If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all. Not the source for the movie of the same name, which comes later in the series.

If you like solid history and a rousing story, this is for you. Hornblower redone with better history and amusing writing. Read one and you will want them all.

Not for Bible literalists, but a great look at the text. Why was it written, for whom and what is it trying to say. Spong considers it mainly a work of literature, with characters having s purpose and deeper meaning.

Follow up to Fire Upon the Deep. Loved the Tines, one of the best alien species ever. Wolf-like creatures that are only sentient when in packs.

How did I miss this? Humans in an inventive far future meet a truly alien species. And that's just the start of their problems.

Looking for a great SF book that you missed the first time around? Epic. Inventive.

In-depth and impeccably researched.

A deep and well researched look at how the Great War got underway

A deep, well researched look at the final months of WWII. Full of personal stories to bring history to life.

A history of geology in typical Winchester fashion. Lots of related facts and history. Love that.

Wide ranging historical survey starting from a volcano.

Screwball comedy from a quality writer.

Everything SF should be. Suspenseful. Insightful.

Science and science fiction mix to explore near death experiences. Might be Willis' best book.

A YA book from the author but not dumbed down and suitable for adults.

One of LeGuin's early masterpieces, mixing a story of a colonial uprising with a typical LeGuin sociological view of events. Written in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

Early work by the author. Still a great work but less overt in the themes that make her later books masterpieces.

Solid and well researched history.

Another in Banks excellent Culture series. SF with a heart and mind. One of my favorite reads.

Another in Maguire's series retelling of the Oz story. Start with Wicked and work through it in order for best results.

A follow up to Wicked and a worthy one but this isnt the signing and dancing Oz.

If you loved the play you probably won't like the book. No singing or dancing and not focused on female companionship. Maguire retells a portion of the Wizard of Oz with a clear eyed style that keeps the talking lions but puts a darker spin on the troubles in the land. Great world building and myth

A short story collection that is essential for all fans of the Culture series. One short story, one longer one and a piece by Banks on what he was doing with the series. The other stories are good but most US readers will be looking for the Culture stories.

Ehrman attracts a lot of criticism but his books merely present the scholarly consensus. For the record, Jesus is about as well attested as a Jew of that time could be. The author runs through all the arguments in solid and coherent manner.

A devout but independent Catholic looks to the future and Pope Francis.

The first on a series. Can be a little rote, as the former enlisted man struggles to overcome class barriers and always seems on the edge of finding love and security. Exciting reads with a set piece battle or two per book.

First on a series of historically based fiction with a long intricate plot spanning multiple books.

The start of a superb series. Accurate historical fiction based on actual ships logs. Humor and social commentary mixed with rousing battles. Like the Hornblower series but better written. Like the Sharpe series but less repetitive and much more varied. Jane Austen at sea.

But spring for the unabridged version.

Typical Stephenson. Long, detailed. Scienced up to the max. This hits my profile: long, full of interesting information, slow paced with a storytellers touch. One of my favorite reads ever. One I use to define my profile to others. But not for everyone. Little romance. Not a character study.

Finished it but won't move on to vol four. The concepts were interesting for the first two books on the series, but it gets cut and paste here. I found the Britishisms annoying since much of the series takes place in Wisconsin. "The tenements of Madison" and such.

Read alike to other long historical series. Dorothy Dunnett. Patrick O'Brian. The series is a couple thousand pages of delicious historical exposition. Newton, Hook and the gang kickstart science. For those who like historical fiction that is fact based and not romantic.

Read if you like Stephenson or environmental fiction. Maybe if you're from Boston too since it is mainly set there. A bit dated now, just in that this pre-dates cell phones and such.

If you like your SF really alien and not just Cowboys in outer space.

A book about the New Testament, mainly Matthew, that brings some new concepts to the table. I think actual scholars won't be surprised but there is a lot that is new for an interested amateur. Ties the NT to early synagogue liturgy. Fascinating.