Please recommend a good book...

[masmdu]

Fiction or nonfiction, anything goes.

I found "A confederacy of dunces" hilarious.

Just got the overdrive app to checkout ebooks from my library and would appreciate some recommendations to build a summer reading list.

Thanks!!

[TexLaProgressive]

1. The Fiction Group is a good place to start

Especially hermetic’s What Fiction are you reading this week
https://www.democraticunderground.com/119321111

[masmdu]

11. I'll check it out. Thanks.

[BOSSHOG]

3. Neon Rain by James Lee Burke

Published in the late 80s. Burke, my favorite author. Crime fiction centered in and around New Orleans with lots of bad guys and lots of violence and lots of angst. Dave Robicheaux protagonist. Alcoholic Vietnam Vet workin in law enforcement. His loveable sidekick Cletus likes to drink beer and beat up bad guys. Dave has lots of spiders in his head but has a heart of gold. First in a long series of Robicheaux books.

Burkes books are like 400 page poems. His descriptions of people, places, things are awesome.

I don’t gush about many authors but I’ve read most of his books at least twice.

[rsdsharp]

8. I agree with you. Dave and Clete are getting a bit long in the tooth

to be realistically putting the hurt on the bad guys, but I still keep buying. Burke writes so well. It’s hard to believe Lost Get Back Boogie was rejected 111 times before being published.

[BOSSHOG]

13. JLB has another book out either July or August, but not Robicheaux, maybe his ancestors.

Way long in the tooth. I thought JLB would have those two killed in a big boom some time ago but he’s keeping em alive for another go at it. Security guards at a nursing home? We lived within 50 miles of NOLA for 29 years and I appreciate all the allusions to the big easy in his books. We visited New Iberia and walked Robicheaux walk.

I think I might have some of JLBs books cremated with me. My wife and I intend to be cremated then poured in the Mississippi at St Louis and have a leisurely float down to the Big Easy. Damn there is a plot (story) in their somewhere.

[rsdsharp]

16. Right. Flags On the Bayou. I think it's a stand alone set during the Civil War,

but maybe it’s related in some way to In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead. We’ll soon see. It drops July 11.

Sometimes, I like to go on Google Maps and check out the places in New Iberia that he’s writing about. Most of them really exist.

[BOSSHOG]

18. That's a neat little town

Bayou Teche and all. And near Avery Island with the Tabasco sauce factory. And alligators. Louisiana is a geographical gem.

[FalloutShelter]

4. I highly recommend LITTLE

By Carey
Dickens and David Lynch? Defoe meets Margaret
Atwood?
Fascinating read. Really stayed with me.

[cbabe]

5. I posted in fiction forum for you. Some titles:

Big mystery/thriller series:

https://www.goodreads.com › author › show › 194243.Louise_Penny

Louise Penny (Author of Still Life) - Goodreads

LOUISE PENNY is the author of the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling series of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. She has won numerous awards, including a CWA Dagger and the Agatha Award (seven times), and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel.

…

https://www.goodreads.com › author › show › 7031.James_Lee_Burke

James Lee Burke (Author of The Neon Rain) - Goodreads

James Lee Burke is an American author best known for his mysteries, particularly the Dave Robicheaux series. He has twice received the Edgar Award for Best Novel, for Black Cherry Blues in 1990 and Cimarron Rose in 1998. Burke was born in Houston, Texas, but grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast.

…

https://www.goodreads.com › series › 42740-joe-demarco

Joe DeMarco Series by Mike Lawson - Goodreads

Joe DeMarco is a Congressional investigator in Washington DC. Book 1 The Inside Ring by Mike Lawson 3.74 · 3,264 Ratings · 300 Reviews · published 2005 · 3 editions "From a bluff overlooking Georgia's untamed Chatto… Want to Read Rate it: Book 2 The Second Perimeter by Mike Lawson 3.99 · 1,722 Ratings · 109 Reviews · published 1994 · 38 editions

…

https://www.barnesandnoble.com › b › contributor › dick-francis › _ › N-2k7p

List of Books by Dick Francis | Barnes & Noble®

One of the most successful post-WWII steeplechase jockeys, Dick Francis (1920-2010) won more than 350 races. After retiring from horse racing, he turned his hand to writing mystery novels set against the thrilling background of his beloved sport. He went on to publish more than 40 books and is regarded as one of the top mystery writers of all time.

