Favorite Authors and Novels: Too good to keep secret

[Pink Rabbit]

Martin Cruz Smith.
Author of Gorky Park ( remember the film way back when? ) his Ardady Renko novels set in Russia are compelling. I esp liked Dog eat Wolves a backdrop of life in Chernobyl post accident

John LeCarre.
Difficult read but fascinating British Spy Thrillers. His later books as time goes on are ethical commentary and morality stories of our modern world. Mission Song has an Africa backdrop, Absolute Friends has commentary on our shadow secret cabal that is outside control of any government. All are excellent.

Neal Stephenson.
Perhaps an aquired taste. Truly prescient ! Reamde is attempt to appeal to masses with cyberpunk thriller, Famous for Cryptonomicon short listed for SciFi award historical piece about gold in WW2, origin of computers, enigma machine juxtaposed with intercontinental cables of modern day . Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are classic Sci Fi. Predicted the Internet 20 years in advance!!.

[Milneman]

omg Pink....

Ayn Rand, "The Fountainhead"...makes me cry every time.
LOTR...Tolkien is a master.
"The Good Terrorist" by the recently late Doris Lessing (she too is another master)
"The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco...its dark...really dark...you can taste the medieval dust as you turn the pages.
Armistead Maupin....Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, etc etc etc....really easy reads, you will laugh out loud.
And you can't go wrong with Ian Fleming!

[Corncrake]

Unfortunately, I don't have as much time to read novels now as I used to and there are really too many to recommend but to pick up on the two previous posts. I think John Le Carre's Constant Gardner an excellent read covering corruption in the pharmaceutical industry in Africa (the film's good too). Kennedy's Brain by Swedish author Henning Mankell is another well worth reading along the same lines. I must second 'The Name of the Rose' by Umberto Eco too - fantastic medieval murder mystery that holds the attention all the way through. Having just watched Timewatch's The History of a Mystery (Rennes-le-Chateau) posted by Giovanni on Godless Gatherings ... , I am now interested to read Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum - another tome so not for the faint hearted!

[S-L]

I second the Neal Stephenson vote. I was actually thinking about buying my sister The Diamond Age for Christmas.

Of late, I find myself having difficulty reading any kind of fiction. It just seems like a distraction from the world when my entire being yearns for me to play my part in it instead. A recent exception has been The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The spiritual truths in this book brought tears to my eyes. The story of the book's origination is also very interesting.

[marlowe]

Colin Wilson
The Mind Parasites, The Philosophers Stone
I read 98 % of Wilson's writings published before 1980. I worked in the 7th largest
library in the US and was able to get almost anything I wanted to read via Inter-Library Loan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Wilson

Hermann Hesse
Demian, Steppenwolf ,The Glass Bead Game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Hesse

[Pink Rabbit]

Marlowe I forgot about Herman Hesse I liked Narcissus and Goldmond. Thank you all S-l Corncrake Milneman for suggesting a few. I've written them down. I like all of LeCarre, read every last one.

[Shikasta]

Doris Lessing's adventures into "inner-space fiction" with her series "Canopus In Argus", starting with "Shikasta". Profound and still highly relevant in today's world.

She was quite the visionary. One spiritual teacher I had said of these books, "She knows a thing or two!". The more I mature in this body, the more I realise how 'connected' she was. :)

[kirolak]

Yes, she is one of my favourite authors; timeless & her space fiction is the best out there!:cool:

[Gatita]

I'm addicted to Shirley Rousseau Murphy's Joe Grey mysteries.

Gatita