Read anything good lately?? Book recommendations

[CoolDoc1729]

Hi all,

Awhile ago someone recommended the book One Second After by William Forstchen. It’s a very compelling novel about the aftermath of an electromagnetic pulse attack on the US and I would not have come across the book any other way. Thanks to whoever that was.

I wonder if anyone has any book recommendations ? I feel like as highly educated people with generally short attention spans, we might enjoy some of the same writing styles, which are probably a little different from the average American .. I’m often disappointed by the books recommended by women’s magazines, for example.

I’d love anything fiction or nonfiction ! And hope this would help others as well

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[Jabbed]

Last Days of Jack Sparks.

It’s an equal parts horror/comedy about a journalist trying to disprove supernatural phenomenon. It pulls off the unreliable narrator archetype very well and is quite entertaining.

 

[WhatJobDoIPick]

Stormlight Archive if you like fantasy.

Wool if you like SciFi.

World War Z was fantastic (not at all like the movie which came out later).

I am currently reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Carnegie so I can appear to care when nursing tells me about something I don't care about.

 

[BoardingDoc]

Stormlight Archive if you like fantasy.

Wool if you like SciFi.

World War Z was fantastic (not at all like the movie which came out later).

I am currently reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Carnegie so I can appear to care when nursing tells me about something I don't care about.

I second wool. Excellent trilogy.

Stormlight is great, as are most of Sanderson's writings (e.g. mistborn).

The name of the wind is also fantasy and also fantastic. The problem is that Rothfuss writes slower than George R R Martin and god only knows if the 3rd book is ever going to come out.

Tangentially related to OP's original topic but as nonfiction: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is absolutely fantastic. I remember it being very long, but captivating. One of the best books I read in high school.

Tales of the Ketty Jay. Beach reading. Firefly meets steampunk. If you like those two things, you'll probably love it. If you don't, I wouldn't bother.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Into thin air by Jon Krakauer. Nonfiction account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Hard to describe. Fantasy meets Mythology meets American drama.

 

[ERMudPhud]

Hokuloa Road, Generation Loss, or Curious Toys by Elizabeth Hand

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Magic Kingdom by Russell Banks

Name of the Wind by Rothfuss if you can live with never seeing the third book

Love and Murder in the time of Covid by Xiu Xiao-Long

The Woman Who Married a Bear or The Big Both Ways by John Straley

Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson

 

[Fox800]

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield

The Silent World by Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Unnatural Causes: The Life and Many Deaths of Britain's Top Forensic Pathologist by Richard Shepherd

El Jefe: The Stalking of Chapo Guzmán by Alan Feuer​

Cold War Command: The Dramatic Story of a Nuclear Submariner by Richard Woodman, Dan Conley​

Ferry Pilot: Nine Lives Over the North Atlantic by Kerry McCauley​

We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir​

Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations by Admiral William H. McRaven​

 

[Boatswain2PA]

The Rescue of the Gale Runner by Dennis Noble.

 

[NYEMMED]

The Red Frontier by Joe Cruz

ER doc author. Book is a sci fi thriller following a ER doc that crashed on mars

 

[Groove]

The name of the wind is also fantasy and also fantastic. The problem is that Rothfuss writes slower than George R R Martin and god only knows if the 3rd book is ever going to come out.

Just read "Name of the Wind" on vacation last year and can second that one. Great read if you like fantasy. I got the sequel but haven't had time to read it.

 

[RustedFox]

I'm going to try to read "Man's 2nd Best Hospital" on vacay in 2 weeks. It's the sequel to "House of God".
I'll let you guys know what I think.

 

[ERMudPhud]

"Mount Misery" was the original sequel. Dr Basch starts his psych residency. I thought it was less misanthropic than House of God and I attributed that to Samuel Shem being happier during his psych residency. Man's 4th best hospital looks like a sequel for the modern era. I'll add it to my wait list at the library

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

Just read "Name of the Wind" on vacation last year and can second that one. Great read if you like fantasy. I got the sequel but haven't had time to read it.

Take your time bro. Third book is never getting finished.

