I need some good books

[clay]

I second Captain Zero.

Also recently enjoyed Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves.

Really enjoyed the audiobook: Born to Run, I've listened to it 3 or 4 times.  And his Heroes book starts really slow/awful and then gets pretty good.

Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was.

Loud Hawk: The United States Versus the American Indian Movement (people in this book recommended it to me and it's wild to read what they went through).

Secrets of the Talking Jaguar.

A Course in Miracles.

The Music Lesson. (audiobook)

Shantaram. (audiobook) took me a while to get into it, loved parts of it, found some of it tiring.

A Dog's Purpose. (audiobook)

The Power of Now.

Many Lives, Many Masters.  (audiobook)

[PonoBill]

Piece of 8--I listened to Keith Richards book on CDs. Really fun. Part of it he narrated himself, and then probably got bored and had someone else do it.

Clay--A treasure trove. Not a single book that I have read. I'm thrilled.

Eastbound--Nope, haven't read that, looks great.

Yeah, Warren Jeffs is a piece of work. He's where he belongs.

[JP]

One of my favourite authors is Wilbur Smith.  His books are full of pretty much everything a guy likes.  I especially like the historical themes throughout most of his novels.  The series novels are a little more historically based than the 'stand alone' novels.  Good choices to start with would be "When the Lion Feeds" or "River God".  Think Clive Cussler epic adventures, with a historical backdrop and much more believable plot lines.  I'm not a huge fan of a couple of his more recent novels, but I have re-read most of them a few times.

I'm also a fan of Bryce Courtenay.  A couple favourites of mine are "The story of Danny Dunn" and "the Power of One".

"The Book of Negroes" by Lawrence Hill is an excellent book.

[SuppaTime]

A little off-topic but...

I had downloaded The Martian after it was recommended here as a great book (I believe by PB) but forgot about it until the movie came out. My wife wanted us to see the movie but I wanted to read the book first, which I did. Bottom line is the book is way better than the movie. The movie was good, but the book as just a lot better. So if you're thinking of seeing the movie, read the book first.

[SupPadre]

I was in search of something good to read this weekend, so I revisited this thread. Somehow I had missed Riding Sophia by Bill Babcock on the first page of the thread.  I'm 70% through the book according to Kindle and I'm surprised the book hasn't been mentioned more on this forum. It is a treat.

[Quickbeam]

I just stumbled on this thread. Hadn't seen it before.

I saw "Into Thin Air" mentioned earlier, but I didn't see "Touching The Void". If you haven't read it, and like mountaineering stories, it is a great read. I think the full title is "Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival". It's also a movie.

[eastbound]

suppa--i binged cormac mccarthy--his minimalist style just resonated with me--he captures that quiet ever-presence of evil--child of god---scary

i have a hard time reading books these days--once in a while i get hooked and love it--but then ive neglected my regular periodical reads--it's about lack of time, and, likely, lifelong undiagnosed add

[SUP Leave]

Nice to see this thread resurrected, I only really have time to read on vacation and we have a couple mini-vacations coming up so it is time to load up the kindle. I love Wilbur Smith and Patrick O'brien but already got through most of them.

I don't know if you guys like weird, humorous fiction but if you do check out. Tom Robbins and Christopher Moore.

My favorites from TR are:

Another Roadside Attraction - Pretty wild story set here in WA about some hippies with a hotdog stand and a drug dealer who infiltrates a Vatican outpost on the Humptulips river full of assassin monks. The theme is a scathing portrait of Christianity, but the book is outright funny.

and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates Which is a book about the adventures a Pacifist CIA agent who is wheelchair bound for a hilarious reason. The theme is more about how people contradict themselves.

Christopher Moore writes fiction that delves  into fantasy. He has a book based on Maui about whales Fluke, or, I know Why the Winged Whale Sings which is pretty good, the parts, places and characterizations of Maui are funny the fantasy gets a little out there.

My favorite CM book is Lamb - the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's childhood Pal. It is basically a fantasy tale of Jesus through the eyes of his best friend, who lives like a normal guy, swearing, debauchery and etc. It is pretty out there as well, but funny. It is a book that explains the origins of things, like the Easter bunny and some of the origins sound like they could be true enough that i had to do research.

[PonoBill]

suppa--i binged cormac mccarthy--his minimalist style just resonated with me--he captures that quiet ever-presence of evil--child of god---scary

i have a hard time reading books these days--once in a while i get hooked and love it--but then ive neglected my regular periodical reads--it's about lack of time, and, likely, lifelong undiagnosed add

The trick for reading with ADD is multiple books simultaneously. For me it helps to write as well, though I'm such a book addict that it might not matter. I'm rewriting the sequel to Riding Sophia (first pass was lifeless), writing a book on retirement, and doing a James Patterson-style triller about conspiracy theories. Got the idea for that one right here on the zone.

Just finished reading 13 Hours (about Bengazi), In the Heart of the Sea, The Revenant, and a couple of Patterson books to get a notion of his methods and style. If I'm going to spend time writing fiction, I might as well make it commercially viable. So I did Honeymoon, The Postcard Killers, Kill me if you can, 1st to Die, 2nd Chance, Run for your life, Tick Tock, Worst Case, and 3rd Degree.  Like eating popcorn, only without the farting.

Tried to get through the new Stephen King novel, Mr. Mercedes, but the pace was so leaden and the characters so uninteresting I couldn't do it. I'm blowing through all the early Spenser books (Robert Parker) for the same reason as Patterson. these kind of meaningless, formulaic books are amazingly fast reads. I don't remember going through the Spenser books so quickly in print, but they don't last a day on a kindle.

On a more serious side, I'm reading The Nines and Thinking Fast and Slow. Lots of revelations in TFaS, but it's pretty dull other wise. Ever time I run out of a fast book I switch to it while I decide what else to read.

[CascadeSup]

the Marty Singer mystery series by Matthew Iden are good for fun, light reading.

[WhatsSUP]

I've been struggling to try and get thru Finnigan's book "Barbarian Days".....friggin brutal for me.  Seems like I've been reading it for months.  Full of surf action and search for the elusive perfect wave....but jimmy christmas I just can't manage to get thru it!  Ugh.

[Tom]

My new favorite author is James Ellroy, I've just read The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential. Grittiest of the gritty police dramas set in L.A. in the 40s & 50s.

[SupPadre]

The Ellroy books sound like great reads.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008BWADLK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1

"The Worlds richest busboy" by JJ Brito is a fun read, and reading Riding Sophia brought parts of it back to mind.

It's on Kindle Unlimited if you're a subscriber.

[SUPcheat]

Thought I might put on my tinfoil hat and read:

"The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government" by David Talbot

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SFZB93Y/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1

[PonoBill]

Hmmm, I might have to read that. I'm writing a commercial thriller with the working title "The Conspiracy Conspiracy."  Here's the first chapter, I'd be interested to hear what you guys think of it.
http://www.ponostyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Ch1%20The%20Conspiracy%20Conspiracy.pdf