(Part 3) Best author biographies according to redditors
We found 1,729 Reddit comments discussing the best author biographies. We ranked the 706 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
55. Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945
4 mentions
Biography & AutobiographyHistory
It depends. That's definitely the order you should read them in, but if you're asking for chronological order it would be The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and then The Lord of the Rings. The Unfinished Tales doesn't really have a spot in the chronology because it contains different stories that take place at wildly varying times.
Also, a couple of quick sidenotes. Since you at least seem pretty invested in the wider lore, make sure you don't skip the Appendices found in The Return of the King. They contain a lot of worthwhile information. Also, I would highly recommend reading The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter in between The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. It's an excellent book and contains a tremendous wealth of information relayed straight from the Author's pen.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I7JFCAY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
It's incredible how incels manage to accuse women of being "useless" while simultaneously throwing a pity party for themselves because they are expected to work and take care of basic household responsibilities - something women have been doing without complaint for hundreds of years.
Also, even according to contemporary sources, more than a third of Puritan brides were pregnant on their wedding day. Keep crying, incels, you are mourning a past that never existed.
In his autobiography, Slide Rule, Neville Shute, (author of On the Beach and A Town Like Alice) wrote about working on the R-100, which made a safe and successful crossing of the Atlantic to Canada.
He also wrote about visiting the R-101 while it was being built and was apalled by some of the shoddy workmanship and materials, which may have been a cause of its crash. (This is disputed in the Wikipedia article on Slide Rule.)
Non-fiction, which to my mind makes it better:
The Soul of a New Machine
Also non-fiction and a great read, the autobiography of aircraft designer/novelist Nevil Shute: Slide Rule
Leo Marks's memoir of his work as an SOE cryptographer is a highly readable, funny, sometimes emotionally powerful record of an unusual perspective on the war. As a codebreaker and deviser of code systems, his mission was to help agents in the field stay alive by avoiding capture. Interesting profiles of Allied agents including Noor Inayat Khan, Grouse/Swallow, Violette Szabo and his friend Tommy Yeo-Thomas, a.k.a. 'White Rabbit.'
"If you brief an agent on a Monday, and on Thursday you read that he has had his eyes taken out with a fork, you age rapidly," he writes.
A glance at all of the KIAs on the list of SOE agents suggests that the German spies in Britain had it a lot better.
An interesting exception to the pattern is the Netherlands. The entire British network was infiltrated and then subsequently run by the Germans.
You can read the German side of this story in London Calling North Pole by the guy who ran the German side: Hermann Giskes.
You can also read part of the British side in Between Silk And Cyanide, which are the memoirs of the SOE codemaker who worked out that the Germans must have been running the agents.
Many questions are not answered there, though, such as: why did the British keep the network intact even when they knew it must be blown? Why did they continue dropping agents and equipment directly to the Germans?
I am unsure if these really count as proper historical sources, though, so sorry if this doesn't technically count as a proper top-level answer.
I'm a stranger here myself by Bill Bryson would be my recommendation. Humorous book and gives a good view of a american/british take on america after having been gone so long.
It is suspect that he, as supposedly not a field agent, shows up at their house. Although they made a point to show how bright Alfonso's phone light is, which could've attracted attention.
Either way, I'm glad you brought up Forking Paths, I figured more people would understand the significance.
I just finished reading Parallel Universes: The Search For Other Worlds by Alan Wolf. It's a great book if you have the time/interest. There is much talk of the idea that parallel universes are simply quantum separations that can overlap and coalesce just as they can split and diverge. Everything that could ever happen does happen, in some place. This all starts with a choice.
As Otto Hofmann said, "And once having said yes to the instant, the affirmation is contagious; it bursts into a chain of affirmations that knows no limit. To say yes to once instant, is to say yes to all of existence."
Amazon links for books mentioned in this thread:
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\/u/DallasGreen:
\/u/gearnut:
\/u/frothysasquatch:
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This may be my old-relative-to-the-rest-of-the-internet side rearing its groggy head, but I'll stand by the versions and the order that I first read:
The Elric Saga: Part I comprising "Elric of Melnibone", "The Sailor on the Seas of Fate", and "The Weird of the White Wolf";
and
The Elric Saga: Part II: "The Vanishing Tower", "The Bane of the Black Sword", and "Stormbringer".
