Looking for a new read...

I've just finished the book "Among The Thugs" by Bill Buford and I'm looking for another good read for the next few weeks. Recently I've read Fowler, Dalglish and Gerrard's autobiographies and 1984. The novel doesn't have to be epic or even about Fulham. Just looking for something that will grip my attention.

So, if you have any suggestions I would be more than happy to take them. Thank you much for the help.

 

In the nonfiction vein, I recommend "The Boys of Winter," by Wayne Coffey, recently published about the gold medal-winning 1980 US Olympic hockey team, as an inspiring sports-related read even if you're not a big hockey fan. If you're looking for something a bit more political, you could check out "No Logo" by Naomi Klein, about the constantly increasing presence of branding in society.

 

anything by malcolm gladwell is golden. easy to read but very insightful.

and the onion's newby "our dumb world." i've learned more from that book than 22 years and $100,000+ of education. the profile of nicaragua is unparalleled.

 

my wife is finishing up that series by Stephanie Meyer. I don't know the name of the series or wether it has one, but the names of the books are Eclipse, New Moon, & Twilight. She read all of them in like 2 weeks and I have a bunch of other friends that like them too.

 

The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry - an increadible read, by the cleverest man in England. I needed a dictionary frequently, but it was worth the effort.

 

Devil in the White City is an excellent nonfiction work about the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair and a serial killer lurking in the city at the same time. If you have never read A Civil Action I highly recommend it. It's also one of those nonfiction stories where reality is better than fiction. It's about a narcissistic (Sp?) lawyer who finds himself compelled to take on a case involving a community in suburban Boston with a high number of cancer victims.

The Blind Side is also interesting. Another nonfiction read about a rich southern couple who adopts a deprived inner city black youth who ends up being a freakishly good football player.

Currently, I'm reading The Law of Dreams, a historical fiction work about a 15 yr old boy dealing with the Irish Potato Famine. It's an easy read in which you also learn some things about life during that time.

 

I've always considered myself a nonfiction type but have been moving into more fiction all the time. I finished A Farewell to Arms last week and I'm still thinking about it. I don't care how snobby some are towards Hemingway, I love him.


Other really really good book I read a while back is called Don't Lets Not Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller. A memoir about a white girl who grows up on a tobacco farm in Rodeshia and is forced to various locales around Africa once it becomes Zimbabwe. The great thing about this is there’s no revisionism or political correctness brought on by guilt or the bitterness of defeat. She tells the good the bad and the ugly like it was and its fascinating.

Amazing how you can read a one novel that’s generally good but in the end leaves you wanting even if you can't say exactly why and then you pick one up that you find to be golden. A great feeling. In my opinion there is almost nothing as good as reading a great book but at the same time nothing as terrible as reading a bad one.

 

For the love of god stay away from any drivel Naomi Klein puts out.

For non-fiction, try Nicolas Sarkozy's: Testimony: France, Europe, and the World in the Twenty-First Century. An under-read book by a man who is trying to revitalize the sickest 1st world country on earth.