Need help picking a good book.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Need help picking a good book.

Posted: 3/19/2006 4:03:21 PM EDT

I know this has been covered before, but I lost the list.

I need to use up some bookstore gift certificates and I'm looking for some good reading material. I've already read Unintended Consequences and really enjoyed it. I have also already have most of Stephen Hunter's books and have read most of the Marcinko books. Any suggestions?

Posted: 3/19/2006 4:08:18 PM EDT

[#1]

Most of W.E.B. Griffin's books are top notch. I would pass on his OSS series.

Posted: 3/19/2006 4:09:35 PM EDT

[#2]

Dean Koontz will keep you reading for years.

Posted: 3/19/2006 4:10:48 PM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
Dean Koontz will keep you reading for years.

+1

Velocity

Posted: 3/19/2006 4:12:31 PM EDT

[#4]

If you haven't read them yet, get these nonfiction military books:

The March Up by Bing West and Ray Smith
No True Glory by Bing West
Not a Good Day to Die by Sean Naylor
Masters of Chaos by Linda Robinson

Posted: 3/19/2006 4:15:35 PM EDT

[#5]

Hunting the Jackal by Billy Waugh. True story of a 50-year veteran of Army Special Forces and the CIA. This guy joined the Army and fought in Korea in 1951, and was tramping around the mountains of Afghanistan with an M-4 on his 71st birthday in late 2001. The guy lived an almost unbelievable life.

Posted: 3/19/2006 5:37:49 PM EDT

[#6]

Reluctant Warrior by Micheal Hodgins

Posted: 3/19/2006 5:43:10 PM EDT

[#7]

John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces

Posted: 3/19/2006 5:43:58 PM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
Most of W.E.B. Griffin's books are top notch. I would pass on his OSS series.

Excellent suggestion.

"Ghost" by John Ringo is somewhat similar to the books you mentioned, however there is some graphic sex in the middle 1/3 of the book if that kind of thing is not to your taste.

Posted: 3/20/2006 5:49:04 AM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Most of W.E.B. Griffin's books are top notch. I would pass on his OSS series.

Excellent suggestion.

"Ghost" by John Ringo is somewhat similar to the books you mentioned, however there is some graphic sex in the middle 1/3 of the book if that kind of thing is not to your taste.

Aimless, if I remember correctly I posted a thread last year about picking up this book and how cool it was. At that time I was only about a 1/4 of the way through it, and after I finished it I nearly went back and updated my thread with a warning to stay away from it, since it was so different from the other Ringo books I had read.

I think you were one of the only people to post in that thread, so it looks like you picked it up on my recommendation. Sorry!

Posted: 3/20/2006 6:45:28 AM EDT

[#10]

"Eye of the Needle" or "JackDaws" by Ken Follet. Set in WWII, usually about spys and insurgency. There is another book by Follet, the name escapes me. Has something to do with the word Horent in it, like maybe Flight of the Hornet. Was his best one in my opinion. About a German spy who is in Britain, finds out plans about D-Day, and is in a rush to get back to Germany.

Posted: 3/20/2006 6:47:58 AM EDT

[#11]

Can we tack one of these "need help picking a good book" threads?

Posted: 3/20/2006 9:39:26 AM EDT

[#12]

Griffin is great. And I like the OSS books.

If you like alternate history Turtledove is very good. And his techical stuff is accurate. Inaccuraties ruin a book for me.

John Sanford has good crime stuff.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:05:51 AM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Most of W.E.B. Griffin's books are top notch. I would pass on his OSS series.

Excellent suggestion.

"Ghost" by John Ringo is somewhat similar to the books you mentioned, however there is some graphic sex in the middle 1/3 of the book if that kind of thing is not to your taste.

Aimless, if I remember correctly I posted a thread last year about picking up this book and how cool it was. At that time I was only about a 1/4 of the way through it, and after I finished it I nearly went back and updated my thread with a warning to stay away from it, since it was so different from the other Ringo books I had read.

I think you were one of the only people to post in that thread, so it looks like you picked it up on my recommendation. Sorry!

It was a good book, I just thought the S&M stuff in the middle was lame. I'm still going to get the next one.

edit-I just figured you were some weird whips and ball gags type guy....

edit2-The part where the two college girls call their mothers and both their mothers are s&m swingers has to be one of the dumbest parts of a book I have read in years, and then one of the mothers I think hints at getting into it with the Seal guy and her own daughter. It reminded me of Heinlein's later books when he started getting into strange sex stuff.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:11:31 AM EDT

[#14]

The Red Badge of Courage.

~Dg84

Posted: 3/20/2006 11:04:44 AM EDT

[#15]

Another vote for Bing West ... "The Pepperdogs" you're welcome Stay safe

Posted: 3/20/2006 11:53:05 AM EDT

[#16]

Try Jeff Shaara Im reading his series on the Revolution and they are pretty good IMO

He also wrote Gods and Generals and the book that the movie Gettysburg was based on

Posted: 3/20/2006 11:54:00 AM EDT

[#17]

The Bible.

Posted: 3/20/2006 11:58:08 AM EDT

[#18]

"The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer. Best nonfiction book I've ever read, bar none.

"With The Old Breed: At Pelelieu and Okinawa" by EB Sledge. First runner up.

Both are outstanding first person accounts of infantry combat at the tip of the spear, in WWII on the Eastern Front and in the Pacific. Both books changed me.

Posted: 3/20/2006 11:58:27 AM EDT

[#19]

A. N. Roquelaure... Sleeping Beauty Novels

Posted: 3/20/2006 1:02:34 PM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:
Dean Koontz will keep you awake~~reading~~ for years.

fixed!

Posted: 3/20/2006 1:59:33 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
Can we tack one of these "need help picking a good book" threads?

Excellent idea !

Posted: 3/20/2006 2:34:32 PM EDT

[#22]

Gstes of Fire

Posted: 3/20/2006 3:11:06 PM EDT

[#23]

I'm currently majoring in English, (what punk, American not good enough for ya?), and if you've ever served in the military in any capacity I recommend Catch-22. The way Joseph Heller catches the beauracracy is amazing. You'll laugh your ass off.

Posted: 3/20/2006 3:25:24 PM EDT

[#24]

Many of the books noted so far are excellent, and definitely worth your time, but before any of them you need to read Five Years to Freedom, by Colonel James N. Rowe, USA. Colonel Rowe tells the story of his capture by the VC in the early "advisory" days of the US involvement in Vietnam, back when he was a Special Forces Lieutenant. He and his fellow prisoners spent five years being starved, beaten and otherwise tortured and mistreated in a tiger cage before he escaped and was repatriated. His book is a testament to the true meaning of keeping the faith.

The US Army SERE program was started by Colonel Rowe based on his experiences at the hands of his "benevolent" communist captors.

Filipino communists murdered Colonel Rowe in 1989 for embarrassing the Viet Cong in his book. His murderer was recently released from prison.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Need help picking a good book.

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