Read any good books lately?

[DCHeather]

Trying to some ideas for my next read. Has anybody read any novels worth noting? I am currently on "The Master and Margarita," which showed up on my Amazon recommended list, and I have enjoyed quite a bit. It's not my usual type of novel since I tend stay with stories that more true to life, but it is definitely a story well told. Here's the wiki entry for the novel, that does a better job explaining the novel than I could ever do in the amount of time I have to type. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita

So anything more recent worth mentioning?

[VegasJustin]

I usually only read Non Fiction, but I recently read a spy novel by David Ignatius called Agents Of Innocence. It is set in Lebanon back in the sixties through the late seventies. It is absolutely brilliant and as realistic as spy novels come, lots of meetings in secret places. It is really old, but still good.


As for my Non Fiction, I am reading Physics Of The Future by Michio Kaku. It is about what to expect in the future as far as technology goes. It is pretty awesome to think about this sort of stuff. Wall panels and contact lenses with the Internet on them sound amazing.

[MisterF]

I usually only read Non Fiction, but I recently read a spy novel by David Ignatius called Agents Of Innocence. It is set in Lebanon back in the sixties through the late seventies. It is absolutely brilliant and as realistic as spy novels come, lots of meetings in secret places. It is really old, but still good.


As for my Non Fiction, I am reading Physics Of The Future by Michio Kaku. It is about what to expect in the future as far as technology goes. It is pretty awesome to think about this sort of stuff. Wall panels and contact lenses with the Internet on them sound amazing.

Sounds pretty cool, I dont typically read spy novels but might have to check it out.

I'm also a big non-fiction reader and a big science nerd. I mostly read Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Michio Kaku as you mentioned above. Havent read his physics of the future yet though.



As for other books, my wife swears by the Hunger Games books but I havent broken down and read them yet.

[Clevelandmo]

I havent read much for the last couple of years. But two of my last favorite reads were:

Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi

Here is the Amazon description - Stones from the River is a daring, dramatic and complex novel of life in Germany. It is set in Burgdorf, a small fictional German town, between 1915 and 1951. The protagonist is Trudi Montag, a Zwerg -- the German word for dwarf woman. As a dwarf she is set apart, the outsider whose physical "otherness" has a corollary in her refusal to be a part of Burgdorf's silent complicity during and after World War II. Trudi establishes her status and power, not through beauty, marriage, or motherhood, but rather as the town's librarian and relentless collector of stories.
Through Trudi's unblinking eyes, we witness the growing impact of Nazism on the ordinary townsfolk of Burgdorf as they are thrust on to a larger moral stage and forced to make choices that will forever mark their lives. Stones from the River is a story of secrets, parceled out masterfully by Trudi -- and by Ursula Hegi -- as they reveal the truth about living through unspeakable times.

also I really liked The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty

Here is the Amazon description. I didnt include it all because I thought it told too much about what happens - Once in a great while, a story comes along that has everything: plot, setting, and, most important of all, the kind of characters that sweep readers up and take them on a thrilling, unforgettable ride. Well, get ready for Ron McLarty’s The Memory of Running because, as Stephen King wrote in Entertainment Weekly (Stephen King’s “The Pop of King” column for Entertainment Weekly), “Smithy is an American original, worthy of a place on the shelf just below your Hucks, your Holdens, your Yossarians.”
Meet Smithson “Smithy” Ide, an overweight, friendless, chain-smoking, forty-three-year-old drunk who works as a quality control inspector at a toy action-figure factory in Rhode Island. By all accounts, including Smithy’s own, he’s a loser. But when Smithy’s life of quiet desperation is brutally interrupted by tragedy, he stumbles across his old Raleigh bicycle and impulsively sets off on an epic journey

[JackCaz]

If you're a dog owner or over I highly recommend 'Inside of a Dog' by Alexandra Horowitz. I do have to disclaim that I've yet to finish the book, but that's only because I'm trying to set the book down after each section to allow myself to think about what I had just read and apply/observe some of the things the author described. She does a wonderful job of tearing down what you think you know about dogs and then helps you look at them in a whole new manner. I can't wait to finish it.

Another book that I highly recommend (BIG disclaimer: it's extremely raunchy and vulgar) is 'Cancer On Five Dollars A Day' by Robert Schimmel. It's actually a very powerful, moving book. Oh, and it's hilarious!!! Robert is a comedian who, just as he was about to make it big, was diagnosed with cancer. He shares his journey in a wonderful way. If you don't mind the language, it's a GREAT read.

[dallasbill]

Almost everyone has been touched in some way or another by cancer and wondered, where the hell is the research? I've just finished
The End of Illness by David B Agus who has been getting a lot of press lately for his work on wellness and prevention and it's a very good read and friendly for the medical layperson like myself.