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Also! I am toying with the idea of trying to read my height in books this year, since my total amount of leisure-reading last year was utterly appalling. I've made a good start - I'm not far off finishing my second book of the year. But my problem is this: I have a horrid tendency to buy books based on an eye-catching cover/title, a neat-sounding blurb, and a cursory scan of a random page or two to ascertain a reasonable command of prose and the English language on the behalf of the author.

Which books, inevitably, turn out to be bad - a contributing factor to my abysmal record in finishing books in the past year.

So, friendslist:

REC ME BOOKS.

I do like a good historical setting; I've just finished Imperium, by Robert Harris, which was rather good, and I'm currently reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, which is set before and during the American Revolution. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell OWNED ME IN THE BEST WAY, as did Temeraire and anything O'Brien. I wantses The Lies of Locke Lamora, but every time I have the cash on me, the bookshops are just out. I dig Pratchett and Gaiman, and love like oxygen fantasies in which characters and plot take precedence over Great Big Epic Fantasy Worlds (without, of course, ignoring the latter completely). I tend to like my futuristic settings in my tv shows as opposed to my books, but I'm willing to let someone try to sell me on one, if it's awesome enough. Likewise, I'm perfectly willing to be sold on novels not of the sci-fi/fantasy genre (cf, the first two I mentioned), though I draw the line at chick-lit. Mostly, what I want out of a book is a ripping good yarn. Books of miscellany and academicness are also good - there's a history of swordfighting I'm eyeing at the moment, and wondering whether I can find a cheap copy of Hero With A Thousand Faces.

So in conclusion: I'll give anything a try, once.

REC ME BOOKS.

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I'm currently about halfway through Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, and am rather desperately in love. Seven books of sprawling historical goodness, starting in sixteenth century Scotland and moving around much of Europe and North Africa. Accurate, great writing, good characters, and a protagonist I alternately love/want to roll my eyes at/smack. It's a little hard to get your hands on in the shops, as I know from painful experience, though I've seen various volumes of it in Hodges Figgis. I managed to complete my collection at http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ -- cheaper than Amazon, though the same selection, quick, and free shipping.

If you've not read Dorothy L Sayers' Wimsey books, I would definitely poke you towards them. Lord Peter is probably both the predecessor of Lymond in literary terms, and, in my own wee head, his descendant. The eventual Harriet/Peter relationship is one of my favourites in all literature, and there's the same great erudition you get out of reading the Lymond Chronicles. All available in either Waterstones or Hodges Figgis.

What else... oh, I've not long finished reading 'The Sparrow' by Mary Doria Russell. Hard to find in the shops, but available online. Great set up, anthropological stuff that made me wriggle in glee, characterisation that's mostly good (though it does show a little that this is a first novel), and, well, it's Jesuits in Space. That's a good hook, right? *g*

I repeat the recommendation of The Sparrow, and add its sequel, Children of God. Both are really, truly excellent, and easy enough to find over here - silly Britain.

I have the second and third Temeraire books, if you want to continue on the series.

Currently, I'm reading the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. It's set before the American and French Revolutions, involving Isaac Newton and others of that age. It's very, very good, long (each book is around 900 pages), and aside from Stephenson's wordy tendencies, amazing. The first one is called Quicksilver. I have a crush on his Isaac Newton.

Phillipa Gregory writes relly good female focused book centred around the Tudor Period. I haven't read her latest yet, and she manages to make every book different despite their overlapping time periods. The 'first' one is called The Other Boleyn Girl (since it was the first published and sort of the first in sequence), though all of the books can be read out of sequence. Her latest one, The Boleyn Inheritance, has been getting very good reviews and I'm planning on starting it once I've a decent wordcount on my essay done. ¬_¬

Um. Let's see. *peers at shelves*

George R. R. Martin writes fucking awesome political fantasy. It's really, really good historical, realistic fantasy (the land and warring families are based on the War of the Roses, actually). The nearest is gets to magical fantasy is a subplot involving dragons, but the characters take over - they're ambiguous, nasty, and out for themselves. *_* The first one is called A Game of Thrones.

Non-fiction-wise, I just bought Anotnia Fraser's book on Marie Anotinette and Persian Fire by Tom Holland. There's also a book on Helen of Troy and one on the Spartans in general I've been eyeing in Eason's.

Yeah, I think that's enough for now. :D

Oh, I have read all the Temeraire books thus far, believe you me. I picked up Throne of Jade and Black Powder War way back during the summer when I was in the US, where they were already out in paperback, and finished them both on the plane home. >:D

Have also read the Baroque Cycle - or rather, half of it. I loveloveLOVED the first one (omg Isaac ♥♥♥), but Stephenson lost me somewhere around the half-way mark in the second one, since he would insist on introducing all these other characters that I just goshdarn didn't care about. MORE DANIEL, I SAY.

