Read any good books lately?

Pepper · Jun 2, 2009

I go to the bookshops just about every weekend now, and I still haven't been able to decide on a book to buy. I was hoping that you guys/gals might be able to recommend a good book for me to read?

To give an idea on the sort of thing I like, here's some books I've read and enjoyed recently:

Otherland, by Tad Williams (sci-fi/fantasy)
War of the Flowers, by Tad Williams (fantasy)
Shadowmarch, by Tad Williams (fantasy)
Mulengro, by Charles DeLint (fantasy/thriller)
Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden (historical fiction)
Mr Clarinet, by Nick Stone (thriller)

I tend to lean towards darker stories. At the moment I'm in the mood for sci-fi (none of those starship journey tales- I want earthy and gritty), but I'll pretty much settle for anything that is written well, as long as it's not vampires/werewolves! ^_^

What can you recommend?

Thanks all!

aadams73 · Jun 2, 2009

Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson. No vampires, no werewolves, I promise.

ccv707 · Jun 2, 2009

I'm about to finish the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Great trio of books.

Parametric · Jun 2, 2009

Someone looking for gritty SF should clearly try Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon.

Pepper · Jun 2, 2009

Thanks for all the suggestions! I checked out each of the books on wikipedia, and all of them look good.

Parametric's suggestion of Altered Carbon wins out as my "must read" though! After reading over the plot, I'm itching to read it. ^_^

If anyone else has suggestions, please feel free! I'm hopeless at picking out new books to read (the money I've wasted picking up crappy novels......)

bsolah · Jun 2, 2009

Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger is my highlight for the year so far. My housemate is reading at the moment and is loving it too.

Wayne K · Jun 3, 2009

The Elements of Style. It's a little slow at first, but then it makes you feel stupid before sending you back to your WIP with your participle between your legs.

I liked it, but don't ask me, I'm a writer not a reader.

WendyNYC · Jun 3, 2009

bsolah said:
Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger is my highlight for the year so far. My housemate is reading at the moment and is loving it too.

Yes, I loved this as well.

I'm now reading Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout and loving it. The writing and the characters are fantastic, but the story is fairly sad. I'm hoping for some bittersweetness at the end.

Jill Leo · Jun 3, 2009

The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes hooked me instantly. It is dark and bizarre.

dgiharris · Jun 3, 2009

ccv707 said:
I'm about to finish the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Great trio of books.

Been meaning to read those

Parametric said:
Someone looking for gritty SF should clearly try Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon.

I'm adding this to my must read list

Recently, i've run into a horrendous streak of books. The last good book (i.e. I read it cover to cover in two days) was Hominids by Robert Sawyer.

Great premise, there is a parallel Earth where Neanderthrals (instead of homo sapiens) evolved. A scientist from that parallel earth accidentally opens a doorway into our current world.

The first book will absolutely knock your socks off. Second book is likewise great, last book wrapped up the series nicely, (though it leans a little to the left politically)

Mel...

Pepper · Jun 25, 2009

Neat! Thanks for all the extra suggestions! This should keep me busy for a while.

Wayne, excellent suggestion, but I'm already all over that book.

I bought it a few years back and love it to pieces. I'm still working on applying what it's taught me, which is why it's sitting open on my writing desk right now.

Tinkerbelll · Jun 9, 2012

Timeless by Alexandra Monir

Mr Mitchell · Jun 14, 2012

Gone tomorrow by Lee Child. I'm currently reading that it's amazing, but have you read any of the Jack Reacher's novel?

cmi0616 · Jun 14, 2012

I'm sorry to say that I don't read too much sci-fi, and can't give you too many recommendations in that regard. As far as well written books though, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach are two book that I thought had really good prose and were very interesting. Then again, Franzen does seem to turn a lot of people off, so considered yourself warned.

Smiley0501 · Jun 18, 2012

Crew3l by G3nnifer @lbin - YA sci-fi (comp titles for me included The Giver, Hunger Games, Ella Enchanted, & also the tv show Mad Men). I really loved the author's writing style, and you were instantly in the world she created

sliccat · Jun 25, 2012

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. Is a fun and different read.

Bookewyrme · Jun 25, 2012

I just finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. It's a bittersweet historical novel, and it's AMAZING. I loved every word.

quicklime · Jun 26, 2012

I Am Legent by Richard Matheson....because it has vampires, of a sort, but it is a uniquely historical book.

