bossymarmalade | save me from ending up with more Wheel of Time!

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save me from ending up with more Wheel of Time!

I am currently taking book recommendations, since I'll have five hours to myself either way on my trip and I'll need at least a couple of good books.

verdandi started my list off with Lemony Snicket, but I want more.

So! Anything you guys heartily recommend? If it helps, here are some of my interests:

-- Food
-- Japan
-- Mythology and Fantasy
-- Children's Books
-- British Boarding Schools
-- Coming-Of-Age
-- Short Stories
-- Latin America
-- Detectives

Anybody? ^_^

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The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling. Fantasy. Plays with gender. Loved it.

Sounds excellent--I think I've read one of Flewelling's books and liked it, so that's definitely going on the list. Thanks!

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler, an essay and short stories

Hmm! I'm a Chandler fan from way back, but haven't looked up anything by him recently, so the short stories sound wonderful. And I'll check out the other book too, thank you, Jae!

Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden

Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife, by Amy Tan (especially Joy Luck Club)

I've heard good things about Memoirs--it's nice to hear a backup recommendation. And yes, the Joy Luck Club sounds good too. Thanks!

Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. Classic coming of age novel. Really good book.

It certainly is. I loved it in high school. ^_^

Anything by Daniel Pinkwater! Kid's author, talks lovingly about food, and tons of his books are coming back into print again. See if you can find Four Fantastic Novels, it's amazing. or if it's not there, i recommend Borgel, Lizard Music, Yobgorgle: Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario, The Hoboken Chicken Conspiracy, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death or The Snarkout Boys and The Baconburg Horror.

whew! :-D

i'm reading about the Snarkout Boys trying to find a way to do a crossover with the Weasley twins, goshdarnit.

those sound great! Thanks a ton, Mary--you have such cool tastes in kids' books!

Thanks!

(beam)

I haven't read it myself yet, I got it for the plane ride, but American Fuji by Sara Backer comes highly recommended by Elliot Bay Books.

Hmmm. I'll have to look for it! Thanks. ^_^

A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice, gay!coming of age. Enjoyable read.

I love A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. Pseudo-coming of age. He's already in his twenties when his parents die and he gets custody of his 8 year old brother. Tons of fun to read. I thought.

(and I noticed someone mentioned Michael Chabon, and Wonder Boys is great if you haven't seen the movie, and is still great even if you have seen the movie and loved it)

Oooooh, those sound really interesting. Not only coming-of-age, but gay coming of age! Thanks, sweetie. ^_^

Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series, particularly Charmed Life and The Lives of Christopher Chant. I got both of them in one novel from Waldens under the title The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Vol 1.

Thank you! I'll be sure to look for those when I go to the bookstore. ^_^

Charles DeLint:
Memory & Dream (big frigging long Novel)
Dreams Underfoot (short stories)
He has his own little imaginary Ottowa called Newford and all sorts of wacky magic things go on there.

Wicked by Gregory Maquire - Retelling of Oz from the Wicked Witch's POV.

Beauty by Sheri Tepper - Um, most of the princess oriented fairy tales mixed together with a bit of crack and Soylent Green for good measure.

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman. IMnshO his best novel, but then, I've still got to read American Gods.

<--- is lazy

If you can find a collection of shorts by Damon Runyon, I highly recommend those. They're great little stories, not to mention the basis for Guys & Dolls.

I like Thurber, and will recommend the Thurber Carnival to any and everyone. He's a funny little smart aleck.

Life With Father by Clarence Day. The movie is funny. The BOOK is hysterical. Think Cheaper By The Dozen in terms of tone and style. I dunno if it's in print anymore, though. May be something you'd have to hit the library for.

Kids books, kids books. Um. The Egypt Game, The Westing Game, The Dark Is Rising series, the whole Wolves of Willoghby Chase series by Joan Aiken, there's five or six of them, you'd like those, Black Hearts in Battersea was my favorite. Tuck Everlasting.

Um. I'll stop there for now. I think. Yes. ;)

Yay! Yay! YAy! I love your book recommendations. It helps to have a Psychic Twin. ^_^
Thank you!

