This is a fantastic thread! I’m definitely going to come back here if I need suggestions for a new book to read.
The current books I’m reading are Greg Dean’s Step by
Step to Stand-Up Comedy, and John Vorhaus’s
The Comic Toolbox. Both are excellent in dissecting the magic of a stand-up routine which comedians perform so effortlessly.
My two favorite contemporary authors are Neal Stepheson, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
From Neal Stephenson I’d recommend the Baroque Cycle (
Quicksilver,
The Confusion, and
The System of World), or
The Cryptonomicon. The Baroque Cycle is a huge sci-fi novel which spans the entire globe during the late 17th century. While The Cryptonomicon is a sci-fi novel which takes place during World War 2, and the nascent Silicon Valley tech bubble of the early 1990s. Both novels can be thought of as prequels or sequels to one another, and vice versa. I really enjoy Neal Stephenson’s witty, clever, asshole-ish writing style.
From Chimamanda Adichie I’d recommend
Half of a Yellow Sun a novel about the Nigerian civil war. Adichie’s characters have depth, and verisimilitude. The novel isn’t filled with heroes, or villains just ordinary people making difficult, harrowing choices.