Book Rec

[malkin]

Earlier this year I read Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight.
Accessable, quick read, non-fiction, brain scientist describes her experience having a stroke.

She spoke at a conference I attended. Wow!

[Catrin]

Just started reading "Dreaming the Eagle" by Manda Scott. I think this will be a good book. It is the first volume in a trilogy based on the life of Boudica. It will be interesting to see if this is more fantasy or historic fiction, but I think it will be enjoyable either way.

Summary from Goodreads:

Boudica means Bringer of Victory (from the early Celtic word “boudeg”). She is the last defender of the Celtic culture in Britain; the only woman openly to lead her warriors into battle and to stand successfully against the might of Imperial Rome -- and triumph.

[Veronica]

I'm currently reading Annals of the Former World. The author followed different geologists around for about 20 years. Fascinating if you're into geology. It's not like a textbook - more like a memoir.

I finished Desert Solitaire earlier this week. I've also read two collections of short stories. One just called Stories and edited by Neil Gaiman. The other Songs of Love and Death edited by George R.R.Martin. Both were quite good.

I've read "countless" kid novels this summer too.

Veronica

[Jo-n-NY]

I've read "countless" kid novels this summer too.

Veronica

I know you are a teacher, but I really like that idea. I am sure there are some good kids novels that adults would enjoy also.

[Veronica]

For "kid" stuff, I've read a lot of Wendy Mass this summer. She's an author I somehow missed for a long time.

Gennifer Choldenko is another good author. She wrote Al Capone Does My Shirts. A great book set on Alcatraz when it was still a prison. The main character is dealing with issues brought on by having a mentally impaired older sister. One of my students gave me another book of hers - No Passengers Beyond This Point. It's about 3 siblings who need to work together to survive. There's a bit more to it than that.

Ingrid Law's Savvy and follow up Scumble are very good.

Veronica

[Veronica]

Oh, I forgot, this year's Newberry Winner is really funny. It's Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos.

My students thought it was hysterical, but I had to make them promise to never say "Cheezus Crust" at school.

Kathi Applet - not sure of the spelling - wrote The Underneath - somewhat disturbing, but compelling. Too disturbing to do as a read aloud and I read The Graveyard Book as a read loud. The Underneath is a very intricate story, really sort of 3 stories that come together. She also wrote Keeper which my students loved.

The Graveyard Book is by Neil Gaiman - creepy, but not as disturbing. It starts off with the main character's family being murdered.

I'm always on the hunt for potential new read alouds. Plus it's kind of fun to leave a book on a kid's desk with a note saying they might like it.


Veronica

[indysteel]

For "kid" stuff, I've read a lot of Wendy Mass this summer. She's an author I somehow missed for a long time.

Gennifer Choldenko is another good author. She wrote Al Capone Does My Shirts. A great book set on Alcatraz when it was still a prison. The main character is dealing with issues brought on by having a mentally impaired older sister. One of my students gave me another book of hers - No Passengers Beyond This Point. It's about 3 siblings who need to work together to survive. There's a bit more to it than that.

Ingrid Law's Savvy and follow up Scumble are very good.

Veronica

I got an Amazon email yesterday--based on my past purchases I guess-- alerting me to Rebecca Stead's new book. It's called Liar & Spy. Have you read it yet? I liked her When You Reach Me, which you recommended to me a while ago.

[Veronica]

Nope, haven't read that one yet. I'll have to add it to my list.

Veronica

[GLC1968]

I love well written and researched historical fiction. Not, bodice ripper historical fiction, if you know what I mean. Someone I know actually said that Outlander was historical fiction and I just about barfed. It's time travel romance disguised as historical. Not that I didn't enjoy the first few of that series, it's just NOT historical fiction. Sorry.

Sharon Kay Penman writes about Medieval England and I love her books.
The Welsh trilogy, Here be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning, is fabulous. Her series on Henry II is also very good, and her take on Elanor of Aquitane. http://www.sharonkaypenman.com/penman_bibliography.htm

For adventurous historical, you can't beat Bernard Cornwell. He's covered the Napoleonic Wars with the Sharpe series , King Alfred the Great with his Lords of the North series, and he's also done some great books on the Civil War. The Sharpe series is cut of the same cloth as the Patrick Obrien/Jack Aubrey stuff, so it's adventure tales with a lot of historical basis and detail. ( And Sean Bean played him in the BBC series, what's not to love about that?)

I've also really enjoyed the Thomas Shardlake mysteries set in the time of Henry VIII, by C J Sansom. This is literary mystery, not the usual fluff of many mystery series. It's pretty deep stuff, and very authentic to the period.

