Need a good guy book!
The Boys In The Boat! Fantastic read. Feels like fiction but it's not. Highly Recommended
Does it have to be recent? You've probably already read these classics - Catch 22 and Slaughterhouse Five. My brother gave copies to his son this Christmas.
Or if you like biographies The Bully Pulpit.
If you like Westerns (or even if you never read them), there is a book I read over the summer called "into the Savage Country," by Shannon Burke. It's fiction, but has real characters who existed in it, including Hugh Glass, the character Leonardo DiCaprio played in "The Revenant." If you enjoyed the setting of that movie, you'll like it.
I never got into Old West adventures, but it was a good read and very manly.
Anything by James Lee Burke, but particularly the David Robicheaux series.
I'm currently enjoying Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and would recommend it to a guy!
Not between trash and Faulkner, but really anything by Michael Lewis works for me. He is by far my favorite contemporary author. Read: Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, The Big Short. Saw the movie: Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short.
Both of Howard Stern's books are good, and surprisingly Gary Dell'Abate's book They Call Me Baba Booey is really good. Jimmy Buffett's book A Pirate Looks at Fifty.
As you can see, I tend to gravitate toward non-fiction.
Big second for James Lee Burke, also Michael Lewis.
Larry McMurtry, personal favorite Leaving Cheyenne, relatively modern West.
Have you read Jonathan Tropper? I would recommend "This is Where I Leave You". I love Richard Russo, especially "Nobody's Fool" or "Empire Falls". I loved "City on Fire" by Garth Risk Hallberg - you will be able to sink your teeth into this for sure - great, unforgettable characters.
And Kate Atkinson - start with "Case Histories" and then you will want to read all of her Jackson Brodie books!
For some non-fiction, loved "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson and the Tim Ferriss books like "Four Hour Body" or "Four Hour Work Week".
I also loved Issacson's biographies of Jobs and Hamilton; and Russo's Nobody's Fool was hilarious. Caro's Master of the Senate about Johnson and his era was unbelievably brilliant; and Edmund Morris' biographies of Teddy Roosevelt, filled with adventure and overcoming of obstacles, were spellbinding. Keith Richards autobiography, Life, is a very guy‘s guy book, one of the classic rock n roll life stories.
Because it's soon to be a motion picture, and because it was so good, I recommend The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is fantastic. And I got completely engrossed by the Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St. Aubyn. If you read war novels, Redeployment by Philip Klay is a hard read but very good. I like Russo, too, and anything by Raymond Carver.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote was written many years ago but one of my all time favorites. It's a novel based on a true story and will really hold your attention.
I haven't read it yet, but everyone around me is obsessing over Ben Winters' Underground Airlines.
"Frozen in Time" and "Lost in Shangri-La". Both are by Mitchell Zuckoff and are fascinating accounts of real life events from WWII.
+1 Larry McMurtry Start with Lonesome Dove
Also, James Clavell Especially Shogun
Look into Cormac McCarthy. Not to everyone's taste, certainly, but IMO he's the best at what he does. (Although in the interest of full disclosure I should probably mention that he is often compared to Faulkner.)
You folks have honed in on my tastes. Thanks. Love McCarthy, McMurtry, Vonnegut, Gone Girl, etc. Will pick one of the many other recs above. Thanks...but keep them coming!
This is an excellent recommendation. I never expected to love a book about crew but this will grab you in the first few pages and won't let go.
librarylady said:
The Boys In The Boat! Fantastic read. Feels like fiction but it's not. Highly Recommended
https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Boat-Americans-Berlin-Olympics/dp/0143125478/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483391501&sr=1-1&keywords=boys+in+the+boat
How about Christopher Moore. He has a number of novels that sort of cross between history, fantasy, and page-turner adventure but very funny as well. Definitely not high culture, but easy to read and fun. Start with the Serpent of Venice.
In the realm of historical fiction, anything by Jeff Shaara. His Civil War stuff is top notch, as is the WWII series. Very personal viewpoints on major events in history.
lanky said:
Lately, I've tended to skew toward non-fiction so have enjoyed the works by Erik Larson (e.g. Devil in the White City), Hampton Sides (e.g. In the Kingdom of Ice) and some Sebastian Junger (e.g. Perfect Storm). Or maybe I just like murder and bad weather.
Devil in the White City was excellent, loved it.
Older, but Memoir From Antproof Case from Mark Helprin was wonderful.
Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air and maybe Under the Banner of Heaven.
Anything by Alan Furst (fiction set in Paris and elsewhere in Europe on the eve of WWII). I'd say "spy fiction," but the settings and characters are as good as the plots, lots to be learned about obscure places, and how very long ago the 30s/40s are now.
If you are a fan of McCarthy, read "The Son" by Philipp Meyer. One of the great books of the past ten years. A multi-generational telling of the history of Texas. Grand, violent and rich.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/books/the-son-a-novel-by-philipp-meyer.html
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Not a guy book as in Tom Clancy. Looking for something between trash and Faulkner, but not a book with pastel colors on the cover that every women's book club has read. Loved The Art of Fielding, All The Light We Cannot See, even A Time To Kill. Need something I can sink my teeth into that's gonna grab me. Thoughts?