Reddit mentions: The best biographical historical fiction books

Demon of the Air by Simon Levack is a mystery/crime novel set in the early years of the Aztec Empire. It won the Crime Writers' Association New Writing Competition and (I think) a Gold Dagger (?) award?

It's the first in a series of four "Aztec Mysteries" (so far).

I picked up the first title (Demon of the Air) but haven't read it yet. They come highly recommended though.


I'm also a big fan of Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series of historical mysteries set in Ancient Rome.

Dissolution by CJ Sansom is the first of several historical mysteries set in Tudor England. I liked it a lot. I've bought the second title for my Kindle, but haven't read it yet.

Zoo Station is another historical series set in pre WWII Germany. Good fun.

The historical mysteries (or so-called "Night Soldiers" novels) of Alan Furst are simply superb. He is generally considered one of the best historical/espionage writers around and these books have effectively redefined the genre. They are all very loosely linked (effectively stand alone with perhaps one or two subtle references to events in other books), the first of which is the simply wonderful Night Soldiers. Along a similar vein to Downing and Furst, Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir track the progress of washed up German police officer/private investigator Bernie Gunther from just before WWII to the fifties in South America. Very well written and well regarded.

Finally, there are some simply wonderful stand alone historical novels I cannot pass up the chance of recommending. The simply astounding Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is probably one of the best novels I have ever read. It tracks the early career of Thomas Cromwell as he rises from humble origins to being the most powerful man in Henry VIII's England. It justifiably won the 2009 Man Booker Prize. I've just started her A Place of Greater Safety set during the French Revolution and am very much looking forward to it. Mantel is a sublimely talented wordsmith.

Gore Vidal is famous for his historical novels, not least [Julian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_(novel) and more recently [Creation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_(novel). Allan Massie is famous for his historical ("fictional") biographies of Ancient Romans and Thomas Holt has written several historical novels (along with other works), my favourite of which is Goat Song and its sequel, The Walled Orchard (also the name of a subsequent publication of both novels combined).

Should I continue?

Perhaps you've already gotten him a book by now, but here are my recommendations for him and anyone else who reads this thread. I'm a martial arts researcher and a former martial arts teacher. I even wrote my Master's Thesis on martial arts. I've read literally hundreds of books on the subject. There are a lot of terrible books out there on the martial arts but you can't go wrong with any of these.

If he studies Shotokan, the best place to start is with the guy who invented it.
Karate-Do: My Way of Life is written by the founding master of Shotokan, Gichin Funakoshi.
http://www.amazon.com/Karate-Do-Way-Life-Gichin-Funakoshi/dp/1568364989/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411959258&sr=1-10&keywords=shotokan


My number one recommendation is When Buddhists Attack by Jeffery Mann - This is an very well researched book on the history of the relationship between Zen and the Martial arts. It is a fantastic book that will help him deepen his understanding of martial arts instead of intentionally mystifying it more to try to sell more books like most martial arts books do.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Buddhists-Attack-Curious-Relationship/dp/4805312300/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411958781&sr=1-1&keywords=when+buddhists+attack



If he's more into stories, I'd recommend Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. It's a novelization of one of the most famous samurai to ever live. It's an exaggeration of his life but very entertaining.
http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/156836427X


If he'd rather learn about the real person I'd recommend The Lone Samurai by William Scott Wilson. Wilson is a famous translator and historian, his work is very well researched and enjoyable to read.
http://www.amazon.com/Lone-Samurai-Life-Miyamoto-Musashi/dp/1590309871/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411958941&sr=1-1&keywords=the+lone+samurai


I'll end with a list of books NOT to buy. These are books are really popular but are full of misinformation, outright fabrications, or worse.


Joe Hyams - Zen in the Martial arts
Eugen Herrigel - Zen in the Art of Archery
Inazo - Nitobe - Bushido

Hope this helps! If not, you have gift ideas for next year!

This is something that's on my To-Read list, but I saw you like memoirs so I'm going to recommend Geisha: A Life or Geisha of Gion as it's known here by Mineko Iwasaki. I plan to read it along side the novel Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. The reason why these intrigue me as a pair is that Iwasaki agreed to help Golden with his novel, as long as he promised not to name her as a source. He went back on his promise and she got a lot of slack for that, especially as a lot of aspects about Geisha life was misrepresented/fabricated in his novel. It was because this she wrote her autobiography as a rebuttal to the novel, in order to contrast what she really experienced with the world Golden created.

'Einstein's Dreams' by Alan Lightman.

It's a fictional book that itemizes Einstein's dreams leading up to his creation of the theory of relativity. It's a really fun read and gets your head thinking about time and what time is. It's short, with each "dream" lasting only a handful of pages. It's been one of my favorite books to come back to anytime I can.

You can read reviews on Amazon as well as read the first few pages. Clicky for Amazon.

Once you read this you'll probably find that you want to read more of Lightman's books in the hopes of finding other really enjoyable reads. While his other books are good, they're not the same. I haven't found anything that's quite like this book so far, which is a shame. Would love to hear suggestions from folks who have read this and found other books similarly enjoyable.

Highly recommend The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. (Don't worry, that's not an affiliate link.) This historical fiction is based on the life of Sarah Grimke, who became one of the first female abolitionists. Ms. Grimke's thinking was so far ahead of her time. At the age of 11, she was given a human gift, a child slave. Ms. Grimke taught "Handful" to read. Although this is based on a true story, some is fact, and some is fiction. There is a fantastic author's note at the end of the book as well, in which Kidd describes her inspiration and research for this book.

