And now for something completely different!
At the beginning of this year, we started a new feature called Old School Wednesdays. We came up with the idea towards the end of last year, when both of us were feeling not only exhausted from the never-ending inundation of new and shiny but also disappointed with the quality of these often over-hyped books. More and more we began to find relief and comfort by reaching to our TBR Mountain and reading older books. That was when we decided to turn this into a regular feature.
The thing is though, we completely underestimated both how much we’d love doing these post but also how popular they’d become. Every post has sparked conversation – the type that can only happen when people are sharing love for their favourites. As much as we like New and Shiny books, sometimes we feel that conversation in these posts don’t flow as easily – possibly because most people have yet to read New and Shiny.
Today we wanted to share with you some of the books we have lined up in our Old School Wednesdays (OSW) shelves, but also open the floor to your recommendations!
Ana’s OSW TBR:
Those are only physical copies. I also have quite a few on my virtual OSW TBR including:
Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr
Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
City of Bones by Martha Wells
Fires of Nuala by Katherine Kimbriel
Thea’s OSW TBR:
(Apologies, there are some newer titles mixed in with the old!)
Like Ana, this is just the print, physical component of my OSW TBR – there are plenty more where these came from on my ebookshelf, including:
ALL the Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold
Point of Honor by Madeline E. Robbins
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R.L. LaFevers
Dragon’s Keep by Janet Lee Carey
The Price of the Stars by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald
Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
Birth of the Firebringer by Meredith Ann Pierce
Green Witch, Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
Aurelie by Heather Tomlinson
Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer
And many, many more. (Yes, we have impulse control problems. DON’T JUDGE US!)
Your recommendations:
We now open the floor to you! See anything on our shelves that you think we should read next? Got any other burning recommendations? Please do share with us books that you’ve read, loved, and want to see reviewed here.
Your recommendations can be from ANY genre for adults, young adults or middle grade audiences. The only mandatory criteria: the book must be at least 5 years old.
And now…we open up the floor to you!
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As for what’s on your guys’ shelves:
Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli – its a cautious recommendation because some elements may be troublesome based on your guys’ past reviews
Farthing by Jo Walton – I just found out about this book but it sounds FABULOUS. (as do the sequels), Walton admits to some gaffs in judgement however for how her alt.history world played out.
As for my own recs –
The Woman in the Wall by Patrice Kindl – its a little hard to put a finger on the genre of this book, but its a fascinating book about the power of perception and being shy.
The Claidi Journals by Tanith Lee (4 books) – These books didn’t pan out the way I thought they would, but minor frustrations aside they were enthralling.
Andra by Louise Lawrence – I LOVE Lawrence. I’ve loved her books since I was in primary school. Andra is a scifi novel about teens, but not really a YA book.
Kieli by Yukako Kabei (7+ books) – this is being released by Yen Press and they’re doing a bang-up job of it. Its creepy at moments, futuristic, steampunkish and love story about a girl and her Undying companion.
Authors in General:
Sydney J. Van Scyoc – a lot of her stuff is OOP, but easily found at used bookstores or fairly cheap online. Scifi – her Daughters of the Sun Stone trilogy is the best.
Joyce Ballou Gregorian – another OOP author, she only has the Tredana trilogy out. Sadly she passed away before writing anything else. Portal fantasy.
I’m late to the game with John Bellairs and Elizabeth Peters mysteries, but I am so glad to be on this ride now. And bonus — with Old School series, there is less of a change these books will have long holds lists at my library.
I love that I recognize a lot on your TBR shelves! I read “the Fox Woman” and the Earthsea books a long time ago and really enjoyed them. I’ve reread a bunch of the Vorkosigan books recently and they are still excellent, and “the Truth Teller’s Tale” was another recent great read. I keep meaning to read “Lud-in-the-Mist” because a friend of mine recommended it.
McKinley’s “Chalice” was amazing. “Sirena” was interesting, but in some ways a bit disturbing, and “Fever Crumb” was a lot of fun. I enjoyed Wrede’s series that “Across the Great Barrier” is a part of, though I had this one big question throughout it all…
Have you read “Runemarks” by Joanne Harris? It’s been republished, but the original was 2007. Or how about Kit Whitfield’s book “Benighted” or one of Agatha Christie’s Mary Westmacott books? “Night Watch” by Sean Stewart or “the Flight of Michael McBride” by Midori Snyder are other older favorites of mine, though I haven’t read them in a while… I wonder how much I’ve grown since then and if it would change my views?
i would love to see you guys review an enola holmes book. the series is by nancy springer, and it starts with ‘the case of the missing marquess’, which i don’t think is the strongest, but it’d do in a pinch (the second is ‘the case of the left-handed lady’, which is where i accidentally started the series, and it caught me up quite well).
but i see some books on your shelves that i have both read and loved (bloody jack, chalice), and that i am very curious to hear your opinion of because i’ve been meaning to read them (feed, terrier).
Sabriel by Garth Nix – Glad to see other’s have recommended this one, as it was the first to come to mind for me. Sabriel! Touchstone! Demonic cat Mogget! So good.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters – This book is brilliant and has great twists so you should avoid spoilers at all costs. Glad to see this is already on your TBR, Ana!
The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw – if you liked Chime.
The Moon by Night by Madeleine L’Engle – I love all the Austin family books but have a soft spot for this one for whatever reason. I probably just read it at the perfect time in my life.
The Devil’s Mixtape by Mary Borsellino – Yay for small press books! this one’s really hard to sum up, so I’m stealing the GoodReads summary:
“In 1999, Ella was one of three students who arrived at her Denver school with a cache of weapons and a plan to use them. Years later, she sifts through accounts of other violent young women, writing letters to a little sister who had to grow up in the aftermath of that day.
