Forums » Smalltalk » What books do you recomend?

My personal favorite at this point in time would be Congo Mercenary written by lieutenant colonel Mike hoare during the late sixties. It is a first hand account of the 1965 Simba rebellion and the mercenaries hired to end it. The story is a unique example of modern day adventurism and gives an inside understanding of Africa, african culture and its successes and failings in an honest, nuetral position.

Its a little slow at first,thats mostly for the prefix and explaining the Congo at that time for contexts sake, but will eventually pick up to the good stuff in no time.

Personally I would recommend the audio rendition as the author reads it himself.
If you ever had a grandfather in the military and enjoyed listening to his stories then this is the book for you.

Congo mercenary along with Mad mikes other stories such as Mercenary warriors is an interesting and moving set of true accounts and personal stories to kindle a sense of true adventure into the human heart.

Works of fiction that I would recommend would be any thing redwall, as Brian Jaques is by far one of my favorite authors, with his book ‘Rackety tam’ being a personal favorite.

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
On a Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham.
The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky. (More digestible than 'The Idiot' when not familiar with 1900th century Russian literature and a good introduction to Dostoevsky's works.)
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.
Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Ueda Akinari.
Invisible Planets - 13 Visions of the Future from China edited and translated by Ken Liu.
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck.

The Archana Chronicles by Kresley Cole.
Not even gonna say anything else cause just go read this. PLEEAASSSEEEE

Three that come to mind:

All Quiet on the Western Front, The Stand, War of the Worlds

I just read a book called ‘Iron Coffins’ written by a U-Boat officer/commander named Herbert Werner. His account was written before the declassification of the ULTRA/Enigma code breaking and so they were amazed at how accurate the allied direction finding technology was since they thought they were homing in on the actual radio transmission. They had no clue the allies had broken their code.

Someone else already recommended it, but definitely Cirque du Freak, and I'd throw in the prequel series to it, Saga of Larten Crepsley, because I've been stuck on those two things for literal years and I need more people to know about it lol

If you can tolerate essentially Claudia and Louis de Pointe du Lac except “Claudia” can actually grow up because she’s human: Daughter of The Blood, Heir To The Shadows and Queen of The Darkness

If you like sci-fi and grim dark grim darkness, the gaunts ghost series is a good long time investment.

I missed this the first time through page 1 back in ‘19...
Yes! Malazan Books of the Fallen is a really good series, and yes, very convoluted! It is worth the read though I’ve only read three books so far.

My OC ‘mash-up’ company of mercenaries is inspired in part by the ‘The Bridge-Burners’ from Malazan, Glen Cook’s ‘The Black Company’, and ‘The Grey Company’ from Lord of the Rings.

I know someone mentioned The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice, but her Vampire Chronicles series are incredible books in general. I strongly suggest Interview With A Vampire. It's a beautiful dark fantasy tale with a realistic, well-researched feel. And from what I've read so far, The Witching Hour is pretty good too.

If you like historical fiction, The Scarlet Contessa by Jeanne Kalogridis was a lovely read as well. It's based on the life of Duchess Catalina Sforza from Italy with a touch of mysticism throughout.

What else... Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It's heartbreaking, and I read it when I was in my elementary to middle school ages, but I still remember it to this day as a book I couldn't stop reading.

I was pleased to find out that 'Elgee', an old aquaintance and vigilent moderator from the Tolkien Forums from back in the '00's, has a successful writing career going! I remember her writing and publishing her first book a number of years ago, and with writing, marriage, family, and such all going on, she stepped down from Tolkien Forums and soon after disappeared from the site sometime in the aftermath of the Hobbit movie days. It's good to see H.L. Burke and her books out there!

Talon Series by Julie Kagawa

TimeRiders Series by Alex Scarrow

Septimus Heap

If you want to try something similar to Harry Potter with magical and colorful worlds and characters that also keeps its humor and lightheartedness for the rest of the series, I highly recommend this series.
Along with humor there's also adventure as often people travel from place to place, even in time, and you don't have to be stuck with the main cast throughout as there are many people with different points of view and their own personal adventures that all come together at the end of the book.

I think you'll have to edit a list of all the books people have recommended, I'm sure I'm going to be duplicating a couple!

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (which leads into American Gods for an easier read, then into Anansi Boys)
Stardust, also by Neil Gaiman (also a good movie, though they differ in a lot of places they are both good)
Good Omens, also by Neil Gaiman, co-authored by Terry Pratchett
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Every age I read it, I take MORE away from it, but skip the movie )
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Either as a stand-alone book or with the series)
Poison Princess by Kresley Cole
Eon by Alison Goodman (and sequel Eona)
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (It left an everlasting memory when I read it in middleschool)
The Gypsy King by Maureen Fergus
Night Angel by Brent Weeks (the same person who put me on this trilogy also loves the Mazalan Books of the Fallen)

Some alt-history novels here

the WorldWar books by Harry Turtledove and the 1632 Series by Erin Flint

Infected by Scott Sigler (And the following books, Contagious and Pandemic)

• It's light sci-fi I guess?
• TW: A bit gross at some parts and a bit gorey
• The book that got me back into reading when I had decided I absolutely loathed reading in highschool -

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

• Zombie Apocalypse / Romance
• I don't remember the movie very well, but this book is easily one of my top favorites - it held the title of favorite for a good while before I read the next two books in this list; Some of the specific quotes in this book are just absolutely breath taking, I adore the writing style in this book

Alice by Christina Henry

• Fantasy
• MAJOR TRIGGER WARNINGS: Lots of human trafficking and sexual assault mentions; Some mentions of cannibalism as well
• If anyone's super into Alice in Wonderland and all the different ways people can interpret the story / characters, then this is the book for you, assuming the trigger warnings don't bother you. But this is definitely tied for my favorite book... I read the whole thing in about ~24 hours, or a bit less, which is insane 'cause I'm such an extremely slow reader lol I absolutely adore this book. It also has a sequel, but I haven't been able to purchase that yet </3

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

• Thriller / Light horror...?
• I read this in one afternoon... again, insane because I don't read that fast. This isn't a particularly difficult read, but it kept me on the edge of my seat for the majority of it, and then it just gets WILD towards the end, but ultimately gets tied up with a nice bow... That being said, I would suggest reading it twice (Which unfortunately I haven't yet done) just to see if you can pick up on the little breadcrumbs that get left the second time around
• I need to sit down and watch the movie at some point...

The Talented Mr. Ripley is my absolute favorite book series. It’s kind of like murder mystery but in the view of the killer


Also I’ve been told the game of thrones book series is much better than the show

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts by Yu Tomofuji

Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura by Arina Tanemura

Kobato. by CLAMP

Kiss of the Rose Princess by Aya Shouoto

Full Moon by Arina Tanemura

Strike the Blood by Gakuto Mikumo

Wish by CLAMP

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.