Book Recommendations

[artyartie]

Being home for the summer, I have lots of time to read. Lots. I have a slew of books on the way, mostly naval and maritime history, but I also want to get in some non-academic reading. I've already started the Discworld series (finally!) but what else should I read? Humor, sci-fi, fantasy, and historical fiction are my main interest, but I also like non-fiction as well. Point me in some good directions, oh literary friends!

Comments

[aervir.livejournal.com]

I'm probably pointing out the obvious, but here are some recs anyway.

Neil Gaiman -- American Gods

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett -- Good Omens

Iain M. Banks -- A Player of Games

Philip Pullman -- The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, The Tiger in the Well, The Tin Princess (children's books: detective fiction/thrillers/adventures in Victorian London)

Paul Dowswell -- Powder Monkey (M&C light for kiddies; might be worth a quick read)

historical fiction by Mary Renault (especially The King Must Die, The Bull from the Sea, the Alexander trilogy, The Last of the Wine)

historical children's literature by Rosemary Sutcliff

Kate Atkinson's literary fiction (especially Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Human Croquet)

maybe a bit of Georgette Heyer Regency romance for light reading?

Various people were gushing on about The Time-Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger as the perfect sort of summer reading, which I, however, found truly awful. But maybe I have no heart/soul/tender feelings/whatever to enjoy a doomed romance with sort of sci-fi basics. Oh, well.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Oh, and for humor.

David Nicholl -- The Understudy

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Good recommendations! I love His Dark Materials by Pullman, and so reading his other books is an excellent suggestion. And I *love* Good Omens, though I don't dare read it while drinking anything. I defeintly think American Gods will be added to the list. And thank you for the Dowswell recommendation - I'm always on the lookout for good Age of Sail kid lit!

By the way, I love your reading icons! Lizzie and Evie respectively rock. :)

[otahyoni.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Ooh! My favorite thing! Recommending books!

Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. First book, The Eyre Affair. Mystery, fantasy, humor, and general wackiness, with a generous dose of classic literature fun. In The Eyre Affair, Thursday Next chases a villain into Jane Eyre, managing to muck it all up the process. In one of the later books (there's four so far), she has to take Hamlet into Witness Protection. Silly and fun and great for "spot the literary allusion!"

More serious but utterly amazing is Audrey Niffennegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, which I pimp constantly. Other literary options: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (short story collection).

Sci-fi: The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn. Like a Raymond Chandler novel in space! Ooh, read some Raymond Chandler, too. I love detective noir fiction.

Kay. Go! :)

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Oooh, The Eyre Affair! I didn't read that when it came out but it looked oh so very tempting. And The Time Traveler's Wife also piqued my interest. And detective noir in space? You have me hooked. :)

[ladyhamilton.livejournal.com]

You may have read them before, but the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy triogy (of five books), by Douglas Adams, is hilarious and brilliant. Um, I'm kind of blanking right now, but if I think of more books later I'll let you know!

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've read them before but it's been ages! I would really love to re-read them - especially the bits with Random Frequent Flyer Dent. :) Have you listened to all the radio plays?

[ladyhamilton.livejournal.com]

I have the old ones on CD, and I listened to the one of 'Life, the Universe, and Everything' on the computer each week as they played it , which was fun, but I missed the second new one. Have they done a radio play for 'Mostly Harmless' yet, do you know?

[cygna-hime.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, I'll second most of what other people rec'd, especially Neil Gaiman and the Thursday Next books. They are love.

Other than that:

The Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters--historical mystery, with some humor.

The Daughter of Time and other mysteries by Josephine Tey, but especially this one, because I do love it so.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok, which I am just going to pimp to everyone who asks until I create a fandom for it.

Temeraire by Naomi Novik--if you have not read it, I have no idea why, because trust me, you want to. It's (get ready for this) a Napoleonic era sea story--with dragons. (It's a trilogy, BTW--American titles are His Majesty's Dragon, In the Service of the King, and Black Powder War.)

The Young Wizards series (So You Want to be a Wizard and sequels) by Diane Duane, because I like them *is shallow*--they've got a good magical system, good characters, and considerable depth.

Poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay, if you haven't read her already, because...it's pretty? Sure. I love her.

And that's about all I can think of at the moment. If you've already read these, and I didn't remember, blame my ditzyness.

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Temeraire! Oh my goodness, thank you for posting that! I saw a post on that book but had totally forgotten the title. I think I may just love that book to pieces.

The Elizabeth Peters mystery sound very good - and I think I may be checking out The Daughter of Time very soon.

And I *love* The Young Wizards books. They need so much more attention and love - then again, they have a fairly sane fandom, unlike other children's fantasy novels I can think of. Speaking of kiddie lit, have you read the Bartimaeus books by Jonathan Stroud yet? So much love for those books. So much love.

[xchelsynessx.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Lesse. Since I read pretty much the same thing, hopefully I'll be able to think of some.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain is amazing, if you understand the language and stuff of the Authurian era.
I Am Morgan le Fay by Nancy Springer is good too, if not a bit childish. Again with the language and customs of early England.
Pretty much anything by Sharon Kay Penman is good, but I specifically recommend Falls the Shadow. It's one of those fiction-but-based-on-true-events books about the Royal Houses of England and Wales and the Lusignan and Montfort families in the mid-1200s.

That's all I can think of while glancing at my bookshelf. If I think of any more, I'll let you know. <3 Have fun reading.

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Falls the Shadow looks very, very tempting. Then again, I'm a sucker for anything Welsh. Wonder how that ever happenned. :)

Oh, and welcome to my wacky f-list! I noticed your name last night on the 'also friend of.' Mind if I friend you back?

[xchelsynessx.livejournal.com]

Haha. I believe that the same thing drew us to the Welsh obsessi- I mean... interest. Falls the Shadow is a very nice read; I cried, and I don't tear up whilst reading books often.

Thanks for the welcome. <3 You're absolutely free to friend me. The more the merrier.

[melroseplant.livejournal.com]

the Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle by Catherine Webb.

FANTASTIC!