bearister;842107666 said:

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American Tabloid by James Ellroy

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Brutal book-gripping though.

For military history "The Final Hours" by Johannes Steinhoff. He was a Luftwaffe ace who lead a rebellion to get rid of Herman Goring near the end of WWII, and lived, (barely), to talk about it.

Light entertainment, "The Striker" by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown. Detective story set in early 1900's. Fast pace, fun characters and while I'm far from an expert on the subject, the detective work feels authentic for the era.

Pat Conroy's "My Losing Season" about his senior basketball season at The Citadel.

"The Fifties" by David Halberstam - touches on all aspects - political, cultural, social of a fascinating decade.


An oldie but classic - South Pacific by Michener. I defy anyone to read the scene at the cemetery near the end of the book and not get a little misty eyed.

Ike by Michael Korda. Anything on Truman ( David Mc Culloughs bio is probably the best ) - two fascinating underrated Presidents. And don't tell me Truman is a top 10 President in many rankings - he is top 5 in my eyes.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. The book asks basic questions about the moral and ecological consequences of our food and it really opened my eyes to the ethics of eating.

CAL6371;842107623 said:

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Re Ike and DIck, the author spoke about his book for an hour on CSPAN 2's Booknotes. It did sound very interesting.

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It's sad that I spend more time watching Book TV on CSPAN2 than actually reading books. (I watched that, too.)

If anybody wants to watch it online, click here.

slotright20;842108012 said:

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Pat Conroy's "My Losing Season" about his senior basketball season at The Citadel.

"The Fifties" by David Halberstam - touches on all aspects - political, cultural, social of a fascinating decade.


An oldie but classic - South Pacific by Michener. I defy anyone to read the scene at the cemetery near the end of the book and not get a little misty eyed.

Ike by Michael Korda. Anything on Truman ( David Mc Culloughs bio is probably the best ) - two fascinating underrated Presidents. And don't tell me Truman is a top 10 President in many rankings - he is top 5 in my eyes.

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I have an autographed copy of My Losing Season. A must read for all hoop junkies. I read all of Conroy's books thereafter. Was his dad an assh*le or what.

bearister;842108115 said:

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I have an autographed copy of My Losing Season. A must read for all hoop junkies. I read all of Conroy's books thereafter. Was his dad an assh*le or what.

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I did not know of Conroy until I saw the 1980 or so movie based upon his book about his Dad - The Great Santini. I was stunned - my step Dad was the Naval version of the Great Santini. ( that his how we ended up in Oakland ). To me it was art imitating life. I did not think it was possible that two such men could roam the earth at the same time.

There are a lot of things I love about My Losing Season but I guess the best aspect to me is Conroy breaking away and rising above his Dad and his Coach Mel Thompson ( another fierce man) to play his game and excel in the process. When I read the book, I researched Mel Thompson a bit - that guy could really rebound and hoop at NC State in the fifties.

My Losing Season is my favorite sports related book though The Summer Game by Roger Angell and the Maraniss bio about Lombardi - When Pride Still Mattered are way up there.

Was that really necessary or even useful? The remark says a lot about you.

Phantomfan;842107523 said:

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World War Z is an awesome read, especially because of the Brad Pitt abomination coming out. The audiobook is even better, surprisingly.

I suggest it for anyone (even non zombie peoples).

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+1 on the audiobook. Several celebrity voices really make it come to life. Great take on a curiously popular genre.

I also spend a lot of time watching it. I love it, since few authors come to Ventura County, I get to watch their sessions like I live in Washington DC. I does make me wonder how much I'd have enjoyed living there if I had taken the offer from the US Attorneys office when I was a third year student a Boalt. Ah, bridges never crossed.

beelzebear: Oh cool. Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors, too. Not sure I agree with the "anything" by him comment, though. I have read all of his books, but I started with Kafka on the Shore. For someone reading Murakami for the first time I would suggest starting with Kafka on the Shore--which is easy to read--or The Wind Up Bird Chronicle (maybe his most critically acclaimed novel) or 1Q84. Some of the earlier novels like the Wild Sheep Ride are fascinating for hardcore fans but they are they are rather flawed, early works.

