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Rockefeller posted:Does anybody know some fun espionage meets space operas like asimov's Lucky Starr books? I want to say there were some elements of espionage and information-theory in C. S. Friedman's In Conquest Born but it's been ages since I've read that one so I'm not sure. It's still a really good space opera though, at least in my opinion.
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Mar 29, 2011 17:16
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Centipeed posted:I recently re-watched Thank You For Smoking, and I'm hankering after stories where the protagonist is very smooth and able to convince people of anything. This is not quite a full book recommendation, but the story Notes for My Biographer by Adam Haslett is what immediately jumped to mind when I read this. His narrator is an extremely flawed, smooth-talking gentleman who is able to convince himself (if not everyone else) of almost anything. I found it to be an extremely interesting character study. If I'm completely off the mark on what you're looking for, however, my apologies.
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Mar 29, 2011 21:56
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marshmonkey posted:I just finished the first two books in the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss on the recommendation of the thread and now I am jonesing for more of the same. Brandon Sanderson likes to have clever well-defined magic systems that the protagonist always ends up figuring out as the books progress. That's the closest I can think of to what you're saying. Try Mistborn or Warbreaker
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Mar 30, 2011 07:58
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I'm absolutely fascinated by literary portrayals of the devil, specifically around the device of Faustian pacts. In this vein, I have read and enjoyed The Master and Margarita, Faust, Doctor Faustus, and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. I'm lukewarm on The premise can be stretched to an extent - i.e. the devil doesn't necessarily have to appear in person, so long as the central dynamic of the Faustian pact is there. I'm looking for stories in which a corrupting contract is established at some point, which the plot then goes on to either fulfil or overturn. For example, The Picture of Dorian Grey would fit, as Dorian explicitly wishes his fate upon himself, but The Monkey's Paw features no 'contract' or degradation of the characters involved, and as such is more of a cautionary tale about dabbling with unknown forces. Frankenstein doesn't fit, as Victor is already locked into his eventual decline from the beginning of the story - his amorality comes from within himself, not from an agreement with an external benefactor/malefactor. I hope that all makes sense. Any suggestions?
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Mar 30, 2011 19:41
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The Grand Judabuddha posted:Brandon Sanderson likes to have clever well-defined magic systems that the protagonist always ends up figuring out as the books progress. That's the closest I can think of to what you're saying. Try Mistborn or Warbreaker Thanks! I will check those out.
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Mar 30, 2011 20:21
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Kismet posted:I'm absolutely fascinated by literary portrayals of the devil, specifically around the device of Faustian pacts. In this vein, I have read and enjoyed The Master and Margarita, Faust, Doctor Faustus, and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. I'm lukewarm on I very much enjoyed Michael Swanwick's Jack Faust, a great take on retelling the story. It does have some steampunk-ish flavor to it but not so much it gets in the way (and I'm not a steampunk fan per se). It maintains a pretty solid four star user review rating on Amazon.
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Mar 30, 2011 23:16
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I very much enjoy the two authors Vince Flynn and David Baldacci. I have read all of the books written by those two authors now. I also enjoyed reading the whole Bourne series. I have found through searching this forum that Lee Child might be a good one to try out next, so I will give him a shot for sure. Any suggestions similar to these two authors I might enjoy?
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Mar 31, 2011 03:42
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Kismet posted:I'm absolutely fascinated by literary portrayals of the devil, specifically around the device of Faustian pacts. In this vein, I have read and enjoyed The Master and Margarita, Faust, Doctor Faustus, and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. I'm lukewarm on Johannes Cabal The Necromancer involves a man making a contract with the devil for the return of his soul, which he lost from a previous pact. This is more a clever and darkly humorous book, but the protagonist has his own set of morals, there's the whole cheating death aspect of necromancy thrown in, and the whole story revolves around a train-driven carnival provided by the devil to Johannes, in order for him to get more people to sign over their souls. The book is fantastic, but maybe not quite what you're looking.