It's SUCH a beautiful book. Beautifully written.

Perhaps you can see the "will of power" as "will to win". I believe NItzsche says that (for example) you will ask a girl out, not only because you like her, or you feel nice things about her, but also because you want to be together, you shouldn't play just to play but to win! Nitzsche just tries to say that it's ok to want to win, to want to be a better (a stronger) person ("the man be surpassed", "the man is a bridge") not for your parents, society etc. but for yourself.

Of course his philosophy is not just that. In general I think Nitzsche tries to make us settle with the human side of ours, the side that has desires, fears, wishes, which should not be considered sins.

A very nice introduction in Nitzsche's ideas is the book "When Nitzsche wept" https://www.amazon.com/When-Nietzsche-Wept-Novel-Obsession/dp/0062009303

Stoner by John Williams (not the composer) is one of the best novels I've ever read. Fantastically well written, just a wonderful story of an ordinary man's life. I've read two of Williams' four novels (the other being Butcher's Crossing, about 19th century buffalo hunting, also phenomenal) and one of the others is Augustus, a national book award winner. I should get on that one...

Also, The Dog of the South by Charles Portis(author of True Grit, also an excellent book) is a hilarious, wonderful book that I would recommend to anyone. Actually all five of his books are great too.

Oh, can't forget Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, incredible portrait of a post-apocalyptic world written in its own dialect. It takes a while to get used to, but once you do it's well worth it.

Hope I'm not too late to the party. In this thread you'll find a lot of material on Rome, but I wouldn't go as far as calling them sources. HBO's Rome is a historical fiction TV series, and Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, of which I'm a fan, should never substitute genuine academic work or ancient literature. If you're looking for books, there's a plethora of works to choose from.

In the lighter end of literature, you'd do well reading Mary Beard, Adrian Goldsworthy or Tom Holland - all educated in Classicism from either Oxford or Cambridge. I'd categorise most of their work as popular history, so they're easy reads, yet made with authority on the subject.

If you want your information straight from the horse's mouth, you can also look into works written by the Romans themselves, such as Livy, Plutarch or Suetonius. Reading these can be a little challenging/dull at times though, as they don't conform to our modern ways of structuring a narrative.

As for fiction, which, if done right, does have something to offer, you'd benefit from checking out I, Claudius, Memoirs of Hadrian or Julian imo.

As mentioned, the Afghan Campaign is really good. However, Steven Pressfield actually has a book that is about Alexander the Great directly, call The Virtues of War

If you like Iggulden and Cornwell, you will like Pressfield. Also, I cannot recommend highly enough his most well known book, The Gates of Fire. That one is about the last stand of the Spartans (and others) at Thermopylae and is exceptional. If you are into Greek historical fiction as a whole rather than only Alexander the Great, definitely give that one a try.

/u/Toptomcat nailed it. Wholeheartedly agree in reference to Bubishi, not very practical but interesting nonetheless. I loved Draeger's CAFA and Unante is comprehensive thesis on the historical origins and lineages of the Okinawan fighting arts. These titles might not be for everyone but I am a history buff in addition to a martial artist so I enjoyed them.

Couple of others:

• Book of the five Rings-Miyamoto Musashi
  
  
• Karate-do: my way of life- Funakoshi
  
  A few off-topic but related titles:
  
  
• Ways of the Peaceful Warrior
  
  
• Autumn lighting
  
  
• American Shaolin
  
  
• The Ronin
  
• Musashi-perhaps on of my favorite novels of all time
  

Every time someone asks me to recommend a book I always recommend Memoirs of a Geisha. I can't tell you how much I love this book, it's such a beautiful story and I know it's about a geisha but there's nothing bad in it, I wish I could read it every day. I've only read it twice from a library but if I win the raffle that's the book I want.

dammit, A heartbreaking work is like 50c less than what you need, assuming it's from amazon.

Maybe, What is the what Haven't completed it, but it's pretty good so far.

Also, slickfillers can help you with getting the $25 free shipping, again, assuming you need this for amazon

Any book by Mary Roach- her books are hilarious, random, and informative. I like Jon Krakauer's, Sarah Vowell's, and Bill Bryson's books as well.

Some of my favorites that I can think of offhand (as another poster mentioned, I loved Devil in the White City)

No Picnic on Mount Kenya

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Collapse

The Closing of the Western Mind

What is the What

A Long Way Gone

Alliance of Enemies

The Lucifer Effect

The World Without Us

What the Dog Saw

The God Delusion (you'd probably enjoy Richard Dawkins' other books as well if you like science)

One Down, One Dead

Lust for Life

Lost in Shangri-La

Endurance

True Story

Havana Nocturne

If Ancient Rome is more your thing (I'm assuming that if you're reading about the Aztecs than your interest is in the slow degeneration of Ancient Civilizations) then make sure to read the Claudius Novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God. I would also recommend The First Man in Rome or any of Colleen Mccullough's work. This stuff is probably the best that the genre has to offer in my opinion.

-- edit, actually now that I think about it I'm probably completely wrong in that assumption because I was thinking of the Mel Gibson movie Apocalypto which was about the Aztecs and not the Inca. The former being a pretty degenerate society where a comparison with the Romans is pretty apt IMHO, while that later were actually quite a noble people. Sorry, about that.

Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati (six books in the series). Donati is friends with Diana Gabaldon, and there are some similarities in that these are big, sweeping books with adventure and romance in a historical setting.

