Just finishing up The Unlikely Disciple - about an undergraduate at Brown who decides rather than go on a semester abroad (think Prague or Paris or something) to experience a foreign culture, instead enrols for a semester at Liberty University - Jerry Falwell's (of Moral Majority fame) school. A very entertaining and illuminating book. I am not an evangelical Christian, but have family who are. The author provides great insight into this particular culture and the book is (I thought) very balanced in its perspective - there were plenty of opportunities for cheap shots and none were taken. Thoroughly enjoyed this.
I just finished Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand (writer of Seabiscuit). (Sara mentioned this book above). Pick it up and read it Rich! Especially with your military background... Dude was an Olympic runner and then survived through a horrific series of events in WWII. It really shows you how a strong mind and strong will can force our bodies to survive what would seem the impossible. I think many of the same principles apply to long-course racing. Trust me, read this book.
Lone Survivor, by Marcus Latrell is another awesome book about the Seals and a mission gone bad in Afghanistan. One of my favorite books of all time.
Lone Survivor is like a crazy fast action thriller whereas Unbroken is more of a slightly slower moving thoughtful psychological thriller. Read them both.
If you want something on the fantasy futuristic fiction front, I finished all 3 of the Hunger Games books in about 2 weeks total. Very cool series written for teenage girls, but I found them fascinating as well. (The first on will be out as a movie in March)
Just finished Destiny of the Republic about the assassination of President Garfield. (Recommended by someone earlier on here - thanks!) Interesting book - good, but not great. Tried to be an Erik Larson book I thought (Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, In the Garden of Beasts), but not quite in the same league. Goodreads then suggested two others that I really enjoyed. Assassination Vacation about a woman who hilariously visits sites around the US that are related (some only tangentially so) to Presidential killings. The other was The Poisoner's Handbook. This may be the best book I have read in a long, long time! Again, non-fiction, and told the story of the first team of professional medical examiners in New York City in the 1920s. One was a physician, the other a chemist. Each chapter is organized around a particular poison, a famous murder (or 2), and the way the team went about figuring out tests for the poison. Utterly fascinating!
My 11 year old son LOVED the Hunger Games trilogy. I won't tell him about the teenage girl thing. Ha! Although he has two teenage sisters - maybe he could relate!
Thanks for the recommendations! While I was relagated/confined to the chair with my one good arm, Joanne and I watched the entire Harry Potter series on Blue Ray. I have to say they got better as they went along and the kids became (marginally) better actors. Or at least I felt less and less like smacking Rupert Grint . I read the first one years and years ago, I may read the others.
John, I read Unbroken last summer and Joanne and I saw him speak in SoCal. Whenever you think you're having a bad day...remember what that doode went through!
I just finished reading _The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University_, written by a guy who left Brown University to study at Liberty (founded by Jerry Falwell) for a semester. It was a great read - honest, funny, open-minded, and an interesting peek into ultra-conservative evangelism if you haven't been raised that way.
Also read _Three Cups of Deceit_ by Jon Krakauer - very short and fascinating debunking of Greg Mortensen's "Three Cups of Tea".
Am finishing _Unbroken_ , I had started it and then had to return it to the library, then back on the waiting list. Decided to just buy it for hubby for Christmas and now I'm getting around to finishing it. Amazing story!
I also finished up _The Tennis Partner_ by Abraham Verghese (author of the stunning _Cutting for Stone_), this was an incredible memoir, I couldn't put it down. Even if you don't care a whit about tennis, you get sucked in to his narrative.
I'm really looking for some good fiction, I started Walker Percy's _The Second Coming_ on a glowing recommendation from a friend and put it down. Just couldn't get into it. I am supposed to be borrowing The Hunger Games from a teen friend, but they keep forgetting it so I just might have to buy the first one. I don't want to see the movie without reading it first.
finishing up Iron War..really enjoying this book..many truths if you really look deep within. Also really enjoyed Steven King's 11/22/63..not your typical King book, which is why I read it..Also stuck on Larsen's book "in the Garden of Beasts" reviews were great, but I can only take so much of 1933 Nazi germany and their war/mental/genocide preparation...don't think i will ever finish it. have a great day all!
Hey Brian...I loved IronWar also...the physiology-psychology stuff was worth it alone....I'm currently reading Stephen Ambroses' Citizen Soldier about WW2....was trying to decide between DDAY and BAND OF BROTHERS...but chose this...so far quite interesting...everytime I pick up a history book I get engrossed in how much I don't know...I love that.
