Pollyanna’s Booklist

If you haven’t read Audrey, Wait by Robin Benway, GO READ IT. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, and I work in the book industry. It’s about a high school girl who breaks up with her boyfriend, and he writes a song about the experience for his rock band. The song shoots up the charts to number 1, and soon Audrey is as famous as her ex-boyfriend. Other rock stars want to date her and girls want to be her, but she just wants to live her life and maybe date the geeky guy she works with at the ice cream place in the mall. So so so funny, and so good.

Not to get this off on the wrong foot or medium but the Douglas Adams quote makes me want to recommend the BBC Radio versions of the later Hitchhikers books – the Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases. They have most of the original cast back and in some ways the audio versions seems the truer version than the books.

Gerald Morris’ series based on King Arthur.
Kate Seredy’s The Good Master
The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcox

The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters (started in the 1970′s, now going on 19 in the series)– very funny and action-packed, set in Egypt and England in the late 1800′s to early 1900′s, with at least one murder in every book, although not true ‘murder mysteries’.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith–a stand-alone book about a young English girl and her eccentric family, set in the early/mid 1900′s (I think).

Sorcery and Cecelia (plus two sequels so far) by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, also Dealing with Dragons (plus 3 sequels) by Patricia C. Wrede–YA fantasy, the Cecelia books set in early 1800′s England in an alternate universe with magic, the dragon series just plain fantasy, hilariously funny.

The Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King–about a retired Sherlock Holmes and his young, American, feminist assistant; excellently written.

Pretty much any book by Mary Stewart–most of her books are classified as ‘suspense romance’; some are low-key, some quite exciting, just the right amount of mush. Some of my favorites are My Brother Michael, The Moonspinners, Nine Coaches Waiting, Airs Above the Ground.

The Sherwood Ring and The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (not sequels)– YA historical fiction, set in the early/mid 1900′s (I think) and Elizabethan England respectively.

I would GREATLY recommend some new books that have recently come out.

PRINCESS BEN by Catherine GIlbert Burdock. Imagine for once, a princess that isn’t a willowy, blond, graceful twit! Meet Ben, chunky and loving herself anyway. While the heroine’s weight is not the main focus, to me, it is what puts this book apart from you’re average, ‘princess saves her world’ YA read.

THE SWAN KINGDOM: Ever read the fairytale, ‘The Wild Swans’? This version makes more sense and also features a high-powered princess who kicks major tail in the name of her kingdom.

I just finished “The Miracle of the Bells” by Russell Janney. There was a film by the same name based on this book made in the late 1940s, which I haven’t seen, so I can’t compare the two. The book is about a film promoter who brings the body of an actress back to her old hometown to be buried. He loved her but never told her. The things that happen in the town form the basis for most of the story, although his relationship with the actress is also told in flashback.

Although there’s some pathos in the book (the heroine dies, after all!), it’s mostly a happy, happy story about a man with a can-do attitude who refuses to accept defeat, and how his attitude becomes infectious, and how people, upon discovering their own efficacy, turn from mean people into nice people.

The fictional “Coaltown” in the book is a real place by the name of “Glen Lyon”, geographically set exactly where Coaltown is set in the book. The church of St. Michael the Archangel was a real church in the town, and was razed in 2005. The church of St. Leo’s is there, under the name of St. Adalbert’s (which is the name the author gives to the Czech church; odd, since St. Adalbert is a Polish saint). The “Breaker”, which in the last part of the book is speculated as something that might be there forever, closed around 1971 and was destroyed in a fire in 1974. If you decide to read the book, Google “Glen Lyon” for a street map of the place, and you’ll see the few streets that make up this tiny town, including the cemeteries where much of the action takes place. If you pull up the satellite picture, you’ll see the blank lot where St. Michael’s used to stand, right next to the real St. Adalbert’s (St. Leo’s in the book) at the corner of West Main street and South Market Street. The Breaker used to stand where East Main and West Main divided.

Judith

Caroline Stevermer’s solo books are also great fantasy reads; I particularly enjoyed A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics.

If you like modern artists and mysteries solved by precocious middle school students who are gently but acerbically guided by a woman old enough to be their grandmother, I recommend Chasing Vermeer, The Wright 3 and The Calder Game by Blue Balliett. I’m about 2/3 done with The Calder Game right now. I read the first two during several lunch hours at the library where I work one day a week. The first two books also involved a fair amount of math.

P.G. –I’m re-reading the Crestomanci series for the first time in ages and Christopher reminds me a lot of one of his characters (Psmith).

Ursula LeGuin

If you like fantasy that is good for a laugh (hang on – you ARE on Robin McKinley’s blog, so never-you-mind!) you should check out Diana Wynne Jones’ Chrestomanci series. It’s a series about alternate universes to our own, some of which are magical, and therefore are patrolled and protected by a magician/sorcerer called the Chrestomanci.

She also has a wonderful book called ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ that was made into a beautiful animated movie by Studio Ghibli. But the book has a far, far better storyline than the movie version, and shouldn’t be missed.

Stardust, by Neil Gaiman. And, can I recommend comic books? Cause if I can, I’d recommend the Sandman series also by him. His title character, the Sandman (yes, that’s the guy who goes around putting people to sleep) is pretty cool, but the real draw for me is Death–a cute and cheerful goth girl with a top hat. Speaking of girls who do important things.

I just read The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne. The only thing I dislike about this book are the heaving man-boobs on the cover. Everything else is awesome. It’s everything a romance book should be: lovely, engaging characters, including female ones who hold their own without being anachronistic; great friendship and banter, especially with the secondary characters; a romance that develops nicely, without clichés or contrivances (even the old captor/captive thing works well, the way its done here, when sex is not used as a weapon or bargaining tool, and there is no huge discrepancy of power between the two main characters), and between two adults who act like adults and the professional spies they are; amazing attention paid to the dialogue — one of the main characters is French and she speaks English, but the cadence of her language is French throughout (and different from the rhythms and patterns of the English speakers); that’s what makes it work, not the dropping in of the odd French word here and there. And just wonderful writing all around. I highly, highly recommend this book. I think her next book, My Lord and Spymaster, comes out later this year (July?).

_Tea with the Black Dragon_ and _Twisting the Rope_ by R.A. MacAvoy are two of my favorite comfort books. Martha is a great heroine; middle-aged yet still wierd and adventurous. And it’s hard to go wrong with a dragon as your sidekick.

The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. They form a series. Slightly spoilerish warning: the main character (Eugenides) has his hand cut off in the second book. But don’t let that stop you! The characters are complex and wonderful, the writing beautiful, and the setting (a sort of Byzantine never-never land) well worth visiting.

Anything by Robin McKinley. I particularly love The Blue Sword, Spindle’s End, Outlaws of Sherwood, The Hero and the Crown, and Sunshine. (Dragonhaven was quite different but equally amazing. I have not read Deerskin yet.)

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. “My personal name is Li and my surname is Kao, and there is a slight flaw in my character.” Sorry if I misquoted that–the book itself is a truly epic fairytale, with divinities, living legends, and an amazingly funny and humble hero/narrator.

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Adventures series, for those who love character driven sci fi.

And for any medievalists out there I highly recommend Catherine Jink’s Pagan books. Pagan Kidrouk is first a squire, later a cleric, and always a wiseguy. Funny, action-packed, and (to the best of my knowledge) historically accurate!

Rosemary Sutcliff, as well. The BEST historical fiction out there, with a focus of Roman and post-Roman Britain.

Georgette Heyer. Amusing, entertaining, and always tasteful Regency Romance. What’s not to like about a romance, for example, where the man calls the woman “my dear hornet”?

If you have not read Lord of the Rings, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars (or whatever appropriate equivalent), and do not watch the movies. Go forth and read.

In the Castle of the Flynns by Michael Raleigh. Read it for the laughs. Read it for the heartbreak. Read it for the chicken getting loose on the city bus and making for freedom.

Sorry to blather so long, hope you find congenial company (or have found such company) in these books!

-Nema

Some children’s books that I have enjoyed:

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh (I’m extremely pleased that they’ve reprinted this.)

The 13th is Magic! by Joan Howard (I really wish they would reprint this one.)

The Ordinary Princess by M. M Kaye (Comfort reading in my opinion. I wish I had that fairy godmother.)

Coraline by Neal Gaiman (Read this in daylight with someone there to tell you it’s really just a story and not REAL.)

The Treasures of Weatherby by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

As i write this I realize that the only “adult” books I’ve read in the past six months or so are Georgette Heyer romances and books on container gardening. The romances were much more fun.

I do love The Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia McKillip. She wrote it in about three months and it’s got a few ragged edges, but that’s one of the reasons I like it. And I’m don’t mean to suck up but The Blue Sword is a big comfort read to me–I swear I have some of it memorized.

How about ‘Dragonskin Slippers’? (Jessica Day George) It was fun…. and Victoria Walker’s ‘The Winter of Enchantment’…. and its sequel…. ?

Pamela dean’s secret country work – YA, but much denser and more complex, so it impresses you at 40 the way “usual YA” would at 12. And the poetry quotes are fun to track down. Speaking od denser, go read Lois Mcmasters Bujold’s speech on how hard it is to find good new reading material in middle-age than when you were a kid, because your level of sophistication is so sky-high that relatively few authors can broaden your horizons in an astonishing way – whereas horizons are very easy to broaden when you’re 12. (Whooah….. if that’s how its spellled.)
Heinlein for hard sf of course, and Bujold’s Chalion series is even better than Vorkosigan, especially the interesting theology (what am I saying, how could this be interesting? but it is!)
Absolutely the Mary Russell series (discovered from Pollyanna list, yay, thankyou!!!), and Dorothy Sayers, and Georgette Heyer – and in the Heyer/ Bujold Venn diagram overlap, try the Liaden universe by Sharon Lee/Steve Miller. A lot of really good noir fantasy recently (thank goodness we got off the derivative pastel unicorns after 30 years), Laurell Hamilton – Merry Gentry is better than Anita Blake, though both skirt my absolute limit on sex and violence – also Carrie Vaugh’s Kitty books, C.E. Murphy, Patricia Briggs …. The first 2 Borderlands books about Lord Rabbit from Lorna ? Freeman?; she’s having much trouble getting the next one published which is a huge shame….Oh yes, the Mirador books by Sarah Monette, wonderful wonderful protagonist Mildmay although see the above comment on sex and violence……Lots more but brain-freeze has set in on author’s names.

