in which I open a door to probable madness

[rushthatspeaks]

The branch library near my house is not terribly well-stocked, and I need to make specific requests to get things transferred between the branches. My to-be-read pile has three books left on it; I left most of my stuff in Boston. There are bookstores nearby from which I could order things,

Recommend me books. Any subject, any genre, any field. What would you be most shocked, horrified, and upset to discover that I (or anyone) hadn't read? What have you read lately? What do you return to over and over? What do you think I, personally, might not have stumbled across?

Go nuts.

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Poetry: Kevin Young, Jelly Roll: A Blues
Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist
Keri Hulme, The Bone People (suspect you've read this)
Stephanie Smith, Snow Eyes and The Boy Who Was Thrown Away
Tillie Olsen, Tell Me A Riddle
Isak Dinesen
Naomi Mitchison, The Corn King & the Spring Queen
James Salter, A Sport & A Pastime
Ander Monsson, Other Electricities
Toni Cade Bambara, Gorilla My Love
Polly Horvath, The Trolls
Elizabeth Hand, Saffron & Brimstone
Fumiko Enchi, Masks
Miyuki Miyabe, All She Was Worth
Marguerite Yourcenar, A Coin in Nine Hands
Michael Coney, Rax/I Remember Pallahaxi

Rec back if you'd like.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you! Except for the Mitchison, which I love, and the Elizabeth Hand, which has been one of the highlights of the year, I haven't read any of these. (Though I have read a different book by Yourcenar, also I believe recommended by you.)

I think I've blathered at you about the things I usually recommend at people before, yes? Lately I've been reading a lot of Karen Joy Fowler, and was equally stunned by The Jane Austen Book Club and Sister Noon in completely different ways. And an omnibus of Tolkien's translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Pearl, and Orfeo, which came closer to capturing the structure of the original poems than any other translation I've seen, and in more evocative language.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Fooding:
World of the East, Madhur Jaffrey
The Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver
Anything by Elizabeth David
Other:
The Blue Sword and the Hero and the Crown by McKinley
Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor, all about behavior science and relationships (across species but also among humans) viewed in a strictly scientific sense.
Bones Would Rain From the Sky, by Clothier: relationships with animals, how language works, especially cross species, also some truly beautiful prose, an opposite view from Don’t Shoot the Dog. Great to read side by side.
Outlander (skip the first section) by Diana Gabaldon. It’s like crack-fic written by someone with an immense vocabulary, a thousand story kinks, and a mad love of Scotland, history, and medicine.
A Silence Opens, by Amy Clampit and The October Palace by Jane Hershfield. Beautiful poetry.
Sappho, translated by Mary Barnard.

I have many odd books favorites. If these sound interesting, I'd be happy to pimp more.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Robin McKinley is so frickin' awesome. I like The Hero and the Crown slightly better than The Blue Sword-- fewer inconsistencies of tone-- but I reread them both with some frequency. My favorite of hers is Deerskin, but I can't reread that one very often.

I've come across several translations of Sappho, and done (a very bad and insufficiently academically rigorous) one myself, but not read that one. I should try it.

The rest of these I have neither heard of nor read. Thank you! They look fun,
and I'm always up for fooding or anything else you might care to lay on me.

[larryhammer]

You have read some of the Icelandic sagas, yes? If not, you really need to find the Laxadaela Saga and Njal's Saga, at least to start. Any modern translation will do. Or you could jump into the fat Penguin trade pb anthology, though it has only the former.

---L.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Modern translations are the key, then? I tried an edition of Njal back in college, a turn-of-the-nineteenth-century-or-slightly-before translation, and it was utterly deadly, not English but translationese, and there I stopped, not knowing what to do about it. And sad, because it felt like an estrangement in my long love of Eddison. Thank you-- I shall follow your advice.

[fiddledragon.livejournal.com]

The "Keys to the Kingdom" series by Garth Nix (though I suppose I'll be somewhat startled if eredien hasn't recommended them to you already.)

The Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde (first one is "The Eyre Affair", and there's a stand-alone book in roughly the same universe called "The Big Over Easy", which I just finished and which is *excellent*)

I feel like I must have read something less fluffy lately....that may just have been all the blogs....

Oh, and vom_marlowe? That that is the best synopsis of the Outlander books I've ever seen. I am deeply amused.

[nedlum.livejournal.com]

I must second anything by Jasper Fforde, except to say that The Big Over Easy is no longer a stand alone; The Fourth Bear came out last year.

Also, First Among Sequels, the next Next, just came out. Just, FYI.

[khava.livejournal.com]

Two young adult books by Libba Bray. The first, Great and Terrible Beauty, is excellent. The sequel, Rebel Angels, is also very good. A third one is on the way but not yet published, the title is The Sweet Far Thing.

I'm currently reading the new Einstein biography by Walter Isaacson, and greatly enjoying it.

Brian Doherty, whom I was an intern for a couple of years ago, just published a book he's been working on for a long time, called Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement that looks to be fascinating, but I haven't read it.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I skimmed A Great and Terrible Beauty in a bookstore some while back and wasn't thrilled, but there was an extremely noisy children's author event going on next to my left elbow, so I should probably try it again.