Maybe you'll get them in a different format but those are the six stories that form the core "Elric saga" that exemplified the classic-myth Doomed Hero for modern fantasy; the rest of the works basically fill in chronological gaps between the major events, like the Star Wars EU novels filling in around the movies.
Sure. Stop me when this gets boring!
The History of Middle-earth.
The History of the Hobbit.
The Road to Middle-earth, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century and Roots and Branches, all by Tom Shippey
You should read Tolkien's Letters, too.
Other books to consider:
The LOTR reader's Companion
J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances
Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth
The Keys of Middle-Earth: Discovering Medieval Literature through the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien
Understanding The Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism
J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide
If you're feeling rich, you could try to find a copy of Songs For The Philologists, a collection of poems, mostly in Old English, written by Tolkien and E.V. Gordon (I only have a .pdf copy).
I'd also read Tolkien's Beowulf criticism.
and just for fun, read Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien, which is nothing to do with philology but which was cowritten by my major professor :)
Let's see, what else? Anything by Douglas A. Anderson, Verlyn Flieger or Michael Drout (especially Drout's Beowulf and the Critics and How Tradition Works: A Meme-Based Cultural Poetics of the Anglo-Saxon Tenth Century.
That's pretty much all that leaps immediately to mind, just glancing over my bookshelves, but if you search for "Tolkien scholarship and criticism" you will find much, much more. Hope this helps!
Elric was great! I enjoyed all the strange places he visited. Moorcock did a fantastic job with the imaginative worlds and happenthings that he encountered in his travels. I'm not really sure what to suggest as far as reading order goes, though. I didn't have any trouble finding them, and read them chronologically. There are some collections out there, such as this one.
Actually I think javia was referencing this which is anything but silly.
There's a wonderful book A Midwife's Tale that was pulled from a late 18th century diary of a midwife that might answer some of those questions for you. As for how the average woman found out about these things, it was often much simpler than you would think. Things like childbirth and all that went with it were family affairs. In the diary mentioned she talks about all the women that were in the room during childbirth, the family and community pitched in. Or how many young girls would go to other households to help care for infants during the period just after birth when the mother often couldn't manage to get out of bed, let alone take care of a house. Not just because the other house needed assistance, but to teach the girls how to take care of children and how the process of birth worked, particularly if there weren't young ones at home.
Privacy is a very modern convenience. Sex occurring today in private bedrooms with thick walls and birth occurring in a sterile hospital surrounded by doctors. Some families lived in single rooms. All life began and ended in the bed they slept in every night. And the whole family was in that room for it. The rest, inevitably was up to her mother or sisters to explain.
Also by Bryson I'm a Stranger here myself. It's his reflections on the US after moving back from England after 20 years. I thought it was pretty hilarious.
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien.
The principal biography is the authorized one by Humphrey Carpenter. (Stay away from the one by Daniel Grotta, which contains considerable misinformation.) There's also a very good book about Tolkien's experiences in WWI, Tolkien and the Great War, which I highly recommend.
Beyond that, if you want more information, seek out Hammond and Scull's two-volume J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide.
Fate is the Hunter is my all-time favorite.
You might find Everything Explained for the Professional Pilot an entertaining read as well. It covers rules and regulations but does so in a way that no other publication that I know of does.
A Man Without A Country, Kurt Vonnegut. Pretty short read, but full of insights that Vonnegut gained throughout his life. While it isn't one of his classics, it is probably my favorite.
amazon link
I've found them to give a phenomenal insight into Tolkien's mindset as he was writing LOTR during WWII. Also, if you're into that sort of thing, here's a great biography of his time spent during WWI
Looks like I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson.
The Heavy Lifting:
The mechanics of flight by AC Kermode et al. You can generally get a 2nd hand one on amazon for notsomuch.. You'll read a lot of books on aerodynamics and principles depending on how far you plan to go. This one's a good reference to keep on the shelf that wont break the bank.
Thoroughly Enjoyable: Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann. This is probably one of the best pilot experience type biographies I've read. Ernie was one of the first American Airlines pilots way back in the day. His writing style is addictive and the stories are simply amazing, and full of material still relevant to any aspiring pilot.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0618391134?pc_redir=1413800510&robot_redir=1
J.R.R. Tolkien Compendium and Guide. Gives an almost day by day account of the man's life. If you can find it at the library it could be a great resource. I have a copy on my shelf and I love it. Not something I read cover to cover, but it's fun to flip through if you're a fan.
