Reccomended Books

[bespecledcow]

Hey all! I know I've been absent from the forums for a while (blame it on it being my senior year of high school) but I've got some down time now, and have discovered to my dismay that I have no new books to read. But rather than creating a thread that would likely die out quickly with me asking for a good book, I thought I'd start a thread about books in general! Now, for this thread its up to you how you present the books, but I reccomend a basic style of:

Title and Author:

Genre:

Pros:

Cons:

Rating/Warnings:

Page length:

Minor synopsis:


However if you just wanna list books its all okay to me!

So, here it goes!

Title and Author: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Genre: YA Drama/Angst?

Pros: Deep and Gritty; unflinching in its portrayal of High School, death, and redemption. The romance in the story also is a side story rather than the whole point, which is a nice change.

Cons: Its difficult to like the main character at first, but as it is supposed to be that way, I dunno if that counts as a con. The ending will also be both depressing and perfect, which may frustrate you.

Rating/Warnings: Cruel High School Girls should be a pretty good warning; also cussing and descriptions of suicide.

Page length: roughly 400-500 pages

Minor synopsis: Sam Kingston is one of the most popular girls in school- by association. Though not the ring leader, she stands by and often participates in torments. She and her friends spend their nights partying, laughing, and not caring about the future. One of the victims of their cruelties is Juliet Sykes (whom they call Psycho), a friendless girl that is slowly starting to snap. One night after a party, Sam is in the passenger's seat, one of her friends driving. All of a sudden something flashes in front of the car and her friend Elody says something like "shit or stop or sight," and then Sam is falling. She wakes up the next day, to discover that it is as if nothing happened. Slowly it becomes clear that she died, and is re-living the day of her death. She is desperate to find a way to save herself, over the course of seven days, and at the same time watches the so carefully constructed friendships and mocking laughter and distance from her family fall apart as for the first time, she really looks at what she has done with her life.


Well? Any books to reccomend? Any interest in my reccomendation?

[PuzzleChick]

Oh my god I am gonna spam the crap out of this thread. xD Just wait until I get home later... *gleefully making a list of titles already*

I appreciate your rec as something I might be able to recommend to a customer sometime; a lot of people want YA suggestions and as I dislike 90% of available YA, I have a tough time coming up with more than two. Anytime someone I can trust gives a good review of one I keep it in mind for others. =) (As intriguing as it sounds, I'm afraid I couldn't read it myself because the topic of suicide is very triggering for me. OTL I'm sure a customer will enjoy it though!)

[taranova]

Title and Author: Sophie's World, by Jostein Gaarder
Genre: Philosophy
Pros: If you like deep, philosophical, intellectual-type books, it's amazing. I read it in ninth grade. It took me a few months but I felt -enlightened- every time I put it down. It's not so much a book for light reading as it is a historical novel aimed at college students taking the course, BUT I AM A NERD AND I ENJOY READING THINGS LIKE THAT.
Cons: Long, boring if you're a fan of fiction.
Rating/Warnings: None
Page length: 550
Minor synopsis: A young girl, Sophie, becomes embroiled in a discussion of philosophy with a faceless correspondent. At the same time, she must unravel a mystery involving another young girl, Hilde, by using everything she's learning. The truth is far more complicated than she could ever have imagined.

Title and Author: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Genre: Religious, philosophical, epic, poetry
Pros: Complex, dynamic, intellectually epic piece. It's a reflection of the times and a reflection of Italian Catholicism. <3 Incredible.
Cons: LONG. Outdated language. Very wordy.
Rating/Warnings: Dark.
Page length: A lot.
Minor synopsis: Long narrative poem originally titled Commedia (about 1555 printed as La divina commedia) written about 1310-14 by Dante. The work is divided into three major sections--Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso--which trace the journey of a man from darkness and error to the revelation of the divine light, culminating in the beatific vision of God.

Here are some other books I've enjoyed:
Lucky by Alice Sebold
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salmon Rushdie. Actually, anything by Salmon Rushie, because he's amazing.
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

[bespecledcow]

Oh, I was thinking of reccomending the Lucky Bones myself, you beat me to it!

[PuzzleChick]

Title and Author: The Nightrunner Series (the first book is Luck in the Shadows) by Lynn Flewelling. The series is currently five books long with a sixth out next year.