…

https://www.stabenow.com

Dana Stabenow

Dana Stabenow is the author of the award-winning, bestselling Kate Shugak series. The first book in the series, A Cold Day for Murder, received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. More About Dana Best Sellers. Subscribe to the Roadhouse Report.

[masmdu]

7. Thank you!

[BOSSHOG]

14. Thank You

That was very kind of you to provide this information

[niyad]

6. Anything by Margaret Cole, who writes the Wind River mysteries. Think Tony

Hillerman for the Arapaho.

The Dorothy L. Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries.

The various books by Pekka Hamalainen: Paleolithic America, Lakota America, Comanche Empire.

Just a few to get you started.

[Tetrachloride]

9. The Girl With The White Flag

The Dragonbone Chair

Way Station

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Dune

Calvin and Hobbes

Red Storm Rising

[rsdsharp]

10. I'd recommend the Reacher books by Lee Child.

Killing Floor is the first one, but they can be read in any order.

[cbabe]

12. I agree about Burke. His books can be a bit dark but his

prose is amazing.

Also agree with Lee Child rec.

And John Stanford/Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers series.

https://www.bookseriesinorder.com › john-sandford

John Sandford - Book Series In Order

John Sandford has become a bestselling author many times over and for good reason, his books are a joy to his readers and bring the same high quality writing one would expect from a John Sandford book every time. John Sandford - Books and Characters John Sandford's first major hit, Rules of Prey, released in 1989, has since spawned over 20 sequels.
…

And stand-alone:

https://www.goodreads.com › book › show › 56898262-state-of-terror

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton | Goodreads

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Louise Penny 4.10 69,948 ratings8,288 reviews

From the #1 bestselling authors Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny comes a novel of unsurpassed thrills and incomparable insider expertise—State of Terror.

[Ptah]

15. Bucking The Sun

Bucking the Sun is a novel by American author Ivan Doig, published in 1996. It is the fourth book in Doig's Two Medicine Country series. The title refers to "working against the glare of sunrise or sunset".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucking_the_Sun

[LuckyLib]

23. Ivan Doig's books are so good.

Puts you in another world. Recommended to me by a trail boss on a trek on horseback in the mountains of Montana.

[cbabe]

17. And nonfiction for gay pride month: I have something to tell you

Midwestern farm childhood and South Bend scenes. Challenges of making it from working class to college grad. And a love story. And behind the curtain of a political campaign. I found it deeply moving.

https://chastenwrites.com
Chasten Buttigieg (Author, Speaker, and Advocate)

"An engrossing, and deeply inspiring memoir" — Kirkus Reviews (starred) "…powerful and inspiring." —The Washington Post "Witty and sharp, mischievous and no-nonsense, and pointedly political. . . . Chasten isn't just married to a gifted politician. He's become one himself." —The Daily Beast

[Srkdqltr]

19. Just one Damed Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. Si-fi but different.

[yellowdogintexas]

42. I liked this one. I believe it is first in a series nt

[hay rick]

20. I see a lot of James Lee Burke in this thread. If you like him you're bound to like

anything by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch, Mickey Haller/Lincoln Lawyer, and Renee Ballard series) and Robert Crais (Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series). Crais was a writer for Hill Street Blues before becoming a novelist.

I'm currently reading the Easy Rawlins series by Walter Mosley. The first book in the series was "Devil in a Blue Dress" which was turned into the movie. I think the later books get better.

[keithbvadu2]

21. The Source: A Novel - James Michener,

The Source: A Novel - James Michener,

https://www.amazon.com/Source-Novel-James-Michener/dp/0375760385

[yellowdogintexas]

40. this is always in my top 25 book list.