Oh dear, yes! A fellow student of the subject, I see! Wasn't Garbo decorated by both sides for the information he sent around D-Day?
My favourite story from that time is that Garbo told Berlin that he had an urgent message at midnight on the 6th which they must be online for.
It was going to be a vague "looks like it's imminent" message.
Berlin didn't come online.
So they re-wrote the whole message. It gave all the details of the invasion up until about 7am. Something like "Allied fleet sailing for Normandy. Landing sites will be X, Y, Z. Following divisions are involved..."
When Berlin next came online, Garbo sent a very angry message, scolding them for missing the vital midnight message and sending them the new message with all the details which they (now) had anyway (because those troops were on the ground).
Berlin never twigged that they got the message after they already knew the information, and that message 100% silenced all critics of the Garbo network. Garbo continued to talk about Calais for weeks afterwards, until he finally said that Normandy had been surprisingly successful and Calais was cancelled - by which time an invasion there would have been pointless.
----
If you have never read it, I would recommend my all-time favourite book on WW2: "Between Silk and Cyanide".
Not exactly related, but it does touch on D-Day in rather interesting ways.
only 300 pages?
the one being released Nov 7 is 976 pages
anyway, it's still pretty cool.
That's a matter of some debate. Tolkien was careful to abjure any explicit allegory in his books -- at least in his many letters to C.S. Lewis on the topic -- but he was definitely influenced by World War I (see this book). I think it's a bridge too far to say that that made him write a book where Germans were replaced with Orcs -- which I've seen some others argue -- but your theory is an easier lift. It's hard to read LotR without conceiving it, at least in part, as a paean to the disappearing and modernizing pre-war English countryside.
tldr: maybe and probably ;).
(- mixing war metaphors here)
A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow.
Cold Storage by John Straley.
You might like John Krakauer's Into the Wild. Though Alaskans don't have the same romantic feelings about Chris McCandless as most of the rest of the US; we mostly regard him as an idiot.
A Kodiak Bear Mauling by R. Keith Rogan.
And don't overlook The Call of the Wild by Jack London.
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Code-Maker's War, by Leo Marks
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Silk-Cyanide-Makers-1941-45/dp/0750948353
This is the stuff. Gripping, humorous, cynical, elegiac account of WWII cryptography, written by someone who was really there. He was also the author of the poem "The life that I have / Is all that I have", used as a coding key by Violet Szabo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_That_I_Have
Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
It's kind of a Memoir. Hugely entertaining and short enough to finish on most flights.
Some of my personal favorites (amazon links):
A Fortune Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East, mainly Southeast Asia.
The Geography of Bliss, RTW.
Food-related:
Ant Egg Soup: The Adventures of a Food Tourist in Laos
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China
Peter Hessler in China:
River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze
Country Driving
And Peter Mayle's series on Provence.
Fate is the Hunter by ernest gann. Really good memoir.
Edit for link http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0671636030/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
Alex: The Life Of a Child.
Very sad, but worth the read.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/1558535527/ref=mw_dp_olp?qid=1394674786&sr=8-6
The Night of the Gun. By David Carr.
https://www.amazon.com/Night-Gun-reporter-investigates-darkest/dp/1416541535
For a fascinating look at the early days of flight from Nevil Shute, who, besides being a great writer, was an aeronautical engineer in England, started his own airship company, served in WWI and WWII, and more - read [Slide Rule] (http://www.amazon.com/Slide-Rule-Nevil-Shute/dp/1842322915/ref=la_B000AQ3XCQ_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418486170&sr=1-6)
A Fortune Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani, about overland travel from South East Asia to Europe. It was interesting to read about the superstition and the witch doctors/healers, and see it from the author's perspective while I travel through SEA.
Least favourite is Paulo Coelho's The Pilgrimage.
Between Silk & Cyanide - a fantastically readable, moving and at times funny autobiography by Leo Marks, who in his early twenties worked as a codemaker for British intelligence during WWII. Seriously- this is a damn good & very affecting book.
