OT: Favorite writers??

[Ozzie Nelson]

stole the words right out of my mouth. probably my favorite author. what's your favorite book by him. the more well known ones (border trilogy and no country for old men) are great but I also love suttree.

The Road...

 

[Zorro]

My criteria; new or recent, not previously mentioned. (Exception; Tony Hillerman. While not a mystery fan, I really like his mysteries set in the Navajo res.)
Barbara Tuchman was mentioned, but not my favorite book by her, The Pursuit of Folly. She is a marvelously gifted writer and an astute researcher.
All books by Richard Russo, most especially Straight Man (if you are in any way connected with academia and have not read Straight Man, read it and then post me a thank you.)
The Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser. Hillariously funny historical fiction with the greatest anti-hero ever invented.
I did not see a mention of John Kennedy Toole's "Confederacy of Dunces". A marvel.
In non-fiction, Dawkins' "The Blind Watchmaker" and "Unweaving the Rainbow" (Not so new, but imho too little read.)

 

[bags27]

Volume 3 of Robert Caro's epic bio of LBJ. I had earlier read Caro's bio (1,400 pages) of Robert Moses. .

Caro's LBJ IS amazing. The Moses is a brilliant first book but it's interesting how history rebalances, and, for all Moses's insanity, some are starting to give him more credit in urban planning than did Caro, whose bio is now thought of as at least partly a cheap shot.

 

[CTyankee]

Outstanding question. Elmore Leonard... Kept me up a myriad of nights from start to finish...

I am also surprised that no one has mentioned Stieg Larsson for his trilogy about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I must have read these three books at least 6 times...

 

[boontonbomber]

Great thread! i read widely, but especially love mysteries and espionage for escape (Alan Furst is wonderful!). Here are two under the radar that merit sampling. Peter May is a gifted writer. I got interested in him because of his three mysteries that take place in the Scottish Hebrides (where we're going this summer). Wonderfully evocative stuff. Also the great Japanese mystery writer, Keigo Higashino, whose works (so far as I can judge, which means not at all) are splendidly translated: morally and intellectually engaging. I'm always looking for out-of-the-way espionage/mystery writers, as I go usually go through their entire corpus in a couple of weeks. So, please suggest!! Thank you, Bonpland: I just bought the latest McKinty on Kindle because of you!

Just to say for "tough guy" writing under the radar (not the obvious Ross McDonald, Hammett, etc) my all-time fav is Donald Westlake's Parker series. Read them in order. He's a very very bad man....

And another series that could take several years is Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander, etc.. If you like the first, you will like all 20 of them.

The last time I was envious of people who hadn't yet read something that I had already finished were the two (final one in the works) great books on Thomas Cromwell by Hilary Mantel that form the incredible BBC Wolf Hall TV series. Not easy reading at the beginning, but once you get used to her style, positively enthralling. Read the books, then see them faithfully adapted. An amazing treat.

And a bit to the north and east of the Hebrides are the Shetlands, and perhaps you have read Ann Cleeves' Shetland mysteries.

 

[huskyd]

Someone else mentioned Hilary Mantel, but her Cromwell trilogy (3rd book is about the be released) constitutes a modern classic. Begin with "Wolf Hall," then "Bring Up the Bodies." Unmentioned so far is the great Kate Atkinson. Also, the British mystery writers PD James and Elizabeth George. Anything by JD Salinger ("Catcher in the Rye"). Another modern classic and (along with "Lucky Jim") one of the funniest books ever written: "Catch 22." Life-changing book: "Living the Good Life" by Scott Nearing. I'm tickled that so many of you read such wide ranging work--a tribute to the quality of posters here. Oh, and the Sports Illustrated "Swimsuit Issue."

 

[Adesmar123]

Dr. Seuss

 

[UcMiami]

For foreign mysteries:
Sweden - The Martin Beck series by Maj Sjowall and Per Walhoo - very dark.
Venice - Donna Leon series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti

LA police Joseph Wambaugh - my favorite The Black Marble

For anyone who loves Dorothy Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey - I stumbled on two sequel books both written by a friend and collaborator Jill Patton Walsh - one an unfinished work of Sayers called Thrones, Dominions and the second A Presumption of Death (drawing on some Sayers newspaper columns during WWII for inspiration) that are both really good. I gather she has since published two more.

 

[UcMiami]

Almost forgot - Patrick Suskind - Perfume, a seriously sick and fascinating novel about a fictional murder

 

[Bonpland]

Great thread! i read widely, but especially love mysteries and espionage for escape (Alan Furst is wonderful!). Here are two under the radar that merit sampling. Peter May is a gifted writer. I got interested in him because of his three mysteries that take place in the Scottish Hebrides (where we're going this summer). Wonderfully evocative stuff. Also the great Japanese mystery writer, Keigo Higashino, whose works (so far as I can judge, which means not at all) are splendidly translated: morally and intellectually engaging. I'm always looking for out-of-the-way espionage/mystery writers, as I go usually go through their entire corpus in a couple of weeks. So, please suggest!! Thank you, Bonpland: I just bought the latest McKinty on Kindle because of you!

