I Like Historical Novels and some Mysteries - Need Recommendations

[Dan in Pasadena]

The "what books you liked when you were a kid" thread got me thinking if anyone could give me some good book recommendations along the lines of books I've already read.

I'm not exactly an intellectual, so I don't mind if you think my some of my favorites are low brow. I enjoy them so that the heck

Historical novels I have enjoyed:
Taipan, Shogun by Clavell (Taipan is my "one favorite"...but Lonesome Dove a close second)
Lonesome Dove by McMutry (Gus is the best character ever...or is it Dirk Struan?) I've read most of the follow on books but only truly enjoyed the original.
I read a LOT of Stephen King novels but I am over him. I like The Stand the best. Have'nt enjoyed any of his newer stuff

"Mystery" Novels I have enjoyed:

All the James Lee Burke, Dave Robicheux novels.
All the Robert B. Parker, Spenser books but not really his Jesse Stone ones or others.
Walter Moseley's Easy Rawlins books. I've liked all of them I've read

Okay, that's it. Mostly fluff. I've read plenty of more challenging works over the years too but I am currently looking for a couple of books to take on vacation and enjoy. All recommendations appreciated and especially on-going characer books I tend to enjoy. Thanks in advance, Dan

[Dueller]

Your tastes are more akin to my wife's. She's recently gotten into Greg iles...particularly Quiet Game and Turning Angel...both set down the road from us in Natchez...(Plus he's a regular customer at her pub).

I read his Spandau Phoenix set in Nazi germany and it was a good first novel.

Here's a link to his website:

http://www.gregiles.com/books.htm

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally posted by Dueller
Your tastes are more akin to my wife's..........

Hey! I resemble that remark! Actually, thanks for the reference and the link. Probably will hit the bookstore this weekend so I'll check him out. Thanks again, Dan

[Seahawk]

Any preferences between fiction and non-fiction?

[Shuie]

I was an Engineering major that never took a Humanities class in college. I tested out of all of my humanities requirements so I could take calculus, etc. I really had to ease into the Literature section of the book store Here is some of the low brow stuff that got me interested in some of the most enjoyable books I've ever read:

Try Mark Frost's List of Seven. If you like that, it will be a lot of fun to move over to the Literature section and read the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes collections. The main charaters in Frost's book are Doyle a guy that is allegedly Doyle's inspiration for the Sherlock Holmes character. Very fun stuff.

Another fun book for me was The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. Id never read poetry before, but I decided to read Wadsworth Longfellow's translation of Inferno afterwards. Dante is still a really tough read for me, but its pretty fascinating stuff with all of the notes, etc., in the translation.

The Club Dumas led me down a similar path. It was a really fun book by itself, but going back and reading Dumas stuff afterwards was just awesome. To this day, Dumas is probably my favorite author.

[Dan in Pasadena]

I like both and have enjoyed some bio's a lot. Either recommendation would be appreciated.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Shuie, Thanks. I think I've read most of the Sherlock Holmes books over the years but the last time I picked one up has been a loong time ago. Of course I have read Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, but hasn't everyone? I'll check out your recommendations.

[Moses]

You like the same stuff I like.

Two books that you MUST read;

1) Gates of Fire By Stephen Pressman. The story of the Spartans famous battle of Thermopylae. Riveting.

2) Ride the Wind. By Lucia St. Claire-Robson. The story of the last free Comanche war chief. Ignore the goofy cover, check out the Amazon.com reviews. This book is not to be missed.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks Moses. I just printed out the thread so far so I can carry it with me to the bookstore. Others?

[Dueller]

Originally posted by Dan in Pasadena
Hey! I resemble that remark! Actually, thanks for the reference and the link. Probably will hit the bookstore this weekend so I'll check him out. Thanks again, Dan

LOL...no offense intended. I've been meaning to read his Black Cross also a historical mystery setb in Nazi Germant. If you click on the books he gives a persnal note about the books and there is a synopsis as well. Just thought that might kill two birds with one stone....mystery and history.

