spent trying to sort out what all is going on, and the last two hundred are an unbroken series of oh-shit moments as all the different elements interact explosively. And I haven’t even started the sequel, to find out what happened after Zeus and Achilles got around to throwing down.
Also, Helen scares me.
Is it good writing? Simmons isn’t going to win any non-genre prizes with this stuff, but I have to admit I don’t get off much on pure literary merit any more. Well, maybe poetry, but fiction is comfort food.
Crashman06
What God Hath Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe. Very interesting, and extremely well written account of the social, political, and technological changes that happened to the U.S. between the end of the War of 1812, and the start of the Mexican War. A lot of interesting contemporary trends started back then.
Also, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union was awesome.
John
The RAMA series by Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee, really good sci-fi series of 4 books.
va
Perfume by Patrick Suskind has a lot of France, Paris especially. Also Michel Tournier is pretty awesome–read a book or two, and they came to me highly recommended.
EnderWiggin
Without a doubt best recent book, Blindside by Michael Lewis. The upcoming movie looks meh, but the book if a combo of the dramatic changes in a sport, markets in sports, compelling family drama and rags to riches story.
And by default, I always recommend the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series, which is on book four of a planned seven. It was actually just greenlighted for a pilot by HBO, and is the best fantasy series I know of by a huge margin.
JohnEWilliams
Flying Colours, a Horatio Hornblower novel, concerns the naval hero as a prisoner being taken to Paris to be tried and executed. He escapes on the way, and the last third of the novel involves a long, marvelously descriptive journey by boat down the Loire River to Nantes. It always makes me want to move to France!
Chad N Freude
Just about anything by José Saramago (Google Saramago + Nobel Prize), but his most recent, all-too-short “Death With Interruptions” is no-laudatory-adjective-will-suffice political satire.
grimc
I just reread The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. Although reading about Alaska while traveling across France might be weird.
Somebody mentioned David Sedaris above–Me Talk Pretty One Day is about his moving and adapting (or not adapting) to France.
mutt
McCoys “Politics of Heroin in SE Asia” a must read to understand the US war against the Viets & the lunatic ends “counter insurgency” can go to.
http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/default.htm
Timely, what with our “democratic allies” being eyeball deep in heroin trafficking…..funny how that always seems to be the case….
Joel
If you’re in the non-fiction mood (and have a large appetite), try Vol 1 of Robert Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson (‘A Path to Power’). Unbelievable historical scholarship and depth, almost beyond belief at points.
Starting at about the half-way point (when LBJ is first elected to Congress circa 1930 on a ‘Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Roosevelt’ platform), you will find incredible parallels to today’s healthcare dialogue (if you can call it that). In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, ‘it’s like deja-vu all over again’….turns out these ‘dictator’ epithets aren’t new. The tale of rural electrification, and the interests that fought it, and the is also an eye-opener. And as a bonus, you will also learn the sordid details surrounding the origins of a little company named Brown and Root (better known today Halliburton subsidiary KBR).
Another highly-recommended book by Caro: ‘The Power Broker’, which profiles NYC’s public works czar Robert Moses — Caro won the Pulitzer for this one in the Mid-70’s.
Indylib
@dwetzel:
I love Kay. The Sarantine Mosaic is good, too, (I cry at the end of Lions of Al Rassan every time I read it). I just bought all of his stuff that is available on audio. They were pretty well done. He does put words together beautifully.
Molly
Last time we were in France, I reread Hunchback of Notre Dame. If you trend at all towards the Gothic, it was interesting to reread it and walk the streets of Paris.
Shinobi
Sci Fi/ Fantasy you’ve probably already read:
American Gods, & Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman&Terry Prachett
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
jaxtra
a soldier of the great war, a novel by Mark Helprin {different spelling} superb and wonderfully written. unknown classic
James F. Elliott
I recently finished Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44, a serial killer murder mystery set in Stalin’s Soviet Union. An outstanding debut novel. I never miss a chance to recommend Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series to everyone at all open to epic fantasy. Similarly, Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon is probably one of the best science fiction books authored in recent years. And, as always, I have to plug my favorite book of all time, Louis L’Amour’s historical adventure, The Walking Drum.
captens1
Paris to the Moon was an interesting nonfiction book about an American family living in Paris. Not universally strong, but several really good chapters.
Comrade Kevin
@mutt: I read that books years ago, and it really is fascinating.
I just read Your Movie Sucks by Rogert Ebert, and I’m about to start on Nixonland.
Warren Terra
If you read politics blogs, let alone front-page for them, you’ve probably already read them already, but if you haven’t then all four of Robert Caro’s books are just as awesome as everyone says.
Given the recent economy, I’d recommend Frederick Lewis Allen’s The Lords Of Creation, a contemporary history seeking to explain the roots of the 1929 crash (spoiler: he blames unaccountable corporations and a culture of greed and easy money).
On the lighter side, if you like thoughtful science fiction, you might check out Iain Banks.
srv
Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Colette
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar. Nothing really to do with France except the profound sense of melancholy that infuses it, although Gaul was part of Hadrian’s empire. If you can read French, all the better, but Yourcenar herself helped with the English translation and it’s excellent.
The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. The best historical fiction ever written in English, hands down. Our Hero is a 16thC adventurer and the action ranges across Scotland, France, north Africa, Turkey, Russia, England, and points in between. Dunnett was an outstanding historical researcher as well as a terrific writer. The second (Queen’s Play) and the last (Checkmate) of the six-book series are set in France; the first (The Game of Kings) is set in Scotland, but you don’t really have to read it first. Queen’s Play is pretty much a stand-alone.
All that said, I don’t know if they’re available for Kindle.
Damn, I am envious.
Hope
But you must have some fun reading – anything by Christopher Moore – “Fool” is the most recent and I read it twice in two weeks. Moore is delightfully demented and often sacreligeous. Check out “Lamb”
jenniebee
If you have never read The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford you must, must, must read it or you will never achieve Enlightenment and the Buddha will weep for you. Or you’ll just miss out on a really good book. Whichever.
Now reading: Orley Farm. It’s about fraud and forgery and suborning perjury, and that’s just what the sympathetic characters do. Much more interesting and morally complex than The Way We Live Now, but not as enjoyable as the Barchester chronicles.
jenniebee
@Oy Vey: there are some things you should know about my valve.
mutt
McCoys “Politics of Heroin in SE Asia” a must read to understand the US war against the Viets & the lunatic ends “counter insurgency” can go to.
http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/default.htm
Timely, what with our “democratic allies” being eyeball deep in heroin trafficking…..funny how that always seems to be the case….
Another useful & timely read is Shawcrosses “Sideshow- Nixon, Kissinger, & the Destruction of Cambodia” – a useful reminder of just how many peasants we are willing to kill in crackpot schemes, and how the press, gvt & popular culture will lie about it.
Both as relevant today as they were
Both volumes are very well written. And you are very well read, and may have them on your shelf.
they are as vital today as they were 35 years ago…..
JerryN
Just finished Dynamite: The Story of Class Violence In America by Louis Adamic. Given that it was written in the early ’30s, I thought it was surprisingly relevant today.
On a lighter note, any of Terry Pratchett’s Disc World novels or some Elmore Leonard makes good reading on a trip – lots of short vignettes so you can stop and start easily.
cbear
If you like detective fiction, I would highly recommend Ian Rankin and his Inspector Rebus series, set in Edinburgh. Rankin has won both a Diamond Dagger Award, an Edgar Award, and a Chandler-Fulbright Award. Absolutely fantastic writer!
Another wonderful writer is Reginald Hill and his Dalziel & Pascoe series, set in Yorkshire. Hill is a Grand Master of British writers.
I would recommend picking up one of the early novels in either series, they are all good, and then you can look forward to years of great reading as you read through the series.
Cat Lady
I read My Life in France a couple of years ago and whether you’ve seen Julie & Julia or not, it’s a great read. She describes the mistral so well that I can’t be sure I haven’t experienced it myself.
Paris to the Moon was really fun, and funny -I stayed in the building to where that family was on my first trip to Paris, because of that book.
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet is what I’m enjoying currently. It can be picked up and put down, but there’s a deep sweet faith in truth, understanding and empiricism that underlies the narrative and reaffirms humanity. I can’t take much more cynicism.
GeoX
The new Pynchon novel, Inherent Vice, is great, as we all knew it would be.
ellaesther
Ooh, ooh!
