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Loving Life Partner posted:I just read The Alienist (fantastic, aside from some minor plotting gripes) and it's whet my appetite for some nonfiction about New York City in the late 19th early 20th century, the streets, the socialites, the gilded age excess. Any good suggestions? Luc Sante's Low Life and Herbert Asbury's The Gangs of New York are classics when it comes to New York street life around the turn of the century.
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Jul 23, 2015 05:44
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Shab posted:I'm looking for a science fiction book that explores alien biology/culture that is... weird? Not weird for the sake of it, but distinctly non-human. A good example would be The Mote in God's Eye. A bad example would be The Sparrow which, despite being one of my favorite novels, features aliens that are basically sentient kangaroos. Alan Dean Foster isn't a good writer at all but he did have some really cool aliens, Sentenced To Prism is really out there and Midworld has some cool stuff as well iirc.
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Jul 23, 2015 11:21
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So a bit of an odd one, but I'm doing some research and I'm looking for some good books dealing with the lifestyle/culture of people who are in an isolated community for periods of time. My first two thoughts were people who work on oil rigs or are at sea for long periods of time. I guess extended military service might be good aswell, but I'm looking for stuff more along the lines of how people deal with the situation where they're with a bunch of people for a long period of time with very little link to the outside world, usually after being in a situation where this isn't the case.
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Jul 23, 2015 19:04
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I just watched Dogville and I had so much catharsis. Is there any books that are in the same vein that satirize the concept of small town changing the corporate drone for the better?
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Jul 24, 2015 01:00
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Ddraig posted:So a bit of an odd one, but I'm doing some research and I'm looking for some good books dealing with the lifestyle/culture of people who are in an isolated community for periods of time. The Utopia Experiment deals with a poorly designed project to see how a bunch of people could do isolated in the Scottish wilderness. For something a little similar, try A Peculiar People: The Australians in Paraguay. Here's the blurb: quote:In 1893 almost 500 Australians set out by ship to carve a communist utopia from the heart of Paraguay. Led by socialist journalist and activist, William Lane, their aim was to realise the cherished Australian principles of equality and mateship.Expulsions and secessions began early; in mid-1894 Lane himself seceded with a loyal minority and founded Cosme, some forty-five miles south, but two years later the new colony had deteriorated and dwindled. Despite this, the story lives on in legendary proportions to this day and has never been related so fully as in this evocative exposition by Gavin Souter.Souter unravels the history of the New Australia movement, exploring the motivations and motives of its members, its organisation, the conflicts and dissension and the final disillusionment. He suggests a number of factors contributing to the ventures failure, not the least being Lanes contradictory personality.Meticulously researched and based on countless interviews with descendants of the original settlers, A Peculiar People is a work of literary as well as historical value. Obviously these are situations where the people went off voluntarily, which might be nice to juxtapose against people who are foreced to, like oil-rig workers.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:38
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Loving Life Partner posted:
The Devil's Gentleman by Harold Schechter
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Jul 25, 2015 04:20
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I feel like reading a low thought book with amazing fight scenes. No guns, preferably! Need it to keep my interest for a flight or two. E: On the Kindle store is best! Galick fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Jul 25, 2015 |
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Jul 25, 2015 18:19
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Galick posted:I feel like reading a low thought book with amazing fight scenes. No guns, preferably! Need it to keep my interest for a flight or two. Mistborn
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Jul 25, 2015 18:36
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Galick posted:I feel like reading a low thought book with amazing fight scenes. No guns, preferably! Need it to keep my interest for a flight or two. Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick, and its sequel. No big armies but some very good duels.
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Jul 25, 2015 19:00
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blue squares posted:Mistborn Seconding hard.
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Jul 26, 2015 01:26
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Crime/detective novels with a female investigator (and decent plot of course)? Series or standalone is fine. I'm new to the genre and as you know there's a lot of bargain bin stuff out there, hard to tell the good from the airport junk.
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Jul 26, 2015 03:47
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blue squares posted:Mistborn
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Jul 26, 2015 03:54
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frenchnewwave posted:Crime/detective novels with a female investigator (and decent plot of course)? Series or standalone is fine. I'm new to the genre and as you know there's a lot of bargain bin stuff out there, hard to tell the good from the airport junk. Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone books are generally solid. Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe books are interesting since you don't see many detective stories based outside America or the UK. P. D. James's An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and The Skull Beneath the Skin are classics. And of course there's Sarah Caudwell's Professor Hilary Tamar books, which have an unusual gimmick: Professor Tamar's gender is never actually identified at any point.
