Book Recommendation Thread

[chitown87]

Been a while since we've had one of these, I feel like.

What's everyone reading?

I just finished this one and it was very good. A little dark, but excellent writing. Detective/murder mystery type genre.

Also just read this one by David Baldacci. I know there are some posters on the Paddock that are into his books.

Almost finished with this. Pretty good so far.

Anyone got any recommendations on good non-fiction sports books? I've been looking for something in that genre to read.

 

[Blue Bleeding Marine]

"Bluegrass" was excellent. "Columbine" is another good one, highly recommend it

 

[anon_aawvduncd4ay0]

Papillon- excellent
Shantaram- amazing story

Both basically start in prison and pull you into fairly amazing stories.

 

[wkycatfan]

"The Miracle of the Kurds"

 

[DSmith21]

Just re-read one of my all-time favorites. This book makes many of the 100 greatest mysteries of all time lists. It is Dennis Lehane's best book (over Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island, etc.) IMO.

This post was edited on 2/6 12:00 PM by DSmith21

 

[wcc31]

Originally posted by Blue Bleeding Marine:
"Bluegrass" was excellent. "Columbine" is another good one, highly recommend it

Just started "Bluegrass"- really interesting so far.

"Columbine" is also very good.

 

[Joneslab]

Originally posted by DSmith21:
Just re-read one of my all-time favorites. This book makes many of the 100 greatest mysteries of all time lists. It is the best Dennis Lehane's best book (over Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island, etc.) IMO.



This post was edited on 2/6 8:31 AM by DSmith21

The Wire gets a lot of talk on the Paddock. Lehane was a writer for that show (along with George Pelecanos and Richard Price).

I haven't read the one you mention here, but I thought Shutter Island was

. Mystic River was also tremendous, and I loved Prayers for Rain. Has one of the nastiest villains I've read in fiction.

I'll also give a shout-out to Columbine. Great book that has a ton of information I didn't know about the crime.

I'm reading The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins right now. It's been in the news quite a bit over the last couple of weeks as people have suggested it might be the next Gone Girl (it isn't going to be). Odd novel in that it withholds a ton of information, but it's got an alcoholic main character that's very good.

The best novel I've read recently (and maybe in the last couple of years) is Josh Malerman's Bird Box. It's a post-apocalyptic horror novel, and I don't read a lot of those, but this one was terrifying and extremely well-done. It's about a virus/infection/paranoia that is happening outside, and if you look at it you go crazy. So people cage themselves in their homes in "bird boxes," so they can't see out. Crazy inventive.

 

[Tskware]

I just read Station Eleven

Very interesting sci fi, sort of a combination of "The Road" with "Birdman", a famous actor drops dead of a heart attack on stage right before a killer flu wipes out 99% of the population. Story is told in flashback 20 years later from the perspective of the survivors who all have a loose connection to the dead actor.

Very clever and well written.

 

[LordEgg]

blood meridian by cormac mccarthy.

batavia's graveyard by Mike Dash

1066 - david howarth. absolutely one of the best fast read books on a singular topic ever written.

under the banner of heaven - john krakauer

 

[Joneslab]

And I'm looking forward to Jon Ronson's (author of the flat-out great The Psychopath Test) next book, which comes out at the end of March.

It's called So You've Been Publicly Shamed, and it follows Ronson as he looks at people who've been torn apart by the media for something they did or said. Ronson has a really odd way of putting himself in his work; Psychopath Test is as much about his own life as it is about psychopathology or the criminals he studies. He can be almost shockingly honest, and in that way he reminds me of the writer David Shields.

I've mentioned this before but Shields wrote my favorite basketball book, Black Planet. It follows him as he writes about the Seattle Supersonics for a season. The book is about race, the Sonics' sasquatch mascot, why white people love to watch black people play sports, Gary Payton, and a whole lot of other stuff. Honestly the book is worth the read just for Shields' interviews with Payton, who's both insane and highly intelligent.

http://www.amazon.com/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed/dp/1594487138

 

[anthonys735]

'The short and traffic life of Robert Peace' was really good.

Under the banner of heaven is great.

Wild was much more enjoyable than I thought.

A long way down was decent. Not my favorite but a quick read.

If you happened to not read unbroken yet, that's a must.

 

[DSmith21]

I have not liked Stephen King in a while but this one was good. Its a crime novel rather than horror.

This post was edited on 2/6 12:02 PM by DSmith21

 

[natron20]

Savage Continent: Europe In the Aftermath of World War II.

It was an eye opening read. Basically, I never realized just how mch of a cluster Europe was after WWII. People were (still are) deplorable savages.

Link

 

[VernHatton52]

A Song of Ice and Fire, shit's legit!

 

[wkycatfan]

Originally posted by Blue Bleeding Marine:
"Bluegrass" was excellent. "Columbine" is another good one, highly recommend it

You guys have piqued my interest. Gonna check this one out at the library.

This post was edited on 2/6 1:39 PM by wkycatfan

 

[gamecockcat]

My son bought me "Dark Invasion" for Xmas and it's a good one. True story of German terroist cell in NYC during WWI and the policemen who tracked them down and busted it up. Pretty sobering considering all the parallels between that time and now, once you think about it. Very interesting read.

Also just read K. Richards' autobiography - 'Life'. Pretty decent. Not a lot of eye-opening tales of drugs and debauchery but entertaining.

My Kindle is full of mysteries and thriller novels (most of them free, btw) and I can't remember many of them but Book Bub keeps me supplied with pretty good reads every day.

I also reread the Complete Sherlock Holmes, mainly because I like the PBS series with Benedict Cumberbatch. Good storytelling. Pretty difficult to figure out the culprit before Holmes does as there always seems to be information withheld but still entertaining.

