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What's a good book for a 6 year old? I want to get a book for a Christmas gift for a niece - my problem is when I think back to the stuff that really got to me when I was I kid, two things come to mind, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Roald Dahl, and I don't think I was reading those until I was 8 or 10, I'm thinking they might be a little tough for a 6 year old. Maybe either of those would be good books to have her parents read to her until she grows into them though? She also was watching the Alice in Wonderland Disney movie lately, so maybe that would be a good choice, but I'm thinking that would a tougher read than either Dahl or Lewis. I'm not around kids enough to really know how to pick out stuff like this, but mostly I just want to do my part to get her to love reading.
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Nov 27, 2012 18:30
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I've always been a big fan of Hawthorne's short stories. He covers a lot more ground than just Colonial Puritans, though those stories are drat fine.
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Nov 27, 2012 18:51
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Sears Poncho & Co. posted:Lots of great suggestions Thanks a bunch, that should last me a decade at my current pace! I also cannot stop laughing at this synopsis for one of Dick's short stories: quote:Some men loading up a ship of supplies on Earth to take to Mars buy a wub, a huge, pig-like creature that they think will eventually make a nice meal. But the wub has other plans. It turns out the wub is a sentient being with telepathic abilities and it enjoys discussing literature.
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Nov 27, 2012 18:55
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I'm curious. Has anyone tried doing a mystery/thriller story in a fantasy setting?
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Nov 28, 2012 05:30
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Some of the Discworld books about the City Watch sorta do that. Men at Arms and Feet of Clay are the first ones to come to mind.
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Nov 28, 2012 07:03
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BigRed0427 posted:I'm curious. Has anyone tried doing a mystery/thriller story in a fantasy setting? Simon Green's Hawk & Fisher books are mystery/detective stories in Generic Fantasy City. They're all right in small doses but not great literature or anything. Sears Poncho posted:What's a good book for a 6 year old?
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Nov 28, 2012 10:16
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BigRed0427 posted:I'm curious. Has anyone tried doing a mystery/thriller story in a fantasy setting? This is basically the premise of Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. series (the "Adjective Metal Noun" books). I remember hearing about a book (books?) that was about a CSI team in a magical setting, but I don't remember the title. 
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Nov 28, 2012 15:04
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I've been on a bit of a Raymond Carver kick lately and want to find more short stories/collections similar in tone and style. I was thinking Tobias Wolff's In The Garden of North American Martyrs just based on some google searching. Anyone have suggestions for other authors?
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Nov 28, 2012 15:52
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Witchfinder General posted:I've been on a bit of a Raymond Carver kick lately and want to find more short stories/collections similar in tone and style. I was thinking Tobias Wolff's In The Garden of North American Martyrs just based on some google searching.
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Nov 28, 2012 20:58
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That looks awesome, thanks. I just asked my dad if he had any Yates I could borrow and he yelled at me for having never read Revolutionary Road. Guess I gotta get off my rear end.
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Nov 28, 2012 23:16
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Witchfinder General posted:That looks awesome, thanks. You should read that, probably before the stories. Any collection of one author gets samey, but I found that happened incredibly quickly with Yates.
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Nov 28, 2012 23:27
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Witchfinder General posted:I've been on a bit of a Raymond Carver kick lately and want to find more short stories/collections similar in tone and style. I was thinking Tobias Wolff's In The Garden of North American Martyrs just based on some google searching. Andre Dubus reminds me a little of Carver and I enjoyed the Vintage collection of his stories. And you might like Richard Ford, too: Rock Springs is a rad collection of his stories (and the title story is one of my favorite stories period).
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Nov 29, 2012 03:27
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BigRed0427 posted:I'm curious. Has anyone tried doing a mystery/thriller story in a fantasy setting? The Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch is basically this. Definitely more on the thriller end, but the two books in the series so far (the third is never coming out, sadly) are crime thrillers in a fantasy setting. The protagonists are con men and fantasy heists abound. Not sure if they'd be exactly what you're looking for since the genres you describe cast a pretty broad net, but they definitely read like thrillers.
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Nov 29, 2012 05:26
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Witchfinder General posted:I've been on a bit of a Raymond Carver kick lately and want to find more short stories/collections similar in tone and style. I was thinking Tobias Wolff's In The Garden of North American Martyrs just based on some google searching. http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stories-Amy-Hempel/dp/0743291638
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Nov 29, 2012 16:56
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I've read through a bunch of pages of this thread so far and don't see anything specific to this, so I'd like to gather some recommendations for my winter reading. I'm looking for anything that may fit into one or more of the following genres or descriptions: End of the world (think On The Beach) Post Apocalyptic (from Alas, Babylon to The Postman) Dystopia (1984, Anthem, Snow Crash, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer) Recently I've been reading a lot of action-y military fiction (read: Gaunt's Ghosts), as well as a lot of lighter stuff like Discworld. I also went through Wikipedia and updated my Wish List with books I'm familiar with. So go hog wild!