In 1952, Sally was a runaway, hitch-hiking around Australia with a strange, secretive girl named Amy. Each outcasts in their own way, the pair navigate a landscape scarred by old memories and tragedies, searching for a place that will feel like safety and home.
And in 2011, Charlotte was a music journalist on tour with a band, listening to their stories of loss and hope. Though they are in very different times and places, the three are linked by a web of legacies and second chances.
Demons, fallen soldiers, hunters, rock & roll stars, and high-school heartbreaks are all thrown together. The result could never be anything but the Devil’s mixtape.”
The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks – A story about brothers and siblings and magic and violence. Really good. GoodReads says:
On a storm-ravaged night, a 19-year-old girl is kidnapped, raped, and killed. Three days later, her two younger brothers set out in search of her murderer. Cole, 17, is a dark-eyed devil who doesn’t care if he lives or dies, while Ruben, 14, is a strange child who sometimes, inexplicably, experiences sensations above and beyond his own. This is the story of the boys’ journey from their half-gypsy home on a London junk lot to the ghostly moors of Devon, where they hope and fear to find the truth about their sister’s death. It’s a long road, cold and hard and violent. It’s THE ROAD OF THE DEAD.
I cannot wait to see reviews of “The Forgotten Beasts of Eld” and “Temeraire” I loved these stories!
-James Thurber –”The 13 Clocks” (only in Print, I think)
-Stephen R. Donaldson –’Mordant’s Need’ Duology (‘Mirror of her Dreams” and ‘A Man Rides Through’)
-Stephen R. Donaldson — ‘Daughter of Regals and other stories’ anthology.
I cannot wait to see reviews of “The Forgotten Beasts of Eld” and “Temeraire” I loved these stories!
-James Thurber –”The 13 Clocks” (only in Print, I think)
-Stephen R. Donaldson –’Mordant’s Need’ Duology (‘Mirror of her Dreams” and ‘A Man Rides Through’)
-Stephen R. Donaldson — ‘Daughter of Regals and other stories’ anthology.
Ooh, I’m going to enjoy fantasy buying all these wonderful books!
A Pack of Lies by Geraldine McCaughrean
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
The Girl in Times Square by Paullina Simons
Ohhh… so excited I’ve enticed you both with The Lost King! Now I’m just crossing my fingers and hoping you love it as much as I do! And wandering off to start rereading my own copy.
@Samantha: Yes, yes, totally second “Annie on my mind”, such a squee worthy romantic novel.
Heee, I knew that when I found the time there’d be loads of suggestions. I’ll throw my two cents in anyway.
Of the Ana TBRs I can unhesitatingly recommend the Patricia McKillip and Ellen Kushner as well as the Judith Tarr (that one’s a World Fantasy Award Nominee, by the way):mrgreen: … actually any of the ebook TBR will be fun!
Of Thea’s TBR The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (although if you read any McKillip I think you would ADORE the full Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy which is on the one hand totally slashy before its time in the relationship of central hero and central mentor and on the other hand full of AWESOME women who take over the story when they want and the hero vanishes; and loads of ultracool worldbuilding), the other pic is too small for me to make out… so I throw in the suggestion of reading more P.C. Hodgell. Oh and I still think you’d like And All the Stars, Thea!
Thea, it looks like Abebooks might be your best bet for Emergence. The cheapest editions on there run $10-15. Everywhere else is far far more expensive.
Oh, so many squee-worthy books in those pictures! Of the ones I recognized (and own!), I’d definitely endorse the Bujold books and the Tamora Pierce as being worthy of starting with.
I’ll second Lexie on WOMAN IN THE WALL (although I personally preferred OWL IN LOVE, WitW is definitely more *interesting*); Rebecca on SABRIEL (although I think the sequels are even better); and MarieC on THE THIRTEEN CLOCKS (a book which I end up quoting probably more than any I’ve ever read.)
I’ll toss in Megan Whalen Turner’s THIEF books (start at the beginning), Diana Wynne Jones’s DALEMARK QUARTET (I think the SPELLCOATS is a very different sort of YA fantasy, but you can start anywhere, really; the CROWN OF DALEMARK is my favorite, but mostly for the way it ties together three books that don’t seem to have anything in common); and, for *really* Old
Skool, Ellen Raskin’s unsurpassed THE WESTING GAME.
Oh for a way to edit…
Anyway:
I am dittoing the following books
The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman (a Thea book, I think)
Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
C J Cherryh’s “Angel with the Sword” (If you start the Foreigner series you won’t stop)
Liaden Universe Space Opera
Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small quartet (YA fantasy)
Stranger at the Wedding by Barbara Hambly
Any Emma Bull
I’m not sure whether to second Michelle West’s Hunter’s Duology, although it would be a fairly short entry into her marvellous world building and characters, or tell you guys to go for the Sun Sword books right away, as well as the House War series which actually mirrors the Hunter duology from a different viewpoint and then significantly expands on that. West – in any of her books – always has amazing women at the centre, who build or protect or avenge their own version of family ties amidst the epic plot. I love her books. She usually writes really long books and I wish her books were even longer.
Oh right, and Diane Duane’s Tales of the five/Tales of the Middle Kingdom which she has rereleased in ebook – that’s a Thea series again.
oh em GEE. I go away for a few hours and then the thread explodes with the awesome of you all. Thank you, writing down ALL THE THINGS.
Hapax – I am the BIGGEST Queen’s Thief series fan. *grin* Greatest moment of our blogging life for me was to find thath she linked to my review of the series: http://meganwhalenturner.org/Novels.html
@Ana — I thought you were a MWT fan, but I just wanted to make sure. (Have you read the short stories in INSTEAD OF THREE WISHES? If not, they’ll fit in the OSW time-frame; and all the incipient awesomeness of the THIEF series is nascent there. I remember when it first came out, and I immediately put her name on my “Authors to Watch” list.)