Or Frankenstein (Mary Shelly's book, not to Koontz page-rape), because it was arguably one of the first horror AND sci-fi books, as well as a uniquely literary one. And, if you are like me, you never had a clue what the real story was, only the Hollywood tropes it became.

Literateparakeet · Jun 26, 2012

Ooohh! I just discovered Lisa See. Since you liked Memoirs of a Geisha, I think you would like Lisa See. I'm not the only one that likes her, she's been on the NY Times Best Seller List. She has several books, and eventually I want to read them all, but I started with Shanghi Girls.

Smiley0501 · Jul 2, 2012

Just finished & enjoyed AMERICAN WIFE by Curtis Sittenfeld. Well-written fictional account of a president's wife. It got a little too "tell not show" by the end (and sometimes rambled), but I really enjoyed the novel as a whole.

Drey of Boon · Jul 2, 2012

Given your preference for Fantasy (and darker Fantasy) have you tried any New Weird?

"Finch" by Jeff Vandermeer, or "Perdido Street Station" or "The Scar" by China Mieville? Those books'll blow your hair back.

Peter Watts writes brilliant hard sci-fi and seems criminally overlooked by a lot of readers. "Blindsight" is probably one of my favourite books - it's a first contact story set mostly on a spaceship but it's not a space opera. Oh, and it DOES have a vampire, but not the emo kind (Watts actually comes up with such a realistic evolutionary background / reason for having vampires captaining ships that it's not that easy to separate fact from fiction).

He also has a completely earthbound trilogy that's plenty dark and gritty. Book one is called Starfish. Not for everyone, but it's damn original.

Yorkist · Jul 2, 2012

quicklime said:
I Am Legent by Richard Matheson....because it has vampires, of a sort, but it is a uniquely historical book.

Or Frankenstein (Mary Shelly's book, not to Koontz page-rape), because it was arguably one of the first horror AND sci-fi books, as well as a uniquely literary one. And, if you are like me, you never had a clue what the real story was, only the Hollywood tropes it became.

+1 on both accounts. (Though I think there's plenty of literary sci-fi and horror; I am Legend is literary, IMO. Don't want to start a genre/literary debate, because it's a false dichotomy, but...)

Literateparakeet said:
Ooohh! I just discovered Lisa See. Since you liked Memoirs of a Geisha, I think you would like Lisa See. I'm not the only one that likes her, she's been on the NY Times Best Seller List. She has several books, and eventually I want to read them all, but I started with Shanghi Girls.

Oooh, I'm a huge fan of Lisa See. My favorite of hers is Peony in Love, which is part historical fiction, part fantasy. And if you like Lisa See and Memoirs of a Geisha, you might like Alma Alexander's Secrets of Jin-Shei, which is secondary world fantasy based loosely on imperial China.

I know this thread is old, but earthy and gritty sci-fi I've read recently and loved - Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (dystopian coming-of-age story, won the Nebula in 1993, incredible voice) and Stephen Cronin's The Passage (pre- and post-apocalyptic; there are vampires... but yeah, likewise, not emo or cuddly vampires).

Right now I'm reading a book by a fellow AW'er - Unknowable Death, Richard Garfinkle - that I'd describe as part dark psychological fantasy, part mystery, and part meta-mystery. It's weird and awesome and the narrative voice is ridiculously good.

Other books you may want to take a look at if you haven't had a chance to check them out (these are all sci-fi/speculative and at least somewhat dark):

The Children of Men, P.D. James
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishirugo
The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, others - Margaret Atwood
Specimen Days, Michael Cunningham

And if you like dark humor with your sci-fi, Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick are worth exploring.

Read any good books lately?

Pepper

I IS PRANCING

aadams73

A Work in Progress

ccv707

He who asks, "Why?"

Parametric

Pepper

I IS PRANCING

bsolah

AW's Resident Commie

Wayne K

WendyNYC

fiddle-dee-dee

Jill Leo

dgiharris

Disgruntled Scientist

Pepper

I IS PRANCING

Tinkerbelll

Mr Mitchell

cmi0616

Smiley0501

Lurker, now activated. :-)

sliccat

Bookewyrme

Imagined half of it.

quicklime

all out of fucks to give

Literateparakeet

Nerdy Budgie

Smiley0501

Lurker, now activated. :-)

Drey of Boon

The Boon abides

Yorkist