Someone warn the librarian...

[alicat78]

...I'm dusting off my library card and coming in to pay off my fines. And I need book recs. Lots of 'em. I'm going to try to start working through Alison Weir's catalogue, because she's supposed to be like Philippa Gregory, but better. I'm going to finally read all those Janet Evanovich number books about the bountry hunter. And I'm going to try to

Comments

[crickwooder]

Most of Weir's stuff is nonfiction, but I think her new forays into fiction are much, much better! Well, er, the one that I read, anyway. I'm waiting for the second one. Impatiently.

Fannie Flagg: most especially Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man. Have you read Outlander? I adore it, but it's problematic for some people. You might like the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, which is utterly fantastic. My all time favorite, slightly shameful, massive historical epic is Karleen Koen's Through A Glass Darkly. I have read it a thousand times and it still gets me sniffly.

[alicat78]

I have read all the Outlander books - loved the first three, although I found the last three were too long and a bit unwieldy for my tastes - too much detail, not enough plot. I'm still going to read the seventh one when it comes out, though. :)

I think I read Through a Glass Darkly when I was about ten (scammed it from my mom). I don't remember a thing about it. My secret epic shame is Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher. Read it every time I'm sick.

Thanks for the recs! I've put the first Novik and the Daisy Fay on reserve.

[millabell]

Steven Brust?

[alicat78]

He's fantasy, right?

[millabell]

Fantasy, yes. His main series revolves around a witch-assassin and his sarcastic flying lizard familiar. :)

I keep typing out these long gushing fangirly squee-filled explanations about why everyone should read more Brust, and deleting them...So I'll just say, try snagging "The Book of Jhereg" from the library and see what you think. It's the first three books combined, but they move along at a good clip. If you like them, well, they get even better!

Oh, and even though it's not a short series (the eleventh book is coming out this year), each book is pretty much stand-alone. Each plot is self-contained, so while there are some questions left dangling, or hooks for future (or past; the published order is not the chronological order), it's not like it's one continuous story where you'll be dangling for years (ahem, George R.R. Martin).

...And that was the short version. :)

[squintt]

Okay:

Stephen R. Donaldson
The Mirror of Her Dreams
A Man Rides Through
(There's a whole other chronicle about Thomas Covenant that is awesome, but it spans six books. It's also best read in one go, which I realize can be difficult for adults who have actual lives.)

Anita Shreve
The Last Time They Met
Fortune's Rocks
(There's a ton of exposition until around page 85, so hang in there! Once it takes off, you won't be able to put it down.)

Nick Hornby
High Fidelity
Fever Pitch

Janet Fitch
White Oleander

Stephen King
The Stand, Complete and Uncut

Jodi Picoult
The Tenth Circle

books

[enochs_fable]

Do you find that Picoult tends to tread the same ground over and over?

Read Bill Bryson's travel non-fiction, start with A Walk in the Woods.

Read George R.R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice saga - it can be dark and brutal, but beautiful and sweeping, with well developed characters. It's his books alone that drew me back to fantasy after years of having abandoned it.

You absolutely must read Lois McMasters Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series. It's essentially space opera with amazing characters and angst and humor. The first book is actually about his parents, and I found it not as compelling (it reads like a light sci-fi with some romance), but once it picked up with his childhood, each book just got better and better.

Re: books

[alicat78]

I read My Sister's Keeper and it physically hurt me. Not sure I have the emotional strength for another Picoult, and she does seem to have a thing that she does, with the real-life trauma and its effects on the people around it. I read about Tenth Circle and it sounded rough, but perhaps I will give it a go.

I read The Pilot's Wife and was underwhelmed. Are Shreve's other books better?

LOVE Bryson. Love. Will look into Donaldson, Martin and Bujold. Thanks guys! You are so awesome.

Re: books

[enochs_fable]

I read the Picoult book about the Amish, and then another one I can't recall, and they contained almost identical plots complete with courtroom showdown, and it just chafed.