fave authors and books

hi
any bookworms out there?what are your favorita authors and books--fiction or nonfiction-romance crime etc. i love john steinbeck (Probaly mispelled) and just about all the true crime books and how to books like the dummy books

Rita

 

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.


snowbound

 

I am a hard core science fiction nut. I like the older stories by the classic writers. Here is a list of some of my favorite authors.


[Good]
Brian Adlis
Ben Bova
John Cramer
David Eddings
J.R.R. Tolkien
Andre Norton

[ Excellent]
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Arthur C Clark
Frederik Pohl
Issac Isamov
Larry niven
Robert Heinlein
Frank Herbert
Arthur Conan Doyle

 

i liked that one too

 

im reading all the dummy computer books lol (hoping to learn something)really they are great
Rita

 

Stephen King and Robert McCammon -- I think already discussed in another thread (maybe not here).

Spider Robinson, especially the Callahan stories. Most bookstores carry him in the sci-fi section, but the books are typically about 5 percent sci-fi and 95 percent about people you'd love to meet, plus wicked puns and wordplay.

James Patterson and Stuart Woods -- primarily crime-and-action thrillers, especially Patterson's Alex Cross books. Patterson's also done some great and surprisingly off-the-wall stuff -- I just finished "The Jester", a totally gripping novel about a peasant in the Crusades.

And just about anything by Tom Clancy.

 

Patterson's one of my favs - loved the jester - GREAT book, that!

 

Rita -

Steinbeck (you're spelling was on the mark!) is an excellent choice. I live within spittin' distance (less than 20 miles) of the labor camp he depicted in Grapes of Wrath. The book was even banned here in Kern County @ one point. He masterfully captured an era & the tough, persevering, migrant Oakies who survived it. Thanks for mentioning him. East of Eden & Cannery Row are classics, as well. If you ever get a chance to visit the Monterey Bay, California area, you will be in Steinbeck heaven; that's where the cannery row once flourished.

 

Well, MINE sure wasn't! How 'bout "your" instead of ""you're"? AARP brain fade....

 

Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Joseph Wambaugh (The Onion Field, The New Centurions, etc), Stephen King, et al all weave wonderful, masterful tales. I was particularly drawn to The Onion Field (both book & movie) because it was based primarily on a crime that occurred about 25 miles south of here back in '63. Wambaugh had been an L.A. cop & knew the territory. Clancy seems to have military sources unavailable to anyone else.

Someone else mentioned Ambrose. Great choice....and to hell with his nitpicking critics. He brought us World War II in vivid word images that created a near virtual reality. Try writing that way sometime; it ain' easy.

David McCullough....for all manner of things historical. Many of you will remember his lilting, velvet-voiced narration of Ken Burns's PBS classic: The Civil War.

James Michener, author of epic novels. Hawaii captured my imagination in high school way back when.

Let us not forget, too, The Bard: Bill Shakespeare. Yeah, we all fight through the 15th/16th-century language and the fact that he was "forced" on us in high school; yet his stories of the human condition remain timeless and worth the effort. Whether he wrote solo or was an amalgamation of several authors of the day, "his" works are a treasure.

Lots more, but I don't wanna bore everyone to death here....

 

Yeah, kinda like that annoying, disconcerting "clunk-clunk" sound under the hood that won't repeat itself when you drag your car into the mechanic's shop. Comes & goes....

 

Not surprising, given his astounding knowledge of military hardware and capabilities....

 

I might have heard wrong (wouldn't be the first time ), but it's my understanding that once they were satisfied with his bona fides, both the intelligence services and the military made use of Clancy as an unofficial advisor back in Gulf War days.

 

Sounds very plausible. Of course, not even Jack Ryan could solve....oops, I almost slid off the road and into political waters. My BAD!!

 

have you read tobacco road and taps for private tussy--two of his not well known novels?id love to visit monterey bay area sometime.i think Grapes of Wrath was one of the best books of all times

 

lol==i even spelled favorite wrong lol

 

Here a couple of authors/books I like:


1. James Herriot, an excellent vet-writer. he writes stories that depicts the wonderful relationship between man and animal. He writes with humour, wit and compassion. I loved to read "All creature Great and Small" "Every Living Things" and "Dog Stories". Those who likes animals would enjoy his books.

2.Jostein Gaarder, an adventure in the world of Philosophy tells with simplicity and humour. I like a lot "Sophie's World" and "Through a Glass, Darkly".

