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Post by nucleusofswarm on Nov 3, 2018 11:09:36 GMT
What's some of your favourite books that don't feature some type of futuristic or fantastical elements?
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Post by anothermanicmondas on Nov 3, 2018 22:41:30 GMT
for me that would be Crime novels by Donald E Westlake (including some of his pen-names)
(a few of his books are disqualified - Tomorrow's crimes/Anarchaos (a planet with no law), Smoke (an invisible thief), Humans (God sends an angel to destroy the world) but most do not have fantasy elements and so are valid)
Top of the list would be:-
The Dortmunder series (The Hot rock, etc)
the Parker series (written as Richard Stark) and the Grofield spin-offs
the Samuel Holt Books (written as Samuel Holt)
Dancing Aztecs
the Ax
The Hook
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Nov 3, 2018 22:45:53 GMT
I've been getting into more pre-WW2 literature the last few years. I like Maugham, Faulkner (though SOund and the Fury is a beast), Hemingway and I recently finally got around to Great Gatsby.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Nov 3, 2018 22:46:04 GMT
Also, Homage to Catalonia.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2018 0:26:02 GMT
John le Carré is impeccable
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Post by Digi on Nov 4, 2018 1:21:21 GMT
In some respects I find this question a little difficult to answer. Picking an example at random: 1984. There's nothing fantastical, magical, science fictiony, or futuristic about it, but I suspect it falls outside the definition intended for this thread.
There's no real point to this post, I'm just musing on the difficulty of defining things into neat little boxes.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2018 1:27:17 GMT
I think Upton Sinclair is the writer who has had the most influence on me in his fiction,closely followed by Howard Zinn, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins though they're non-fiction of course. I also love Booth Tarkington, Iain Banks, Orwell, P. G. Wodehouse, Conrad, Sinclair Lewis and others. Individual titles? The Jungle,It Can't Happen Here, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Crow Road, Johnny Got His Gun.....too many to name really.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2018 1:28:09 GMT
John le Carré is impeccable Shout out to The Spy Who Came in From the Cold for a tragic examination of spywork in the Circus. Adding to that, Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence is phenomenal, both in how it's written and its subject matter. Colonel Van der Post's Journey into Russia recounts the Soviet Union of the 1960s with a desire to know the truth behind the transnational posturing. The full-fifty Saint novels by Leslie Charteris are rather fun. A fair variety of them feature non-fantasy elements (i.e. things that could and would be done by those of the era). I don't think there's anyone else in the world that quite writes as he does. It kind-of, sort-of qualifies, but Oh Dear Silvia by Dawn French is incredible too. It's told entirely from the perspective of a woman in a coma as people come to visit her in the hospital. Kate Mulgrew's Born With Teeth is the audiobook I always recommend in a heartbeat. From her childhood to her search for her baby, it's written with a tonne of raw, genuine emotion. |
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
Likes: 5,669 
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Post by shutupbanks on Nov 4, 2018 9:08:48 GMT
Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy: a great novel, way ahead of its time in talking about class and relationships.
Beginning by Kenneth Branagh: his bio up until the release of Henry V. Candid, honest and often hilarious, it's my favourite book by an actor about the job.
Underfoot In Showbusiness by Helene Hanff: a just brilliant account of how the author didn't break into showbiz. Worth it for the Oklahoma! story alone.
Espedair Street by Iain Banks (the other one, not me): fantastic novel about a rock star on the verge of losing everything.
Timebends: Arthur Miller's memoirs. Brilliant.
Holy Mother by Gabrielle Donnelly: a story about the members of a Catholic prayer group.
Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas: my favourite play.
It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville: story of a boy growing up in New York and how taking in a stray cat leads to some changes in his outlook.
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Nov 5, 2018 12:49:45 GMT
Clive Cussler novels
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Post by Ela on Nov 6, 2018 20:59:20 GMT
Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas: my favourite play. I love it, too. I love it so much that it was the topic I chose to write a paper about in high school. Love Dylan Thomas' work in general. Also, as mentioned elsewhere, James Joyce. |
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Post by charlesuirdhein on Nov 6, 2018 21:17:24 GMT
Tough call. Partly because I like genre fiction, particularly fantasy and sci-fi, and when those shine oh how they shine, in a way other fiction just does not.
But outside that? I need to have a think.
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Post by mark687 on Nov 6, 2018 21:27:13 GMT
Detective Alex Cross Series by James Patterson
The Sharpe Series by Bernard Cronwell
Ian Fleming
Colin Dexter
Regards
mark687
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Post by Hieronymus on Nov 6, 2018 22:29:50 GMT
If we're talking novels, then:
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Colas Breugnon by Romain Rolland
The Plague (La Peste) by Albert Camus
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
Romola by George Eliot
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
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Post by lidar2 on Nov 7, 2018 8:54:32 GMT
Boris Akunin
Bernard Cornwell
Anthiny Trollope
Jane Austen
All time favourite novel ever - Wuthering Heights
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Post by Ela on Nov 7, 2018 17:42:58 GMT
Ha. Wuthering Heights is one novel I've tried to read multiple times and could never get into. Not even sure why.
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Post by tuigirl on Nov 7, 2018 19:01:51 GMT
I absolutely love and adore science fiction and fantasy and it is the bulk of what I am reading.
But I also love crime fiction. Kathy Reichs and Rita Mae Brown are among my favorites.
However, I think my alltime favorite crime novel is "The judge and his hangman" by Dürrenmatt. The hero of the story is just the very definition of bada$$.
Oh, and as an animal lover, I love James Herriot's books.
Honorary mentions: Mr. Penumbras 24 hour bookstore, and a few German crime and adventure novels I think have not even been translated...
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Post by newt5996 on Nov 24, 2018 1:15:25 GMT
Pride and Prejudice is amazingly funny and something everyone should read
On Writing by Stephen King is great
To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are both great for the childlike wonder.
And anything by Agatha Christie
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Post by number13 on Nov 24, 2018 2:10:16 GMT
Very very difficult, so I went for some favourite authors (listed in alphabetical order) and my favourite novel for each:
Jane Austen - Emma Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express
Ian Fleming - From Russia With Love Rudyard Kipling - Kim
Dorothy L. Sayers - The Nine Tailors
Sir Walter Scott - Rob Roy P.G.Wodehouse - The Code of the Woosters
I really wanted Conan Doyle to be on the list but it's the Holmes short stories I love, not the novels.
Plus a huge heap of sci-fi and fantasy novels which aren't allowed on this thread!  |
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