A thematic approach……
Dragons and other sentient beings
Anne McCaffrey’s “Pern” series: A semi-feudal society has developed on a new world, and ‘Holds’ of dragons and their riders protect people by flying and breathing fire to burn away a destructive organism that falls like rain. There is always a large cast of characters, and the dragons are very personable. As the series develops, the people learn more about the technology that brought their forebears to this world, with a consequently interesting clash of cultures.

Mercedes Lackey’s “Jouster” series: A slave boy hides a dragon egg, nurtures its hatching, and imprints on it. When the dragon is large enough, they fly together away from captivity, back to his homeland, which he finds is in the grip of evil magicians. In a series of books, he turns around dragon training, good battles evil, new societies develop.

Naomi Novik “Temeraire” series: Anne McCaffrey meets Patrick O’Brian…Historical fantasy set during the Napoleonic wars. Our hero is a British naval captain, and on capturing a French ship, finds the precious cargo is a very rare dragon egg from China. It hatches, he imprints it, so has to leave off being a naval captain, and join a dragon regiment (to his horror). All the historical stuff sounds familiar and accurate, and the dragon contributions are woven into the war in a fascinating way. And Temeraire, the dragon, is ADORABLE. Subsequent books see them travel to China, Africa, et al.

Mercedes Lackey (again) “Valdemar” series: This started as YA book “Arrows of the Queen”, and developed in a series of trilogies and single books, both sequels and prequels, into an adult series. No dragons, the sentient beings are “Companions”, spirits disguised as white horses, which partner with a Herald. Heralds protect society – spies, police, fighters, judges, mediators, etc. It’s a dangerous job, particularly when renegade mages and insane neighbouring kings try to destroy the country. This is a very engaging series, with lively characters, interestingly varied societies, and the added attraction of Companions, fire cats and bond birds working with the humans.

Robin Hobbs “Assassin” series: I read the first and third series in this nine-book collection, and avoided the second series – sentient, talking ships? Creepy! However, having run out of Hobbs’ books and needing more, I gave in and read the second series, and I think it is now my favourite. The figureheads at the front of the ships are carved from special wood which is brought to life and bonded to the captain’s family. A mad ship, deserted, rotting on the shore, figurehead blinded, is brought back into use and is instrumental in fighting off pirates, invasion and sea serpents. Hobbs’ books are quite dark, but never to actual despair, with challenging moral issues and strong characters.

Sharon Shinn’s “Samaria” series: Like the “Pern” series, this is about a created world where the population has lost the connection to the technology that brought their forebears to it. This time the genetic engineering has been done on humans (not dragons), and a race of angels has developed. The angels provide leadership for their communities, and use music to manage the weather. I think it is best to read the second book of the original trilogy first “Jovah’s Angel” as all becomes clear about the origin of the world in it. The challenges for change in a society when a manufactured religion runs headlong into its technological beginnings are fascinating. Very engaging characters.

Sharon Shinn (again) “Twelve Houses” series: It is stretching it to say there are sentient beings in this series, but some of the characters are able to shape-change into birds and cats, etc. A moderate king is in conflict with aggressively conservative, anti-mystic nobles, and sends out a diverse group of spies to investigate. Adventure, romance, fantasy, prejudice. Sharon Shinn’s website has a number of review quotes including: ‘ “The most promising and original writer of fantasy to come along since Robin McKinley” Peter Beagle’.

So, she must be good! (I’ve just read ‘Dragonhaven’, hence the dragon theme. I enjoyed it very much, and await ‘Chalice’ eagerly.)
Susan in Melbourne

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway (that was me up above, I’m just repeating myself)
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Betwixt by Tara Bray Smith
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry (for younger readers, but my FAVORITE)
Red: The Next Generation of American Writers–Teenage Girls–On What Fires Up Their Lives Today, edited by Amy Goldwasser
CHALICE by Robin McKinley! LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! Worth the wait, buy it in hardcover!

Phillip Pullman – best known for His Dark Materials – absolutely amazing. (Movie of Golden Compass was alright but does not do book justice.)

I saw this mentioned on your lj one somewhere but not here, so Patricia McKillip. My absolute adored favourite is “The Forgotten Beasts of Eld” (it won some award, as it should). Rest are good too, sometimes a bit confusingly airy but even if you’re not sure what’s going on, the language is beautifully poetic.

I don’t know if you would like this, but Jane Lindskold wrote a series of books about a girl raised by wolves named Firekeeper, in a rather neat and highly detailed medieval world. I have forgotten which is the first book, but it is the best, and they are called things like “Wolf’s Head, Wolf’s Heart” and “Wolf Captured” etc, things with “wolf” in them. Firekeeper is definitley one of my favourite “goes out and does things” heroines.

Here are a few that haven’t yet appeared on Pollyanna’s list:

John M. Ford, The Dragon Waiting

Raymond Chandler

Guy Gavriel Kay

Patrick O’Brian. Try The Golden Ocean if you don’t want to get into the Aubrey/Maturin series.

I’ve just finished Geraldine McCaughrean’s new book The White Darkness–very good.

And anyone who hasn’t read Kipling should go and do that right now.

Oh Diane, yes I love most of Guy Gavriel Kay, although some of it (particularly the Fionavar Tapestry series) is heart breaking.

I like Kipling’s poetry very much, and have read some of his essays as well, but have stayed away from his fiction due to my allergy to dead white guy literature. Where does one start as a benighted adult?

I’ve recently been introduced to a new author whom I’m now going through one of my “I’m obsessed with this author and won’t read anything else by anybody else until I get over it” phases.

Jasper Fforde. Eyre Affair is the first book of his I read, and I highly recommend him in general.

He has a Douglas Adams/J. K. Rowling/Lewis Carroll/Terry Prachett kind of feel. If you’re well-read, a former English major, or just tired of authors who feel they have to explain every allusion to you because they assume modern readers are apparently stupid, he’s the man for you!

Eyre Affair is about a literary detective from England who has to protect characters in famous books from being murdered by the evil (I love this name) Acheron Hades! Take Earth and history as we kind of know it, throw in some rather bizarre twists and characters who actually live, breath, and can have the book they exist in modified by outsiders, and run along to Fforde land.

Truthfully, I could spend all night writing about authors I love, but I’ll stick with him for now :)

Jasper Fforde – start with The Eyre Affair. Anyone who’s familiar with classic lit will love the references. The plots are zany but the laughs abound. And who can possibly resist a story about a literature detective??

OK, here are my recommendations:

Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. I had a young college friend practically BEG me to read these books. I was leery, but it turns out there are really good. The characters become very well developed, and Meyer does a good job describing both teenage love and teenage heartbreak, that kind of heartbreak that’s shattering but not overly dramatic. Plus, it’s vampires with none of the “vampire porn” sex and minimal violence (usually just a big fight in the end).

If the category of Books Read When 12, I recommend A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeline L’Engle. It’s the third after Wrinkle and Wind in the Door, but I think it’s the best. It did a good job of warping my concepts of good, evil, and consequences of your actions in a great way. Plus it had a unicorn and a cool dog.

(My two cents on the Merry/Anita question: Merry has MUCH better men (eg Doyle), but Anita had much better plots, until a few books back. So I refuse to read any new Anita books until at least HALF of her boyfriends get killed by some horrible demon and Anita goes on a bloody rampage. But I liked the older blood, guts, and gore books. Not very Pollyanna at all.)

If we’re on historical novels, I think the following are terrific:

Gillian Bradshaw – late Roman, very historically accurate, beautifully written, and the romance is always part of an intersting story. My all-time favourite is The Beacon at Alexandria, where enterprising Byzantine girl runs away from forced marriage, disguises herself as a eunuch and goes to study medicine at Alexandria.

Diana Norman – again, really well written and historically accurate. The author is very good on women trying to fight against the constraints of their time, usually hampered by men who are very happy with those constraints, thank you. Anything that’s in print is excellent.

Grace Ingram – one of my all time favourites is Red Adam’s Lady. It’s difficult to get hold of an has truly frightful covers, but just try it. It’s set in 1173, and our heroine is forced to marry Red Adam who kidnaps her mistaking her for the Wrong Sort of Girl, and then has to marry her to make up for it.

Patricia Finney – really excellent Elizabethan adventure stories. She’s also written some very funny detective stores set in th Scottish borders at the same time, under the name of P F Chisholm.

Kij Johnson – the fox woman and fudoki
Guy Gavriel Kay (think someone else mentioned him) and his poetry book Beyond this dark house is gorgeous.
Alice Hoffman – Green Angel
Adele Geras – The Tower Room (and the other two of that series are pretty good also)
Rachel Klien The Moth Diaries
Alison Croggon Pellinor? I forget what the series is called – but they have appendices…very nice!

and just for fun, since it always makes me laugh…..the Art of coarse Acting – Michael Green is hysterical in parts. Especially if one is involved/has been involved/knows someone involved in amateur dramatics!

and that is enough of that, since work calls.

my two cents…

I second Robin Hobb, and I *have* read the middle trilogy – Ships of Magic. wonderful! totally different kind of thing from the Assassin and Fool trilogies… the woman has quite an imagination.

Melanie Rawn – Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies set in the same world, and Exiles, although it’s an unfinished trilogy, is also great. she’s also in the category of writers who write about women who (*&&%$&*( do things :)

Tad Williams – I’ve just read the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn books, but they were great.

has anyone mentioned Tamora Pierce yet? I know she was mentioned on the first blog, but I thought I’d say her name again just because. she writes YA novels with wonderful characters.

George R.R. Martin – not sure if you’d like him, Robin, as he writes pretty gruesome stuff sometimes, but it’s compelling fantasy all the same.

This is not in the fantasy group, but has anyone tried Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver? It is one of those lovely books that has many female characters that I would just love to spend a few weeks with. It also has the added benefit of talking about gardens in a way that makes me able to smell the plants as I read it.
I also love Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tigana and the Lions of al-Rassan. There is a great, strong, independent female physician in Lions that lived with me for a long time after I finished this book.
Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten is also fantastic. It’s a great adventure and very atypical romance.
I’m also loving the Mercy books by Patricia Briggs. Mercy is a great heroine.

