books I've read recently
Because I just updated booknerds....
Fiction:
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami - My first Murakami, actually. Inception turned out to be an excellent Cliff's Notes for this book.
Doc by Mary Doria Russell - I will read anything by this woman, but this one is one of my favorites now. It's a fictional account of Doc Holliday's life prior to the infamous shootout, and it is excellent.
Sci fi:
After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn - Pretty good. Story of the daughter of super heroes, who has no demonstrable gifts herself except getting kidnapped a lot. Skimmed over a bit too much for me, but was pretty engaging all the same.
Fantasy:
The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - If you don't mind your fantasy with a side helping of religion, these books are excellent. If you do mind, just read the first, which is pretty complete on its own, and introduces one of the most original systems of magic I've read in a really, really long time. I read 2000 pages of story in six days, which is pretty good for me, especially when it's all one continuous story and not a million slashy ones.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman - So Grossman read Harry Potter and thought, hey, those were good, but that's not what school was like for me at all. So he wrote a magician's college where the magicians have sex and do drugs and drink, but also learn to cast spells and stuff. The main character is kind of an asshole, but honestly, that's my favorite part about him.
The Magician King by Lev Grossman - The sequel that just came out two weeks ago. WARNING, BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE WILL TELL YOU, SERIOUSLY, THIS BOOK CONTAINS A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF RAPE. This book was better than the first, better characters, tighter focus, better writing, but it was also heartbreaking and bittersweet. So good though.
Young adult:
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray - It was a little bit good. Buried among the jokes that threatened to beat you to death with how clever they were I found nuggets of awesome that basically sustained me. Perfect palate cleanser after The Magician King.
Rampant by Diana Peterfruend - This should have been so good. It was about killer unicorns, y'all. Instead it taught that the wages of being a whore (sleeping with someone at all ever) is death by killer unicorn. So lock up that chastity belt, girls, it's gonna be a wild night.
Romance:
Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn - Which I apparently never talked about on booknerds, but which was totes adorbs. I haven't read anything by her I didn't like, and this one is definitely top of her game.
Original gay fic: (which I haven't added to goodreads or booknerds, because my mom has those links)
Star Flyer by Bonnie Dee - I loved her regency stuff, but this one was very much a dud. Or, I don't know. I probably thought it was a dud because I live on a ranch with animals and the guy chasing off after the other guy and leaving his herd animals to drop babies on their own and basically milk themselves didn't seem romantic, it just seemed like poor planning to me. (Also cruelty to animals.)
His Convenient Husband by J. L. Langley - I'm mostly always captured by her warnings, which are quite often HILARIOUS. The book was not AMAZING by fic standards, but it was pretty decent, and a nice diversion last night.
Fiction:
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami - My first Murakami, actually. Inception turned out to be an excellent Cliff's Notes for this book.
Doc by Mary Doria Russell - I will read anything by this woman, but this one is one of my favorites now. It's a fictional account of Doc Holliday's life prior to the infamous shootout, and it is excellent.
Sci fi:
After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn - Pretty good. Story of the daughter of super heroes, who has no demonstrable gifts herself except getting kidnapped a lot. Skimmed over a bit too much for me, but was pretty engaging all the same.
Fantasy:
The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - If you don't mind your fantasy with a side helping of religion, these books are excellent. If you do mind, just read the first, which is pretty complete on its own, and introduces one of the most original systems of magic I've read in a really, really long time. I read 2000 pages of story in six days, which is pretty good for me, especially when it's all one continuous story and not a million slashy ones.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman - So Grossman read Harry Potter and thought, hey, those were good, but that's not what school was like for me at all. So he wrote a magician's college where the magicians have sex and do drugs and drink, but also learn to cast spells and stuff. The main character is kind of an asshole, but honestly, that's my favorite part about him.
The Magician King by Lev Grossman - The sequel that just came out two weeks ago. WARNING, BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE WILL TELL YOU, SERIOUSLY, THIS BOOK CONTAINS A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF RAPE. This book was better than the first, better characters, tighter focus, better writing, but it was also heartbreaking and bittersweet. So good though.
Young adult:
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray - It was a little bit good. Buried among the jokes that threatened to beat you to death with how clever they were I found nuggets of awesome that basically sustained me. Perfect palate cleanser after The Magician King.
Rampant by Diana Peterfruend - This should have been so good. It was about killer unicorns, y'all. Instead it taught that the wages of being a whore (sleeping with someone at all ever) is death by killer unicorn. So lock up that chastity belt, girls, it's gonna be a wild night.
Romance:
Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn - Which I apparently never talked about on booknerds, but which was totes adorbs. I haven't read anything by her I didn't like, and this one is definitely top of her game.
Original gay fic: (which I haven't added to goodreads or booknerds, because my mom has those links)
Star Flyer by Bonnie Dee - I loved her regency stuff, but this one was very much a dud. Or, I don't know. I probably thought it was a dud because I live on a ranch with animals and the guy chasing off after the other guy and leaving his herd animals to drop babies on their own and basically milk themselves didn't seem romantic, it just seemed like poor planning to me. (Also cruelty to animals.)
His Convenient Husband by J. L. Langley - I'm mostly always captured by her warnings, which are quite often HILARIOUS. The book was not AMAZING by fic standards, but it was pretty decent, and a nice diversion last night.