A book I’ve been recommending to anyone who will listen is Honorable Bandit: A Walk Across Corsica by Brian Bouldrey, a travelogue of walking across Corsica (as you may have guessed) that is really more about an internal journey than the external one, and is so beautifully well written, the writer I am wanted to have written all of it myself. It’s funny, it’s moving, it’s smart, it’s surprising. Gorgeous. http://www.amazon.com/Honorable-Bandit-Walk-across-Corsica/dp/0299223205
Also, in less obscure news, Team of Rivals really is every bit as good as everyone says it is, and then some. Oh my, what a writer that Doris Kearns Goodwin is! I also wanted to have written that one.
maye
Colette! You’re a Lymond fan! My favorite. But it’s not for everyone.
Re the tour through Labourd, you might try something about Eleanor of Aquitaine or her son Richard. “Lionheart” by Martha Rofheart is pretty good.
Mike in NC
Alternating between “The Second World War” by John Keegan and “Baghdad Without A Map” by Tony Horwitz. In paperback for trips to the beach. “Nixonland” by Rick Perlstein is next.
ellaesther
@captens1: Oh, yes, I really like Paris to the Moon — in part because I lived in a foreign land myself for 14 years — and gave it to my cousin who moved to France like 25 years ago and has lived there ever since.
AhabTRuler
Currently I am reading The Argentina Reader, and it is quite good. Unfortunately, it is not available in a kindle version.
What is surprisingly available in a kindle version is A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century, by Luis Alberto Romero. It comes highly recommended by my Argentine friend and mentor.
Colette
Oh yeah – also A Very Long Engagement, by Sebastien Japrisot, and – if you are a Dickens fan – A Tale of Two Cities. Reading it in junior high for lit class and reading it while sitting in a cafe in Paris were very difference experiences. And A Moveable Feast is the only Hemingway I can tolerate – there’s a new ‘restored’ edition out that includes a bunch of stuff his second(?) wife excised before it was first published.
Patton
If you want free, and you want epic fantasy, I strongly recommend Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker. It’s got an interesting and well-designed magic system, good characters, zombie gods, and did I mention that you can get it for free? Yes, following the example of authors like Cory Doctorow (whose book Little Brother I also found very good), Brandon released Warbreaker online, under a Creative Commons License. He put out versions at different stages of revision, as well as a marvelous PDF of the final product. To get Warbreaker, just go to brandonsanderson.com. If you want to try Cory Doctorow (he does SF more than fantasy), he has most of his stories online, in a multitude of formats, at craphound.com.
P.S. Another compelling reason for epic fantasy fans to read Warbreaker (and Brandon’s other works, of course) is because he’ll be finishing the Wheel of Time series in lieu of Robert Jordan.
Davis X. Machina
Nixonland is wonderful, but I can’t read it in more than 20-minute bursts — it’s too painful. I had the same problem with Evan Thomas’ RFK bio.
but Yourcenar herself helped with the English translation and it’s excellent.
Marguirite Yourcenar was born a Belgian, lived much of her life in Maine with Grace Frick, her domestic partner of fifty years, and although an American citizen, was the first woman elected to the Académie Française. A fascinating figure, who deserves a good biography, if not a biopic.
eric
(1) Get collection of Borges short stories.
(2) Reread (1)
(3) Everything is Illuminated is gifted writing
(4) Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
(5). The Plague.
KaffeeMeister
I love many of the suggestions in here. If you like history, and especially history told in a more modern (less scholarly, but no less rigorous manner), I highly recommend Alison Weir and her “Eleanor of Aquitaine A Life”.
Published in 1999 by Ballantine, this Eleanor is a tour de force as is usual for Weirs excellent, readable histories.
It is a bit out of the area your touring, I maintain that this history of an archetypal women is an exceptional bit of acquaintance with a women every bit as exceptional and vibrant as Queen Elizabeth I.
Even if you don’t do it on this trip, please do yourself the favor or hearing or reading later.
cbear
American writers who you can never go wrong with:
Robert Crais
T. Jefferson Parker
George Pelecanos
Thomas Perry
David Lindsey
Michael Connelly
James Lee Burke
Dennis Lehane
I go through at least 3-5 novels a week (sometimes as many as 7-9) and freak out if I don’t have at least 3 unread books around.
The love of reading is the greatest gift my parents ever gave me.
pain perdu
For the Meurthe-et-Moselle portion, I would start with Keegan’s The First World War, then follow up with Ernest May’s Strange Victory
cay
Hands down, read “Kingdom of Shadows” by Alan Furst. I’m a lurker and know you, Tim. F!
jenniebee
@ellaesther: Seconding the Team of Rivals recommendation. Excellent book and an enjoyable read.
athena
For European ambience (France and Spain, but elsewhere, too) with complicated plots and lovely language, try Arturo Perez-Reverte. My favorite is the Club Dumas. But Alan Furst is hard to beat.
jenniebee
@KaffeeMeister: ooh – another one of my favorites. Weir’s histories are marvelous (not a fan of her novels though). Try her biography of Isabella too.
Mike G
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War by Joe Bageant, on the birther/death panel gun nuts currently poisoning the health care debate with their hard-core Fox News stupid.
For something lighter, Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson on the Apollo space program.
Fern
When I travel I enjoy reading short stories – and when it comes to short stories, you can not do better than Alice Munro.
The last book I read when I was travelling was “The In-Between World of Vikram Lall” by M. G. Vassanji, another excellent Canadian writer. It was very good company. The story is set in the Indian community in East Africa.
Another one – Michael Ondaatje “In the Skin of a Lion”.
I have no idea whether these are available for Kindle – nothing I really want to read ever seems to be, which is one of the reasons I have never bought one.
Well, that and the fact you can’t get the things in Canada.
mvr
Dashiell Hammett wrote several really good ones besides the Maltese Falcon. One of my favorites is the less well-known The Glass Key. Chandler’s Long Goodbye is another favorite of the same genre. Each of these two wrote several great classics if you like the sort of lone protagonist mysteries that I like. Of a different sort, I recently enjoyed High Fidelity by Nick Hornby for reasons I don’t completely understand myself. The hero is surprisingly inarticulate and opaque to himself, but he’s kind of likable anyway.
I don’t know if these are available on Kindle yet.
Have a good vacation!
bend
i just finished rereading Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History.”
One of my absolute favorites.
PaulW
The last book I purchased and read front to back was Presidential Character by James Barber.
I find myself re-reading books I already have, so I’ve been glancing through my JLA bound paperbacks.
freelancer
@Ked:
Illium is a great book, Olympus kind of lost me after 200 pages or so, but I enjoy Simmons’ fiction so much that it didn’t matter. His Hyperion series of books is probably my favorite fictional story ever.
@John:
The rama books are very, very good. If you’re at the point in the Garden of Rama where you’re dragging and you’re like “Where is this going?” keep plodding along. The conclusion to the 4th book is one of the most satisfying endings ever.
I’m currently listening to a book on tape version of Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine. It’s not enjoyable at all, but it is one of the most informative and striking books I’ve ever read. Disaster Capitalists and Economists envisioned a free-market utopia based on Computer models, and were given time and time again to test their theory with ruinous results. The only reason it repeats is that when these economies collapse, oligarchs and vulture investors swoop in buying everything up for pennies on the dollar, and then sell to other foreign investors for billions.
Say what you want about the amorality of the free market principles they advocate. This has been used to scavenge billions from Chile and Argentina in the 70s and 80s, Post-cold war Russia in the 90s, and then Iraq. The wisdom of such destructive economic policy must immediately be questioned when in the last decade with Enron, Post-Katrina NOLA, and the Housing Bubble, these homegrown tactics are being used on our own soil.
The investor class of this country has been eating the seed corn. Even with Obama at the helm, I’m beginning to think we’re fucked.
Sorry. Uh, yeah. Books! Well, Under the Banner of Heaven was pretty great too.
Fern
Oh, and I’ve been reading mysteries by Charles Todd – set in England in the immediate post-WWI period – and the main character is a police inspector who has come back severely traumatized by his experiences as a soldier. Good, good reading.
Paul
I always push Robertson Davies’ “Deptford Trilogy” on anyone who’ll listen.
Also, I’m reading Louise Erdrich’s “The Plague of Doves” right now which is pretty great, like any of her stuff, really, if you haven’t.
sixstringink
probably be more of interest if you were further south, but . . .
The Lost Upland: Stories of Southwestern France, by W.S. Merwin
Nutella
Since you’re going to the Basque country: Mark Kurlansky’s The Basque History of the World is fascinating.
Dave C
The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives. It might seem like a stretch to say that a book about probability theory is a page-turner, but in this case it’s the honest truth.
cbear
@Fern: Todd is very, very good.
Kavar
I’d like to second Nutella’s recommendation of Mark Kurlansky’s Basque History of the World. He writes the most interesting histories I’ve read yet, and while his focus isn’t primarily on the French portion of Basque territory, but on the Basque people generally, it’s quite good.