These are some of my random current faves:

Youth in Revolt - I'm still reading it so my thoughts aren't yet cohesive enough for a review, but it is pretty damn funny.

Ender's Game - Best sci-fi book ever. Absolutely brilliant.

Magic's Pawn - While a book with flaws, I read this fairly recently and realized it had been *years* since a book had captured my attention as this one. As far as the characterization goes, there are no flaws. You will love Vanyel, the main character.

Lucky Man - If you have any interest in biographies. Michael J. Fox. Completely took me by surprise in its beauty.

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold, the author, has talent reminiscent of our favorite slash authors (yes, I do hold most slashers in higher esteem than most published authors).

Tee! I read the Vanyel books a few years ago--the entire series, all at once, and cried like a fool through them. They're so good. ^_^

The rest sound intriguing and are definitely going on my list. Thanks!

here are a couple on food, one of my favorite topics--

M. F. K. Fischer--she writes beautifully about food and eating. I'd especially recommend The Gastronomical Me, which is pretty much a memoir written around food. Also, Serve It Forth, Consider The Oyster, How To Cook A Wolf. The last one has recipes, but is still mostly little food essays.

Two books by Laurie Colwin--Home Cooking and More Home Cooking, also little food essays. These usually have one recipe a chapter, and are very amusing, and in keeping with the titles, the recipes tend to be simple and practical.

JG

oops. Edited to say, that's M. F. K. Fisher. No "c".

JG

Ooh! Foodie books! Thank you so much for telling me about them. ^_^

--M.E. Kerr's Fell series (the novels Fell, Fell Back and Fell Down--there's also a three-in-one volume available): The classic archetype of the Working-Class Kid With a Heart of Gold at a Snotty Eastern Prep School, but with a couple of strange twists in the tail. Looks as though there were meant to be more books in the series, but she never got around to writing 'em.

--Kij Johnson's The Fox Woman: A classic Japanese myth told from three different character viewpoints, with a mountain of interesting detail about medieval Japan in the bargain. Plus, slashiness--yes!

--Timothy Findley's The Telling of Lies: Very disturbing mystery about the murder of a pharmaceutical-giant billionaire at an old money Maine hotel. It's easy to guess whodunit, but why and how are the interesting questions.

--Annette Curtis Klause's Blood and Chocolate: Can a hot werewolf girl find true love in the suburbs? A fun story where the werewolves actually get to be both sympathetic *and* as savage as an actual bunch of wild animals would be cooped up in a dead-end Maryland subdivision. Ending's a bit goopy, but you can't have everything.

--Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber: If you like dark retellings of fairy tales, this is *the* classic volume to read because she started it all. The title story, her revised version of Bluebeard, is one of the best.

--Colette's Claudine series (Claudine at School, Claudine in Paris, Claudine Married, Claudine and Annie): Hyper hijinks at French girl's school and afterwards, dripping femslash, mother load of femslash, did I mention femslash? Lots and lots of femslash. And boarding-school kink.

That's all I can think of for now. :-)

*sigh* They sound fantastic. My list is becoming very exciting. Also, fox-lady mythology! I love it! Thanks a billion, Vali, you dependable literary person you. *snug*

The Courts of Love by Ellen Gilchrist (short stories)
Homeland and Other Stories by Barbara Kingsolver (short stories)
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut (short stories)

also, Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood by... something Wells

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The Courts of Love by Ellen Gilchrist (short stories)
Homeland and Other Stories by Barbara Kingsolver (short stories)
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut (short stories)

also, Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood by... something Wells
<Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
and Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons. It's a non-fiction about the way that girls deal with their agression toward each other. Just to warn you. It's not a fun read (per se) but it's incredibly interesting.

Whoo! I'll hunt those down when I visit the bookstore. Thanks a bunch!

hey man - it's my job to do that! *winks*

Not sure if you're still taking book recommendations, but here are a few of my favorites:

-The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. My personal favorites.
-Summer Sisters by Judy Blume.
-She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
-Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Alters Everywhere by Rebecca Wells.
-Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
-About a Boy by Nick Hornby
-Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman

Those of just a few of my favorites. :) Hope you will enjoy them as much as I do.

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save me from ending up with more Wheel of Time!

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