I shall amble up to Chapters on Friday, methinks, and have a look for A Game Of Thrones; they have it in Hodges Figgis, but not on sale, so if I can get it second-hand, all the better.

Colm Toibin ownz my soul. I wish I could be more coherent, but I'm battling the hangover of doom and have allowed myself five minutes respite before starting my essay, of which 3 minutes and 59 seconds are up.

But SRSLY, dude, dig it.

The Shattered Horse, S.P. Somtow. You will have to go to the re-seller's or the library to get it, but I think you will enjoy it very much.

I agree with the recommendation of the Sayers 'Wimsey' books!

Also, for historical whodunits set in solid real history, I must strongly recommend Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series. Set on the England/Wales border during the rivalry between King Stephen and Empress Maude, Cadfael is a former Crusader-then-sailor, who became a monk and herbalist as a retirement job. Because he has all manner of worldly experience, he is called upon as a sleuth and advisor. Twenty(-one) books in the series, all of them fascinating.

(The 21st, "A Rare Benedictine", is a volume of three backgrounding shortstories -- not part of the unfolding history of the series, but excellent grace notes.)

Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump At Last by Connie Willis. It's Oxford historians doing time travel, and it's brilliant and hilarious and heartbreaking and beautiful and superlative in every single way imaginable. I recommend these books to everyone I can get my hands on.

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. It's short, but is quite possibly the most gorgeous prose I've ever read.

The two Mary Doria Russell books are strongly... thirded? Whichevered.

Edward Rutherford writes these historical paperweights that follow a few families in one contained area for about three thousand years apiece, no kidding. He's done it for London, Russia, Salisbury, and I believe his latest one is either Dublin or Paris.

Watership Down, if for some incomprehensible reason you've never read that, and if you have, Traveler by the same author. I'm reading a completely delightful book right now that's like a cross between Discworld and The Dark is Rising, titled Who's Afraid of Beowulf? I couldn't resist. I'm also reading this ridiculous but also highly amusing parody called The Dragon and the George, which is the first in a series, about a mundane guy who is accidentally transformed into a dragon in a high fantasy kind of world. I can't remember either of those two authors offhand, but Richard Adams is required reading.

I dug up a copy of To Say Nothing of the Dog, and am currently about a hundred or so pages in and sdsjf'lsdj'ssodsd;fljd;. LOVE. HYSTERICAL, OXFORDIAN LOVE.

If you haven't seen it already, The Ladies of Grace Adieu is short stories set in the same world as Strange and Norrell, at least one of which has Strange in it.

Will come back with others if I think of them.

When I read this, I screamed in delight, went literally straight out, found it, and bought it. It is very next on my list. :D!!!!

You might really enjoy Sorcery and Cecelia, which is Jane Austen plus magic and is one of the most delightful things I have read in the past few years, and which I picked up when it was compared to Strange and Norrell by a friend who was saying that the latter left her cold. There are two sequels as well, which are quite fun. A Great and Terrible Beauty, of course, I will recommend until I am blue in the face -- think Harry Potter's sexy Victorian cousin. And I have a slightly embarrassing fondness for Cornwell's Sharpe books, the which are nowhere near the quality of O'Brian but are delightful adventures in which lots of stuff blows up.

As for serious literature, you might try All Souls' Rising, which is an impeccably-researched and detailed novel about the Haitian Revolution, though I would also warn you that this is not the fun read that the others are.

I'll look through my bookshelf and let you know if I find anything else!

Hello! Have you read the sequels to Sorcery and Cecilia and A great and Terribly Beauty? Both lovely.

Oh wow. I really do speak good English. -_-

*laugh* Yeah, I've read all of them -- well, I've not had a chance to read the third S&C sequel, but I've got the others' sequels. My copy of Rebel Angels is autographed, even! And I have the dubious honor of being blamed by Libba Bray for giving her good procrastination tactics, which means that my flist is blaming me for every month they have to wait for the third book.

Aha, excellent. I will seize the opportunity to link you to a full list of books, which were recommended to me when I asked a similar question.

That list is right here. I am slowly trying to work my way through it.

As for recommendations not on the list, in the nonfiction arena I would recommend Paul Farmer's works Infections and Inequalities and/or Pathologies of Power, but I am biased.

