OT: Any good book recommendations for a long haul flight?
Jun 21, 2011, 4:56 pm
#1
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OT: Any good book recommendations for a long haul flight?
I am flying out to SFO next week and quite like to read a good book or two.
I quite like spy/crime thrillers. Equally, fact/fiction books on WW1 and 2 is also is an interest of mine.
As an educated bunch on here does anyone have any decent recommendations with regards to the above who may have a similar interest?
(I'm hoping the mods will give this a little run if possible as I am flying BA so it is very slightly BA related
)
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
I quite like spy/crime thrillers. Equally, fact/fiction books on WW1 and 2 is also is an interest of mine.
As an educated bunch on here does anyone have any decent recommendations with regards to the above who may have a similar interest?
(I'm hoping the mods will give this a little run if possible as I am flying BA so it is very slightly BA related
)Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Jun 21, 2011, 5:00 pm
#3
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At the moment I am reading the new book by the lady who wrote Seabiscuit, laura Hillenbrand, her new one is called Unbroken, a real page turner, she does an incredible job researching her info. Highly recommend it.
It is about a runner who qualified for the 5000m Berlin Olympics and went to serve and survive WWII. Wonderful. Am sure it will be turned into a movie. Read it before they destroy it.
It is about a runner who qualified for the 5000m Berlin Olympics and went to serve and survive WWII. Wonderful. Am sure it will be turned into a movie. Read it before they destroy it.
Jun 21, 2011, 5:06 pm
#5
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When it's working 
Thanks. ^ Martin Gilbert's book FIRST WORLD WAR was fascinating.
Thanks. ^ Martin Gilbert's book FIRST WORLD WAR was fascinating.
Jun 21, 2011, 5:08 pm
#6
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At the moment I am reading the new book by the lady who wrote Seabiscuit, laura Hillenbrand, her new one is called Unbroken, a real page turner, she does an incredible job researching her info. Highly recommend it.
It is about a runner who qualified for the 5000m Berlin Olympics and went to serve and survive WWII. Wonderful. Am sure it will be turned into a movie. Read it before they destroy it.
It is about a runner who qualified for the 5000m Berlin Olympics and went to serve and survive WWII. Wonderful. Am sure it will be turned into a movie. Read it before they destroy it.
Jun 21, 2011, 5:19 pm
#7
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Jun 21, 2011, 6:42 pm
#8
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If you like World War II era spy novels and thrillers, I can very much recommend Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy. It will likely keep you occupied for the flight from SFO-LHR, and possibly then some.
Alan Furst does historical (30s/40s) thrillers well. Not the most intellectual, but escapist and for the most part well written. They're much of a muchness-- all are pretty much variations on the same themes, but do a good job evoking wartime Paris, noble Republicans, evil Nazis, etc.
Kerr and Furst are in many ways following in the footsteps of Eric Ambler, who actually wrote many of his thrillers in the 30s (there are often noble communists and Soviet functionaries running about), but Judgment on Deltchev and A Coffin for Dmitrios are two of my all-time favorites.
For something set a bit earlier, I think Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin mysteries are delightful. Set in tsarist Russia, Fandorin is a bit of a Sherlock Holmes figure. One of the books has a Jack the Ripper theme, and at some point Fandorin ends up in London. More of his books (translated into English) are available in the UK than in the US, though, and I'm anxiously waiting my next trip to stock up on the ones I can't get here.
I think John Le Carre makes for great plane reading: I've reread The Spy Who Came in from the Cold on a number of flights, just because I know it'll be a good read. Two of my other favorite plane books are Hammett's Maltese Falcon and Chandler's The Long Good-Bye, for the drunken American, noirish detective angle, rather than European spying hijinks.
Alan Furst does historical (30s/40s) thrillers well. Not the most intellectual, but escapist and for the most part well written. They're much of a muchness-- all are pretty much variations on the same themes, but do a good job evoking wartime Paris, noble Republicans, evil Nazis, etc.
Kerr and Furst are in many ways following in the footsteps of Eric Ambler, who actually wrote many of his thrillers in the 30s (there are often noble communists and Soviet functionaries running about), but Judgment on Deltchev and A Coffin for Dmitrios are two of my all-time favorites.