Ok, here we go-
Y/A and SciFi/Fantasy Shelf:
Megan Whalen Turner, “The Thief”, “The Queen of Attolia”, the “King of Attolia”,
Patheon of gods, ancient Greece-like setting, court intrigue, mystery, smart characters.
Juliet Marillier, “Daughter of the Forest” Series, especially “Son of the Shadows”
Ancient Ireland, strong female characters, a little romance, a little magic.
Sharon Shinn – For a truly great kickass heroine, read “Mystic and Rider” I like ALL her books, both adult and YA.
Priscilla McKillip, “Od Magic”has all the poetry but a clearer story than some of her others.
Orson Scott Card, “Ender’s Game” very well written.
Brain Sanderson, “Elantris” created a new world that I felt I had never visited before. Great characters, suspense, a (very) little romance, one of my have-to-read-til-the-end books.
Ursula L’Guin “Tombs of Atuan”, one in a series, but it can be read alone.
Gerald Morris “The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf” Hilarious take on Arthurian Legends.
Meyer’s “Twilight” Series. Vampires second only to “Sunshine”.
Susan Cooper “The Dark is Rising” Don’t watch that movie unless you have read the books because I know all ready they are going to butcher them.
(Please note me skipping over the McKinley Section, since we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t love her books, and a comment can only be so long..)
Other Good Books:
L.M. Montegomery, “Anne of Green Gables” series, these books have never gone out of print. The last one, “Rilla of Ingleside” makes me cry like a baby every time.
L.M.Montegomery, “The Blue Castle” HIDEOUS cover, GREAT book written when author was older. It always inspires me.
Diane Gabaldon “Outlander” series, especially first three. Yes, there are some pretty explicit sex scenes (not always happy ones), but it is SMART writing about a WWII nurse sent back in time. And she has some serious pluck folks. Not to mention a hero that might have ruined all real men for me. :)

I did notice the Kiplingesque touches in Blue Sword, which was my introduction to your work, rather further in the past than I want to contemplate…

Two young adult books that got me on the road of fantasy and historical novels, and which haven’t already been mentioned are
Allison Uttley’s A traveller in time (about a mid-twentieth century girl travelling to Elizabethan England where she finds herself involved with the Babington family – of the plot of the same name to place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne) and Geoffrey Trease’s A Crown of Violets, (please avoid at all costs the current edition which is an English language reader and which has managed to strip the book of all the edifying details that made is so charming) which is a wonderful evocation of classical Athens, the way the city was run, pointing out so many details. Helped me pass a few history exams too. I always learned far more from fiction than I ever did from textbooks.

The list already seems to include chunks of my library. Totally endorse the comments made about McKillip, R A MacAvoy, Gillian Bradshaw and McKinley who are all on the must have hardcover. The Lens of the World series by R A MacAvoy is worth hunting down.

Other comfort reads include anything by Martha Wells (I think all her books are in print), Melissa Scott ‘five-twelfths of heaven series’, Caroline Strevermer ‘When the King comes home’, and Emma Bull.

P.C Hodgell’s ‘Godstalk’, Dark of the Moon’, ‘Seekers mask’ and ‘To ride a rathorn’ are a highly original, action packed fantasy series. While Hodgell appears to be under what must be a publishing curse, I hope to get the next instalment of Jame’s adventures this decade.

If you can get ahold of Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s Greensleeves (out of print) read it. Rather unbelievable plot, wonderful characters. Maybe I’m too good at forgiving fantastic (or less than fantastic, if you like) plots if they allow for other aspects.

Also, Wind in the Willows. The pacing is delicious, the character’s relationships better than most books. Plus, this book rid me of depression after I’d been reading only [insert modernist short stories] and [a novella by the same author] for days…That’s gotta be worth something.

My recommendation, although they are very hard to find, is the Bordertown series edited by Terri Windling. It’s a “shared world” type deal where the editors set up a scenario that Elfland has come back, and right on the border there’s a town that’s sort of between the two worlds. Many of the stories are, frankly, badly written, but all of the stories are good. It’s really fun to see the different characters show up in different stories, and I always wish it was real when I finish reading it.

There are four books, “Bordertown,” “Borderlands” “Life on the Border,” and “The Essential Bordertown” The first three are the best and are also criminally out of print. Definitely worth tracking down if at all possible.

The Wind in the Willows– there’s nothing like it, is there? I love that book.

I assume Narnia hasn’t really been mentioned because everyone assumes everyone else has already read it? I wrote a thesis on it when I was working on my B.A. The Horse and His Boy is one of those comfort books for me.

So are the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome– very pastoral, very imaginative, very individualistic. I wore out the first one in the series when I was younger and had to replace it.

Someone mentioned Patricia Wrede– yes, the Dealing With Dragons series is one that I turn to whenever I’m sick in bed. I spent a hideous weekend with a nearly incapacitating sinus infection in a town with only one incompetent bookstore, where they were fairly certain I was lying when I told them those books existed. I’m a Children’s Bookseller myself, so I will charitably hope that they were only having an off-day and refrain from posting their name here. Professional courtesy, you know.

I’ve gone on a historical mystery jag recently, and will add some to the Elizabeth Peters mentioned above:

–C.S. Harris’s Sebastian St. Cyr books are set in the Regency Era, and they’re not your mom’s Jane Austen books (not to knock dearest Jane.)
–Robin Paige’s (actually a penname for a husband and wife writing team) Charles and Kate Sheridan series, set in the late Victorian and early Edwardian era, and rife with great historical detailing and strong-willed women.
–Deanna Raybourne’s two novels Silent in the Grave and Silent in the Sanctuary, set in the Victorian era, again full of strong-willed women, and spiced with interesting historical Gypsy lore.

I recently read City of Bones and City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare, part of The Mortal Instruments Trilogy, and I liked them a lot too.

But I really have to say that, as far as comfort goes, give me Narnia, a large pot of Earl Grey, and a batch or two of bread dough to knead and I can get through nearly anything.

Joy Joy– Thanks for access to new reading recommendations from a descerning group of readers (we’re here aren’t we:)?)! Can’t wait to search out the ones I haven’t eaten…er, I mean, read. Here are my contributions to the list:

Charles de Lint: Jack the Giant Killer and Greenmantle are my favs, these are both “urban fantasy”

***Pam Houston: Sight Hound (It is WONDERFUL), a multi POV novel about the opening and closing of doors in life, and that both things can be heartbreaking and heartmending…kinda what most good books are about now that I think about it.

Christopher Moore: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal… well what to say…I almost pee’d myself laughing at points and almost ugly-cried at other points, and that about sums it up.

Michelle Sagara: The “Cast in” series. Alt world fantasy, really enjoy the world building she does here, and the pace is brisk in a good way

Sellar and Yeatman: 1066 and All That…this book is the bathroom book, it amuses me to hear random bursts of laughter from the direction of the WC.

Hope this list introduces or reminds folks to/of great reads. And thanks again for providing the space!

Tamora Pierce- some of the first fantasy I ever read. I particularly liked the quartet starting with “Wild Magic,” and I would maybe stay away from the “Circle of Magic” books- I felt like they were aimed at too young of an audience in fourth grade.

Simon R Green- they can be a little dark and scary (I would dread to read one of his books if he actually *tried* to write horror) but they’re also hilarious. I really like Shadows Fall, Drinking Midnight Wine, and Blue Moon Rising.

Terry Pratchett- His later books are my favorites, especially Jingo, Night Watch, and Thud!, but I don’t know that they’d be so enjoyable if you didn’t read the first ones. If you don’t have any background, try Going Postal.

And everything Marguerite Henry. Especially San Domingo and King of the Wind, and, of course, Misty of Chincoteague.

I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Jonathan Stroud Yet? His Bartimaeus trilogy is hilarious, paticularly the first one, The Amulet of Samarkand.

I’ve just finished reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. Beautifully written, though at times terrifying and heart-wrenching.

It is set in a dystopian future (a very possible future, considering the direction human beings seem to continue so recklessly). Global warming has all but destroyed the environment, the government is useless if not downright dangerous, and many communities have built walls to protect themselves. Not to mention the fact that everyone now carries a gun. And yet, out of all this paranoia, violence, and hate, there is a young woman who is trying to change things for the better. Lauren is an incredibly strong heroine, who wishes to build a community based on trust and hope.

This is the first of two, but I haven’t read the second one yet. I would definitely recommend it.

As someone whose love of reading was born when she first picked up The Blue Sword, I have to say that I am thrilled to see so many Strong Female Types in literature, on this list. Many of the books mentioned here I already own and have read and re-read many times. More exciting, however, are those that I have not yet discovered. Thank you to everyone who has posted and continues to post here. I look forward to reading some of these suggestions!

I mentioned her before on the lj thread/place/comments-of-hugeness, but I have to add Laurie J. Marks to this list. I have only read her (as yet unfinished) Elemental Logic series, which consists of Fire Logic, Earth Logic, and Water Logic (Air Logic is coming) and is totally excellent. Her other books are apparently hard to find, but one of these days when free time and spending money materialize out of the ether I’ll track them down.

Love Patricia McKillip. Although the Riddlemaster trilogy and Song for the Basilisk are my official favorites, I find myself rereading Od Magic most often. If you go in for that sort of thing, there’s some lovely political commentary to be found therein.

And concerning SANDMAN: this was the first Thing I read that was horroresque (at least in places), and I realized that I don’t much care for horror. But luckily I was captivated enough to keep going through the first few volumes, because the end is spectacular. And not horrific at all (and I like the later art better, too). So my suggestion is to read the first few really quickly on some sunny day and then keep going, because you have the backstory now and can read the rest with great pleasure and never have to go back to the first few again (not that they’re at all bad, because come on. This is Neil Gaiman. But they’re kinda gorey.), but you’ll want to go back to the last ones lots and lots. Also number eleven, Endless Nights, which can probably be read without the official ten volumes first, and The Dream Hunters, which is again independent and has gorgeous illustrations, and then the Death books: Death: The High Cost of Living and Death: The Time of Your Life. Really really good and fun.

And I’d just like to point out that the Dealing with Dragons series is officially called the Enchanted Forest Chronicles (I promise I’m not criticizing; it’s just that I’m the sort of person who likes things precisely correct, I can’t help it, I was born to be a nitpicking scientist).

That was longer than I meant it to be. And I think I had more to say at one point, too, but I forgot it.

Oh and since we are officially not limited to fantasy I’d like to throw in the Chosen, by Chaim Potok. I reluctantly picked it up for ninth-grade English and did not put it down again until it was finished (something similar happened with Pride and Prejudice, come to think of it…). That’s what I forgot last time!