For you Kindle owners out there, definitely check out Hugh Howie's "Wool". It's a $0.99 short story, to which he's written a series of follow-ups, with the whole thing (vol 1-5) coming in at about the length of a novel. It's a dystopian future sci-fi story that I couldn't put down. In fact, I read the entire series in about 2 days, it was that gripping.
Also, if you own a kindle device and are an Amazon Prime member, it's free through the lending library. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to those of us who read on iPads...
Just finished The Art of Fielding. LOVED it! Thanks to Al and Kirsten for the recommendations earlier. Probably one of the best books I have read in a very long time. Also recently finished The Perfect Mile, the story of 3 men seeking to break the four minute barrier and Nothing to Envy, the stories of a handful of former North Koreans and their lives inside this country we know so little about. Looking forward now to The Orphanmaster's Son - a fictional account of life in North Korea.
Just recently finished Stieg Larsson's "The girl with the Dragon Tatoo" and almost done with "the girl who played with Fire".....I am loving these books...The first book is really pretty twisted and certainly R rated....Was never really that into Fiction before but I am really enjoying these suspense/mystery books...
Hmmm Nate....I picked up the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...and couldn't make it past the first 50 pages...will need to go back and see what I was missing!
@Joeseph, I could see why some folks wouldn't like these books. I personally find the leading Female Character pretty intrieging. Some might just find her weird and call it a day. I also hesitate to recommend these books without throwing out the "R" rated b/c the first book does have some sexual violence in it which could be a deal breaker for some right off the bat. Its probably worth getting past page 50 just to see if its really something that might entertain you. The first 50 pages if I remember correctly really just give some detail on what ultimately just becomes background character building.
BTW, I've tossed books to the side after several hundred pages if it rubs me the wrong way or I call BS to many times. Angels and Deamons by Dan Brown, comes to mind...My wife still gives me SH!t for that one.
See the first page or two of this thread for a great example of how differently some people react to the "The Girl " trilogy. There must be a dozen people who couldn't get past the first 50-100 pages or so. I always feel bad for folks who don't get to the second half of the book, because it's so good from there right through books 2 and 3. Character dev is terrific, and unique.
Also, a shoutout to Al's recommendation of Neil Stephenson. Finished Snow Crash, now on to the Diamond Age. Very good stuff!
Lastly, I finished IronWar this week. Totally worth the read. If for no other reason than the mental aspect of sport stuff that's in there, it's worth it. If you like the history of the sport, it's frickin terrific.
My son-in law gave me a gift cert. for Barnes & Noble for Christmas, so I loaded up a Nook app on my iPad, and read these:
"The Sisters Brothers" - if you saw the recent version of True Grit, that's the style of this first person narrative of two killers for hire in the California gold rush era. Eli Sisters (the narrator) is a little chubby, sensitive, but in thrall to his sociopathic brother Charlie. It's actually fairly light-hearted and ironic, not at all gruesome, and deals with modern themes, such as the power of corporations, misogyny, and self-improvement. Oh, and there's alchemy involved, too.
"Lost in Shangri-La" - a true tale set in 1945 New Guinea, following the survivors and rescuers of a plane crash into a previously unknown rain forest valley high (9,000') in the Ornaje Mts, filled with tens of thousands (!) of pig and sweet potato eating stone age tribesmen engaged in perpetual mini-wars with each other. It's a survival story, with detailed first-person research to flesh out the characters, and also a little anthropology thrown in. Kind of like Hotel California, it's the sort of place you can fall into, but it's very hard to get out, what with 15,000' jungle strewn mountains, flesh eating tribes, and 20,000 never-say-die Japanese soldiers lying between you and the nearest ocean or civilization, 150 miles away. Nonetheless, a crew of 10 Filipino-Americans (lead by a 6'4" American Captain) parachute in to save the 3 survivors, a WAC, a Lt who lost his twin brother in the place crash, and a third man with dangerous gangrene eating away at his back and legs. As I said, very well researched, and deftly written.
@ Nate/JL - Seriously, I thought the first 250 pages or so of "Dragon Tattoo" were some sort of Swedish detective story, boring .... but then, I couldn't put it down. Remember, it's a trilogy, and the first half of the first book is just setting the stage and sketching out the characters. After that, it's a non-stop ride until the third book, which turns into a dry (but gripping) police/lawyer/courtroom drama.
