Hi ladies. Are there any books you enjoyed reading and thought you learned something useful from them? Does not need to be nonfiction, but I would prefer to learn about an era, a subject, a country etc while reading.
I would also like to hear about a book you are crazy about (even if it does not fit the above description :-)
Thanks for the suggestions IA.
Thank you for all the good suggestions. I am making a list! Keep them coming if you have more recommendations ;-)
I have already read a few of the suggested ones and liked them (Eat Pray Love, Water for Elephants, Immortal Life of ...). I recently finished The Namesake (beautifully written, nothing extraordinary but very believable and insightful about an immigrant family's life in the US) and also Girl with the Dragon Tattoo just yesterday. There were a few too graphic and disturbing scenes for me so I am not sure if I will read the other two books, although I thought it was a very good book.
Ken Follett "Pillars of the Earth"
Ken Follett "World Without End"
Ken Follett "Fall of Giants"
They are all period novels, fiction, and quite literally the BEST books I have ever read in my life (and I've read a lot of books), especially "Pillars of the Earth".
I've read every word Maya Angelou has ever written and memorized some of her poetry.
Heres one of my favorites
They Went Home
They went home and told their wives,
that never once in all their lives,
had they known a girl like me,
But... They went home.
They said my house was licking clean,
no word I spoke was ever mean,
I had an air of mystery,
But... They went home.
My praises were on all men's lips,
they liked my smile, my wit, my hips,
they'd spend one night, or two or three.
But...
I am reading "Decision Points" by George W. Bush right now. Regardless of how you feel about him, this book has been an eye opener. Also, just finished "Heaven Is For Real" and EVERYONE should read this one. Talk about an eye opener! Great question...now I have some new books to read!
The Help. Wonderful historical novel about the ladies and their servants (mostly told through the eyes of the servants) during the beginning of the civil rights movement in the south. Moving and touching. It's a massive best seller, so you may have read it, but if not, read it!
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit if you haven't already read it by her is amazing)
Trinity by Leon Uris if you want Irish History
Little Bee is fiction but especially moving to read as a mother
The Other Boylen Girl by Phillpa George is historical "fiction" but teaches you a lot about that period of time
As other people have said The Help. SO good
I loved reading Pillars of the Earth and its sequel World Without End. I also highly recommend Jane Austen if you haven't read her yet...she is amazing! My favorite author ever. You will also learn so much about her era through her books. And of course other similiar authors..Bronte sisters for sure. I have the Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton on my nightstand to start next. Its a classic set in the gilded age of NYC. Oh-the book New York City is pretty good. An amazing story of NY from the very beginning up until present. I learned a ton of history from the book...although it did drag at parts. Two others I saw at Costco that I want to get are Elizabeth I and Cleopatra. Two of historys most fascinating women to be sure.
I also love anything that has to do with Elizabethean England and there are a lot out now. Try the Other Boleyn girl to start maybe. The author of that wrote a bunch of others too.
And supposedly one of the best novels on the Civil War is Killer Angels...that is also on my list.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It's non-fiction and a fascinating read. All about the woman whose cells were taken from her without permission and have been used widespread in medical research (her cells are known as HeLa cells). Her family hasn't earned a dime from anything gained through her cells. It's the story of how it even happened and her surviving family members today. It was a bestseller and I can see why after reading most of it (still have about 1/4 to go).
I read mostly fiction but I was going to suggest The Help as well...it is one of my current faves! My other tops include Water for Elephants, Midwives, and anything John Irving. Both The Help and Water for Elephants, although fiction, do use a lot of historical fact in the telling of the story and it's very interesting! I also read a lot of memoirs and I find them interesting as well, and that sort of fits into your category! Enjoy!
Oh, I wanted to add Memoirs of a Geisha, also fiction but historical!...oh and Loving Frank...okay, I need to stop or I'll fill up the whole page! ;)
Brad Metler writes political thrillers and seems to know the ins and outs of how our gov't works. And his storylines are good!
Diana Gabaldon wrote "Outlander", a series set between 18th century Scotland and The American Colonies. They are exciting, funny, very very clever, historical and very very romantic. I must warn you some parts are PG13 and above. But Gabaldon is a very intelligent and creative writer who does her research. I love this series.
If you like historical fiction, Philippa Gregory wrote a series on all of Henry VIII wives. Like Gabaldon, these books are full of info on that era, but very romantic and intelligent. My favorite one is The Constant Princess. I love love this book.
If you like Christian fiction, Jill Eileen Smith wrote a series on 3 of King David's wives - Michal, Abigail and Bathsheba. They are all very good, easy to read and made me want to find a hot young shepherd of my very own (if I wasn't so happily married!).
If you are interested in stories from the Middle East, try reading books by Khled Hosseini. I recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns. ATSS is the story of 2 women growing up and enduring life through the old regime up till when Osama bil Laden came to power and took over Afghanistan. It is a powerful and moving human story. I'm assuming Hosseini's other books are similar. I love love love ATSS.
Try hitting the military section of the bookstore. There are tons of fiction and non fiction books on all these wars we are currently in. I am about to start Horse Soliders, about an elite group from the US army who fought small battles on horseback in Afghanistan, b/c that was the only way they could get into some places unseen.
gl and hth!
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
And Endurance about Ernest Shackleton's arctic expedition
Hotel on the corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.
It's about Seattle during WWII and the difficulties the Japanese-Americans faced during that time.
