[2BNTV]

I like biographies, mostly of past Presidents. In no particular order:

1. FDR by Jean Edward Smith. Everything you needed to know about FDR.
2. Washington by Ron Chernow.
3. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, (winner of Pulitzer Prize). Story of Abraham Lincoln.
Others are:
a. The Bully Pulpit, (story of the friendship between Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft).
b: No Ordinary Time, (story of FDR and events during WWII).

4. Franklin and Lucy, (story of FDR, Lucy Mercer Rutherford and other extraordinary woman in his life). By Joseph E. Persico who I met at a WWII club meeting.

5. Grant by Jean Edward Smith.

If you plow through all of those, Hamilton By Ron Chernow. Happy reading!!!

[rsibole]

Originally Posted by Boomer

Be it an actual book, Audible, or Kindle, a good book sure can help to pass the time.

I like biographical historical fiction. Recently, I have read two by Therese Fowler.

Z is the story of Zelda Fitzgerald. Wow. F. Scott sure was a jackazz.

Another one by Fowler that I liked a lot is A Well Behaved Woman. It is about Alva Vanderbilt and the family she married into. She had the pedigree. Vanderbilt had the money. I guess that was often the case in our country just like Downton Abbey.

Alva Vanderbilt was a woman trapped in time. She was an advocate for women’s rights. But she also knew how to play the social climbing game that was run by Mrs. Astor and the NYC 400 . Alva threw a masquerade ball in 1883 that was excessive beyond belief. It got her in and up the ladder.

When I read about real people, I always have to look up their pictures on the internet. I also looked up the pictures of the costumes worn to that masquerade ball. One woman wore a hat made out of a cat that must have been supplied by a taxidermist. Hideous.

The regular people lined the street to watch the costumed guests go by. The newspapers talked about it for weeks.

Mr. Boomer just finished The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. That is a brand new book by Erik Larson.

Larson also wrote The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America , published in 2004. I never read about serial killers, but I could not put that one down. Larson weaves the maniac’s story with the story of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

How about anybody else? Book suggestions?

Boomer

Love Wins by Rob Bell. I have read it over and over and given away dozens and dozens of copies. Get a paperback copy or download on line, just do it.

[Boomer]

For a quick, light read — Dave Barry’s Best State Ever: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland — each chapter is about a different place in Florida.

There is even a chapter about The Villages. Barry came to TV to do his research and writes about things very familiar to Villagers. His treatment of TV is fair and direct, not opinionated or critical.

As Florida writers go, I have been a fan of Carl Hiaasen for a long time. Hiaasen has created some memorable characters, especially Skink. Skink is a former governor of Florida who, when he could not stand it anymore, bailed to live by himself in the Everglades. Skink is known for his “appropriate” form of justice when it comes to making sure bad guys get what they deserve. Skink shows up in a lot of Hiaasen’s books.

In addition to Hiaasen’s off-the-wall books for grownups, he also writes books for middle school kids.

[Rapscallion St Croix]

Originally Posted by greenflash245

ran out of lube!

Nope.

[bp243]

Thank you! Love historical fiction as well!

[cathy34787]

Love Devil in the White City

[kendi]

"The Beekeepers Promise" and Fiona Valpy's other books. Her books are all very different, yet the connections between them are interesting.

Robot Check

[JanBrown]

Here are books I’ve read that I thought were EXCELLENT:

• The Heart Mender: a Story of Second Chances, by Andy Andrews (true story of Nazi’s off Alabama coast)
• Paris Architect, by Charles Belfoure (hiding Jews)
• The Tempting of America – the political seduction of the law, by Robert Bork
• The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown (2936 Olympic towing team)
• Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana DeRosnay
• Winter Garden, by Kristin Hannah (she also wrote The Great Alone, which was awful & didn’t finish)
• I Am Pilgrim, by Terri Hayes
• Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
• The Devil in the White City, by Eric Larson
• Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas
• 7 Women, by Eric Metaxas
• A Chance in this world, by Steve Pemberton
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

[Rich42]

Boomer, I think I have a good recommendation for you. Steve Berry writes international intrigue fiction, based around major historical events. At the end of the book, he spends several pages separating fact from fiction. Both his stories and his in depth research on the actual event are fantastic.

