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BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
Have a book/author you think I'd enjoy? Let me know here! And no, there's no such thing as too many recommendations.
So give me authors, or titles or series and maybe even let me know why you think I or everyone should read them! Please feel free to also include reading orders or any other things you think I should know.
Genres I read most often include fantasy, urban fantasy, some science-fiction, romance, mystery, as well as Teen/YA books!
So give me authors, or titles or series and maybe even let me know why you think I or everyone should read them! Please feel free to also include reading orders or any other things you think I should know.
Genres I read most often include fantasy, urban fantasy, some science-fiction, romance, mystery, as well as Teen/YA books!
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TITLE(S): The Kingkiller Chronicle
ABOUT: SUBVERTING ALL YOUR FANTASY TROPES UP IN HERE. You wanted the aftermath where the hero has completely fucked everything up and is now in hiding, right?
OH ALSO
TITLE(S): The Orcs Trilogy
ABOUT: Continuing our theme of "fuck yer tropes", have a series about the Orc/Human conflict from the Orcs' point of view
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That reminds me of Jacqueline Carey's The Sundering duology...which is basically a high fantasy told from the perspective of the "villain" 8)
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TITLE(S): Wraeththu
ABOUT: A dystopian Earth, androgyny, sex to perform magic, beautiful men tragically in love with one another, antiheroes, call backs to 80's punk gangs now a common way of life for the majority 8D
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TITLE(S): The Child Thief
ABOUT: A very dark retelling of Peter Pan with Peter a child-stealing fae that kidnaps children and pressgangs them into being soldiers in his personal vendetta war against human invaders to faerie.
AUTHOR: BROM
TITLE(S): The Devil's Rose
ABOUT: I can only describe it as a badass, brutal kinda Ghost Rider-esque story, where a man crawled out of Hell one job at a time as a bounty-hun
AUTHOR: Douglas Clegg
TITLE(S): Mordred, Bastard Son
ABOUT: Mordred's story as told from his perspective without making him into just a woobie victim, including his forbidden romance with a handsome knight.
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TITLE(S): Neverwhere
ABOUT: SO THIS GUY CALLED RICHARD, he has a pretty normal, boring sort of life, office worker, girlfriend, blah blah. Then he runs into this weird chick called Door and helps her out and okay, all's normal, right? WRONG. Shit happens and he ends up going to this area below London where things are strange and he has to deal with a lot of chaos and weirdness. This is not a good description, but it's my favorite book out of any, and it has one of the most satisfying endings I've ever read.
AUTHOR: Neil Gaiman (can you tell I like him)
TITLE(S): American Gods
ABOUT: So this dude called Shadow gets out of prison after a thing, his life turns awful, and he gets dragged into this war between new gods and old gods by this dude called Wednesday. Involves much travel across country, and a number of short little side stories interspersed about the old gods and bits of their lives.
AUTHOR: Neil Gaiman (yes again)
TITLE(S): Anansi Boys
ABOUT: Not quite a sequel to American Gods, but it's set in the same universe and relates to one of the characters that appears in it. So this dude Fat Charlie's dad dies, after which he learns he actually had a brother he never knew about. Said brother proceeds to cause various trouble for him that must be dealt with, etc.
AUTHOR: Margaret Atwood
TITLE(S): Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and there's also MaddAddam though I haven't read that one yet
ABOUT: Going with the first two - each is set up with a sort of... set of two concurrent stories, one after some disaster has messed up society, and one about society before said disaster. The two stories weave together, telling how things wound up as they did. The society itself is set in the future, with a lot of bioengineering and fancy science things to make you look young and beautiful, you know, that sort of thing. Oryx and Crake involves a boy called Jimmy growing up in the better part of the society, observing stuff that goes on - particularly a smarter friend of his who gets into bioengineering and what happens as a result; the other half the story revolves someone called "Snowman" who's surviving in what's left after things go wrong. The Year of the Flood takes place concurrent with the first book, and involves an odd cult who renounces much of modern technology and is preparing itself for a presumed end of things to come, particularly a couple girls who got involved with it, and then them surviving after the end. Characters do intersect between the two. MaddAddam definitely links back too, but as said I have yet to read it. (I want to, though.) The books are kind of dark, though, between the awfulness people can perpetrate against each other and the worse parts of society.