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Nov 29, 2012 18:38
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SquadronROE posted:I've read through a bunch of pages of this thread so far and don't see anything specific to this, so I'd like to gather some recommendations for my winter reading. A couple that spring immediately to mind: A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. is a great post-apocalyptic novel. Pure by Julianna Baggott is a newer "YA-ish" one that I just read--really funky post-apoc. world, not the greatest, but good enough that I read it in two sittings... The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway. Action, comedy, horror, ninjas--this book has it all...
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Nov 29, 2012 18:53
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Added those to the wish list to help me get through the Seasonal Affective Disorder. I'd love to get some more recommendations too, I've heard that Canticle for Leibowitz is good but haven't yet read it.
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Nov 29, 2012 19:05
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SquadronROE posted:I've read through a bunch of pages of this thread so far and don't see anything specific to this, so I'd like to gather some recommendations for my winter reading. Yeah? I'm pretty sure that's half the thread some days. Get George Stewart's Earth Abides.
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Nov 29, 2012 20:07
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SquadronROE posted:I've read through a bunch of pages of this thread so far and don't see anything specific to this, so I'd like to gather some recommendations for my winter reading.
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Nov 29, 2012 20:18
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SquadronROE posted:I've read through a bunch of pages of this thread so far and don't see anything specific to this, so I'd like to gather some recommendations for my winter reading. Sorry, this is kind of a lot, but I run a dystopian/post-apocalyptic book club, so I couldn't resist! This is our list of suggested titles. I've bolded the ones I really like: A Canticle for Leibowitz (Walter M. Miller Jr.) A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) A Plague of Angels (Sheri S. Tepper) Alas, Babylon (Pat Frank) Blind Faith (Ben Elton) Blindness (Jose Saramago) Boneshaker (Cherie Priest) Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) Cat’s Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut) Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clarke) Dr. Bloodmoney (Philip K Dick) Earth Abides (George R Stewart) Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) Flood (Stephen Baxter) Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) Greybeard (Brian W Aldiss) Heroes and Villains (Angela Carter) How I Live Now (Meg Rosoff) I Am Legend (Richard Matheson) Idlewild (Nick Sagan) Immobility (Brian Evenson) In the Country of Last Things (Paul Auster) Kingdom Come (J.G. Ballard) Lord of the Flies (William Golding) Make Room! Make Room! (Harry Harrison) Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro) Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell) On the Beach (Nevil Shute) Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood) Player Piano (Kurt Vonnegut) Ready Player One (Ernest Cline) Robopocalypse (Daniel H Wilson) Shades of Grey (Jasper Fforde) Swan Song (Robert McCammon) The Age of Miracles (Karen Thompson Walker) The Children of Men (P.D. James) The Children’s Hospital (Chris Adrian) The Chrysalids (John Wyndham) The City of Ember (Jeanne DuPrau) The Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham) The Death of Grass (John Christopher) The Dog Stars (Peter Heller) The Drought (J.G. Ballard) The Drowned World (J.G. Ballard) The Giver (Lois Lowry) The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) The Knife of Never Letting Go (Patrick Ness) The Last Man (Mary Shelley) The Last Policeman (Ben H Winters) The Long Tomorrow (Leigh Brackett) The Long Walk (Stephen King) The Passage (Justin Cronin) The Plague (Albert Camus) The Purple Cloud (MP Shiel) The Road (Cormac McCarthy) The Running Man (Stephen King) The Scarlet Plague (Jack London) The Sheep Look Up (John Brunner) The Stand (Stephen King) The Ticket That Exploded (William S. Burroughs) The Time Machine (HG Wells) The War of the Worlds (HG Wells) The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi) The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood) Tomorrow, When the War Began (John Marsden) We (Yevgeny Zamyatin) World War Z (Max Brooks) Y: The Last Man (Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra) Zone One (Colson Whitehead)
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Nov 29, 2012 23:37
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Holy crap, you should probably start a new thread with that sort of effort. It's incredible, and very appreciated! I'll transfer those to my wishlist soon enough, I think I have enough books to keep me going for at least a couple weeks.