I haven't read this yet, but a friend of mine highly recommends it:
Unbroken (a WWII story of survival, resilience and redemption) by Laura Hillenbrand.
I really enjoyed The J. Luck Club and The Bonesetter's Daughter, both by Amy Tan. Also Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert made me want to go straight to Italy to the little place she names and eat a pizza, she made it sound sooooo good! I haven't see the movies made from these books because I'm afraid I'll be disappointed. Books are always so much better!
Ken Folletts, Pillars of the Earth (I've read it more than once.)
His sequal to Pillars of the Earth, World Without End.
Or his latest book Fall of Giants. They are call fiction but historically very accurate.
I really enjoyed Danielle Steel's "Amazing Grace" (The whole book is centered around the San Francisco earthquake). It's fiction but still a great read. I also liked "Wanderlust," also by Danielle Steel. This one is centered more around WWII. It's also fiction but again, a great read. Hope you find a good one!
Updated
I really enjoyed Danielle Steel's "Amazing Grace" (The whole book is centered around the San Francisco earthquake). It's fiction but still a great read. I also liked "Wanderlust," also by Danielle Steel. This one is centered more around WWII. It's also fiction but again, a great read. Hope you find a good one!
i loved the Coldest Winter Ever! by sista souljah. also Midnight which goes deeper into a character in The Coldest Winter Ever. and anything by jodi picoult.
I really enjoy Lisa See and Amy Tan.
I love learning about China.
I also enjoy reading about the Mitford sisters who were around during WWII.
Anything about WWII really...I love history.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Lobotomist by Jack El-Hai
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
Blink and Outliers both by Malcolm Gladwell
Spark: The revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain, by John J. Rately
A framework for understanding poverty, by Ruby K. Payne
Both Freakonomics books, by Levitt
A Whole new Mind by Daniel Pink
The Element by Sir Ken Robinson
The Secret Holocaust Diaries - Nonna Bannister and all books by Dave Pelzer.
Well because I have been following his blog for a little while, but the book Two Kisses for Maddy is the next book I am getting.
The Other Boleyn Girl, The Red Tent were both "era" books that I enjoyed.
I just read the book "A Crime so Monstrous: Face to Face with Modern Day Slavery" by E Benjamin Skinner - it's by a journalist who traveled all over the world meeting people enslaved and people who deal in the human slave trade and he tells their stories. Pretty good. I also really want to read another book on the same topic, "Not For Sale: the return of the global slave trade - and how we can fight it" by David Batstone. I also really recommend The Kite Runner, and his other book A Thousand Splendid Suns (maybe even more so, not sure).
I really liked Cutting for Stone by Abraham Vereghese. A fictional story set in Ethiopia. A country I have not read any stories about or set in.
"The Light and the Glory" - the history of America revealing what our school textbooks left out.
My all time favorite series is The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. They take place in Botswana and are about two women who have a detectve agency. They are funny, refreshing, and easy reads. I love the way the main character looks at life.
Right now I'm reading The Help. It is about black maids in the 1960s South. Very good!
Those Who Save Us is a story in WW II Europe about a woman who has a relationship with a Nazi soldier sothat she can save herself and her daughter.
If you have daughters, the book Cinderella Ate My Daughter is a must read!
The books Neither Wolf Nor Dog and The Wolf at Twilight by Kent Nerburn are really good books about the Lakota/Sioux people.
My guilty pleasure is kids/teens books. Some of the best books i've read in the last few years have fallen into that category. The Hunger Games, Shooting the Moon, The Wednesday Wars
Highly recommend!!!! :
Angela's Ashes is a 1996 memoir by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt. The memoir consists of various anecdotes and stories of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn, New York and Limerick, Ireland, as well as McCourt's struggles with poverty, his father's drinking issues, and his mother's attempts of keeping the family alive. Angela's Ashes was published in 1996 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. A sequel to the book, 'Tis, was published in 1999, and was followed by Teacher Man in 2005
Alicia, My Story-
When the Holocaust began, Alicia Jurman was a young Jewish girl growing up in the southeastern Polish city of Buczacz. In that city, about a third of the population was Jewish. Even though there was anti-Semitism in Poland, as there was anti-Semitism nearly everywhere in Europe, Alicia with her parents and four brothers led relatively peaceful lives. This all changed with Germany's invasion of Poland...the infamous blitzkrieg of September 1, 1939 - Alicia was only 9 years old at the time. On this day, Poland began its slide into the annals of history of which never before has there been anything to compare: for within the boundaries of this eastern European country, the stage was about to be set for the systematic annihilation and slaughter of all the Jewish people. Only the strong and resourceful would be alive at the end of the war. For a Jew to survive this slaughter - it was very difficult - nearly impossible. However, there are those who not only survived, but who also rose up and saved lives and even fought back. Now for a child, a young girl to survive and save lives and fight back - it is truly awe-inspiring. Alicia is that person. Alicia, who is among the women heroes of the Holocaust. Alicia the child hero.
The Kite Runner was excellent - a great story, plus eye-opening about life in Afghanistan.
K.
http://K..myshaklee.com
I agree with the others about "The Help." I also found "Loving Frank" fascinating and although it's fiction it's very much based on a true story and it caused me to do additional research about Frank Lloyd Wright. In Wisconsin you are close to the site of the book and would have many opportunities to explore his architecture and history in person. Finally, I really enjoyed "Eat, Pray, Love" and learned a lot in the section about meditation in an ashram. I know the book and its author have gotten mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it. I have not seen the movie. She has a new book out about what has happened in her life since.