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But yes that+Anasi Boys has been on my radar a while I just haven't...gotten around to finishing things hff. But yes all of these mO_Om
As for Margaret Atwood's stuff, I'll definitely have to look into this more :0 It sounds really interesting to be sure...
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TITLE(S): Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise
ABOUT: Alternate world fantasy where law is practiced through magic and the manipulation of divine power. Killer worldbuilding, diverse casts that are not all white dudes, and great stories.
AUTHOR: Kameron Hurley
TITLE(S): The Bel Dame Apocrypha
ABOUT: Imaginative and violent "crapsack world" SF with great characters.
AUTHOR: Saladin Ahmed
TITLE(S): Throne of the Crescent Moon
ABOUT: Fantasy that uses the Middle East as its basis rather than pseudomedieval Europe.
AUTHOR: Iain M. Banks
TITLE(S): The Culture series; start with Player of Games
ABOUT: One of the great SF writers of our time gone far too soon; all his stuff is quite good, but he's most famous for the Culture books, which focus on a utopian spacefaring civilisation that does not believe in the Prime Directive.
AUTHOR: Lauren Beukes
TITLE(S): Zoo City
ABOUT: Fabulous urban fantasy set in South Africa, where people who commit serious crimes gain an animal familiar.
AUTHOR: Jasper Fforde
TITLE(S): Shades of Grey (not Fifty)
ABOUT: Dark-humoured dystopian SF about a depopulated future world where one's social status is determined by one's colour vision.
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I AM IN THE RIGHT PLACE THIS TIME
TITLE(S): Fangirl
ABOUT:
"A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love."
Upfront, I'm not 100% sure you'd enjoy this read, but I do recommend it to anyone that understands the concept/obsession of fandom and fanfiction versus the real world. It parallels RP a bit, as there is some co-authored project work included, but this book really spoke to me and I'm therefore sharing it.
Adding in my commentary from plurk, because I totally know where to put things now. 8D;;;
Quaggsassin
it is about an 18 year old college student that is also a fanfiction writer and just kind of going out into the world
Quaggsassin
it was a really, really emotional read for me because it hit a lot of chords, but it also had some cute things in it that I thought you miiiiight enjoy and/or understand
Quaggsassin
I'm not sure how to describe it, but after finishing it? I had feelings about fictional characters that had feelings about fictional characters
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mind, it's mainly about fandom slash and I don't think you spent a lot of time in fandom slash, but it's... idk. it was a really interesting read for me /digs for the official write-up
OFFICIAL WRITE-UP:
Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .
But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?
Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
HOORAY FOR THE RIGHT PLACE
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TITLE(S): The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
ABOUT: VAMPIRES. So a while back this vampire decided to be all romantic and mysterious and not kill his victims..... which led to him spreading vampirism to all those victims and vampirism getting out of control and coming out into the open and now vampires are EVERYWHERE but contained in coldtowns where you're supposed to go if you get infected. Some vampires kill everyone at a party except Tana and her ex-boyfriend, who is infected. The two of them, along with a vampire the other vampires had been keeping prisoner, head out to figure out wtf to do and get entangled in drama and vampire politics along the way. Also romance.
If the amazingly gripping plot isn't enough... THERE IS SO MUCH DIVERSITY. Like sexually, racially, gender identity-fully.... so many people who aren't cis white het. And there are tumblr gifs of the vampires. Like within the book, they talk about vampire gifs. IT'S AWESOME.
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TITLE(S): The Kate Daniels series, order is:
-Magic Bites
-Magic Burns
-Magic Strikes
-Magic Mourns (novella)
-Magic Bleeds
-Magic Dreams (short story)
-Magic Slays
-Magic Gifts (short story)
-Gunmetal Magic (Andrea POV)
-Magic Tests (short story)
-Magic Rises
-Magic Breaks
ABOUT: DON'T LET THE COVERS FOOL YOU, they've gone to the Patricia Briggs school of THIS BOOK IS WAY MORE AWESOMER THAN THIS RIDICULOUS ARTWORK WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE.