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Nov 29, 2012 23:47
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elbow posted:Sorry, this is kind of a lot, but I run a dystopian/post-apocalyptic book club, so I couldn't resist! This is our list of suggested titles. I've bolded the ones I really like: Oh, so that's what was going on.
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Nov 30, 2012 00:14
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You should add Wool to that post apocalyptic list.
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Nov 30, 2012 01:32
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Coming in to say that "The Passage" by Juston Cronin is rather amazing.
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Dec 3, 2012 04:06
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I would like some suggestions for sci-fi horror, especially those that take place in space, kind of like the movie Event Horizon or the game series Dead Space I guess. I'm ok with both full length novels and short story collections. Speaking of which, any horror short story collections that you guys can recommend? Thanks!
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Dec 3, 2012 06:27
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Deadly Chlorine posted:I would like some suggestions for sci-fi horror, especially those that take place in space, kind of like the movie Event Horizon or the game series Dead Space I guess. I'm ok with both full length novels and short story collections. This exact request comes up like every 2 months. Luckily Goodreads has a list: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/17148.Space_horror I can personally recommend Blindsight, Unto Leviathan (AKA Ship of Fools), Hull Zero Three, and stuff by Alastair Reynolds as all being very good examples of scary poo poo in space. edit: My thoughts on Hull Zero Three from another thread, but which I've copy/pasted into here twice before: quote:I just finished Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear. The whole book felt like Dead Space mashed up with an episode of The Prisoner or something — it was nearly totally incomprehensible. And then I got to the last 50 pages, and he actually did explain everything, and suddenly everything that went before made sense. It completely changed my feelings about the book. My thoughts on Ship of Fools, from Goodreads: quote:Spooky scary spaceship happenings! In some ways a let down because a lot went unexplained. Nevertheless, it kept up a great atmosphere throughout so I still enjoyed it. I wish it wrapped things up more definitively though. Blindsight and Hull Zero Three (this book's stablemates in the tiny subgenre of space horror) both managed that a lot better. And as for Alastair Reynolds, his novella Diamond Dogs and his short story Nightingale are the closest to pure horror he's done, but all of his Revelation Space books/stories have a gothic, unsettling atmosphere to them. The main ship of the Revelation Space trilogy is like a haunted mansion IN SPAAACE. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Dec 3, 2012 |
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Dec 3, 2012 07:15
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Ah thanks! For some reason I thought this wasn't a very popular request.  Think I'll try picking up Unto Leviathan and Hull Zero Three first, thanks!
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Dec 3, 2012 07:24
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I picked up the Scifi Book Humble Bundle a few weeks back, and I finally got around to finishing up Old Man's War by John Scalzi. I really enjoyed Scalzi's writing style - especially the development of the main character Would any body who has read the book recommend reading the 3-4 sequels? I tend to be wary when it comes to science fiction book series because sometimes they develop the original story into some weird strung along mess.
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Dec 4, 2012 20:46
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I just finished Blood Song Raven's Shadow Awesome book 1. I heard about it here comparing to The Way of Kings and The Name of The Wind two other books I like. What else is close to as good as it is?
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Dec 4, 2012 23:10
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Fallorn posted:I just finished Blood Song Raven's Shadow Awesome book 1. I heard about it here comparing to The Way of Kings and The Name of The Wind two other books I like. What else is close to as good as it is? You might like The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I also highly recommend everything by Joe Abercrombie, starting with The Blade Itself. Other options are The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett or I suppose Brent Weeks' books, though his Night Angel series really grates on me personally.
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Dec 5, 2012 00:27
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I'm looking for a book for my girlfriend. She typically enjoys nonfiction whether it be events ( she is currently reading a few books about the civil war) or people. What she craves is something with a great almost too crazy to be true story ( for instance Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand ). Also i was thinking about getting her "Ru" after reading about it in the nyt today. Thanks everybody.
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Dec 5, 2012 00:52
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Ethereal Duck posted:You might like The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I also highly recommend everything by Joe Abercrombie, starting with The Blade Itself. Other options are The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett or I suppose Brent Weeks' books, though his Night Angel series really grates on me personally. I have read The Lies of Locke lamora, the Night Angel books and the colormagic thing, and the Warded man and Desert Spear by Peter Brett, I need to try and retry to read the Joe Abercrombie stuff.