I’d go so far as to recommend just about anything from Kurlansky, though my personal favorite is The Big Oyster, about the history of both oysters and New York, and how they intertwine. As a former food writer, he also has a great smattering of old recipes tossed in.
sgrAstar
*The Dream of Scipio: a gripping, unforgettable novel by Iain Pears, and it takes place in Provence.
*An Instance of the Fingerpost: another fantastic historical saga by Pears.
*Stieg Larsson’s superb crime novels: The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo and The Girl who Played with Fire.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
@Hope:
Seconded, though of his recent books, I enjoyed “A Dirty Job” more than “Fool.”
If you’re never read Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy: first, shame on you; second, the first book (Red Mars) is available for free on the Kindle store, so go get it.
I’d recommend “The Areas of My Expertise” and “More Information Than You Require” by John Hodgman, but they’re not available for the Kindle. Worth tracking down in dead-tree editions for the Kindle-less, though. Hodgman is best known as the PC in the Mac ads, but he’s a very funny and intelligent writer, and his particular brand of nerdy snark would probably appeal to a lot of BJ denizens.
Violet
I enjoyed Tim Moore’s “French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour De France.” If you aren’t into cycling, it probably wouldn’t do that much for you, but he cycles the whole Tour route (more or less) so he sees a lot of France.
Just checked Amazon and it doesn’t look like it’s on Kindle, unfortunately. Still a fun read if you happen to see it.
Stephen1947
I lead a discussion of short stories at our n’hood Senior Center a couple of times a month. Usually I try to pair two stories on more or less the same theme by very different authors – different countries, genders, time periods, etc. But this summer we’ve been reading a short story on a Wednesday and then watching a movie based on it the following Monday. I’ve been interested in issues of adaptation for many years now.
Today we read 2 stories from Sherman Alexie’s first collection – The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven – and Monday we will watch Smoke Signals, a film for which Alexie produced the screenplay based on stories from this collection.
In preparing for the discussion I ended up reading the entire collection and really enjoying it. It’s not pretty in its depiction of place and the daily reality of reservation Indians – but it’s gripping and funny and tragic and hopeful in the face of institutionalized despair – so I’ve ordered two more Alexie collections and look forward to the publication of a 4th in the fall.
booferama
Peter Irons, God on Trial. An interesting and balanced look at Establishment Clause cases, beginning with a historical summary then looking closely at several recent rulings. It also includes short essays from the plaintiffs and defendants in the recent trials, so the perspective is really fascinating.
Martian Buddy
I’d suggest John Scalzi, although I note that his blog is already linked in the sidebar–his Old Man’s War series is excellent. Charlie Stross is also a favorite of mine currently, especially Halting State and The Atrocity Archives. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks is another of my favorites, although it would make more sense if you’ve read the previous Culture novels first (Consider Phlebas being the first.) Aside from science fiction, The World Without Us by Alan Weisman was an interesting, if depressing, read.
gypsy howell
Barry Ritholz’s “Bailout Nation”
Denis Dutton’s “The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution”
Bob In Pacifica
Just started LUSH LIFE by the guy who wrote CLOCKERS. Have only dipped into it, but it reads nicely. I used to live on the Lower East Side so there’s some connection for me.
rock
I’ll second the Hammett recommendation. The Thin Man was great, too and his short story collections were (but, I’m biased in that I really like noir).
To whomever recommended The Glass Key, have you seen the Coen Brothers movie Miller’s Crossing? They clearly read Hammett.
edmund dantes
I would highly recommend The Malazan Book of the Fallen series too for anyone that is into fantasy. A word of warning the first 100-200 pages of the first book were a tough slog. You kind of get thrown into the world without a lot of reference points so it takes some time to build up a framework, but once you do it is well worth it.
The third book, Chain of Dogs, is amazing. The way it follows a forced march across a continent with such detail and clarity is amazing so by the time you get to the end you are so thoroughly engaged with the characters that the ending of the march (also called the Chain of Dogs) is very intense.
Plus unlike Martin, Erickson puts out books at an amazing rate for epic fantasy. If you want, The Song of Ice and Fire books are great, but I seriously doubt Martin’s ability to finish them at this point.
farmette
Octavia Butler – Parable of the Sower. A dystopian future world story. Unfortunately, not that hard to believe.
Also Ms Butler’s book of science fiction short stories – Blood Child.
Suzanne Collins – Hunger Games. Considered a young adult book, science fiction novel. A great read for all. A post apocalyptic tale with teenage protagonists. Action packed.
Of Bugs and Books
Topical reading about your locale would also be my automatic, practical-bent choice (and maybe it would give you even more in common with the in-laws?), but in the “whatever” category, “I Am That”, Talks with (typing very slowly) Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj has no rituals, no 2000 year old personality cults, no doctrines as such. His “The Experience of Nothingness” is neither a shorter version of “I Am That” nor, to me, an equally targeted work.
Thanks to all for interesting suggestions for books.
Suzan
(waving hand wildly) Read mine! Read mine!
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I took it to Portugal on my iPod last year and was sneaking breaks to listen like back in the day when I took smoke breaks. Or its follow up The Girl Who Played with Fire. (I’d give a link to amazon but I saw John yell at someone who didn’t do it right and I’m afraid.)
Old favorites are Uncivil Seasons and Time’s Witness by Michael Malone (his mysteries are better than his other fiction IMHO, but all his stuff is good.) My sister reread Time’s Witness out loud as we drove across Hungary years ago.
To cbear’s list I’d add Henning Mankell (Swedish mysteries) and Mary Willis Walker (not great but the heroine is based on Molly Ivins), Donna Leon (set in Venice) Harlan Coben, Jon Krakauer, Lee Child P.D. James, Peter Robinson, Robert Harris, John Hart, Michael Robotham, Dick Francis, Adrian McKinty, and the book Child 44.
Martin
Nothing good recently, but after TDS last night I really want to read Born to Run.
Fern
@cbear:
Pretty close to P. D. James and Elizabeth George territory as far as quality goes, I think.
andrew e
I’m surprised Dan Simmon’s “Ilium” and “Olympos” are mentioned and not his much, much superior recent book “The Terror”.
“The Terror” is a hybrid meticulously-researched historical fiction/monster novel about the doomed Franklin Expedition to discover the Northwest Passage in the 1840 ‘s. Absolutely riveting as long as you don’t mind a bit of the supernatural with your historical recreation.
I would also recommend discovering a copy of Robert Irwin’s “The Arabian Nightmare”, one of the greatest mind-fuck’s I’ve ever read and wonderfully comical.
Tattoosydney
Yay! I love me a book thread!
Second “Suite Francaise” – wonderful book about some pretty appalling people.
“A Little History of the World”, by E. H. Gombrich – a history of the world (or mostly Europe) written for children before WWII, but fascinating, idiosyncratic and delightful.
Donna Tartt’s “A Secret History” – I re read this the other day, and was struck again by just how wonderful it is.
“Fourteen Byzantine Rulers: The Chronographia of Michael Psellus” – a bitchy, nasty gossip column written in the 11th century. This is a funny and grippingly interesting read.
Rob in Denver
L.A. REX, by Will Beall
Tattoosydney
@geg6:
““The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon”
I had the pleasure of reading this book in Barcelona. It’s a great read, made even more wonderful when you’re in the right city!
vhh
I second the suggestion of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy, which made him the world’s second best selling author in 2008. It has been quite a hit in France, and we started reading it (in a marvelous French translation from Swedish published by Actes Sud) after hearing about it on a 2008 trip to weddings in France (which ranged from Provence to Normandy). I understand that the first two parts are available in English, and the third is in the works. The books are long, gripping, and utterly addictive. The Swedish company Yellow Bird is now filming the whole series, and apparently it will be released on DVD at the end of 2009. We just saw the film of the first novel in Montreal (dubbed into French), and it was great—we actually caught the last showing before it closed at the cinema in Latin Quarter. Also in the crime section—any of the novels by French author Fred Vargas, some of which are available in English on Amazon.
rs
Last fiction book was No Country For Old Men, although I’m not sure Cormac McCarthy intends his books to be “enjoyed” (anyone who’s read The Road knows what I mean). I held off seeing the film until I’d read it, which means I just saw the film, and the Coen brothers nailed it as perfectly as I’ve ever seen a book turned into a movie.
Last non-fiction was/is Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism, by Ha-Joon Chang, which pretty much exposes globalization and neo-liberal economics for the destructive forces they are.
Tattoosydney
@Chad N Freude:
“José Saramago”
Everyone should read at least one of his books – he’s a funny, bitter, cynical, atheist, socialist from Portugal – what more could you want?
