Widening the angle

[firstlight]

Dear flist,

I'd really like some book recs. Anything you think might grab me. I've been reading a lot of sci-fi lately, so I'd be particularly interested in... you know... other things, but of course I love sci-fi so if there's something I absolutely have to read in that area then that's good too.

Pretty please?

Love,

Liz


(Today = tidying-up-fic day. Oh the pain.)

Comments

[firescribble.livejournal.com]

So you want any kind of book? That's difficult. D:

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

Well. I don't know what else I want! My reading horizons are so narrow these days. >_

[firescribble.livejournal.com]

Right. I'm having trouble coming up with anything today. But I shall try.

Have you read anything by Tove Jansson? She's most well known for her childrens books about the Moomins, but they can be read by people of any age. Especially the later books Moominland Midwinter, Moominpappa at Sea and Moominvalley in November (my favorite) are deeply psychological and searching. She wrote a couple of novels and very good short stories for adults as well, but I wonder if you'd be able to find them. I think you'd enjoy her books. Her language is crisp and precise and she's been known to say that her main inspiration is the sea. Everyone must read Tove Jansson at some point in their life.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories is ALSO A CHILDRENS BOOK OMG WTH, ME. This is a work of magic realism and you know how I love those. A boy named Haroun needs to help his dad, who's given up his work as a story teller after his wife left him for a very dull man. Now Haroun has to restore dad's gift of the gab. This story contains a damsel in distress, General Kitab (or General Book), commander of a library/army. Blabbermouth, a Page at the library. The pages make up Chapters, that form Volumes. LOL. A floating gardener made up of vines (You can chop suey, but you can't shop me!). IT'S AWESOME I WANT TO REREAD IT RIGHT NOW.

Doctor Murke's Collected Silence by Heinrich Böll. Because it's fun.

Sweet Thurdsay by John Steinbeck. The only sugar sweet book I will ever recommend.

Stephen Fry's autobiography Moab is My Washpot.

If you want a challenged I'd go for The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. It's very good but requires a lot of concentration. Or maybe I'm just a bit stupid. *FLAIL*

Of you want classics I think Dostojevskij is much more readable than his reputation gives him credit for.

[helga-b.livejournal.com]

While I can't speak for the English translations, I'm going to have to jump in to second the Tove Jansson rec so very very hard anyway. One of my favourite writers of all time.

[firescribble.livejournal.com]

The only thing I've read translated to English is "Vem skall trösta knyttet?" and I thought it was ok. That should be one of the more difficult of her books to translate so I'm hoping the Moomi books are readable. It'd kill me if they screwed up her language. :(

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

As always, you come up with the good stuff. *grin* (I tried to find Moab is My Washpot today but though the library has three copies they're all out or missing. :( Oh well. I punished my spine enough for one day I feel.)

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

I second Moab is My Washpot. It is very fun. I'm reading the Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's young adult fiction, I think, but really really good.

[firescribble.livejournal.com]

The Book Thief isn't young adult fiction. It's just fiction. And MiMW IS fun, but it's also touching, I think. He's so honest. It's comforting in a way, that a man like him can make so many mistakes.

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

Mm, I guess it's not really YA. Found it in the YA section, though. But it is really really good~

I think I liked it more than his fiction books, actually. His nonfiction is always so drenched with his personality and it's really nice.

[eolo.livejournal.com]

Hmm...

Any of the Cassandra Clare books, either City of Bones or City of Ashes.

Also Gregory Maguire's Mirror Mirror or Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :D

[perfectassassin.livejournal.com]

My recent obsession: the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling?

Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix, if you haven't already.

Umm... Blood of the Elves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_of_the_Elves) by Andrzej Sapkowski. I'm not sure if it's been already released in English, it says September, so. XD;

[jazzy-peaches.livejournal.com]

Garth Nix = ♥

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

I actually haven't, though the name is familiar...

I'll keep an eye out for that last one especially, I haven't read much fantasy lately at all and... yeah. :) Thanks!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_sabriel/]

Anything by Lois McMaster Bujold. She's written mostly sci-fi, but is branching out into fantasy these days too.

[annotated_em]

Seconding this!

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

I recognise that name, for some reason.... interested, anyway. On the list she goes. :D

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

Unni made a post about her, I think. =D

[elnhuilna.livejournal.com]

WARCHILD. by Karen (?) Lowachee. I think. D= Plz?

[annotated_em]

This too!

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

*g* Well. Since you've been reccing it for so hard and for so long, and since Em agrees with you, I really have no choice. 8)

[elnhuilna.livejournal.com]

8D

XD I heart Em ♥

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

XDD

P.S. Finished fic.

[elnhuilna.livejournal.com]

*pokes*

[semishade (from livejournal.com)]

I've mentioned a certain book by John Boyne quite a lot lately! I think you can take that as being extremely recommended. I also just picked up his new novel Mutiny on the Bounty which looks quite promising.

I don't know either of the reviewers but I do lurk occasionally for the book reviews at http://only2rs.wordpress.com and http://quippe.livejournal.com. And keep my own uncommented list of the recently-read at:http://xscaffeine.com/fic/moonflower/books-read-in-2008/.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks! For the rec and the links both. *bookmarks*

[elenya54.livejournal.com]

As you correctly guessed the answer in [Unknown site tag]'s quizz, how about the Time Traveller's Wife. It's a very good book, although you need to squint a bit to avoid seeing the glaring fact that time and space are confused by the author. (The librarian who is chronologically challenged often pops up in different places when he time travels). Apart from, that it's very cleverly put together story; you have to pay careful attention to the dates/ages of the characters at the beginning of each section.