The others noted and logged to try, with thanks.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Apologies if you have read any already. I can't remember who read what.

The Line Between, Peter S. Beagle.
I absolutely loved the short stories in this collection.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami
I want someone else to read this because I found the main character boring, but everything else was neat. It had a bit of the same feel as The Dark Materials Trilogy but I feel like I missed a lot of stuff.

I also liked World War Z, Bridge of Birds, and Mortal Engines but I assume you have read those.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

I fail at HTML.

[ryenna.livejournal.com]

I've just finished Un Lun Dun by China Miéville and found it quite excellent.

I also recommend Green Glass Sea by Klages. It's a children's book, historical fiction, set in Los Alamos during the development of the bomb, told through the eyes of two pre-teen girls living in the town there while their parents work on the project.

I don't get to read many adult books these days but if you get on the atomic bomb kick that I got on then The Ash Garden is very interesting. Three stories from WWII woven together into a single story.

If you want non-fiction and don't mind horrific events then there's Seductive Poison, which is the autobiography of Deborah Layton, survivor of Jonestown (she got out before the massacre). Also in the horrific events category are The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, both about one particularly horrible event on Mount Everest where a number of people died, including both of the top guides on the mountain. The accounts contradict each other in a few places and there was a lot of debate about the event and the reporting of it at the time.

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll think of more.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I'm allergic to Mieville-- it's all the insects. The Green Glass Sea should be coming in for me at the library soon. Have you read her short story 'In The House Of The Seven Librarians', in Firebirds Rising? It is one of The Great Awesome Short Stories, and you being a librarian should especially love it.

The others look awesome, and thank you.

[tprjones.livejournal.com]

I love so many books I'll need guidance. May I ask your (off the top of your head) three favorite books, as a jumping off point for what you might like?

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Engine Summer, John Crowley, from which comes my username; Always Coming Home, Ursula LeGuin; The Folk of the Air, Peter S. Beagle.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Sorry if you've read any of these, but they're what I recently finished:

The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston: highly weird (but in a good way) fantasy with engaging characters.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson: well-written historical YA fiction

Fires on the Plain by Shohei Ooka: I'm still digesting this book so I don't know quite what to say other than it was very good. Apparently there is a movie adaptation directed by Kon Ichikawa. I've not seen it though.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Haven't read any of them, as the library keeps having their copy of the Anderson out or on hold for other people. Have not heard of the other two. Thanks!

[marith.livejournal.com]

I should totally not be looking at LJ right now, so just one: Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll.

Much of Carroll's work is too much on the horror side for me, so I rarely read his new ones now. But that one? beautiful.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I... don't remember when or why I ceased reading Carroll, leading me to believe it was through not paying attention. It was certainly before this one, though, and I'll look into it.

Thanks!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Charles Butler has a very fine book out now looking at the work of Alan Garner, Diana Wynn Jones, Penelope Lively, and Susan Cooper. What do they all have in common? They were at Oxford when Tolkien taught there, and some took a class or two from him.

[larryhammer]

And he left out Auden? Hmph.

[rabidfangurl.livejournal.com]

Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber. A transsexual android hero/ine in a technophobic world ruled by religious wingnuts. Did I mention the slash? 'Cause there's that, too.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Hm. I do not know how in the mood I am for religious wingnuts, but I will take it under advisement, as the other things certainly hit my keywords. Thanks much.

[nedlum.livejournal.com]

Hmm... This is tricky. Especially since I know that you're getting hit with a year's worth of books, and so you can't possibly read all of the books I've loved recently. So, I'm limiting myself to five.

The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russel: Jesuits go to Alpha Centauri. Theologically compelling, and characters you'll love and who will not prosper there. Has a follow up, Children of God, which is good. But I'm voting The Sparrow.

The Little Guide to Your Well Read Life, Steve Leveen. Short, and it actually does give you a lot of ways to get more out of your books, and more books into your day. Also quite well written.

Watchmen, Alan Moore: Fine, a graphic novel. The end of chapter/issue eleven still sends shivers up my spine, and I've never seriously read comic books.

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak: Booksense named it last year's Best Children's literature. Fantastic story, about a poor German girl growing up during World War II (which is novel enough, given she's not being shipped to Treblinka). But also, she's completely charming and not at all taken in by the Nazi Propoganda, and she steals books on occasion. And then, there's the fact that Death, of all people, is narrating the whole thing.

The Kite Runner. You read that, right? Tell me you read that; I need to hear these words...

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Watchmen is one of the greatest works of fiction I have ever encountered. Alan Moore occasionally has off days, but that? Spectacular. I highly recommend his first two volumes of Swamp Thing, Saga of the Swamp Thing and Love and Death, if you haven't read them; no knowledge of the Swamp Thing or D.C. comics is required. But stop after two, as he started phoning it in.

My wife keeps telling me to read The Sparrow. I should do so. Our copy is in Boston, so I'll keep it in mind for the fall.