Sharon Kay Penman's Here Be Dragons (the Welsh Princes series) is based in 13th century Wales. There's as much political intrigue as romance and battle.

Another author I like who doesn't get nearly as much hoopla as she should is Linda Holeman. The Linnet Bird and The Moonlit Cage are linked books that I thought were great.

Michio Kaku does a great job of explaining advanced concepts of physics in layman's terms. He describes 14 dimensions in the book.

read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Hyperspace-Scientific-Odyssey-Parallel-Universes/dp/0385477058/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1291998866&sr=8-3


DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON!
get it elsewhere please.


edit: OOH! since you mentioned time. This will help you learn to conceive alternate states of such....and is a really kick-ass book.


http://www.amazon.com/Einsteins-Dreams-Alan-Lightman/dp/140007780X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291999070&sr=1-1

DON'T BUY THIS ONE FROM AMAZON EITHER! plz.

I would first recommend Shogun by James Clavell. It's an epic story with a great plot. I don't believe it's too accurate, but it's a good read.


If you want to continue on with historical Japanese literature you can't go wrong with Musashi or Taiko both by Eiji Yoshikawa.


Moving on to more western stuff, I recommend the many James Michener books, but they can be boring at times. My favorite of his is Hawaii.


I'd also recommend Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield about the Battle of Thermopylae.

Oh gosh, I'm actually kind of horrible about reading! Some of my favorite little books are:

• Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman. It's a bunch of short stories about different universes based on some of Einstein's theories. For example, one of them is kind of like, "In this universe, time flows backwards. A woman picks a moldy peach out of her trashcan, puts it on her counter to ripen..." They're really interesting! It's a quick and wonderful read.
  
  
• Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman is similar to the aforementioned book. Short stories about different afterlives. It's not a religious thing though. I was actually rereading it this afternoon! Really interesting ideas, some romantic, some ironic, cute, sad, etc. I think it could spark some great conversation.

Thanks for posting this lecture introducing his at the time new book When Nietzsche Wept (2011).

In the lecture the story he starts with - the tale of the two healers from Hermann Hesse’s Magister Ludi - who find each other is a great way to start a talk as it kept me listening.

I only have his Existential Psychotherapy and it reads more like a text book. Explaining through prose, or teaching by telling a story, like the book Fish or The Goal is a very entertaining way to learn something and that appears to be what he's doing with When Nietzsche Wept.

Apparently he brings up the tale of the two teachers again later in The Gift of Therapy in 2013.

In the Time of the Butterflies is a wonderful novel that I truly loved. Also, Memoirs of a Geisha is highly recommended.

That's just for 2008 though... I'd open it up to other years.

First up is anything by Umberto Eco. He's the guy who wrote "Name of the Rose", but his other books are phenomenal. If you hated "The DaVinci Code" then check out "Foucalt's Pendulum". He makes Dan Brown look mildly retarded. His novels are so heavy and serious that I was surprised by his tiny book of essays "How To Travel With a Salmon" which is hilarious.

Let's see... what else... "Shadow of the Wind" is excellent. The Musashi novels are fun to read. Scaramouche, which was turned into an OK movie. Classics like Cyrano de Bergerac should be required reading.

I had a hard time hunting down all the volumes to "Journey to the West" and it's not a task that should be taken on lightly, but I think I'm a better person for having muscled through them.

Links:

http://www.amazon.com/Name-Rose-Everymans-Library-Cloth/dp/0307264890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637805&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Foucaults-Pendulum-Umberto-Eco/dp/015603297X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637841&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Travel-Salmon-Other-Essays-Harvest/dp/015600125X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637864&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zaf%C3%B3n/dp/0143034901/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637894&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637921&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Scaramouche-Rafael-Sabatini/dp/0554360268/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637963&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Cyrano-Bergerac-Edmond-Rostand/dp/0451528921/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637993&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-West-4-Boxed-Set/dp/7119016636/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637756&sr=8-1

Non-Fiction:

Alexander, I did not read this one, but I did enjoy his chapter on Alexander in the same author's book, The Great Captains.

The Mask of Command, while not only about Alexander, it's hard to go wrong with Kegan.

If you're interested in some historical fiction, try Steven Pressfield's The Virtues of War.

I would recommend the novel Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa. It's a success story of the man winning the Sengoku period.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/4770026099/

If you prefer games and pop culture in general, this Wikipedia article may also be a good start.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_of_the_Sengoku_period_in_popular_culture

Annnnd here we go again, another crazy but fun contest =)
Thank you!

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If anyone else happens to like those short-format thought collection-style books, two other interesting ones that I really like are:

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

I come back to both of these books repeatedly for creative inspiration, I like them so much. I have yet to read Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, but from what Grey said, I feel like the two that I mentioned might be a little bit more in-depth and may require a bit more work to understand in some cases.

I change up the books on the non-fiction list every year and this one is no longer on the list. It's a good one though: here's a link to it on Amazon.

Students may enjoy looking into Dave Eggers' work. He's written another book I've considered putting on the non-fiction project list, Zeitoun, a wonderful fictionalized work of true events called What is the What, and he is the editor and founder of McSweeney's, which has spawned the cool sport's writing quarterly Grantland and a sister literary magazine, The Believer.