72CalBear;842107587 said:

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1) How To Survive The End of the World as we Know it - Rawles

2) Complete Survival Manual - National Geographic

3) SAS Survival Guide - Collins Gem

Yes, it's coming..and no doubt before the Bears get to the Rose Bowl..

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Survival books are great for starting fires at the end of the road.

Better to take a class than try to learn how to do most of that stuff with a book in a populated area.


OTOH, I like all three just fine

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese MD, a Professor at Stanford Medical School. About an Indian physician who grows up in Ethiopia. must reading for any physician or anyone who has ever been to a physician.

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. An amazing American cult novel written by a genius. Can't really tell you what the book is about.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.

For pure entertainment, I loved all 5 books of R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones but if you don't want to commit to 5000 pages just yet I suggest Windhaven by R.R. Martin--female protagonist, sci fi/fantasy novel about a planet that is 99% covered by oceans and people sail from one island kingdom to another or fly using wings made from the skin of a spaceship that crash landed on the planet.

MathTeacherMike;842108232 said:

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+1 on the audiobook. Several celebrity voices really make it come to life. Great take on a curiously popular genre.

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I like it because it is more about the total human experience in a disaster, and how it relates to modern times more than "Zack"


For example, the part about trying to build bombers instead of shovels and how useless we all are when our jobs go away... Matter of fact (despite the reader - Alda who's voice is too memorable to fully "own" the part) I thought that part of the book and audiobook was awesome.

Also the battle of Yonkers was the best satire about modern military strategy and modern media I have read in a while.

The entire Sir Harry Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser.

cubzwin;842108528 said:

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beelzebear: Oh cool. Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors, too. Not sure I agree with the "anything" by him comment, though. I have read all of his books, but I started with Kafka on the Shore. For someone reading Murakami for the first time I would suggest starting with Kafka on the Shore--which is easy to read--or The Wind Up Bird Chronicle (maybe his most critically acclaimed novel) or 1Q84. Some of the earlier novels like the Wild Sheep Ride are fascinating for hardcore fans but they are they are rather flawed, early works.

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I have some trouble enjoying some of Haruki Murakami's more obscure novels, but Norweigian Wood by him is one of my favorite books of all time.

Tippi Hedren's "The Cats of Shambala" of '85.

The lead of Hitchcock's TheBirds and her family later financed, wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the most expensive and dangerous home movie of all time, "Roar" (1981). The $17M flick flopped but Tippi and her kids' 10 year journey personally wrangling dozens of otherwise untrained big cats was an incredible read. Now in her 80s, Ms Hedren continues to live on and manage her 100 acre Shambala Preserve near Acton CA, an hour's drive north of LA.

Bargain priced used copies of the book are available on amazon, or even better sometimes found in public libraries. Some of the snapshots in the book are incredible, like the one showing a full grown lion, at least 10 foot long counting his tail, trying to sleep in 13 y.o. daughter Melanie Griffith's bed.

Much later during filming one of the costars decided to rearrange Melanie's face. Tippi jumped on and did her best to pull off (or at least distract) the improvising lion. Or there was the day an extra scalped the director of photography. Whoopsies like those happened a lot.

72CalBear;842107827 said:

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Yep, best-selling fiction of all time!!

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Your statement is inappropriate and offensive.

I found the original comment more offensive.

bear cass;842109367 said:

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I found the original comment more offensive.

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What about the original comment did you find offensive?

Raising Redemption by R.A. Russell. Lots to think about and a fast paced, great read. And Cal Econ. Dept. plays a role.

Just Kids - Patti Smith

ManhattanMadMan;842109507 said:

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Just Kids - Patti Smith

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+1 Great read.