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Mar 31, 2011 04:57
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foundtomorrow posted:I very much enjoy the two authors Vince Flynn and David Baldacci. I have read all of the books written by those two authors now. I also enjoyed reading the whole Bourne series. I have found through searching this forum that Lee Child might be a good one to try out next, so I will give him a shot for sure. As for me, I've been wanting to start reading an eighteenth-to-nineteenth century naval series--Aubrey/Maturin, Hornblower, Lord Ramage, something like that. I plan on reading at least parts of each of the three series eventually, but for now, which of these is more action-y? I've just hit my annual reading slump and I want to break out of it with something that's more "broadsides and boarding" than cerebral. Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Mar 31, 2011 |
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Mar 31, 2011 05:41
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foundtomorrow posted:I very much enjoy the two authors Vince Flynn and David Baldacci. I have read all of the books written by those two authors now. I also enjoyed reading the whole Bourne series. I have found through searching this forum that Lee Child might be a good one to try out next, so I will give him a shot for sure. I'm a Flynn fan as well (not so much of the last crappy couple of books though). Try the early David Morrel (creator of the Rambo character and original story) novels Brotherhood of the Rose, Fraternity of the Stone, The League of Night and Fog, The Fifth Profession. Unlike the Rambo movies, Morrel's spy novels are much more realistic and not in the same 'superman' type vein of the Rambo movies so don't let that put you off. The mentioned novels also rate very strong on Amazon. You might also like Shibumi by Trevanian and the novels Chameleon and Thai Horse by William Diehl.
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Mar 31, 2011 07:39
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IceNiner posted:I very much enjoyed Michael Swanwick's Jack Faust, a great take on retelling the story. It does have some steampunk-ish flavor to it but not so much it gets in the way (and I'm not a steampunk fan per se). It maintains a pretty solid four star user review rating on Amazon. Octopus posted:Johannes Cabal The Necromancer involves a man making a contract with the devil for the return of his soul, which he lost from a previous pact. This is more a clever and darkly humorous book, but the protagonist has his own set of morals, there's the whole cheating death aspect of necromancy thrown in, and the whole story revolves around a train-driven carnival provided by the devil to Johannes, in order for him to get more people to sign over their souls. The book is fantastic, but maybe not quite what you're looking. I'll definitely check out both of these. The second one puts me in mind of Something Wicked This Way Comes, which is another book I'm very fond of for similar reasons. Thanks!
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Mar 31, 2011 19:37
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I had asked earlier about survival horror books, and was recommended Dan Simmons The Terror. Just finished it and enjoyed it. Got any others? Also looking for books about cursed books. I've read about the Necronomicon and The King in Yellow - anything else like this? Thanks
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Mar 31, 2011 21:50
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marshmonkey posted:I just finished the first two books in the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss on the recommendation of the thread and now I am jonesing for more of the same. I came here looking for the same question. I'm still busy with the second book (not even 200 pages in, I read it about 20 minutes a day) but I love it just as much as the first book. I need my fantasy fix when I'm finished with that book 
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Mar 31, 2011 22:37
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Grawl posted:I came here looking for the same question. I'm still busy with the second book (not even 200 pages in, I read it about 20 minutes a day) but I love it just as much as the first book. I loved the mechanics of the magic system in The Black Prism by Brent Weeks, and the story was really good and engaging. It's the first in a series, so if you aren't patient enough to start am unfinished series, keep that in mind. The wife and I both loved it.
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Apr 1, 2011 03:28
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Kismet posted:I'm absolutely fascinated by literary portrayals of the devil, specifically around the device of Faustian pacts. In this vein, I have read and enjoyed The Master and Margarita, Faust, Doctor Faustus, and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. I'm lukewarm on Could you recommend where to start? I think I read somewhere on TBB a while ago that there was a certain starting point that made best sense in order to get the most of e.g. The Master and Margarita but I can't seem to find it.