I can rec you a shitload of trashy romances. =))

Otherwise... Hm. I read The Places in Between by Rory Stewart over Thanksgiving and found it an amazing read. There's a huge section about a legendary lost city of riches in the heart of Afghanistan that Stewart stumbles upon, and was at the time being stripped systematically for anything salable. I thought of you the whole time I was reading it.

LYMOND CHRONICLES OH SO VERY MUCH SECONDED.

PLEASE READ MUST HAVE SOMEONE WITH WHICH TO DISCUSS. WILL SEND YOU COPY OF FIRST IF CANNOT BE FOUND.

*cough* Er. Which is to say: many things I would have recced are already recced above. (Colm Toibin is also awesome in many ways - not to mention a total sweetheart; he taught a class I had last year.) I would also recommend, if you have not read, Peter Beagle: Tamsin, The Innkeeper's Song, and A Fine and Private Place. They are all very different from each other, but absolutely lovely in their own ways; they travel with me because I do not want to do without them.

Also: these books.

I am 3/4 of the way through "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. It is a really interesting take on the story of Dracula, but told through the point of view of historians. It's really hard to describe, but the writing style is very Austenian - it feels old-fashioned, even though it was written 2 years ago and is mainly set in the 70's. I'm not doing a very good job of describing this, but I seriously cannot put this book down. Deliciously frightening and beautifully written.

Ooh, I read that last year - it was awesometastic. :D

I read, like, a page and a half of this book at Ji's house one day and promptly bought it, and while I haven't finished it yet (it's kind of long, bu it's also been awhile since I've actively read), I loved it from the first paragraph. The book is A Place of Greater Safety. It's a wonderful novelization of the French Revolution. I kind of adore it.

Other good ones: Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs is the most hilarious autobiography I have ever read. It's a whole new level of scarring humility that comes with a dysfunctional family.

Corfu by Robert Dessaix is one of my favourite books. It's incredibly well-written. The prose is amazing.

And, of course, I have to pimp Bret Easton Ellis. He only has five novels (Less Than Zero; Rules of Attraction; American Psycho; Glamorama; Lunar Park) and a collection of short stories (The Informers) even though he's been writing for about 20 years. His novels are pretty much all about shallow people with self-destructive tendencies, but the beauty of his work is just how many deep things he can say about society through shallow people. You could read LTZ or RoA in a day, they're so short. AP and Glam are much longer (Glam is very long and convoluted but my absolute fav book of his), while LP is average book length. Sure, characters are unrelatable, but they are hilarious. Ellis' ear for dialogue is great. If you decide to only read one, I would say American Psycho, simply because it's a fascinating examination of a sociopath.

http://www.rambles.net/cherryh_arafel.html

C.J. Cherryh, Arafel's Saga (two book "series" in one)

This is historical fantasy fiction written by a sci-fi author, and is remarkably good, I think. It's not fluffy by any means. There's a nice storyline involving a particular bloodline of human beings, and also a side story involving Arafel (elven), and the two entertwine. I think you might enjoy it if you haven't read it already.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It's Russian Lit that's actually hysterical. And Satan is one of the main characters, so you know it's good.

Also, if you haven't read any of the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, I heartily recommend it. The Eyre Affair is probably my favorite. His new Nursery Crime series is also entertaining.

I recommend Plan B by Anne Lamott.

She's snarky, witty and has some interesting insights. She also makes me cry.

Also, Bodies in Motion and at Rest by Thomas Lynch. He's awesomely funny and a wonderful person. I actually got to meet him. He rocks.

Final one, I promise. Anything by Salman Rushdie. He's the guy with the Iranian death warrant on his head. When my class met him, our teacher said "Oh, don't worry. If there are any snipers in the audience they most likely won't splatter you with blood/won't miss."

You've prolly read these already, but if not, check out Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy. So good!

I am terribly late to the party here, but I wanted to throw in a few things:
-very, very strong seconds/thirds/whatevers for Mary Doria Russell and Connie Willis, which you are probably already sold on
-Barbara Kingsolver! Anything of hers, really, but especially Prodigal Summer and her collections of essays, High Tide in Tucson and Small Wonder. PS is full of this lyrical, sleepy beauty overlaying human drama, and then it all coalesces in to a marvelous overarching theme that gets clearer and more nuanced with each reading. I love it. I'll never stop rereading. And the essays are pure Kingsolver, being observant and funny and intelligent and poignant. This woman really knows what it means to be human.
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pegkerr's The Wild Swans. It's the fairy tale "The Wild Swans" told in seventeenth century England intercut with 1981 New York's gay community during the rise of AIDS. Heartbreaking and gorgeous.

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