Some suggestions please!

[hypochondriac]

It's my dads birthday soon. He really likes reading and I'm looking for a good book for him. He likes historical stuff and things on war (he enjoyed stasiland about East Germany and also he loved Nathanial's nutmeg about America and the people who discovered it.) Do people have any auggestions for a decent book? Doesn't have to be non fiction, just something good and interesting. Thanks a lot.

[View From The Top]

Stalingrad, Berlin or Normandy by Beevor.

 

All of them works of genius.

[rpb]

Has he tried any Robert Harris novels - all are a good read and most of them have a historical background?

[Big John]

'I Never Knew That About England' is a nice easy pick up, put down compendium. I have a copy in my water closet:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Never-Knew-That-About-England/dp/009190207X

 

I think the proceeds go to the National Trust too, so a worthy cause imho.

[Joensuu]

It's my dads birthday soon. He really likes reading and I'm looking for a good book for him. He likes historical stuff and things on war (he enjoyed stasiland about East Germany and also he loved Nathanial's nutmeg about America and the people who discovered it.) Do people have any auggestions for a decent book? Doesn't have to be non fiction, just something good and interesting. Thanks a lot.

 

Nathanial's Nutmeg was a superb book - but about the Banda Islands in Indonesia. It only mentions America right towards the end if I remember rightly.

 

If your dad liked I'd recommend books such as:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Blue-Water-Americas-Catastrophe/dp/0307236609

 

or one of John Mann's China/Genghis/Kublai range...

[hypochondriac]

Seriously thank you very much for these. I'll almost certainly be buying a few of these.

[Thorpe-le-Saint]

Stalingrad, Berlin or Normandy by Beevor.

 

All of them works of genius.

 

I would be careful when using 'genius' to describe the Normandy book...lots of potential research issues with that book, it has been widely challenged amongst historical academics.

 

But the other two are spot on.

[Hamilton Saint]

There's a new book about the history of the Lancaster bomber. I think it's called Lancaster. There's also a book about the Battle of Britain called Spitfire Summer that's interesting.

[Greenridge]

The book that accompanied the fairly recent BBC series Auschwitz: The Nazis & the 'Final Solution' is a really good read. Brought it for my Dad a year or so back and he loved it.

 

The author is Laurence Rees