Reading Books For Pleasure

[mediocre]

I need new fantasy books to read. New authors more specifically. I have read Tolkien, Jordan, Goodkind, Martin, Hobbs, and Salvatore. Literally everything they have published. I am waiting for several to finish their freaking series too.

Anyway I digress. I need new authors. Gimme series, epic series's, to read. I am currently reading Raven's Shadow by Anthony Ryan but I am close to the end. Help!

 

[Licia]

Fantasy Bdsm:

The Wicked, L. A. Banks (part of a series)

Laurel K. Hamilton (series)

Non-bdsm fantasy:

Madwand sequel to Changeling, Roger Zelazny, 1981

I've more suggestions, but my brain isn't functioning yet.

 

[FurryFury]

I LOVED Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice series and I also enjoyed some of Savatore's Drow books a long, long time ago.

Have you read Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series? It's starts with Kushiel's Dart. Epic fantasy stuff plus some kink!

I would also recommend Piers Anthony's Incarnation of Immorality (starts with On a Pale Horse) and Blue Adept series which starts with the title Blue Adept.

Patricia Briggs has a great series as well which starts with Moon Called.

Darynda Jones begin with First Grave on the Right.

OOh! Bite Me A Love Storyy by Christopher Moore is soooo funny!

Hallfway To The Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Jim Butcher's Storm Front is the first in his Dresden Files series.

Kim Harrison, Dead Witch Walking is good.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay is fun too!

Mercedes Lackey, Burning Water and other “Diana Tregarde” books. She also has a fantasy series I've not read.

Wilson, F. Paul (Francis Paul), The Keep, The Fifth Harmonic, Midnight Mass, and Sims are all good but unrelated books by him.

Daughter of the Empire and others in the series by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I need new fantasy books to read. New authors more specifically. I have read Tolkien, Jordan, Goodkind, Martin, Hobbs, and Salvatore. Literally everything they have published. I am waiting for several to finish their freaking series too.

Anyway I digress. I need new authors. Gimme series, epic series's, to read. I am currently reading Raven's Shadow by Anthony Ryan but I am close to the end. Help!

 

[FurryFury]

I loved Flowers for Algernon both times I read it.

Couldn't really get into Bonk.

Got into the Hunger Games series though.

Going to see if my library has this one, This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All (Marilyn Johnson).

I really mean to read Flowers for Algernon one day.

Now
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (Mary Roach)

June:
This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All (Marilyn Johnson)
I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 (Douglas Edwards)
Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season (Nick Heil)

May:
If You Ask Me (Betty White)
Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic (Penney Darby)

April:
The Blue-Eyed Salaryman: From World Traveller to Lifer at Mitsubishi (Niall Murtagh)
An American Holocaust (Kerry Barger)
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Amy Chua)

March:
The Reapers Are the Angels (Alden Bell)
Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan (Bruce Feiler)

 

[mediocre]

I LOVED Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice series and I also enjoyed some of Savatore's Drow books a long, long time ago.

Have you read Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series? It's starts with Kushiel's Dart. Epic fantasy stuff plus some kink!

I would also recommend Piers Anthony's Incarnation of Immorality (starts with On a Pale Horse) and Blue Adept series which starts with the title Blue Adept.

Patricia Briggs has a great series as well which starts with Moon Called.

Darynda Jones begin with First Grave on the Right.

OOh! Bite Me A Love Storyy by Christopher Moore is soooo funny!

Hallfway To The Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Jim Butcher's Storm Front is the first in his Dresden Files series.

Kim Harrison, Dead Witch Walking is good.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay is fun too!

Mercedes Lackey, Burning Water and other “Diana Tregarde” books. She also has a fantasy series I've not read.

Wilson, F. Paul (Francis Paul), The Keep, The Fifth Harmonic, Midnight Mass, and Sims are all good but unrelated books by him.

Daughter of the Empire and others in the series by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Thanks for the list. I will check them out. Robin Hobb is so good. If you liked the Assassin series you will also like the Rain Wild Chronicles.

 

[FurryFury]

Oh I have enjoyed them so far though parts of those I scan to get to the good parts.

Btw, based on The Assassin's Apprentice series do you think Ms Hobbs like dogs better than cats?

Thanks for the list. I will check them out. Robin Hobb is so good. If you liked the Assassin series you will also like the Rain Wild Chronicles.

 

[ownedsubgal]

I loved Flowers for Algernon both times I read it.