Genre: traditional swords-and-horses fantasy/GLBTA fiction

Pros: OH LAWD WHERE DO I START. I love this series like cake.
- Well written and interesting characters
- The MCs Seregil and Alec are bi and eventually fall in love at the end of the second book. They remain together throughout the series and their relationship is very realistic. They show affection and love for each other and while they do have their differences, at the end of the day it's obvious they truly care for each other. I'm so happy to see a well-written monogamous gay relationship in fiction that I could cry of happiness, honestly.
- The romantic element is there, but it's not the main plot. The characters spend a lot more time having adventures and avoiding death than snogging.
- Exciting plotlines, tons of suspense and danger.
- A very interesting matriarchal political system and distinct cultures.
- Nicely streamlined and fast-paced; no several-page-long boring infodumps here!

Cons:
- The villains and the country they're from are kind of 2D and generically evil. This didn't bother me much because I don't read a ton of fantasy, but it could bother others.
- The third book in the series is rather sluggish and overwritten, (and gets a bit infodumpy) and Seregil turns into a mopey emo for it. (luckily he gets better.)
- There are prophesies involved. I know some people HATE fantasy novels with prophesies in them, so I thought I should warn you. ^^;

Rating/Warnings:
Plenty of violence and swearing and there are mentions of sex, but none graphic. (The short story collection Glimpses does have some smut.) Some gore at times. There's kind of a large age gap between Seregil and Alec which might bother some people, although maturity-wise they're around the same age mentally and physically (due to the fact that Seregil is full-faie and Alec is only half-blooded, and they age differently.)

Page length: Luck in the Shadows is 479 pages in its mass-market size. The rest of the series stays at a similar length.

Minor synopsis: (This is the overview of the first two books. The others contain other plots.) The snarky thief and rogue Seregil meets Alec, a poor hunter, in a prison where they've both been arrested unfairly. He saves Alec out of obligation, but soon discovers that Alec is intelligent and crafty, and takes him on as an apprentice. They quickly become friends (and, as time passes, fall in love and become talimenios; the word for a male-male marriage) and team up as Watchers, part of a group of spies for the Queen. In the course of spying and thieving and generally having zany adventures, they discover that the Plenimarians, enemies of Skala, are planning for war and worse, that they've harnessed the power of necromancy to resurrect their own Death God, and Seregil, Alec and a small group of friends must stop them.

[taranova]

^ That sounds awesome. o.o Where can I find this awesome-sounding book?

[PuzzleChick]

^ It IS awesome. x3 It should be in any bookstore, I got my copies at Borders. It's also on Amazon here: www.amazon.com/Luck-Shadows-Nightrunner-Vol-1/dp/0553575422/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304628525&sr=8-1

(You might also like her other series, the Tamir Trilogy. Set in the same world, but a few hundred years prior to when Nightrunner starts. I know you like darkfic and the TT is pretty dark/spooky. The MC in that series is actually a MTF transgendered character, which is really interesting and unique.)

[PuzzleChick]

Title and Author: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

Genre: YA/Historical

Pros:
- narrated by Death, the story has unique prose and writing style
- a gritty, lifelike portrayal of war from a child's POV
- memorable characters
- shocking and powerful conclusion

Cons:
- Because the writing style is unusual, it took me a little while to get into.
- Some people may dislike the ending

Rating/Warnings:
Death and a bit of violence. I can't remember if there was swearing or not...there might have been. Some antisemitism, due to being set in nazi Germany, but not glorified or condoned.

Page length: Amazon puts the paperback at 576 pages.

Minor synopsis: Death first meets Liesel Meminger when she is nine and he is there to collect the soul of her brother, and he witnesses her stealing the handbook that the gravedigger drops at the gravesite. This first act of book thievery sets Liesel on a lifelong love of books and words. Death narrates her story as she grows up and steals more books, from book-burnings and even from the mayor's library, while she and her best friend Rudy are largely unaware of the changes taking place in their country. But when her family hides Max, a Jewish refugee, in their basement he opens her eyes to the reality of the violent and war-impacted world she's living in, and makes her question just what is -- and what isn't -- right.

[bespecledcow]

You know, I've always meant to read The Book Thief. For years I thought I had cause I got it confused with The Thief Lord. *adds to reading list*

Title: Exiles: The Ruins of Ambrai By Melanie Rawn

Genre: Fantasy

Pros: Oh, where to begin...this author is one of my favorites. All her characters are intricate and very real; even small characters end up being significant somehow (reminds me of Arakawa in that sense). Her world building is very well done, and all the females (and males) kick ass. Also, this book was one of my first introductions to gay relationships in books.

Cons: Dark, some parts may be hard to get through because of the amount of world building. The descrimination that the entire world so easily follows is hard to get past at times (though thankfully the main characters rebel against it).