Just to say for "tough guy" writing under the radar (not the obvious Ross McDonald, Hammett, etc) my all-time fav is Donald Westlake's Parker series. Read them in order. He's a very very bad man....

And another series that could take several years is Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander, etc.. If you like the first, you will like all 20 of them.

The last time I was envious of people who hadn't yet read something that I had already finished were the two (final one in the works) great books on Thomas Cromwell by Hilary Mantel that form the incredible BBC Wolf Hall TV series. Not easy reading at the beginning, but once you get used to her style, positively enthralling. Read the books, then see them faithfully adapted. An amazing treat.

And the thread goes on.

Bags a small point about McKinty. I always recommend reading the Duffy series in order. As a flawed protagonist it's instructive to follow his complicated wanderings through the years of The Troubles. McKinty as a writer breaks many of the conventional rules and does not compromise in attending to the needs of his audience. In the same way that Patrick O'Brian turned us all into amateur historians concerning the lifestyle of the British Navy circa 1800, McKinty puts you on the streets of Northern Ireland 1980 -84 where surviving everyday as a "peeler" is something of a minor miracle.

And to Big Bird and Kib I spent ten years or so reading every word I could find about The Civil War (and there are a lot of words out there) and there are far too many very good pieces of research to begin a list here, but two books of particular interest to me are Gene Smith's Grant and Lee (A simple account of the individual histories of the War's two most famous generals. In it there is much to learn about the pysche of leadership and the foibles of failure) and James Swanson's Manhunt (the twelve days following Lincoln's assassination) which leaves you asking "How did he do the research?"

 

[Zorro]

Imho, the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester are vastly superior to the O'Brian series, in which I was greatly disappointed. Would also like to put in a plug for Mary Renault's series of marvelous historical novels of ancient times; "The Bull from the Sea", "The King Must Die", "The Persian Boy", "The Last of the Wine", etc.

 

[Huskies Rule]

pre-1967: Stan Lee

post 1971: Lev Tolstoy

 

[johnnyc]

Forgot to mention what I am currently reading.....Four Witnesses by Rod Bennett and I will follow that up with another by him called The Apostasy That Wasn't.

 

[alexrgct]

It starts with Salman Rushdie and Kurt Vonnegut (RIP). Who it ends with doesn't matter so much to me.

Now back to re-reading Cats Cradle and The Satanic Verses.

 

[CL82]

And another series that could take several years is Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander, etc.. If you like the first, you will like all 20 of them.
.

Beat me to it. This is probably my favorite series. I've been through it three times. I may make another run at it in a year or so. The most unequivocal statement of how much you like an author is how willing you are reread his work.

I find Tom Clancy's stuff very readable and engaging.

Michael Crichton's stuff, even the "bad ones" are a good read.

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are must reads.

Robert Frost - really great writing. I plan on reading everything he's wrote eventually. I'm probably like 6 books in now, with maybe 2 or 3 to go.

 

[Kibitzer]

And to Big Bird and Kib I spent ten years or so reading every word I could find about The Civil War. . . of particular interest to me: Gene Smith's Grant and Lee.

Among Bruce Catton's many great Civil War books is one, also entitled Grant and Lee. Catton makes a vital distinction between them in one sentence:

"Lee was the last of the great ancient generals; Grant was the first of the great modern generals."​

Catton then proceeds to make a convincing case to support his thesis. Gripping prose.

 

[Bonpland]

Imho, the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester are vastly superior to the O'Brian series, in which I was greatly disappointed. Would also like to put in a plug for Mary Renault's series of marvelous historical novels of ancient times; "The Bull from the Sea", "The King Must Die", "The Persian Boy", "The Last of the Wine", etc.

Z, Recommending books is like recommending movies; we all have different tastes. I'm taken with minutia, detail, background which means much of what I like is found to be tedious by some of the people I force to read one of my favorites.

I like a little story to tell a bigger one, so I think I learn more about the daily life of the Union soldier reading Michael Shaara's Killer Angels than I do reading James Longstreet's account of troop movements at Chickamauga.

O'Brians attention to detail makes me want to believe his fable (the way that Crichton got us to care about his fantasies in his first five books by filling them with accurate sounding scientific prattlings), but that's no criticism of Forrester; the Hornblower series once set my mind reeling

 

[Joe6cats]

Lots of great authors suggested by well read bone-yarders above. Of the roughly half the books that I know, I concur. The only thing I quibble with is Zorro, one of my favorite posters, naming E M Forester a better writer about the British Navy in the Napoleonic period than Patrick O'Brien. I love Hornblower too, but the Aubrey Maturin series is deeper and broader, loaded with wit and passionate love for the period. One of my favorite Forester novels is "The Good Shepard" set in WWII.

A lot of suggestions pertain to Fantasy and Science Fiction, my favorite genre. A few I like to suggest are: pretty much anything by Neal Gaiman, and Lois McMaster Bujold, David Weber, C J Cherryh and the usual suspects. I'd call Cormac's "The Road" and David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" brilliant outliers within the genre. And if you grew up with the Oz books as I did, don't miss Gregory Maguire's re-imagining in "Wicked" and its sequels. Be prepared to sympathize with the Wicked Witch, and learn that The Wizard was a mean-spirited little charlatan, and Glinda the Good a fatuous fashion plate.

