Comments | twink_q: book recommendations?!?!?!

twink_q

book recommendations?!?!?! - public post

Feb 28, 2007 00:18

so ... most of our books are still in storage, so greenchimes and i have been haunting the stacks at our local library lately, and i've been trying to expand my reading horizons. i'm looking for book recommendations of any kind. some of my tastes and recommendations follow, but feel free to recommend something that might seem out of character.

( tastes and recommendations, cut for length )

public, books

Comments 13

lula_neith February 28 2007, 08:15:51 UTC

I've been recommending it to everyone: "Far Afield" by Susanna Kaysen. It's about a guy who goes to the Faroe Islands for an anthropological study and learns about himself. Not nearly as flip or trite as that sounds.

twink_q March 4 2007, 10:42:52 UTC

the library doesn't seem to have that one, but it's on my list now and i'll keep looking for it.

boy_pastiche February 28 2007, 14:05:40 UTC

Anne Bishop is delightfully fantastic, down to earth, believeable and well-written all at once. We could probably loan you the series The World of the Fae, but I don't know if The Realms of the Blood would be good for you. It's an EPIC tale. Quite wonderful, but very painful...sexual violence, children being hurt etc.

Spider Robinson's Callahan Cycle (which we have complete!) is very good, but can be a bit heavy at times. While he's considered a science fiction classic, the Callahan Cycle is more about the human heart (in a non-fatalistic way)... the science fiction is there, absolutely, but IMhO it's secondary.

twink_q March 4 2007, 11:06:24 UTC

have both authors on my list now. thanks.

i may take you up on the loan of the world of the fae at some point - the library only seems to have the first book. i'll look into the realms of the blood; they have both of those, and i'm not terribly squeamish in my reading. "epic" peaks my curiousity.

and i'm also looking at spider robinson, though again, the library's collection seems to be spotty. hmm.

boy_pastiche March 4 2007, 14:22:15 UTC

if you can get in good with leareth26....

(The comment has been removed)

twink_q March 4 2007, 11:13:29 UTC

i have been starting in on mercedes lackey at greenchimes' recommendation - she handed me "the fairy godmother", and i just checked out "the fire rose" and "the gates of sleep".

i remembered seeing the stardoc books at your place, but hadn't looked them up yet. and i've got the others on my list now too. thank you!

Enjoy more Dune! hakatrip February 28 2007, 16:14:26 UTC

If you liked the Dune series, you MUST read the Dune books written by his son Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. They are incredibly rich and of course, more modern than the originals. There are two prequel trilogies, one covers the Butlerian Jihad that led to the prohibition against thinking machines and the other covers events about 20 years before the original Dune. Why do the Atreides and Harkonnnens have a feud? How did the Bene Gesserit, the Suk doctors, the warriors of Ginaz, and Mentats get started? Why did Duke Leto take Jessica as a concubine? Why is the Baron Harkonnen so diseased?
Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
Dune: The Machine Crusade
Dune: The Battle of Corrin

Dune: House Atreides
Dune: House Harkonnen
Dune: House Corrino

I just finished "The Road to Dune" which has missing chapters, short stories, and an alternative Dune novel "Spice Planet."

I am waiting for Hunters of Dune to be in paperback. And two more are coming.

Re: Enjoy more Dune! twink_q March 4 2007, 10:37:20 UTC

greenchimes has been working through those, and they're definitely on my to-read list. i actually found a timeline of the dune universe (http://www.dunenovels.com/timeline.html) and a chronology of the books and stories (http://www.dunenovels.com/timeline.html) on the new authors' website. gotta love that!

Robert Jordan hakatrip February 28 2007, 16:24:48 UTC

Since you like Tolkien I have to mention Robert Jordan, though he's only going to appeal to readers of "doorstopper" series. I've been reading the "Wheel of Time" series that starts with "The Eye of the World." I am currently rereading it in prep for reading the 11th book, which I had to wait many years for.

So, there are so far 11 books in the series proper, one prequel, and one reference book. I've seen this referred to as "The Waste of Time" series, but I wouldn't be rereading it if I didn't love it. The books are HUGE, many of them approaching a thousand pages. Lots of main characters, lots of secrets and intrigues, magic, good and evil, quests and journeys. The main reason I reread is I can't remember who knows what secret.

Re: Robert Jordan twink_q March 4 2007, 11:24:55 UTC

thanks! greenchimes tells me i should set aside a big chunk of time to do nothing but read the wheel of time books, in a row and all at once. i know all about huge books, and waiting years for the next one - stephen king's dark tower books seemed to take forever to come out! - but i love the long ones if they're well written and not just padded with meaningless filler; you can really get to know the characters and the world they live in. l. ron hubbard's "battlefield earth" was one of those that seemed like it would never end, but it just kept moving and changing and i didn't want it to stop. besides, when you read relatively fast (as i do), the shorter books are over so quickly i sometimes don't feel i have time to really "settle in" to the story.