I could not get into Phillipa Gregory at all. I read one of them, and it seem so contrived I had to toss it. It may have been one of her true fiction and not the bios she's known for.

Wilbur Smith is another author I like. He writes about Africa, primarily South Africa, from about the 17th century on. The history is told through the Ballentyne Family, from the earliest settlement by Dutch to the end of Apathied. His really "famous" book ( ie, supermarket bestseller) "River God" is not his best work.

Hope you find something you like! I love reading on my Nook and iPad.

Who is on Goodreads?

I love well researched historical fiction myself. I have some old favorites (Sarum, The Far Pavillions, Pillars of the Earth, etc) but lately I've been really enjoying the books by Anne Easter Smith. I finished Queen by Right about a month ago and just started Daughter of York over the weekend. For whatever reason, I'm partial to British history. I'll definitely check out some of the ones you've recommended!

I did like the few Phillippa Gregory books I read (The Queen's Fool in particular) but they do border on 'bodice rippers' for sure.

Shades of Grey - I read them all. In about a day. Seriously easy reading but I found the story entertaining enough to keep me engaged while traveling. I don't know how accurate the erotic parts are, but admittedly, I learned some stuff I never knew (and wouldn't dare to google!). Would I recommend the books? For literary value? No. For entertainment or light beach reading? Sure.

I read fiction for escape, so I'm typically not partial to stories or books that take place in a world like my own. They don't do it for me. I typically like stories that take me somewhere else (why I like historical fiction or sci-fi), and the Shades of Grey series took me to a world I don't inhabit (even though it was set here in the PNW). Between the kinky sex and incredible wealth, it was 'other worldly' to me which I think is why I enjoyed it even though it wasn't very well written.

For non-fiction I have two recommendations if anyone is interested. One is called 'It Starts With Food" and it kind of changed my life (for the better). The other is called 'The Dirty Life' and its about a city girl who falls in love with a farmer and their journey as they set up a rural, sustainable life in upstate New York. (anyone want to venture a guess why I liked it? )

[Irulan]

This is why I love Goodreads. It's very easy to go in and find some books by author suggestions, and mark as "to read".

[thekarens]

I'm another one who only reads for escape. However, I must be the only fantasy reader here. I fell in love with Tolkien at the age of 8 and I've been hooked on fantasy ever since.

Usually I have 2 or 3 books going at once. I'm currently reading F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series.

[Irulan]

Fantasy is a reeealllly broad category. I absolutely refuse to read sword and sorcery stuff, but I love authors like Juliet Marillier and Jacqueline Carey.

[malkin]

Another non-fiction one: I'm rereading Monkey Mind just to wash out the bad taste left by the last one.

In addition to sparklingly witty writing, Monkey Mind is the funniest book about any mental illness ever!

[Catrin]

I'm another one who only reads for escape. However, I must be the only fantasy reader here. I fell in love with Tolkien at the age of 8 and I've been hooked on fantasy ever since.

Usually I have 2 or 3 books going at once. I'm currently reading F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series.

Fantasy is a reeealllly broad category. I absolutely refuse to read sword and sorcery stuff, but I love authors like Juliet Marillier and Jacqueline Carey.

I love Tolkien, and fantasy in general but as Irulan said, it is a huge genre. Have you read the short stories of Tolkien they published a few years back? One is "A Tolkien Miscellany" and another is "Unfinished Tales", there are a few gems in these two collections. Some sword and sorcery books I enjoy, especially when I need some down time. Irulan, I've not heard of Marillier or Carey before, will have to add them to my list, their books sound quite interesting!

I've not seen Stephen Lawhead mentioned in this thread, I like his work pretty well. I really enjoyed Byzantium, had mixed feelings on his Pendragan series.

[Catrin]

I am currently reading "In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin" by Erik Lawson (along with a couple of books on primal/paleo eating).

This is a well written book and quite captivating. It is on the Dobbs family, Dobb was sent to Germany as the US Ambassador soon after Hitler rose to power. He originally took the position hoping to have time to work on a history of the southern US he had been trying to work on for years, but of course events in German changed that. He was not the usual pick for such a position as he wasn't one of the American privileged class.

Dobbs invited his grown children to go with he and his wife, and the author uses diaries of the family to reconstruct that first year. As you read this book, you begin to understand in part why the true nature of Hitler wasn't believed by outsiders for so long. There were all of the horror stories that started coming out when he and his party rose to power, but for visitors to Germany it all appeared to be just exaggeration as everything "appeared" to be the same. His daughter Martha took longer to understand the true nature of the Nazis and was caught up in it all.

I am still reading the book but I highly recommend it if you like to read history. I could easily stay up too late reading this, but the alarm goes off much too early Larson is such a good writer that I am going to see what else he may have written.