Books

[Cress]

I just started reading this absolutely amazing book, that I didn't exactly expect to be amazing. It's a teen romance/angsty novel, which are usually just really really bad writing and not worth the time, but this one is SO good. It's called Stay With Me by Garrett Freymann-Weyr and it's about a girl dealing with her half-sister's suicide. It is so melancholy and beautiful. I can't get enough of it. If you do read it, give it some time because I couldn't tell if I liked it or not at the beginning.

[Dragon Writer]

i can't even find anything idiately for blue bloods when searching queens library...the first thing to come up on the list is POP MUSIC! And lireal is DEFINATELy a must read as well...though saddly lacking in things on sabriel. I had expected the story to follow HER, but now i think she was mostly there just for the introduction. (I'm also slightly curious to see if there will be more then three books, since it seems to me that this isn't a series that really ends....there will always be another abhorsen, and there will always be more dead things to fight!) Ok, if i'm ranting, i'm REALLY sorry...i'm just REALLY hyper, at the moment...and haven't eaten much....and i don't have time to calm down because i'm on a time limit!

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Changing topics a bit, any Peter Wimsey fans here?

Dorothy Sayers wrote a series of mysteries featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. If you think this sounds interesting, I'd suggest starting with either The Nine Tailors, a mystery involving change ringers, Murder Must Advertise, where Peter takes a job writing ad copy as a cover for an investigation, or Strong Poison, the book in which he meets Harriet Vane, who figures prominently in three of the later books.

My personal favorite is Gaudy Night, but it's definitely not a first book.

[meteorite]

I'll see your Dorothy Sayers, and raise you some Elizabeth Peters. I love her Brother Cadfael.

If you are in the mood for something really offbeat, try Bill Fitzhughes. His first book, Pest Control, was about a Terminix guy who is working on an all-natural method of eliminating bugs so he can break out on his own, and gets mistaken for a hit man. His next book was The Organ Grinders, a very dark and funny look at the business of transplants.

[Space Cadet]

Recently I've been reading the Arthur Waley translation of the Tale of Genji . I didn't get to finish it *sniff* because I had to give the book back to it's owner. I haven't read the Uji ten chapters, but I read all of the Kyoto based stuff. It is really, really interesting, a strange mix of a culture so alien it can hardly be understood and people with feelings so human one can't help but understand them completely.

I also just finished reading Black Orchid and The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman et al.

[marina salem]

I have a request for help...

Everyone on here says that Pullman's "Sally Lockhart" series is a great read, but I haven't been able to find it in the bookstore. All they have is His Dark Materials. Barnes & Noble has it online, but is it available in the store?

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by meteorite:
I'll see your Dorothy Sayers, and raise you some Elizabeth Peters. I love her Brother Cadfael.

Oh, indeed (bringing the discussion back to Derek Jacobi :-) ). What's really neat is that if you read them in order, the backstory is coherent. (Ellis Peters/Edith Pargeter, to be picky...)

Oh, btw, does anyone have their collection up on LibraryThing? I have to finish cataloging mine one of these days...

[Dragon Writer]

i was reading the merlin series, but i'm currently in The Memory Keepers Daughter by km edwards. It was recomended to me, by one of the councilors in the school (many of the staff take interests in my reading habits, it seems) apparently, according to kimi who read it a bit before me, it's REALLY sad....*is not sure how much i'll enjoy it, all considering, but is trying it anyways*

[Kathy Li]

Originally posted by marina salem:
Everyone on here says that Pullman's "Sally Lockhart" series is a great read, but I haven't been able to find it in the bookstore. All they have is His Dark Materials. Barnes & Noble has it online, but is it available in the store?

If they have it online, they can get it into the store. You just have to ask the folks in the store to order it for you, and then you have to wait until it gets shipped, but they can get it into the store for you, if you ask them to.

meteorite & Garrett: Oh, now you've done it! You mentioned Sayers!!! I love Sayers and Wimsey. Ok, I have problems with The Documents in the Case and Five Red Herrings, but any of the others and I'm in heaven. Such great writing. She also made me go out and find the Ernest Bramah "Kai-Lung" books (try The Golden Hours of Kai-Lung--it was good enough for Lin Carter to publish it in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy line), and Bramah's Max Carrados mystery stories (blind detective).