One book I really liked when I read it at, oh, ten? was The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. I Googled this to make sure I got the author’s name right, and it turns out they’re making a movie of it. Urk. With the heroine played by–guess who?–the girl who played Lyra in The Golden Compass. Which I haven’t watched either, but as I recall you did a delicious rant on.
Anyway. The Little White Horse is rather sweet, and beautiful and satisfying, although I’ll admit the heroine doesn’t precisely kick butt. I liked her anyway. It’s, let’s see, mystery, fantasy, historical, shoujo, romance.

Here is a little postscript to my list, having just read this in the Old Blog about the Attolia Series by Megan Whalen Turner:

“… the main character gets his hand cut off? I don’t do mutilation in fiction.”

I would just like to clarify that although it is frightening and horrible, this is not a gruesome/gory scene. I do not do horror or gratuitous violence. “Sunshine” is about as violent as I get. :)
This event also does not happen until the second book. So the first book, “The Thief”, is safe.

Judith Tarr! How could I forget? Especially her Lord of the Two Lands, King and Goddess, and the Hound and the Falcon Trilogy (warning – is tragic). She tends to write not from the standpoint of the central, famous character, but from a lesser character – a cousin, sister, servant, etc. Usually a woman.

While reading Lord of the Two Lands, during Alexander’s visit to the Oracle, I was taken away from my living room into a sandstorm in the Sahara.

Wow! What a list! I hope I’m not repeating anything. Here are some of my other favorites:

- Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams (because I like the part about Heathrow going up in a big ball of fire and I’m a fan of Dirk Gently.)

- The Glass Slipper and The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon

- Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones (my absolute favorite book)

- Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (I also like A Fine and Private Place)

- Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit

- Beauty by Sheri Tepper

- On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

- All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor (I love this series!)

- Peppermints in the Parlor by Barbara Brooks Wallace

- Unwillingly to Earth by Pauline Ashwell

- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

- Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress

- The Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny

- Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison (completely addictive)

- So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane (the whole series is fabulous)

- To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

- The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

- Betsy and Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace

- Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter

- Nicobobinus by Terry Jones

- Which Witch? by Eva Ibbotson

I keep thinking of more books!

- An Alien Music by Annabel and Edgar Johnson

- Ballet Shoes, Theater Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

- Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge (and The White Horse!)

- The Fairy Book Series by Andrew Lang

I love “Stargirl” and “Love, Stargirl” by Jerry Spinelli. Not for purely fantasy readers, (or those who absolutely must have a very happy ending.. you’ve been warned!!) but if you want a strong young woman? It’s the best.

Also the Amelia Peabody series (or anything by Elizabeth Peters) and Jasper Fforde, both of whom been mentioned. I think I’ve read the The Eyre Affair about 6 times, and it’s lead me to re-read (most of) the classics that are mentioned. And the classics that aren’t mentioned, but make you go “Oh, right!” when you read them.

What I haven’t seen on this list yet, are the classics!* I’m going to remedy that right now by mentioning Jane Austen. She is my very favourite author, and in her books are more strong (and, well, not so strong) women than you can count!

*unless I’ve missed something, which I confess, I might have.

I’m glad to see ichimunki mention Roger Zelazny–I especially like Lord of Light and also his last book, A Night in the Lonesome October. And A Girl of the Limberlost points in the direction of L. Sprague de Camp (because he mentions that book in one of his novels, which is why I read it many many years ago) for classic science fiction and fantasy with a sense of humor. And I’ll throw in Cordwainer Smith on the classic SF side–hard to categorize, but I guess the best adjective that comes to my mind is humanist, in the best Renaissance-y sense.

Sally Watson’s stories–aimed at girls 10-14–turned me into an anglophile. Funny and charming (especially “Lark”!) and recently reprinted by Image Cascade.

After decades of writing uninspiring mid-20th-century teen novels, Mabel Esther Allan cut loose and wrote “The View Beyond My Father”. Glorious first-person narrative voice, pugnacious, witty. Blind Mary Anne has an operation, gets her sight restored–and then has to fight her dysfunctional family for her freedom. Set in 1930′s Britain.

Jean Little’s “From Anna” is a rare book: a girl with low vision gets glasses, and her world opens up. What we see–and how well we see it–sure influence the people we become… The scenes in which Anna draws and weaves a basket are particularly fine; descriptions of creativity and work don’t happen often in novels.

Speaking of descriptions of creativity and work: Lynn Hall’s “The Solitary” features a teenage heroine who leaves school early and becomes a rabbit breeder. Jane lives alone, repairs her home, gardens, heals from old wounds. An invigorating story of day-to-day survival and growth.

I only discovered this list today, so if I repeat something already mentioned, please accept my apologies. :-)

Shannon Hale’s Goose Girl and Enna Burning
Patricia Briggs’ Hob’s Bargain
Elizabeth George Speare’s Calico Captive (I saw Witch of Blackbird Pond on the list earlier…) and The Bronze Bow
Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s The Golden Goblet (to go along with Mara, also on the list earlier)
Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s Dairy Queen and Off Season (more compelling than Princess Ben…at least, I thought so)
Garth Nix’s Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen (seriously, some of my favorite books EVER)
Edith Pattou’s East
Tracy Lynn’s Snow
Patricia C. Wrede’s Snow White and Rose Read (out of print, I think…but fabulous) and Mairelon the Magician and The Magician’s Ward
Vivian Vande Velde’s Heir Apparent
Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose
Cynthia Voight’s Jackaroo
Donna Jo Napoli’s Beast, Zel, Spinners, Crazy Jack, Bound
Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
all of the Ann Rinaldi books (American historical fiction featuring teenage girls)
Louisa May Alcott’s Rose in Bloom and An Old-Fashioned Girl
L.M. Montgomery’s Magic for Marigold, and I have to mention it because it makes me cry buckets at least once a year…Rilla of Ingleside
Katherine Paterson’s Lyddie
Delia Sherman’s Changeling
Wen Spencer’s Tinker
Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks

and of course the rest of my favorites have already been mentioned.

A new graphic novel coming out from Scholastic Graphix is Magic Pickle by Scott Morse. This is actually a new full-color version of a 3-issue miniseries that he first did in black and white through Oni Press some years ago. This book is great for younger readers, ages 7 and up. Weapon Kosher is the Magic Pickle, so named by little Jo Jo Wigman. She may be young, but she’s ready to be the superhero pickle’s sidekick as he goes up against the Brotherhood of Evil Produce. It’s a hoot.

DC Comics has been publishing a line of comics aimed at teen girls, but I’ve been enjoying most of them. Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg tells the story of several girls named Jane who join together to commit guerilla works of art in their town, only to have their work misinterpreted by law enforcement as acts of terrorism. Good as Lily by Derek Kirk Kim shows what happens when 18-year-old Grace hits her head on her birthday night and wakes up to find her 6-year-old, 29-year-old, and 70-year-old selves visiting her in physical form.

Terry Moore finished Strangers in Paradise last year – 90 issues of great stories featuring two fabulously flawed, wonderful women, Francine and Katchoo. The stories have been collected in trade paperback.

And Art Spiegelman’s wife (he wrote Maus), Francoise Mouly, has just launched her own publishing house (because no book trade publisher would do what she wanted) to bring out graphic novels for the youngest readers. These books are wonderfully subversive, because their physical format and superficial appearance make them look like easy readers, but they do use comic book style panels and word balloons. The first three books are Benny and Penny in Just Pretend (think of Bread and Jam for Frances, and Frog and Toad are Friends), in which Benny doesn’t want to play with little sister Penny; Otto’s Orange Day, in which young Otto happens upon a magic lamp and wishes that everything would become his favorite color (but orange broccoli just doesn’t taste right …); and Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons – a much simpler book great for toddlers, in which Lilly enjoys different activities during each of the year’s seasons. Anyone who has young ones, or has young nieces/nephews, grandchildren, children of friends, etc. should look for these books. They were just published a couple of weeks ago. And they are FABULOUS. I reviewed Benny and Penny for Booklist in March – I gave it a starred review, the first of my reviewing career with Booklist.

Did I miss the Doctor Dolittle books? I haven’t read them since I was little so perhaps they don’t translate well to adulthood, I’m not sure.

and Mary Poppins, especially (for me) Mary Poppins in the Park.

Elizabeth Willey’s fantasy novels please me greatly (The Well-Favored Man, A Sorcerer and a Gentleman, The Price of Blood and Honor).

A Murder for her Majesty, by Beth Hilgartner, which is an Elizabethan mystery for kids, set in a boy’s choir in York.

Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint, The Privilege of the Sword, and Thomas the Rhymer.

not fiction at all, but I find Jennifer Michael Hecht’s nonfiction (Doubt: A history and The Happines Myth) compulsively rereadable.

to the graphic novels for kids list, I’d add the Courtney Crumrin books (Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things, Courtney Crumrin and the Coven of Mystics, Courtney Crumrin and the Twilight Kingdom) – the art is all neat and chunky, and the story does well by the creepiness of old fairy tales.

lots of people mentioned Megan Whalen Turner’s Attolia books – I think they’re brilliant.

Holly Black’s novels are awesome – Tithe, Valiant, Ironside and the Spiderwick ones.

for non fantasy YA, I love David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Emma Bull? did War for the Oaks, Territory, etc. already get mentioned?

Elizabeths Moon’s Paksennarion trilogy takes Tolkien’s ball and runs with it – in a lot of interesting and well-characterized directions. Her space-opera is ok too, even though I have reservations the depth of the Grand canyon about the military mindset – oh, and you HAVE to read Remnant Population, and Speed of Dark!!! I don’t think anyone’s done anything like this – think Flowers for Algernon with a good ending.

I read my second ever Georgette Heyer book a few days ago: Devil’s Cub. It was lovely. I really liked the main female character; she was level-headed and full of quiet determination. I loved her discreet exits especially.

The only other Heyer I’ve read is Cousin Kate several years ago. I recall liking it as well. I don’t know why I haven’t read more Heyer.

Also read Sarah Dessen’s Lock & Key, which was also wonderful. It was more about family and sibling relationships and friendship than romance. I liked also that it showed the main character slowly seeing the attraction of the good side, rather than the seduction of the dark side. It’s refreshing and really well done. I highly recommend this book.

And Giant Sized Astonishing X-Men comes out May 21!! (If Marvel doesn’t delay it again.)

I’m so glad that Diane from MN mentioned Gene Stratton Porter’s background. I think that is what most drew me to her books.