I'm another one that finished the hunger games in 2 days, because I'm seeing the movie on Saturday. It was really a good captivating read, IMO. Short attention span theater over here! Haha
I'm probably not going to read the 2nd and 3rd ones until the movies are nearing release.
I've also got a book about navy seal sniper that I'll hit next.
On vacation I ripped through all three Hunger Games books (mostly because I knew I was going to be begged to take a certain daughter to the midnight showing of the first movie) and found them quite a decent read. I especially liked all the little Shakespearean references that the author slips into the stories and the fact that she doesn't shy away from the unhappy parts of the dystopian society that she's created.
I also read Iron War, which I thoroughly enjoyed, both for the story and for the science of it all, It was one of those great non-fiction books with enough plot to be a page-turner (esp if you're already bitten by the Iron bug) and enough research into relevant details to hold the non-fiction interest. I got to train under Dave Scott a few years ago, so I could totally see his personality was really nailed by the author, especially the part about him being a gifted teacher and coach who thrives on continuing to pass on his knowledge. I was pretty surprised on reading it that both athletes had objected to it. It seemed to me to present both of them in a relatively neutral to positive light.
I also read Lone Survivor on vacation and I have to say I didn't enjoy that one as much as I thought I would. I generally love that genre, for instance I loved Jon Krakauer's book about Pat Tillman. I think what really put me off when reading this one was the constant harping on politics and on how the liberals are ruining the country. Granted, it's a memoir and the author is entitled to his opinion, but I felt it really got in the way of the storytelling. Once he was into the thick of the story it was better, but he kept beating that dead horse every so often. If I'd known that, I would've waited for the book to come available at the library instead of buying it for my Nook.
The last book I read on vacation was Mink River by Brian Doyle. It's set on the Oregon Coast near where I live, and it's beautifully written with incredible characters. But it is really thickly written, dense with prose and setting and meaning, rich with stories and characters. It is not a quick read, really the opposite of The Hunger Games. If you love something like James Joyce's Ulysses, this book would be for you.
I'm currently reading "In Your Eyes A Sandstorm", which is a compilation of stories of people in contemporary Palestine, a companion to another book the author wrote from the perspective of Israelis. and "The Shadow of the Wind", a mystically creepy story set in post-WWII Barcelona.
I love this thread because it keeps my library queue stacked up!
Just finished Maphead by Ken Jennings (of Jeopardy fame) about all things map-related. Each chapter devoted to a different topic - map collectors, geography bees, geocaching, etc. A fun read. Also read the first two Ava Lee books by Ian Hamilton. Ava is a forensic accountant, who along with her Hong Kong based uncle, goes after the bad guys, tracing and eventually recovering the money they have stolen. She is young, clever, and an expert in martial arts. Lots of fun! I can also recommend Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. This is now out as a movie, which I have not seen. I'm not sure, now that I've read the book, how they would do this as a movie. But it is an interesting book with some great themes touched on. Thanks to Robin too for her earlier recommendation of The Tennis Partner. REALLY like that one a lot!
Thought I would update here and maybe get others to do the same. I always enjoy hearing what the rest of you are reading and have enjoyed! Three books I would recommend. The first, Eating Dirt, is the non-fiction account of the life of a professional tree planter. I grew up in British Columbia and had many friends that planted trees every summer through university. The author's account is very evocative of the geography, climate, and culture of the We(s)t Coast. She deals not only with tree planting but also forestry, sustainable resource use, and environmentalism. Winner of this year's Charles Taylor Prize for non-fiction.
The second is Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. Set in the early 1980s in Britain the main character is a teen age boy and his dysfunctional family and friends. Quite dark with some truly funny parts, but for a David Mitchell book pretty straightforward. The book is organized as a set of interrelated short stories - which is a format I always enjoy.
Third, I read and thoroughly enjoyed To End All Wars, a fabulous account of World War I. Not only does the author document life and battles at the front, but also the battles and strife at home in England during this period. War resisters, conscientious objectors, suffragettes, labour unions, and the aristocracy all had a particular take on the war and the interactions were not always what you'd predict. Fascinating.
I just finished reading The Rancid Walnut by R. Steven Heaps. He is a retired psychologist and local ultra running legend (he completed the Montana Le Griz 50 miler twenty years in a row). His book discusses his challenges as he experienced prostate cancer and the resulting surgery and recovery.