Flowers for Algernon is the first book i ever "forgot to return" to a library. it's just as beautiful now as it was upon first reading at 12.

 

[desertslave]

I'm an eclectic reader, though I mostly prefer very techie sci-fi and some fantasy. I also like a good murder mystery and novelized history, and occasional nonfiction to research my SCA interests.

Recently read:

The Borgia Mistress by Sara Poole - third in a series about a female poisoner allied with Rodrigo Borgia during his scheming to become pope. Good writing, IMO, and good history. Vivid descriptions of Rome in the day, and a dry sense of humor.

Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner - excellent history of the spice trade in very human terms.

Raven Calls by CE Murphy - Seventh of a series about a woman who has her supernatural birthright thrust upon her as an adult. One of the best series I've read since the Dresden books.

Perigee by Patrick Chiles - Damn fine SF with sensible tech and lots of twists.

 

[seela]

Thanks for bringing up Flowers of Algernon! I'd never heard of it before, but now I looked it up and I definitely want to read it.

I've been on a non-fiction kick lately - again. A lot of books about languages and linguistics, some about gender and sexuality issues, and a few about religion and history.

Most importantly I re-read Our Living Multiverse by Fred Adams. It blew my mind when I first read it, the impact was much the same even on the second read. Measuring the Universe by Kitty Ferguson is another long time favorite of mine.

 

[FurryFury]

The Borgia Mistress sounds right up my alley!

I'm an eclectic reader, though I mostly prefer very techie sci-fi and some fantasy. I also like a good murder mystery and novelized history, and occasional nonfiction to research my SCA interests.

Recently read:

The Borgia Mistress by Sara Poole - third in a series about a female poisoner allied with Rodrigo Borgia during his scheming to become pope. Good writing, IMO, and good history. Vivid descriptions of Rome in the day, and a dry sense of humor.

Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner - excellent history of the spice trade in very human terms.

Raven Calls by CE Murphy - Seventh of a series about a woman who has her supernatural birthright thrust upon her as an adult. One of the best series I've read since the Dresden books.

Perigee by Patrick Chiles - Damn fine SF with sensible tech and lots of twists.

 

[FurryFury]

Sounds interesting though non fiction isn't my personal fav these days. I have been reading more of it lately.

Thanks for bringing up Flowers of Algernon! I'd never heard of it before, but now I looked it up and I definitely want to read it.

I've been on a non-fiction kick lately - again. A lot of books about languages and linguistics, some about gender and sexuality issues, and a few about religion and history.

Most importantly I re-read Our Living Multiverse by Fred Adams. It blew my mind when I first read it, the impact was much the same even on the second read. Measuring the Universe by Kitty Ferguson is another long time favorite of mine.

 

[ownedsubgal]

i'm currently reading "I, Fatty" by Jerry Stahl, and it's a biography of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. interesting to say the very least. it's written in the first person, as if it's an auto-bio, tho of course it's not. supposedly it's Roscoe's life story precisely as he dictated it to his japanese manservant, and somehow this Jerry Stahl character got his hands on it. as the story's told from Roscoe's p.o.v., you really develop a good sense of who he was. he was clearly very talented and intelligent in certain areas, while comically naive in others (i.e. the nature of people). his childhood was a bit of a horror show. and of course the scandal which hit him at the point he thought life was sweetest was beyond tragic. it's definitely a fascinating story and makes me want to seek out more accounts of actor/entertainer's lives during that time period.

 

[seela]

I really like (auto-)biographies, too. One of my favorites was I, Maya Plisetskaya, which I actually found because someone mentioned it on Lit way back when on the days of my lurkage.

I recently read As Nature Made Him - the story of David Reimer. Boy twins, for David the circumcision went really bad and the parents made the decision to raise him up as a girl. It was a hard read in more ways than one. The language didn't exactly flow and I found it pretty difficult to lose myself in it like normally happens, and the subject matter was rather on the heavy side as well, but I'm glad to have read it.

I couldn't find Flowers for Argenon in English in the library, so it's going to be on my next Amazon order. Although I was supposed to sell my books instead of buying them. I can't believe that my hatred of material possessions has now reached the point that I'm actively selling my books, my beloved books! I'm afraid the next stage will emptying our kitchen.

 

[FurryFury]

I've read and enjoyed As Nature Made Him.

 

[Etoile]

I've read and enjoyed As Nature Made Him.

So have I. Terribly tragic story, all the way through, and then what happened to him in the end.