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Dec 5, 2012 01:10
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mcppants posted:I'm looking for a book for my girlfriend. She typically enjoys nonfiction whether it be events ( she is currently reading a few books about the civil war) or people. What she craves is something with a great almost too crazy to be true story ( for instance Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand ). Also i was thinking about getting her "Ru" after reading about it in the nyt today. Thanks everybody. Holly Tucker's Blood Work is kinda crazy and the central story of John Vaillant's The Tiger reads like a goddamn movie (in the best way, and the rest of the book is amazing, too). Other good non-fiction that comes to mind: Starr's The Killer of Little Shepherds, Jordan Fisher Smith's Nature Noir, and David White's terrific Great Big Book of Horrible Things.
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Dec 5, 2012 01:26
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mcppants posted:I'm looking for a book for my girlfriend. She typically enjoys nonfiction whether it be events ( she is currently reading a few books about the civil war) or people. What she craves is something with a great almost too crazy to be true story ( for instance Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand ). Also i was thinking about getting her "Ru" after reading about it in the nyt today. Thanks everybody. If she liked Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit might be up her alley, too.
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Dec 5, 2012 01:36
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So I'm looking for a book like Let The Right One In. To be more specific, I found myself enthralled with how the book was about a vampire that is creepy and off-putting, but also somewhat 'human' and relatable. Are there any other books that kind of portray vampires (or any other kind of typically romanticized mythological creature) like that? So basically I'm not looking for a story where vampires are completely and irredeemably evil/bent solely on destruction, and I'm also not looking for a story where vampires are just sexier and stronger angsty humans. I've already read Dracula and Carmilla, by the way.
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Dec 5, 2012 02:14
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Akarshi posted:So I'm looking for a book like Let The Right One In. To be more specific, I found myself enthralled with how the book was about a vampire that is creepy and off-putting, but also somewhat 'human' and relatable. Are there any other books that kind of portray vampires (or any other kind of typically romanticized mythological creature) like that? I loved Toby Barlow's Sharp Teeth, which is a fairly unconventional take on werewolves. I know some people who really liked Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf, but I loving hated it. No vampires, sorry (LTROI is great, though).
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Dec 5, 2012 03:05
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Fallorn posted:I have read The Lies of Locke lamora, the Night Angel books and the colormagic thing, and the Warded man and Desert Spear by Peter Brett, I need to try and retry to read the Joe Abercrombie stuff. I recently read the Riyria Revelations, maybe you'll like that. It was hardly innovative but it was a fun read.
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Dec 5, 2012 15:28
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Ethereal Duck posted:I recently read the Riyria Revelations, maybe you'll like that. It was hardly innovative but it was a fun read. I have already read that also. I happen to read a wee bit. I guessed how that would end and was still happy.
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Dec 5, 2012 15:33
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Hi all. I haven't seen this request posted lately but apologies if I've overlooked it earlier in the thread. I'm a brand new mom with a three-week old and haven't had a minute to read. However, I find myself reading SA on my phone during feeding times and middle of the night rocking sessions. So... maybe I can fit in some light reading then. My request is for something on the light side (my brain is only firing at half speed these days from sleep deprivation), either short stories or chapters that won't require me to remember long story arcs or a million characters or fit complicated pieces together. My favorite genre is dystopian lit followed by urban fantasy (like Neil Gaiman), but I read a fair number of plain old lit too. Not big on romance but will give crime or mystery a shot if well written. Oh and I'd prefer something I can obtain digitally. I literally have my hands full so propping up the iPad to read is my only option Thanks in advance.
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Dec 5, 2012 23:12
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funkybottoms posted:I loved Toby Barlow's Sharp Teeth, which is a fairly unconventional take on werewolves. I know some people who really liked Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf, but I loving hated it. No vampires, sorry (LTROI is great, though). The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas. Interesting almost sociological take on vampires. SquadronROE posted:I'm looking for anything that may fit into one or more of the following genres or descriptions: Here's some good ones that elbow missed from that very extensive list: The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle. Amish people in an apocalypse. Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant - interesting take on zombie outbreak. Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. Feminist look at 2 sisters that are left alone in their family cottage miles away from civilization as civilization as we know it crumbles away. White Horse by Amy Adams. On Goodreads horror shortlist for 2012. This was a good one, very interesting take on the world after a superbug has killed or mutated most of the world's population. Interesting narrative style, and a very strange Oddyssian type vibe that I really enjoyed. The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell - this is another zombie book but I enjoyed it because rather than take the tried and true trope of having people who knew what life was like before zombies became the norm talked about how great it was before there were zombies, the protagonist here is someone who never knew what it was like before zombies were the norm and so considers them as just another wild creature. Interesting an very well written.
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Dec 6, 2012 18:27
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