 

[Zorro]

Lots of great authors suggested by well read bone-yarders above. Of the roughly half the books that I know, I concur. The only thing I quibble with is Zorro, one of my favorite posters, naming E M Forester a better writer about the British Navy in the Napoleonic period than Patrick O'Brien. I love Hornblower too, but the Aubrey Maturin series is deeper and broader, loaded with wit and passionate love for the period. One of my favorite Forester novels is "The Good Shepard" set in WWII.

A lot of suggestions pertain to Fantasy and Science Fiction, my favorite genre. A few I like to suggest are: pretty much anything by Neal Gaiman, and Lois McMaster Bujold, David Weber, C J Cherryh and the usual suspects. I'd call Cormac's "The Road" and David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" brilliant outliers within the genre. And if you grew up with the Oz books as I did, don't miss Gregory Maguire's re-imagining in "Wicked" and its sequels. Be prepared to sympathize with the Wicked Witch, and learn that The Wizard was a mean-spirited little charlatan, and Glinda the Good a fatuous fashion plate.

Yup, matter of personal taste. I must confess I only read the one O'Brien book, BUT I found the characters one-dimensional, the plot tedious and the situations largely implausible. Being a life-long Hornblower fan, I had really looked forward to reading the O'Brien books when someone turned me on to them, but frankly, the one I read did not tempt me to read the other 19. Not trying to be argumentative, and I am well aware that mine is a minority opinion. (I don't like Clancy, either, and for the same reasons.)

 

[Bigpetunia]

That's in my queue! No joke! <3 I loved The Sound and The Fury. I always think of A Rose For Emily every time I see the video for Bad Romance. ~shifty eyes~

Bravo for you!

Many, many moons ago, when great lizards still roamed the earth and I was in the eleventh grade in New Orleans, my English class was assigned As I Lay Dying. I, an indifferent student at best in those days, approached the requisite task with my usual disdain. From the very opening scene, when Addie Bundren, as she lay dying, contemplates the sound of her son, Cash, sawing the boards for her eventual coffin outside her bedroom window, I was hooked. You, I predict, will be as well. Please consider following it up with the Swift. He is a marvel of whom you should be aware anyway if you're not already.

 

[UcMiami]

Imho, the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester are vastly superior to the O'Brian series, in which I was greatly disappointed. Would also like to put in a plug for Mary Renault's series of marvelous historical novels of ancient times; "The Bull from the Sea", "The King Must Die", "The Persian Boy", "The Last of the Wine", etc.

I think the O'Brian series gets points for being more historically and nautically accurate from scholars, and was aimed at perhaps a more sophisticated/older audience - BUT, I totally agree!

 

[Joobie]

I read contemporary fiction. My favorites are:

John Irving (Owen Meany is my favorite book of all time)
Jodi Picoult (for her endings which never fail to blow me away-Leaving Time was the best yet)
Joyce Carol Oates (her prose is amazing)
Stephen King (opening his books is like Christmas every time)
Steg Larsson (loved the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series)

 

[tomcat]

Well, some of you have mentioned science fiction, so I'll weigh in with others beyond Stephenson and Scalzi, the two I mentioned to start this. There's a writer named Julian May who wrote a really interesting series of books that range from prehistory to the future. Harry Turtledove, a master of the alternate history genre, is a good storyteller. Covers a lot of historical ground with interesting premises. John Barnes can be lots of fun as well. I'm starting to find Gaiman books and have read everything Lois McMaster Bujold has written.

 

[UcMiami]

Tomcat - if I could like your original post ten times I would - what a great idea for a dead time thread and what wonderful wide ranging suggestions all the responders have given - some have brought back forgotten memories of pleasures enjoyed while others are intriguing new avenues to explore.

A resource for book lovers, which most probably already know about, but if you don't is great for finding used editions and has searches that allow for finding collectors editions like signed copies or first editions for those who really love their books is:
Abe Books - a communal listing site for booksellers worldwide with a common payment portal - prices range from $1 to $50,000 and up, shipping within the US is usually very reasonable and sometime free and I have never searched for a book that wasn't available from new releases to 18th century rarities.
http://www.abebooks.com
Only once did I have an issue with a book order through them, and I find they are usually cheaper that amazon and eBay.

One more author - Caleb Carr - The Alienist - NYC period mystery/crime

 

[Intpseeker]

So many...

Poe, Clancy, Ludlum, Frasier's Flashman, all of Cornwell's work, King, Asimov, Zalazny, James Lee Burke (big ups for his language and the reflections of his characters), Jim Butcher, R.R. Martin (poured through the Game of Thrones books. Couldn't watch the graphic violence of the series), Scotti's Sudden Sea (an amazing account of the impact of the '38 hurricane from Long Isand to Buzzard's Bay). Brown's Boys in the Boat, Gaiman, Rowling, and on...