<p>I was too squeamish to get past a major plot point in Middlesex.</p>
<p>Math mom mentioned my favorites.</p>
<p>Candace Millard came to my library and discussed Destiny of the Republic, about the murder of James Garfield. My book club had read River, and almost all of us disliked the details. It was so sluggish, I could not get thru it.</p>
<p>We all liked Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Guernsey…, Hedgehog… The hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet is written from a boys point of view, and is lovely.</p>
<p>Agatha Christie’s hercule poirot mysteries?</p>
<p>How about the Travis McGee series by John McDonald? I got “The Empty Copper Sea” for my 17th birthday, then quickly read the other books in the series. The main character is a beach bum drawn into various mysteries, a marked contrast to the erudite/professional aura of most detective novels. It’s not great literature, probably similar to Janet Evanovich for guys, but is entertaining.</p>
<p>I vote against “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. Grim beyond compare, and I love his books.</p>
<p>I read “The Road” on an overnight flight - found it almost unreadable, but I finished it because I had nothing else to do. The plot point in “Middlesex” is something else (what a great title), but it is so well written and intriguing that it is a favorite of mine. I’ll look at the other Eugenides book for my D, who is at Brown and loved “Middlesex.”</p>
<p>Unbroken by Laura Hildebrand…non fiction, WWII survivor. My college S just picked it up and seems to be intrigued. (I LOVED it…)</p>
<p>Colum McCann’s, Let the Great World Spin and The Other Side of Brightness are wonderful modern fiction that my kids loved. They aren’t mysteries per se, but they have wonderful plots and amazing characters that keep a reader engaged.</p>
<p>My son loved the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Its Science Fiction which I am not a big fan of, but I also fell in love with the series.
[Books</a> Jim Butcher | Jim Butcher](<a href=“http://www.jim-butcher.com/books]Books”>http://www.jim-butcher.com/books)</p>
<p>“The Right Stuff reads like fiction and is fascinating - great suggestion!”</p>
<p>I agree. It is motivational too. When I was 18, that book interested me in becoming an astronaut…got part of the way in that direction, decided I was too lazy to proceed, but if I hadn’t read that book I wouldn’t be an airline pilot and my children would not exist (at least not in this form). So yeah, great book!</p>
<p>Another fantastic non-fiction book is Norman Maclean’s Young Men and Fire. Very well done story of smokejumpers back in 1949. Maclean also wrote A River Runs Through It, which became a movie directed by Robert Redford.</p>