I recommend you read Taiko

Edit:Musashi is my favorite novel of all time btw. The idea of living your life dedicated to one idea or skill or trade yet still exploring a life of diversity all vectored towards that one thing you've set your life towards. It's genuinely inspiring.

feudal Japan is a fascinating topic. I recommend Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa,as a fun intro to an amazing time and place.

Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa.

It is historical fiction; an astonishingly complete and well-researched look at the Machiavellian cunning of a man who rose from impoverished youngster to supreme dominant warlord of all Japan.

Superb writing.

Merry Christmas.

Regards,

Ivan

www.darktriadman.com

I've no answer to your question (if I did I'd be God), but I just want to share a book that you might be interested in - Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman. It considers time from a lot of different, fascinating angles.

If you post the URL like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Einsteins-Dreams-Alan-Lightman/dp/140007780X/

You can still get to the item minus any referral codes, but I guess you'd need to clear cookies and revisit the page if you're intent on not wanting someone to get an affiliate credit. Or, you could optionally add ?tag=Reddit-20 to have that credit apply to Reddit when you buy that or whatever else.

You have to watch Time Commanders. It is a weird British game show where random people attempt to win famous battles in a video game then hear about how they actually went down in real life - it is totally ridiculous and hokey, but sometimes it is great. My favorite one is the Battle of Gaugamela.

For books, Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa fits the bill. It is a fictionalized version of the most famous era of feudal Japan, the Nobunaga ascension, when Japan was in flux like China during Kingdom. It is not heavy on tactical warfare as much as on the state-building aspects and tricky sieges, things like that.

Have you ever read Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa? If not and you like big, long books, I'd highly recommend getting yourself a copy. It's the greatest book I've ever had the pleasure of reading in my 35 years, and I've read a shitload of books in my 35 years.

Although it's historical fiction, and not quite the time frame, Augustus, by John Williams is fantastic.

http://www.amazon.com/Augustus-Novel-John-Edward-Williams/dp/1400076730

It's an epistolary novel, well-researched and makes a great read. Williams doesn't deny taking artistic license, but he also tries to do so in a limited manner. Either way, if you're well-versed in Roman History, you'll take the fictional parts with a grain of salt, but enjoy the flesh and blood he puts on the characters.

https://www.amazon.com/Kindly-Ones-Novel-Jonathan-Littell/dp/0061353469

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell should leave that impression; doesn't hurt that it's also a masterpiece.

I really enjoy novelizations of the lives of historical figures. I loved Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

Each chapter is about 3 pages long (its a novel), it revolves around the nightly dreams that Einstein is having during the time period that he is coming up with his theory of relativity. Each chapter/dream describes worlds where time moves/is defined differently.

Highly suggest it, easy read, beautifully written. Really leaves you sitting there thinking.

My favourite short stories (that aren't by Bradbury, that is) are Light is Like Water by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Gospel According to Mark by Jorge Luis Borges.

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman isn't exactly an anthology, but it's nice to pick up every once in a while if I want dreamy food for thought (if the premise sounds interesting to you, you should also read Bradbury's Frost and Fire).

If anyone is interested in this topic, I highly recommend Einstein's Dreams. A very small book filled with different extreme worlds in which time is different than our own, including one like the OP is talking about where people try to live in tall buildings and only the poor scurry about at low altitudes. It's probably my favorite book, and I've read such masterpieces a the novelization of Adventures in Babysitting.

Clavell's Shogun is loosely based on actual history. Very, very loosely. Decades of history are blended together, and various historical figures are conflated into new characters. It's not even close to an accurate reflection of the political and cultural situation at the time, and of course it shoves in a white guy hero... Yeah, it's an entertaining read, but it also tends to make historians froth at the mouth.

The issue with ninjas is that most of the ninja mythology was invented during the 1800s... a good 200 years after the end of the "Warring States" period when much of this ninja action supposedly took place. A whole slew of popular novels were written featuring Sanada Yukimura (a samurai commander known for his cunning tactics) and his "Ten Braves," who were all legendary ninja. Sarutobi Sasuke is probably the most famous of the Ten Braves. Although Sanada Yukimura and the Ten Braves ultimately lost to Tokugawa Ieyasu (whose dynasty would rule Japan for the next 250 years), they were made out to be folk heroes with almost supernatural skill and cleverness.

...However, there's virtually zero evidence that any of these ninja ever existed outside of novels. The whole "ninja" mythos was invented in the 1800s, partly because it sounded cool and partly because the descendents of Sanada's samurai compatriots had suffered two hundred years of oppression under the ruling (but declining) Tokugawa regime, so there was still plenty of simmering resentment. Those two factors together sold a hell of a lot of books.

Samurai did use spies and saboteurs, but they weren't dudes who ran around in black Cobra Kai outfits slinging shuriken at each other. They were basically normal samurai. Political tensions were high during the Warring States era, but most samurai were surprisingly blatant about their backstabbing. Why go through the trouble of using ninja when you can simply lie, bribe, and threaten your way into power?

The biggest influence on modern ideas about ninja was actually the theatre. Kabuki stage plays and bunraku puppet plays both make use of stagehands who dress all in black and cover their faces with black cloth. Since the actors were brightly dressed and painted, these black-clad stagehands were "invisible." So a "ninja" character could creep around the stage in a stagehand's uniform, totally ignored by the audience until they revealed themselves.

