What are you Reading Right Now?

[Ernest Jones]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

Halfway through the third book in Ken Follet's excellent Century trilogy. If anyone wants to develope a deeper understanding of world history through WW1, WW2, Cuban Missle crisis and Vietnam without getting bored to tears by dry text books, this is the ticket. Absolutely riveting.

Interesting.  Would you classify it as "fact-based fiction"?

Absolutely. Historical fiction. Reads like a novel and is told through the lives of fictional characters, but is 100% historically accurate

[14ledo81]

[QUOTE name="14ledo81" url="/t/71134/what-are-you-reading-right-now/126#post_1095578"]   [QUOTE name="Ernest Jones" url="/t/71134/what-are-you-reading-right-now/126#post_1095531"] Halfway through the third book in Ken Follet's excellent Century trilogy. If anyone wants to develope a deeper understanding of world history through WW1, WW2, Cuban Missle crisis and Vietnam without getting bored to tears by dry text books, this is the ticket. Absolutely riveting.[/QUOTE] Interesting.  Would you classify it as "fact-based fiction"? [/QUOTE] Absolutely. Historical fiction. Reads like a novel and is told through the lives of fictional characters, but is 100% historically accurate

I will have to add it to my list. I really like books like that.

[Ernest Jones]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

Quote:

Originally Posted by 14ledo81

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

Halfway through the third book in Ken Follet's excellent Century trilogy. If anyone wants to develope a deeper understanding of world history through WW1, WW2, Cuban Missle crisis and Vietnam without getting bored to tears by dry text books, this is the ticket. Absolutely riveting.

Interesting.  Would you classify it as "fact-based fiction"?

Absolutely. Historical fiction. Reads like a novel and is told through the lives of fictional characters, but is 100% historically accurate

I will have to add it to my list. I really like books like that.

@14ledo81 if you're into historical fiction then the best of the best are James Michener and Edward Rutherfurd , although Ken Follet's excellent series is right up there with them, it's really his first foray into the genre. Hopefully he keeps writing in the genre though because he is really good!

Highly recommend Michener's "Chesapeake" and Rutherfurd's "The Princes of Ireland". Epic stuff!

[14ledo81]

I love historical fiction. I find it interesting to read anything historical, but I like to be entertained as well. Conn Igguldens series about Ghengis Khan was one of my favorite. I will add these authors to my list. You did not steer me wrong with your last reccomendation. In fact, I just started "Towers of Midnight".

[Jakester23]

I love historical fiction. I find it interesting to read anything historical, but I like to be entertained as well. Conn Igguldens series about Ghengis Khan was one of my favorite. I will add these authors to my list. You did not steer me wrong with your last reccomendation. In fact, I just started "Towers of Midnight".

I'm current on book 2 of The Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles. It's about the civil war. It's a little slow at 1st but I'm kinda hooked. I also like historical fiction. I'm going to have to check out Ken Follet ad well.

[phan52]

@14ledo81 if you're into historical fiction then the best of the best are James Michener and Edward Rutherfurd, although Ken Follet's excellent series is right up there with them, it's really his first foray into the genre. Hopefully he keeps writing in the genre though because he is really good!

Highly recommend Michener's "Chesapeake" and Rutherfurd's "The Princes of Ireland". Epic stuff!

Leon Uris wrote some great historical novels, and I highly recommend "Exodus", "Trinity" and "QB VII". The best historical novel I ever read was the Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara about the Battle of Gettysburg.

[Ernest Jones]

Leon Uris wrote some great historical novels, and I highly recommend "Exodus", "Trinity" and "QB VII". The best historical novel I ever read was the Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara about the Battle of Gettysburg.

I'll have to check that one out.

[iacas]

Enigma: The Battle for the Code

[isukgolf]

Working my way through the Game of Thorns series ... on the second book ... damn they are looong books

[Jakester23]

Working my way through the Game of Thorns series ... on the second book ... damn they are looong books

How do you like them? I really enjoyed struggling through the series.

[isukgolf]

@Jakester23 I am liking the series. I have not seen the HBO tv series, so as I read, I am watching it on iTunes. But so far really good books.

[Ernest Jones]

Enigma: The Battle for the Code

That looks pretty cool. I really liked Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon which covers the same material but in a madcap kinda way. If Neal Stephenson can ever figure out how to end a story properly he would become one of my favourite authors, alas his books kinda just grind to a halt.Great dialogue though.

[rehmwa]

Stephen Donaldson's "Gap" Series

One of my favorite, but a bit dark in overall tone.  Best not be depressed or down when reading this one, all his characters in his books are damaged people, but these characters more so.