He writing style is straight forward, humorous, touching and educating. I highly recommend this book to all guys who are moving into their forties and beyond or anyone who has a significant person who fits or will someday fit into that category.
Just got hooked on audible.com and have been churning through books. I have either recently read or listened to the following and liked them all:
1) The Blue Cascade: A Memoir of Life After War - Written by my friend and fellow ReserveAid Board member about his dealing with PTSD after his time in Iraq 2) Killing Lincoln - about the weeks before and after Lincoln's assassination 3) Into Thin Air - About a failed Everest Expedition 4) The Long Run - About a NYC Firefighter who qualified for the Boston Mary, did IMUSA, then was in a horrific accident while cycling. This is his story. 5) City of Thieves - About 2 prisoners in Russia during WWI and their quest of survival while searching for a dozen eggs. Also read Chrissie Wellington and Macca's books and got some good info from both.
I just finished Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers. If you don't know Eggers, anything he's written is worth your time, IMO. He basically writes journalism in a novelistic style, usually about exotic locales or individuals. This one is about a Syrian-American contractor and his American wife, in New Orleans. He decides to stay in town during Katrina, while she leaves with their kids. She loses touch with him after 7 days, for reasons which do not reflect well on FEMA or law enforcement. It's a page turner.
Others by Eggers:
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Eggers' parents died when he was 21, leaving him with his much younger brother to raise. This is the story of that effort - being the parent of a middle schooler when you are 20-something.
You Shall Know Our Velocity - two young Americans travel to Senegal trying to give away large amounts of $US to deserving individuals. Supposedly a novel.
What is the What - True story of a Sudenese Lost Boy, his journey through that war torn nation to East Africa and on the America.
Hologram for the King - Two weeks ago, this got the front page in the NY Times Book Sunday Review of Books. It's a novel about a modern Willie Loman who's waiting in the Saudi desert to sell some IT to a Prince. I haven't read it yet, but it's on order. He was compared to Norman Mailer by the reviewer this time.
My recent reading list: -Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art - America and Her Allies Recovered It -Road to Valor: A True Story of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation -The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York -Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
I just finished Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs . I thought that it was a terrific read about a brilliant, complex guy. He was definitely a bit of an odd fellow. At the end I found myself a bit sad that both the book and Jobs had reached a finality.
I was so impressed with his recreation of Apple that I must admit, in that I am looking for a laptop, I will consider an Apple.
Comments
Lone Survivor, by Marcus Latrell is another awesome book about the Seals and a mission gone bad in Afghanistan. One of my favorite books of all time.
Lone Survivor is like a crazy fast action thriller whereas Unbroken is more of a slightly slower moving thoughtful psychological thriller. Read them both.
If you want something on the fantasy futuristic fiction front, I finished all 3 of the Hunger Games books in about 2 weeks total. Very cool series written for teenage girls, but I found them fascinating as well. (The first on will be out as a movie in March)
---Ann.
X2 on the Hunger Games Trilogy. The third book was very teenage girlish, but the first two were pretty good.
I just finished The Giver, another teen book. What a weird little book, but I couldn't put it down.
Thanks for the recommendations! While I was relagated/confined to the chair with my one good arm, Joanne and I watched the entire Harry Potter series on Blue Ray. I have to say they got better as they went along and the kids became (marginally) better actors. Or at least I felt less and less like smacking Rupert Grint
. I read the first one years and years ago, I may read the others.
I just finished reading _The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University_, written by a guy who left Brown University to study at Liberty (founded by Jerry Falwell) for a semester. It was a great read - honest, funny, open-minded, and an interesting peek into ultra-conservative evangelism if you haven't been raised that way.
Also read _Three Cups of Deceit_ by Jon Krakauer - very short and fascinating debunking of Greg Mortensen's "Three Cups of Tea".
Am finishing _Unbroken_ , I had started it and then had to return it to the library, then back on the waiting list. Decided to just buy it for hubby for Christmas and now I'm getting around to finishing it. Amazing story!
I also finished up _The Tennis Partner_ by Abraham Verghese (author of the stunning _Cutting for Stone_), this was an incredible memoir, I couldn't put it down. Even if you don't care a whit about tennis, you get sucked in to his narrative.
I'm really looking for some good fiction, I started Walker Percy's _The Second Coming_ on a glowing recommendation from a friend and put it down. Just couldn't get into it. I am supposed to be borrowing The Hunger Games from a teen friend, but they keep forgetting it so I just might have to buy the first one. I don't want to see the movie without reading it first.