I also wanted to mention:

- Frances Hodson Burnett (A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy). They made a mess of her books in the current movie adaptations but I do like the 1986 mini-series version from PBS. I haven’t seen that version for quite some time so it may not be as good as I remember.

- Granny’s Wonderful Chair by Frances Browne. I really loved the illustration plates from the old editions of this book.

- Did anyone mention George Macdonald? I really loved The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie and At the Back of the North Wind when I was a child.

Just remembered another great favourite that deserves to be in here – ‘The Hounds of The Morrigan’, by Pat O’Shea. An absolutely wonderful fantasy, set in Ireland, written primarily for children but extremely enjoyable at any age. It came out back in 1987 (I see from Amazon) and I read it then and will happily re-read it every so often.

There are so many books in this list I want to read…someone find a parallel universe where I can spend time doing that, please!

seeing as apparantly there’s another Maya on this list, I thought I’d take a queue from Susan from Athens and add something to my name to clarify :)

wanted to add Tanith Lee to the list. I’ve only read two of her unicorn trilogy – Black Unicorn and Gold Unicorn (the third – Red Unicorn – is making its way to me right now) and they’re great. I also read her White as Snow a few years ago, which is a somewhat darker retelling of Snow White. (I think it might have been connected with a project by a few authors to retell fairytales? maybe I’m wrong…)

also wanted to add Janny Wurts – mostly her Wars of Light and Shadow saga, but I also loved the Empire trilogy she wrote with Raymond E. Feist. very flowery in her language.

I can’t quite believe that no-one has mentioned Joan Aiken – Dido Twite is such a great character and her short stories are wonderful. I’ve also just read Incarceron – wonderful but dark, and my daughter read Fearless (Tim Lott) which made her cry – both about girls resisting a tightly structured society.

E.L. Konigsburg anyone. I remember reading her as a child and I found a new book last year and loved it just as much.

I haven’t seen ANYONE mention Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart and Inkspell, which, although I haven’t read them in a couple years, were truly formative for me. I love Meggie and I love the whole premise behind the series. It feels like a book written by a bibliophile for bibliophiles.

Lloyd Alexander’s writing style sometimes bothers me, but I was raised on his Prydain chronicles. Lovely heroine there! Generally speaking, his protagonists are male but usually the secondary character is female and very vocal. Generally the male character is bumbling but good-hearted and the girl is eminantly sensible. An exception would be the Rope Trick (one of my favorites), where the girl is the protagonist.

Catherine Fisher’s Snow-walker trilogy.

Anything by Susan Fletcher (I don’t mean ‘anything’ as in a book title. I mean anything she’s written.) She’s got wonderful heroines and I really like her Dragon Chronicles. Shadow Spinner is excellent too.

I saw Shannon Hale mentioned earlier and I have to second that! Princess Acadamy especially.

Diana Wynne Jones, OF COURSE. Especially Howl’s Moving Castle, Dark Lord of Derkholm, their sequels, and Chrestomanci. I also love the Dalemark quartet, particularly Cart and Cwidder.

All of Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s work. I haven’t read any of her books in a while but I remember particularly liking Libby on Wednesday when I was about thirteen (having been homeschooled most of my life, I greatly sympathized with her feelings about being thrown into a classroom) and and the Green-sky trilogy.

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis – this was a little creepifying the first time I read it but it also led to a boderline obsession with the Black Death. I’ve always been a history nut.

Patricia C. Wrede – particularly the Enchanted Forest Chronicles as well as the little duo of Mairelon the Magician and Magician’s Ward. I have all her Lyra novels as well, but they read a little too much like a Dungeons and Dragons adventure for my taste. She doesn’t do as well in a classic fantasy setting, I guess is what I’m saying..

I read a lot.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for this list. I’m always looking for new stuff to read, and clearly I just hit the jackpot.

I can’t even think of anything to add right now, though I can second a lot of things…love Heyer, love Connie Willis (“To Say Nothing of the Dog” and “Bellwether” are great), love Jasper Fforde, love Mary Stewart…and I’ve just written down about 20 more books to go find. Long live Pollyanna’s Booklist!

I thought I’d start with a list of my Absolute Favourites – these are the books that have stood the test of time and re-reading. So, in no particular order, but as they occur to me:

Charles Dickens: “Little Dorrit”/”Bleak House”/”Our Mutual Friend”
Jane Austen: “Pride and Prejudice” & “Persuasion”
J R R Tolkien: “The Lord of the Rings”
Lloyd Alexander: “The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man” & Prydain
Diana Wynne Jones: “Howl’s Moving Castle” & “Charmed Life”/”The Lives of Christopher Chant”
Elizabeth Gaskell: “Cranford” & “North and South”
Charlotte Brontë: “Jane Eyre”
Anthony Trollope: “The Warden”/”Barchester Towers” & “The Last Chronicle of Barset”
Jerome K Jerome: “Three Men in a Boat”/”Three Men on the Bummel”
P G Wodehouse: “Leave it to Psmith” & Jeeves and Bertie Wooster (can’t choose)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes (the same problem as above, but I probably prefer the stories in Adventures, Memoirs and Return)

I might have forgotten something and I don’t doubt – with time (15+ years or so) and re-reading (multiple) – more books will be added. Then of course there are my Favourites – books that I “merely” really, really – really love. (My favourite Georgette Heyer – well, obviously I’m fond of her books! – is “Devil’s Cub”.) Then there are the books I “only” love; and the books I “just” like…

“Beyond the stars are even more worlds”!

LRK

If you love fantasy and are picky about prose style, here are a couple of books I’d reccomend:

-Archangel by Sharon Shinn. Shinn has created an entirely believable world, where genetically modified “angels” rule due to their ability to beseech “the gods” for good weather, rain, and medicine. Oh, and it’s a love story.

–The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle. I’m assuming most of you have read this book already, but if you haven’t you need to go out and buy it. right. now. This is one of the best fantasy books ever written. And the main character may not be a human woman, but I think a female unicorcn counts…

Has anyone mentioned Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time?

If you loved The Daughter of Time, try Sarah Smith’s Chasing Shakespeares. Its tone is very similar!

And her novel The Vanished Child is even better, I think. Elegant, musical prose, and characters who are dazzlingly aware of their cultures and their environment, unafraid of complexity…and the love story turns me to mush.

Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” series is becoming a quick favorite. I’m only a little over half way through the third book out of 12 (I think), but I love it. A myriad of strong women in this one.

For the Richard III supporters, look up Paul Murray Kendall’s biography of him. Kendall thinks Buckingham did the murders. I do too. The go read The Dragon Waiting.

Am I alone in thinking Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is one of the best romance novels ever written?

I haven’t seen Sylvia Louise Engdahl anywhere on here yet – The Far Side of Evil is really wonderful. I’ve enjoyed her other books too, but that one is my favorite.

Samantha On Stage by Susan Clement Farrar and Ruth Sanderson also makes my list of fantasy faves – because I wanted to be a ballerina when I was younger. (I was a very girly girl.) I only changed my mind when I was informed in no uncertain terms that I had to choose between ballet and riding lessons. I chose the horses. I still sometimes wish I were a Russian ballerina, though.

I also loved the Blossom Culp books by Richard Peck: The Ghost Belonged to Me, Ghosts I Have Been, The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp, and Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death. How can anyone resist titles like that?

I don’t know if it’s quite the Done Thing to link to other people’s blogs and booklist, but this is both interesting in its own right and if you read the comments they have a lot of recommendations for recent Young Adult fiction.

http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=702

Some of my favorites that I don’t think have been mentioned yet:

I love pretty much anything by Meredith Ann Pierce (wish she was a more prolific author!!!!!)
The China Garden by Liz Berry
The Autumn Castle and Giants of the Frost by Kim Wilkins.
Navohar by Hilari Bell
Kristen Britain’s Green Rider series
L.A. Meyer’s Bloody Jack series (a kick-butt teen pirate heroine!)
Juliet Marillier’s Wildwood Dancing and Cybele’s Secret
Jaqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s series (a bit dark, and NC-17 rated, but great reads)
Everything by Anne Bishop (Daughter of the Blood series, Belladonna, etc)

I’m probably repeating lots of things but:
Diana Wynne Jones (Fire and Hemlock and Howl are probably the faves)
Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels books (dark though)
Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel books (very very dark in places and gory and sexy)
Guy Gavriel Kay (particularly the Fionavar trilogy – book three always makes me cry – and The Lions of Al-Rassan)
Jenny Crusie (wonderful smart funny romance)
Patricia Briggs
Sarah Monette’s Mirador books (again with the dark and sex)
Sheri S Tepper (more the earlier stuff and if you like your feminism fairly strident)
C.E. Murphy’s urban fantasy
Lilith Saintcrow’s Dante Valentine books
L.M Montgomery (I’m an Anne girl through and through)
Lucy Boston (the Green Know books)
Who wrote the Katy books (what Katy did etc? Susan Coolidge? Loved those as a girl, along with Streatfield and Nesbit, it’s good to have parents and grandparents and librarians who feed you books)
Mary Grant Bruce (who I’m not sure is well known outside Australia but did a wonderful growing up on a big property series set before er WWI I think)
Susan Cooper
Susan Elizabeth Phillips (more wonderful romance)
Eloisa James (wonderful funny historical romance)
Loretta Chase (ditto, Mr Impossible is my fave)
Heyer (of course)
Terry Pratchett
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Liaden books
Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles and Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls mostly but I love all of them)
Lynn Flewelling
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (gory)
Dennis Lehane (the Kenzie and Gennaro ones but mega violent and gory – I only read them in daylight)
Lindsey Davis
Elizabeth Bear
No Place Like Home by Barbara Samuel (another one that makes me bawl)

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/coolidge/katy/katy.html

Love this list! I’ll add a couple of British authors, long out of print: John Kier Cross (“The Other Side of Green Hill” and some pretty wild and fantastic science fiction and spy thriller-eque stories, from the 40′s and 50′s) and a huge endorsement for Joan North (“The Cloud Forest”, “The Whirling Shapes”, and “The Light Maze”) – as far as I can tell, these three books are the only ones she wrote (more’s the pity – they are great!). Phyllis/WA state

Just finished Sunshine (though I’ve meant to read Beauty for a while, this is the first of your works I’ve read. Enormously impressed. And I usually revile vampire fiction, but you’ve really created magic here. Thank you. Please keep giving the world your wonderful fiction. I will be reading *everything* else you’ve written.