Warnings: Dark, as mentioned above. Also quite sad. Not much cussing, but a fair amount of violence, as well as sexual abuse (Well, the guy is a sex slave, really, and it never goes into a ton of detail due to circumstances.)

Page length: My paperback sits at 825 pages.

Minor Synopsis: A thousand years ago, mages fled prejudice and persecution to colonize Lenfell; however they were soon devestated by war with rival mage factions. Generations later, the land is still recovering from the aftermath, and Mageborns are under strict watch from those without magic, like the Lords of Melarris. Peace has not yet come, and another war is looming. The great mage city of Ambrai is destroyed. Meanwhile, one mage family is torn apart in the chaos and three sister separated; Glenin, taken by her father to work with the Melarris, Sarrah, hidden with another family to protect her from scorn, all memories of magic lost, and Cailet, only a baby, sent away also to be kept safe, her magic locked away until she is ready. Three sisters, bound by blood and magic will find each other; one out of love, and yet another out of hatred, to see which side will be the victor.

[PuzzleChick]

Hmmn, I'll have to see if I can order that in at the store. Might be interesting...

Here's an old favorite from when I was a kid (and still re-read and love today)

Title and Author: The Misfits by James Howe

Genre: Independent reader fiction

Pros:
- Creative, amusing characters
- Pro-GLBTA
- The narrator's voice is pretty funny and clever
- Happy ending! (some people might find it cheesy, but it's sort of a feel-good book, plus the happy ending is completely awesome.)

Cons:
- Another book with sort of odd writing style. I liked it, but it could easily bother others.

Rating/Warnings:
Use of harsh/offensive words (not glorified.)

Page length: My copy is 274.

Minor synopsis: The Gang of Five (actually, four) is composed of your usual middle school misfits: the fat kid, the gay kid, the nerd, the hooligan with a heart of gold. What starts as a plan to form a student council party in their school to represent minorities ends up revealing that what makes someone an outcast is often based more on what others see than a person's true features. Now they're setting out to prove that there's more to them than the labels people give them or the labels they give themselves.

[bespecledcow]

Title: The Giver By Lois Lowry

Genre: Hmm. Sciencefiction-y? Dystopian.

Pros: Well written, subtle, and ultimately proves the ideal that sometimes less is more. Also creepy.

Cons: Short, with a bit of a hanging ending. A few plot flaws, but nothing too major.

Ratings/Warnings: Its a kid's book, but it still has creepy themes, and death. So...Tish?

Page length: Around two hundred.

Minor Synopsis: The community is perfect. There is no hunger, no war. Things like murder and theft have been eradicated. Everyone has homes, families, and jobs. Jonas, the day he turns twelve is assigned the position he will have for the rest of his life- to be 'The Reciever of Memory' and take on all of the things the community- in reaching "perfection" left behind, and so discovers that there is something very very wrong with his world.

This was one of my favorite books as a kid, and is still high ranking on my list.

[PuzzleChick]

Keeping with the trend of favorite books as kids, here's another one I've read probably a dozen times and would happily read again right now:

Title and Author: The Well of Sacrifice, by Chris Eboch

Genre: Independent reader fiction / adventure-suspense

Pros:
- Set in the ancient Mayan world, the culture and customs are fascinating and well-woven into the tale
- Doesn't back off on the harsher topics of said culture, including its eventual downfall
- the heroine is truly heroic and while it could have been easy for her to devolve into sue territory, she doesn't. You root for her the whole way.
- Really suspenseful and super fast-paced with treachery and intrigue

Cons:
- The names in the book might bother people. (Eveningstar Macaw, Great Skull Zero, Smoke Shell, Feather Dawn, etc. I though they gave the story a more exotic flavor, personally, but a couple of them did make me laugh.)

Rating/Warnings:
Some gore. (Bloodletting ceremonies and fairly frank description of human sacrifice)

Page length:
240 pages

Minor synopsis: Eveningstar Macaw lives a normal life as a healer's daughter in a thriving Mayan city. When she discovers a group of enemy warriors in the forest, and her brother's troop subsequently captures them, her family is promoted to nobility. But there, in the upper quarters, she realizes there is a sinister plot afoot by a high priest who intends to crown himself king by killing off any other young noble who might take the throne, using the excuse that the Gods will not name the new king without sufficient sacrifices -- including Eveningstar's brother. To avenge her brother's death, she stands up to reveal the priest's plot, even if it means becoming his next sacrifice.

