The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear: Patrick Rothfuss' new series is a better new voice in fantasy than A Game of Thrones. Looking forward to seeing how he finishes the trilogy, but it could end up as my favorite after Lord of the Rings (yes it's THAT good).
Harry Potter: Read all 7 in the last couple of weeks, and they hold up well for the 3rd time I tore through them. Heck they kinda got me blogging again.
Most of John Scalzi's works (That Was The Millennium That Was, Fuzzy Nation (and its inspiration Little Fuzzy), The God Engines, Old Man's War trilogy): An excellently readable voice that just writes great funny stories.
Six Suspects: Murder mystery by the writer of Slumdog Millionaire - I definitely enjoyed it.
The Day After and Other Short Stories: Collection of short stories and other works to raise money for charity. Includes pages from John Scalzi, Wil Wheaton, and Patrick Rothfuss.Sixty-One Nails: Urban fantasy, and the first one of those I've enjoyed.
A Visit From The Goon Squad: I think this will be called an "important" book by those who think they have to have something to say about it. Some interesting ideas, but at least 100 pages too long.
David Eddings collection: I grew up on the Belgariad, and other series. Re-read them, and read his last series for the first time, which was a mistake - it was so bad it wasn't just boring, it was insulting to the reader.
The Windup Girl: Major award-winner and some interesting ideas and scenes, but the characters just weren't compelling. Could make an interesting movie though.
Into The Wild: A recommendation from a friend. Interesting story, but the author was too desperate to say "Yeah I'm just like him except I didn't die" and yanks the reader out of the narrative. Boo bad author!--
Harry Potter What-If (almost done with these):
What If Dumbledore had ever tried just telling Harry what was going on? In the first and fifth books, Harry would have been kept from getting pummeled by Voldemort, and Dumbledore could have caught Voldemort then - that would have been better right? Second and third books were more Harry keeping things from Dumbledore, and no one knew what was going on in Goblet of Fire. As far as the lifelong plan revealed at the end, well, yeah, it's probably better Harry never knew that one. If you look at the whole story, though, there's more miscommunication than a season of Three's Company. But fortunately much less Suzanne Somers.
(Thanks Laura for the suggestion.)
Have you read Lamb by Christopher Moore? If not, give it a try. Easily his best, but his earlier work is good, too. After 5 or 6 of his books, though, the humor gets stale. But DEFINITELY read Lamb
ReplyDelete~Karen
"there's more miscommunication than a season of Three's Company" You are hysterical.
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