Book Suggestions, Anyone?

[milieva]

I'm looking for some new things to read. Preferably things that have been out a while, so I don't have to wait for them to be available at my public library. I have a serious problem with character death if I am close to the character. This is why I haven't reread the last three Harry Potter books since I read them through the first time. It's been even worse lately. I'm not dealing with the deaths in the family so well.

I tend to like fantasy and science fiction, though I am not opposed to a good mystery. I also have a liking of true stories. I recently read The Pregnancy Project. It was very interesting. I prefer things that are well written with a good plot, even if they were written with a younger audience in mind.

Does anyone have any suggestions of books?

Comments

[got_swagger]

The Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix is one of my all-time favorites. They're beautifully written and I really like the characters involved.

[serenityslady.livejournal.com]

Mils, if you haven't read them, the Dragonriders of Pern series (and there's a BUNCH of them) by Anne McCaffrey are fantastic. In fact, anything by her. Another fun writer is Larry Niven. He's been around a LONG time, but his Ringworld series is quite interesting and engaging.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I second the Dragonrider's of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. Wonderful and epic. I also really, really like the author Elizabeth Moon. You'll want to look for her Vatta's War series Trading in Danger, Marque and Reprisal, Engaging the Enemy, Command Decision, and Victory Conditions. Also her Herris Serano books, Hunting Party, Sporting Chance, and Winning Colors, which then breaks off with a minor character in the last book, Esmay Suiza, and gives her her own series, Once a Hero, Rules of Engagement, Change of Command, and Against the Odds. She also has this great standalone called Remnant Population. Oh, and she and Anne McCaffrey collaborated on the Pirate Planet Books (well, Anne started the series, but she finished it up with Elizabeth's help): Dinosaur Planet, Dinosaur Planet Survivors, the Death of Sleep, Sassinak, and Generation Warriors.

For younger readers Shiver by Maggie Stiefvarter (werewolves, but really good), Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (the government taking over and becoming fascist in America and what the kids do about it), and the Withern Rise trilogy by Michael Lawrence: A Crack in the Line, Small Eternities, and The Underwood See which is a fascinating story about parallel universes and the boy and girl who discover they are living almost the same exact lives, only with a couple of big differences, one is a boy and one is a girl, and one lost their mother and one did not. They accidentally trade places and reality alters around them so no one else knows they are not where they are supposed to be, and basically how they try to get back to where they belong. It is so well done and the final ending is very satisfactory.

[sciathan-file.livejournal.com]

Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss are hands down some of the best fantasy I have ever read. I hVe forced them on people who don't read sci fi / fantasy and they have enjoyed them.

Anne McCaffrey is also awesome. Mary Stewart's Merlin books (starting with The Crystal Cave) are also excellent. Obscure, but a strange combine of fantasy, detective, and 80's technology can only mean you're reading R.A. MacAvoy's Tea with the Black Dragon.

If you want something more literarily intense with Tudors, I highly recommend Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, which follows the career of Thomas Cromwell.

There are probably more, but typing on my kindle is tiresome.