A few good ones I read recently (not necessarily recent novels):

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Turn of Mind by Alice La Plante

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

Twelve by Nick McDonnell (author was only 17 when he wrote this...a really good effort)

GoldenBearofCalifornia;842109503 said:

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What about the original comment did you find offensive?

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It felt like proselytizing to me.

bear cass;842109672 said:

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It felt like proselytizing to me.

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The original question in this thread was about suggestions for good books to read. The poster in question responded by saying the Bible. How exactly is that proselytizing?

I usually assume people read religious scripture for spiritual enlightenment. Suggesting it as reading material feels to me like suggesting that the would-be reader gain such enlightenment. I think you yourself established that the Bible has more significance than just a good book with the offense you took at its being criticized.

bear cass;842109991 said:

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I usually assume people read religious scripture for spiritual enlightenment. Suggesting it as reading material feels to me like suggesting that the would-be reader gain such enlightenment. I think you yourself established that the Bible has more significance than just a good book with the offense you took at its being criticized.

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I hesitate to jump in, but there is something that, personally, I think that both Christians and non-Christians alike should find to be a disturbing sign of the state of things in today's world.

The History Channel just finished airing its 10 hour mini-series "The Bible." But what I didn't realize until this week is that the producers of the mini-series, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, also wrote a book which was released 5 weeks ago, "A Story of God and All of Us: A Novel Based on the Epic TV Miniseries 'The Bible'".

Really? It almost seems like a tacit admission that the original is lousy reading material. I would really think Burnett and Downey would just send people to the original source for further reading, but no. The cynic in me says it is about making money. Oh, how could I think that?

On the Burnett book, I guess it depends on what they do with the money- am not familiar with the novel they wrote but I do agree that The Bible ought to be enough.

The thread topic is good books to read. The Bible is obviously a compilation of writings of different authors, and it was not written in English so it naturally loses some flow and impact at times in whatever translation/version you are reading. Admittedly, parts of it are a tough slog.

However, regardless of whether you believe or not, I could not begin to list the everyday phrases, book titles, movie titles, etc. which have their origin in The Bible. It has had a tremendous impact on our literature and arts and for that reason alone, one could argue it is a book worth reading.

Moreover, I find many of the stories, parables, etc to be fascinating. Plus there are portions that are beautifully written - for instance Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8. I could list many more examples.

remembering this cat


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7h3p0_samba-pati-carlos-santana_music#.UV2h1YJbyuk








ykes:cheer:Monty

bear cass;842109991 said:

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I usually assume people read religious scripture for spiritual enlightenment. Suggesting it as reading material feels to me like suggesting that the would-be reader gain such enlightenment. I think you yourself established that the Bible has more significance than just a good book with the offense you took at its being criticized.

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You have no idea why the original poster suggested the Bible, so assuming that original poster was saying that the would-be reader should read the Bible in order to gain spiritual enlightenment is flawed reasoning. As other posters in this thread have indicated, there are other reasons to read the Bible.

Your argument that the original poster was also attempting to proselytize is even more logically flawed. You are not able to even establish a key premise underyling your argument that the original poster was suggesting that the would-be reader should read the Bible to gain spiritual enlightenment, but you have further assumed in a conclusory manner that the poster was therefore attempting to convert the would be reader. Where in the original post does the poster attempt to convert the would-be reader? To what does the original poster attempt to convert the would-be reader? Your argument uses circular reasoning.

GoldenBearofCalifornia;842110101 said:

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You have no idea why the original poster suggested the Bible, so assuming that original poster was saying that the would-be reader should read the Bible in order to gain spiritual enlightenment is flawed reasoning. As other posters in this thread have indicated, there are other reasons to read the Bible.

Your argument that the original poster was also attempting to proselytize is even more logically flawed. You are not able to even establish a key premise underyling your argument that the original poster was suggesting that the would-be reader should read the Bible to gain spiritual enlightenment, but you have further assumed in a conclusory manner that the poster was therefore attempting to convert the would be reader. Where in the original post does the poster attempt to convert the would-be reader? To what does the original poster attempt to convert the would-be reader? Your argument uses circular reasoning.