Hey Brian...I loved IronWar also...the physiology-psychology stuff was worth it alone....I'm currently reading Stephen Ambroses' Citizen Soldier about WW2....was trying to decide between DDAY and BAND OF BROTHERS...but chose this...so far quite interesting...everytime I pick up a history book I get engrossed in how much I don't know...I love that.
Also, if you own a kindle device and are an Amazon Prime member, it's free through the lending library. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to those of us who read on iPads...
---Ann.
Hmmm Nate....I picked up the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...and couldn't make it past the first 50 pages...will need to go back and see what I was missing!
BTW, I've tossed books to the side after several hundred pages if it rubs me the wrong way or I call BS to many times. Angels and Deamons by Dan Brown, comes to mind...My wife still gives me SH!t for that one.
Also, a shoutout to Al's recommendation of Neil Stephenson. Finished Snow Crash, now on to the Diamond Age. Very good stuff!
Lastly, I finished IronWar this week. Totally worth the read. If for no other reason than the mental aspect of sport stuff that's in there, it's worth it. If you like the history of the sport, it's frickin terrific.
My son-in law gave me a gift cert. for Barnes & Noble for Christmas, so I loaded up a Nook app on my iPad, and read these:
"The Sisters Brothers" - if you saw the recent version of True Grit, that's the style of this first person narrative of two killers for hire in the California gold rush era. Eli Sisters (the narrator) is a little chubby, sensitive, but in thrall to his sociopathic brother Charlie. It's actually fairly light-hearted and ironic, not at all gruesome, and deals with modern themes, such as the power of corporations, misogyny, and self-improvement. Oh, and there's alchemy involved, too.
"Lost in Shangri-La" - a true tale set in 1945 New Guinea, following the survivors and rescuers of a plane crash into a previously unknown rain forest valley high (9,000') in the Ornaje Mts, filled with tens of thousands (!) of pig and sweet potato eating stone age tribesmen engaged in perpetual mini-wars with each other. It's a survival story, with detailed first-person research to flesh out the characters, and also a little anthropology thrown in. Kind of like Hotel California, it's the sort of place you can fall into, but it's very hard to get out, what with 15,000' jungle strewn mountains, flesh eating tribes, and 20,000 never-say-die Japanese soldiers lying between you and the nearest ocean or civilization, 150 miles away. Nonetheless, a crew of 10 Filipino-Americans (lead by a 6'4" American Captain) parachute in to save the 3 survivors, a WAC, a Lt who lost his twin brother in the place crash, and a third man with dangerous gangrene eating away at his back and legs. As I said, very well researched, and deftly written.
@ Nate/JL - Seriously, I thought the first 250 pages or so of "Dragon Tattoo" were some sort of Swedish detective story, boring .... but then, I couldn't put it down. Remember, it's a trilogy, and the first half of the first book is just setting the stage and sketching out the characters. After that, it's a non-stop ride until the third book, which turns into a dry (but gripping) police/lawyer/courtroom drama.
I'm another one that finished the hunger games in 2 days, because I'm seeing the movie on Saturday. It was really a good captivating read, IMO. Short attention span theater over here! Haha
I'm probably not going to read the 2nd and 3rd ones until the movies are nearing release.
I've also got a book about navy seal sniper that I'll hit next.
On vacation I ripped through all three Hunger Games books (mostly because I knew I was going to be begged to take a certain daughter to the midnight showing of the first movie) and found them quite a decent read. I especially liked all the little Shakespearean references that the author slips into the stories and the fact that she doesn't shy away from the unhappy parts of the dystopian society that she's created.
I also read Iron War, which I thoroughly enjoyed, both for the story and for the science of it all, It was one of those great non-fiction books with enough plot to be a page-turner (esp if you're already bitten by the Iron bug) and enough research into relevant details to hold the non-fiction interest. I got to train under Dave Scott a few years ago, so I could totally see his personality was really nailed by the author, especially the part about him being a gifted teacher and coach who thrives on continuing to pass on his knowledge. I was pretty surprised on reading it that both athletes had objected to it. It seemed to me to present both of them in a relatively neutral to positive light.