Anyway, you were asking for books! The real history of the samurai is, at least to me, much more interesting than made-up ninja stories. It's full of power struggles and epic battles and tragic miscalculations and dirty tactics. It's good stuff. If you're interested, I highly recommend basically anything by Stephen Turnbull. He's written several visual guides to major battles of the samurai era, with tons of illustrations and analysis. He even has a book on ninja, although as I mentioned, ninja are a pretty contentious point among Japanese historians and any modern "ninja training school" that claims authenticity is full of pure bullshit.

Turnbull's War in Japan 1467-1615 is a good place to start. Osaka 1616 and Sekigahara 1600 (by Anthony Bryant) are the real source for Clavell's "Shogun" novel. Europeans actually did have a pretty significant role in Japan's civil wars, but not to the romanticized extent of "Shogun."

Those are probably the most accessible and easy-to-read books on the Warring States era. Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa is a semi-fictionalized but very well researched novel that covers some of the same time period, but it's a much more challenging read. Most of the other academic books I have are pretty dry, so start with Turnbull for the fully illustrated action version~

To this day there is still no greater book for opening up the world of thought than Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy. This book is indispensable.

Aside from that the best advice, as many here have noted, is to simply read widely and often. Here are some other books I can personally recommend as being particularly insightful:

• Wind, Sand and Stars
  
• Einstein's Dreams
  
• Family Happiness
  
• Borges
  
• Kafka
  
• Tao Te Ching
  
• Book of Job
  
• The Stranger
  
• Prometheus Rising
  
• Shakespeare

I haven't read this yet but I've heard really good things: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It's next up on my to-read list, after I finish Cloud Atlas.

Which I also highly recommend.

Not necessarily hard/biology, but there's a wonderful little book (literally, it is little) called "Einstein's Dreams" by Alan Lightman. It's a series of vignettes of what life would be like if time/gravity, etc. had different properties. One scenario that i recall is that time moves faster the closer one is to a center of gravity, so people build their homes on tall structures, on top of tall mountains, etc. in order to live a fuller life; eventually this becomes a status symbol, so the wealthiest live at higher altitudes and the poor at sea level. It's very thought provoking and whimsical.

Read Wolf Hall to learn about Henry VIII, the Church of England, Lutheranism, why people fall in love, how to make people do things, how to pull yourself up by the bootstraps, how to flatter powerful people, and more.

A pretty good book about overcoming adversity and persisting is The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. I've read it probably 5 times. It's about a boy coming of age as an English kid in South Africa while also boxing. Great

Here's my best thoughts:

1. The Monomyth / Hero's Journey
   ----
   Lucas said he read the book Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. This isn't referencing any one myth, it is referencing loads and loads of them. Campbell's conclusion is to build upon the work of Max Muller and Otto Rank's ideas that there are common patterns in myths and fairy tales. Also it is worth noting that Campbell wouldn't have read Propp's Morphology of the Folktale because it wasn't translated into English until the mid-1950s, even though there are a lot of similarities here. Also worth noting Propp's work is exclusively referencing only Russian folktales.
   
   
   
   
2. The Lord of the Rings back to the Ring Saga
   ----
   You might notice, there are striking similarities between the three Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings trilogy: Obi-wan dies at the same time as Gandalf falls, the stages of the Monomyth (aka Hero's Journey) are very similar: Call to Adventure, Threshold Crossings, etc. This sort of makes sense as LoTR was cool when Lucas was a teenager.
   
   Now Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was very heavily influenced by Wagner's Ring Cycle which would have been cool when Tolkien was a teen, therefore having at least unconscious influence, though I'm fairly confident Tolkien was highly aware of Wagner's Ring Cycle and its roots in the Nibelung Saga.
   
   When you get into the Nibelung Saga, there's a story about a cursed ring, a hero whose father was an amazing warrior, the need to re-forge his father's sword, etc. There's lots of other pieces that weren't there, but there's definitely a lot there which is very similar.
   
   
   
   
3. The Knights of the Roundtable
   ----
   This leads us to the other European idea: Arthurian folklore. The very idea of a Jedi Knight comes from the Knights of the Roundtable. From here, you have the combination of warrior with the idea of a monk or sacred influence (Parsifal becomes a monk in one story, as does Lancelot.) These are the noble warriors who are fighting for a sacred ideal. Of course in these stories, warriors don't have magical powers, but Merlin is running around so you can see Star Wars as a combination of these.
   
   Further, in the Knights of the Roundtable stories, there are lots of evil / dark knights and dark wizards so you have to include those too.
   
   
   
   
4. Eastern Myth of Samurai with a dash of Zen and Taoist Koans
   ----
   At the time Lucas was young was the "discovery" of easter martial arts by the west. So, to include some of that would be cool. Also, Lucas loved the early samurai films of Akira Kurosawa. Campbell's argument is these ideas exist everywhere so are good to move together. If you include the ideas of archetypes, knights become very similar to samurai because they are both sacred warriors. So now we can add a moment of this. If you read the book Musashi (a novelization as now Musashi has become a legendary figure in Japan) there are striking similarities between this and the story of Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Both come from no-where, raised in the wild, but have a talent which is theorized to be some sort of amazing lineage.
   
   Throw in a little green guy whose name Yoda is based from Yuddha, the sanskrit word for 'war / warrior' and who talks very similarly to a taoist or zen monk's paradoxical statements (koans) and you get that character.
   
   ----
   
   So basically, to finish: I don't think Lucas did a lot of mythological research apart from reading Campbell. So to argue it is based on a lot of folklore specifically is tricky. There are even articles which say that Lucas' ex-wife Marcia came up with some of these ideas and no one has asked her what she was reading.