[bespecledcow]

Once again following the trend of beloved childhood books:

Zink by Cherie Bennet

Genre: Fiction, Drama

Pros: The narration feels real; like the writer was really a little girl. Also the descriptions of the hospital and so on is very good. My dad, who had cancer, cried some when I read the book to him, because it reminded him of going through it. The main character also reminds me of me (and the picture on the front of her looks just like me when I was ten, I swear, its freaky)

Cons: Childlike narrative means that sometimes the main character acts like, well, a child. Also the ending is only sort-of happy.

Rating/warnings: K+, for descriptions of children with cancer, and mentions of zebras being devoured by lions.

Page length: 226

Synopsis: Becky is a shy girl with dreams of becoming a famous singer. Feeling alone as a result of her best friend deciding that she wanted to be popular rather than be with Becky, she does not often speak her mind. However, her thoughts are recorded in her journal, where she can say what she really believes without fear. One day, Becky finds that the smell of food makes her sick. That she is dizzy, and there are weird bruises on her legs. The next thing she knows, she has collapsed at school, and is rushed to the hospital. After some tests, the doctors tell her that she has Leukemia. Becky is only in the fifth grade. Now, surrounded by doctors and blood tests, and dying children, Becky is more afraid than ever as she slowly succumbs to the disease. Meanwhile, in Africa, a tribe of zebras gather; their shaman, Papa Zeke, tells them that he has a special mission for a select few; that there is a human girl that needs their help, and their guidance. With their help, Becky learns what it means to be brave, and that sometimes you have to let go.

[PuzzleChick]

I just read this one recently:

Title and Author: Ash, by Malinda Lo

Genre: YA fantasy/lesbian fiction

Pros:
- A very smooth, lyrical writing style that's fun to read
- It shows a realistic portrayal of grief and being healed by love. No sappy everything-is-magically-fixed, no melodrama, just the quiet shifting of sadness into the comfort of having something to live for again.
- This line from a review says it all: Despite Ash's grief, oppressive guardianship, and dangerous flirtation with the fairy Sidhean, who promises to steal her away from her sadness, the protagonist finds her own salvation and chooses to live and love in the real world and on her own terms. Fuck yes, strong female characters!

Cons:
- Some parts feel a little shallow; I wish she would have gone into more detail on some things near the end.
- I never bought the romance angle between Ash and Sidhean. It just didn't work for me.

Rating/Warnings:
Between PG and PG-13. There's some minor snogging and sort of implied suicidal wishes for a time.

Page length:
272

Minor synopsis: A retelling of Cinderella, the story follows Ash, tormented by her cruel stepfamily and lost in grief for her parents. She hopes that the dark fairy Sidhean will someday take her away from her life and allow her to lose herself to the Fae, until one day she meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress. As she and Kaisa hunt together and grow closer, Ash begins to want to live again. But she has already entered into a contract with Sidhean, who granted her wish in exchange for her loyalty. She must find a way to free herself of her Fae contract if she can ever have the happy future and true love she has found with Kaisa.

[helle is a SLYTHERIN <3]

My favourite book ever, right here:

Title and Author: Looking For Alaska by John Green

Genre: Young Adult

Pros: moving, witty narration (first person), strong female characters, crossing of class boundaries and all that (to an extent), those strong, lasting friendships that make certain books so good, lanky tall guy is best friends with a short muscular guy, nicknames, subversion of "all Asians are computer geeks", pretty foreign girl, relatable, SUBVERSION OF THE PATRIARCHAL PARADIGM, rule-breaking goodness, takes place at a boarding school, ergo, no "I HATE MY PARENTS OMG POOR ME" angst that I've come across in a fair bit of YA lit, all of the main characters are actually smart.

Cons: character death, not a happy ending, that whole "OMG I KNEW THIS PERSON SO WELL BECAUSE THEY WENT TO MY SCHOOL AND I USED TO MAKE FUN OF THEM BEFORE THEY DIED" thing that comes with a teenage character dying.

Rating/Warnings: Ah... maybe mild R? There's profanity, blow jobs, smoking, almost-hook ups, porn watching, room raiding, underage drinking and smoking, prank pulling, a male stripper, and lots of mentions of death and depression and angst. Everyone I know who has read this has cried at some point while reading it.

Page length: My copy is 221 pages, paperback

Minor synopsis: A social outcast from Florida moves away from his safe (and boring) home life to attend Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama, where life is anything but boring. There he meets the "gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating" Alaska Young, as well as Chip "the Colonel" Martin, both of whom become his close friends through the course of the year. Euh, god, I'm horrible at writing these. Here, just have the one from the back of the book:

"Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole existance has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rebelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.
After. Nothing is ever the same."


...This was much longer than I expected it to be, but, seriously, this is an awesome book.