Also, I missed the rec of the Liaden series by Lee & Miller upthread; enthusiastically second this one as well. Do start with AGENT OF CHANGE — I suspect that Ana, especially, will find in herself a desperate desire to run away from home and live with the Turtles.
Hapax – YES, I have read that one as well. This just means that I have nothing else to read by MWT until she finishes book 5. WOE.
I am intrigued by the possibility of living with Turtles.
Tami – Actually, I agree with you, Deep Wizardry and High Wizardry are my favorites. The first book in the series is a solid novel though, with one of my favorite moments being a certain discovery in a library.
Jaime – I may (or may not) have walked down library shelves trailing an idle finger along the spine.
You know. Just in case.
*grin*
Holy moly, I wish I had got to this post earlier in the day, because now there are SO MANY COMMENTS TO READ. Which reminds me, before I say anything else, OMG ANA, READ THE BOOK THIEF, READ ITTTTTTTTT!
Okay, to my recommendations! And I am trying to go very old school with these!
I want to second (third? N’th?) John Christopher’s Tripod Trilogy. LOVED it. I heard the prequel is trash though, so you can skip it. Just make sure you get to The City of Gold and Lead. SO GOOD. (MG/SF/60s)
Also, have either of you read Tuck Everlasting? Such a short, beautiful book and one of my favorites. Don’t let the crappy movie version with Rory Gilmore dissaude you! Natalie Babbitt was an amazing children’s writer. (MG/F/70s)
Black Unicorn (and its sequels) by Tanith Lee was one I really loved when I was younger. Just re-read the first two and I thought they held up well! (YA/F/90s)
Enchantress From the Stars by Slyvia Engdahl. SO good and I’ve yet to meet anyone whose read it/heard of it. SO under-appreciated! (YA/SF/70s)
I’m assuming one of both of you has read Jonathan Strange (if not, GET ON THAT). But Susanna Clarke’s collection of short stories (The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories) is SO GOOD too and few people seem to have read it.
And now to go WAY OLD SCHOOL. As far as (non-genre) classics go, I’d love to see someone review the Emily of New Moon books by L.M. Montgomery, since they don’t get nearly the amount of love the Anne books get. And they are amazing. Also, I’d LOVE to pimp out the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. They don’t get nearly as much love as some of their contemporaries. The first four are childrens, but the rest are set in high school and college.
@de Pizan/Thea/EVERYONE – I CANNOT recommend Thriftbooks enough. Their backlist/out of print selection is AMAZING and everything is usually a straight 4 bucks (shipping included). I checked and they even have Emergence.
I’m having so much fun reading everyone else’s recommendations! I’m bookmarking this page so I can keep checking back. (And my TBR list is getting longer and longer…)
But how on earth did I miss that Ana has The Perilous Gard in her pile? Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes! One of my all-time favorite books. (I also love The Sherwood Ring, by the same author, but it is a very different book from The Perilous Gard.
I’m having so much fun reading everyone else’s recommendations! I’m bookmarking this page so I can keep checking back. (And my TBR list is getting longer and longer…)
But how on earth did I miss that Ana has The Perilous Gard in her pile? YES! One of my all-time favorite books. (I also love The Sherwood Ring, by the same author, but it is a very different book from The Perilous Gard.
Not sure if guys have read and reviewed it or not, but Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta is FANTASTIC!
Already on Your Shelves/List & General Comments
Fever Crumb – Soooo good. A friend insisted that I read this and I’m glad that I listened to her. The good news is that the third book in the Fever Crumb trilogy recently came out, so you don’t have to wait to find out what happens. Thea, these are prequels to the Mortal Engines series (which I still have to read), so you can read these first. Paige is correct that the Fever Crumb series are written for middle grade. If you like Philip Reeve, check out his middle grade space opera books (see Middle grade list).
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos – Yes! So glad to see this on your pending list. I love Theodosia, a rather lonely soul, and the use of the Egyptian mythology. A very fun series that I hope Robin LaFevers returns to soon ‘cause I want to find out what happens next. I fear it has been neglected due to the popularity of her His Fair Assassin trilogy.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters – I know a lot of folks are recommending but I have to say that I HATED it. I found the main character insufferable, arrogant, sexist and a complete busybody.
The Book Thief – Ana, read it! Your reluctance may be that it might not live up to its hype but it really does. LOVED it.
A Few of My Favorites Ever
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (2006). One of my all time favorites. It’s a delicious modern day Gothic for the book lover. A mysterious novelist, a biographer who lives above a rare bookstore owned by her father, twins, ghosts, orphans. What more could you want? Beautiful writing, it has that also. There are two heroines here: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father’s shop. Vida has been confounding her biographers and fans for years by giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it’s the truth. Because of a biography that Margaret has written about brothers, Vida chooses Margaret to tell her story, all of it, for the first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins:
The audio version narrated by Bianca Amato and Jill Tanner is fantastic, as would be expected from two such skilled narrators. (There’s an abridged version, which I originally purchased by mistake after reading the book, with Ruthie Henshall and Lynn Redgrave narrating that is also excellent so be careful when making your selection if you decide to go the audio route.)
Sometimes the Soul by Gioia Timpanelli (1998). Two novellas. In “A Knot of Tears” a woman’s locked up life is transformed by a parrot who tells tales. “Rosina, Not Quite In Love” is a lovely retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Oh, the language here is so beautiful.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960). I think this is one of the all time great American novels and gave us one of the best literary men – Atticus Finch. Scout Finch, daughter of the town lawyer Atticus, has just started school; but her carefree days come to an end when a black man in town is accused of raping a white woman, and her father is the only man willing to defend him. It explores issues of race, class and the loss of innocence. Great sibling relationship between Scout and her older brother Jem. For those audio book fans, Sissy Spacek narrates and, as expected, does a fantastic job. She brings the characters alive.
