if you're open to other historical romance, pretty much anything by Laura Kinsale has the same high drama/adventure. also really dug elizabeth kingston's welsh blades series!
Had to buy a textbook. Syllabus pointed me to Amazon. NO WAY. Went to my local independent bookstore, who wasn’t sure they could order it. I asked them to please look it up. They did, they could, I ordered it through them. Take the extra step.
I reread the Parable series and a couple other of my Butler faves last month but I am considering listening to them now because sometimes audio hits different. The wait is pretty long on CloudLibrary so I think I may use this month’s Libro credits to start
My favorite book of 2024 was Owls of the Eastern Ice. It was a grand adventure for me. The author, @jonathanslaght.com, also gives fantastic insights about this time in his life in his readings/lectures, if you can catch one.
OKAY OBVIOUSLY HER SHORT FICTION (WHITE CAT, BLACK DOG) but also...maybe....Boy, Snow, Bird by helen oyeyemi?? family saga/fairy tale in the real world!
I loved the monk & robot duology and would love something similar with more of an adventure kick. So like Ten thousand doors of January but in a speculative, sci-fi-ish future.
i mean the obvious rec is chambers Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, or maybe Murderbot. oh! Olivia waite's Murder by Memory, which is sci fi miss marple!!!
I should have said that I read Chambers and also loved 🥹 Murderbot sounds awesome as does a sci-fi miss marple (a sci fi Poirot, like a robot with an adorable accent, snarky attitude, and formidable moustache would make me eeeep with delight). Thank you for these recs!
The whole Baroque Trilogy is possibly the best book I've ever read. Unless I've just finished Shantaram, in which case that becomes the best book I've ever read.
I’d love to find a nice shortish one like A Man called Ove or Remarkably Bight Creatures, or Elinor Oliphant is Just Fine. Everything I’ve been “reading” is via Audible and I’d love to have a book to hold.
When I was a teenager I read a book called Me, Cassie. Simple coming of age scholastic book (I think). Out of print but i would like to find a copy. It taught me it’s ok to be unusual
I'm not the OP, but I highly recommend Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley for the "horse" part of Horse, and Washington Black by Esi Edugayan for the social history part.
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. I’ve never read another book that mixes the horror and magic of childhood with Arthurian legend like this one does. It’s so beautiful and unique. (I love the other books in the series too!)
oh my god i have the perfect book for you. cooper was heavily inspired by The Box of Delights, or When the Wolves Were Running by John Masefield. read it for the first time this year
Is the Midnight Folk also good? The Box of Delights is apparently a sequel and I don’t want to miss out on any lore. But maybe lore was a foreign concept in 1935 lol.
It’s on my TBR now, thank you SO much! My bestie and I love reading your books for our duo reads so maybe we can try this after we read Babel by RF Kuang :D
Would love something like Deceived by Gargoyles by Lillian Lark, or Court of the Vampire Queen by Katee Robert. The spicier the better, plot is not overly important.
Returning to this several weeks later to report back that yes, this is exactly the rec I needed and it has cheered me up immensely over the last few days
Ordered from my local bookseller! Thanks for the recommendation. I love all of the Greek myth retellings from womens' perspectives but this one escaped my notice.
Pratchet is inimitable, but I found Robert Rankin's stuff enjoyable (The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse was my starting point), and really loved Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently novels.
I love The Cuckoo's Egg for nonfiction and Lolita for fiction (HH is the perfect unreliable narrator and I'll fight every functionally illiterate bastard about it. I am willing to die on this hill alone if I must. Nabokov deserved better)
okay in fairness NOTHING has the impeccable vibes of To Say Nothing, but I loved Ministry of Time, for governmental time travel shenanigans, or Lois McMaster Bujold for a sff novel of manners!!
I'll play! (even though I have a ton of Hugo reading to do!) I love When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill, and have been thinking about what I would do if I could turn into a dragon.
Ooooh! Yes! I've heard that one is really good, it's been on my list for ages! If you have time could you also make a recommendation for someone who loved Plain Bad Heroines?
Comments
Cannot seem to get my head out of dystopian prep these days so lots of favorites are being reread
The tattoo sounds amazing 😍
“ the new Jim Crow “
One of my all time favorite books.
- the book eaters
- the watchmaker of filigree street
- the 10,000 doors of January (cheap, I know, but genuinely curious what you’d say)
Holy moly
That was intense
Also, I love your fairy tale retellings!🥰
I know this is breaking the internet rules, I swear I won't do it again, but.... Octavia Butler? I like Wild Seed and Adulthood Rites