Books!

[icepixie]

Quick, someone rec me a book or three. My biweekly library trip is tomorrow and I'm fresh out of ideas for things to read.

Please?

(Although I suppose I could just read fic, watch TV, and force myself to write over the next two weeks if I'm bookless...or I could delve further into my shelf of Classics I've Totally Been Meaning To Read For A While Now But Never Will Until Just This Sort of Situation...)

ETA: Most of you know my tastes, but for those of you who don't, I'll read practically anything except a straight romance. I have particular penchants for sci-fi, fantasy, quirky literary/mainstream fiction, humor of any stripe, travel writing, and historical novels or nonfiction, but really, anything goes.

Comments

[amaresu]

I've been really into YA books lately. Thus I will rec anything by Scott Westerfeld and also the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books.

[calixa.livejournal.com]

I'm currently into Garth Nix's 'Keys to the Kingdom' series. They're YA, I guess, but really quite good. Very action-filled fantasy.

[asinpterodactyl.livejournal.com]

I would be DELIGHTED to recommend some books for you. I love getting asked this question.

First of all, I've recently discovered Christopher Moore -- apparently I'm the last person in the Milky Way to do so -- and now I'm going around recommending him to everyone. Moore writes real-world comedies with supernatural elements. He's sort of like a cross between Carl Hiaasen and Douglas Adams. I especially liked "The Stupidest Angel"; rather than try to describe it, I'll just direct you to this comic (http://www.unshelved.com/archive.aspx?strip=20060604), courtesy of the Unshelved book club (http://www.unshelved.com/bookclub.aspx).


Second, some old standbys, most of which I bet you've already read:

- The Discworld series, by Terry Pratchett (start with "Going Postal" or "The Truth", or possibly "Thief of Time").

- The Princess Bride, by William Goldman. Everyone should own a copy of this book.

- The Fables series of graphic novels, by Bill Willingham. An ongoing series about characters from fairy tales (such as Cinderella, Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Old King Cole, etc.) all living in an apartment building in New York City. Fantastic, in both senses of the word.

- Anything by Diana Wynne Jones, Patricia C. Wrede, Tamora Peirce, or Vivian Vande Velde, the four ruling doyennes of teen fantasy. I especially liked "Dealing With Dragons", but honestly, it's all good.

- Anything by Bill Bryson, the best travel writer I've ever read. "In A Sunburned Country" is good. So is "Notes From A Small Island". "The Mother Tongue" is not about travel, but about the English language, and it's superb (though unfortunately there are a bunch of factual errors in it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_Tongue_%28book%29), which you have to watch out for).

[sleepingcbw.livejournal.com]

Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red. Hard to describe. Excerpt:

Outside the dark pink air
was already hot and alive with cries. Time to go to school, she said for the third time.
Her cool voice floated
over a pile of fresh tea towels and across the shadowy kitchen to where Geryon stood
at the screen door.
He would remember when he was past forty the dusty almost medieval smell
of the screen itself as it
pressed its grid onto his face. She was behind him now. This would be hard
for you if you were weak
but you're not weak, she said and neatened his little red wings and pushed him
out the door.

Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. WSJ journalist discusses women's rights in the Middle East, and how well they fit the Koran. It's not the kind of thing I would ever pick up myself, but an alto lent it to me, and it's really quite good.

Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. A "murder mystery" novel from the perspective of a British kid with high-functioning autism. Excerpt:

"It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs. Shears's house. Its eyes were closed. It looked as if it was running on its side, the way dogs run when they think they are chasing a cat in a dream. But the dog was not running or asleep. The dog was dead. There was a garden fork sticking out of the dog. The points of the fork must have gone all the way through the dog and into the ground because the fork had not fallen over. I decided that the dog was probably killed with the fork because I could not see any other wounds in the dog and I do not think you would stick a garden fork into a dog after it had died for some other reason, like cancer, for example, or a road accident. But I could not be certain about this."

[wildtiger7.livejournal.com]

I just finished "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield - I read it in a day. It's a basically a mystery novel as well as a comment on the power and pleasure of reading. It's great.

[tarzanic.livejournal.com]

Ack, I cannot remember which authors we've talked about before. Please ignore these if I'm just repeating myself.

Are you already a Terry Pratchett fan? I didn't see him or Discworld listed in your profile. Any of his books are good, but the most recent I've read was Small Gods. Good Omens by him and Neil Gaiman is quite good too.

Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter books are nice as well. I must admit I'm a big fan of the ones with Harriet Vane, especially Have His Carcase. I'd start with Strong Poison if you're going for Harriet ones.

I'll definitely be perusing your list since I should pick up some reading material from the library. The only books I have on my list so far are the GRE Review book (Barron's) and the seventh Harry Potter book.

[rensong.livejournal.com]

The Green Rider (http://www.amazon.com/Green-Rider-Kristen-Britain/dp/0886778581/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-5433181-7986410?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182040434&sr=8-2) and its sequel First Riders Call by Kristin Britian are two of my favorite fantasy-kinda books. And a third one is set to come out in November (it says July at amazon.com, but it says November at her website, so I'm going with the November date).

Also, my all time favorite fantasy series ever would be The Immortals Series (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/002-5433181-7986410?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=tamora+pierce+Immortals+series&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go) by Tamora Pierce. Its originally intended for young adults - which I was, in fact, when I first read it back in 1997 or there abouts. Since then, however, it has become an annual thing, and I have read it at least tend times over the years because I love it so much. However, there are lots of talking animals involved, so if that ain't really your thing (hey, you *said* fantasy! ;) ), you might want to look into something else.

Also, if they have it, The 10th Kingdom (http://www.amazon.com/Tenth-Kingdom-Kathryn-Wesley/dp/0007102658/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-5433181-7986410?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182040930&sr=1-2) is a good one, too. It was a mini series on NBC? back around 2000, but as with all movies, there is also a book - though whether the movie proceeded the book or a written version - which I think is better, even though there really isn't much difference between the two - came out after the mini series, is anyone's guess, but I adore both. It can been taken as kind the sequel to the original Grimm fairy tales, set 200 years later when it has been discovered that "happily ever after didn't last quite as long as we hoped". Its another one that I have read numerous times since it first came out.

I could suggest more, but I think I stop for now. :)