Fate is the Hunter
It is a memoir by Ernest K. Gann recounting some of his more memorable experiences in aviation. It was recommended to me by one of my instructors at flight school and I loved it. The book is an easy read but more importantly, just about every chapter carries with it an important lesson about flying an aircraft that will better develop your mindset as a pilot.
Read https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Invention-Human-Harold-Bloom/dp/157322751X for the strong case.
Hey man I found something for ya. Maybe this is what you're looking for? https://www.amazon.com/Elric-Saga-Melnibone-Sailor-Weird/dp/156865040X
Hmm, you say this so definitively. What is the context behind your statement? From the few civil war era biographies I've read (Ulysses s grant, Abraham Lincoln ) none of the memoirs, lincolns personal notes, his earlier rambling campaign speeches, or other supporting information aligns with what you are representing here. And the biography on Lincoln I read (which was quite good) didn't particularly make him out to be some hero and spent plenty of time covering his flaws and evolution. What it did do is really attempt to provide the historical context to the decisions and actions he undertook, leaving the judgement to the reader.
I came here to post this one, too. It was pretty easy to follow. I also liked Parallel Universes: The Search for Other Worlds.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer they made a movie too. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000SEFNMS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
I am currently reading [The Night of the Gun] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Night-Gun-reporter-investigates/dp/1416541535/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1405104663&sr=8-1) by David Carr as well as Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
I actually started Two Cities over a month ago but forgot the book at my parents' place when I was there last. Kind of annoying since I only had about 80 pages to go but I'll be there this weekend so I am hoping I can wrap both books up by the end of the weekend.
Next up is either [Norwegian Wood] (http://www.amazon.com/Norwegian-Wood-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0375704027/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405105257&sr=1-1&keywords=norwegian+wood) by Haruki Murakami or [Sirens of Titan] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Sirens-Titan-A-Novel/dp/0385333498/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1405105400&sr=1-1) by Kurt Vonnegut.
My hope was to try and read 52 books in 52 weeks (aside: if this kind of challenge interests you be sure to check out /r/52book) but I'm pretty far behind at this point and will have to really ramp things up if I want to get that done.
This is one of the series that got me seriously reading fantasy. Yes, you should pick up the Saga collections for the best price. They have a good reading order, too - starting with Elric of Melnibone' and ending with Stormbringer.
The book Albion's seed. Spending time at Plimoth Plantation (relatives landed there). The Boston Tea Party Museum in Boston (relative participated). Spending time at Sturbridge Village. Reading Midwife's tale. (My something great grandfather founded Eastport,
Maine with 16 other families). Good wives. (Reminds me of how lucky I am in many ways!)
One side of the family is all Governors and fancy folk-while there is lots of info about them I am not to interested. I am REALLY into how the regular people lived and try to learn about that.
While it's not my relatives, I loved the NYC tenement museum.
Animal Farm. My parents let us read what ever we wanted. I had my first complete Shakespear at 10 along with an amazing book called Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human when I turned 13. I read Animal Farm when I was 11. I had a good grasp on a lot of things and this totally opened my eyes to politics and power dynamics.
I'd also recommend Hammond and Scull 's chronology and guide it's an impressive work. And it looks like they're working on a second edition which is exciting, so you might want to wait till it comes out.
Edit:links
Read up on these in "Between Silk and Cyanide." Easy reading and fascinating. Silk was durable and quiet. No rustling in the dark.
https://www.amazon.com/Between-Silk-Cyanide-Codemakers-1941-1945/dp/068486780X
Where did you get these?
A surprising number of these books were assigned reading from classes.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
And I'm currently reading a book recommended by an excellent redditor somewhere in this sub, Mad in America by Robert Whitaker
I would recommend a collection of short stories or essays. It would be easy to check in and out of the stories as needed. Some of my favorites are the following
A Man Without a Country - Kurt Vonnegut
Get in Trouble - Kelly Link
We Live in Water - Jess Walter
Or get something from The Best American series. It's kind of a lazy way out but I love these series because it curates some of the best writers out there and has introduced me to some new authors that I had never heard of before.
My suggestion is to read book-length journalism by top-tier journalists. Below are some examples. Also, you should check out the Longform podcast, which has interviews with journalists about their careers and their work.