No, I have not yet read The Kite Runner, for a reason that is not the book's fault but that will take dedicated work to overcome: my mother recommended it to me. I... may get there eventually.

Others noted and logged to look into. Thanks!

[ckd]

Nonfiction books that I think will interest anyone with a curious mind:

Linked, by Albert-László Barabási. Great introduction to network theory and how it applies to social networks, computer networks, etc. You'll be seeing power law distributions all over the place for weeks after you read this.

Pretty much anything by Henry Petroski. Small Things Considered or The Book on the Bookshelf would be good starting points.

Edward Tufte's The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.

The classic: Darrell Huff's How to Lie with Statistics.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

These sound fascinating, and I haven't read any of them. Thank you so much!

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Non-fiction: anything by Jane Jacobs, Anne de Courcy, Claire Tomalin. I'm presently half-way through a book called Trying Neaira about the life of a particular courtesan in 4th century BC Greece, which would be worth reading if your library has it.

Fiction I think you'd like that you might not have come across: Dodie Smith I Capture the Castle. Terry Bisson Talking Man. Vikram Seth An Equal Music. Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day. Someone already mentioned The Bone People. Lisa Goldstein The Dream Years. Barry Hughart Bridge of Birds. You've read Mary Renault? That's what I'd be horrified if you hadn't read.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Over and over:

Guy Davenport, The Geography of the Imagination

Sylvia Townsend Warner, Letters

Odds and ends of fiction that have caught my fancy:

Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

Helen DeWitt, The Last Samurai

Iain Banks, Whit

Rachel Ferguson, The Brontes Went to Woolworths

Nine

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

The complete works of desperance: but you could start with Outremer, or Dispossession (if you can find a copy.

I'm currently deep in Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, but that's partly because I seem to be the only person on LJ who hasn't already read it.

I've also enjoyed everything I've read by Liz Williams (mevennen)...

[rax.livejournal.com]

I think we largely read different things, but maybe that makes these good recommendations...

_Here They Come_ by Yarrick Murphy, though I lent my copy to someone and don't know who. It's a story written from the perspective of a poor Irish girl in 1970s New York City; it's very, very well told.

_Infinite Jest_ if you have a lot of time on your hands; it took me 150 pages or so to get into it but once I did I was glued to it and it's one of my favorite books now. It's hard to summarize this book, but I guess I'll go with "a story about addiction and longing set in near-future Cambridge; the snarkiness is social, not political."

_Drown_ by Junot Diaz --- a series of short stories, again basically abou growing up amidst crap, but told with admirable precision.

_Baumgartner's Bombay_ by Anita Desia --- with the caveat that she was my favorite professor, I finally got around to reading one of her books recently, and it totally made me cry on an airplane which happens like never. Her command over the language is in my opinion among the best I've ever read.

_McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #20_ --- the best one I have (of 13-22). If you like edgy, slipstream-ish short fiction, this is totally the place.

_Riddley Walker_ by Russell Hoban --- Post-apocalyptic ritualistic Punch and Judy and St. Eustace mashup. Need I say more?

_How We Are Hungry_ by Dave Eggers --- Not his best work and, as a writer, that's what I find makes it the most interesting. It's a collection of short fiction where each story is a wildly different experiment, and you get to think about if each one comes off or not, and why. _AHWOSG_ is one giant experiment that either comes off or doesn't (I think it does); here if you don't like it there's something new in five pages.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Arguing About Slavery by William Lee Miller. How the man makes an extended legislative battle about what could and could not be talked about in Congress a truly fascinating story, I would love to know. It's one of the few nonfiction books I've read over and over, almost to the point of being able to quote it from memory, and it makes me think John Quincy Adams ought to be considered one of the greatest Americans.

I am not stalking you.

[foleyartist1.livejournal.com]

Okay I am, but in a good way (I think?), in the sense that I'm stalking you so as to find out when I can visit and play the Utena game with you, Sei, and Spoony. I've already spoken to Sei and Spoony and just need to get with you for a bit. If you get a chance please call me on my cell, comment in my lj, or send a singing telegram.

(As you know, I'm not USUALLY a stalker. Sorry to be somewhat stalkerish in my approach, but Persephone has found a good airplane deal for the dates we want, and if the good deal expires she probably can't come--actually, if it expires REALLY spectacularly I might not be able to. So I promise I'll stop stalking you after the airline tickets are resolved!)

As for book recs, I'm about to embark on Kurosawa's autobiography and will let you know how it goes.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

My favorite so far this year is Flora Segunda, which I ultimately owe to you!

Hmm, appalled if you somehow haven't read. You read even more than I do, so this is unlikely, but --
Arnason?
A Paradigm of Earth?
A Door Into Ocean?

How about Sharman Apt Russell's Anatomy of a Rose? And Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer was surprisingly excellent. I just finished quite good popcorn in Marie Brennan's Doppelganger and Warrior and Witch. In nonfiction, I was overwhelmed with wonder by Animal Architects: Building and the Evolution of Intelligence, which has insects but not creepy Miéville insects, and tons of great bird stuff.