One of the purposes of firing up a blog is to broaden my conversation. One of the first things I would love to do is get the names of some new books to be reading. Following is a short list of recent books that I have loved, followed by some recent books I have read. As I build the blog, if anyone ever comes back to this first post, I would love to receive comments and suggestions on new books to pick up.
Recent Books I Loved:
Blue at the Mizzen, Patrick O'Brien - geek reading for 19th century enthusiasts, I already miss Aubrey and Maturin, the lead characters through O'Brien's long series
The Baroque Cycle, Neal Stephenson - the three book series was long, but Stephenson keeps the story going and the journey is incredible; after reading Cryptonomicon, I had to tackle this series
Freddy and Fredericka, Mark Helprin - Helprin throws away better prose in his grocery lists than 90% of novels I have ever read; light story, amazing writing
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini - how could I resist a book that was making all my friends cry; a painful and beautiful book
Recent Books I Read and Enjoyed:
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein - ten years of reading Instapundit and I finally started reading his science fiction recommendations; guilty pleasure, good story
Pastoralia, George Saunders - a book of short stories by a gifted writer, thoughtful and melancholy while maintaining a strain of humor
The Hidden Face of God, Gerald Schroeder - non-fiction, a brilliant professor who breaks down and explains the workings of everything from black holes to quark theory to mitosis, and all very easy to read and understand
Books on My Shelf Waiting for Me:
Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky - a novel written by a concentration camp prisoner in France, Nemirovsky did not survive the camp and the suite is incomplete, but her work amazingly was discovered 60 years later; even if the book is no good, her life will eventually be an amazing story
Under the Banner of Heaven, John Krakauer - nonfiction by a skilled writer, it is surprisingly difficult to read the abuse of faith by the FLDS sect to enslave and abuse the women in their culture, half-way through, and slow going
Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI - pretty laborious reading, through a quarter of it, a lot of long, winding passages that neither illuminate mystery nor provide detail or knowledge on new material, I may not complete this one
If the above strike any chords with you and remind you of your reading, then by all means, make some suggestions.
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