Anyone that reads his stuff needs a bit of confidence in their vocabulary, sometimes I think he's a bit over the top in that area, but it's all part of tone setting

[Wittler]

I just finished Steven Erikson's Malazan series. IMO far better the A Song of Ice and Fire, Dragonlance or any other Epic Fantasy series I have read.

[yortem]

I'm currently reading this thread :)

[turtleback]

Absolutely. Historical fiction. Reads like a novel and is told through the lives of fictional characters, but is 100% historically accurate

That is also a lot like the way Herman Wouk writes.  Both his WW2 duo (Winds of War, and War and Remembrance) and his Israel duo (The Glory, and The Dream) are like that.

@14ledo81 if you're into historical fiction then the best of the best are James Michener and Edward Rutherfurd, although Ken Follet's excellent series is right up there with them, it's really his first foray into the genre. Hopefully he keeps writing in the genre though because he is really good!

Highly recommend Michener's "Chesapeake" and Rutherfurd's "The Princes of Ireland". Epic stuff!

Michener was brilliant.  He figured out at an early point that he was terrible at character development and took that and made it into a strength by writing books that spanned many generations so he never had to stay with the characters long enough to have to develop them.  Like an artist who cannot paint trees but does an amazing job on painting a forest.  I haven't read the Rutherford you mention but I have read London and it was excellent, although Rutherford also is pretty weak on character development IMO.  But as with Michener that is more a function of the time span they cover and how it limits time to develop character.

Ironically I am just finishing up re-reading Michener's book "Poland" as the first step in a course of reading to prepare me for a trip my wife and I are taking to Poland in the summer of 2016 (I'm of Polish extraction).

Leon Uris wrote some great historical novels, and I highly recommend "Exodus", "Trinity" and "QB VII". The best historical novel I ever read was the Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara about the Battle of Gettysburg.

Absolutely agree in every particular.  Mila 18 was also one by Uris I really liked.

The Schaara book was also the basis for the movie Gettysburg, which personally I found to be one of the top Civil War movies ever, along with Glory.  Shaara's son Jeff wrote a sequel and then some other series using his father's style.  They aren't bad.

If anyone wants to read some more off the beaten path historical fiction but stuff that was written by authors who were worthy of being awarded Nobel prizes there are two trilogies/authors I can recommend.

The first is the Cairo trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz.  It follows 3 generations of an Egyptian family from the end of WW1 through the social, cultural, political, and religious upheavals as the British withdrew.  Really well written and a fascinating look at a culture and time that I knew nothing about.

http://www.amazon.com/Cairo-Trilogy-Palace-Everymans-Library/dp/0375413316/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid;=1424460482&sr;=8-1&keywords;=cairo+trilogy

The second is particularly near and dear to my heart (cf, preceding statement about being of Polish extraction), it is the trilogy by Henryk Sienkiewicz, consisting of "With Fire and Sword", "The Deluge", and "Pan Michal".  Sienkiewicz wrote at a time when Poland was still partitioned among Russia, Russia, and Austria and he was part of the Polish community that worked for decades for the restoration of Poland.  His novels cover some of the most challenging and glorious of earlier Polish history and were intended to further his cause of Polish restoration by reminding Poles of their past glories.  Best of all, you can get this one for free if you have a kindle or use a kindle app on some other platform. http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Historical-Novel-Poland-Russia-ebook/dp/B005HKK7UG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie;=UTF8&qid;=1424461152&sr;=1-1

He also wrote a book called Quo Vadis which is a historical novel of Rome under Nero, And one called The Knights of the Cross, which takes place in and round the Battle of Tannenburg when the Polish-Lithuanian confederacy defeated the Teutonic Knights.

The free versions are all translated by a guy named Jeremy Curtin, and there while were some criticism of his translations, I've read the trilogy in both his translation and the more modern one by Walter Kuniczak that is supposed to be much better.  And maybe as a translation it is, but the Curtin translation is pretty decent anyway.  And it is the one that is free - the one by the other guy is both expensive and hard to find.

[Ernest Jones]

Reading Last Night in Twisted River on my iPhone.

John Irving is definitely my favourite author ever, he would be my desert island author.

[colin007]

Reading Last Night in Twisted River on my iPhone. John Irving is definitely my favourite author ever, he would be my desert island author.

I read that two years ago. I'm sorry EJ, I love ya but that book was utter dreck. Meandering and without direction. I couldn't care less about a single character in that book, especially since not a single one of them was believable as a person. Owen Meany and Cider House were great, but Twisted River was laughable.