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Apr 1, 2011 15:52
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dopaMEAN posted:NPR's Planet Money did a feature on this: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Depression-Diary-Benjamin-Roth/dp/158648799X I heard that as I listen to Planet Money pretty regularly. It was an excellent podcast.
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Apr 2, 2011 03:21
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chrmnbill posted:I recommended this one a few pages back, but it's worth mentioning again: Diary of a Very Bad Year by an anonymous hedge fund manager. It's entirely a series of interviews with the hedge fund manager from during the crisis and printed without (much) editing. It's offers a very different perspective from anything else I've read on the topic. It definitely fits the entertaining part of your request. I'll look into it, thanks! Currently I am wading through Too Big to Fail.
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Apr 2, 2011 03:22
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I like to buy my books in advance so I need some new recommendations. The last six months have been full of dark? fantasy. Finished the following: Empress Trilogy-Karen Miller Shadowheart Series-Tad Williams Night Angel Trilogy-Brent Weeks First Law Trilogy-Joe Ambercrombie The Black Company (currently reading almost finished)-Glenn Cook Book of Amber (currently reading)-Zydansky something Mistborn Trilogy (on order, in transit)-Brandon Sanderson\ 2 More Joe Ambercrombie books (on order) I need to fill up my shelves with other stuff I would like. I like to order in advance so I don't have to wait around. I like trilogies or series if you couldn't tell. Thanks in advance. Flaggy fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Apr 3, 2011 |
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Apr 3, 2011 03:10
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Kismet posted:I'll definitely check out both of these. The second one puts me in mind of Something Wicked This Way Comes, which is another book I'm very fond of for similar reasons. Yes! - definitely very similar with the whole dark carnival/taking souls - but again, Johannes Cabal is pretty humorous. I think I'd like to make a side request and ask if anyone has any traveling circus/carnival recommendations. I've read Water for Elephants, Geek Love, and Carter Beats the Devil, and both of the above mentioned books. Any other awesome ones out there?
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Apr 4, 2011 00:54
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Octopus posted:Yes! - definitely very similar with the whole dark carnival/taking souls - but again, Johannes Cabal is pretty humorous. I think I'd like to make a side request and ask if anyone has any traveling circus/carnival recommendations. I've read Water for Elephants, Geek Love, and Carter Beats the Devil, and both of the above mentioned books. Any other awesome ones out there? Spangle by Gary Jennings is excellent (though it seems to be out of print and hard to find - your local library may have it). It follows an American Civil War-era soldier who joins a traveling circus after the war and travels across Europe with it.
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Apr 4, 2011 14:07
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Encryptic posted:Spangle by Gary Jennings is excellent (though it seems to be out of print and hard to find - your local library may have it). It follows an American Civil War-era soldier who joins a traveling circus after the war and travels across Europe with it. I'm tickled to say, I was able to order it from a partner library this morning. YAY! Thanks for the recommendation.
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Apr 4, 2011 15:04
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Octopus posted:I'm tickled to say, I was able to order it from a partner library this morning. YAY! Thanks for the recommendation. Very nice. Hope you like it. 
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Apr 4, 2011 16:22
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I really liked "Masters of Doom" and "Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World." Both about how different videogame designers and companies became successful. Can anyone recommend similar books that show the same sort of "behind the scenes" look at how this industry works?
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Apr 6, 2011 16:00
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Does anyone of any good postmodern takes on the fantasy genre?
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Apr 6, 2011 17:22
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Amazon Review posted:Does anyone of any good postmodern takes on the fantasy genre? A little more specific? Something like Magicians, or?
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Apr 7, 2011 20:59
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I just finished The Master and the Margarita and thought it was brilliant. I especially enjoyed the parts told through the eyes of Pilot. What are some other books that tell stories from the Bible in a non christian/preachy/supernatural way. I started reading The Last Tempatation of Christ years ago but never finished so I'm thinking this would be a good starting point.
