Regular followers of Swift|Silent|Deadly are probably aware of my personal reading list and prodigious reading habits. Several of you follow it and contact me to let me know you’re reading something I’ve read, or to offer reading recommendations. This post is a list of a few of my favorite authors. From these five authors alone I’ve read almost 30 books. If you’re looking for a good book, check these out!
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Anthony Bourdain
Time and place sometimes influences how a book hits you. I got into Bourdain through his show No Reservations as a contractor working in Afghanistan. Home on leave, I snagged a copy of his bestselling tell-all, Kitchen Confidential and read it sitting on Devereux Beach, stealthily drinking Coronas. It was the perfect read for me at that time and place.
Bourdain writes with an unctuousness and rawness that is few can replicate. He immediately become one of my favorite authors, and I read everything I could get my hands on, even his fiction works (which aren’t great). Despite the warts-and-all look in a recent biography I read, Bourdain is still one of my favorite authors, maybe because of the time and place in which he found me. The works I’ve ready from Anthony Bourdain include:
Kitchen Confidential
World Travel: An Irreverent Guide
Medium Raw
A Cook’s Tour
The Nasty Bits
Bone in the Throat
Gone Bamboo
My favorite Bourdain: hands-down, Kitchen Confidential. This fast-paced, irreverent, at times downright-dirty is as good a beach read as I’ve ever picked up. The audiobook, which is read by the author, is maybe even better because Bourdain is able to spice up the text with his New York accent and inimitable inflections. Must read.
Mary Roach
Mary Roach is another author I got into during my contractor days. I remember checking out an audio copy of Spook for a drive from my home in Massachusetts to Virginia while home on leave. This was my first introduction to Roach’s amazing style of scientific writing – accurate and reliable, but infused with a wit that makes her books page-turners. I began anxiously awaiting every new book Mary Roach wrote. I recommend reading her books on paper as the rambling, hiliarious parentheticals (that sometimes seem to merit parentheticals of their own) are best read in their native habitat: the page.
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
Gulp: Adventures of the Alimentary Canal
Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
My favorite Mary Roach: It’s honestly hard to choose between Spook, Stiff, Bonk, and Gulp, but I’m going to with Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. A really fascinating look at a topic that most people know nothing about. I now handle cadavers fairly often as part of my job, but there is still much to learn from this book. Oh, and it’s super entertaining!
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell is one of the most powerful authors out there today. He has an uncanny ability make brilliant observations from the seemingly mundane. All of the books mentioned below are excellent and well-worth a read. His podcast, Revisionist History, is also well worth a listen.
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
David & Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell (best consumed on audiobook)
The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell
My favorite Gladwell: It’s hard to pick a favorite Malcolm Gladwell book, but if I had to, it would be Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. How did one dude know a priceless bust was a forgery when experts believed it was genuine? This book will, for lack of a better term, teach you to trust your gut.
Bill Bryson
Like Gladwell, Bryson is a keen observer. He also has an ability to make his books unputdownable (sorry for that term). I recently started Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in America. This doesn’t sound like the most interesting book, but Bryson brings a fact forward at a breakneck pace throughout the entire book. The whole time I’m thinking, “that’s fascinating!” Bryson also has a capacity to make me laugh out loud that few others have.
A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Body: A Guide for Occupants
A Walk in the Woods
In a Sunburned Country
One Summer: America, 1927
The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away
Made In America by Bill Bryson
My favorite Bryson: it’s hard to pick, but In a Sunburned Country might be my favorite. Sitting alone in the barracks room of my first duty station, I remember laughing so hard I at this book that I literally cried. This book covers Bryson’s trip to Australia and is characteristic of his razor-sharp wit.
Honorable Mention: Made in America. This book is almost literally a fact-a-minute, full of “cocktail party smart” info about the good ol’ U.S. of A. that I couldn’t put it down.
Mark Bowden
Like most people I started on Bowden with Blackhawk Down as a young Marine. I quickly followed up with Killing Pablo, one of the few books that talks about the military’s “other” special mission unit (the one that has remained more secretive than Delta Force and SEAL Team Six). Along the way, several more of Bowden’s books just crept into my reading list…I read Doctor Dealer on Kindle while deployed to a location that is still classified. I listened to Worm while driving from the middle of the country to my full-time job as a special operations instructor.
Blackhawk Down by Mark Bowden
Worm: The First Digital War by Mark Bowden
Doctor Dealer by Mark Bowden
Finders Keepers: The Story of a Man Who Found $1 Million by Mark Bowden
Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden
The Last Stone: A Masterpiece of Interrogation by Mark Bowden
The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden by Mark Bowden
My favorite Bowden: Until very recenlty I would have said Blackhawk Down was my favorite Bowden (and if you haven’t read it, you need to!). After reading The Finish I may have to update that. While “Mark Owen’s” No Easy Day details the tactical side of UBL’s killing, The Finish covers the investigation that lead to bin Laden’s hideout and the political maneuverings to make “the finish” happen.
Final Thoughts on my Favorite Authors
I hope you enjoyed this look at some of my favorite authors. Much more importantly, I hope this pushes you to buy a book or two and do some reading. Some of the books on these authors’ lists are better than others, but I dont’ think you’ll be disappointed with any of my top picks. Stay tuned, because another list of more of my favorite authors is on the way.
