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General Discussion -> Roll-Your-Own Reading Challenge	Message format

oddrid

Posted 2013-02-25 10:27 AM (#4747 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Member

Posts: 6

Location: Chicago

Carla - thank you so much for the recommendations! My partner just listened to Parable of the Sower and really loved it. I was planning on doing hard-copy for that book, but it depends how much time I end up having. I've read the Hunger Games and Oryx and Crake and enjoyed them both. I also loved the Doomsday Book, and so far I am really loving To Say Nothing of the Dog too! I think I can now call myself an official fan of Connie Willis!

dihenydd

Posted 2013-02-25 11:37 AM (#4749 - in reply to #4743)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Member

Posts: 14

Location: France

thanks for the recs Carla.

I would second the Host (far superior to Twilight) and The Hunger Games Trilogy - though personally having done both I think the written version is better since in the audio her writing style is highlighted unfavorabley (so many he said, she saids)

I can't use Margaret Atwood or Octavia Butler since they aren't new to me but I will look out for the Pamela Sargent one.

You prefer Science Fiction or Speculative Fiction rather than Fantasy don't you. Let me see if I can recommend authors (though they probably aren't new to you)

2 I have already recommended Floating Worlds by Cecelia Holland (Interplanetary Conquest)

the Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia (the audiobook is great) (steampunk)

All of the Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) (zombies but with a scientific basis)

Anything by Maureen McHugh

Anything by Sherri Tepper

Becoming Alien by Rebecca Ore

Anything by CJ Cherryh

superluminel by vonda MacIntyre (not currently in the DB)

oddrid

Posted 2013-02-25 12:25 PM (#4750 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Member

Posts: 6

Location: Chicago

Oh wow... I JUST realized that we're supposed to read all authors we've never read from before! I need to seriously revise my reading list....

carlajpatterson

Posted 2013-02-25 1:35 PM (#4751 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Member

Posts: 38

Location: Richmond, California

Oddrid, lol - I'm glad you're enjoying it. Yes, the hard part is that it has to be authors we've never read before and, having always been interested in fiction by women, it is hard for me to find any unless they are either new (started writing in the past 10 years for example) or in a sub-genre I don't usually like.

Kindred by Octavia Butler is also great and, of course, Parable of the Talents follows on from Parable of the Sower and is equally good. I liked Thigpen's interpretation of Parable of the Sower so recommended that instead of Kindred, the reader being someone I didn't enjoy quite as much. I'd read all of Butler's short stories and novels previously in hardback and paperback. (!) I'm a lifelong fan and was lucky enough to meet her a few times over the years. I was really saddened by her death at a relatively young age.

Dihenydd, Thanks for the recommendations! I've read all of Sheri Tepper's adult fiction and would love it if she wrote more. My favorites of hers are probably Grass and Beauty but I really did enjoy them all. I've also read Vonda McIntyre and enjoyed that, though it was decades ago. I don't know how I'd react now. I've noticed, in recent years, that it pays me to reread things I read when I was younger because I see the world so differently now. Luckily, most of the authors I've loved hold up to repeat readings but, once in a while, I get a big (unpleasant) surprise! lol

I'll look into all of the others you've mentioned - I have kind of avoided Cherryh but, admittedly, it's been because of the book cover art and the comments on the back! Blatently unfair - I'll give her a try and then, at least, if I don't like her writing it will be that which puts me off instead of silly things like cover art and the comments of reviewers. When I was a kid, I'd read anything and everything and that's how I found the authors I love. I guess I've been pickier in the past 20 years or so because it's harder for me to find the time but, also, I get frustrated when I pay good money for books I end up hating. Luckily, a lot of books are becoming available as ebooks and audiobooks even at the public library and I may be able to get past the cost aspect that way.

carlajpatterson

Posted 2013-02-25 2:05 PM (#4752 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Member

Posts: 38

Location: Richmond, California

More recommendations - this time just books, not aware of them being available in audiobook or not:

Elizabeth Hand - The Speed of Dark
This is one of the best books I've ever read, period. Well-written and it has an exciting and satisfying story arc but it's the main character, and Hand's ability to speak from his viewpoint, which makes the book such a unique and wonderful experience.

Kit Reed - Fort Privilege, Attack of the Giant Baby, Thinner Than Thou
Reed is one of those authors you can love one year and find incomprehensible the next (YMMV) but I highly recommend reading these three books because the first is just a great story and well-written, the second is hysterically funny and scarily observant, and the third is both timely and well-observed. She is always right square in the middle of what's going on in current society and extrapolating it outward into directions which might be possible, if not probable.

Joanna Russ - Picnic on Paradise
In spite of the ridiculous title, I found the book to be a truly resonant read. All of the things she talks about in this book were so well-observed as to seem prescient as time has gone by. Her main character, Alyx, is just one incredibly interesting woman and her job is fascinating. Her relationships with the people she has to guide through a life-threatening situation are layered and real. I won't say more than that - just read it.