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West (1931). How often do you have a book where the main character is an 88-year old woman? Lady Slane, who near the end of her life is emancipated by her husband’s death. She has been the dutiful wife of a “great man” in public life, Viceroy of India and a member of the House of Lords. Her children plan to share her care between them much as they divide up the family property but, completely unexpectedly, Lady Slane makes her own choice, proposing to leave fashionable Kensington for a cottage in Hampstead that caught her eye decades earlier, where she will live alone except for her maidservant and please herself — for example allowing her descendants to visit only by appointment. Sharing much with Sackville-West, Lady Slane explicitly states that she is not a feminist and considers such issues to be questions of human rights, while acknowledging the more difficult position of women.
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell (1937). Not really a WWI novel, but it of that era and deals with the Spanish Influenza. Like the swallows in the poem by William Butler Yeats (from which the title comes), the lives of the four Morisons revolve around the mother. The story is told through three different people. First Bunny(8). When Bunny comes down the Spanish flu, his older brother Robert (12) becomes the narrator. In the concluding scenes, we do our thinking through the mind of the father. William Maxwell was the fiction editor of The New Yorker for over 40 years, and edited some of the great English writing literary talents of the time. Though this book is considered fiction, I think it’s semi-autobiographical as it reflects Wm. Maxwell’s childhood. His mother died of the Spanish flu when he was very young (like Bunny).
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson (1989). From the back cover: “Intertwines the destinies of two people: the soldier Henri, for eight years the faithful cook who follows Napoleon from the glory of Empire to Russionan ruin, and Villanelle, the red-haired daughter of a Venetian boatman whose webbed feet are a quirk of fate and whose several identities are created whole-cloth out of Venice’s compound of carnival, chance, and darkness. In Venice, both meet their singular destiny.” Combines several things I love: Venice, an unreliable narrator (as Villanelle says: “I’m telling you tales. Trust me.”), and magic realism (sort of).
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (1952) – an American classic. This could go in the Middle Grade category but I have to put it in Favorites. This is the book that made me a reader. I can still remember being curled up on my big sister’s bed reading this book and sobbing my heart out. I was hooked on books ever since. The first sentence: “Where’s Papa going with the ax?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.”
Superheros (sort of)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (2000). Okay, technically not a superhero book but it is about the early days of comic book (the Golden Age). Joe Kavalier and his Sammy Klayman. Joe escaped from Prague with the help of his teacher Kornblum by hiding in a coffin leaving the rest of his family behind. Under the name “Sam Clay”, Sammy starts writing adventure stories with Joe illustrating them, the pair create the Escapist, an anti-fascist superhero who combines traits of (among others) Captain America, Harry Houdini, Batman, the Phantom, and the Scarlet Pimpernel. This book won the Pulitzer Prize. Chabon went on to write The Escapist comic books.
Modern Literary Novels
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry (2007). I love stories with an unreliable narrator (as you can tell from my recommended books) and Towner is one of the best. The book starts out -”My name is Towner Whitney. No, that’s not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time….” Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator of The Lace Reader, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations. Having left her hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, fifteen years ago under troubling circumstances, psychic Towner Whitney reluctantly returns after her eighty-five-year-old great-aunt Eva suddenly disappears.
The House of Forgetting by Benjamin Alire Saenz (1991). An earlier adult novel by the author of Aristotle and Dante. Seven year old Gloria Santos is taken by Thomas Blacker from the barrio of El Paso, Texas to Chicago. There, in the home of the respected writer and academic, Gloria is raised to be a refined, educated young woman. For more than 20 years, she is confined to Blacker’s house and only occasionally allowed in the garden. As she reaches adulthood Gloria grows more aware that her situation is unacceptable.
Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz (2004). Okay, this one won’t be light. It takes place in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Gyorgy Koves, a 14-year old Hungarian Jew, is imprisoned in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Gradual starvation and what he experiences as grinding boredom become a way of life for him, yet Gyorgy describes both Buchenwald and its guards as “beautiful”; as he asks “who can judge what is possible or believable in a concentration camp?” Gyorgy also comes to a sense of himself as a Jew. At first, he experiences a strong distaste for the Jewish-looking prisoners; he doesn’t know Hebrew (for talking to God) or Yiddish (for talking to other Jews). Fellow inmates even claim Gyorgy is “no Jew,” and make him feel he isn’t “entirely okay.”
End Part 1
Thanks Megan no h! I knew there were other sites out there that might be better. I was at work and coming up with a total blank, and a google search for buying it didn’t turn up much of anything.
Part 2
World War I
A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot (1994). This book is much better than the movie, so if you saw the movie don’t dismiss this book. In January 1917, five wounded French soldiers, their hands bound behind them, are brought to the front by their own troops, forced into the no-man’s land between the French and German armies, and left to die in the cross fire. Their brutal punishment has been hushed up for more than two years when Mathilde Donnay, unable to walk since childhood, begins a relentless quest to find out whether her fiance, officially “killed in the line of duty,” might still be alive. Tipped off by a letter from a dying soldier, Mathilde scours the country for information about the men. As she carries her search to its end, an elaborate web of deception and coincidence emerges, and Mathilde comes to an understanding of the horrors, and the acts of kindness, brought about by war.