Add in plots about entire cities going blind, countries where no one dies because death gets sick of killing people, Spain and Portugal breaking off and floating off across the ocean towards the US, and a deep and abiding love of dogs (who are therefore some of the most touching characters in his books), and he’s a must read.
Bob Smith
I’ll second the Inspector Reubus nomination, although I will take exception to the statement that you’ll have years of reading ahead of you. I read my first Reubus book 3 weeks ago, and completed the twelfth (plus the first collection of short stories) last week. Just a sucker for Scottish noir I guess.
KaffeeMeister
I’d also recommend (heavily) the Patrick O’Brien novels. Again, not in your locale or time line, nevertheless a series that is of inestimable value.
CDT
An Anthropologist on Mars, by Oliver Sacks; Life As We Know It, by Michael Berube; The Varieties of Scientific Experience, by Carl Sagan; The Origin of Human Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, by Julian Jaynes; The Conquest of Cool, by Thomas Frank.
Tattoosydney
@Tattoosydney:
Dammit. Soc1al15m got me moderated again!
Anyway – I want to put in a plug for “Pride and Prejudice” – I read it again for the first time since high school, and the 36 year old me was flabbergasted at what the 17 year old me missed…
Jane Austen is funny, and nasty, and writes better than almost anyone else ever. Best of all, I discovered the last two chapters – which are always omitted in filmic versions (which always end at the wedding).
I had never thought of Austen as a truly feminist writer, but the last twenty pages of Pride and Prejudice are a truly radical picture of a man and a woman living together as true equals despite the strictures of the society that surrounds them.
AhabTRuler
And this phrase applies to so many subjects, too!
jon
For frivolity and brevity, A Nasty Bit of Rough by David Feherty hits the spot. For fantasy, I second the Erikson series of Malazan stuff, but prefer Glen Cook’s Black Company series as well as his other stuff like the Empire Unacquainted and the Instrumentalities books (haven’t read his sci-fi, but would probably enjoy it.) Also enjoyed the Merlin Codex by Robert Holdstock, which has Greeks, Finns, and Merlin together at last. And no, I can’t say why that’s so satisfying, but it is. I started Pygmy by the guy who wrote Fight Club and whose name I’m too lazy to look up, but couldn’t get into it. For something that will make you want to kill yourself, nothing beats The Road. Neil Gaiman’s American Gods should be read, but not everyone who does agrees with me. Also for brevity, check out the Best American Non-Required Reading, which should be required. Find the one with “My Fake Job”.
And be sure to leave your books in France. When I visited, the used bookstores had too much airport fiction and not enough variety. Be a cultural ambassador and also help your fellow tourists.
freelancer
@CDT:
For you:
http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20040341,00.html
andrew e
Also as a corollary to an earlier recommendation for the “Malazan Book of the Fallen” series I’d also recommend R. Scott Bakker’s “Prince of Nothing” trilogy. It’s a very mature messiah-creation story that dials down the magic and ups the philosophical meanderings to a degree I’ve never seen in any other fantasy series.
Captain Goto
I started “Infinite Jest” while on vay-kay. Pretty enjoyable for a book that takes so much work to bash your way through. Still less than halfway through, after a month. God rest his soul, David Foster Wallace was a fcuking genius.
“Fun Home” by Alison Bechdel. Unsettling and moving.
jon
Forgot you said you were going to load up a Kindle, but it’s still nice to leave actual books behind.
CT
Cannot recommend highly enough the first two books of Dan Simmons’ Hyperion series (didn’t much care for the second pair, which were written somewhat later).
Just reread One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest recently and was reminded how terrific it is-now I’ll have to dig out my copy of Sometimes a Great Notion which I haven’t read in many years but is my favorite novel.
J Bean
Lots of good suggestions. The Lymond Chronicles really, really are wonderful. The first one was published in 1958 and they have been continuously in print ever since. There was even an active forum several years ago, although I haven’t looked for it lately.
I enjoyed reading about France (and food) between the wars in M.F.K. Fisher’s many memoirs.
I also recently read “Foreign Tongue” by Vanina Marsot. It’s recently published. I thought it would be summer chick-lit, but it was actually a pretty funny musing by a bilingual person on the subject of translation. The story deteriorated a bit in the later half, but it was otherwise light and enjoyable and set in Paris.
Evan
If you are looking for a good novel, and you haven’t yet read “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer, I would recommend rectifying that ASAP.
Also, “The Known World” by Edward Jones.
In the historical arena, I recently read “Rubicon” by Tom Holland and found it to be exceptional. And, of course, really anything by David McCullough should be devoured if you love American history.
kyle212
I just finished EL Doctorow’s The March, about Sherman’s campaign through Georgia and the Carolinas. Absolutely georgeously written, with well-drawn characters that Doctorow obviously feels compassionate toward despite their flaws. I’d definitely reccomend it.
JasonF
My favorite books of the last decade or so:
What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe — a history of the United States from 1815 to 1848
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke — historical fantasy about two English sorcerors during the Napoleonic era. Think Jane Austen writes Dunsany
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold — historical fiction about a real-life stage magician in the 1920s
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon — historical fiction about two fictional comic book creators during the dawn of the comic book industry
cbear
@Bob Smith: I should have said both Rebus (17 novels) and Daziel & Pascoe (24 novels).
I think you and I may share the same reading habits. When I find an author I enjoy, I rush to read everything he/she has ever written, and I especially like finding the early books and reading them in order. It’s wonderful to watch the author and his characters develop over time and Rankin and Rebus are a perfect example of this.
Tattoosydney
@AhabTRuler:
“And this phrase applies to so many subjects, too!”
You’re not kidding…. If I knew then what I know now…
well, I’d probably be crippled and brain damaged from sex, drugs and dance music, but I would have had a lot of fun getting there…
wag
in Paris, “A Movable Feast”
Therese
City of Thieves by David Benioff–great, absorbing story set during the siege of Leningrad. It will take you 4 days.
Captain Goto
And one more plug for “Kavalier and Clay.”
ice9
Zeitoun.
ice
Jim
For the Basque country (it’s actually more the Dordogne/Perigord, if memory serves), The Lost Upland, by W.S Merwin.
pinchy
“The Brief History of the Dead”, by Kevin Brockmeier.
Imagine the film ‘Wings of Desire’ redone as a Twilight Zone episode…
When people die, they undertake a harrowing journey to The City… where they build a new life, which lasts until the final person on Earth who remembers them also dies.
Now, the city is emptying out as a virus unleashed by terrorists wipes out the human race… except for a few people at an Antarctic research station.
That’s all I’m gonna tell ya.
Keith
“Dirt” by Motley Crue. Tales of debauchery disguised as chapters. Before that, “Pure Dynamite” by Tom “Dynamite Kid” Billington – an extremely honest autobiography of life in pro-wrestling.
Frank
John Updike’s “Rabbit” novels — a four-volume series that is brilliant and engrossing. My favorite were “Rabbit Redux” and “Rabbit is Rich” (#’s 2-3).
Junot Diaz’s “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”
nitpicker
Read Cloud Atlas now. It’s an amazing book and includes many genres–historical adventure, mystery, sci fi, and others–and the way the book folds back in on itself felt like it was cracking a new part of my mind open. The best thing was, I had no prior knowledge of the book and read it completely fresh. Don’t Google it. Don’t read reviews. Just get this book and read it.
Comrade Kevin
Here’s another interesting non-fiction book:
Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race by Richard Rhodes.
Will
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Although that’s pretty short.
Jim
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
A terrible beauty.
I thought L’élégance du hérisson had a great initial conceit, a fascinating protagonist, but the author had no idea what to do with either.
scarshapedstar
Snow Crash++;
grimc
@Will:
lol. I was going to offer that up as a great book about a road trip.
For France, A Tale Of Two Cities would be great, I’d think. Turning to the classics in a foreign country really enhances the experience. Reading Kipling’s The Jungle Book in India was a treat.
jp2
Just finished “Now the Hell Will Start” – excellent.
Re-reading Bob Dylan’s autobio, “Chronicles.” Also, excellent.
And I’ll add another + to “Snow Crash.”
Radon Chong
Not Snow Crash. Read Anathem instead. My favorite Neal Stephenson.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
Critics have generally considered “A Tale of Two Cities” as appallingly bad in its portrayal of France.
MikeJ
A Sale of Two Titties.
Anne Laurie
Atul Gawande’s BETTER and COMPLICATIONS will give you amazing new insights into the American medical system (assuming you haven’t read them already). Wendy Moore’s THE KNIFE MAN, a biography of “father of surgery” John Hunter, will make you thank whatever gods you do or don’t worship that you weren’t born into Jane Austen’s era.