For something set a bit earlier, I think Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin mysteries are delightful. Set in tsarist Russia, Fandorin is a bit of a Sherlock Holmes figure. One of the books has a Jack the Ripper theme, and at some point Fandorin ends up in London. More of his books (translated into English) are available in the UK than in the US, though, and I'm anxiously waiting my next trip to stock up on the ones I can't get here.
I think John Le Carre makes for great plane reading: I've reread The Spy Who Came in from the Cold on a number of flights, just because I know it'll be a good read. Two of my other favorite plane books are Hammett's Maltese Falcon and Chandler's The Long Good-Bye, for the drunken American, noirish detective angle, rather than European spying hijinks.
Jun 21, 2011, 6:55 pm
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I am flying out to SFO next week and quite like to read a good book or two.
I quite like spy/crime thrillers. Equally, fact/fiction books on WW1 and 2 is also is an interest of mine.
As an educated bunch on here does anyone have any decent recommendations with regards to the above who may have a similar interest?
(I'm hoping the mods will give this a little run if possible as I am flying BA so it is very slightly BA related )
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
I quite like spy/crime thrillers. Equally, fact/fiction books on WW1 and 2 is also is an interest of mine.
As an educated bunch on here does anyone have any decent recommendations with regards to the above who may have a similar interest?
(I'm hoping the mods will give this a little run if possible as I am flying BA so it is very slightly BA related
)Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=..._id=B000APHM1K
Jun 21, 2011, 7:14 pm
#10
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Mile_Mustard
Fantastic! Right up my street as they say here! I will give them all a good look and no doubt buy a couple. These kind of books are not everyones 'cup of tea' and they are an acquired taste. Thanks.^
eightblack I've not read any of his books but like the sound of them. ^
I read 'As Far as my feet will carry me' by Josef Bauer a while ago and I have also seen the film which is in subtitles. Based on a true story, a German POW sent to a Siberian Camp, escapes and takes three years to get home! I thoroughly recommend them if you haven't read/seen it and like me you enjoy that sort of thing.
Fantastic! Right up my street as they say here! I will give them all a good look and no doubt buy a couple. These kind of books are not everyones 'cup of tea' and they are an acquired taste.
Thanks.^eightblack I've not read any of his books but like the sound of them. ^
I read 'As Far as my feet will carry me' by Josef Bauer a while ago and I have also seen the film which is in subtitles. Based on a true story, a German POW sent to a Siberian Camp, escapes and takes three years to get home! I thoroughly recommend them if you haven't read/seen it and like me you enjoy that sort of thing.
Jun 21, 2011, 11:14 pm
#11
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I just read "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larsen. Non fiction, but deals with how a mass murdered hid his crimes during the World's fair in Chicago (the white city). Think it might have won an Edgar award, but I had to remind myself I was reading nonfiction instead of a good mystery.
Jun 21, 2011, 11:37 pm
#13
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Far from Cactus Flats
Here's a most wonderful non-fiction book that you've never heard of. Cactus Flats is on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, in an area known to locals as the Arizona Strip. Miles and square miles of nothing but sagebrush, rattlesnakes, scrawny cattle, no water, and people trying to scrape out a living from this harsh land. Author Lyman Hafen is a native of the area, intimate with the geography and with the people.
Arizona Strip native son Lincoln Bundy was a young cowboy who became a P-51 Mustang pilot in WWII Europe. He went MIA, disappeared without a trace. Follow the book to see the conclusion of his story. It's a can't-put-it-down read.
Arizona Strip native son Lincoln Bundy was a young cowboy who became a P-51 Mustang pilot in WWII Europe. He went MIA, disappeared without a trace. Follow the book to see the conclusion of his story. It's a can't-put-it-down read.
Jun 21, 2011, 11:42 pm
#14
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I think John Le Carre makes for great plane reading: I've reread The Spy Who Came in from the Cold on a number of flights, just because I know it'll be a good read. Two of my other favorite plane books are Hammett's Maltese Falcon and Chandler's The Long Good-Bye, for the drunken American, noirish detective angle, rather than European spying hijinks.
And you can´t go wrong with a John Grisham novel .