Books

[gehayi]

I'm going to the library on Saturday...and it just occurred to me that I don't know quite what to get. So I thought I'd ask my friends' list. Do you have any suggestions about what I might get--or at least put on reserve?

Comments

[thistlerose]

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner. It's a fun read. Swords and court intrigue.

For something uplifting, you might like The Delaney Sisters: The First 100 Years. I can't remember the author, but since it's biography, it'll be filed by subject. Sadie and Bessie Delaney were among the first - if not the first - black women dentists in the country. They both lived to be over 100.

I started the first GRRM book. Pretty good so far.

[lareinenoire]

Definitely second the rec for Swordspoint, for it is brilliant and amazing and so so witty.

And I'd also recommend Mélusine by Sarah Monette. The best description I can come up with for this book is that it succeeds in grabbing the reader by the nose without giving you any idea what on earth is going on. Plus, one of the two narrators has an utterly fantastic voice. There's also a sequel entitled The Virtu.

Lastly, if you've not read it before The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay is one of my favourite books of all time and I recommend it to everybody.

[rwday]

Some things to try:

Swordspoint or Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner - PotS is probably the stronger novel, but I liked Swordspoint better anyway.

I recall you liked Neverwhere - you might try Lisa Goldstein's Dark Cities Underground, which has some similar themes. Her Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon is good too.

Am reading Baudolino, by Umberto Eco - that's pretty decent.

[quinby]

This isn't your usual fare, but I've loved it for years.

It is a series of mysteries by an author named Bruce Alexander about the blind magistrate Sir John Fielding in Britain in the late 1760s. It is historical fiction, but the history of it is amazing. Also, it fascinates me to see that period from the British rather than the American perspective.

The first on is Blind Justice, the second Murder on (at?) Grub Street, and there are, I beleve eight or nine total. I've just re-visited my love of them after finding one in the box of books I brought with me here.

I have a couple other mystery series that I really like, as well as a few historical fiction authors that I can rec. But, er, I won't spam more space at the moment.

[minkhollow]

HOW COULD I FORGET.
Lamb, by Christopher Moore. Subtitle's "The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal." If you haven't read it before, I highly recommend it - it's hilarious.