Any of Richard Russo’s novels are great, but I think NOBODY’S FOOL and EMPIRE FALLS are the best, at least until I have a chance to read his brand-new book.
Jon Krauker’s newest, WHERE MEN WIN GLORY : THE ODYSSEY OF PAT TILLMAN isn’t due for release until next month, but Kindle seems to get some “hot” new books in advance of the dead-tree editions.
Jane Austen is my comfort-while-travelling author — I’ve read each of her novels at least two dozen times, and find something new to treasure every time.
And, of course, no properly literate American would tourist in Europe without a copy of INNOCENTS ABROAD!
Susan D
Off the wall rec
These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer. Cross dressing, missing children, a jaded rake, a young woman. Yes, it’s (cough) romance, but witty, well written and fun. And much of it takes place in France.
Meanwhile, I’m going to have to declare Labor Day weekend as a reading holiday.
Enjoy the trip.
grimc
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason:
Fair enough, and I’m sure many critics have had problems with Kipling’s British imperialist view of India. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the guilty pleasure of an overly-romanticized piece of fiction, as long as it’s understood as such.
JGabriel
Tim F., this may seem counter-intuitive, but an American visiting France might find it an interesting experience to read Alexis de Tocqueville’s personal account of a Frenchman visiting America, Democracy in America (De la démocratie en Amérique).
.
blondie
Any mystery by Reginald Hill – especially (though not only) “Dialogues of the Dead.” My father was an absolutely voracious reader, especially in the last two years of his life when he was housebound and reading up to 20 books a week, and he introduced me to Mr. Hill’s books. Dad thought “Dialogues” was one of the most finely written books of any genre in the past decade or more.
JGabriel
Oops, should have included a Kindle link: Democracy in America. Looks like there’s about 14 different Kindle editions alone.
.
Colette
@Susan D:
Oh my, YES. Tremendous fun from an era before “chick lit” got its well-deserved bad name.
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason:
Funk the critics. It’s gripping, tragic, funny, and passionate – and since we’re not French, what care we for authenticity? /ugly Amurrican.
Seriously, I have to disagree with the critics here – there is much in the book that is still instantly recognizable in today’s Paris. But taking into account that it was written in English, from an Englishman’s POV, for English readers, Dickens nonetheless wrote with enormous empathy for all of his characters, even the most wrongheaded and violent revolutionaries. It’s his portrayals of the human heart and the ironies of fate that count.
Colette +2, in case you couldn’t guess
slag
@Candyce:
This sounds like Dava Sobel’s Longitude. A bit of a staple and a very good read.
I have a few books in the rotation right now: a book about the founding of my city (I highly recommend reading the history of the place you live! It’s surprisingly enlightening.); Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy (yes, I know I’m behind the times with this one, but I was waiting to find it used); and Dave Egger’s What is the What (Tragically beautiful. I’ve been meaning to read it for a while, but Obama’s recommendation of it finally pushed me over the edge.).
And a book I recently read that, while not the best writing, inspired some interesting cogitation on technology and the making of things: The Violin Maker (I’m too lazy to look up the author’s name and don’t remember it).
Brachiator
I’ve been rediscovering the period of FDR, and among the better books devoted to the era:
The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience (Kindle Edition)
It is amazing how this woman has fallen from history, given her central place in helping to develop the actual programs that were used to dig the country out of the Depression.
Nothing to Fear (Kindle Edition)
On FDR’s first hundred days.
Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Kindle Edition)
Best on the period before FDR became president.
The Three Musketeers
One of the first books I ordered to test drive the Kindle, since the price was right. But got swept up into the adventure again. And it was a kick to have the unabridged version downloaded into the slim, portable Kindle.
JM
“The Song is You,” by Arthur Phillips. A most entertaining story, and aside from being a rare writer who knows his music, this cat writes like Jimi H played the guitar. And a bonus for you, John: a brief scene
in Paris
Jennifer
Santa Evita by Thomas Eloy Martinez.
Can’t ascribe any particular genre to it. Just read it – it’s that good.
Andrew
I would echo the recommendation for Cloud Atlas (or anything else Mitchell has written like Number 9 Dreon or Black Swan Green) and agree Kurlansky’s Cod or Basque books make sense for the locale.
Linkmeister
@cbear: Dittos on the author fetish.
I like Rebus and I like Dalziel and Pascoe too. For American authors I see that Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon thrillers are available for Kindle. So are the Jack Reacher books. Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder books are availabe for Kindle, as are most of his Bernie Rhodenbarr Burglar books.
Jeroen janssen
The Discovery of France by Graham Robb
Brachiator
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason:
Bad critics. Bad.
The novel isn’t particularly about France or even England. In depicting how a righteous revolutionary zeal curdles into wingnuttery, Dickens gets into timeless human psychology.
Will
Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon. You won’t regret it
Krissed Off
All the Astérix and Tintin you can get your hands on.
And then this: “Comment parler des livres que l’on n’a pas lus,” by Pierre Bayard.
And if you can’t read French, then Tom Hodginson’s “How to be idle.”
cbear
@Linkmeister: Block is wonderful. Out on the Cutting Edge and A Dance at the Slaughterhouse are two of my favorites.
Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) is another great.
William Tapply is another fine author with his Boston based Brady Coyne series. Sadly, he just passed away, but he left quite a library of interesting books.
Bly
MY NAME IS WILL- A Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare is at iTunes for only $5.95 this week- promotional price.
Yes, the author is my friend, but it’s very good and very fun, and hit the google for reviews if you don’t believe me.
Linkmeister
@cbear: As an ex-drinker myself, I’m partial to “Sacred Ginmill.” I dearly love Bernie, though.
McBain was so damned prolific!
Lessee, looking at the shelves, there’s Nero Wolfe, there’s Dick Francis, there’s all the John D. MacDonald (McGee and non-McGee!) . . .
Steeplejack
– Memoirs of a Breton Peasant, Jean-Louis Déguignet. Kind of offbeat, and I don’t think it’s on Kindle, but it’s an interesting work from the usually voiceless lower class of 19th-century France. Might give you some flavor of old Brittany.
“Born in 1834 near Quimper, in Brittany, to landless farmers, the young Déguignet was sent out several times a week to beg for the family’s food. After some adolescent years as a cowherd and a domestic speaking only Breton, he left the province as a soldier, avid for knowledge of the vast world. He taught himself Latin, then French, then Italian and Spanish; he read history and philosophy and politics and literature. He was sent to fight in the Crimean war, to attend at Napoleon III’s coronation ceremonies, to support Italy’s liberation struggle and to defend the hapless French puppet emperor Maximilian in Mexico. He returned home to live as a tobacco farmer, falling back into dire poverty. Throughout the tale, Deguignet’s freethinking, almost anarchic views put him ahead of his time and often (sadly, for him) out of step with his fellows.
“Déguignet’s voluminous notebooks, written from 1897 to 1904, have sold over 265,000 copies to date in France.”
– The Discovery of France, Graham Robb. On Kindle. A fascinating, digressive, geographical history of France, showing that the country we think of as France didn’t really exist until late in the 19th century.
“[. . .] great swathes of countryside were terra incognita: dark places inhabited by illiterate tribes professing pre-Christian beliefs and lethally hostile to outsiders. They spoke not French but regional dialects; much of the country had not been accurately mapped; and many in the rural areas lacked surnames. The author himself embarked on a 14,000-mile bicycle tour of the France passed over in tourist guides. The result is a curious, engrossing mix of personal observation, scholarly diligence and historical narrative as Robb discusses the formation of both the French character and the French state.”
cbear
@Linkmeister: Crap, I forgot Thomas Cook. Winner of 2 Edgars. Very complex novels with extremely compelling themes.
IMHO, Cook is one of the most thought provoking novelists writing today.
Have you read him?
Andy K
Don’t know if you can get these on Kindle, but for good, funny light reads I’ll suggest Owen Johnson’s The Varmint (I know you can find this at Project Guttenberg, just not sure about if you can find it for Kindle), and Ring Lardner’s You Know Me Al.
Both are close to 100 years old, but they’re timeless- and very funny- books.
Andy K
I think I sent you a dead link for The Varmint.
Andy K
And on the third try….
The Varmint.
You Know Me Al
Get me HTML tags, stat!
Andy K
And they have nothing to do with France. So there goes all that time and energy (and hair) for nothing. Still good reads, though.
Jungle Jil
I recommend The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd, a historical fiction about The New Forest in England, following the course of several families through the centuries there, starting in 1099 and finishing in 2000.
