Book Recommendations

[luckyman]

By contrast, once I figured out how much what I read affects how I write, I began to try to cut out garbage writing and to raise my standards where I can on what I'm reading.

Right now I'm in the middle of Tolkien's Beowulf, GK Chesterton's What I Saw in America, Flannery O'Connor's Prayer Journals, and a re-read of Lonesome Dove. All of it's entertaining, and all of it is exceedingly well written.

WTF, how did I not know Tolkien did a translation of Beowulf?

As crazy as my whole high school class was over Tolkien, this could have really impacted how seriously we all took “literature”. Oh well, probably for the best. The people I’m thinking of all went into engineering or other STEM fields.

[Mark D]

Memoir of Delta Force Operator from Mogadishu through the GWOT.

Grim story of the relentless operational pace of Delta and the effects of PTSD in such a high pressure unit.

Serial wives, rampant alcoholism, living with multiple injuries to avoid being turned out of the Unit.

Unable to seek treatment for fear of being kicked out and masking the issues with risk taking, DUI, and pills. Losing touch with everything but your Team in the Unit.

Talks about the horrible emotional toll of collateral damage, losing friends to crippling wounds and death, and the grinding effect of unending nightmares from the

sheer terror of close combat repeated hundreds of times.

He lived over 20 years in the darkest, most dangerous world that almost no one knows anything about.

A troubling read that stayed with me for days afterward.

I'm listening to this on audiobook. I got through 4 hours of it today while driving. The narrator is Tom Slatterly (the author) so it doesn't have the polish that comes when a professional actor does the narration. But the content is very good and I'm enjoying it.

[Coyotesfan97]

The Gil Mason series by Gordon Carroll. I read the first novel for free on a FB ad. Carroll is a recently retired K9 handler from Colorado. He retired about a week before I did. I mentioned in the comments I’d held the dumb end of the leash for 16 years and we’re FB friends now. Anyway I enjoyed the series and there’s a fourth coming out in December.

The dog stuff is pretty realistic but sometimes over the top. Max is a 90 pound Mal. Pilgrim is a 125 lb GSD. In the first two books Pilgrim is retired and old. The third book is a prequel and Pilgrim is in his prime. I messaged Carroll and told him he reminded me of my first dog who was an 88 lb GSD.

The action is sometimes over the top but I enjoyed all three.

Here’s a link for all three

https://amazon.com/dp/B089CRLTB5?bin...eries_rwt_tkin

“Gil Mason is a simple guy with complex problems. Cross Phillip Marlow with Caesar Milan, The Dog Whisperer, and you create a new breed of private eye; courage of a Pit Bull, heart of a Labrador.

Max, Gil's K9 partner, has a few problems of his own. It's a love-hate relationship. Part of Max wants to love his human master, while his alpha personality instinctively drives him to take control of the pack.

So how does a former cop turned PI find a missing teenage boy who has been kidnapped by a corporate billionaire, while dealing with his own feelings of guilt and loneliness over the murder of his family, and keep his canine's homicidal tendencies in check? Brains, guns and fists combined with an intimate understanding of dog psychology.

As long as Max doesn't eat him first.“

[Glenn E. Meyer]

The British are coming : the war for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777
Atkinson, Rick

War is always frightening but reading about the damage that the muskets and rifles of that time did to people without our level of medical treatment is horrific. Given the tactics of the time, driven by the characteristics of the guns, you had in many battles to just march into that fire.

Charming note that the Royal Navy went into city and town destruction by bombardment with incendaries. Well written and not plodding.

[Darth_Uno]

Just finished Joe Abercrombie’s The Trouble With Peace.

Had it pre-ordered on iBooks. Second book in the his second First Law trilogy. If you liked the others, you’ll like this too.

And Brandon Sanderson’s fourth Stormlight Archive book is due next week, I’ll save that for my 4 day Thanksgiving weekend.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Stephanie B]

And Die in the West by Paula Marks

The book is about the events leading up to the Gunfight at thé OK Corral and the events afterwards. I found it to be both interesting and difficult to follow, at times. There were more characters than a Russian novel.

[LHS]

Just finished Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" trilogy. Highly recommended. It's like classic high fantasy seen through a dirty lens, without going full Martin. Some good characterization.

I also recently read Thomas Goodrich's "War to the Knife: Bleeding Kansas, 1854-1861". I see a lot of parallels between that time frame and today, and it doesn't bode well.

[feudist]

Just finished Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" trilogy. Highly recommended. It's like classic high fantasy seen through a dirty lens, without going full Martin. Some good characterization.

I also recently read Thomas Goodrich's "War to the Knife: Bleeding Kansas, 1854-1861". I see a lot of parallels between that time frame and today, and it doesn't bode well.

No it don't.

[LittleLebowski]

You could read Berlin Diary. That's a book by Shrier documenting the rise of the Nazis and being in Germany as a reporter before we entered the war. Pretty horrific. One thing was a German official telling him how they planned to leap from Africa to Brazil with the aid of some compadres like Argentina. Might have been fantasy but, it didn't seem so then.

With what time?! Have you seen how thick Rise and Fall is

[LittleLebowski]

Just finished Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" trilogy. Highly recommended. It's like classic high fantasy seen through a dirty lens, without going full Martin. Some good characterization.

That's my go-to recommendation for most people that need a good read, absolutely phenomenal, darkly funny, and inventive. A sheer pleasure to read and re-read.