Anything at all by Octavia Butler is worth reading - and, usually, rereading. My favorite stand-alone novels of hers include: Survivor, Kindred, and Clay's Ark. There are ways that Survivor and Clay's Ark fit into universes shared by other novels of Butler's but one doesn't have to have read anything before them to have the full experience.

Nancy Kress is someone whose writing I enjoy but the book of hers that really stands out for me is Beggars in Spain. The sequels aren't as strong to my way of thinking. Her other series, Relativity Space et all, was also entertaining for me.

Zenna Henderson's The Anything Box and Holding Wonder were favorites of mine when I was a lot younger. I should reread them and see what I think of them now. I read them when they came out in the 60's.

I really love Amy Thomson's books The Color of Distance and Through Alien Eyes. I still see them as the best depiction of interactions between humans and an alien species that's ever been written. (Though Butler's work is also stellar in this area!) I also enjoyed her book Virtual Girl.

justifiedsinner

Posted 2013-02-26 9:36 AM (#4760 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

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Posts: 794
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I think you mean Elizabeth Moon not Elizabeth Hand.

carlajpatterson

Posted 2013-02-28 1:51 PM (#4781 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Member

Posts: 38

Location: Richmond, California

Too right Justified! I had just been talking to someone about Elizabeth Hand and wrote her name instead of Moon's - hope there's a way I can fix the initial post but, if not, forgive my mistake Ms. Hand and Ms. Moon! Thanks for the correction.

debhoudekrule

Posted 2013-03-16 2:41 PM (#4850 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

New User

Posts: 1

Hi, first post here--topic caught my attention as I have been (a woman!) writing science fiction for years--first professional sf publication was in Writers of the Future in 1993 as D. A. Houdek with Borealis. I've published numerous sf shorts since.

I recommend recent publication, BLACK HOLE PROJECT, by C. Sanford Lowe (Candy Lowe), a woman author who works IT at Stanford, co-written with G. David Nordley. As well as being sf by a woman author, it's HARD SF, featuring numerous strong women characters--scientists, starship captains, researchers. I found it a pleasure to read women in these roles in a technically accurate story.

Edited by debhoudekrule 2013-03-16 2:45 PM

mlbrennan

Posted 2013-06-06 10:22 PM (#5217 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

New User

Posts: 3

Start with Sheri S. Tepper's Singer From The Sea -- it works on so many incredible levels, and there is a complete game-changing reveal halfway through that will absolutely blow your mind!

megaparsecs

Posted 2013-06-10 5:36 PM (#5245 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

New User

Posts: 4

I know oddrid mentioned the audiobook version of To Say Nothing of the Dog and I have to highly second that recommendation, it's a really fun and funny book about time travel, and the narrator does a great job.

I've started reading The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor and it's neat, a near-future sort of thing where science and magic exist side by side. Marketed as YA, but definitely works for older readers too.

Administrator

Posted 2013-06-10 5:59 PM (#5248 - in reply to #5245)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Admin

Posts: 3941
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Location: Dallas, Texas

megaparsecs - 2013-06-10 5:36 PM I know oddrid mentioned the audiobook version of To Say Nothing of the Dog and I have to highly second that recommendation, it's a really fun and funny book about time travel, and the narrator does a great job.

To Say Nothing of the Dog has just been added to the SF Masterworks list too for a bit of extra incentive.

MontanaSky

Posted 2013-06-12 1:09 PM (#5262 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Member

Posts: 9

I'm intending to read Malinda Lo for the Challenge but not sure if I should start with Huntress or Ash. Thoughts?

Bete

Posted 2013-07-21 1:54 PM (#5443 - in reply to #4752)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

New User

Posts: 3

Great recommendations, Carla!

I came to this thread specifically to suggest Amy Thomson be included on the website - after first finding Joanna and Octavia, of course!

So many books, so little time!!

carlajpatterson

Posted 2013-07-23 12:42 PM (#5450 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Member

Posts: 38

Location: Richmond, California

Thanks Bete! Nice to know there are some like minds around. :D

risbom

Posted 2013-09-15 5:05 AM (#5588 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Regular

Posts: 63

Location: Zagreb

I found on Amazon pages that Pat Murphy book "The City, Not Long After", for which some people said that may be difficult to find, is getting Kindle release on September 30. It looks like promissing read.

illegible_scribble

Posted 2014-07-06 7:56 AM (#8113 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: RE: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations

Uber User

Posts: 1057
1000

(cross-posted from the LGBT Challenge thread)

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi (who is of Japanese/American heritage) has a LGBT, POC protagonist and would be eligible for either the LGBT Challenge, the Women of Genre Fiction Challenge, or the 2014 Authors of Color Challenge.

In addition, the main character suffers from a severely-debiliting chronic, terminal illness -- and I thought that theme was really well-handled.

I quite enjoyed the book. I prefer my SFF very light on the romance (regardless of whether it's gay, straight, or other), so I thought the romantic stuff was a bit OTT. But YMMV -- and the book is fantastic, especially for a debut author.

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