KG
I just read Brida by Paulo Coelho, second book I’ve read by him (the first being the Witch of Portobello). So, I’m guessing anything by him would be good if you’re looking for fiction
Indylib
@James F. Elliott:
Holy Toledo, I never thought I’d see the day. That’s my favorite book, too. I was incredibly sad when Louis L’Amour died before he published the sequel. I’ve always wanted to know what happened to Kerbouchard when he went to India.
freelancer
@Jim:
In the yards of shelves I have full of books, The Road just might be my favorite novel.
@scarshapedstar:
@jp2:
Snow Crash is in the “on-deck” Circle of my fiction to be read thanks to fellow BJ’ers like yourselves. And for the record, I never got more than 50 pages into Gibson’s Neuromancer, but I loved “The Detective’s Story” chapter of Techno-noir in Dan Simmons’ Hyperion. Don’t know whether to chalk that up to Simmons’ talent with prose or Gibson’s mediocre grasp of the combination of humanity and technology.
@Will:
In my life, I hope to at least attempt to read Pynchon as he intended.
@tripletee (formerly tBone):
I have Red Mars, also, in my to be read queue, and I feel like I might be missing out.
@everyone: I love a good book thread, but it digresses and becomes a venue for us to argue for our favorites. Perhaps Tim F. could be better served if, in the next couple days, he asked for everyone for a list of their top 10 desert island books? From there, he could aggregate and form a heuristic basis for other works he’d likely be interested in. Just a suggestion.
mp1900
@blondie:
Yes!
A Clubbable Woman by Reginald Hill
The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison
The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes,
by K.C. Constantine.
ken adler
The Savage Detectives by Robert Bolano.
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Andre
Just finishing up The Scar by China Mieville. I cannot recommend his New Crobuzon books (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council) highly enough. They’re simply amazing pieces of storytelling, forever inventive but never flippantly so. Every weird term, every strange scene, matters in the overall plot in the most unexpected ways.
Added to that, his writing is deeply humanist, strongly sympathising with the downtrodden and weak.
tess
My favorite book in ages was Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt, but it really does place you in Shakespeare’s London and Elizabeth’s England, which might be weird while in France.
You could always go with Alison Weir’s biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, which I found quite enjoyable, and made me long to visit France. I imagine it would be highly satisfactory to look up from a description of the countryside or a church and see the same or something from the same period.
Another fun read was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It’s all over Europe, and is one of the few books I think is worth reading even if the end wasn’t all I’d hoped. Most of the people I know who loved that book have been librarians and researchers.
For light, fun fantasy, I recommend Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, which is what I have recently picked up. You don’t have to start at the beginning, and frankly I think I wouldn’t because the later books are much better than the earlier ones. The first one I read was Thief of Time, but now, going back to the earlier books, I’m bummed that Death isn’t so prominent a character and that Susan doesn’t yet exist. But if you want something sort of silly and fun to dip in and out of on your trip, these would be nice.
On my bedside table is Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games, but again, might not be the best for a trip to France since all the reviews indicated Mumbai was the real main character of the book.
geg6
Okay, I need to second a couple of recommendations. First, Julia Child’s “My Life in France.” She’s as charming in her reminiscences as she was in her kitchen. And her love of France, food, and her husband is palpable. And you can never go wrong with Michael Chabon. “Kavalier and Clay” is fantastic but I’m just starting “Summerland” and I’m already in love.
geg6
tess: Oooo, I forgot about “The Historian!” Loved that book! And I’m not even a librarian.
** Atanarjuat **
It looks like I’ve got a lot of reading to do to catch up with the BJ crowd.
The last book I read was The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.
-A
celiadexter
I just finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon — would also recommend any of Stephen L. Carter’s mysteries — and anything by Richard Russo.
MR Bill
I second Tess’s Terry Pratchett recommendation: just finished
The Thief of Time. Very funny, if you like British humor.
I’ve been reading Gore Vidal’s US Novels, and took up Lincoln as sort of an antidote to Doris K. Goodwin’s A Team of Rivals, and will read 1876 as soon as I finish Michael Herr’s Dispatches, called “the best book on combat ever.”
And lots of good stuff upthread.
One you probably never heard of is Mario Vargas LLosa’s Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, a sort of sendup of magical realism, where the young narrator’s affair with an older ‘aunt’ is intercut with the increasingly unhinged radio soap opera stories from the radio station he works at.
And for more light reading, my son got me to read the Jim Butcher “Harry Dresden” novels, hard boiled detective meets
magic. It’s a lot better than they sound.
bob h
Belatedly discovered J.M. Coetzee. “Disgrace”, “Waiting for the Barbarians”, … Hard to put them down once you start. The latter has a good deal of topical relevance to Bush era abuses.
BethanyAnne
Let me second the José Saramago recommendation. The last book that I really enjoyed was “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. Probably the next book on my own list is to reread “Foundation” by Asimov. All I remember is really enjoying it, 20 years ago. It’s time to see what I’ve forgotten :-)
Bootlegger
Agincourt (Azincourt) by Bernard Cornwell is an excllent, fast-paced read full of historical facts and rollicking tail of longbowman on their way to the battle that ends of the era of armored knights.
It take place, obviously, in northern France.
lutton
My wife and her friends just all read Suite Francaise and my wife raved about it. She’s a history buff, and the living history of the Nazi (Nazis!) occupation of Paris written as it occured really kept her engrossed.
edmund dantes
No one else is gonna do it? The fountainhead or atlas shrugged. Very topical and on point. :-D
For a real recommendation in addition to my earlier ones, The Amber Chronicles is another favorite of mine. Also I’ll add to the Chronicles of the Black company series.
jacy
Last book I read and enjoyed: 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill.
Because, damnit, people don’t read enough short stories any more.
Also James Lee Burke and Carrol O’Connell have new books out, but I have to get through the 20 on my bedside table before I even think about it, and at this rate it’ll take years.
Svensker
@EnderWiggin:
And by default, I always recommend the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series, which is on book four of a planned seven. It was actually just greenlighted for a pilot by HBO, and is the best fantasy series I know of by a huge margin.
Yes. We were on a trip in Southern France and the books I’d brought were dull. My son had just finished book #1 so I picked it up out of boredom….fantastic! Read all four books without stopping pretty much. And if Martin doesn’t get book five to the publisher pretty soon, there may be an unexplained terrorist attack by a middle-aged WASP woman in Bayonne, NJ.
MikeN
I spent my summer re-reading my favorites. I’ll second the Jonathan Strange recommendation above. I re-read Dune also.
If nobody speaks of remarkable things – John McGregor
The book thief – Marcus Zusak This book is narrated by “death” and is truly great. “1942 was a year for the ages….forget the scythe, I needed a mop and I was exhausted”
asiangrrlMN
Camus for teh Frenchiness; Chitra Divakaruni’s Sister of My Heart for sheer beauty; Neil Gaiman’s anything for awesomeness; The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takaqi for the grim poetry.
Where my people at this morning?
asiangrrlMN
@AhabTRuler: No kidding. I was just telling a friend the other day that the only way I would want to be that young again is if I knew then what I know now.
Tim F.
@CT: Win. Sometimes a Great Notion is still one of my favorite fiction novels twenty years after I first read it. Will check out the Hyperion books, doubly so since it seems like they would come close to winning a popular vote on this thread.
sal
Confederacy of Dunces. New Orleans is French-ish..
CDT
@freelancer/117:
Okay, you’ve outed me. I’m actually Kirsten Dunst.
ET
Rising Tide: the great Mississippi flood of 1927 and how it changed America By John M. Barry
I read this book before Katrina and Barry was all over TV after Katrina. Good, easy to understand historical explanation about how the Army Corp of Engineers run the Mississippi River flood protection and how it played into the flood story. Very story-like and not difficult to read.
J.D. Rhoades
@cbear:
Just finished Rankin’s THE FALLS, and it’s excellent, as are all the Rebus novels. Before that, John Connolly’s THE UNQUIET blew me away, as do most of John Connolly’ works. He combines PI fiction with a subtle supernatural element, all rendered in great prose. I read Christopher Moore’s FOOL before that and laughed my ass off. I read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE earlier this summer and am not ashamed to admit I loved it, even though it is the ultimate chick book.
Reed Farell Coleman’s SOUL PATCH is up next, and my wife raved about it. Coleman’s always amazing, so I’m looking forward to it.
Reading THE HISTORIAN now. I’m enjoying it.
I second the recs for Richard K. Morgan, George R.R. Martin, Dan Simmons, Terry Pratchett, and China Mieville.
Then there’s this obscure Southern thriller called BREAKING COVER, by some guy named Rhoades. I hear it’s okay. :-)
R-Jud
Thirding Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
Also vote for Alison Weir’s “Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England”. It ends up being more about Henry II and Richard I due to the relative lack of first-hand evidence about the woman, but Weir is pretty good at evoking a place even as she runs through history. And it’s not like Henry II wasn’t an interesting guy.
