Reading Recommendations

I love to read. I don't have the time or energy to do really elaborate book reviews (book reports, anyone?), but I wanted t share a few books I've recently gone through that aren't written by really famous authors. Take 'em or leave 'em.

A Higher Call
Nonfiction

On its first mission over Nazi Germany, a damaged American bomber is trying to limp home, engines failing and half its crew dead or wounded. As it approaches the coast, a German fighter appears on its tale. Instead of shooting down the helpless airmen, the fighter's pilot escorts them to safety. Years later, both sides of the story are told in an amazing story of the air war in World War Two. After reading the book, I'm surprised any German airman survived the war. 

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The Art of Racing in the Rain
Fiction

A bittersweet story written from the exclusive perspective of the family pet. I am not a racing fan, but the author combines a significant amount of moral philosophy with autosports in a wholly unique way. I heard this was getting made into a movie. I cried at the end the first time I read it and the second. Susan one-upped me by crying at the end of the first chapter. Seriously, if you can get ten pages into the book, you'll know whether you want to read the rest. A note: after Reading TAORITR I checked out some other stories by the author. So far, he's a one-hit wonder. 

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The House of God
Nonfiction (mostly, I think)

Written by a classmate of Michael Crichton's when they were both in medical school in Boston, the book tracks the intern year of a new doctor in the late 70s. The book is to modern medicine what One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was for modern psychiatry, and was of significant impact on reforming how the medical system delivers care and views patients.

It appears I've stolen the image from the German edition here. 

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Ready Player One
Fiction

This is being made into a movie by Stephen Spielberg. Read it before everyone else does. It's a near-future SciFi that's a combination of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Matrix. Sort of a scavenger hunt in a virtual world, with a little real-world intrigue thrown in as well. Interestingly, there's also a tremendous amount of 80s and 90s nostalgia for geek culture, which is a topic you don't see too much about these days. Another possible one-hit wonder author. 

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Shadow Divers
Nonfiction.

Hat tip to my good friend friend (and Bloomberg Reporter) Andrew Harris (his blog here) for turning me on to this one. A group of deep water diving enthusiasts discover a previously undiscovered German U-boat sunk off the coast of New Jersey. Book focuses on the quest to identify the boat. Very cool real-world adventure story.

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Disrupted
Nonfiction. 
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Written by one of the writers of the HBO show Silicon Valley. The former tech editor of Newsweek is laid off and finds himself, in his early 50s, working at one of the tech start-ups he used to report on. Interesting look into the tech bubble that's been forming in Silicon Valley for some time now. 

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And I'm spent.