I have found Google's Authors@Google playlist an excellent resource for finding new books to read. Even better, you can usually listen to the first 5 minutes or so of the talk and get a very reasonable idea whether you are interested, without investing too much of your time.
A book of Garrison Keillor short stories from early in his career, called (I think) "Happy to Be Here". Pure hilarious americana, where everyone is fleecing everyone else all the time but they're always polite.
Set in the near-ish future, a big asteroid comes whizzing into the solar system. Looks weird, so we investigate. It's a total page turner, and reads like an adventure/mystery. Highly recommended.
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The Malazan Book of the Fallen series - Steven Erikson
A fantasy series, set in a really unique setting. It's an epic fantasy series with a huge ensemble cast and a bunch of parallel plots that break a lot of the usual tropes. It's tough to describe, but if you like epic fantasy it's a must read. I'm on book five of ten and loving it.
It took me a huge time to get through Rendezvous with Rama. (I stopped reading and then finished it almost an year later). Even though it is a pretty short book. For me, it just too much hard-SF with none of the character development. The ending doesn't help with that either.
But then, I didn't like Eon either (Greg Bear), so maybe hard-SF isn't really for me.
The Last Days Of Night - Graham Moore - It's historical fiction about Westinghouse, Bell, Edison and Tesla and the fight for the light bulb and electricity. Fast fun read and rather interesting.
I'll second this, along with its follow up book. I read it close to a year ago and the description of the particle unfolding into higher dimensions has still stuck with me.
My only major complain with the book is that very often it uses particle physics as hand-wavy magic to break any rules it wishes to, and that breaks suspension of disbelief for me.
Oh, I don't have any illusions about the physics being accurate! These type of books are very much an escape for me, so it doesn't bug me too much when authors take liberties with reality.
Epic Fantasy, set in a alternative Earth, where the magic system works on Earthquakes. Won the Hugo this year, which is why I read it. Breaks a lot of core writing rules, and tries hard to do things that are rarely seen in the genre.
There is some remarkable fiction coming out this season by some of the best:
Jonathan Safran Foer's Here I Am
Zadie Smith's Swing Time
Ian McEwan's Nutshell
Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad
Carl Hiassan's Razor Girl
Alan Moore's Jerusalem
Jonathan Lethem's A Gamber's Anatomy
Ha Jin's The Boat Rocker
T.C. Boyle's The Terranauts
Michael Chabon's Moonglow
Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger
I've got plenty of friends who never touch fiction because "it's not real". Preferring science, history, economics, biography and virtually anything else. But I think its obligatory at times. The soul requires it's own nourishment, if not more so than the body and the mind. Indulge yourself. If only because great writing will make your writing greater, as if by osmosis. But ultimately, because only fiction can uncover the truths that can't be revealed any other way ;)
Wise Guy - Nicholas Pileggi
This is the chronicle of the life of Henry Hill, a half-Irish half-Sicilian kid from Brooklyn, New York who rose through the ranks of the Mafia back in it's heydays. The most entertaining book concerning organized crime that I've ever read, by far (these guys really had it all. they were both feared and respected. they could quite literally do whatever they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it and they need not have any fear of reprisal from anything or anybody). Also, this is the book that gave birth to the Martin Scorsese movie GoodFellas -- but as is so often the case, the book is much better than the movie. Given that the movie is fantastic, that is really saying something IMHO.
Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim
As a software engineer, I've come to really love how good products are built and how to explore new markets. While I don't think it's a life-changing book, it's certainly a good read and I'd recommend it to any engineer that wants to be more product-focused (also Inspired, Creativity Inc, and Zero to One)
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[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 78.7 ms ] threadold man and the sea - Hemingway - good read
sapiens (currently reading) - Yuval Noah Harari - fantastic till now
What if (still reading) - Randall Munroe - an interesting read
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGGpadyh0wS589np9dre-...
For example, I found Amy Herman's "Visual Intelligence", it is pretty good (I am still reading it).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v_tn4nyjwE
The same simple programming problem (term frequency) solved using 33 different programming styles.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L2EAVAW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...
Set in the near-ish future, a big asteroid comes whizzing into the solar system. Looks weird, so we investigate. It's a total page turner, and reads like an adventure/mystery. Highly recommended.
---------
The Malazan Book of the Fallen series - Steven Erikson
A fantasy series, set in a really unique setting. It's an epic fantasy series with a huge ensemble cast and a bunch of parallel plots that break a lot of the usual tropes. It's tough to describe, but if you like epic fantasy it's a must read. I'm on book five of ten and loving it.
But then, I didn't like Eon either (Greg Bear), so maybe hard-SF isn't really for me.
Mastery
The Geography of Genius
Ready Player One
Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz (reading this book WILL make you feel like you're on drugs)
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America
The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism
Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business
History and evolution of man kind. Hihgly recommended.
Witch Piss - Sam Pink
1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
Epic Fantasy, set in a alternative Earth, where the magic system works on Earthquakes. Won the Hugo this year, which is why I read it. Breaks a lot of core writing rules, and tries hard to do things that are rarely seen in the genre.
Jonathan Safran Foer's Here I Am
Zadie Smith's Swing Time
Ian McEwan's Nutshell
Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad
Carl Hiassan's Razor Girl
Alan Moore's Jerusalem
Jonathan Lethem's A Gamber's Anatomy
Ha Jin's The Boat Rocker
T.C. Boyle's The Terranauts
Michael Chabon's Moonglow
Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger
I've got plenty of friends who never touch fiction because "it's not real". Preferring science, history, economics, biography and virtually anything else. But I think its obligatory at times. The soul requires it's own nourishment, if not more so than the body and the mind. Indulge yourself. If only because great writing will make your writing greater, as if by osmosis. But ultimately, because only fiction can uncover the truths that can't be revealed any other way ;)
https://www.crcpress.com/The-End-of-Error-Unum-Computing/Gus...
>> Computer History & biographies:
The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story, Michael Lewis
The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, by Alan Deutschman
Machines of Loving Grace, by John Markoff
The Innovators, by Walter Isaacson
Ghost in the Wires, by Kevin Mitnick
Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft, by Paul Allen
Creativity, Inc, by Ed Catmull (reading)
>> Startups:
The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz
The Founder's Dilemmas, Noam Wasserman
The Launch Pad, by Randall Stross
>> Other books:
Trilogy: Off to Be the Wizard (series), by Scott Meyer
Search Inside Yourself, Chade-Meng Tan
Joy on Demand, Chade-Meng Tan (reading)
As a software engineer, I've come to really love how good products are built and how to explore new markets. While I don't think it's a life-changing book, it's certainly a good read and I'd recommend it to any engineer that wants to be more product-focused (also Inspired, Creativity Inc, and Zero to One)