|
Author
|
Comment
|
gigi
Unregistered User
(1/22/05 9:04 am)
|
Any Great Books to recommend?
HI!
I am so thrilled because I have a long weekened because I finished my Final Exams.
So to take my mind off anxiously waiting for my exams I was wondering If you have any Great Books to recommend me?
I recently cleared off my bookshelves of books that were bits of fluff. I need some books that will be on my bookshelves forever. You can read them 20 times over without getting bored.
Please recommend fairytale related books becasue I will cry if someone tries to recommend -Jane eyre- Or other "Classics"
Thanks
Anxiously Awaiting a reply :D
gigi
|
Terri Windling
Registered User
(1/22/05 9:23 am)
|
Re: Any Great Books to recommend?
Susanna Clarke's new novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, is utterly wonderful. Imagine Jane Austen or Thackery with fairies...Another book I adored this past year was Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand.
You'll find many other book recommendations in the Scuttlebutt section of the Endicott Studio site: www.endicott-studio.com/scuttle.html
Edited by: Terri Windling at: 1/22/05 2:55 pm
|
Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(1/22/05 10:15 am)
|
Re: Any Great Books to recommend?
I second the nom for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I am in the midst of it now. A friend, who doesn't usually read fantasy but loves Austen, also adored it and feels lost now that she has finished it. Or so she explained at dinner last night and she finished the book almost a week ago.
Good news is that any bookstore will carry it right now. I have even seen it at Sam's Club and Costco, so it should be easy to find. It will not be quickly available at the library due to long waiting lists. It is not a short book so it is not returned early.
Heidi
|
Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(1/22/05 10:17 am)
|
Re: Any Great Books to recommend?
And it's nice to see a deserving book like this become so popular and readily available.
Heidi
|
aka Greensleeves
Registered User
(1/22/05 12:29 pm)
|
Re: Any Great Books to recommend?
Peter S. Beagle, TAMSIN
Patricia McKillip, WINTER ROSE
Robin McKinley, BEAUTY
All are on my annual reading list, and TAMSIN is probably the finest novel I've read in 15 years.
|
JMerriam
Registered User
(1/22/05 12:57 pm)
|
Re: Any Great Books to recommend?
Any Robin McKinley book is good, really, but I find her Deerskin to be amazing. Very emotionally wrenching, though, so be warned.
see how moonlight's sharp music breaks all of your windows |
gigi
Unregistered User
(1/22/05 4:12 pm)
|
thanx
Thank you for your recommendations
I have heard about the books mentioned but was unsure if I wanted to read them.
I will look for them at the bookstore when I go out.
Any other suggestions would be fantastic. Also
Do you know of a few books that are Good collections of short stories?
I would hate to be haunted by the unknown ending of a novel.
Thanx gigi :D
|
Black Sheep
Registered User
(1/22/05 4:33 pm)
|
Shorts +
Fairy tale related short stories:
Any of the fairy tale related collections by Angela Carter, A.S. Byatt, or Margaret Atwood.
Kate Atkinson's "Not The End Of The World" (Greek myths).
"Jigs And Reels" by that woman who wrote "Chocolat" (can't remember her name... Joanne Harries?).
Peter S. Beagle's "The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche".
Anything by Charles De Lint.
Anything by Ursula Le Guin for general speculative fiction (but the more recent the better).
Also any novel by Terry Pratchett because they won't tax your brain too hard, try "Wee Free Men" or "Wyrd Sisters" for starters.
|
Anamithim
Unregistered User
(1/22/05 6:50 pm)
|
Any Great Books to recommend?
the blue girl by charles de lint, the boy from the basement by....susan shaw.
|
gigi
Unregistered User
(1/22/05 7:42 pm)
|
thanx again
Thank you I appreciate all of your replies.
PS. Don't you think this site is so very wonderful?
All of the participants and coordinators are very friendly, knowledgeable and completely understanding.
gigi :D
|
anamithim
Unregistered User
(1/23/05 2:02 am)
|
books
well anyone who has read any charles de lint books, are most of his books real...like. out of this world? fairie-ish?
|
Terri Windling
Registered User
(1/23/05 5:57 am)
|
short stories
Here are some good recent short story collections (I particularly recommend the Kage Baker and Alice Hoffman collections):
www.endicott-studio.com/recreading/Winter04/recWinterSS04.html
Edited by: Terri Windling at: 1/23/05 5:58 am
|
Terri Windling
Registered User
(1/23/05 6:02 am)
|
fairies
Anamithim, I've edited many of Charles de Lint's books, and I know he doesn't consider the fairies in his books to be literally real -- although he'd probably go so far as to acknowledge that the world is a mysterious place, and that there may be more to it than we see in a day-to-day way. Mostly, however, he uses folklore as a means of telling entertaining and richly metaphorical stories. The "magic" he's most interested in portraying, through the use of folkloric metaphors, is the real-world magic and power that lies in friendship and community.
That's a magic he believes in strongly.
If you're looking for true believers in the literal existence of
fairies, you might want to try the message board over at the web
site for artists Brian & Wendy Froud: www.worldoffroud.com.
Brian Froud, an English painter and film designer, is a firm believer
in fairies.
Edited by: Terri Windling at: 1/23/05 6:43 am
|
A Jessica
Registered User
(1/23/05 10:35 am)
|
collections of short stories
You might try "The Ogre's Wife", by Richard Parks, which is an absolutely unique, wonderful little collection. "The Faery Reel" edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow. "The Djinn in the Nightengale's Eye" by A.S. Byatt... which I like better than her other collections, although they are good too.