My wife also is a big John Grisham fan...before he hit the big time, I actually was counsel opposite in a few trials. He's a decent sort, but much more succesful as a pulp writer than a barrister. I tend to avoid any novels with lawyers as central characters...it is annoying when they use literary license to make law fit the storyline. Same thing with lawyer movies (except maybe The Verdict, Absence of Malice or Breaker Morant.)

[Seahawk]

Originally posted by Dan in Pasadena
I like both and have enjoyed some bio's a lot. Either recommendation would be appreciated.

1776 By David McCullough.

The Last Lion by William Manchester...three volumes about Churchill

I cut and pasted the following:

Gods and Generals is a novel which serves as a prequel to Michael Shaara's 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning work about the Battle of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels. Written by Jeffrey Shaara after his father Michael's death in 1988, the novel relates events from 1858 through 1863 during the American Civil War, ending just as the two armies march toward Gettysburg. Since 1988, Jeff Shaara has written The Last Full Measure, which follows the events presented in The Killer Angels.

American Caesar by William Manchester

A Soldiers Story by Omar Bradley

I'll look for more...we're remodeling and all the books are in boxes

[alf]

Originally posted by Moses
You like the same stuff I like.

Two books that you MUST read;

1) Gates of Fire By Stephen Pressman. The story of the Spartans famous battle of Thermopylae. Riveting.

+1 on Gates of Fire. Picked it up at the grocery store waiting for my wife several years ago, best book I read that year.

If you like Shogun you might also like Musashi and Taiko, both by Eiji Yoshikawa. Long epic novels but you will understand J-history better than the average Japanese when you are done. Great books.

[Don Plumley]

Over the Edge - the story about Magellan
1776 - ditto
Band of Brothers - about Lincoln, very good.
Angels and Demons - predecessor to the Da Vinici Code. Couldn't put it down.

[}{arlequin]

if you like 'taipan' than you should check out all the other clavell books as well. noble house is good, and of course, 'shogun' though the movie was fairly accurate when compared to the book.

[Dueller]

If you're looking for non-fiction that's very readable, try Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. By Joseph Ellis

Probably one of the most significant books ever writtten on our founding fathers. Strips away their god-like images and shows Jefferson, Hamilton, Burr Washington Franklin, Adams and Madison as real men with real faults. Traces six historical events (Washingtons farewell address, Hamilton-Burr duel, etc) in separate vignettes that really humanizes these guys and makes you realize that they were damn lucky to pull of what they did.

Very readable (about 250 pages), more like a novel than history and the format is such that you can read one account and pick it up later without losing track of where the book is at since it is broken into the six seemingly unrelated events he traces.

[daepp]

Pillars of the Earth - by Ken Follett.

The guy is usually a very successful mystery/suspense writer who followed his passion and wrote about the history of the dark ages and the rise of the great cathedrals. It's historical fiction and it's his best seller year after year.

[}{arlequin]

all the american historical stuff by john jakes. (same guy that wrote 'north and south')

http://www.johnjakes.com/kentchronicles.htm

it starts in england and continues through the settling of the new world etc etc... very good reading and there are 6 or 7 books in the series

[1967 R50/2]

Historical Novels:

Gates of Fire, Tides of War, The Last Amazon, The Afghan Campaign In other words anything by Steven Pressfield.
Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough
Sarum, Forest, Russka, London, Princes of Ireland...anything else by Edward Rutherford.
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel. I found the rest of her novels really uneven, but the first was quite good.
Gods and Generals, To the Last Man, The Glorious Cause etc, etc, ie. all of Jeff Shaara's books regardless of the time period the chronicle.

If you want HISTORICAL MYSTERIES try the SPQR series by Robert Maddox. They are pretty funny to boot. Real brain candy.

[David]

"I, Claudius" A history major roommate recommended it and the other day I saw it with a bunch of classic books at the store, so I guess it's becoming one. Good read on a period of the Roman Empire. The next book, "Claudius the God" isn't as good.

[Les Paul]

I Just finished Pearl Harbor by of all people Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen. Well written giving the Japanese reasons for the attack.