3. Seamus Heany's poetry, especially these poems: "Digging", "Death of a Naturalist" and "Blackberry-Picking".

4. Somerselt Maugham, for "Sanatorium", a short story.

5. André Gide, "La symphonie Pastorale", "Les nourritures terrestres".

6. Pamela Jekel, "Bayou"

7. Stephen R. Donaldson, "The Mirror of Her Dreams".

8. The book of Genesis.

9. W. Shakespeare, "Richard III", Cymbelline.

10. Many comic books, Hergé: "Les aventures de Tintin", Underzo and Goscinny: "Astérix", Franquin: "Gaston Lagaffe", Derib: "Buddy Longway", and also Morris: "Lucky Lucke", J. F. : " Les Pionniers du Nouveau Monde". Giraud: All lieutenant Blueberry's adventures.

 

<Dan rubs hands together!!!>

I absolutely LOVE books!

Where should I start?

For Science Fiction I prefer Larry Niven and Dan Simmons but there are so many other great ones.

For light humor, I really like the English writers of the first half of the 20th century such as P.G. Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh as well as the very funny "Stalky" stories by Kipling. Also of that period but more seriously, I have always enjoyed Joseph Conrad and D.H. Lawrence.

Some other areas of literature I really like are;

Middle English Lit; especially "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" which is an absolute masterpiece and amply rewards the efforts needed to overcome the difficult dialect it is written in. I also love Piers Plowman by Langland and the Alliterative Morte d'Arthur but there are many many other very good ones.

Chinese Literature can be very rewarding as well. I like reading Chuang Tzu, and some of the great Ming and early Ch'ing Dynasty novels such as "Outlaws of the Marsh" (otherwise translated as "Water Margin Chronicles") "Journey to the West" and "The Scholars" but I also immensely enjoyed the early 20th century work "Travels of Lao Tsan".

For poetry (excepting the Middle English pieces) I like most "The Fairie Queen" by Spenser, some pieces by the "Metaphysical" poets like Donne and Marvell, and... of course, Seamus Heaney

 

Science Fiction:
Gordon Dickson (the Dorsai stories), Julian May (The Pleistocene Exile, The Intervention, and The Galactic Milieu Trilogy - you gotta love something where Concord, NH is the capital of the human portion of the galaxy!), David Drake (Hammer's Slammers), Robert Heinlein (I Will Fear No Evil), Poul Anderson (The Boat of A Million Years), Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles), Arthur C. Clarke (Empire Earth and Childhood's End), Anne McCaffrey (the Pern books), Harry Harrison (the Eden Trilogy, the Stainless Steel Rat books, and Star Smashers of The Galaxy Rangers)

Fantasy:
J.R.R. Tolkien, Roger Zelazny (The Chronicles of Amber and Lord of Light), Stephen Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever)

Arthurian Stuff:
Mary Stewart, Stephen Lawhead

Horror and such:
Dean Koontz (Dark Rivers of The Heart), Peter Straub (Ghost Story)

Military & Espionage:
Tom Clancy (Red Storm Rising), Harold Coyle (Team Yankee), Len Deighton, Jack Higgins, Robert Ludlum (The Road to Gandolfo)

Others:
Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged), E.A. Poe, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Grisham, Louis L'Amour (The Walking Drum), Allen Drury (Advise and Consent), Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe), Charles Dickens (David Copperfield), Louisa May Alcott (Little Women/Little Men), Virgil (The Aeneid)

Currently reading Grisham's 'The Partners' - don't know how I missed it, but I did.

 

Ahhhhh, Virgil! How could I ever forget!

I really like the Aeneid too and also the Eclogues but, for me, I like the Georgics more. There is so much hidden behind the surface of "Agricultural Instruction. He weaves references to the various scientific authors of the age as well as to contemporary and earlier poets (Callimachus, Apollonius Rhodius, Theochritus, Hesiod, Homer, Varro, etc...) to build a theme outlining the perils of empire-building and colonization.

 

Shame on me...but the answer is, "No." Steinbeck was born in the Salinas Valley, barely 200 miles NW of me. His novels about the working poor are timeless, socially-critical classics born of the very area in which I've lived all my life. I should know far more than the fact that East of Eden was James Dean's breakthrough movie! Of Mice & Men is probably the best-known of his other works that we've not mentioned.

Those of my generation grew up with parents/relatives and friends of same who lived the Grapes of Wrath here in the southern San Joaquin Valley. To them, "dirt poor" was a lifestyle - not just a term in a textbook. Steinbeck knew those people and loved them for their dedication & selfless hard work. Without his works, their story would have faded into the mists of history.