I also read Lone Survivor on vacation and I have to say I didn't enjoy that one as much as I thought I would. I generally love that genre, for instance I loved Jon Krakauer's book about Pat Tillman. I think what really put me off when reading this one was the constant harping on politics and on how the liberals are ruining the country. Granted, it's a memoir and the author is entitled to his opinion, but I felt it really got in the way of the storytelling. Once he was into the thick of the story it was better, but he kept beating that dead horse every so often. If I'd known that, I would've waited for the book to come available at the library instead of buying it for my Nook.
The last book I read on vacation was Mink River by Brian Doyle. It's set on the Oregon Coast near where I live, and it's beautifully written with incredible characters. But it is really thickly written, dense with prose and setting and meaning, rich with stories and characters. It is not a quick read, really the opposite of The Hunger Games. If you love something like James Joyce's Ulysses, this book would be for you.
I'm currently reading "In Your Eyes A Sandstorm", which is a compilation of stories of people in contemporary Palestine, a companion to another book the author wrote from the perspective of Israelis. and "The Shadow of the Wind", a mystically creepy story set in post-WWII Barcelona.
I love this thread because it keeps my library queue stacked up!
---Ann.
Just finishing "Unbroken," great story.
Also recently read "Deadly Monopolies" a fairly contrarian book for those of us who work in the medical device/pharma/diagnostics field.
I really enjoyed "Moonwalking with Einstein" a book about a journalist who enters the world of Memory Championships.
The second is Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. Set in the early 1980s in Britain the main character is a teen age boy and his dysfunctional family and friends. Quite dark with some truly funny parts, but for a David Mitchell book pretty straightforward. The book is organized as a set of interrelated short stories - which is a format I always enjoy.
Third, I read and thoroughly enjoyed To End All Wars, a fabulous account of World War I. Not only does the author document life and battles at the front, but also the battles and strife at home in England during this period. War resisters, conscientious objectors, suffragettes, labour unions, and the aristocracy all had a particular take on the war and the interactions were not always what you'd predict. Fascinating.
I just finished reading The Rancid Walnut by R. Steven Heaps. He is a retired psychologist and local ultra running legend (he completed the Montana Le Griz 50 miler twenty years in a row). His book discusses his challenges as he experienced prostate cancer and the resulting surgery and recovery.
He writing style is straight forward, humorous, touching and educating. I highly recommend this book to all guys who are moving into their forties and beyond or anyone who has a significant person who fits or will someday fit into that category.
1) The Blue Cascade: A Memoir of Life After War - Written by my friend and fellow ReserveAid Board member about his dealing with PTSD after his time in Iraq
2) Killing Lincoln - about the weeks before and after Lincoln's assassination
3) Into Thin Air - About a failed Everest Expedition
4) The Long Run - About a NYC Firefighter who qualified for the Boston Mary, did IMUSA, then was in a horrific accident while cycling. This is his story.
5) City of Thieves - About 2 prisoners in Russia during WWI and their quest of survival while searching for a dozen eggs.
Also read Chrissie Wellington and Macca's books and got some good info from both.
I just finished Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers. If you don't know Eggers, anything he's written is worth your time, IMO. He basically writes journalism in a novelistic style, usually about exotic locales or individuals. This one is about a Syrian-American contractor and his American wife, in New Orleans. He decides to stay in town during Katrina, while she leaves with their kids. She loses touch with him after 7 days, for reasons which do not reflect well on FEMA or law enforcement. It's a page turner.
Others by Eggers:
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Eggers' parents died when he was 21, leaving him with his much younger brother to raise. This is the story of that effort - being the parent of a middle schooler when you are 20-something.
You Shall Know Our Velocity - two young Americans travel to Senegal trying to give away large amounts of $US to deserving individuals. Supposedly a novel.
What is the What - True story of a Sudenese Lost Boy, his journey through that war torn nation to East Africa and on the America.
Hologram for the King - Two weeks ago, this got the front page in the NY Times Book Sunday Review of Books. It's a novel about a modern Willie Loman who's waiting in the Saudi desert to sell some IT to a Prince. I haven't read it yet, but it's on order. He was compared to Norman Mailer by the reviewer this time.
-Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art - America and Her Allies Recovered It
-Road to Valor: A True Story of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation
-The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
-Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
I just finished Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs . I thought that it was a terrific read about a brilliant, complex guy. He was definitely a bit of an odd fellow. At the end I found myself a bit sad that both the book and Jobs had reached a finality.
I was so impressed with his recreation of Apple that I must admit, in that I am looking for a laptop, I will consider an Apple.