"The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War" by Ben Macintyre is an amazing story, very well written.
Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
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Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#202Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin. Lincoln's cabinet was filled with representatives of the different wings of northern and border state politics, all of whom became key figures in the fight against the CSA. Very lovely book about Lincoln's genius as a master of men and of personalities, of being downright kind and truly listening to the people.
You also might want to read this:
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#203The Dispossessed , by Ursula K. Le Guin. It identified so many of the "edges" of society and how I think about and interact with the world, on a daily basis. Without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read. Maybe even the best. The only other book that came close this year was Robert Sapolsky's A Primate's Memoir .
I came to say that my favorite book read this year is her "The Birthday of the World and Other Stories". Very nice to read science fiction that is about people rather than things.
I also like Theodore Sturgeon and Cordwainer Smith for people-centered science fiction.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#204Blood Meridian (or The Evening Redness in the West) by Cormac McCarthy. Quickly became my favorite book after reading it a second time. I've never read a book with more effective language.
Listened to this as an audiobook, and recommend the format for this specific book. The language is amazing but the subject is so brutal. The audiobook relentlessly drives forward, delivering the language and imagery without pause. I think I might not have finished the text.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#205That would have to be One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. What a profoundly human book. The kind of book that is very difficult to describe in any meaningful way, but which I unreservedly recommend to anybody.
I read (more accurately listened to) this book a couple of years back. The story itself was engaging and I remember I liked the way everything was described. Once I finished the book though I didn't feel like I took away anything from it. I kind of enjoyed the story, but I have always wondered whether I missed something. Was I supposed to get some understanding of something that was "between the lines"? Did I miss some underlying concept or thread? It's a mystery to me, I just saw it as a well said story. Anyone have any tips on how to "understand the meaning" of the book?
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#206I just finished this one so it might just be fresh in my memory, but I really enjoyed Kiril Yeskov's "The Last Ringbearer". It's a sequel/retelling of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" written from the Mordorian perspective and based on the premise that LOTR is "a history written by the victors". It has a completely different feel than Tolkien's writing, and sort of stuffs something resembling Cold War politics into Midd…
You might enjoy Jacqueline Carey's duology The Sundering. It's sort of LoTR told from the side of the "bad" guys, though it's set in its own original world, and the story isn't an actual retelling of LoTR.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#207Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke. Inventive, well-written, and compelling.
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Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#208The Anubis Gates, extremely entertaining time travel story by Tim Powers. It's not very "sci" sci-fi, actually there's magic in the mix, but totally recommended anyway.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#209The Dispossessed , by Ursula K. Le Guin. It identified so many of the "edges" of society and how I think about and interact with the world, on a daily basis. Without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read. Maybe even the best. The only other book that came close this year was Robert Sapolsky's A Primate's Memoir .
Oh, this been one of my favorite books for decades. I was introduced by Tony Wolk, an old hippie professor of English Lit at Portland State. I took a class from him nearly every term, in part because he was good friends with LeGuin and would have her guest lecture sometimes. She was astonishing, perhaps the best combination of intellect and humanity I’ve encountered. Tony said that first and last sentences in her boo…
"The light of his world filled his empty hands" is one of my favorite lines ever
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#210Fiction: This is how you lose the time war
Nonfiction: Don't think of an elephant