 

[seela]

I enjoyed it too. It just felt really heavy to me. I don't really know what it was about it - the language or the very tragic story itself - but it was so difficult for me to read. It's not normal for me at all to feel so...distant I guess...from a book that I'm reading. Usually I completely lose myself in everything, but this time it didn't happen. It might have been also because it was the first book I read in English after having read mostly in other languages for a long, long time. But anyways, a sad story.

After having read As Nature Made Him, I read a non-fiction book about gender variation and trans issues. It's sad that in many ways the intersex children even today are being subjected to exactly what David went through.

 

[FurryFury]

The book ended with him happy, as a married male with adopted or whatever, kids.

But I researched him and found out it didn't end happily at all for him. Which made me sad.

The way he was treated by his parents and the medical establishment made me angry as hell.

To hear that they are still doing this doesn't surprise me at all but it's just so wrong and tragic that they do and parents allow it!

 

[seela]

The book ended with him happy, as a married male with adopted or whatever, kids.

But I researched him and found out it didn't end happily at all for him. Which made me sad.

My copy of the book includes "A Tragic Update", where it's revealed, what happened to him after the book had first been published.

 

[ownedsubgal]

I enjoyed it too. It just felt really heavy to me. I don't really know what it was about it - the language or the very tragic story itself - but it was so difficult for me to read. It's not normal for me at all to feel so...distant I guess...from a book that I'm reading. Usually I completely lose myself in everything, but this time it didn't happen. It might have been also because it was the first book I read in English after having read mostly in other languages for a long, long time. But anyways, a sad story.

After having read As Nature Made Him, I read a non-fiction book about gender variation and trans issues. It's sad that in many ways the intersex children even today are being subjected to exactly what David went through.

it looks like things could be starting to get a little brighter. it brings to mind this local little boy, who came "out" as transgendered pretty much the second he could talk. once his parents recognized it was real and not some cutesy phase, they researched their butts off and embrace him completely as their son. better yet, they have made sure that family/neighbors/schools, even their church follow suit. and not to be all racial or anything, but the fact that this is all happening within an african-american community really makes me proud. from all accounts, he's a very happy child. i know it won't be so rosy as he ages, but he's definitely paving a lovely new path.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/transgender-at-five/2012/05/19/gIQABfFkbU_story.html

 

[FurryFury]

I see.

I always research what happened to them next. It's rarely good news.

My copy of the book includes "A Tragic Update", where it's revealed, what happened to him after the book had first been published.

 

[FurryFury]

That's wonderful. Some parents "get it!"

it looks like things could be starting to get a little brighter. it brings to mind this local little boy, who came "out" as transgendered pretty much the second he could talk. once his parents recognized it was real and not some cutesy phase, they researched their butts off and embrace him completely as their son. better yet, they have made sure that family/neighbors/schools, even their church follow suit. and not to be all racial or anything, but the fact that this is all happening within an african-american community really makes me proud. from all accounts, he's a very happy child. i know it won't be so rosy as he ages, but he's definitely paving a lovely new path.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/transgender-at-five/2012/05/19/gIQABfFkbU_story.html

 

[seela]

it looks like things could be starting to get a little brighter. it brings to mind this local little boy, who came "out" as transgendered pretty much the second he could talk. once his parents recognized it was real and not some cutesy phase, they researched their butts off and embrace him completely as their son. better yet, they have made sure that family/neighbors/schools, even their church follow suit. and not to be all racial or anything, but the fact that this is all happening within an african-american community really makes me proud. from all accounts, he's a very happy child. i know it won't be so rosy as he ages, but he's definitely paving a lovely new path.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/transgender-at-five/2012/05/19/gIQABfFkbU_story.html

That's wonderful! I remember watching a documentary, where some British parents also had a transgendered child, a little boy who is actually a girl. These parents also gave their child the opportunity to express his, well her, true identity. The kid was really happy, the kid's dad and brother were hoping it's just a phaze that'll end sooner or later. The mother was completely on board, though.

But with intersex children the parents, or the doctors, just rather arbitrarily based on numbers decide which sex the child will get.

 

[Etoile]

The way he was treated by his parents and the medical establishment made me angry as hell.

I never blamed his parents at all really. They were pretty simple country folk - not Forrest Gump "simple" but not well educated. They believed whatever the doctors told them, from the hospital in Canada to John Money. They knew many times that he was unhappy, but they thought that the doctors were the educated ones and they thought they were obligated to follow through with the doctors' instructions. It was a different time, too - they didn't have nearly as much information about gender issues, nature vs nurture, transgender issues, etc. as we do now. The parents were just trying to do what they could to help their son.