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Apr 8, 2011 05:37
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rasser posted:Could you recommend where to start? I think I read somewhere on TBB a while ago that there was a certain starting point that made best sense in order to get the most of e.g. The Master and Margarita but I can't seem to find it. Huh, I'm not sure. You mean where to start on a Faust-related reading list? I suppose it depends which titles you want to read. Goethe's Faust and Marlowe's Dr Faustus are both basically re-tellings of the same story, and would probably be fairly heavy going to read one after the other unless you're really into reading variations of the Faust story (like me  ). They're both worthwhile, but maybe with a gap between them. Personally, if you were only to read one, I'd recommend Goethe's Faust, which is longer but has vastly more depth and human interest to it. There are also multitudes of translations available - my favourite modern translation is Walter Kaufmann's, which chops out quite a lot of Act II but does a good job of sticking close to the original text while keeping it readable and capturing the humour.Again, though, it depends what you're interested to read. Goethe's Faust is certainly the one to read first if you then want to move on to The Master and Margarita. However, if you want to get the most out of Confessions of a Justified Sinner, you should probably read Doctor Faustus. Marlowe and Hogg were both writing against very specific religious backgrounds in the UK, so they share a number of themes and explore similar philosophies. As for Eric? It's light comedy relief, and only really superficially based on the story of Faust. Read it whenever you need a lighthearted boost in between the other books. So yeah, my recommended order would probably be: Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner - James Hogg Faust - Goethe The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov Other people may disagree, in which case I'd be interested to hear other ways of approaching the books. I think my own reading order was Eric > Faust > Faustus > Confessions > Margarita, but then I got hooked and ended up revisiting all of them in different combinations. It's also a woefully incomplete reading list, which is why I came here for more recommendations. E: Oh, and since this post is not yet long enough, anyone else who's interested by ambiguous themes of religion, biblical prophecy and ultimate evil should really read Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. I wouldn't call it Faustian, but it's definitely a cracking read and ticks a lot of similar mental boxes.
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Apr 8, 2011 13:45
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Need recommendations for short stories of a specific type, that I'll probably fail pretty badly in describing. But essentially it's where, when you're done reading it, you marvel at how perfect the ending is, how it is the only possible ending, yet you never saw it coming. I'm thinking of stories like "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick, or "The Dead Past" by Asimov. "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Clarke is one that tries to do this but is less successful in my opinion (maybe because in this case I saw the end coming). And to clarify, it doesn't have to be science fiction. If you can think of any short story writers who excel at this type of story, don't hesitate to recommend them no matter the genre.
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Apr 9, 2011 03:22
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regulargonzalez posted:Need recommendations for short stories of a specific type, that I'll probably fail pretty badly in describing. But essentially it's where, when you're done reading it, you marvel at how perfect the ending is, how it is the only possible ending, yet you never saw it coming. I'm thinking of stories like "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick, or "The Dead Past" by Asimov. "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Clarke is one that tries to do this but is less successful in my opinion (maybe because in this case I saw the end coming). Try All You Zombies, by Heinlen
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Apr 9, 2011 12:30
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I was wondering if anyone could help me remember the name of a book I wanted to read. It was about a group of aliens that were bad at fighting wars uplifting humanity because we're such a violent species to fight another alien race for them. I'm sure that I gave a horrible description of the book, but I'm hoping someone here can help me.
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Apr 9, 2011 16:21
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regulargonzalez posted:Need recommendations for short stories of a specific type, that I'll probably fail pretty badly in describing. But essentially it's where, when you're done reading it, you marvel at how perfect the ending is, how it is the only possible ending, yet you never saw it coming. I'm thinking of stories like "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick, or "The Dead Past" by Asimov. "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Clarke is one that tries to do this but is less successful in my opinion (maybe because in this case I saw the end coming). A Girl I Knew by J.D. Salinger (EDIT: the ending isn't really a surprise, but it's the only possible ending and it gets you right in the gut) I'm also assuming you've read An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce.