Taking place in Atlanta, Georgia, Kate Daniels is a mercenary in a world that swings between magic and technology (they treat it almost like power surges- sometimes the magic turns on, sometimes the magic goes out). She carries around a sword. She takes no prisoners. She might be just a little bit crazy (and it's awesome that she's called out on some of the more ridiculous Urban Fantasy Heroics shit, I won't spoil anything for you but just let me say book 1 has a plot twist that is hilarious and amazing). She's just such an awesome protagonist- she's funny (Ilona Andrews should win an award for awesome banter that actually doesn't induce cringes), her relationship with her love interest is really unique and interesting (and the sex scenes are awesome, just throwing that out there), and she has a BFF that is a lady who is just as awesome as she is. Kate's a boss.
The series follows Kate as she navigates the magical world (and here's probably my favorite thing about the series besides all the amazing ladies: the magic system is diverse and it also draws on from multiple mythologies and cultures, boudas from Sudan, frost giants from Nordic mythos, Baba Yaga from Russia, Gilgamesh from Sumeria, she has a hell hound named Grendel that takes the earthly form of a poodle), and kicks ass in it, basically.
So in short:
-Awesome ladies being awesome and competent
-Variety of mythos and lore from all over the world
-Truly hilarious moments sprinkled in, witty banter, and general clever prose
-Crazy UST
-An interesting and different spin on ~HOT PARANORMAL DUDE~
-Lots of amazing side characters, including a vegetarian weretiger
-A hell poodle named Grendel
-Kate uses a vampire's teeth for office work when her hole puncher breaks. While they're still in the vampire's head.
SO YEAH. THESE BOOKS ARE GREAT.
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TITLE(S): The Darkangel Trilogy (The Darkangel, A Gathering of Gargoyles, and The Pearl of the Soul of the World) or The Firebringer Trilogy (Birth of the Firebringer, Dark Moon, and The Son of Summer Stars)
ABOUT: The first is a vampire romance type story plus fate and dealing with consequences. The second is unicorns, interspecies politics, and destiny. Both I like for taking the whole "chosen one" and prophecy theme and giving an outcome that doesn't make the fate part of the story seem totally phoned in. It's an interesting look at making decisions and what people tell you to do versus how fate really works. I like irony.
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NONFICTION
TITLE(S): Coming of Age in the Milky Way
ABOUT: My favorite cosmology/physical sciences popularization. It covers the development of our understanding of the universe from a deeply humane and humanistic perspective.
AUTHOR: Siddhartha Mukherjee
TITLE(S): The Emperor of All Maladies
ABOUT: The layperson's book about cancer. It's history, science, medicine, philosophy, and ethics all at once.
AUTHOR: Charles C. Mann
TITLE(S): 1491
ABOUT: Compiles the information we have about pre-Columbian cultures. Since few of them had writing, much of it is archaeological problem-solving. This book will entirely rearrange your understanding of the world.
AUTHOR: Charles MacKay
TITLE(S): Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
ABOUT: The many-splendored history of how people can't be trusted in groups.
AUTHOR: Bill Bryson
TITLE(S): Basically anything, but A Short History of Nearly Everything is his best, IMO.
ABOUT: What it says on the tin, plus excellent writing.
AUTHOR: Oliver Sacks
TITLE(S): Again, basically anything, but The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is a good place to start.
ABOUT: Sacks is a neurologist who consults on very strange or rare cases, and writes about all the ways the brain can go fascinatingly wrong.
AUTHOR: Tom Standage
TITLE(S): A History of the World in 6 Glasses
ABOUT: Booze. Also caffeine.
AUTHOR: Bill Streever
TITLE(S): Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places
ABOUT: Pretty much I'm just horrifyingly fascinated by the idea of dying terribly in a blizzard.
AUTHOR: Bill Hayes
TITLE(S): Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood
ABOUT: Probably not for the needle-averse.
AUTHOR: John Kelly
TITLE(S): The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time
ABOUT: Both human stories and medical science.