NOW… on to other great books, that so far I’ve not seen enough mention of/or are totally not mentioned. BTW first off, I agree with many folks here, disagree with a very few and am looking forward to my Library Thing groaning even more than it current is. (I’m ‘divageek’, look me up.)

Mentioned rarely and I think more needs to be said:

Dorothy Dunnett!!!!! If you are going to wade through O’Brien or Hornblower with it’s rarely mentioned women (hey, they are great, I’m not knocking ‘em), please, PLEASE read Dunnett. Amazing women who do deeply dangerous things that are still believable for their place and time–just remarkable. And talk about twists and turns and romance! You want romance with got it with a capital ‘R’. Now that said, I am the first to admit that the first of the Lymond series is a tough read and honestly no. 2 is only slight less so, but they ARE worth it and I promise you that when you are reading books 3-6, you will be pissed at having to do ANYTHING that interrupts your reading. Many a delighted late night awaits you.

Now your other Dunnett choice is to start the Niccolo series which takes place a century before and has a very different tone and prose style. I recommend people start here, but you have to go on and read the Lymond series. I actually did them simultaneously (I’ve finished Lymond and am half-way through Niccolo).

Daughter of the Forest (The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Book 1) by Juliet Marillier. Some one trumped the 2nd book, but this one absolutely floored me. Also some one mentioned The Swans fairy tale–this book is an amazing retelling. Has some difficult stuff, I won’t lie, but transformational and worth it.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (haven’t read the rest of the series). Well, as I say above, I’m not a fan of vampire stuff. This and Sunshine are the *only* vampire things I’ve done and, well, I can read this. Also, the voice of Bella the heroine is so real and genuine… though nothing can, of course, replace Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (one of my favorite, favorite books), I did feel that Twilight and it’s singular voice was influenced by that classic.

Another book not mentioned here (though the author has been) and I think folks here would love it given the lists, is Tanith Lee’s The Silver Metal Lover. It’s been recently reissued by reader demand (!) and wow! Again the heroine’s voice is true and it’s a wonderful depiction of a young girl going from utter dependence on a mother to being her own person.

Liaden series by the team of Sharon Lee and Steven Miller. Highly enjoyable and smart world building (there’s an economy!), lots of adventure, interesting romance that depends on delicate and delightful conversation, and funny stuff that goes from gentle humor to laugh-out-loud delight. Can’t recommend them enough, but not always easy to find. That whole publishing thing… ARGHHHH!!! WHAT IS UP WITH THAT PEOPLE?!!

Connie Willis–all of hers are a solid hit and a good read, but as others have mentioned, do NOT miss “To Say Nothing of the Dog”. So seriously wonderful.

Another deep shout out for Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn, which begins the quartet, delights in it’s main character–what a heroine. And a wonderful adventure and surprising romance. I was half in love with her myself… I also liked Shin’s gentle SF retelling of Jane Eyre titled Jenna Starborn and I really enjoyed all the Archangel series, though I haven’t read them all. But Mystic and Rider is a tour-de-force.

The last 2 are SF and both by Neal Stephanson. They have wonderful heroines that seem believable to me. First and best (still I think) of all his is Snow Crash which is so brilliant and inventive–and surprisingly not that dystopian (the future is a very messy but not a hopeless place). The are two main characters, one male and one female and they partner is surprising ways. I also LOVED (somehow even more even though SC is the stronger work) The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer–how can you not love that title? And attention Dicken’s fans: this is retelling of “Little Nell”. Mr. Stephanson acknowledges his debt to the great CD.

Finally, I can’t second enough that folks should read or re-read Middlemarch. Thank you Mary Ann Evans (aka George Elliot).

Thanks everyone, this is an awesome book list.

I never could get into Dickens for some reason, but in high school I fell in love with Wilkie Collins’ books, such as The Woman in White and The Moonstone. Very odd, since he doesn’t seem to be all that much different from Dickens. I guess I’m more than a little weird.

And I know these aren’t novels but plays, but I love Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, and Macbeth by Shakespeare. I’ve read all the plays and seen many of them on public TV, but these are my favorites. I obsessed over Hamlet in high school, and even “became” Hamlet (thinking of Dame Sarah Bernhardt as I did so) my sophomore year in high school for an extra credit project in English class – classmates were Byron, Shelley, Macbeth and his wife, and we did a take-off on Steve Allen’s show “A Meeting of Minds.”

I also discovered Poul Anderson in high school, especially his space merchant characters in Time Twisters.

And I went nuts for The Saint by Leslie Charteris; I used to watch Roger Moore’s The Saint (I can still hear the theme music in my head), but in high school I started searching for the books and thought they were so much more fun.

I also sought out books by Alistair MacLean – brought on by watching the movie Where Eagles Dare (I was also a Clint Eastwood fan, from Rawhide on) when I was 13. I own most of those – all boxed up and unavailable for re-reading right now, unfortunately, along with all my Charteris, Marjorie Allingham, Dorothy Sayers, and much much more.

Watching Star Trek (the original series) led me to many science fiction writers, including James Blish, Harlan Ellison, and more – I was reading the credits, you see, and these names kept popping up as writers. From the age of 12, I paid attention to writing credits on TV shows and movies, that’s how I discovered Leslie Charteris and Alistair MacLean and many more …

I don’t think anyone has mentioned Connie Willis’ _Passage_ (or is it _Passages_?) – amazing plot structure, and vintage Willis style, breathless, funny & heart-wrenching.
Elynne Mitchell’s _The Silver Brumby_ and _The Snow Filly_, if you like horses at all. They were the books that made me into an addicted reader, in third grade, and the first books I bought, myself, in a book store (I had bought _The Lord of the Rings_ earlier, but my mother had to mail-order it – all three books together, hardback, cost nine dollars!).
Hard to find, but back in print – _The Cowboy and the Cossack_ by Clair Huffaker. It’s a book that is hard to categorize – sort of a western, but set in Siberia; sort of a coming-of-age book, but with occasional use of language many parents would not tolerate in a kid’s book; hysterically funny in some scenes, wise, tragic, heroic adventure.
_The Moon and the Sun_ by Vonda McIntyre – fantasy mixed with historical fiction, in the court of Louis the Sun King.
Anything by Barbara Kingsolver (well, _Poisonwood Bible_ is a little grim for comfort reading!), but especially _The Bean Trees_.
_Horse Heaven_ by Jane Smiley. I had read _A Thousand Acres_ years ago, and thought it was good but not comforting – so I was completely unprepared for _Horse Heaven_, which is delightful, joyous, playful (one of the main characters is a horse, and another is a Jack Russel terrier), and optimistic.
Anything by Annie Dillard, but especially _Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_ and _Holy the Firm_. These are extended personal essays peppered with interesting facts about science & nature that remind you how to look life straight in the face.
Barbara Hambly’s mystery/historical fiction series about Benjamin January – the first one is _A Free Man of Color_ – and her fantasy, especially _Dragonsbane_, my favorite of hers, though I also like _The Ladies of Mandrygan_, and the series starting with _The Time of the Dark_.
_An Edge of the Forest_ by Agnes Smith – sort of fantasy, sort of animal story, not quite like anything else I’ve ever read, but something about it sticks with me.
_Lord of the Rings_ goes without saying – I had read it at least thirty times before I started high school, and set it aside because I could quote much of it from memory.
_David Copperfield_ by Dickens – I missed this one when I was growing up, but read it a couple years ago and loved it.
_The Horsecatcher_ by Sandoz – a mostly-forgotten Newbery Honor book about a boy growing up in the Cheyenne culture in the early 1800′s
Newer books:
_Speak_ by Laurie Halse Anderson – realistic YA fiction with a great heroine, dark humor, and a terrific ending.
_Whale Talk_ or _Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes_ by Chris Crutcher (realistic YA fiction)
_Surviving the Applewhites_ by Stephanie Tolan – if you’re in the mood for something light and funny, this book pokes gentle fun at various stereotypes.
_Tangerine_ by Bloor (realistic YA fiction)
_A Northern Light_ by Jennifer Donnelly is mystery/historical fiction with a strong heroine.
_How I Live Now_ by Meg Rosoff – the plot sounds off-putting, but just pick up the book and start reading – it captured me immediately.
_You Don’t Know Me_ by Klass – realistic YA fiction
OF COURSE, all Robin’s books (especially _The Hero and the Crown_ and _Sunshine_), and I would also second Leguin (especially the Earthsea books, and especially, of those, _Tehanu_), McKillip (_The Forgotten Beasts of Eld_ and the Riddlemaster trilogy – try reading it aloud), Beagle (_The Last Unicorn_), Card (_Ender’s Game_ , & _Speaker for the Dead_), L’Engle (_The Arm of the Starfish_), Voight (the Tillerman series, and all her fantasy), and Paterson (especially _The Great Gilly Hopkins_).
If you’re interested in children’s books, especially if you have children or grandchildren to read to, see my blog:
http://whattoreadtochildren.blogspot.com/

Yes, yes, yes! Lee and Miller, Emma Bull, Austen, Susan Cooper, McKillip, Sally Watson, Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Willey, Jarvis McGraw, Hodgson Burnett, L’Engle… So many wonderful, wonderful books.

I haven’t yet seen these mentioned, mostly because most of them are undeservedly obscure and/or out of print:

Wheel of Dreams, by Salinda Tyson

Nameless Magery and Of Swords and Spells, by Delia Marshall Turner

Unwillingly to Earth and Project Farcry, by Pauline Ashwell

The Hellflower Trilogy, by eluki bes shahar, and everything she’s written under her other pen name, Rosemary Edghill (including wonderful, funny Regency romances and a two-book collaboration with Andre Norton)

Deathgift and Sky Road, by Ann Tonsor Zeddies; she also did two books as Toni Anzetti and a third under her own name that ties in with those two.

The Cassandra Blaine trilogy, by Wilhelmina Baird; be warned that there’s some politically incorrect dialogue (“forked tongue”? you’ve got to be kidding me), but the stories are quite entertaining.

Doris Egan’s Ivory trilogy

Anything by Joan D. Vinge, though many of her stories are rather grim

Anything by Ellen Kushner

Anything by Delia Sherman

Children’s mystery books by Wylly Folk St. John, which are very hard to find nowadays

Mind-Call, by Wilanne Schneider Belden

Steven Brust’s Dragaera books–be warned, the main character starts out as an assassin, and in a lot of ways he’s really not at all a nice person. The books are very well done, though.