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Jul 26, 2015 05:35
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frenchnewwave posted:Crime/detective novels with a female investigator (and decent plot of course)? Series or standalone is fine. I'm new to the genre and as you know there's a lot of bargain bin stuff out there, hard to tell the good from the airport junk.
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Jul 26, 2015 09:07
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frenchnewwave posted:Crime/detective novels with a female investigator (and decent plot of course)? Series or standalone is fine. I'm new to the genre and as you know there's a lot of bargain bin stuff out there, hard to tell the good from the airport junk. The Kinzie and Genaro series by Dennis Lehane, it's a couple who are private eyes in Boston. The first 5 or so are very very good, with Gone Baby Gone (Number 4) as the best. Series starts slowly going downhill from there and the direct sequel to Gone Baby Gone, Moonlight Mile is pretty much airport trash.
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Jul 26, 2015 21:45
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LionYeti posted:The Kinzie and Genaro series by Dennis Lehane, it's a couple who are private eyes in Boston. The first 5 or so are very very good, with Gone Baby Gone (Number 4) as the best. Series starts slowly going downhill from there and the direct sequel to Gone Baby Gone, Moonlight Mile is pretty much airport trash. Yeah, those ones are good, and you're also very right about Moonlight Mile, a decline so sharp should come with a warning Other fem detective/mystery novels worth reading: Gillian Flynn's Dark Places and Sharp Objects, Silence of the Lambs, Daryl Gregory's Afterparty(it's got some scifi elements though), Paula Hawkin's The Girl on the Train. I also liked the couple of Edie Kiglatuk mysteries I've read, they're about an Inuit Arctic guide/hunter/tracker who investigates murders & causes trouble in her small town
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Jul 27, 2015 01:45
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Thanks all! I have read all Gillian Flynn's books, as well as Girl on the Train. Thank you for reminding me of Tana French, I read one of her books previously and liked her style. I've bookmarked a bunch of these recommendations and will be downloading one tomorrow once I check if my library lending program has any of them (ebooks) for free.
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Jul 27, 2015 02:36
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There's also Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski novels about a Chicago private eye. They're excellent.
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Jul 27, 2015 10:34
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I also used to read Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta books, which I remember as being decent airport fare at the least. Dr. Scarpetta is a medical examiner, not an investigator, which makes for a nicely different viewpoint.
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Jul 27, 2015 19:59
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Also looking for a new book. Preferably audio books, because I'm dyslectic and I like to listen to books while I draw. I've been listening to some Murakami books and really liked them. Also like old (anti) war novels like Officer Factory, or a good mix of historic and fantasy like 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'. I might want to get into some science fiction, but I have no idea where to start. I only know 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' and the usual classics I guess. In the comedy section I really liked 'Silver Screen Fiend' by Patton Oswald and LOVED 'I, partridge' by Alan partridge/Steve coogan.
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Jul 27, 2015 22:01
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AARP LARPer fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Jan 22, 2016 |
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Jul 28, 2015 19:51
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mrfart posted:. If you like Kirst, you might also like Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Sveik.
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Jul 28, 2015 21:29
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A human heart posted:Alan Dean Foster isn't a good writer at all but he did have some really cool aliens, Sentenced To Prism is really out there and Midworld has some cool stuff as well iirc. He writes absolute schlock (and can't keep track of his plots, misuses words, etc.) but, yes, his aliens/worlds are great and so I keep reading him.
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Jul 28, 2015 21:33
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As someone who only just read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I'm kind of in love with the idea of reading more ancient Chinese fiction but I'm not sure what to go for next or if there's very much of it (I'm aware of Journey to the West). Any recommendations? Is there much more literature in that sort of writing style (is ancient Japanese literature similar?), because I really enjoyed it. You know, however you'd describe that really unique concise style interspersed with poetry. I'm thinking of trying Dream of the Red Chamber/The Story of Stone and Water Margin/Outlaws of the Marsh. Punkin Spunkin fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Jul 29, 2015 |
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Jul 29, 2015 17:35
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TheFallenEvincar posted:As someone who only just read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I'm kind of in love with the idea of reading more ancient Chinese fiction but I'm not sure what to go for next or if there's very much of it (I'm aware of Journey to the West). Any recommendations? Is there much more literature in that sort of writing style (is ancient Japanese literature similar?), because I really enjoyed it. You know, however you'd describe that really unique concise style interspersed with poetry. Water Margin is excellent with tge exception that almost all of the characters are unlikeable and bad people.