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Apr 9, 2011 16:28
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Amazon Review posted:Does anyone of any good postmodern takes on the fantasy genre? GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire is actually pretty appropriate in this case, with its decentering of perspectives (e.g. POV chapters vs. a traditional "hero's journey"), its rejection of traditional fantasy tropes, and other things. Also, China Mieville (though more sci fi than fantasy). DirtyRobot fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Apr 9, 2011 |
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Apr 9, 2011 16:34
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Patrovsky posted:Try All You Zombies, by Heinlen Should have added that if it's a big name in sf, I've probably read it. Good suggestion though! DirtyRobot posted:The Last Question by Isaac Asimov e: Other examples might be the P.G. Wodehouse Jeeves stories, where everything seems truly screwed up at the end until Jeeves comes up with the perfect solution that he's had lying in wait all along. I guess even Sherlock Holmes stories would count, though mysteries aren't quite what I'm looking for. regulargonzalez fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Apr 9, 2011 |
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Apr 9, 2011 18:27
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katka posted:I was wondering if anyone could help me remember the name of a book I wanted to read. It was about a group of aliens that were bad at fighting wars uplifting humanity because we're such a violent species to fight another alien race for them. I'm sure that I gave a horrible description of the book, but I'm hoping someone here can help me. Might try here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2704537
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Apr 9, 2011 18:32
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I'm sorry that the only time I post in this thread is to ask for recommendations, but I never know what to suggest to other people. Anyways, I just finished watching the TV series The Tudors and really enjoyed it. It was my first exposure to English history. Now that it's over, I'd like to continue the story. I know that we have Queen Mary(Bloody Mary) and then Elizabeth, and then at some point we get to Victorian England, which I know nothing about. What's a good book that tells the story in a fun, entertaining way? Or at least a website where I can search for books like this. blue squares fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Apr 9, 2011 |
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Apr 9, 2011 19:42
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Anyone able to recommend a good book about love? I'm basically asking for a romance novel, but those two words have a connotation of ripping bodices and ripped torsos, rather than ripping yarns. Anyone read a vaguely recent book that's the equivalent of a good romantic comedy? People meet, like one another and end up getting it together, and that's all you find yourself asking for? Preferably without the horrible "stuff this poo poo forcefully into a three act structure" that every romcom in history has.
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Apr 10, 2011 00:28
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Evfedu posted:Anyone able to recommend a good book about love? Love in the Time of Cholera isn't exactly the equivalent of a good romantic comedy but it's a great book nonetheless.
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Apr 10, 2011 00:45
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Evfedu posted:Anyone able to recommend a good book about love? Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore is pretty humorous with a bit of romance. Maybe Meg Cabot books would appeal to you? I read Big Boned, which was part of a trilogy. The story line was pretty predictable, but it's definately a romantic comedy/mystery novel and it didn't piss me off like a lot of romance novels do. Hmm, Soulless by Gail Carringer is a humorous kinda-steam punky Victorian romance novel with monsters in it. Do you have an example of one that you really liked? I feel like I'm off base with my suggestions.
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Apr 10, 2011 20:21
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I was a big fan of Bloodsucking Fiends, actually, more for the funny vampires than the relationship, but it was a good one. Thinking about it, I don't think I've ever managed to get all the way through a book that focusses solely on a burgeoning romance before in my life, so I am completely open to any and all recommendations that don't involve inter-species/mortality trysts. And thank you for the tips so far.
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Apr 10, 2011 21:33
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What are some good books about modern Arab or Arab-American women? Themes of "oppression" and "sexuality" are most useful. Fiction or non-fiction. I have a bunch of stuff by Hanan al-Shaykh ordered already.
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Apr 11, 2011 16:16
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