The Liavek series, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull

. . . That’s probably more than enough. :)

Sigh…Everyone has already mentioned my favorites. It is nice to find people who enjoy reading what I do! Here’s a few that I think should be added.

- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
- Sylvia Townsend Warner
- Anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow & Teri Windling
- Anything by Sheri S. Tepper. My favorite is “The Fresco”
- No one has mentioned Mary Balogh yet, I don’t think…
- Kage Baker has a smashingly wonderful series about The Company. The first one is “In The Garden of Iden” Cyborgs, history and time travel – they are hard to get into, but after the first 4 books –woo hoo!
- Has anyone mention Diane Duane’s “Young Wizards” series?
- Suzanne Frank (aka J. Suzanne Frank) has a 4 book time-travel series that is surprisingly fascinating. Lots of great bits about ancient cultures.
- Mercedes Lackey has a new series with Luna set in the 1000 Kingdoms. There are 4 so far. They are surprisingly good and incorporate lots of fairytale elements.
- Elinor Lipman. Wonderful literary novels usually incorporating romance. Very witty.
- Barbara Trapido – “Temples of Delight”
- Lauren Willig’s “Pink Carnation” series
- Dawn Cook – “The Decoy Princess”, etc.
- Maria V. Snyder “Poison Study” and rest of series
- Did anyone mention Edward Eager’s children’s books? I LOVED them.
- Christopher Moore has been mentioned. “Lamb” did nothing for me, but I love “A Dirty Job” and “Fluke”
- Lynsay Sands’ Argeneau series These are good!
- Sheila Simonson (out of print, but great Regencies)
- Linda Howard (read the new ones, skip the old ones featuring abusive men)
- Jeff Lindsay’s “Dexter” series
- Harry Turtledove’s “Worldwar” and “Colonization” series. (Aliens invade, interrupt WWII)

Sorry if I’ve misspelled any author’s names.

I’ve just finished reading:

“Uncle Silas” by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

I liked it – not loved it. Sometimes I found it somewhat annoying – but on the other hand he was very good at conveying fear, and Madame de la Rougierre and Uncle Silas were truly “creepy”. However it has inspiired the following list; a List of Books with (at least) a Touch of Gothic:

“The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë (Does anyone not know what’s in the attic? And does it matter? At all?)
“Cousin Kate” by Georgette Heyer
“Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen – the ultimate gothic comic relief

And then perhaps:

“Winter Rose” by Patricia A McKillip
“Fire and Hemlock” by Diana Wynne Jones
“Scent of Magic” by Andre Norton
“Shadow in Hawthorn Bay” by Janet Lunn

(I know I’ve mentioned “Jane Eyre” before – but that was a different list; were I to make a list of wonderful love stories it would no doubt turn up there too – I hope that is OK?)

A quote on one of your roses posts reminded me of a book I love The half-brothers by Ann Lawrence. I hope it isn’t spoilery to give the closing quote “… and a man shall ever see that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely; as if gardening were the greater perfection”

A charming book with a spunky heroine, and some lovely gardens.

Some other recommendations:

Sherwood Smith: Crown Duel/Court Duel. much wonderfulness in a great setting, grand adventures, and with girls who rebel (literally)! She’s currently writing the Inda series…some of the best fantasy I’ve read in ages.

Lynn Flewelling… creepy, dark and mesmerizing book for the Oracle books. Nightrunners are just fun.

I need to second all the recs for Bujold… her new fantasy series The Sharing Knife (3 of 4 books published to date) is soothing and thought provoking all at once. Fawn definitely qualifies as a heroine who get to DO stuff.

Catherine Asaro: good sci/fi and romance hybrids. She’s got the science props and writes wonderful characters. Soz is one of my favorite female characters ever — tough and tender!

I’m currently reading Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty… Victorian finishing school where the girls discover MAGIC! all about empowerment and making choices.

fun list! thanks.

I forget if anyone mentioned plays?

I like Christopher Fry (especially the swoony “The Lady’s Not for Burning” and the french translation stuff he did)…
Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and The Real Thing, especially)

Or for poetry I am a swooning romantic at heart and I swallow all my political and class and gender awareness *totally* and indulge in scads of Rudyard Kipling and asstd. lords (Alfred, Lord Tennyson; George Gordon, Lord Byron, particularly… I think I started reading Tennyson because of the bit quoted in one of the Anne of Green Gables books about how “the splendor falls/on castle walls” and went on from there).

Edna St. Vincent Millay is my all time favorite poet though… her sonnets please me extremely (especially “Love is not all”) and Recuerdo is a very fun poem to read aloud.

I like Ogden Nash poetry a lot for its sheer fun, and Shel Silverstein (who wrote occasional very snarky things for grownups when not writing children’s verse).

Also Carl Sandburg, particularly The People, Yes, (poetry) and the Rutabaga Stories (short stories).

Ooh, so many wonderful books mentioned! I may have missed it, but I haven’t seen any mention of Good Omens. Coauthored by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, how could you go wrong? Funniest book about Armageddon I’ve ever read.

And not happy, at all, but thought-provoking and wonderfully written, I LOVE The Handmaid’s Tale. Of course, all of Margaret Atwood is like that, wonderfully written and breathtaking to read, but not happy. This is the book of hers that I keep rereading.

For something more lighthearted, I love Olivia Goldsmith. She reminds me of a modern Jane Austen. Her novels are invariably hilarious, with a liberal application of satire for conventional social behaviors. First Wives’ Club is a MUCH better book than movie, but isn’t that always the case?

And Lindsey Davis! I love her books. They’re set in Ancient Rome, and wonderfully historically accurate, without being overly “look at me! I did my research!” And though the main character in her books is almost always male, strong women abound. NO ONE crosses Helena.

A lot of old favorites on this list (Yay! Diana Wynne Jones! Yay! Zilpha Keatley Snyder! and Connie Willis! And Sheri Teper! and all the rest…)
One book that my shared with my sister and me when we were little was “No Flying in the House” by Betty Brock. We lost our copy of it in one of our many moves, and couldn’t remember the title of it! (Thank God for the internet and the Loganberry Books website!) We finally found the book (which wasn’t even out of print!), and my sister and I were able to share this book with our daughters. My sons enjoyed the book, too.

I was re-reading one of Dornford Yates’ ‘Berry’ books the other evening, and thinking how funny the dialogue is even though the social attitudes displayed are about as un-acceptable as it’s possible to get in every way one can imagine. Reading a little about his life, he seems to have been – even to his biographers – a singularly (trying to think how to put this in a Pollyanna-ish way) ‘difficult’ personality. Some of his adventure stories are really enthralling though, in an old-fashioned way. Was there a nice person inside I wonder, trying to re-imagine his life through the stories…

Another favourite for re-reading at the moment is Ngaio Marsh. I like the way Troy just gets on with her painting, through all the ups and downs of her husband’s various investigations.

Everything above, and anything by Alan Garner, too.

Great list, I’m noting down a lot of new names! I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who still cries at Rilla of Ingleside or The Lions of Al-Rassan (Ysabel also made me a bit sniffly, although there were some irritating historical inconsistencies – how does someone who presumably appears of of nowhere become married to Ceaser’s aunt?), and my all-time favourite Georgette Heyer is Cotillion- I’m trying to slowly replace the collection I inherited from my grandfather with the new series from Arrow, whose covers are not quite as bodice-ripping. I also love Jasper FForde, even though I never got very far with Dickens for some reason. I have small children, though, so the Nursery Crimes are hilarious after bedtime stories.

Susanna Clarke creates a world I get lost in (Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen meet magic) and her short story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu has more female protagonists than Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Sharan Newman is another favourite whose I haven’t seen her mentioned here yet. I especially like her early Catherine Levendeur series- set in Paris at the time of Heloise and Abelard. I haven’t read her Guinevere series for a long time, but I remember it being very funny.

Also, sorry to be irritating, but I remember reading about 20 years ago a couple of books which sound a lot like the Hounds of Morrigan- two books about modern (American?) children time-travelling back to Ireland, one to the time of Cúchulainn, the other to the clash between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians. From what I can remember of my childhood library, the author was a woman, and her last name was probably towards the middle of the alphabet. Does this ring any vague bells? If so, thanks!

On childhood loves, one book that had me laughing my head off is Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. As an adult I love the fact that the mother of this large clan was one of the first women engineers with a Ph.D., that she went on working all the time she raised her family and used her pregnancies to correct her galleys for her books. A woman who did things indeed.

I adore Wen Spencer. Tinker was mentioned, but I didn’t see “A Brother’s Price”.

Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series was mentioned. I particularly liked the romance novellette, Nerilka’s Story. Also her science fiction The Ship Who Sang. Get Off The Unicorn was a collection of short stories – A Proper Santa was an inspiring story, about magic and the difference between what works, and how we let others define our world. A Stitch in Snow is a nice modern romance.

Someone mentioned Tamora Pierce’s Magic Circle books. That are a simpler story, in some ways, but I find them interesting character studies, and the follow on quarted The Circle Opens and then The Will of the Empress let me follow the characters and the world from Magic Circle. A comforting, enjoyable read. And re-read. Pierce’s ‘Trickster’s Choice’ and ‘Trickster’s Queen’ are more complex, and probably a few years older, than Protector of the Small. Did I mention I like this author? Then there is Beka Cooper, Terrier. Great!

Jean Auel wrote her Earth’s Children series, starting with Clan of the Cave Bear. But I like Valley of Horses best.

David Weber created a female military science fiction hero, Honor Harrington. The story starts with On Basilisk Station. Two recent spinoff stories are great reads (as is the rest of the series) – Crown of Slaves, and Shadow of Saganami.

Mike Shepherd’s Kris Longknife books don’t have the grand scope of Weber’s Honor Harrington, and he takes a bit more humorous look at life and his heroine. Kris Longknife: Mutineer, Deserter, Defiant, Resolute, and Audacious are each fun to read.

Mercedes Lackey has written a number of story lines. Arrows of the Queen was mentioned (I love Talia!), also By The Sword and Magic’s Pawn. I liked her Bardic Voices series a lot.

Duranna Durgin has a number of novels out. Each bridge the modern world to an alternate. Dun Lady’s Jess has a wizard in another world create a spell to reach ours – that happens to translate a rider and horse into a rider – and lady. A Feral Darkness has a dog groomer grinding away at her Pets! store job when an old childhood shrine brings her a Corgi from the future.