David Carr - The Night of the Gun
David Remnick - Reporting: Writings from the New Yorker
Jennifer Gonnerman - Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett
Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood
Jessica Mitford - The American Way of Death Revisited
Wendy Ruderman & Barbara Laker - Busted: A Tale of Corruption in the City of Brotherly Love
Michael Herr - Dispatches
Obviously we can't really say that with certainty, but I do think it is possible, and apparently so do some other people smarter than me looking into such interactions. Like this guy:
https://www.amazon.com/Parallel-Universes-Search-Other-Worlds/dp/0671696017
Please tell me you are doing a Tolkien episode on him him and his friends. His experiences in the war had such an influence on his writing. http://www.amazon.com/Tolkien-Great-War-Threshold-Middle-earth/dp/0618574816. The Winnie the Pooh background story is a fun little aside as well. http://www.just-pooh.com/history.html
There's an even better book by David Carr, called "Night of the Gun". AA worked for him.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Night-Gun-reporter-investigates/dp/1416541535
You are gonna have a fun time when you get to the Exegesis.
The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0547549253/
Great story!
Wondering if you've ever read "Fate is the Hunter" by Ernest K Gann. It's available on download. It's basically Gann's autobiography from the time he joined American Airlines in the '30s to his retirement, and is packed with fascinating stories and incidents. Your story reminded me of his book.
http://www.amazon.com/FATE-THE-HUNTER-Ernest-Gann/dp/0671636030
I like Life After Death (about life on death row) and Angela's Ashes
I don't have it myself but as a kid I read a story about a little girl named Alex who had it. There has never been a story since that has affected me so much and for so long and I promised myself that one day I would get heavily involved some way.
http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Life-Child-Frank-Deford/dp/1558535527
It's worth a read IMO and I just noticed the second reviewer has CF and apparently the book helped him understand it more and helped him cope.
I hope this makes it to the front page.
This is an excellent book on the subject, and was even made into an episode of American Experience on PBS. I highly recommend it!
I taught high school English for five years, and had my fill of the classics. I find I can't really get into that stuff anymore, although it certainly helps when I watch Jeopardy! I remain a big Hemingway and Steinbeck fan....
I've found as I grow older I am more drawn to non-fiction, with Bruce Springsteen's [Born to Run] (https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Bruce-Springsteen/dp/1501141511) and a great Teddy Roosevelt [biography] (https://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Rex-Edmund-Morris/dp/0812966007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497020483&sr=1-1&keywords=theodore+rex) by Edmund Morris being the last two books I've read. As far as fiction is concerned lately - dunno, but I'm always a sucker for whatever John Grisham is cooking.
I was a big Shannara series geek when I was a kid; my singular, lone experience with the fantasy genre. [The Sword of Shannara] (https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Shannara-Terry-Brooks/dp/0345314255/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497020523&sr=1-2&keywords=Sword+of+shannara) was the very first "big" book I ever read, back in 7th grade. About fifteen years ago I got to meet the author, Terry Brooks, and had the distinct pleasure to say to him "The Sword of Shannara was the first book I ever read." Wow. What a nice moment that was. (He graciously thanked me and told me that he hears that a lot.)
Specific, timely recommendation - if you haven't read recently-deceased sportswriter Frank Deford's ["Alex: The Life of a Child,"] (https://www.amazon.com/Alex-Life-Child-Frank-Deford/dp/1558535527) please consider moving it up your list. It's his account of his young daughter's well-fought, yet losing battle with Cystic Fibrosis. I was so moved by this book that I taught it for a few years to my students. Gripping and moving and very readable, it was always a highlight of the school year. DeFord's recent passing brought the book back to me, and I enjoyed reading multiple articles/columns by writers and colleagues discussing the impact that little book had on them as well. It's nice to think that DeFord is now finally reunited with his daughter.
Last thing: Need a great go-to resource for book choices? For many years I've relied on [NPR's must-read list] (http://www.npr.org/books/), and it's always been a home run for me. My wife knows that if she wants to buy me a book, all she has to do is go to that website and pick from the top. I like it better than the NYTimes list, as the summaries are often accompanied by the radio reviews played on NPR.