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Nobody has really suggested that there are other reasons for reading the Bible. One poster bemoaned that the Bible inspired a mini-series which then inspired a book that might serve as an alternative to the Bible. And anyway, you can't have it both ways. If you want the Bible to be treated as sacred, then I think it's inappropriate to bring it up in a discussion of meritorious reading. If you do, I think you're exposing it to criticism. Frankly, "fiction" is about the most generous criticism one could give a book that offers the following injunctions and proclamations:

"I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."

"Do not allow a sorceress to live."

"In the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error."

"Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord."

"Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel."

This is supposed to be the word of God. Put yourself in someone else's shoes. If you weren't religious, how would you take a suggestion of reading such inflammatory propaganda?

bear cass;842110127 said:

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Nobody has really suggested that there are other reasons for reading the Bible. One poster bemoaned that the Bible inspired a mini-series which then inspired a book that might serve as an alternative to the Bible. And anyway, you can't have it both ways. If you want the Bible to be treated as sacred, then I think it's inappropriate to bring it up in a discussion of meritorious reading. If you do, I think you're exposing it to criticism. Frankly, "fiction" is about the most generous criticism one could give a book that offers the following injunctions and proclamations:

"I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."

"Do not allow a sorceress to live."

"In the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error."

"Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord."

"Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel."

This is supposed to be the word of God. Put yourself in someone else's shoes. If you weren't religious, how would you take a suggestion of reading such inflammatory propaganda?

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Again, you are wrong. Someone in this very thread explicitly said there are other reasons to read the Bible. Slotright20 said: "However, regardless of whether you believe or not, I could not begin to list the everyday phrases, book titles, movie titles, etc. which have their origin in The Bible. It has had a tremendous impact on our literature and arts and for that reason alone, one could argue it is a book worth reading."

Again your reasoning is flawed about me wanting to have it "both ways". I was not the one who said the Bible was a good book, that was another poster. Whether I feel that the Bible is sacred has nothing to do with another poster suggesting that the Bible is a good book.

Your statement about calling the Bible fiction is also flawed. The fact that you quote several passages that you do not agree with and that are out of context does not mean the Bible is fiction. Using your logic, does that mean if I cite several passages in the Bible that you agree with that means the Bible is non-fiction?

Feel free to actually address my statements about how your arguments are logically flawed. Please clarify exactly how you know that the poster was saying that the would-be read should read the Bible to gain spiritual enlightenment. Please clarify the logical reasoning that leads you to conclude that such poster was trying to convert people. Please clarify to what the poster was trying to convert would-be readers.

I enjoyed the Presidents Club.

GoldenBearofCalifornia;842110164 said:

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Again, you are wrong. Someone in this very thread explicitly said there are other reasons to read the Bible. Slotright20 said: "However, regardless of whether you believe or not, I could not begin to list the everyday phrases, book titles, movie titles, etc. which have their origin in The Bible. It has had a tremendous impact on our literature and arts and for that reason alone, one could argue it is a book worth reading."

Again your reasoning is flawed about me wanting to have it "both ways". I was not the one who said the Bible was a good book, that was another poster. Whether I feel that the Bible is sacred has nothing to do with another poster suggesting that the Bible is a good book.

Your statement about calling the Bible fiction is also flawed. The fact that you quote several passages that you do not agree with and that are out of context does not mean the Bible is fiction. Using your logic, does that mean if I cite several passages in the Bible that you agree with that means the Bible is non-fiction?

Feel free to actually address my statements about how your arguments are logically flawed. Please clarify exactly how you know that the poster was saying that the would-be read should read the Bible to gain spiritual enlightenment. Please clarify the logical reasoning that leads you to conclude that such poster was trying to convert people. Please clarify to what the poster was trying to convert would-be readers.

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Please clarify the context that justifies the hateful passages I listed. (I admit I missed that one post.)