That's what it seems like, if only because very few have made posts on our "Good Books Board"

It's nearly a given that this audience reads a lot - both fiction and non- so why not share with fellow Cal fans your recommendations for good books you've read recently?

Use the Good Books board to post a note about whatever you've read - that you'd like to recommend to others.

Me no read

Hopefully my choice isn't verbotten, due to website policy against political implications??

SiniCal;529940 said:

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Hopefully my choice isn't verbotten, due to website policy against political implications??

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I loved "The Monkey Wrench Gang" and listened to it obsessively via Books on Tape when it first came out in audio form lo so many years ago. I also listened to the lesser follow up by Abbey, "Hayduke Lives", but was even more disappointed that he had met an untimely death before its publication and that there would be no more from this creative author.

Love your T-Shirt, too.

by Karl Marlantes--a novel about a Marine Company in Vietnam. Very good book, especially if you are of that age or served there.

"Death of Manolete" , by San Franciscan, Barnaby Conrad. Taking my wife to Madrid next spring, her favorite city but I have never been there. Hoping to sneak in a couple of bullfights, along with the Prado et. al. I've read these books so many time they are getting threadbare.

The new biography of Malcolm X by Manning Marable. Several groundbreaking new theories posited. Not the least of which are the names of his alleged killers, still alive and never prosecuted.

Too bad Marable died shortly after publication. His arguments have not received nearly the attention that they are due.

"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand (author of "Seabiscut)
Go Bears!

Does the Media Guide count?


But seriously... Harry Potter seems like it might catch on.

I have a lot of Classics Illustrated's do they count?

Stuff White People Like.

Very light read. Very funny. Read it on the plane.

Fixed.

About international match fixing in soccer. Very interesting!!

In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton

Michael Gruber

this came out some years ago, and was the best novel I've read in ages. some of his subsequent ones have been excellent, but if you have not read Gruber, start with that one.

If you grew up in central or southern California, a quintessential CA book is Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn.

I've read a fair number of good books lately, but not great ones. When I'm traveling for business I will read 2 - 3 books a week, always and only fiction.
Right now I'm reading treasure island because it came for free with the Kindle Reader on this iPad. I read the first page to see how the kindle app compared to the iBook reader...and was hooked again, just like I was in the 4th grade.

The Battles of Coxinga by Chikamatsu..written around 1715 ...

Just finished some short stories by Heinrich Von Kleist...fantastic...

Gabrel Allon series is THE BEST spy fiction I have read in years and he is on his 9th or 10th book and all NY Times Bestsellers with excellent plots and writing. Here is his link. He has a new one in 2 weeks and I am counting the days:

http://www.danielsilvabooks.com/content/more_allon.asp

Also if you have never read Michael Connolly who has now had two books made into movies: Blood Work with Clint Eastwood and The Lincoln Lawyer just recently. However, the real character that he writes about is Harry Bosch that is really great and a new one of those is out in October....about 10 in that series and about as good of mystery detective fiction as you will find.

Good beach reads...nothing serious.

Timothy Egan's account of the battle against one of the greatest wildfires in U. S. history in 1910 Idaho/Montana and the role of the fledgling U. S. Forest Service. Very compelling. For sheer entertainment, try a quirky Brit named Bill James who has a series of crime novels featuring police colleagues Desmond Iles and Colin Harpur. The dialogue is hilarious, often incorporating the unspoken thoughts of the various characters...a sort literary version of the "balloon" device of cartoons.

Yes. The Social Animal, by David Brooks. It's long, but Malcolm Gladwell like about human behavior, particularly man versus woman. I started Too Big to Fail, by I failed to be interested since we lived it and they made an HBO Special out of it.

I heard palin's new book is enlightening

chitownbear;532606 said:

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There aren't as many readers as there used to be, it seems. Are we surprised? I'm not. What we call civilization is on its last legs...think Rome, 450 a.d. These apparently inevitable cycles are most annoying. The barbarians, by the way, are ALREADY inside the gates. Also true of old Rome, back in 450.

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But many say that Rome collapsed, not because of outside forces infiltrating its borders (gates, as it were), but because its expansion became so far reaching that it became ungovernable.

Oh, wait.....

Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt (former Cal prof). Essential reading for you young Bears out there.

BearsLair72;532134 said:

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Gabrel Allon series is THE BEST spy fiction I have read in years and he is on his 9th or 10th book and all NY Times Bestsellers with excellent plots and writing. Here is his link. He has a new one in 2 weeks and I am counting the days:

http://www.danielsilvabooks.com/content/more_allon.asp

Also if you have never read Michael Connolly who has now had two books made into movies: Blood Work with Clint Eastwood and The Lincoln Lawyer just recently. However, the real character that he writes about is Harry Bosch that is really great and a new one of those is out in October....about 10 in that series and about as good of mystery detective fiction as you will find.