I am currently reading De Rerum Natura in Latin (slow going as the Latin is well rusty), and “Swimming to Antarctica” by Lynne Cox, the long-distance swimming legend. It might technically work for you, TimF, because she swims the Channel a few times, but most of the book is about her effort to swim the Bering Strait. Pretty cool stuff.
Silver Owl
Terry Goodkin, The Sword of Truth series. Wizard’s First Rule is the first book.
Silver Owl
Goodkind. Need the edit back. lol
sven
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
ya gotta reed theez buks – guna be modern classics
~ sven
pika
@Evan:
I so second the recommendation of The Known World.
Blake
Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s stuff is amazing. I see two people have already recommended “The Shadow of the Wind”. I’m currently reading his latest, “The Angel’s Game,” on my Kindle, and it is just as incredible as the previous book so far.
NobodySpecial
Allan Bunch and John Cole, the Sten series.
jc
Libra, by Don DeLillo. I read this every 5 years or so, and it always seems fresh.
CMcD
by Alain Fournier is a great adventure. Romantic and mysterious. And only $3.56 for Kindle!
CMcD
Grrr. Title of the book in #203 is “Le grand Meaulnes”
elmo
Only tangentially related to France, but you really can’t go wrong with the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik.
elmo
Darnit, cut off the post too quickly. Anyway, the Temeraire series is a re-imagining of the Napoleonic wars, with dragons. Very, very well written and devourable in a sitting.
harlana pepper
Can we start a new thread for stupid people like yours truly?
asiangrrlMN
@harlana pepper: You ain’t stupid, girl, but I second the new thread request.
Punchy
@harlana pepper: I second this. If you wanted my book suggestion, which you dont, I’d say go with Martin’ Physical Pharmacy textbook. Chock full of mathematical and chemistry goodness.
Otherwise how about a thread on BRETT FARVE? Heh.
harlana pepper
@asiangrrlMN: Thanks. In truth, I used to read a lot of non-fiction political or history stuff. Now I’m having to read textbooks. That’s as much as I can handle at present.
harlana pepper
I’m going to find out just how stupid I really am in the next 6 months. School is scary for old people!
EnderWiggin
@Shinobi:
I finished American Gods a month or two ago and was unimpressed. I was surprised by that since it was so highly recommended. The underlying concept was amazing, but it seemed like once he had the idea, he didn’t have an actual narrative to wrap around it.
EnderWiggin
@Hope:
Lamb and Practical Demonkeeping are both excellent.
CMcD
Seconding (or thirding) the recommendations for Richard Russo. I thought his comic novel “Straight Man” was hilarious.
Also: “The Magus” by John Fowles (which was partially inspired by “Le grand Meaulnes”).
jibeaux
I somewhat understand the appeal of the Kindle, having checked one out from the university library and seen that it is simple to use and easy on the eyes. But for me the real enhancement is audible. Probably because I rarely have time to sit down and read, and I need to multitask, and audible lets me “read” while doing laundry and dishes and making lunches and ad infinitum.
So anyway, when I first got the audible membership, I wanted bang for the buck. I wanted to pay the lowest price per minute possible, and so I got Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. They’re great, especially Pillars. Great stories but also lots of interesting historical details and information, so they are neither too highbrow nor too grocery-store-fiction. I think almost anyone would enjoy them.
alien radio
late addition but why is there is not a single mention of J.G. ballard?
Have just worked my way through the two volumes of his collected short stories, and it’s a feverish, bleeding edge understanding of time/space, self/society. most of the later novels can be seen having their genesis here, and it’s amazing how the same themes, the same neuroses, repeat; hallucinatory landscapes cycle through again and again; and each graft upon these themes flowers differently.
Ultimately of course the message is the same, but the inventiveness should keep it from becoming too much like hard work.
ericblair
Surprise, surprise, I’d recommend some of George Orwell’s less known works: “Down and Out in Paris and London” (if you’re not going to eat out much in Paris, he goes into a bit of detail about restaurant life); “The Road to Wigan Pier” about the British lower classes; and collections of his essays on politics and lit crit. He’s an easy read and gives a very good feel for socialist politics around WWII, as well as the use of language in politics.
eastriver
Okay, I skimmed the other comments, so here we go:
Skip GRAVITY’S RAINBOW. Not for this trip. Just don’t. It’s best enjoyed as a paperback left by a toilet. That way you can randomly open it and read some sterling prose out of order. Which is probably the way Pynchon wrote it. And if you’re out of TP, well, you can “edit” a couple of Tommy’s pages. Isn’t publishing fun?!
I’ll will pile on to the Zafon Express: THE SHADOW OF THE WIND is fucking amazing. (I worked on a version of the American release of the book. So I know it really well. It’s brilliant. Mostly set in Barcelona, with a couple of scenes in Paris.) Robert Graves’ daughter did the translation. Brilliant.
CITY OF THIEVES. Excellent choice. WWII Russia. Frostbite, hot chicks, and cannabalism. Woo-hoo!
SNOW CRASH is great stuff, and should definitely be read. But since you’re reading on a Kindle, I would heavily suggest THE DIAMOND AGE, also by Stephenson. This is a must read if your’e a SF fan. Or not.
And here comes the killer reccy: THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY by Patricia Highsmith. Get the whole series. Don’t worry if you saw the movie with Matt Damon. (Just forget Matt Damon as Ripley; he was miscast. He’s way too glamourous for the role.) Tense and taught psychological mystery.
And one more odd suggestion: THE PYRATES by George McDonald Fraser. But only if you like comedy and pirates.
And anything by David Sedaris.
Ooh, one more: BLUE HEAVEN by Joe Keenan. His first book. Laugh-out-loud-on-the-A-train funny. (He went on to head write Fraser. Funny guy.)
Starfish
@chad
I have been working on The History of the Siege of Lisbon since very early this year. Giving up quotation marks completely and replacing most periods with commas has made it difficult, but I do enjoy the book despite the six months or longer it is taking me to finish it.
alien radio
I’m also a jeff noon fan, The Dub n’ Bass acid fantasy lyricism really does it for me. I like to see words fucking on the page, his is a future I can see and understand because I’ve been there.
So Vurt, Nymphomation, pollen, Needle in the groove etc. are all highly recommended
I like my reading to fuck with my brain. A lot. I loved Michael Marshall Smith’s Only Forward, because it has this massive decompression that make you feel like you’ve been sucked out of the reality that you though had been most of the book. highly effective.
In terms of non Fiction, I recommend McMafia a treatise on transnational crime and how organised crime bears much resemblance to globalized corporations, esp. wrt cognitive capture of regulatory agencies.
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
Ola. How are you?
Tattoosydney
@Tattoosydney:
Dammit. WordPress stole my acute! Olá.
cbear
@J.D. Rhoades: If you like Rankin you will also truly enjoy the South African writer, Deon Meyer. The stories and characters are wonderfully unique, and there is tremendous insight into the questions and dilemnas facing S. Africans after apartheid.
joe from Lowell
I just reread The Great Gatsby.
WOW! What an amazing piece of writing!
LarryB
Peter Mayle’s A year in Provence would be perfect. Unfortunately, it isn’t on the kindle, yet. Try to duck over to the Spanish side for an evening of tapas if you get close to the border. The harbor area of San Sebastian on the Atlantic is especially fine on a warm summer evening.
LarryB
@JohnEWilliams: John, as a longtime fan, I must insist on a point of order. Flying Colours is the last volume of a trilogy embedded in the larger Hornblower series. You really need to start with Captain Hornblower and follow up with Ship of the Line before the last volume makes sense.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: Hi, honey! How you doing? I am crazybatshittired, but that’s par the course these days. How’s wedding planning going?
Tattoosydney
@Blake:
“The Angel’s Game”
OMG. There’s a new Zafon book and I didn’t know. Thanks. Click. Buy.
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
All good. It’s Friday here, and that means it’s almost the weekend. Off to here for dinner on Saturday night. Dog asleep at my feet.
How are you?
Oz
City of Thieves by Benioff. Great book and several people I recommended it to also loved it.
blondie
I recommend Neal Stephenson- there’s a stand-alone book called Cryptonomicon that follows two timelines- WWII Nazi codebreakers and modern day contractors trying to establish a data haven . . . i know, THICK book but very good, engaging and a fabulous sense of humor. He also has a trilogy about the enlightenment that follows an alt-history path around Einsten and his buddies that has tons about Europe.
