OT: Suggestions for Fiction

My recommendation for these threads is always "Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, and the sequel "The Wise Man's Fear"

It's in the fantasy genre so it wont neccesarily appeal to everyone, but it was recommended to me as "This is possibly the best novel you will have ever read" and that wasn't too far off.

I binged through the first one in days and immediately ordered the sequel before I even finished the first book. It doesn't necessarily have the depth and or big themes to make it an all-time favorite, but the writing style is top notch and for pure entertainment value it is tough to beat. 

Recommendations, in no particular order:

The Expanse series - Hard SciFi books that are character-driven and have lots of political intrigue in them. Very high quality. The show on Amazon Prime is pretty good, but not as good as the books. Eight books, waiting on the ninth and final.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. Story about a man who lives a life in the 20th century, dies, then realizes that he is living his life again the second time around. Discovers a secret society of people like him, passing secrets through the ages. Through these people learns that the end of the world is coming, and in each life, it's coming sooner.

The Seven and One Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Story of a person stuck in a time loop, where every day they wake up as a different member of a list of guests invited to a remote English manor. Each night, the guest of honor, Evelyn Hardcastle, is murdered. By the end of the eighth day, they must figure out who killed her, and why, or they'll lose all memory and need to start over from the beginning.

Touch - Story of a group of people who can take possession of the body of anyone they make skin-to-skin contact with. They have no bodies of their own, but pass through the lives of other people, jumping by touch. Now, a serial killer is hunting their kind, and they need to figure out how to stop them before they're the next victim.

Growing Up Dead in Texas - half autobiographical, half-fiction, the story of the author's childhood growing up in west Texas after a cotton fire decimated the crops of a town near Midland in December, 1985 and the fallout from one significant day.

American Gods - What if the gods the Europeans left behind took human form and tried to reclaim the worship they feel is rightfully theirs? The story of one man who is sucked into something much bigger than he can understand, and about the ways that America was influenced by gods we've long since forgotten.

Alice Isn't Dead - Similar to American Gods, a story of the out of the way parts of the American landscape. A woman's wife goes missing one day, presumed dead. So she becomes a truck driver, criss-crossing the country trying to find her. But there's something dark and terrible and the road, and it might find her first. By the author of Welcome to Night Vale.

Universal Harvester - A story of a small Iowa town that's thrown off its orbit by the discovery of a series of recordings covering over rented movies from the local Blockbuster. They appear to show something horrible being done to a woman. One young man won't stop until he finds the truth.

Sorry for the "blurb"-y sounding descriptions, but I figure that it'll help to give you some indication of what the book is about. All this stuff is kind of off the beaten path, but those are my favorite kinds of books.

If you like Grisham's style, "Playing for Pizza" is football related, a totally different plot, and a cracking good read.

If you like historical fiction, the Flashman series by George M. Frasier is a rollicking good time with acute historical insights of the 19th Century colonial era.  As a career Naval Officer, I wondered what Flashy would have thought of our entry into Afghanistan in 2002.  The first book in the series is "Flashman" (appropriately enough).

Another good historical fiction choice would be Patrick O'Brian's series centered on Capt Aubrey and Dr. Maturin, two British naval officers during the Napoleonic Wars.  The first book is "Master and Commander" and yes, the movie was based on it.  Fun fact: there was a real, live Capt Aubrey inspiration, Lord Thomas Cochrane, who was instrumental in the Wars of Latin American Liberation (from the Spanish Empire). 

If you like science fiction, my all time favorite scifi novel is Robert Heilein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."

Also, if you think you'd like a space opera version of the Capt Aubrey stories, check out David Weber's Honor Harrington series.  The first book is "On Basilisk Station."  Note there is a whole "Honorverse" of novels and short stories by various authors.

My favorite space opera series is Lois M. Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan saga.  As a retired Officer, I found its explicit discussion of leadership to be realistic and insightful.  There is no real first book to start the series; I'd recommend "The Warriors Apprentice," although my first was the novella "The Mountains of Mourning" in an anthology of the year's best scifi.

In the borderlands of scifi/fantasy is Eric Flint's 1632 series, the first book is "1632."  It takes one fantasy-ish event (albeit a cataclysmic event), and builds a whole "what if" universe spinning off from the Thirty Years War.  There is an enormous ecosystem of short stories and novels by dozens of authors.