I loved this book. Highly recommend

[applegrove]

22. Behind The Beautiful Forevers by Katharine Boo. True stories from a Mumbi slum.

Heartbreaking but it will gin up your anti-corruption gut senses and you'll never forget it or the people in it.

[Mr.Bill]

24. If you're a baby boomer (or even if you're not),

check out Like a Rolling Stone, the autobiography of Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone Magazine. He has got some stories to tell as the chronicler of the counter-culture since the mid-60s. He's met and known most of the important and iconic people of the era we live in. Everyone from John Lennon to Jacqueling Kennedy. And, of course, like most people who have founded successful magazines, he's one hell of a writer.

[demigoddess]

25. the Green Mile by Stephen King. Not scary.

[Rhiannon12866]

26. Jimmy Carter's autobiography, "A Full Life: Reflections at 90."

He really has led a fascinating life, from his childhood in rural Georgia to his time at Annapolis and his brilliant Navy career - to his first run for public office where he fought blatant cheating, to his years as governor and his term as president. He goes into detail about everything from his friendship with Gerald Ford to the Camp David Accords. And this traces his life through the Obama administration, it's that recent.

[TexasDem69]

27. Every Dead Thing

By John Connolly. The Lord of the Rings series. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. You really can’t go wrong with The Shining or Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. The Stand by King. The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie.

[intrepidity]

28. The Most Human Human, by Brian Christian

https://brianchristian.org/the-most-human-human/

The Most Human Human is a provocative, exuberant, and profound exploration of the ways in which computers are reshaping our ideas of what it means to be human.

For the first time in history, we are interacting with computers so sophisticated that we think they’re human beings. This is a remarkable feat of human ingenuity, but what does it say about our humanity? Are we really no better at being human than the machines we’ve created?

By mimicking our conversation and behavior, computers have recently come within a single vote of passing the Turing test, the widely accepted threshold at which a machine can be said to be thinking or intelligent. In this witty, wide-ranging and inspiring investigation, Brian Christian takes the recent and breathtaking advances in artificial intelligence as the opportunity to rethink what it means to be human, and what it means to be intelligent, in the twenty-first century.

Competing head-to-head with the world’s leading AI programs at the annual Turing test competition, he uses their astonishing achievements as well as their equally fascinating failings to reveal our most human abilities: to learn, to communicate, to intuit and to understand. And in an age when computers may be steering us away from these activities, he shows us how to become the most human humans that we can be.

Drawing on science, philosophy, literature and the arts, and touching on aspects of life as diverse as language, work, school, chess, speed-dating, art, video games, psychiatry and the law, The Most Human Human shows that, far from being a threat to our humanity, computers provide a better means than ever before of understanding what it is.

[intrepidity]

29. "Entangled Life: How fungi make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures"

by Merlin Sheldrake

https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/entangled-life

When we think of fungi, we probably think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that support and sustain nearly all living systems. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them.

Sheldrake’s mind-bending journey into this hidden world ranges from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that sprawl for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the ‘Wood Wide Web’, to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision.

Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms – and our relationships with them – are changing our understanding of how life works.

[highplainsdem]

30. I've always liked Carl Hiaasen's novels, and if you

like the first one, you'll find a delightful series of novels to follow, with some recurring characters and lots of new ones as well.

Hiaasen has been an investigative reporter and columnist as well as a novelist.

DU thread about his last column a couple of years ago:

https://democraticunderground.com/1016289931

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2021/03/15/this-is-carl-hiaasens-last-column-column/

Links to the Wikipedia page on him, and his website, both of which list his books in order (and I do recommend starting with the first novel he wrote by himself, Tourist Season) :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Hiaasen

https://carlhiaasen.com/

https://carlhiaasen.com/all-books/books-in-order/

If you look at the home page of Hiaasen's site, I suggest you not click on the Learn More link till you read the many snippets of rave reviews appearing, one at a time, between that and the Nonfiction + Columns link. The raves are accurate.