A book that I can recommend and actually considered placing in the title is Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams.

It has a similar format as Sum, however each short story considers what life would be like if time behaved differently as opposed to what the afterlife could look like: if time went faster the closer we were to the Earth, or if there were three directions time can take, etc etc.

One of my favorites is one which imagines that time are birds. If a bird is caught one can hold onto a moment forever, because time is "caught." Those young enough to catch a bird and stop time don't care to, because they are young. The ones that want to hold onto time are too old and so too slow to catch a bird. Gives me the same feeling that most of the stories in Sum do.

One of my favorite books of all time... Not just one of the best Samurai books of all time



http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572

Dave Eggers' novel What Is The What is a fictionalized memoir about Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. It's really beautifully written and very powerful.

The ladycrappo 7-Step Dealing With Depression Plan
Brought to you by a chick who's been hospitalized for major depression on four separate occasions and is now living a relatively stable normal life

1. Exercise, exercise, exercise. This may be the last thing you feel like doing, but it's one of the cheapest, safest, most effective ways to boost your mood. Don't feel you have to go to a gym if the ambiance creeps you out; ride a bike, get out in the sunshine, whatever works for you.
   
   
2. Eat well. Shitty diets make you feel shitty physically and mentally. Depressed people tend to have trouble with eating either too much or too little, and with eating crappy stuff in general that wrecks your blood sugar and makes you lethargic. You don't need that. Make a good healthy diet a priority: fruits and veggies, whole grains, lean protein, unsaturated fats, you know the drill.
   
   
3. Get your sleep schedule sorted out. Don't let yourself sleep too much because you don't want to face life; it just makes you more listless. If you're having trouble sleeping enough, force yourself to get on a more regular schedule. Sleep is fundamental to good mental health.
   
   
4. Shower every day. Keep up with personal hygiene, even when you feel like a hideous human turdball. A clean turdball can feel slightly better about itself than a dirty turdball, and whatever bit of dignity and self-worth you can reclaim for yourself is really important.
   
   
5. Do stuff. You won't want to, you really won't want to, but do it anyways. Answer your phone, get out of the house, go out to eat or see a movie-- do normal people stuff despite your profound sense of abnormality. This serves to keep you feeling like a member of the human race, keep you connected with the people in your life who are your support system, and also just to distract you from the ugly world inside your head.
   
   
6. Read up on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is focused on concrete strategies of altering your thinking and behavior. Pick up a copy of Feeling Good and give it's recommendations a serious try.
   
   
7. Do what it takes to get out of your own head. Depression turns you in on yourself, blots out the larger world, traps you in the darker aspects of your own thinking. It's a particularly dark and dangerous sort of self-absorption. Do things that force you to empathize with other people, in other places: do some volunteer work, spend time with loved ones, read about people in unfortunate circumstances who maintain a core of dignity (e.g., What is the What).

I see there are a lot of fantasy recommendations here, but I think you may want to try out historical fiction.

GRRM gets a lot of his inspiration from history. Try out Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough.

Book recommendation, inspired by this thought: Jonathan Littel's The Kindly Ones.

Off the top of my head, I'd recommend "Einstein's Dreams," by Alan Lightman. You may also like Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" and "If on a winter's night a traveler."

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is another example of a male author creating great female characters.

Sorry netflix, the ultimate historical fiction about Marco Polo has already been written:

>When Marco Polo lay on his deathbed, his priest, his friends and relations clustered around him
to plead that he at last renounce the countless lies he had related as his true adventures, so his
soul would go cleansed to Heaven. The old man raised up, roundly damned them all and
declared, "I have not told the half of what I saw and did!" - "The Journeyer" by Gary Jennings

Here are a couple books I think are pretty good:

What is the What by David Eggers

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

Just to add to this, as I was reminded by notmathrock's mention of حشاشين Hashashins, if anyone wants to read a brilliant historical fiction novel, on Marco Polo's "other half" of tales (that he didn't tell) ... check out "The Journeyer" by Gary Jennings.

One of my favorite books ever was aMusashi (Amazon book link), a fictionalized retelling of his life.

They made it into a fairly lengthly TV Drama about a decade ago that I very highly recommend. Also, the manga 'Vagabond' is based on this book.

The novel Wolf Hall is an excellent example of this.

I wish more people have heard about him. I doubt Julian would have erased Christianity, but he would have curbed its power significantly. I think, had he succeeded, Christianity would have continued, but it would have changed into a much less hostile form (this is happening now in some quarters, but 1500 years too late), and perhaps would have syncretized with the traditional religions. Also, one of his policies had been to take rival bishops out of exile, such that the Christians would have been too busy fighting (violently) over the nature of Christ to even think about taking power. As Julian said, "No wild beasts are so dangerous to men as Christians are to one another."

I've read it being compared to ancient Chinese policy to curb the power of Buddhist monasteries, but not wipe out Buddhism.

In our history, Christopaganism has happened in the past (and is an option for modern Pagans), maybe in this alternate history, there'd have been Hellenochristianity instead. ("pagans" were also called Hellenes, after the widespread Greek culture.) There had been syncretism with Judaism, why not Christianity?

By the way, I highly recommend that you read the historical novel "Julian" by Gore Vidal. It is a novel, but it's a meticulously researched and damn good one. Besides reading his many writings ([for free at Wikisource, and available for download into electronic formats(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Julian)) or quotations from them, it's as close as anybody can get to meeting the man.