Finally, I have not read James Corey's "The Expanse" novels, but boy howdy, the TV series based on them is outstanding.

Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva - good light reading for action and espionage stuff.  Israeli counter-terrorist group and their fight against various enemies, including former Nazis, terrorists and Russians.  Good stuff.

I read a ton, with a focus on WWII as well as many other things. For WWII try the novels of Alan Furst. They are spy novels with an intensely historical focus, usually on the immediately prewar years and taking place all over Europe. The Polish Officer, Night Soldiers, Dark Voyage… you can't go wrong. They are extremely well written and convey the historical atmosphere as well as any historical fiction I've ever read.

My favorite novel of the last few years by anybody is City of Thieves, by David Benioff. It takes place during the siege of Leningrad, one of the most brutal and savage episodes of the war, but its protagonist is a Huck Finn-type teenager who winds up getting sent on an absurd quest. It takes phenomenal skill to find humor in the siege of Leningrad, but this guy does it.

Finally, I'll add a hearty endorsement for Confederacy of Dunces. I've never read a more enjoyable book.

If you really enjoyed Tolkien and are a fan of that genre, the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are a great read. There are two trilogies and a much more recent 4-banger to close it out.  A more adult read than LOTR (which by the way, are my all-time faves) with darker and anti-hero themes.  EDIT:  written by Stephen R. Donaldson.

I would love a thread on good non-fiction free in Kindle Unlimited

I have a few

• Junkyard Druid series – Author MD Massey
• The Stonefly Series - Scott J. Holliday 
• Anything by Marko Kloos

Anyone have non-fiction favorites in Kindle Unlimited?

Stephen King's The Stand

I read basically a mix of history textbooks and ridiculous, escapist fiction, so I feel like I'm sort of in your boat as well. 

For fiction, I recommend Daniel Silva, Steve Berry, Clive Cussler, and James Rollins. They're all good fun, you'll breeze through each book in three or four days and you'll remember about 10% of them afterwards. Great summer reading. In terms of "seriousness/pedigree" I would rank them Silva-->Berry-->Rollins-->Cussler. I enjoy them all though. 

How about military sci fi? David Drake is one of my favorite authors. His Hammer's Slammers series (short stories & novels) is about a mercenary regiment. More recently he has the Lt./Cpt. Leary/Royal Cinnabar Navy series. Kind of an old British Empire feel except sci fi. He often takes historical situations as a basis for his stories (not just in these series).

Also second on the Expanse, Clavell's Tai Pan/Shogun/Noble House. Rothfuss I've really enjoyed, though I wonder if he'll ever get around to finishing a 3rd novel.

Shantaram

trust me.

Try Winds of War - Herman Wouk - fiction about the run-up to WWII. If you like it, go on to the sequel War and Remembrance.

Also I agree with recommendations re Alan Furst series and Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series.  I’d add the recommendation of Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series. The main character is an anti-Nazi Berlin detective, who keeps getting drafted by the Nazis to solve mysteries. Unfortunately, there will be no more in this series, as Kerr passed away recently.

I'm working my through the Takeshi Kovacs books right now (first book was turned into the Netflix series Altered Carbon). 

Also, the Witcher books are pretty good if you like Tolkien, they are a bit derivative in the tropes, but the characters carry the book. 

And you can't go wrong with Dune, it still holds up pretty well today. 

This is WiI's wife

I would recommend the Outlander series. It's good historical fiction with a little time travel thrown in for good measure. Much better than it sounds from my description.

I also recently read One Second After by William Forstchen. The other books in the series are good as well. I read them one after the other.

I like lawyer books... and some psychological thrillers as well.

This thread could turn me into a Wolverine Fan. :)

Dune,with the new movie to be released in 2020? Ther's like 4 or 5 books.believe his son wrote a couple of them after bis father passed.

Game of Thrones great series but martin's writing isnt real good. HBO just wanted that name imo. It's like a childrens book with profanity and violence. 

I recently started reading american history pre-1492. The spanish and english were exploring california long before columbus.i

I was the opposite, was reading too much fiction.so i started mixing it up.started with Twain,Fitzgerald,Shakespear,Poe.

Any suggestions for american history other than the played out 1492?

I don't buy books.have a brand new modern library 2 blocks from my home.