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Oh Day of the Jackal
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Nov 28, 2023 23:07
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 21:10 |
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C-Euro posted:Was talking to my dad about books the other day and he mentioned how much he likes Ken Follett's works, specifically the high/late Middle Ages stuff (Pillars of the Earth etc.). What are some other good dad-coded authors/series in that genre? Sarum by Edward Rutherford is the obvious pick. Going slightly afield though Michener and James Clavell both wrote similar stuff set in Asia and the Pacific that probably matches better in tone. Check out _Shogun_, boomer dads will love it.
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Dec 7, 2023 13:53
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C-Euro posted:Forgot to say thanks for the book ideas for my dad, scooped up something by Edward Rutherford for him. The Rutherford pick is good too but clavells _Tai Pan_ is his second best book after Shogun.
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Dec 14, 2023 09:53
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Kestral posted:Anyone have recommendations for absolute-basic beginner's-level intro to the Arthurian legends? The sort of thing you'd give to literal children. One of the young folks I volunteer with is on a huge knights-in-shining-armor kick and wants to know more, but my in-progress reread of The Once and Future King has made me realize how many assumptions White makes about his reader's knowledge of the Arthur stories. I came to TOAFK having marinated in Arthur stuff from an early age, but I hesitate to recommend it to a teenager with no grounding in this stuff whatsoever. Howard pyles King arthur books. *with illustrations *, maybe Mary Stewart's crystal cave books depending on age. Past that https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3617881&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Jan 24, 2024 |
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Jan 24, 2024 15:41
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Kestral posted:Thanks for the Arthur recommendations, everyone! I might end up reading some of these myself, if I don't go straight to Mallory after this Once and Future King re-read. Just start him with the first Pyle book and leave him wanting more. Don't tell him Greene's arthur exists :P I also did a thread on Pyle's Robin Hood https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3934938
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Jan 30, 2024 08:14
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IBroughttheFunk posted:This is a pretty broad request - I've been in a bit of reading rut and have been trying to get back in through historical fiction, one of my favorite genres. Anyone have any favorite titles they'd like to recommend? I particularly enjoy works that take place outside the US and Europe (Pachinko, The island of Sea Women, and Amitav Ghosh's entire Ibis trilogy are particular favorites of mine). But definitely not opposed to solid works set there (I've enjoyed nearly everything I've read from James Mcbride, Louis Erdrich, and Carlos Ruiz Zafón). The big names in historical fiction we talk about here are Patrick O'Brian, Mary Renault, and sometimes Arturo Perez-Reverte. Sounds like you've probably read them already though.
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Feb 19, 2024 00:29
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IBroughttheFunk posted:Actually, no! The only Renault book I read was The King Must Die back in school, never read anything by O'Brian or Perez-Reverte. I'd definitely be up for any recommendations for any of those three if you have any. For Renault, she was basically famous for two reasons -- the first being that she was and remains the undisputed queen of historical fiction set in the hellenistic world, the second that her protagonists were often classically homosexual in an unashamed, wonderful way that's, hell, still rare in modern fiction, and she was writing from like the 1950s to the 70s. King Must Die is probably her most well known work but it's uncharacteristically straight. I'd suggest The Last of the Wine (two young men fall in love during the Peloponnesian War) or The Fire from Heaven and The Persian Boy (her version of the Alexander the Great story). We did Last of the Wine as Book of the Month here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3647305 . For Patrick O'Brian, you may be familiar with the Russel Crowe movie (arguably Crowe's best film). O'Brian is the best writer out of the entire napoleonic-wars-era british historical fiction type thing -- if you've read Horatio Hornblower or Cornwell's Sharpe books, this is better. STart with Master and Commander which is the first book in the series.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHTHCNYiiHk https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3393240&pagenumber=82 Neither of those are exactly non-European but the Alexander books will get you into Asia and Patrick O'Brian goes around the world in twenty volumes (via British naval vessels, natch) Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Feb 19, 2024 |
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Feb 19, 2024 02:03
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I'm a big fan of _The Transitive Vampire_ but it's more for helping you develop a good intuitive grasp of the rules, not technical details.
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Feb 25, 2024 17:59
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Fate Accomplice posted:also posted this in the historical fiction thread, but just in case: Publication order is never wrong but chronological order could work well also for those books. I think I read them in roughly chronological order and don't regret it. Shogun is such a strong start and Tai Pan might be the best book of the overall series.
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Feb 29, 2024 22:05
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Kuule hain nussivan posted:Can anyone give me some gift ideas for an under-40 year old male that is into birds? Got them What Do Owls Know last year. The Peregrine.
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Apr 7, 2024 15:48
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Action Jacktion posted:Larry Gonick's Cartoon Guide to Algebra, Cartoon Guide to Geometry, and Cartoon Guide to Calculus. I didn't know he wrote those and now I have to buy them dammit
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Apr 11, 2024 18:44
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Picayune posted:I've never read any of Charles Dickens's books and I feel like I ought to try some. Where's a good place to start? To ping off everything above, the short answers to this are either 1) Christmas Carol if you haven't read it and haven't been overwhelmed with preconceptions from watching a thousand adaptations 2) the first third of David Copperfield is the best thing he ever wrote that doesn't have three ghosts in it Everything else either isn't up to his best writing, or you're going to have accessibility issues because he was writing for a different type of reader than most people are today. He seems deceptively modern because he's not Austen but he's still centuries in the past and his stuff just doesn't always convey until you're familiar with it. The first third of David Copperfield though . . Read until you meet Mr. Dick. If you don't like Dickens by then you never will, there's no point.
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May 3, 2024 16:58
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 21:10 |
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FPyat posted:I'm 40% of the way through David Copperfield and it is unfortunately starting to flag in narrative intrigue and writing quality after a blazingly wonderful start. Yeah it does that. What a start though! You've read the important part. There are still good moments scattered through the rest of the book but it's like finding a mother lode at the start then picking up the scattered trails of loose ore after that. There's still gold in there but you have to sort through more to find it.
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May 8, 2024 15:33
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