World War II
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Ann Barrows (2008). Because you loved the Montmaray novels – they both occur during WWII and deal with Nazi occupation of islands off the coast of England (one real (Guernsey) and one fictional (Montmaray). Though I love an epistolary novel, I resisted this one for a while even though I’d regularly pick it up in the bookstore and then had the book in my hands after my sister gave it to me. I finally read it when I needed a small paperback to throw in my purse to read on the bus and train. It’s a quick but delightful read. As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guernsey–a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.
The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys (2002). A story of the Land Girls. Set in early 1941 in Britain, a young woman gardener named Gwen Davis flees from burning London for the Devon countryside. She has volunteered for the Land Army, and is to be in charge of a group of young girls who will be trained to plant food crops on an old country estate where the gardens have fallen into ruin. Also on the estate, waiting to be posted, is a regiment of Canadian soldiers. For three months, the young women and men will form attachments, living in a temporary rural escape. No one will be more changed by the stay than Gwen. Ms. Humphreys is a poet and her use of language is reflected here.
Mysteries
Guido Brunetti mysteries by Donna Leon. Take place in Venice, usually include wonderful descriptions of Italian food (you’ll be hungry reading these) and each book tackles some form of social issue without being preachy or didactic. I love Guido and his wife’s relationship. If you’re a fan of Friday Night Lights, it has the same mutual respect and realism as that of Coach and Tammy Taylor, y’all. If you know how much I love FNL, you’ll know that ‘s the highest compliment I could give. First book: Death at La Fenice
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. This series of books follow Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s one and only lady private detective. It’s more about the characters than the mysteries. A series of vignettes linked to the establishment and growth of Mma Ramotswe’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency explore the conditions in Botswana. These books are light and lovely. Very simple language but the characters are fully developed and draw you in. One word description is respect. The characters are respected, women are respected, and they respect each other. This is not often found.
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz. This is the first book of a series of six books so far. The mysteries aren’t the main point of the book. It’s really about the crazy, eccentric Spellman family who are private detectives and their friends and acquaintances. Meet Isabel “Izzy” Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors — but the upshot is she’s good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family’s firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people’s privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman. These books are funny.
John Le Carre – If you like spy thrillers, do try some of his well-known works such as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. George Smile is one of the best characters to arise out of the Cold War spy thrillers. He first appeared as a minor character in Le Carré’s earlier works(The Spy Who Came in From the Cold) and then went on to be the main character in the Karla trilogy, of which Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the first and probably most famous. You do not have to read earlier novels to follow the events in the Karla trilogy but they do add to your understanding. If you like classic spy novels, you’ll love these. I did but then I’m a sucker for a good spy novel. With the end of the Cold War there aren’t that many spy novels anymore.
The Constant Gardner by John Le Carre. This is a departure for Le Carre who normally writes spy thrillers. He’s a master of writing tense situations and creates wonderful characters. A consummate storyteller. The book opens with the gruesome murder of the young and beautiful Tessa Quayle near northern Kenya’s Lake Turkana – the birthplace of mankind. Her putative African lover and traveling companion, a doctor with one of the aid agencies, has vanished from the scene of the crime. Tessa’s much older husband, Justin, a career diplomat at the British High Commission in Nairobi, sets out on a personal odyssey in pursuit of the killers. Tragedy elevates Justin Quayle, amateur gardener and ineffectual bureaucrat, seemingly oblivious to his wife’s cause, when he wakes to his own resources and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.
Non-Fiction – The Dare Category.
A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel (2001). I love this book and give it out to everyone. It really captures small town America. Somehow Haven Kimmel can keep the story in the memory and voice of a third grade girl without an adult sensibility and later understanding inform it. It remains in a completely self-involved world of a small child. This is a girl who pretty much was allowed to run wild but was dearly loved by her family and neighbors. Kimmel evokes her childhood as vividly as any novel in a collection of vignettes comprising the things a small child would remember: sick birds, a new bike, reading comics at the drugstore, the mean old lady down the street. The truths of childhood are rendered in lush yet simple prose; here’s Zippy describing a friend who hates wearing girls’ clothes: “Julie in a dress was like the rest of us in quicksand”; or, regarding Jesus, “Everyone around me was flat-out in love with him, and who wouldn’t be? He was good with animals, he loved his mother, and he wasn’t afraid of blind people.”
She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel If you liked Zippy, its sequel (which Haven didn’t intend to write but did so after everyone asked her about her mother at book readings and “if she ever got off the couch”), is equally as good. The difference is that Zippy is older and is developing an awareness of others and what’s happening to them. We follow Zippy from one story to another, but this is really her mother’s book: the poignant tale of a woman who found a way to save herself and set a proud example for her daughter.
Cod by Mark Kurkinsky (1997). A book about cod? Believe it or not, this is a fascinating read. Mark Kurlansky has written a fabulous book–well worth your time–about a fish that probably has mattered more in human history than any other.
YA Science Fiction
Chaos Walking Series by Patrick Ness – Thea, I think you’ve probably read these books. Ana, if you haven’t read them since your review of A Monster Calls, you should read them. There is strong dialect in the book but, like Blood Red Road, once you’ve become used to it, it makes sense and pulls you into the story and you really don’t notice it after a while.
Middle School
I already gave lots of middle school recommendations many of which could fit under the Old School banner as well. I won’t repeat them here but can second the Tamora Pierce love, plus the recommendation for the Tillerman cycle by Cynthia Voigt (see my raving about Homecoming). Another shout out for Enchanted Forest series by Patricia C. Wrede (go, Cimerone!) Here are a few more that I left out:
Home of the Brave (2007) by Katherine Applegate – I was not a huge fan of this year’s Newberry Award book, The One and Only Ivan (dodges fruit), but this earlier book Ms. Applegate deserves to be better known and more widely read. It’s a lovely, gentle, honest story but don’t confuse gentle with bland. Kek, an African refugee, is confronted by many strange things at the Minneapolis home of his aunt and cousin, as well as in his fifth grade classroom, and longs for his missing mother, but finds comfort in the company of a cow and her owner. Oh how I love Kek and his cousin.
Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer (mentioned by earlier posters). For when you finish the Sally Lockhart mysteries and want another Victorian era series. This one is for a younger set. Enola Holmes is the much younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes. She’s raised by her mother, a staunch feminist and free spirit. What I loved about this series (6 books) is that because of her mother and upbringing she has progressive views for her time but are firmly rooted in her time. The author avoided overlaying 21st century sensibilities on an earlier century. Also, she is able to give her female character agency without rejecting all females who do not share her beliefs or feminine roles in society.
First book: The Case of the Missing Marquess (2006) – On Enola’s fourteenth birthday, her mother disappears, and Sherlock and Mycroft, Enola’s brothers, conclude that her mother left on her own choice. Enola is devastated, but eventually discovers elaborate ciphers written by her mother, Enola finds that her mother left considerable resources for her to escape. When Mycroft insists on having Enola go to boarding school and learn to be a proper lady, she decides to run away to London instead.
Larklight, or, The revenge of the white spiders!, or, To Saturn’s rings and back! : a rousing tale of dauntless pluck in the farthest reaches of space by Phillip Reeve (2006). The first book in Philip Reeve’s middle grade space opera trilogy. In an alternate Victorian England, young Arthur and his sister Myrtle, residents of Larklight, a floating house in one of Her Majesty’s outer space territories, uncover a spidery plot to destroy the solar system.
– Book 2: Starcross, or, The coming of the moobs!, or, Our adventures in the fourth dimension! : a stirring adventure of spies, time travel and curious hats (2007). Young Arthur Mumby, his sister Myrtle, and their mother accept an invitation to take a holiday at an up-and-coming resort in the asteroid belt, where they become involved in a dastardly plot involving spies, time travel, and mind-altering clothing.
– Book 3: Mothstorm : the horror from beyond Georgium Sidus! (2008). Reports of a strange phenomenon at the fringe of the galaxy and its connection to one of Father’s old friends send the entire Mumby family, accompanied by Jack and other friends, to a far-off planet where they must find a way to prevent a new invasion of the solar system by giant moths. I haven’t read this one but have listed it to be a complete.
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (2002). In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patrón, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (1996). While fleeing from Mozambique to Zimbabwe to escape an unwanted marriage, Nhamo, an eleven-year-old Shona girl, struggles to escape drowning and starvation and in so doing comes close to the luminous world of the African spirits.
Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum (2009 – just makes it). Amelia’s family has in San Francisco in 1851, hoping for a new life in this gold rush town. But they are nearly penniless. Amelia discovers that newsboys can make a fortune selling East Coast newspapers. So in spite of their warning – “No girls in our gang!” – she cuts her hair and dresses as a boy. Then an unexpected and harrowing balloon flight drops Amelia in the gold fields. Suddenly facing more adventure than she ever imagined, Amelia resolves to find her way back to her family and to make a living as a newsgirl.
Oh my goodness. WHAT ANA SAID. This is the most amazing recommendation thread EVER – THANK YOU EVERYONE!
Clearly, there’s only one solution to make sure everyone gets the recs in one place: a Goodreads list! Commence project!
Oooh, I’m going to play too.
From Ana’s shelf I heartily second:
*The Owl Service
*The Perilous Gard
*The Bell at Sealy Head
Seconding those other posters have mentioned:
*Sydney J. Van Scyoc, especially the Daughters of the Sunstone trilogy
*Stephen R. Donaldson, Mordant’s Need duology (now in a single ebook)
* Patricia A. McKillip, The Riddlemaster Trilogy
* David R. Palmer, Emergence
* Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Sherwood Ring
* Philip Reeve, Larklight trilogy
* Robin McKinley, The Blue Sword/The Hero and the Crown
* Diana Wynne Jones, anything really
I’d also like to add:
*Doris Egan, Ivory trilogy (The Gate of Ivory, Two-Bit Heroes, Guilt Edged Ivory)
* Kate Elliott, Jaran series, especially the first one (Jaran, An Earthy Crown, His Conquering Sword, The Law of Becoming)
* Zenna Henderson, People stories
* Patricia A. McKillip, The Changeling Sea (my favourite by her ever, but they all tend to be good)
* M. S. Murdock, Vendetta and Dynteryx (first has just been released as an ebbok, so hoping the second will be soon too)
* Jennifer Roberson, Chronicles of the Cheysuli
* Midori Snyder, New Moon (it’s the first of a trilogy but I never got to the last two which are Sadar’s Keep and Beldan’s Fire)
* M. K. Wren, Phoenix Legacy (Sword of the Lamb, Shadow of the Swan, House of the Wolf)
@Kerry – yes! Midori Snyder! I enjoy those books quite a bit. Her, Pamela Dean, Joyce Ballou Gregorian and TA Barron were all staples of my childhood. (and still are rather).
…Ana/Thea can we make this a Challenge of some nature? Or not a Challenge but a Read-a-long sort of thing?
Eliza – Your comments need to become blog posts, they are so wonderfully convincing and detailed and thoughtful. THANK YOU a million times over!
Lexie C – that is a great idea! It would be a fun challenge or book club, wouldn’t it?! YES. Ana and I are discussing/plotting now!
Also on another note: my bank account has just been compromised. It’s for a good cause though…right?
@Thea – ha! don’t worry there was one book buying binge that I spent enough (across multiple sites) in such a short amount of time that my bank called me to ask if someone had stolen my card XD Its all for a better cause of literacy!
And I’m totally down for a club/read/share thing! w00t the Power of Reading.