HgMn
Under The Volcano — Malcolm Lowry
I guess one of the best novels of the last century
Brachiator
@jibeaux:
For many books, you can set the Kindle to “read” to you, using an artificial, but recognizable voice.
Some authors demanded that the feature be removed from their works so that their “read by the author” market would not be threatened.
wasabi gasp
Jeez, I need to go to BJ summer school.
pixelpusher
The Discovery of France (Graham Robb).
Already mentioned twice above, but totally appropriate to what you are about to do.
Think Heart of Darkness meets Science Fiction, because you will learn some of the weirdest things ever. The place was a giant internal labyrinth, formed over centuries geographical isolation.
Bonus: it describes how it was tourism — mainly initiated by the Brits — that made the country discover itself.
Peter VE
A book which I really enjoyed reading recently is The Anthropology of Turquoise, by Ellen Meloy. It’s a meditation on life in the desert, visits to the ocean, and personal history. The writing is wonderful. I also second (3rd?, 4th?) the recommendations for Alan Furst, The Long Goodbye by Chandler (my favorite book of the 20th century), and most Hammett. Watch out for anything with too much public approbation on NPR: I read On Chesil Beach the year it came out, and I can’t remember a thing about it.
tripletee
@J.D. Rhoades:
Gah, completely forgot about Morgan – I just discovered him in the past year or so and devoured everything he’s written. He’s sort of a druggier and yet more concise Peter F. Hamilton (who I also love).
Colette
Eek, how could I have forgotten Balzac? The entire Human Comedy is available at Project Gutenberg, in old but quite decent translations, and many of the volumes are also now available there in French. You can download books from Gutenberg directly to the Kindle. I’d recommend starting with “Père Goriot” for an introduction to his whole Paris-centered world, but the short, interrelated trilogy of “Ferragus,” “La Duchesse de Langeais,” and especially “La fille aux yeux d’or” are my favorites.
Russ
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini and Sand: The Never-Ending Story by Michael Welland.
fish
Agreed that Kurlansky’s Cod or Basque History of the World are excellent.
Linkmeister
@cbear: No, but I’m making notes. ;)
Katie
I recently downloaded Andrew Lang’s classic colored fairy books (Green, pink, blue etc.) and am thoroughly enjoying them even though they are supposed to be kids books. The writing is a bit old fashioned and in lots of places laugh out loud funny (carriages drawn by short tailed moles??!).
I just finished reading biography’s of Florence Harding and Nellie Taft which were fascinating.
The rest of the books I’ve been reading lately I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. There seems to be a sad lack of good new fiction this summer.
Original Lee
I love me some book threads, but I have got to stop reading this one or I’ll hit my credit limit at Amazon.
Tim, have fun in France. Other than Victor Hugo’s novels, the only book I would recommend for your locale would be “The Historian,” by Elizabeth Kostova.
The book I’m working my way through now is “The 36-Hour Day,” by Rabins & Mace. It’s going slowly because it’s depressing in a way that is not good for a vacation.
J.D. Rhoades
Goodkind. Need the edit back. lol
For that matter, so does Goodkind. *rim shot*
cbear: I have read Deon Meyer’s first one, HEART OF THE HUNTER, and loved it. there’s something wonderfully bad-ass about a Zulu assassin named Tiny who kills people in the streets of Paris with a spear.
L Pala
Any book by Richard K Morgan. Also, just finished my first Thomas Pynchon (known as Pynchon light) Inherent Vice – absolutely loved it. This is a great list – going thru it myself for recommendations.
Sean
@rs: I really enjoyed The Road – I thought it was completely compelling despite its pessimistic tone. A really good book. Currently reading Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold and am completely caught up in it.
Notorious P.A.T.
Speaking of books, a few people here recommended “Snow Crash” to me, so I read it and I enjoyed it. So thanks!
REN
If you like history, read anything you can find by Barbara Tuchman.
If you like more first person historical, read “With the Old Breed,” by Eugene Sledge, about his experiences as a Marine combat soldier on Peleliu and Okinawa. It will leave your nerve endings tingling.
I would like to second those who recommend the Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke. ” Rendevous With Rama” won every major science fiction award there is the year it was published. Clarke was the best, and this is his best.
bartkid
>What is the last book you really enjoyed?
The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah.
>I need two weeks’ worth of reading for my Kindle
[insert obligatory 1984, nevermind, joke here]
Try to find some Barry N. Malzberg.
His best stuff came out in the 1970s, but it reads like it all applies to today.
Or, try some Thomas M. Disch. I mourn his passing even more than David Foster Wallace’s
Don
There are few things in life funnier than Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder/comic crime books. The Hot Rock is theoretically the first but you can pick up any of the earlier ones and the order doesn’t much matter.
Westlake’s Parker novels – written as Richard Stark – are also good minimalist fun, though not remotely funny.
Lorne
For a flavor of France, the Inspector Adamsberg mystery series by Fred Vargas, (actually Frederica). “This Night’s Foul Work”, “The Chalk Circle Man”, “Seeking Whom He May Devour” are 3 that come to mind. Vargas is very good at using the regional cultures of France and distinct neighborhoods of Paris as plot elements.
Phoebe
1. I thought Tim F. was gay. Who was I thinking of?
2. I think you, Tim F., should pick books that are not of this time and/or place. Modern day USA. You’re trying to escape, and you want to succeed. I want you to succeed.
I recommend “Travels With My Aunt” by Graham Greene, which I finished recently. Great great great.
Also fine would be “Confederacy of Dunces”, as others have said. I endorse, as it is old and foreign enough. And great. I was sitting next to a stranger at the airport last week who had it open on his lap, and I practically extended my head in front of his in an effort to read it. It was when Ignatius was boring his mom with the story of his Greyhound Bus Odyssey.
I also echo everthing tatoosydney said about Jane Austen.
Also Eleanor of Aquitaine person up there: Have you read “Eleanor the Queen” by Norah Lofts? It is fictionalized to the extent that it speculates on her internal thoughts, and it is fabulous fun.
tess
@harlana pepper: It’s scary at first, but then you realize you’re so much smarter than you thought, and it’s amazing you muddled through as a young doofus. At least that was my experience with grad school in my 30s.
tess
@Phoebe: Haven’t read Lofts book, but now it’s on my list–thanks!
Steeplejack
@MR Bill:
Jim Butcher’s Dresden novels are good. I read them all in a rush over the last six months or so. They are better than the premise sounds.
Steeplejack
@CMcD:
Second the recommendation of Le Grand Meaulnes (1913). It’s a really good, evocative novel about youthful love and longing. The author, Alain-Fournier, was killed early in World War I, in September 1914. A tragic loss.
One of my fantasy vacations is a driving tour of that part of France.
Steeplejack
@HgMn:
I really liked Under the Volcano when I read it in the ’70s. Even went on to read most of Lowry’s other stuff, including Dark as the Grave Wherein My Friend Is Laid and his obscure (and not that great) first novel, Ultramarine.
Under the Volcano is on my list of books to go back and reread to see how they hold up. Currently on deck: The Alexandria Quartet, by Lawrence Durrell.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Would love to know what triggered moderation in my previous message. No footwear or evil social systems.
Steeplejack
@L Pala:
For Pynchon (relatively) light, you can’t go wrong with The Crying of Lot 49. That’s a gem.
Steeplejack
@REN:
Second the rec on Sledge’s With the Old Guard. Really, really gets down to the horrible, unromantic reality of what war is all about.
A good bookend to that would be John Keegan’s The Face of Battle. Three epochal battles that occurred in the same geographic area, although separated by centuries, as experienced by the average soldier: Agincourt (1415), Waterloo (1815) and the Somme (1916).
Jacqui
“Yourcenar was born a Belgian.”
No, she was born *in* Belgium of a Belgian mother and a French father. She was French all her life, until she was naturalized American in 1947. A book will be coming out over the next few years about the life of Yourcenar and Frick.
Susan Kitchens
OMG, how apropos.
Just finished Julia Child’s My Life in France.
Enjoyable. Fitting.
Mike D.
I’m not deeply read in WWI, so I don’t know if this is any more than naming a given, but I’m finding Cataclysm: The First World War as a Political Tragedy by David Stevenson absolutely compelling. France would be a poignant place to read it as well, though you’re probably there by now.
rdale
Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon series: The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, Lords of the North, and Sword Song. Although his Sharpe series novels of the Napoleonic Wars are great too. I’ve read and listened to all of them multiple times.
Joe K.
Iain M Banks is really top-notch SF. I finished Matter a little while back, and it’s great even if you haven’t read any of the other Culture novels.
Doris Lessing. Her literature Nobel ought to be recommendation enough, but at the moment I’m particularly enjoying Mara and Dann: an Adventure.
— JK