[yellowdogintexas]

41. Mr YD and I devour Hiaasen!

Mr YD is not fond of Kindle reading; so these are books we will buy. Don't overlook his Young Adult books, they are very good

You should also check out Sir Terry Pratchett's Disc World series. Start with The Color of Magic; if you like it then you have a huge shelf to enjoy.

Do you like edge of the seat thrillers? Try Jeffrey Deaver, Preston & Childs. If you like international intrigue in your thrillers, Daniel Silva is the go-to.

Strong Women? Fern Michaels: Sisterhood series and its companion series Men of the Sisterhood; The Godmothers series
The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek & The Bookwoman's Daughter. The Memory Keeper of Kiev

Funny mysteries? Try the Kat Makris Greek crime series (Alex A Kinf); laugh out loud funny with over the top characters.

Finally, my favorite sub-genre: Archaeological thrillers. There really is such a thing, and I really enjoy three different authors each with a different framework. Ernest Dempsey's Sean Wyatt Archaeology series, David S Brody's Templars In America series, and J. Robert Kennedy's James Acton series.

[Coventina]

31. "The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Irving Stone

I'm rereading it now, while I'm in Italy.

Even if you are not into art, it's a fantastic book!!

[GPV]

32. Have you read any Bill Bryson?

[nuxvomica]

33. "The Brickweavers" sci-fi set in ancient North Africa

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jf-williams/the-brickweavers/

[Rhiannon12866]

34. I don't know if you like mysteries, but I liked Miriam Grace Monfredo's historical mysteries

There used to be a mystery book store locally and I went to her book signing since I'd read most of her books - which combine mystery and history:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/55948.Miriam_Grace_Monfredo

[betsuni]

35. Bill Bryson, Garrison Keillor ("Leaving Home" ), David Sedaris, Nick Hornby.

My favorites books:

Henry Miller "Tropic of Cancer"
The Diary of Anais Nin, volume one, 1931-1934
Anita Loos "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"
Ernest Hemingway "A Moveable Feast"
Ray Bradbury "Dandelion Wine"
Jean Paul Sartre "Nausea"
Dostoyevsky "Notes From Underground"
Joris-Karl Huysmans "Against Nature"

[Emile]

36. If you want a good laugh, Ann B Ross "Miss Julia series"

Recommend you start with "Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind." Also Fannie Flagg novels are great too.

[betsuni]

37. Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" is excellent!

[AwakeAtLast]

38. I'm an Outlander fan!

And there are 9 books of a 10 book series. The books are so much more than the TV series!

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

39. I would help to know what genres you prefer

There are literally millions of different books in the world. Narrowing down what you might be looking for to some of the general types will help in recommending anything to you. After all, what I enjoy or consider a great book, you might consider a colossal bore.

I find that reading challenges help me focus on what to read, while pushing me to read outside my comfort zone (mysteries, history, true crime). My favorites are 52 Books, Book Riot's Read Harder, Booklist Queen, Pop Sugar, and Gypsy's Reading Bingo. They all provide prompts that stretch the reading horizons--and the mental muscles, too. I would never have read Dan Simmons' Hyperion or Louis L'Amour's Big Medicine (short fiction collection) if a challenge hadn't opened the door to do so.

Best of all, I wasn't on my own to hunt down any of the super-weird challenges, like "science fiction without aliens or spaceships." As if I'd know that on my own! I googled the category, and up popped a Goodreads link for it, with dozens of options listed. Oh, look--Fahrenheit 451 would suit well for that one.

Link to a long list of challenges to choose from:

https://candidcover.net/2023-reading-challenges-list/

Maybe one of those will help you build a summer reading list. Personally, I'd go with the Read Harder challenge or Gypsy Bingo, because they're smaller lists, around 20-25 books.

[sakabatou]

43. I got three

"Rise of Kyoshi"

"Shadow of Kyoshi"

"Dawn of Yangchen"

There's a pre-requisite: you have to watch "Avatar: the Last Airbender," the series, not the movie, first