(Full disclosure: I revere his spirit as a divus, as Roman Emperors were considered to become after death. Human deification (typically after death--for good reasons!) is a common tradition in ancient polytheistic religion (I posted a link to a talk on the subject in ancient Egypt at /r/pagans) , especially since polytheistic religions have looser and more porous boundaries between god and man. (I don't see him as on the level of say, Ra or Hathor, but somewhere above a dead ancestor, though I also see Julian as a sort of spiritual ancestor, since he was himself a convert from Christianity.)

Einstein's Dreams. Very good. I've gifted it before.

http://www.amazon.com/Einsteins-Dreams-Alan-Lightman/dp/140007780X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427842508&sr=1-1&keywords=einstein%27s+dreams

First, the article you link to says nothing about her erratic behavior being provoked by her "pretty mean husband". It does say that "Her doctors diagnose her with schizophrenia (she was more likely bipolar, scholars say) and attribute the disease to her failure to accept the traditional female role." Of course, all of this is moot because:

Second, the article is a book review of a book which is Historical Fiction about their romance, which is why it's listed in the " Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical > Biographical" section of Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Z-A-Novel-Zelda-Fitzgerald/dp/1250028663

Was really fun when that second sword come out. And in the hands of Hiroyuki Sanada, no less.

For those who aren't familiar, Eiki Yoshikawa's historical novelization is the definitive/default work for cultural reference (not historical accuracy). It's this story that was used to create Hiroshi Inagaki's famous late-50s films known as the "Samurai trilogy", which starred no less than Toshiro Mifune as Musashi (!) and are often cited by Quentin Tarantino as an influence. This is the story that brought the legend to modern fans in the West and drew its attention to the Book of Five Rings.

The English translation by Charles Terry (titled Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era) is available at most major bookstores including Amazon.

Sorry, They are all packed up right now.

I remember one was by James Clavell, the author of Shogun, and while I was a fan of his fiction, I really thought this was bad.

One was by a retired Special Forces NCO or officer and enjoyed it the most but I can't remember the translator.

But as pointed out, in the late 80s, several different editions came out that were targeted towards corporate strategy than anything else. I'm guessing if you find one in the Asian arts or Philosophy section of your bookstore these days, it will be one of the more traditional translations.

If you want to get a flavor of the period and the person, look at

http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302727882&sr=1-4

Yes It's fiction but it was written in 1935 by Eiji Yoshikawa about the life of Miyamoto Musashi and it's a fun read. If I remember, it's around a 1,000 pages so it's not a quick read but what the hell.

The Forever War - Haldeman

Flowers for Algernon - Keyes

The Prestige - Priest

LoTR - Tolkien

Sphere - Crichton (One of the first "real" books I read as a kid, and was my favorite for years. It isn't the best in the world, but it is an extremely fun page turner and means alot to me)


There are also three books I've read in the last couple of years that I want very badly to say are in my top five (to replace some of those listed above). But it has not been long enough for me to make a decision, and I probably need to re-read them. Those three are:

The Passage - Cronin

Cloud Atlas - Mitchell

Wolf Hall - Mantel

Check out Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa. It basically takes place prior to the beginning of Shogun, although Yoshikawa uses the real names and is slightly less fictionalized. His other books are a lot of fun to read, as well.

I have a love/hate relationship with the book Shogun. You will learn some things from it, but you will not know fact from fiction until readying something that is not so loosely based on history.

For historical fiction, I really liked:

Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan https://www.amazon.com/dp/1568364288/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_PpFMxb63H4CC5

It still has the same issue of being fiction, but Shogun is just silly in comparison.

Check out this delightful little piece of fiction, called "Einstein's Dreams". It imagines how Einstein may have played out different scenarios in his mind, before coming to his Theory of Relativity.

Einstein's Dreams:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/140007780X/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_RnZCub0DVKTXR

If it weren't for us you'd all be speaking German!

edit: Or something. I'm American, I don't really know what I'm doing here. All I know is Mandela, Apartheid, Krugerrands, and District 9.

Oh and The Power of One. That book is amazing.

Here Be Dragons. The character development is amazing.

Einstein's Dreams? Remarkable book.

A Boy Called H A story of a kid growing up during WW2

Shank's Mare also know as Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige. The best way the book was described to me was Beavis and Butthead in medieval Japan. It's about two travelers walking around and getting into trouble.

Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era - the story of Miyoto Musashi, one of the most well known sword saints in Japan.

Shipwrecks A story of a village set in the Edo era, interesting premise but disappointing ending.

If you like the book Shogun, James Clavell wrote another one based during the Meji Restoration titled Gai-Jin

http://www.amazon.com/Einsteins-Dreams-Alan-Lightman/dp/140007780X

If you want to think about time in ways you may not have thought of it, check out this book. Its many little (very interesting) short stories each describing a different scenario with the focus on different facets of time. A must read for those that enjoy seeing things in a different way...

/u/MindOfMetalAndWheels and /u/JeffDujon, if you two enjoyed Sum the next bookclub should really be Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman.

Anyone who enjoys this should read The First Man In Rome series http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Rome-Colleen-McCullough/dp/0061582417

That book basically just plagiarizes Japanese history and inserts a western character where none would have been possible at the time.

Let your friend know about Taiko.

It's historical fiction on the generals that fostered the unification of Japan around late 1400's. Very epic book.

the power of one by byrce courtenay is exactly what you're looking for. Very similar to the alchemist, very inspiring.