If you like PDK's VALIS-like stuff you might enjoy The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. I have a copy and it's very interesting. The man took this stuff as literally true, and I think that was due to psychosis induced by the overuse of drugs, but as a sci-fi premise or thematic elements it's some pretty intriguing stuff. : )
Really appreciate for sharing your cheers!
Each book title is parsed by the following steps.
{ title: "Into The Wild", author: "Jon Krakauer", ... }
There are lot more going on to filter non-book and expired ASINS but that's the big picture.
I'm new here and don't have a + yet. If that disqualifies me then that's fair. The only book I recommend when people ask me for one is Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. It was the book that got me back into reading and before I knew it I was done with the book. It is the memoirs of a poor Irishman. I never thought someone could make me laugh so hard at all the unfortunate things that he had to endure. He also won the Pulitzer Prize for it.
http://www.amazon.com/Angelas-Ashes-Memoir-Frank-McCourt/dp/068484267X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382452344&sr=8-1&keywords=angela%27s+ashes
BTW, good to see Atlas Shrugged AND Douglas Adams on your list :)
> My Grandfather was tasked with finding out where the fuse wires went so that in case of an invasion they could cut these cords and help the allied army.
If your grandfather was part of the Dutch resistance, then the Germans were probably the ones giving those orders, after a while (definitely if they came by radio from London) The entire network was infiltrated by Hermann Giskes and his department.
To hide this fact, Giskes rescued Allied pilots and sent them back to the UK via genuine resistance cells. Giskes also mounted a fake "raid" on a harbour - which he didn't inform his own people about. The British were convinced (from intercepts) that it was genuine (but failed its objectives).
While Giskes played a good game, his scheme should have been compromised almost immediately. The British ignored obvious and clear (but coded) warnings which the captured agents sent in their messages.
Your grandfather was a very lucky chap - but was probably too small to be worth picking up.
You may find these two books interesting: firstly, "London calling North Pole" by Giskes (tells the story of how he took over the resistance in the Netherlands).
Secondly: "Between Silk and Cyanide" - a view from London of what it was like to receive messages from the captured agents (and also just one of the best books ever).
Have you ever read the book, A Fortune Teller Told Me?
Check out Night of the Gun by David Carr. It's his memoir about his longtime drug addiction. Carr, a New York Times reporter, decides that rather than only write from memory (frankly much of it is gone after so many years of drug abuse), he interviews friends, family, and others who were around for the dark times in an attempt to form a truthful, unflinching portrait of who he was during his years of addiction.
If you're looking for humor/parody that plays with fantasy tropes, check out Pratchett's Discworld novels or Robert Asprin's Myth series.
For more straight-forward fantasy that is still an easy read and doesn't require a scorecard to keep track of, Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria books or J.D. Hallowell's War of the Blades books.
For something a bit darker, try Michael Moorcock's Elric saga.
Some of my favorites:
it has.
Great book. Very funny: I'm a Stranger Here Myself Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away - Bill Bryson
Here!
check out A Fortune Teller Told Me. It's a travelogue from a journalist that traveled around Asia only by land for a year, and it's a good read.
Well since no one else has taken you up on this...
I was not able to find much for .99 but here are three (all under 3.00), any of which I would very much enjoy if you feel so inclined and are willing to change your 99 cent policy haha!
The Golem and the Jinni,
Tolkien's Letters, and/or
The City Stained Red.
Thanks for your kind consideration!
There are tons and tons of biographies written on Lincoln from all angles. Here is one of the better, more readable ones for the casual history reader:
David Herbert Donald - Lincoln
http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-David-Herbert-Donald/dp/068482535X
Abe Lincoln.
This biography on Lincoln, called Lincoln by David Herbert Donald was amazing. Abe Lincoln was an incredible man.
Tolkien base the events of Middle Earth on the trench warfare in Europe in WW1.
http://www.amazon.com/Tolkien-Great-War-Threshold-Middle-earth/dp/0618574816
not necessarily from german viewpoints, but a few of my favorite reads from my collection.
Ordinary men - by Christopher Browning
Life Unworthy Life - by James M Glass
My Father's Keeper - by Stephen & Norbert Lebert
Children of the Flames - by Lucette matalon Lagnado
Between Silk and Cyanide - by Leo Marks
The Men with the Pink Triangle - by Heinz Heger
I'll add more as i think and consult my bookshelves.