Good beach reads...nothing serious.

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Isn't Harry Bosch a Kellerman character?

The dude who wrote this was on the Daily Show Last night:

http://www.amazon.com/President-Assassin-McKinley-American-ebook/dp/B004J4WN2Q

I know very little about McKinley, but the stories in this book sounded fascinating. I'm probably going to pick it up, but I'm currently in the middle of both Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Frankenstein. Both pretty good.

Blue Bear;530333 said:

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"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand (author of "Seabiscut)
Go Bears!

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Ditto (+1)

In addition, I plan to check out A Measureless Peril, which I read recently has been recommended by Laura Hillenbrand (who has read it once and is about to read it again). It is about submarine warfare in WWII.

As a sign of the times,,,,,,,,,,,, i'm rereading required reading from my Poly Sci class back in 1970 -- Walton Bean's Boss Ruef's San Francisco.
Much more enjoyable this time around and still true to this day. Gotta love the Unions v. Big Business

I thought it was one of Michael Lewis' better efforts and helps explain how f'd up wall street was and is

subwaybear;533613 said:

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I thought it was one of Michael Lewis' better efforts and helps explain how f'd up wall street was and is

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Second that.

Btw, ML often sits courtside at women's basketball. Been bringing his kids even.

subwaybear;533613 said:

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I thought it was one of Michael Lewis' better efforts and helps explain how f'd up wall street was and is

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Recently finished it myself. I can't imagine it's easy to make sense of how the most recent financial crisis went down, but Lewis does as good a job as anyone.

The Big Short was great. I've read every book of his other than Moneyball, and liked every one. One that doesn't get much mention is "The New New Thing." Does a wonderful job of catching the spirit of the late 90s tech bubble.

Was on vacation last week and read "1920: The Year of Six Presidents." It was pretty good. It told the story of the 1920 Presidential election and the six former, current or future presidents who were involved in the election (T. Roosevelt (died in 1919, but his shadow loomed over the election), Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and FDR). It was a pretty quick read and did a good job of describing a very interesting period in US history.

I started reading "The Coldest Winter" by David Halberstam (his last book before his death). It's about the Korean War. So far, I'm enjoying it.

86Oski;533736 said:

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The Big Short was great. I've read every book of his other than Moneyball, and liked every one.

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You're missing the best one!

I concur on Michael Lewis. Outstanding writer, and a visiting fellow at Berkeley, no less!

Yeah...it's funny in a way that the one about baseball is the one Lewis book I haven't read, but I've read and heard so much about it that I almost feel like I have read it.

cal06;533853 said:

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You're missing the best one!

I concur on Michael Lewis. Outstanding writer, and a visiting fellow at Berkeley, no less!

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.. arguably best of all ML's books, if only for huuge popular success and paying for his house on northside, a [varsity athlete's] stone throw from the Rose Garden.

I've been struggling for a week with a library copy of Michael Oher's (written with Don Yaeger) inspirational story of MO's youth: "I Beat The Odds". Slow? Welll, takes ~100 pages to first enroll at BriarCrest. Hopefully the good stuff is coming real soon, esp looking for exposed dramatic license in the book and/or movie. Plus side: there are 8 nifty full color picture pages.

Also not to be overlooked, esp for newbie parents, is the hilarious account of becoming a father, in Berkeley, with 2 young girls constantly taking advantage of papa. Title is "Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood (2010)".

#GoMLewis! #GoDisadvantaged #GoBEARS!

Anything by Jo Nesbo - terrific detective thrillers

CalBear68;533117 said:

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But many say that Rome collapsed, not because of outside forces infiltrating its borders (gates, as it were), but because its expansion became so far reaching that it became ungovernable.

Oh, wait.....

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Many at the time blamed the country's fall from power and loss of empire, on the abandonment of "traditional values" especially the abandonment of the religion of the founding fathers (paganism) in favor of a foreign religion that undermined the social order (Christianity).

Oh, wait...

CalBearRJ;533598 said:

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The dude who wrote this was on the Daily Show Last night:

http://www.amazon.com/President-Assassin-McKinley-American-ebook/dp/B004J4WN2Q

I know very little about McKinley, but the stories in this book sounded fascinating. I'm probably going to pick it up, but I'm currently in the middle of both Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Frankenstein. Both pretty good.

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Saw that. i almost bought the book. maybe i will.