I can’t explain how MUCH I love seeing my favorites suggested by so many other people!
*Same comment on Sirena. Didn’t particularly enjoy it, but I did love Zel by the same author.
*Huge fan of Robin McKinley. LOVE Beauty, also aforementioned Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword. I also really adore Deerskin, which is incredibly dark, but gorgeously written. Definitely a fairytale for adults.
*Cynthia Voigt’s Jackaroo and On Fortune’s Wheel (I favor Jackaroo!)
*Anything by Cameron Dokey, but especially The Storyteller’s Daughter (retelling of The Arabian Nights)
*East by Edith Pattou… also Fire Arrow (my favorite hardened and human female heroine). I wish she had more books published, she’s one of my all-time favorites.
*A hearty second to the Tanith Lee Claidi Journals series. Same reaction, here: not what I expected, but was thoroughly entertained.
*Patricia McKillip: LOVE THEM ALL. But especially In the Forests of Serre, which I think is her very best. It’s a heady mix of Russian folktales with characters I adore. Also the most complex and possibly horrifying-yet-lovely version of Baba Yaga I’ve read, yet.
*Madeleine L’Engle: A Ring of Endless Light. I loved this as a teen and it holds up well to time.
I’m also bookmarking this page! Can’t wait to see what everyone continues to suggest, and to keep an eye out for what you’ll be reviewing!
Ditto on The Sherwood Ring-I love that book.
I really enjoyed Pamela Service’s Winter of Magics Return. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the hero’s go on a quest to find the reborn Arthur.
For mysteries I can’t recommend Sarah Caudwell high enough-Thus was Adonis Murdered is one of my favorites. It is a must if you love snarky British humor.
Also Marian Babson is awesome. I recommend Murder at the Cat Show. She is an American author, but writes like a Brit.
… also, yes Cimorene! My favorite anti-princess! Books 1 & 2 in particular.
Yes to both Beggars In Spain and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld! And I’d like to suggest Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. I loved the ending and the main protagonist.
Michelle – Oh yes on the Patricia F. Service books. In recent years, the first two books (Winter of Magic’s Return and Tomorrow’s Magic) have been combined into a single book titled Tomorrow’s Magic. That is now followed by two others, Yesterday’s Magic and Earth’s Magic. The original two remain the best, but the other two are still a decent read.
Oh, I’m ridiculous, but just one more…
The Songs of Pellinor series (4) by Alison Croggan. Heavy duty fantasy with Tolkien-inspired good vs. evil… so many creative characters, cultures, and creatures! And Maerad is a very REAL and HUMAN heroine with faults and missteps just like we’d imagine for ourselves. Marillier-like world building and storytelling, I think.
Michelle – Sarah Caudwell mysteries are so funny. Love them. Thank you for reminding me.
Thea – you’re making me blush. Thank you for your kind words. As to budget issues, I’ve cut myself off cold turkey on buying books for two years and have been using the library (though occasionally I’ll sneak into a bookstore just to get a hit of the new book smell). It really helps that we have a fantastic library system and if they don’t have the book, we can request the book from a large number of the libraries throughout California.
Ana and Thea – Are you interested in short stories? I have several I can recommend but have found that they’re like cilantro – people either love or hate them without any middle ground. (btw -I like both)
I loved looking at all of these recommendations! There are some really great ones on these lists. Here are a few more from a variety of genres:
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde – This whole series is hard to classify sometimes, but basically it is an homage to reading and booklovers. What would happen if there were some people who could jump in and out of books? What if all the characters could cross over into each others’ books and hang out when they weren’t being read?
The Secret Country by Pamela Dean – This fantasy trilogy is about a group of siblings and cousins who have always played a game acting out the story of what happens in a made-up kingdom. They have the plot and the characters down since they have played it so many times, until one day when they stumble their way into a world that matches the game they’ve been playing their whole lives…
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer – A sweet contemporary YA about a big city girl who moves to a small town and finds herself unexpectedly loving it, the most awesome waitressing you’ve ever seen, and life and loss.
Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie – This is called a contemporary romance, but there is so much more to it than that. There are so many things going on: the people trying to kidnap a dog, the string of hitmen trying to kill Agnes, the mystery of a death that occurred twenty years ago, the missing five million dollars that may or may not be in the house, the upcoming wedding, the people trying to sabotage the wedding, the crazy grandmother of the bride, the mob, and of course our two protagonists, a cook and a hitman. It’s one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time.
Goose Chase by Patrice Kindl – It’s a lighthearted fairy tale with one of the most no-nonsense heroines you’ve ever read. I loved this book when I was in middle school, and I still have a real soft spot for it.
The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones – This is one of my favorite Diana Wynne Jones books, but it’s one a lot of people haven’t heard about. Poor Derk is stuck being this year’s Dark Lord as the whole country prepares for the influx of tourists from our world. This book is for anyone who has ever read an epic fantasy.
The Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara – I think the first book in this series is Cast in Shadow but I’m not sure off the top of my head. This is a fascinating fantasy that does an excellent job with the worldbuilding, particular in how the cultures of the various races interact.
A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly – The first in the Benjamin January series. Barbara Hambly is best known for her science fiction and fantasy, but I really love this historical mystery series set in 1830s New Orleans. Our main character is a black surgeon who just moved back to New Orleans after living in Paris for over ten years and is now working as a musician. His friends (or people he works for) keep getting peripherally involved in trouble that leads to him solving mysteries. The mystery plots are handled really well, the writing is excellent, the characters are fascinating (even the ones you don’t like) and the setting is incredibly well researched. The race issues inherent in a book set in this place and time were handled really thoughtfully by the author.