Piper at the Gate, sequel to the Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West, by Mary Stanton.

Shaman, Sandra Miesel. Otters!

From a few years back, C.J. Cherryh’s Pride of Chanur and the rest of the series has long been a comfort and delight.

I enjoy the Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan stories. One of the spinoff books was Falling Free – an interesting premise and a great diversion from the Vorkosigan military SF stories. Leo is a welder. In space. Hired to teach welding. His students are younger than he is used to – and handier.

Melissa Scott, Five Twelfths of Heaven, Trouble and Her Friends, Point of Hopes.

Just to extend the list a little further since we are allowed to list other media (let me know if I am overstepping) – some TV series and movies:

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

- Angel

- Freaks and Geeks

- Heroes

- Lost

- Arrested Development

- Masterpiece Theater Complete Jane Austen

- Legend

- Labyrinth

- Neverending Story (Movie and Book although they were very different)

- Howl’s Moving Castle (Movie)

- Like Water for Chocolate (Movie)

- Lord of the Rings (Movie and Books)

- The Little Prince (TV series and book)

- Firefly/Serenity

- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (I know this movie was misogynistic but I really loved the dancing and the singing).

- Battlestar Galactica

- My So Called Life

And has anyone seen “The Fall” by Tarsem Singh? The movie is ehh – not great but the imagery is beautiful – exactly how I imagined the terrain in some YA books:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/

Susie from NY

Reading new posts here sends me off to Barnes & Noble’s search page to look things up!

Susan from Athens mentioned Cheaper by the Dozen for a fun read. I should add Betty MacDonald to the humor list–most people know The Egg and I, but perhaps not The Plague and I, an extremely funny account of her time recovering from TB in a sanitarium (really), and Anyone Can Do Anything.

There’s a theme to this list – but I’m not happy with anything I can come up with, so…

The Westmark trilogy by Lloyd Alexander (“Westmark”, “The Kestrel” and “The Beggar Queen”)
“Les Misérables” by Victor Hugo
“A Tale of Two Cities” & “Barnaby Rudge” by Charles Dickens
“La Vendée” by Anthony Trollope

And non-fiction:

“The French Revolution” by Thomas Carlyle; written 40 years after the events described it is (I think) remarkably fresh and deliciously subjective. For facts (dry or otherwise) look elsewhere – for excitement, heroes, villains, drama, tragedy and even a bit of humour, try this. Even when one knows the outcome it can be quite suspenseful – as in the flight of the royal family; I love how Carlyle seems personally annoyed with von Fersen and the royal family for fleeing in an eye-catchingly new carriage (I suppose it would be like trying to sneak away stealthily in a Rolls Royce), taking walks, admiring the scenery etc.

May I also put in a plea for swashbucklers in the form of The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope and The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy and The Three Musketeers (am I spelling this correctly? I keep thinking the French Mousquetaire) by Alexandre Dumas?

And also referring back to childhood memories Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster and to a lesser extent Dear Enemy, both of which have to be read with an eye on them being books of their time – i.e. some views would horrify a number of people today.

Laurie Colwin — nearly anything she ever wrote because I fell in love with her writing about food. Her books HOME COOKING and “More Home Cooking” are ALMOST as good as introducing my niece to “Blue Sword”. Our age is showing. I know it sounds unlikely, but something wonderful there is in reading about a liberated woman who loved to cook before lots of us felt free to enjoy it! A little like my refusal to learn to type lest I become a secretary? Oddly, “Home Cooking” is nearly as comforting as a good fantasy when I’m down with flu on a rainy weekend…

Some more graphic novel recommendations:

I really love a lot of Joann Sfar’s work (he’s French) – for younger readers he’s done the delightful Little Vampire (a collected edition has just been released by First Second Books); for teens there’s The Professor’s Daughter – a twisted romance if ever there was one, the titular character has fallen in love with a mummy; this one is set in Victorian times (also from First Second). For adults, I highly recommend The Rabbi’s Cat (published by Pantheon).

Papercutz is publishing two different Classics Illustrated series. Classics Illustrated Deluxe is a series of longer graphic novels, about 144 pages long; the first two volumes are Wind in the Willows and Tales from the Brothers Grimm. The other series is actually reprinting books originally published in the early 1990s by First Publishing/Berkeley – Great Expectations was the first one.

Paul Sizer is a self-publishing comics creator. I love his books. The first one is Little White Mouse, a science fiction story of a young teen girl, the only survivor of a space liner disaster who is trying to survive on a mining asteroid whose computer system detects her as a pest to destroy. Moped Army is another science fiction story set in the same universe as Little White Mouse. A young woman of privilege runs away from her abusive boyfriend and ambitious parents to live on the planet’s surface with a group of young rebels who use old technology (and live in the deserted public library).

Jane Irwin is Paul’s wife; she’s also a self-published comics creator. Her books are Vogelein: Clockwork Faerie and Vogelein: Old Ghosts.

Jim Ottaviani is Paul and Jane’s friend; he’s a science librarian at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (Paul and Jane live in Kalamazoo). Jim has been writing graphic nonfiction about science for years. Two-Fisted Science profiles Richard Feynman among others; Dignifying Science has short bios of women scientists. He’s done gn biographies of Oppenheimer (Fallout) and Niels Bohr (Suspended in Language), and Bonesharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards – about the late 19th century dinosaur fossil wars in the American West. One of his most recent books is Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love. I had to watch an old NBC special about Harlow and his experiment using baby monkeys deprived of their mothers. That film, that I watched as a high school junior back in the early 1970s, made me swear to myself that I would love my children and pick them up and hold them as much as I could. Which I have done with both my sons. The book is amazingly wonderful and brought back all those old feelings from 36 years ago.

I know Paul, Jane, and Jim – we correspond via email a lot, and we meet at library conferences and comic book conventions whenever we can.

This site is dangerous for my career. I was just going on a ‘short surf’ to see if the new book was out yet. (It’s been out for a while, boy am I behind.) And I found this site, blog and book list. Thankfully my Great Dane reminded me that it was time to walk so I didn’t completely forget reality and miss getting into work on time. As it was, I almost went without a lesson plan. ;)

So many books and so little time.

At the moment the English books I read tend to be limited to nice dry titles like: ‘the Grammar Book’ (Great if you want to learn all the find nuances of the English Language or if you need to fall asleep fast) or ‘teaching techniques for the esl/efl class room’. Most of my recent readings have been German authors and I don’t believe there are English translations of them.

Almost all of my favorite books have already been mentioned, so I can’t add much. From my childhood/teen years I have to add:

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell . One of the first books I ever read. (Really. I picked out every ‘it’, ‘and’ ‘but’ and any other word I could get.)

Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden. A love story about two teenage girls, given to me by a wise teacher who knew before I did.

Recently:

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert . A non-fiction book about a writer who takes a year off to put her life back together. It’s a book that made me almost cry at times and at other times had me laughing so hard that Luscious Lips (the Dane) had to check to see what kind of fun she was missing out on.

Rebecca WinkleBeam

I have to give a nod to “Jake the Girl”‘s choice of “BETWIXT” by Tara Bray Smith. Best YA book I’ve read in EONS!

-LL

I loved “Red Moon and Black Mountain” by Joy Chant as a teenager.

I read “A Wrinkle in Time” when I was 7 — I have no idea why except the paperback cover intrigued me at my school library. That got me set for reading as much Madeline L’Engle as I could.

I also liked Nancy Drew and read the series compulsively throughout grammar school. I loved finding older versions and smelling the pages, reading the different story lines, and comparing the illustrations.

I found Zilpha Keatly Snyder with “The Egypt Game.” She is one of my favourite authors. I loved “Black and Blue Magic,” “The Changeling,” “Witches of Worm,” “Season of Ponies,” and “The Headless Cupid.” I adored “The Velvet Room.”

I also like rereading childrens’ books like “The Witch of Blackbird Pond,” “The White Witch of Kynance,” “Island of the Blue Dolphins,” “The Girl Who Knew Tomorrow,” “Escape to Witch Mountain,” “Children of Morrow,” “Flight of the Doves,” “Caddie Woodlawn,” “The Lame Little Prince,” “The Phantom Tollbooth” (one of the best. books. ever!), “The Thirteen Clocks,” “Shadow Spinner,” “Owl in Love” (Patrice Kindl). Gail Levine’s “Ella Enchanted” is wonderful fun but I think I like “The Wish” better.

Series by Fank L. Baum (especially “The Magical Monarch of Mo”), Laura Ingalls Wilder, JRR Tolkien (our whole family reread it once a year), Chronicles of Narnia, E.S. Nesbit, George MacDonald, Mollie Hunter (“The Kelpie’s Pearls,” “A Stranger Came Ashore,” “I’ll Go My Own Way,” “Sound of Chariots”), Lloyd Alexander, just about everything by Ursula LeGuin, Garth Nix (especially his Abhorsen series). The Lewis Barneveldt & RoseRita Pottinger books by John Bellairs.

I don’t want to forget Peter S. Beagle (I really like “The Last Unicorn” and “Tamsin”) and Dorothy L. Sayers (I have a soft spot for “Gaudy Night” and I love the way she paints an rich picture with just a few words). Jane Austen; what delicious humour. Stephen King (guilty pleasure — scare me; “Rose Madder” just stays with me). P.C. Hodgell’s Jame books; that girl can kick a**. Douglas Adams; ANYTHING by Douglas Adams. “Contact.”

I am the only person I know of who planned my first trip to the UK on the book “Travels Without the Tardis,” the series “The Prisoner,” and my senior year of english (Brontes & Carlyle, and James Herriot for e.c.). Well, and Susan Cooper’s “The Dark is Rising” helped too.

My grandmother got me reading Mary Stewart (I really like “Thornyhold,” her Merlin series and “Touch Not the Cat”) and the Anne of Green Gables books. I actually like “Anne of the Island” best. My grandmother is also the reason I read “The Agony & the Ecstasy” in Florence.

I liked O.S. Card’s Series about Alvin Maker, and really enjoyed his “Enchantment.” Um, I had fun with “I Capture the Castle.” Sorry! I love books.

I think one of my happiest times ever was when I discovered letterpress printing in college. Our last project was to create a 1×2-inch book. I did “Beauty & the Beast,” based on my favourite book of fairy tales. Did lino cuts for illustrations and everything. It’s my favourite fairy tale, which is how I found Robin McKinley (well, that and Dark Carnival bookstore in Berkeley, CA).