This:

https://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/156836427X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487355717&sr=8-1&keywords=Musashi

What does it read like ... historical, fantasy? Do you know of any western novels or simply genres that compare?

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman. It's a collection of short stories, each demonstrating one possible view of time. It's an incredibly interesting read.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay is a good one.

I would also suggest cross-posting this to r/booksuggestions.

Also, I love historical fiction so a few of my recommendations:

• A - Aztec
  
• B - Book Thief, The
  
• F - First Man in Rome
  
• P - Pillars of the Earth, The

I've been reading Wolf Hall, which is excellent, and wondering how historically accurate it was. I understand it's historical fiction, but wondered if any scholars of the period had read it and had an opinion on it?

EDIT: Oh, and what's everyone think about the Lincoln trailer?

I love Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman. Set in 13th century Wales.

edit: also, in spite of the title, it's straight historical fiction, not fantasy.

From Einstein's Dreams?

http://www.amazon.com/Einsteins-Dreams-Alan-Lightman/dp/140007780X

You might like Taiko was a good read overall but a lot more focus is placed on Japanese history.

Is this the same book?

https://archive.org/details/MusashiEijiYoshikawa

Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/156836427X/ref=pd_aw_sim_sbs_74_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=51HImP4tNRL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL100_SR100%2C100_&refRID=17E5J6YAN59D0PH3M1YA

Musashi! Its a Japanese epic about the samurai era. One of the more well known books in Japan. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/156836427X/ref=ya_aw_oh_pit

If you like Flatland, you'll love Einstein's Dreams.

You may like "Musashi".

Amazon Link

here's a link to Musashi

Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era https://www.amazon.ca/dp/156836427X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_K9YyzbPJGTKSP

When I was about 15-16, I read "The Journeyer" by Gary Jennings.

For a 15-16 year old, that shit was fucked up, and I loved it. It's the untold half of Marco Polo's adventures. It's pretty stinking awesome.

> They're certainly worth reading to understand the psychology of a mass killer

Try http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0061353469/ at least it's historically accurate and in my opinion much better than those American reviewers thought.

You can currently buy "with Notes" versions of books from Oprah's Book Club on Kindle (example here) that have Oprah's highlights and notes in them and it seems to be a popular feature. No reason to think that fans of a particular author would not love this feature as well.

Just one novel. I have the single volume edition, but I've seen a 5 volume set around before. The single volume is a hefty beast though.
https://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/156836427X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541269148&sr=8-1&keywords=musashi

not gonna help you out but you should read Einstein's Dreams, i bet you would really like it. its a very quick read too, should take you no longer than 1 or 2 afternoons

Musashi

I didn't tag book of five rings because this book is about Miyamoto Musashi and not just his philosophy which seems to be what you're looking for. I would read this first then you'll likely want to read the rest. I read this book 10 years ago and it changed my life. It jolted me into action and still affects how I am today.

These aren't free but definitely worth the read.

Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa

The Book of Five Rings - Miyamoto Musashi

I'm really into the late Roman Republic, naval history (especially the period between the US Civil War and the First World War, and the Second World War), and Russian history, especially the late Romanov/early Soviet era and the Cold War. Book recommendations:

• Naval history. Just take a look here and go nuts. :P
  
  
• Roman Republic. This may sound strange, but my favorite books about the late Republic aren't actually history books, they're the Masters of Rome series of novels by Colleen McCollough. They're really only semi-fictional, in that they take real events, real people, and the society they lived in, and fill in the gaps of what we don't know with (very plausible, well-written, and exhaustively researched) fictional narratives. The First Man in Rome is the first, and still my favorite out of all of them.
  
  
• Russia. Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy (Russian Revolution, Civil War/War Communism, and early Soviet era). John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History. Both really great.

Mushashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

What is the What

The Power of One

Einstein's Dreams

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, based loosely on the life of famed swordsman Miyomoto Musashi.

It's epic in scope and follows several different points of view, sort of a Japanese Game of Thrones meets Count of Monte Cristo.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

Watership Down

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

The Cider House Rules by John Irving

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Get on that shit.

I read this book when I was 15-ish

https://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/156836427X/ref=asc_df_156836427X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312009759033&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14384639465927352324&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9028805&hvtargid=pla-432396557900&psc=1

When I needed my first internet username I picked that and I’ve used it for 20+ years now.

Musashi http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572 "sold 120 million copies in Japan."

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman.

https://smile.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/156836427X/

After getting results for Japanese Drums and restaurants, are you referring to this
novel?

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

https://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/156836427X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482689807&sr=8-1&keywords=musashi

The Republic and Other Works by Plato
Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
God's Equation by Amir D. Aczel
The Mind's I by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett
*Shakespeare's Sonnets by Stephen Booth

The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough.

Check out some of Yoshikawa's writing specifically Musashi and Taiko.

http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572

It's an epic book, based in reality. It's a fictionalized biography of Miyamoto Musashi, likely the most famous swordsman ever to have lived.

Either The Court of the Lion by Eleanor Cooney and Daniel Altieri or Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa.

Musashi.

Here's what I was reading at that age. It was awesome.

This used!

Reminds me of a book (maybe The Journeyer?) that I read surreptitiously in 9th grade or so. One of the main characters is a eunuch who's had his nasal septum removed so that he can be fucked in the nose. Good times.

Best damn historical fiction of the period starts with the First Man in Rome. Sulla was a connoisseur of fine poisons which he served to those who blocked his rise.

Musashi: http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572

Forget the other crap and get Musashi.