--Jessica
Edited by: A Jessica at: 1/23/05 10:36 am
|
spoonmoonhollow
Registered User
(1/23/05 11:33 am)
|
Re: collections of short stories
Terri Windling's 'Wood Wife' is beautiful and evocative...I cannot wait for 'Moon Wife' tho I do wait (impatiently) also A.S. Byatt's 'Possession' is a wonderful, intricate novel with many fairytale themes. Peter S. Beagle's 'Tamsin' is so worth reading - it kept me up all night. Patricia McKillip is one of my favorite's especially 'Winter Rose', 'In The Forests of Serre', and 'Alphabet of Thorn'. Anything by Charles de Lint, his short story collections are my favorite 'Moonlight and Vines', 'The Ivory and the Horn', 'Dreams Underfoot', and 'Tapping the Dream Tree'. Neil Gaiman's 'Stardust' and 'Coraline' are magic. And a favorite from childhood Tanith Lee. Dark but beautiful language. almost forgot read Lord Dunsany 'King of Elfland's Daughter' - truly lovely.
lucky one to have so many good things ahead of you. enjoy
spoon
Edited by: spoonmoonhollow at: 1/23/05 11:49 am
|
midori snyder
Registered User
(1/23/05 3:49 pm)
ezSupporter
|
Falling into books
I hope it's not presumptuous of me to also suggest Endicott Studio's Scuttlebutt section of the website. But as someone who has over the last five months, coded in pages of fabulous book reviews of the last seven years for the Endicott site, I can only tell you that I am rapidly becoming broke buying all the books I read about! The Scuttlebutt offers you a few choices--the Previously Recommended Books (1997-2003) And current recommendations for this year (Autumn 2004 and Winter 2004/05). It also offers "lists"...Terri's picks of the top 100 novels, top 50 short story collections etc.
Edited by: midori snyder at: 1/23/05 3:51 pm
|
evil little pixie
Registered User
(1/23/05 4:41 pm)
|
Re: Falling into books
I'm reading _Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell_ right now and it's a very good book, but I'd just like to point out that it's not the first to mix magic and Jane Austen. _Maerilon the Magician_ and its sequel, _Magician's Ward_ by Patricia C. Wrede and _Sorcery and Cecilia_ and its sequel, _The Grand Tour_ by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede are all excellent books set in the same sort of universe. Other great books are the _Shadow_ seriers by Ann Logston (out of print), any Robin McKinnley books not already mentioned above, and, in the young adult section, _Blood and Chocolate_ by Annette Kurtis Claus, _The Keeper of the Isis Light_ by Monica Hughes, _Dealing with Dragons_ and its sequels by Patricia C. Wrede, _The Moorchild_ by Eloise McGraw, _The Perilous Gard_ by Elizabeth Marie Pope, _A Great and Terrible Beauty_ by Libba Bray and a bunch more I'm probably forgetting.
|
aka Greensleeves
Registered User
(1/24/05 6:24 pm)
|
Re: Falling into books
Just had to add... fans of Tanith Lee should not miss her recent YA series, The Claidi Journals (WOLF TOWER, WOLF STAR, etc). Not "Red as Blood," but some of the most delightful books I've chanced upon in years. Such a fun, funny heroine.
This is folklore of a different vein than we usually talk about, but I just read--and was thrilled by--Sharon Shinn's ARCHANGEL.
Lastly, Lynn Flewelling's THE BONE DOLL'S TWIN was maybe best book (ok, most enjoyable) I read last year. Deliciously creepy. And what a title!
|
gigi
Unregistered User
(1/24/05 8:59 pm)
|
WoW!
All these suggestions will break my back coming home from the bookstore, not to mention my bank.
Question: How long have they stayed on your own bookselves? Have you had them for ever?
Are they the ones you know you've broken the spines on and that you'll keep for when your hair turns white?
Those are the books I want to buy. Something I won't be trading with my friends.
Sorry to be SO picky. Yes I will also go to the library and check as many as I can out.
P.S. I have a plethora of vocabulary words at the tips of my fingers and
Can you mention beautifully lyrical books with a harder vocab?
Ps Have Read -The Moorchild-. I did love it and it stayed on my bookshelf after the mid winter cleaning was over.
Very talkative,
Call me Chatty
gigi :eek
|
Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(1/24/05 10:02 pm)
|
Re: WoW!
Gigi,
It might help us to streamline the list for you if you share some of your "keepers" with us. It's easier to make a list of "If you like this...you'll also like this" with a stronger point of reference. And I still vote for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It will be reread more than once and will stay in my library.
I also love Sharon Shinn's Archangel as mentioned above since I don't think it's ever been brought up on the board before. I want to visit Luminaux, the blue city she describes in many of her Samaria books. She also deals with religious themes respectfully although it isn't as obvious unless you read all of the first three Samaria books, originally a trilogy: Archangel, Jovah's Angel, and The Alleluia Files.
But then again, there's not been a clinker in the list provided. That's what usually happens when we start sharing.
Heidi
Edited by: Heidi Anne Heiner at: 1/24/05 10:03 pm
|
Black Sheep
Registered User
(1/25/05 10:03 am)
|
Re: WoW!
Perhaps we could change the question a little to something more specific (or should I have started a new thread?).
What is your number one most reread fairy/folk tale related fiction?
Mine is, without any doubt, "Alice Through The Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll aka the Rev. Charles Dodgson (did I spell those right?).
|