 

[CajunMedic]

Tangentially related to OP's original topic but as nonfiction: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is absolutely fantastic. I remember it being very long, but captivating. One of the best books I read in high school.

I can second this one. It’s on my nightstand now as my non board prep reading

 

[GassYous]

Name of the wind is good. Second book is still pretty ok. I think that the author left too many threads open though so it's going to be tough to finish in one book. I doubt it will be finished.

 

[Goro]

Hi all,

Awhile ago someone recommended the book One Second After by William Forstchen. It’s a very compelling novel about the aftermath of an electromagnetic pulse attack on the US and I would not have come across the book any other way. Thanks to whoever that was.

I wonder if anyone has any book recommendations ? I feel like as highly educated people with generally short attention spans, we might enjoy some of the same writing styles, which are probably a little different from the average American .. I’m often disappointed by the books recommended by women’s magazines, for example.

I’d love anything fiction or nonfiction ! And hope this would help others as well

The Good Lord Bird by James Macbride
Or Miracle at Santa Anna by same
Or his latest, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.

The man is a genius!

 

[cozu]

One of the orthos I work for told me to read the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. It might be my favorite book I've ever read. I highly recommend it if you like science fiction!

 

[deuist]

Fiction:
--------
Delia Owens - Where the Crawdads Sing
Andrew Sean Greer - Less
Ernest Cline - Ready Player One
Omar El Akkad - American War
Neil Gaiman - American Gods
Stephen King - 11/22/63
Anthony Doerr - All the Light We Cannot See
Andy Weir - The Martian
Charlie Fletcher - A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World
Matt Haig - The Midnight Library
Fredrik Backman - Anxious People
Mario Puzo - The Godfather
Andy Weir - Project Hail Mary
Seth Grahame-Smith - Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Aimee Molloy - Goodnight Beautiful
Amor Towles - The Lincoln Highway
Fredrik Backman - Beartown series
Gabrielle Zevin - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Shelby Van Pelt - Remarkably Bright Creatures



Nonfiction:
-----------
Bill Browder - Red Notice
Matthew Desmond - Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson - The Body
Laura Hillenbrand - Unbroken
Patrick Radden Keefe - Empire of Pain
Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow
Anything by Malcolm Gladwell or Michael Lewis

 

[BoardingDoc]

Fiction:
--------
Delia Owens - Where the Crawdads Sing
Andrew Sean Greer - Less
Ernest Cline - Ready Player One
Omar El Akkad - American War
Neil Gaiman - American Gods
Stephen King - 11/22/63
Anthony Doerr - All the Light We Cannot See
Andy Weir - The Martian
Charlie Fletcher - A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World
Matt Haig - The Midnight Library
Fredrik Backman - Anxious People
Mario Puzo - The Godfather
Andy Weir - Project Hail Mary
Seth Grahame-Smith - Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Aimee Molloy - Goodnight Beautiful
Amor Towles - The Lincoln Highway
Fredrik Backman - Beartown series
Gabrielle Zevin - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Shelby Van Pelt - Remarkably Bright Creatures



Nonfiction:
-----------
Bill Browder - Red Notice
Matthew Desmond - Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson - The Body
Laura Hillenbrand - Unbroken
Patrick Radden Keefe - Empire of Pain
Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow
Anything by Malcolm Gladwell or Michael Lewis

Oh man, Bill Bryson. I haven't thought about him in decades. I also found "A Walk in the Woods" to be particularly excellent.

 

[RustedFox]

"Ready Player One" the book is light years better than the movie, and entirely different.

It's like the made a movie -based on- the book, and not "the book on film."

 

[DOswag]

Huge fan of Brandon Sanderson so second his books like Stormlight Archive (I need to go back through them since it's been awhile), also Mistborn series was excellent. I see several have recommended Name of the Wind. I tried listening to it on audible and just could not get into. Maybe I need to give it another chance because I frequently see it listed as one of the better fantasy books out there and is often recommended by others who have read it. Someone above recommended Red Rising which I second is a great book. I'm currently on the second one of the series Golden Son which is also great so far.

 

[Boatswain2PA]

Then there is the best series of all time, written by the master himself J.R.R. Tolkien....