[valuemkt]

Originally Posted by 2BNTV

I like biographies, mostly of past Presidents. In no particular order:

1. FDR by Jean Edward Smith. Everything you needed to know about FDR.
2. Washington by Ron Chernow.
3. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, (winner of Pulitzer Prize). Story of Abraham Lincoln.
Others are:
a. The Bully Pulpit, (story of the friendship between Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft).
b: No Ordinary Time, (story of FDR and events during WWII).

4. Franklin and Lucy, (story of FDR, Lucy Mercer Rutherford and other extraordinary woman in his life). By Joseph E. Persico who I met at a WWII club meeting.

5. Grant by Jean Edward Smith.

If you plow through all of those, Hamilton By Ron Chernow. Happy reading!!!

Since you;re interested in FDR, I recommend adding Franklin and Winston by jon Meacham (I hate his current political rants, but this book is well researched and written).
Also, another plug for The Devil's Chessboard. Few people have heard of Allen Dulles but his reach over 3 or 4 decades of behind the scenes activities was remarkable.

[Polar Bear]

I'm currently reading Recursion, by Blake Crouch. It's science fiction about changing memory gone out of control. I started it simply because I like the author. But after getting a ways into it, I've been a bit taken aback by the fact that the memory condition is considered a disease. There are multiple references to the CDC and such. The connection to our world's current condition is inescapable. But so far, it's very good and interesting. The parallels don't detract from the book at all. If anything, it adds to the appeal in a hard-to-define but interesting way

The book series that made me a huge Crouch fan is Wayward Pines. Simply excellent. And it was made into a TV miniseries which did it total justice. I loved it. And what was the clincher for me to read Recursion is that it's set to come to Netflix next year. If the book/miniseries combo is anywhere near as good as Wayward Pines...well...I'll just put it this way...I'm excited. And so far the book is very good.

[daveb48]

Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee

No suggestions, but I liked yours and I intend to read the one on Churchill. Great thread Boomer, thanks.

Good suggestion. If you like this genre, try "Leadership" by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

[paulat585]

[QUOTE=Boomer;1735493]Be it an actual book, Audible, or Kindle, a good book sure

Villages authors are suffering like musicians these days. I have had 7 speaking engagements cancelled in the coming weeks. We may have a post this week about our books available on Amazon.com, but in the meantime, might I suggest my memoir, an eyewitness account of a recent historical era: Surviving: A Kent State Memoir, available for free on Kindle Unlimited. (Kindle Unlimited is free on Amazon.com for the next month). For fun reading, I'm catching up on all the books I haven't finished, plus I just downloaded "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" from the library. Happy reading, folks! Paula Stone Tucker

[Joe V.]

Originally Posted by Boomer

Be it an actual book, Audible, or Kindle, a good book sure can help to pass the time.

I like biographical historical fiction. Recently, I have read two by Therese Fowler.

Z is the story of Zelda Fitzgerald. Wow. F. Scott sure was a jackazz.

Another one by Fowler that I liked a lot is A Well Behaved Woman. It is about Alva Vanderbilt and the family she married into. She had the pedigree. Vanderbilt had the money. I guess that was often the case in our country just like Downton Abbey.

Alva Vanderbilt was a woman trapped in time. She was an advocate for women’s rights. But she also knew how to play the social climbing game that was run by Mrs. Astor and the NYC 400 . Alva threw a masquerade ball in 1883 that was excessive beyond belief. It got her in and up the ladder.

When I read about real people, I always have to look up their pictures on the internet. I also looked up the pictures of the costumes worn to that masquerade ball. One woman wore a hat made out of a cat that must have been supplied by a taxidermist. Hideous.

The regular people lined the street to watch the costumed guests go by. The newspapers talked about it for weeks.

Mr. Boomer just finished The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. That is a brand new book by Erik Larson.

Larson also wrote The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America , published in 2004. I never read about serial killers, but I could not put that one down. Larson weaves the maniac’s story with the story of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

How about anybody else? Book suggestions?

Boomer

Meditations- Marcus Aurelius. A great book on stoicism. Helpful in these times.

[Marty411]

Couldn’t put this book down.