The Gaslight Mysteries by Victoria Thompson – The first book is Murder on Astor Place and this is probably my favorite historical mystery series; it’s set in NYC in the late 1890s. The author always does a great job highlighting different aspects of the city and society during this time period, but where the series really shines is the characters. There are two main characters who work together (often reluctantly) to solve mysteries: Sarah Brandt and Frank Malloy. Sarah is a widow who comes from a wealthy family but finds fulfillment working as a midwife rather than being a society woman. Her work takes her all over the city and introduces her to all kinds of people, which gives her an in when solving mysteries. Frank Malloy is a police detective who starts off rather corrupt, annoying, and mysogenistic but grows a lot over the course of the series thanks to his interactions with Sarah. Watching him change from someone you don’t really like to someone you root for is part of what makes this work so well.
And finally, I’m going to give a shout-out to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld since you enjoyed We Free Men. Most of the series was published a while back (although it is still continuing) so it is eligible for Old School Wednesdays! Dive in anywhere, but I would recommend going the Watch route by picking up Guards! Guards! and going from there.
Thea, read Terrier and Chalice! Ana, I’ll cast my vote for Cordelia’s Honor and Sandry’s Book.
As for my own recs, So You Want to be a Wizard is a middle-grade book that started my favorite childhood series. I am rubbish at making books that are good sound good, so here’s a quick quote from it.
“The city breathing, burning, living the life thy had preserved. Ten million lives and more. If something should happen to all that life- how terrible! Nita gulped for control as she remembered Fred’s word of just this morning, an eternity ago. And this was what being a wizard was about. Keeping terrible things from happening, even when it hurts. Not just power, or control of what ordinary people couldn’t control, or delight in being able to make strange things happen. Those were the side effects- not the reason, the purpose.”
Don’t get me wrong, there’s many other books I’d love for you to read and review, such as the Bone Key (Lovecraftian short stories), Dead Harvest and anything anything anything by Hilari Bell (especially the Farsala trilogy). However, if I needed to pick only one book that I thought you two would love, it would be this one.
I’ll second the Liaden suggestion. My favorite off of Thea’s list is The Price of the Stars. First book in an amazing space opera trilogy. Strong female protags, great plot twists and wonderful characters. I’ve re-read it many times.
Temeriare by Naomi Novik is fantastic!! Historical fiction is ALWAYS better with dragons and Ms. Novik does an amazing job.
Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce would be my next choice. Such a fun character and truly fantastic world. Such great writing.
Enjoy!
I’ll third/forth/eighty seventh The Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer – wonderful MG mysteries
I’d also be very curious to hear what y’all think of the Last Herald Mage trilogy (Magic’s Pawn is the first) by Mercedes Lackey – it was the first fantasy I read growing up w/ a gay protag
Also The Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums) – which I think are her only YA novels
And Once A Hero by Elizabeth Moon – SF/military that revolves around the aftermath of trauma. Love what it has to say about what we can and can’t overcome on our own.
Kerry, since you recommended Kate Elliott’s Jaran and also enjoyed M.K. Wren (you’re the only other person I know who has read that – I still have the books on my shelves), I was wondering if you knew that she had written a sf trilogy in the Jaran universe only hundreds of years before that time, under her original author name Alis R. Rasmussen (the one-off fantasy under that name is also really good): The Highroad Trilogy.
My favourites growing up were:
Stranger with my Face – Lois Duncan
The Changeover – Margaret Mahy
I also loved Guy Gavriel Kay’s Summer Tree triology and Tigana. I thought he had a great way of blurring the lines between good and evil and making you question original character impressions.
Estara – I have heard about the Highroad Trilogy, but never easily found copies. I’ll add them to my “grab if I see at a good price” list.
Wow – I had no idea Kate Elliot was the author of the Highroad Trilogy! I’ve been meaning to re-read that…
The Book Thief by Mark Zusak is one I loved. I struggled with the German, yes, but thankfully I have two parents and a brother who all took German (my mom spoke it fluently for a long while as we lived in Bamberg.) I highly recommend either looking up teacher notes (there are many online for the book) with the German translated out before you get into it.
Annie on My Mind.
Oh, and before I forget, @Ana, I still haven’t read Hush Hush (my library keeps running out; it appears to be rather popular. I will read that book because I know we had an ongoing discussion about it over the summer), but This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn by Aidan Chambers is a hefty book (816 pages), but incredibly good. It plays with how novels are set up, story structure, and Cordelia writes so honestly (it’s also written in epistolary form which I believe you love.) It flies by quickly. I read it in three days and cried horribly (pack tissues) and that much heft usually takes me a week. It should be more easy for you to access as it is a UK book (you have to buy it online here in the States.)
Definitely Tamora Pierce! I see that Ana has Sandry’s Book in her TBR list—that’s a great one and a good starting point for her Emelan series, which is absolutely kickass and full of PoC characters (as well as some LGBT ones) and superbly well-developed.
From Thea’s list, Tamar is a poignant and shocking book about a group of characters caught amidst the turbulence and treachery of WWII. If you liked Code Name Verity or The Book Thief, definitely give it a try!
I see no one’s mentioned this one yet. I rather like Teot’s War and Bloodstorm by Heather Gladney, even though it’s 2/3rds of a 20-year-unfinished trilogy and I keep hoping the author will decide to finish it. Set in a weird secondary fantasy world that feels like north Africa, with steampunk-before-it-was-cool, and a protagonist who’s probably schizophrenic, and one of the loveliest homoerotic-subtext buddy relationships I’ve seen in awhile. The story follows a warrior who is plagued by visions, who vows to aid the lord of Tan in a battle against a vastly technologically superior enemy. The writing is a little opaque, but lovely, and the characters really make it. Probably out of print and hard to find, but I’m happy to lend my copies.