 

[Beavis606]

^ Look up piqued in the dictionary while you are there.

 

[wkycatfan]

Originally posted by Beavis606:
^ Look up piqued in the dictionary while you are there.

Fixed. I plead guilty to the grammar police.

 

[Beavis606]

Hopefully you learned something today. Case dismissed.

 

[chitown87]

Originally posted by wcc31:

Originally posted by Blue Bleeding Marine:
"Bluegrass" was excellent. "Columbine" is another good one, highly recommend it

Just started "Bluegrass"- really interesting so far.

"Columbine" is also very good.

I know there've been a few Columbine books.. are you guys referring to the one written by Dave Cullen? I think that was his name.

If so, that's a great read.

 

[chitown87]

Originally posted by anthonys735:

Under the banner of heaven is great.



I've seen you recommend this one before, and put it on my list, then forgot all about it. I'll have to read this one ASAP.

Anybody got any sports nonfiction for me?

 

[Joneslab]

Originally posted by chitown87:

Originally posted by anthonys735:

Under the banner of heaven is great.





I've seen you recommend this one before, and put it on my list, then forgot all about it. I'll have to read this one ASAP.

Anybody got any sports nonfiction for me?

Read Darcy Frey's The Last Shot? Interesting Hoop Dreams-style look at basketball on Coney Island in the early 1990s. Some very cool anecdotes on the northeast basketball scene at the time, including a hilarious glimpse at the way Rollie Massimino recruited.

A very young Stephon Marbury makes a cameo. He's in eighth grade.

Also recommend Will Blythe's To Hate Like This is to Be Happy Forever, which somehow got away with putting Coach K on the cover morphing into a rat. Most interesting/arresting anecdote in this one has to do with Billy Donovan sitting in a car and eerily, silently stalking a player (I believe it was Josh McRoberts).

 

[wkycatfan]

I haven't read it yet, but I have it checked out. I've heard good things about it.

 

[anthonys735]

You'll think of Mormons differently after Banner. That for sure. Those fundamentalist are cray.

 

[Tskware]

Originally posted by anthonys735:
You'll think of Mormons differently after Banner. That for sure. Those fundamentalist are cray.

I second "Under the Banner of Heaven". Yes, the Mountain Meadow Massacre certainly puts a different light on the original Mormon church (but almost all I personally know are damn good people)

 

[BankerCat12]

Just finished Tyson's bio. Pretty damn good read. Large book.

Currently reading No Hero.

Have been reading a lot of books on the Mexican Drug trade like El Narco, etc. Also have been reading a lot on military and terrorism.

Must reads:

Bluegrass Conspiracy
Cornbread Mafia

On deck: Fab Five and Pete Rose new book. Definitely a random reader.

 

[chitown87]

^El Narco is a GREAT book.

What else did you read about the Cartels?
This post was edited on 2/6 7:20 PM by chitown87

 

[domino79]

The Power of Habit
The Millionaire Next Door
Awareness Through Movement

 

[BankerCat12]

^Have the Terrorist Next Door also lined up.

 

[BankerCat12]

Recently finished Gaming the Game. Story on large bookie from northeast that worked w/ Tim Donahay and one of the biggest lines makers from around the world. Really fascinating story on how someone lives their lives. I do some sports betting online but betting a few hundred thousand on a random Royals/Twins game blows my mind.

 

[Joey Rupption]

Originally posted by domino79:
The Power of Habit
The Millionaire Next Door
Awareness Through Movement
So Good They Can't Ignore You

 

[MrHotDice]

Harper Lees. To kill a mockingbird Is one of the best books EVER written. Also Simon Winchester Krakatoa is fantastic if you like reading about an volcanic eruption heard over 3500 miles. Created waves 135 ft tall and killed 35000 people. Fantastic research on a great subject.

 

[IamnotRalph]

Reading this one now. Currently far enough into it to think I'm going to enjoy it, and I did like Eckert's The Frontiersmen.

.....which reminds me (in content, not writing style) of another book I read a few years ago that I enjoyed.

....which reminds me of another interesting book I read at about the same time I read Empire.

 

[domino79]

You read A Terrible Glory by Donovan? Details the battle of little bighorn and the incompetence that guaranteed Custer was going to die out there on those plains that day. Good damned book.

 

[domino79]

Originally posted by Joey Rupption:

Originally posted by domino79:
The Power of Habit
The Millionaire Next Door
Awareness Through Movement
So Good They Can't Ignore You

Right up my alley. Many thanks.

 

[domino79]

Check out I Lived to Tell It All by George jones. At one point he's subsisting on a steady diet hank williams, cocaine and whiskey. Living out of his car on nashville's music row, he gets down to just above 100 pounds. WHEN HE WOUND UP IN REHAB HE TESTED AT RETARD LEVEL IQ AND COULDN'T PERFORM BASIC SPATIAL TESTS OF FITTING ROUND/SQUARE OBJECTS INTO CORRECT HOLES.

 

[-LEK-]

Notes from the Underdog- Charlie Mingus autobiography.

 

[Blue Bleeding Marine]

I just started "Ron Jeremy, Hardest working man in show business"

 

[wkycatfan]

Originally posted by domino79:
You read A Terrible Glory by Donovan? Details the battle of little bighorn and the incompetence that guaranteed Custer was going to die out there on those plains that day. Good damned book.

I have read this too. It is a good read.

 

[IamnotRalph]

Originally posted by domino79:
You read A Terrible Glory by Donovan? Details the battle of little bighorn and the incompetence that guaranteed Custer was going to die out there on those plains that day. Good damned book.

Thanks for the heads up. Went over the amazon and looked it up, ended up putting it in my cart.