Now, the doctors...that was despicable.

Hi osg, nice to see you!

 

[FurryFury]

True enough that they were a product of the times and environment but IMO, when your heart tells you your child is suffering you listen to that regardless.

I never blamed his parents at all really. They were pretty simple country folk - not Forrest Gump "simple" but not well educated. They believed whatever the doctors told them, from the hospital in Canada to John Money. They knew many times that he was unhappy, but they thought that the doctors were the educated ones and they thought they were obligated to follow through with the doctors' instructions. It was a different time, too - they didn't have nearly as much information about gender issues, nature vs nurture, transgender issues, etc. as we do now. The parents were just trying to do what they could to help their son.

Now, the doctors...that was despicable.

Hi osg, nice to see you!

 

[FurryFury]

This year past (2012) has been too filled with crisis for my family. I totally left off sharing what books I'd read. Sorry. Let me fix that now.

45.) A Dog's Journey by W. Bruce Cameron 5/5

46.) The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton 4/5

July

47.) [/U]The 4 O'Clock Murders The True Story of a Mormon Family's Vengeance [/U]by Scott Anderson 4/5

48.) The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens 4.5/5

49.) Ramses The Lady of Abu Simbel by Christian Jacq 4/5

50.) The Borgia Betrayal by Sara Poole 4/5

51.) Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris 5/5

52.) The Prophet by Amanda Stevens 4/5

53.) Ramses Under the Western Acacia by Christian Jacq 5/5

August

Beach week begins

54.) A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison 4.5/5

55.) The Borgia Mistress by Sara Poole 4.75/5

56.) Nefer The Silent by Christian Jacq 4.95/5

57.) All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosely 5/5

58.) Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich 5/5

Ending beach week.

59.) Break Down by Sara Paretsky 5/5

60.) At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost 4/5

61.) The Rope by Nevada Barr 3.5/5

62.) My Life As A White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland 4.75/5

63.) Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz 5/5

64.) Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta 4/5

September

65.) Seizure by Kathy Reichs 4/5

66.) Slave by Cheryl Brooks 3.75/5

67.) Touched by Venom by Janine Cross 3.5/5

68.) The Dog by Kerstin Ekman 3/5

69.) Hello Darlin' by Larry Hagman 4/5

70.) The Stone of Light: The Wise Woman by Christian Jacq 4/5

71.) The Other Side of Me by Sidney Sheldon 4/5

72.) Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey 3.5/5

73.)The Garden of Happy Endings by Barbra O'Neal 3/5

74.) The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams 3/5

75.) Victims by Johnathan Kellerman 4/5

76.) Becoming Sister Wives by the Browns 3/5

October

77.) Breed by Chase Novak 4/5

78.) Cinder by Marissa Meyer 4/5

79.) Mercury An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury by Leslie-Ann Jones 3.5/5

80.) The Stone of Light by Christian Jacq 4/5

81.) Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin 3/5

82.) Merge / Disciple by Walter Mosley 2.75/5

83.) The Stone of Light by Christian Jacq 4/5

84.) Julia's Chocolates by Cathy Lamb 4/5

85.) V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton 5/5

86.) A Very Simple Crime by Grant Jenkins 3/5

87.) Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez 3.5/5

November

88.) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 4/5

89.) Leave It to Cleavage by Wendy Wax 3.5/5

90.) Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones 3.5/5

91.) Dog Stars by Peter Heller 3.5/5

92.) A Natural Woman by Carole King 3.5/5

93.) Angel Time by Anne Rice 4/5

94.) Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich 4/5

95.) The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen 3/5

96.) I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus by S. G. Browne 4.5/5

97.) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. 2.5/5

December

98.) I Am Hutterite by Mary - Ann Kirkby 4/5/5

99.) The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold 3/5

100.) Happy Accidents A Memoir by Jane Lynch 3.5/5

101.) Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem 2/5

102.) Breathers by S.G. Browne 4/5

103.) My Orange Duffel Bag A Journey to Radical Change by Sam Bracken 3/5

104.) The Selection by Kiera Cass 4/5

105.) Crossed by Ally Condie 3.5/5

I didn't make my goal of 110 books but I mostly enjoyed the books I read.

2013

January

1.) Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 3.75/5