Any book recommendations?

Unbroken

The Secret Race

Gold in the Water

Boys in the Boat

John Carreyrou: Bad Blood - The Theranos story. Non fiction but you will get sucked in quickly

Tyler Hamilton: The Secret Race - best book on how you people can get sucked into doping

Abraham Verghese: Cutting for Stone - Long medical type novel that seems like it could be true but it's not

Michael Connelly : The night fire (or any of his Bosch books) - easy reading detective novels

enter the dragon wrote:

Unbroken

The Secret Race

Gold in the Water

Boys in the Boat

+1

I've heard Into Thin Air is really good, about a disastrous Mt Everest climb. And the next running book I'm going to read is Out of Thin Air about Ethiopian running culture.

Nothing to Envy is a great book about North Korea during their famine time. What Is the What by Dave Eggers about the Lost Boys of Sudan coming to America.

Also fiction by Dave Eggers: Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius I remember finding really funny and sad. And Confederacy of Dunces you may like if you've never read it. Both may kind of be better read when young, but I think they could hold up.

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) wrote both great fiction and non-fiction. His non-fiction included many longer works but also many short articles on topics of his day and across the Atlantic from we Yanks. He was very witty and had a tremendous ability to summarize the grand sweep of things from a 30,000-foot view.

https://www.amazon.com/G.K.-Chesterton/e/B000APF848/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Oops - us Yanks.

BenAndrewsOR wrote:

I would love some feedback on the opening chapter of my forthcoming book in hopes that I can make this list someday!

(Spoiler alert; it takes place at Hayward Field)

https://www.thelongrunbook.com/talents

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

~Ben

I thought this was well written. It held my attention and was an interesting read. The font was too small and too light on my Macbook Air. You might want to look into that.

As a word of caution, you should know that runners, as a rule of thumb, don't read books. I've written a book on running and it didn't sell enough to cover the costs of self-publishing. It's not Steinbeck or Hemingway, but it has testimonials from OT qualifiers and many age-group world record holders.

Now, if you plan to use the book to market consulting or motivational speaking, that's different. A book can be a tremendous resource to establish your credentials to speak on your seven principles. Oh, if you plan to speak on the topic, hold back some information. Ask yourself, "Will including this bit of data sell more books?" If the answer is no, then you might want to hold that tidbit of information out of the book. Audiences don't want to pay several thousand dollars to hear you recite what's in your book verbatim.

Regardless, best wishes on your project!

A bit lengthier, so maybe not a shortish vacation's read, but Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant is a book that I have recommended to many. I first read it when it was mentioned on a previous LRC thread about good nonfiction reads, and have always been grateful for the suggestion.

A well written and occasionally very funny read, produced in pretty desperate circumstances.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Memoirs_of_U._S._Grant

BenAndrewsOR wrote:

I would love some feedback on the opening chapter of my forthcoming book in hopes that I can make this list someday!

https://www.thelongrunbook.com/talents

~Ben

Get an editor. Not trying to be a dick--truly--because I really like the opening, but in the brief bit I read, there's this: "My parents have never missed the opportunity to watch my brother, Matthew, and I compete..."

That should be "...watch my brother, Matthew, and me compete..."

They came to watch Matthew.

They came to watch me.

They came to watch Matthew and me. "Me" doesn't change to "I" just because Matthew shows up.

The Arms of Krupp - a history of the Krupp family, who made Germany's weapons for hundreds of years (now ThyssenKrupp).

I also like Robert Caro's LBJ books if you haven't read those.

Grant by Ron Chernow was good

Short read: The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway

Longer read: The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

What I've enjoyed recently:

First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Cixin Liu.

The Murderbot Diaries (four novellas and a novel) by Martha Wells.

"Normal People" and "Conversations With Friends" by Sally Rooney.

Anything by Wodehouse.

I am currently reading Abercrombie's Shattered Sea trilogy. It's YA, I'm 55 years old, but I like it so far.

Spink-Bottle wrote:

What I've enjoyed recently:

First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Cixin Liu.

The Murderbot Diaries (four novellas and a novel) by Martha Wells.

"Normal People" and "Conversations With Friends" by Sally Rooney.

Anything by Wodehouse.

I am currently reading Abercrombie's Shattered Sea trilogy. It's YA, I'm 55 years old, but I like it so far.

BTW, I use the free OverDrive and Hoopla library apps for most of my book reading. All you need is a library card to sign up.

My favorites in the last year:

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton - South Africa

The River of Doubt by Candice Millard - Roosevelt's journey in the Amazon

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis - re-read because of 2020 masks, the retelling of a myth

kibitzer wrote:

BenAndrewsOR wrote:

I would love some feedback on the opening chapter of my forthcoming book in hopes that I can make this list someday!

https://www.thelongrunbook.com/talents

~Ben

Get an editor. Not trying to be a dick--truly--because I really like the opening, but in the brief bit I read, there's this: "My parents have never missed the opportunity to watch my brother, Matthew, and I compete..."

That should be "...watch my brother, Matthew, and me compete..."

They came to watch Matthew.

They came to watch me.

They came to watch Matthew and me. "Me" doesn't change to "I" just because Matthew shows up.

I also noticed that. I suggest that you buy Grammarly Premium. It's about $12/month or $139/year. It really does a good job of finding grammar mistakes. You'll want to hire an editor as well, but Grammarly will catch things that my proofreader didn't.

Tip: You might want to turn it off while you're writing. It can mess up the creative writing process if you're constantly worrying about grammar. Get the ideas and flow into the document. Then, edit it later.

Not a weekend read, more like a nightly project over a couple of months: Sherby Foote, Civil War, A Narrative. Very colorful, and written over about a 20 year period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civil_War:_A_Narrative

"In Vino Duplicitas" by Peter Hellman. The story of wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan. Amazing tale about wealthy people (mostly men over 50) with far more money than brains. Hard to feel sorry for those who got duped.

Chasing Ghosts by Philip J Reilly. Similar in feel to OAR but more modern.

Here are some suggestions:

Lee Child - basically anything he writes if you like action novels. Tom Cruise was an odd casting choice

Mark Greaney - same genre as Lee Child although more of a spy/international assassin flavor

David McCullough - a historian who really makes history come alive

Richard Ford - good books if you're having a male mid-life crisis

Rick Atkinson - his trilogy about WWII was particularly good

"The Great Influenza" by John Barry about the 1918 global influenza, oddly India was also back then where many died

Michael Connelly - detective Harry Bosch a recovering alcoholic, brilliant LA detective

"Grant" by Ron Chernow, a fascinating General and President

Jo Nesbo - a nordic version of Harry Bosch, imagery of a bleak Scandinavia

"The Alchemist" Stephenie Meyer, very good thriller