Books

[meteorite]

Mel, I'm hooked on Georgia Nicholson. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging had me giggling madly and intermittently, and so did almost every book thereafter by Louise Rennison. Georgia is a little bit of a twit, but no more self-centered and vacuous than a lot of teens I know, and you are rooting for her to finally (spoiler alert) <span class="ev_code_WHITE">get together with Dave the Laugh</span> if only to settle that plot line!

I MUST recommend Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Imagine 1984 meets Snow Crash and has a successful, alien hybrid

[Emi]

I'm so happy, I can cross another book off of the list I wanted to read... There's a long list...

I just finished reading Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson, the other day. It's a really good book, and now I'm excited to go out and get the movie. I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie, so I know what really happened in the book. I'm starting to do that a lot, lately.

[kk]

A friend of mine loaned me Phantom of the Opera, so I need to read that. Also, I'm almost done readin The People of Sparks, which is a good book. I like reading...

[Kathy Li]

BTW, if you cannot afford a copy of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother he's put it up for free download on his website, under Creative Commons. So, no excuses.

Oh, and the Tor website is up.

[Gwendi]

I just finished reading The Fire Within, Icefire, and Firestar by Chris D'Lacey. I'm not sure if this is for talking about books or recommending them, but I'd like to recommend those three and The Warrior Heir, and The Wizard Heir. The last two are by Cinda Williams Chima.

kk:

Also, I'm almost done readin The People of Sparks, which is a good book. I like reading...

Does that book have a sequel? I might've heard about it. I agree, reading is awesome.

[EricG1793]

The order in which the books were published is The City of Ember, The People of Sparks, and The Prophet of Yonwood.

Whited out due to an indirect spoiler (announcing the chronological order in which the books occurred):

<span class="ev_code_WHITE">The Prophet of Yonwood, The City of Ember, and The People of Sparks.</span>

But it's still neat to read them in the publication order. (Actually, I read it book 2, book 1, book 3._

[Cress]

Holy shamoli, I'm reading the last book in the series by Chris D'Lacey right now! I haven't actually read the first three, because I just grabbed this book (it looked interesting), and it didn't say anywhere on it that it was part of a series. I think it had a note on the inside back cover. About 50 pages in, I got kind of confused and looked to see if it was part of a series, but didn't see anything and kept reading. It's really quite good, if somewhat strange.

Also...EVERYONE read Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It's completely amazing. You won't regret it. Other recent recommendations...Conception, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing and 6 Degrees. All very good. I love my library meetings...I get free, new books!

[Zirsta]

You're reading the Fires Eternal? I read that. Yeah, you need to read the first three before that one to really enjoy them. They go:
The Fire Within
Icefire
Firestar
The Fires Eternal
They are VERY good. I recommend them to everyone!

Gwendi: You've read The Warrior's Heir? I just finished re-reading it. It was OK, but I'm a girl, and it was sort of confusing at times. I haven't read The Wizard's Heir yet. Was it any good?

[Kathy Li]

I am sick in bed. I finally got around to finishing Reader and Raelynx, the fourth (and supposedly final) book in Sharon Shinn's Twelve Houses series. Enjoyed it, but I liked the other three a bit more.

However, if you enjoy Robin McKinley's Beauty, I'd highly recommend picking up Sharon Shinn's The Safe-Keeper's Secret/The Truth-Teller's Tale, and The Dream-Maker's Magic. I love these books to death, and they really remind me of McKinley's earlier novels--there's a strong fairy-tale structure, and an interesting logic to the magic that just makes for great storytelling. Basically, in this world (a sort of indeterminate medieval-mixed-Victorian setting, like Beauty) there are three types of magic people: safe-keepers, who can never tell a secret confided in the; truth-tellers who can never tell a lie; and the dream-maker whose mere presence can cause dreams to come true, but who has no volition in granting the wishes and whose own life is filled with tragedy and pain.

Or, if you're an Anne McCaffrey fan, I'd recommend finding Shinn's Archangel, 'cause it's mostly just Dragonflight, but with angels instead of dragons and dragonriders.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

And if you're a dragon fan in general, I'd suggest Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, starting with His Majesty's Dragon. It's basically Horatio Hornblower/Jack Aubrey, but with an Air Force in addition to the Navy.

Over the course of the 5 books (I still haven't gotten to Victory of Eagles yet -- I was going to pick it up today, but it's not in paperback yet), it deals with the question of what happens when your military "hardware" has a brain and can make its own decisions about how it's being treated....
----
Also, you don't have to wait to be loaned books like Phantom of the Opera -- just head over to www.gutenberg.org, or www.librivox.org, if you prefer audiobooks. :-)

[kk]

Huh, I didn't know Gutenberg.org had Phantom of the Opera...thanks, Garrett!

They have a lot of good books...Wuthering Heights (which I need to finish), Pride and Prejudice (which I need to read), and others.

[Kathy Li]

Ok, this isn't really a book thing, but I didn't want to start a radio drama thread. I was just over on the BBC website, and it looks like they're going to do a second Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency adapation (this time of Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul). It's gonna start up Oct. 2.

Typically, the stuff starts streaming off the website as soon as it's aired, and remains on the website for a week. Just so's you know, you can listen to this even if you live outside the UK.

[Kathy Li]

Finally, I have been reading YA fantasy again, and I have three books I'd like to mention which may actually be of interest to other members of this board.

The first two are new--just came out this month in hardcover, while the third one is a little older and can probably found in paperback or at the library.

Nation by Terry Pratchett is not a Discworld book, but is YA. It's set in an alternate reality, not that different from our own in a vaguely Pacific South Seas setting. It's about big things like death and culture, religion, and national identity. So, naturally, it's a kids' book. I highly recommend it. It makes you think. A lot. It's one of Pratchett's best.

Second, Neil Gaiman's latest, The Graveyard Book. An absolutely perfect Halloween read. It's charming and creepy and goth all at once (while bloody things happen, it's not a gory book). And it also makes you think about the nature of life and death, but not in the furious way that Pratchett's book will, but more in a curiously musing sort of way.

The third book is China Mi&eacute;ville's Un Lun Dun which I liked a lot for turning a lot of fantasy cliches on their ear (the chosen one, the "coupon plot" idea, etc.) and because the heroine wins out the day by not listening to what someone tells her, but by thinking for herself and coming up with a better way of doing things. My only real disappointment is that the world is drawn much more vividly than the characters for my taste. But that's more than made up for by the word coinage that happens (e.g., martial arts trashcans => binja). But I definitely have to get my hands on Perdido Street Station, now.

[bookgirl]

Anyone read the Hunger Games? I guess Stephenie Meyer is recommending it. I've had ton of people come into the bookstore where I work looking for it. It sounds really interesting.

And I'm assuming this thread is to discuse any other books that we like. If I'm wrong... sorry.

[Kathy Li]

This thread is for discussing books. So, no worries.

I have found the iPhone application Stanza, which lets you download books to your iPhone/iPodTouch. So, I went and got Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. Oy. Great book, and it's something I think a lot of people need to read, but as I was looking for a little escapism after watching Frontline's episode on the war in Afghanistan, it didn't exactly fit the bill. Still, great stuff.