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Jul 29, 2015 19:34
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Do Not Resuscitate posted:Based on your Murakami enjoyment, I'm wondering if you've tried anything from Don DeLillo. You might really like White Noise. Selachian posted:If you like Kirst, you might also like Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Sveik. Great, I'll probably check those out.
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Jul 29, 2015 19:51
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I'm looking for novels that deal with poor, uneducated or otherwise 'underclass' people--stuff about those stuck at the lowest rung of the social ladder. I find I read a lot of books with highly educated/wealthy/etc. protagonists and I want something different; something about people who don't have much power or money or knowledge at all.
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Jul 30, 2015 16:56
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Oliver Reed posted:I'm looking for novels that deal with poor, uneducated or otherwise 'underclass' people--stuff about those stuck at the lowest rung of the social ladder. I find I read a lot of books with highly educated/wealthy/etc. protagonists and I want something different; something about people who don't have much power or money or knowledge at all. You should look into some of the great literature from African, Indian, and Asian immigrants to the United States that has come out lately.
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Jul 30, 2015 17:05
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I'm looking for a book about early New England. Lovecraft is an obvious choice, but I'm not sure which book I should start with. What books portray the best ambiance of 19th century Boston (for example). I am looking for something dark, gritty, occult, mysterious. Maybe a crime drama set in the period. Maybe a Stephen King novel that feels like it could be set 150 years ago. Just looking for inspiration for my own stories, and I'm not sure where to start. Which Lovecraft story deals most with cults meeting in the shadows to whisper to the old ones?
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Jul 30, 2015 18:00
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I'd say The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror or The Color Out Of Space, with the caveat that Lovecraft didn't really do urban environments, those are set in small towns in the country. And he's mostly an acquired taste so going there for inspiration might not be the best idea.
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Jul 30, 2015 18:16
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Oliver Reed posted:I'm looking for novels that deal with poor, uneducated or otherwise 'underclass' people--stuff about those stuck at the lowest rung of the social ladder. I find I read a lot of books with highly educated/wealthy/etc. protagonists and I want something different; something about people who don't have much power or money or knowledge at all. Not precisely what you're looking for, but I think you should definitely check out Studs Terkel.
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Jul 30, 2015 21:32
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Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle if you want poor immigrant stories.
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Jul 30, 2015 23:41
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Tortilla Flat - Steinbeck
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Jul 31, 2015 03:00
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hope and vaseline posted:Tortilla Flat - Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath Of Mice and Men Flowers for Algernon also comes to mind, though I can't say that I overly enjoyed it.
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Jul 31, 2015 03:27
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Tobacco Road
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Jul 31, 2015 04:04
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Oliver Reed posted:I'm looking for novels that deal with poor, uneducated or otherwise 'underclass' people--stuff about those stuck at the lowest rung of the social ladder. I find I read a lot of books with highly educated/wealthy/etc. protagonists and I want something different; something about people who don't have much power or money or knowledge at all. Les Miserables?
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Jul 31, 2015 05:58
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So I just finished Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron and I loving loved it. I plan to read his other books but does anyone have any recommendations for something similar? I really like the ye olde book-mystery and I loved the depressing european post-WW2 writing and setting that permeated it, but it wasn't completely dreadful and actually had some funny and even sweet moments.
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Jul 31, 2015 21:56
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Oliver Reed posted:I'm looking for novels that deal with poor, uneducated or otherwise 'underclass' people--stuff about those stuck at the lowest rung of the social ladder. I find I read a lot of books with highly educated/wealthy/etc. protagonists and I want something different; something about people who don't have much power or money or knowledge at all. Check out the Booker prize longlist, there's a couple of books which might qualify. The Fishermen and The Year of the Runaway come to mind.
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Aug 1, 2015 03:06
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I'm craving some historical fiction similar to Bernard Cornwell's The Saxon Stories, but about the Irish Celts. Anybody?
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Aug 2, 2015 19:40
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:I'm craving some historical fiction similar to Bernard Cornwell's The Saxon Stories, but about the Irish Celts. Anybody? Same, but for Scottish Picts.
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Aug 2, 2015 20:39
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