[elenya54.livejournal.com]

Oops. I obviously got Ghyste's lj tag wrong...

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

That quiz question made me think about reading it, actually. The library is pretty likely to have it, so! :D

[acantabloom.livejournal.com]

Have you read "To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Connie Willis? It's sort of sci-fi (pretty soft sci-fi), and it's really witty and hilarious.
Or if you like epic fantasy, I just read "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss this summer and thought it was very awesome.
Not sure if those are the kinds of things you like, but umm...maybe you will.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

I like so many things. *g* It's all a matter of mood. Thanks, I'll have to look into those (especially since the Connie Willis rec has been seconded. :) )

[jazzy-peaches.livejournal.com]

The Artemis Fowl series, Colfer.

The His Dark Materials series (I think in England the first one was called Northern Lights; over here it was The Golden Compass), Phillip Pullman.

Abarat, Clive Barker. Not so much sci-fi as fantasy, but the pictures are incredible.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

*g* I've read His Dark Materials, and the first book of the Artemis Fowl series. :) I've not encountered Abarat, though. I'll take a look. Thanks!

[jazzy-peaches.livejournal.com]

No problem! If you ever need picture books, lol, I know a ton of good ones. XD

I don't know how much you like to read stuff that was written for younger readers, but The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick is really good. It looks daunting but its a quick read, especially with its 280-some pages of illustrations.

And I always recommend A Series of Unfortunate Events, which again are pretty light but still awesome.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I tend to read anything that takes my fancy, really. It being tagged as a kid's book does not tend to stop me. XDDD

[sagetan.livejournal.com]

Maybe give Mark Haddon a go, if you haven't already? He wrote The Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and A Spot of Bother. Don't know if you'd be interested...

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to read The Curious Incident... for a while now actually! I think Pez may've picked up a copy recently so I can probably nab that at some stage. :D

[annotated_em]

Hmm. I just finished Mary Gentle's ASH: A Secret History a couple of weeks ago. It kicks off a four-book thing, though, and I haven't read the other three yet. Premise: female mercenary captain, pretty gritty/realistic war fiction in 15thC(?) Burgundy. Only maybe it's not--maybe it's an alternate history, and she's an artefact from a different history. We (the reader and the translator framing narrative) can't tell.

What else... seconding the Connie Willis rec, if you haven't already read her. Louise Cooper? She does fantasy, mostly, and her worlds tend toward the darker. I'd recommend the Time Master trilogy (The Initiate, The Outcast, The Adept) and then if you like her, go for the Indigo books.

Pamela Dean? Patricia McKillip? Jeannette Winterson?

[annotated_em]

Since you're up for anything, uh, I can give you theory recs! Michel Foucault's always fun -- History of Sexuality, vol. 1. (Just remember he goes in circles: I'm telling you what I think, spinning this out over several pages. Now I'm telling you that everything I just said is actually wrong, and here's why. Now I'm telling you about the same thing again, but in a different register, from a different perspective.)

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

*makes notes on all this* Thanks! :D I do read really random stuff sometimes, so this one might well come in useful... :)

[annotated_em]

You might also like Donna Haraway. Everyone rec's her Cyborg Manifesto, which is good, but her other stuff is pretty neat, too. She's a very science fictional theorist.

Both she and Foucault also really reward second and third readings.

[vacivity.livejournal.com]

The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson. And seconding Abarat, by Clive Barker. Or Weaveworld or Imajica by Barker.

If you do pick up the Nightrunner Series, try the Tamir Triad, by the same author. I think those are even better than the Nightrunner books. Fantasy, though.

For sci-fi, hmm... Nemesis and Nightfall by Isaac Asmiov are both really interesting.

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

I ♥ Neal Stephenson. So hard. *shifty*

Thanks! :D Mmm, books.

[vacivity.livejournal.com]

So do I. >.> His books are amazing.

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

I also really like The Reader by Bernhard Schlink is good too. And A Home At The End of the World by Michael Cunningham.

[firescribble.livejournal.com]

Ur stealing mah recs, man. <3

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

=) You can take credit for A Home At the End of the World.

[morbid-bunni.livejournal.com]

I don't know what you HAVE read, but I'm going to assume you read Asimov's Foundation series, and if you haven't, I will beat you with a stick until you do. :D

My standard list of recs applies for anyone I don't know what they've read previously and/or am unfamiliar with 90% of the books they read, and so, you! :D

Stoker's Dracula [horror], Shelley's Frankenstein [horror], Walter M. Miller Jr's Canticle for Leibowitz [post-apocolyptic LOVE!!! sf], Phillip Jose Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go [post-death LOVE!!! sf] (also extra!awesome in German! :D! If you like that sort of thing. >_>; ), Paulo Coehlo's The Alchemist [o_O I'm told it's highly symbollic pseudo-religious, but I can't find religion in like anything, so I read it as just a legend of awesome. <3 ] and Veronkika Decides to Die [probably equally symbollic? i have no idea. x_X], and all eleven books of CS Forester's Hornblower series [historical fictions :D FTW!](some more than others :D ).

o_O That's maddeningly unuseful if you've read/hated any of those before. Shit?

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

OMG how did I fail to answer this comment? I am a bad bad LJ user! Bad!

Thanks for the recs. :D I've read (and liked) about half of those, and I'll give the others a try! ^__^