Fiction recommendations.

[mrissa]

I've been going through the fiction on my library list at an alarming rate, because I'm not interspersing it with nonfiction at the moment. Don't know when I'll get my ability to read nonfiction back, but it doesn't seem to go well with the vertigo. So in the meantime: what fiction should I read? Recommend something, or more than one something. If I've already read it, that's okay; I'll tell you, and you can recommend something else, or not, as you like.

I read books aimed at any age of person. The main genre constraint I have is that I tend to bounce hard off genre romance, and horror and traditional westerns are not generally my cup of tea.

In other news, Ista is really not at all thrilled with this entire holiday, and she's alternating between running around wanting to figure out what those noises are and trying to stay hidden and safe behind the living room couch.

I watched the first half of Good Night and Good Luck with today's workout. Seemed appropriate. Happy Independence Day, all those of you who celebrate it today.

Comments

For start...

[callunav.livejournal.com]

YA/Children's:

Zilpha Keatly Snyder, The Changeling.

- The only problem with this is that, in my opinion, it's the best of her books (also the hardest to find, why are people dumb?) and I always think it's regrettable to read someone's best first. If you want to warm up on some Zilpha Keatly Snyders which are quite good, first, try The Headless Cupid, The Egypt Game, and (terrible title, good book) Eyes in the Fishbowl (seriously, don't be put off by the title) first. Then read The Changeling, which is different from all of the others and quite amazingly good.

- The Lionboy trilogy, by Zizou Corder. The first book is a little choppy, but has enough strengths to pull through on, and the others fall into place better. These books have lots of flaws, and I consider them one of my best "finds" in children's literature in the last decade.

- Dorothy Gilman, but only some of them: The Unexpected Mrs. Polifax (read the sequels at your own risk - they are highly variable in quality), The Clairvoyent Countess, Uncertain Voyage, Incident at Badamya (really quite nice), and, possibly my favorite, Nun in the Closet (no, no queer subtext in the title, alas). These books are I think marketed as "suspense" and for adults, but they're mostly fun with just a touch of suspense, and I found them entirely accessible as a teen. If you haven't read them, give them a whirl. If you think you might read some but not all, I'd recommend the first one first - it's practically part of my standard for a certain kind of cultural literacy - and then, if you loved the wackiness of it, the last, and if you wished it were a little more plausible, the second to last, which is more serious. They're all dated. Of all of them, I'd say Uncertain Voyage has aged the least gracefully, but it has its own strengths.

Non kid-lit:
What have I read that you may not have read? Hard to think. Hm. If you can find a copy, try Patricia McKillip writing science fiction in Fool's Run. It is both like and unlike her fantasy.

If you haven't read Nina Kiriki Hoffman - and as I type those words, they seem implausible, but I'm sure lots of people haven't, and you *could* be one of them - my highest recommendations are The Thread that Binds the Bones (now very hard to find, alas) and A Fistful of Sky, though I'm seeing more flaws in the construction of that upon recent re-readings.

You have read R.A.MacAvoy's Lens of the World trilogy, right? Possibly my favorite things of hers. (And now I die, suffocated under a throng of outraged Damiano fans.)

If you tolerate pulp all right, and haven't read it, consider Barbara Hambly's The Ladies of Mandragyn and its sequels. I remain convinced that Hambly is doing a hell of a lot of interesting (not revolutionary, but interesting) gender norm stuff in the subtext, different from and sometimes at odds with the pulp surface story. The pulp surface story is, however, also fun.

Also - this is actually not fiction, but it reads as a story - have you read 84 Charing Cross Road? Probably. But if you haven't, do check it out, along with the sequel, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street which takes some of the sting out of some of the things which are not what one would wish in the first story which come from it being, unfortunately, not brilliant fiction but the letters of a brilliantly funny writer.

Changling love!

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

"Don't do anything that can't be a game!"


I loved that book. I also loved the Below the Root stuff.

Re: Changling love!

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I reread the Below the root books recently and was sadly disturbed by some stereotyping I saw in the characterization. I may try it again in a few years, or I may just let them be books I liked a lot at a certain stage in my life. It's taken me a while, but I've finally learned that that can be okay.

Re: Changling love!

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

I haven't read them since... oh, jr. high., and I will confess to being utterly oblivious to any badness. Maybe I need to go take another look before I recommend them to people you are Young and Impressionable.

Re: Changling love!

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

WHO are. Not "You" are.

Re: For start...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I got to do an encyclopedia article on ZKS, too: "I'm not slacking off! I'm reading this for paying work!" Heh.

I really, really dislike Patricia McKillip's fantasy. She may be the person my friends are most likely to list as a favorite whose work I dislike most. I bounce off it hard and keep running in the other direction.

Thanks.

Re: For start...

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Hah. I didn't think I'd ever seen you mention McKillip, and had an inkling you might not like her, which was why the only thing I recommended was the atypical science fiction story. It might well not be different enough, though. If you ever find yourself next to a copy for 10 minutes with nothing better to do, take a look and see. Probably otherwise not worth your while.

I love McKillip - and also a lot of the writers you like. Isn't it fun that people are different from each other?

(I find ZKS's work highly variable in quality/enjoyability, which is why I didn't just say, "Oh, read anything." But there are some gems in there.)

Re: For start...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, it's very easy to have the library get me the Patricia McKillip SF book (since they have it) and then return it unread if I read the first bit and decide it's too much like her other things.

Re: For start...

[aedifica]

I like Dorothy Gilman's books in general, but my very favorite is Uncertain Voyage for the way the main character grows during the book.

Re: For start...

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I do like that about it a lot - although really, character growth is a hallmark of Gilman's books overall. One can hardly say that Mrs. Pollifax hasn't changed by the end of her first novel.

I think my problem with Uncertain Voyage is, frankly, that problem of knowing slightly too much. As someone who works in mental health, some bits of the story make me itch a little. I suspect that they're less authorial issues and more differences of era - hence why I said I felt it had aged less gracefully - but I'd have to do some real research on how schizophrenia was perceived, diagnosed, and treated at the time when the novel was written before I'd know that, which I haven't done.

I've commented on other occasions that it's perfectly possible for me to blithely tolerate outright authorial exaggeration, misrepresentation, or ignorance, if only it's on subjects I know nothing about. It's when they get onto my turf that I get edgy. UV is much better than many things I've read (or, er, tried to read) on that count, just close enough to make it not my personal favorite.

Re: For start...

[aedifica]

That makes sense. It's not my field at all, so I don't have that barrier to enjoyment.