There's one Max Carrados story, "The Mystery of Hedlingham Heights" where a supporting character would be big enough to fill books on her own. She's a Cryptographer/Mathematician who decided she wasn't feminine enough and makes a concerted effort to be a flapper as well. I keep hoping that Laurie King will run across her and stick her into a Mary Russell at some point.

And, of course, Garrett, you know about Laurie King's Mary Russell series?--start with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. There's one volume in the series where a certain shellshocked nervous young scion of a Duke who plays the piano beautifully shows up. I went all of a doodah. And her editor didn't catch the connection and they got a nasty letter from the Sayers estate, so that's not happening again. (sigh).

One more note for the other Wimseyites--have you ever noticed that Wimsey live at 110A Piccadilly? It's kind of like that joke about "HAL--a step ahead of IBM".

It always comes backs to Doyle.

One more note--please please please tell me you guys have read Dorothy Dunnett? Pamela Dean once told me that her editor recommended Dunnett, if you ever wanted to study the high art of writing court intrigue. I personally see her as a complex and deeply layered cross between Dorothy Sayers and Rafael Sabatini. Image Wimsey if he only quoted pre-Shakespearean authors. And fought a lot more with swords. And was really devious. That's what Francis and Nicholas are like.

[Dragon Writer]

...is it just me or did kli just double post? *looks shocked and appalled* i'm trying to decide whether to put memory keepers daughter on hold temporarily so that i can finish reading practical magic...(i had to put THAT on hold, because Memory Keeper's Daughter was non renewable, but now it isn't! of course, it COULD go back to non renewable any day...and then i'd be stuck with no time to read it...but on the other hand, i also have books i've had for a month, and are still on the bottom of the pile! ANd i would like ot eventually get to the dark hills divide...*decides to stop before i get a headache* i think i'll just keep on reading for now....

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by kli6:
And, of course, Garrett, you know about Laurie King's Mary Russell series?--start with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. There's one volume in the series where a certain shellshocked nervous young scion of a Duke who plays the piano beautifully shows up. I went all of a doodah. And her editor didn't catch the connection and they got a nasty letter from the Sayers estate, so that's not happening again. (sigh).

Hee. No, I didn't, but now I'm going to have to look it up.

Sort of reminds me of How Much For Just The Planet?...

[knieve]

Hey all. Sorry I have not been posting for a whill. I had a lot of computer problems. Can you guys help me out. I am running low of books to read and its midsummer vacation with just HP-related plans and a 5 day camp. I like sci-fi and fanisty and also vampire and werewolf books. I have already read The Darren Shan Saga, Animorphs, all of the Xanth novels i can get, Children of the Red King(Charlie Bone),most books by Scott Westerfeld and Lemony snicket.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by knieve:
I have already read The Darren Shan Saga, Animorphs, all of the Xanth novels i can get, Children of the Red King(Charlie Bone),most books by Scott Westerfeld and Lemony snicket.

There was a bookstore/food court down the road from us called Third Place Books, in Lake Forest Park. We were there one day to hang out when we found out that Lemony Snicket was going to be speaking. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it, so he sent some guy named Daniel Handler to fill in for him...

[Kathy Li]

Originally posted by young reader:
...is it just me or did kli just double post? *looks shocked and appalled*

Snort. Yeah, but I fixed it all on my own. And it was a true double-post (I guess I hit the quote button instead of the edit button by mistake). Not a two-short-posts-in-a-row double post.

meteorite: Absolutely yonks ago, I was at an Elizabeth Peters signing, and she mentioned that Ramses was going to come back from Oxford with a blonde schoolmate from Balliol who piffled rather well. Still not sure she's not actually going to do it at some point...

Garrett: Re: HMFJtP?--yeah, except that DD isn't a fictional character.

Unfortunately, he couldn't make it, so he sent some guy named Daniel Handler to fill in for him...

Man, that keeps happening! That same Daniel Handler guy was sent to fill in for him on the Tattered Cover podcast.

BTW, I did want to once again mention Sharon Shinn. I'm having a total blast with the Twelve Houses series (Mystic & Rider, The Thirteenth House, and Dark Moon Defender) so far. I can't wait for the fourth one. She's really reminding me of early Robin McKinley.

[Rubywolf]

Has anyone here read "The Wolving Time?" It's a fast read,but very good. I haven't read much lately *is shocked and appalled* but the only english books here in Denmark are HP! I've already read all those, and reading Danish is so finicky...