Read any good books in the past?

[wondersofwine]

The mention of "Tin Drum" by Gunter Grass made me think of "Going after Cacciato" by Tim O'Brien. Alternates between hallucination or fantasy and reality in relation to American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Excellent writing and received National Book Award for fiction but is a little tricky to follow.

Also will recommend a nonfiction book by a woman who is a former neighbor of my mother,
"The Middle of Everywhere" by Mary Pipher.
Mary is a psychologist and therapist (and N.Y. Times bestseller author) and has worked with refugee families in the schools and community of my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. Read about the lost boys of Sudan or the all-female family from the Middle East or the Kurdish boy whose village was destroyed by Saddam or the Afghan woman who was imprisoned by the Taliban, and you will count your blessings. I found it very gripping reading because the refugees had been through so much in their home countries and were facing such obstacles in the United States. Here is a link to an excellent review of the book: http://www.americamagazine.org/BookReview.cfm?articletypeid=31&textID=2425&issueID=397



[This message has been edited by wondersofwine (edited 03-17-2006).]

[Georgie]

Sounds pretty heavy duty for my taste. The only time I read is before I close my eyes at night and I can't handle anything violent or disturbing. Two books I had to stop reading were "Running with Scissors" and "Life of Pi." Way too graphic for me. I finished "Kite Runner" although I found the child molestation in it to really bother me.

[Bucko]

I doubt my taste in books will interest most folks. I am a Tom Clancy fan. I don't have much time to read, but when I do, I like action/adventure stories.

[stevebody]

Ditto on the Clancy. Also love James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, and John Sandford in the mystery genre. LOVE "Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinsella, "Handmaid's Tale", "100 Years of Cholera", Michael Ondaatje in general, everything pablo Neruda ever wrote (been chasing after that elusive spirit since 1978), and V.S. Naipaul, most everything. Theodore Sturgeon was a dear friend of mine and I still read his stuff and sit in awe. And my best friend, William R. Trotter, is a fine writer of histories and historical novels. ("Sands of Pride", Fires of Pride", "A Frozen Hell", "Winter Fire", and "Priest of Music" his bio of Dimitri Mitropolous. If you don't know his work, Amazon has most of it.

[Kcwhippet]

OK, I'm liking Clancy too. At the moment, I'm reading Missing Persons - Stephen White's latest. I also like John Lescroart, Michael Connelly, Perri O'Shaughnessy, Greg Iles, Wilbur Smith, Nelson DeMille, and about a half dozen others of this ilk.

[robr]

"Sounds pretty heavy duty for my taste."

That's the kind of reading I like best. It has to grab me by the throat and shake me up a little bit for me to really get into it.