Book Recommendations?

[ralst]

Lately I've felt my brain beginning the inexorable slide into repetitive conformity. No new ideas or flights of fancy have bombarded my inner mind for far too long to be considered healthy. I blame a less than stimulating job and lack of any current form of education. One I'm hoping to eventually foil with a new job, which hopefully will be a

Comments

[snuffnyc]

i don't know if it's really up your alley, but i'm reading The Black Dahlia and it's very good so far. I've not been able to read it consistently because of LIFE getting in the way, but it still maintains my interest despite repeated interruptions.

If nothing else, great 40's dialogue and mood. Plus, hey! Murder! and Lesbians! (well, I'm just getting to that part...)

[ralst]

Sounds interesting. Thanks, I'll check it out.

[theholyinnocent]

I've been reading this novel: Melodramatic, lesbian, hot, decadent, French. What more could you ask for?

[ralst]

Sounds very Collette-ish, so I'll definitely give it a go.

Cheers.

[sammysam]

anything and everything by tamora pierce. ignore that they can be found in teh young adult section, shes an author who can be read at any age. i started at 11, and im 23 and i can still read and enjoy them. very well written fantasy (if you like fantasy) that does not make you feel like you are being talked down to just cause you are reading a "kids" book. (and ::bounces:: the new one is out in 20 days!)

[resolute]

Huh. I'd have to second this one. I like that she writes her pre-adolescent and adolescent characters as serious, thoughtful people who do not have all the information adults neccessarily have, but who make the best decisions that they can with the life experience available to them.

Maybe that didn't make sense.

[sammysam]

totally agree :) im rereading all her books in preperation for the new one (obsession thy name is allison) and i keep haing to remind myself that kids their age had to make htese decisions all the time up until pretty much the past century or so, when adulthood started getting delayed to 18 (and 20-21 in some places, the US is my reference pt).

im almost done with cold fire. i have to say, i absolutely loved Will of the Empress. I knew I would like it, but I somehow ended up with an advanced copy about 6 months before it got wide release and I read it and it hit very close to home for me.

[ralst]

Thanks, I'll add her to the list.

[resolute]

Smut and angst -- Kim Harrion's vampire novels.

Serious thinky-nonfiction -- Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

On writing -- Crafty TV Screenwriting, by Alex Epstein

Perfect storytelling in comic book form -- the Runaways trade paperback collections.

Thinking science fiction in comic form -- Global Frequency, by Warren Ellis.

[ralst]

Thanks. I'll go see which of those I can find.

[shaych_03]

I've enjoyed Jane Fletcher's fantasy novels... but one of my all time favorite writers of fantasy that always makes me feel like i'm swimming in a lyrical stew of words and images is Barry Hughart's Master Li and Number Ten Ox books...

there's sorrowfully only three of them... Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. they are also out of print, but probably can be found at second hand book stores :) (or perhaps through amazon :)

[ralst]

Cheers, I'll have a look around the second-hand book shops and see what I can find.