themadpoker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
themadpoker) wrote2008-07-28 09:34 am
themadpoker) wrote2008-07-28 09:34 am
Entry tags:
I am going to tell you to read. Again.
List the top 10 books that you've read and recommend that others read.
Rules:
1. You must list why you think friends should read them.
2. You cannot list your own books, but you can list a friend's.
3. You can list them in comments or provide the link to your page in comments if you prefer.
4. You cannot list a book that I listed or that another responder already listed.
5. There's no point in including Harry Potter, because I don't think there's anyone left that hasn't read them.
Ganked this meme off Finni, Queen of all LJ memes. Check out her list before mine they all contain lovely intelligent books as opposed to books picked because they made me cry (totally valid reason to read a book, I'm telling you).
1. Warchild by Karin Lowachee. Well Karin Lowachee is certainly capable of making me cry but that's not actually why this book is here. It's here because this is the book that redeemed sci-fi for me. I used to dislike the genre indiscriminately. Too many technical terms! I am unattached to the characters! I don't even know why they bother shelving it with fantasy when fantasy is so much better. Karin Lowachee has absolutely no problem with characterization however. Her protaganist, Jos Musey, is written so very believably that you read about him being kidnapped by space pirates and mentored by aliens with nary a scoff to be heard (also, re: aliens I am crossing my fingers for a book on Niko to come out someday). Plus she writes the entire first third of the book in second person. That is no easy task. And you can see why she wrote it like that too, because the main character is going through some pretty bad times and he needs that detachment to keep going. I will sum up: Karin Lowachee is the best thing since grilled cheese bagels, read her books.
2. Are We There Yet? by David Levithan. This is my favourite David Levithan book. Not to be confused with the movie of the same name, Are We There Yet is the story of two brothers travelling through Italy. Now from what I remember, the back cover summary tried to make it sound like the brothers hated each other which pfft. I don't know who they they think they're kidding. They don't understand each other and have alot of distance between them but even from the start of the novel it was pretty clear they were trying to get along better as opposed to the I-hate-you-and-your-socks-smell-go-away type relationship. David Levithan is extraordinarily talented at writing out sibling relationships and I kept finding myself doing the mental equivalent of nodding, uh huh, that's exactly right. Read it. And then, if you happen to live in the Peel area, join me in my campaign to get the Mississauga library system to stock more of his books. I want How They Met, and Other Stories and I want it NOW.
3. White Time by Margo Lanagan. I had to take a few minutes to debate with myself on whether to recommend Lanagan's White Time or Red Spikes. I settled on White Time because I really love the photograph/illustration things she has as the title page for every story. White Time (and Red Spikes!) is a collection of short stories. I hesitate to classify them as fantasy or sci-fi because they're not so much either genre as they are weird. Now, because I do not happen to have the book on hand and I am lazy, here, read some other reviewer's summary of each of the stories.
4. The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti. Why should you read this? Because Deb Caletti is amazing and this is the best of all her books (not a small recommendation, you should see how good her other books are). Besides, you get to learn lots of interesting facts about elephants. Read it because more of the world should be exposed to good writing (I have an lj post on it if you want a slightly more detailed post on why to read it. Look under the tag book: the nature of jade). If you like Sarah Dessen you'll probably like Deb Caletti. And vice-versa.
5. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. This is the third time I've managed to sneak a recommendation of this book into a post and don't think I'm going to stop there. Finni recced 1984 because it served as a wake-up call to the world about the dangers of government control and public surveillance. I am reccing this for much the same reasons although I found Little Brother to be infinitely more interesting (yes I said it. I don't really care whether a book is famous literature or not, it still needs to have characters and writing that grabs me). It also has the benefit of ending happily, which 1984 did not. I'd put it forth as a great book club read: it could spark alot of discussions about privacy, liberty, and technology. Plus, you don't even have to pay for it!
6. The Winter Prince by Elizabeth E Wein. Because it's a King Arthur re-write/exploration that will appeal to more people then just me. :) I like King Arthur. I will put up with alot for any book that draws on any Knights of the Round Table tale. I am aware this is not the viewpoint of most so. The Winter Prince has two aspects I like. 1: It's handling of Mordred! Dude got a raw deal in the original stories. >( Far more sympathetic here (and by sympathetic I do not mean she ignores the whole son-of-Morgan-le-Fay-who-is-evil-unless-you-happen-to-be-reading-Marion-Zimmer-Bradley-in-which-case-not-so-much aspect. By sympathetic I mean she includes that, makes you understand why Mordred (known as Medraut in the book) is the way he is and, if you're me, spend a lot of time trying to appeal to his better nature ("No Medraut! Don't do it! He is trying so hard to be good, why do you keep messing him up?!" ;_;)). And 2: you will still enjoy this book if you've never read anything about King Arthur whatsoever (which you should remedy immediately but that's just my opinion).
7. Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo by Andy Greenwald. Because if you're to be dissing emo kids/music/clothing, please to be understanding what it actually is. Also it is interesting non-fiction. Plus it is fun to see people try to figure out what to say when they ask you what you're reading and you whip this out.
8. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Apparently there are people who haven't read this book. I recommend it because it's one of those childhood classics that still holds up as a good read 10 years later.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mistful has a very nice post in her memories that further articulates the awesome that is The Secret Garden.
9. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. I'm cheating by putting an entire series here but I don't care. I suffered a similar shock as in regards to The Secret Garden, in finding out people haven't read these books. :/ What were you guys doing with your childhoods? I mean I know most kids weren't weirdos who spent their recess reading but there still ought to have been time to read classics like these. The Chronicles of Narnia also shares another quality with The Secret Garden: they're timeless. These books rock no matter what age you read them at.
10. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. Oh my God, you have no idea how hard it was to pick this last book. I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin, and Monster by Walter Dean Meyers were all close competition (see the sneaky recommendation there? I'm not saying you should totally read these books but...). The story behind this book is almost as cool as the book itself.
I really wish I had the book on hand because I really loved some of her character descriptions and I can't remember the exact words right now. I had to read this book for school in 8th grade and read it all in a day, afterwards proceeding to read it along with the class (my class went slow. A chapter a day, what?) It's a book I still love despite having to go through the numerous vocabulary lists and other assignments that were the fate of any middle school book I was made to study. Talking about it now has made me really want to re-read it.
Rules:
1. You must list why you think friends should read them.
2. You cannot list your own books, but you can list a friend's.
3. You can list them in comments or provide the link to your page in comments if you prefer.
4. You cannot list a book that I listed or that another responder already listed.
5. There's no point in including Harry Potter, because I don't think there's anyone left that hasn't read them.
Ganked this meme off Finni, Queen of all LJ memes. Check out her list before mine they all contain lovely intelligent books as opposed to books picked because they made me cry (totally valid reason to read a book, I'm telling you).
1. Warchild by Karin Lowachee. Well Karin Lowachee is certainly capable of making me cry but that's not actually why this book is here. It's here because this is the book that redeemed sci-fi for me. I used to dislike the genre indiscriminately. Too many technical terms! I am unattached to the characters! I don't even know why they bother shelving it with fantasy when fantasy is so much better. Karin Lowachee has absolutely no problem with characterization however. Her protaganist, Jos Musey, is written so very believably that you read about him being kidnapped by space pirates and mentored by aliens with nary a scoff to be heard (also, re: aliens I am crossing my fingers for a book on Niko to come out someday). Plus she writes the entire first third of the book in second person. That is no easy task. And you can see why she wrote it like that too, because the main character is going through some pretty bad times and he needs that detachment to keep going. I will sum up: Karin Lowachee is the best thing since grilled cheese bagels, read her books.
2. Are We There Yet? by David Levithan. This is my favourite David Levithan book. Not to be confused with the movie of the same name, Are We There Yet is the story of two brothers travelling through Italy. Now from what I remember, the back cover summary tried to make it sound like the brothers hated each other which pfft. I don't know who they they think they're kidding. They don't understand each other and have alot of distance between them but even from the start of the novel it was pretty clear they were trying to get along better as opposed to the I-hate-you-and-your-socks-smell-go-away type relationship. David Levithan is extraordinarily talented at writing out sibling relationships and I kept finding myself doing the mental equivalent of nodding, uh huh, that's exactly right. Read it. And then, if you happen to live in the Peel area, join me in my campaign to get the Mississauga library system to stock more of his books. I want How They Met, and Other Stories and I want it NOW.
3. White Time by Margo Lanagan. I had to take a few minutes to debate with myself on whether to recommend Lanagan's White Time or Red Spikes. I settled on White Time because I really love the photograph/illustration things she has as the title page for every story. White Time (and Red Spikes!) is a collection of short stories. I hesitate to classify them as fantasy or sci-fi because they're not so much either genre as they are weird. Now, because I do not happen to have the book on hand and I am lazy, here, read some other reviewer's summary of each of the stories.
4. The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti. Why should you read this? Because Deb Caletti is amazing and this is the best of all her books (not a small recommendation, you should see how good her other books are). Besides, you get to learn lots of interesting facts about elephants. Read it because more of the world should be exposed to good writing (I have an lj post on it if you want a slightly more detailed post on why to read it. Look under the tag book: the nature of jade). If you like Sarah Dessen you'll probably like Deb Caletti. And vice-versa.
5. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. This is the third time I've managed to sneak a recommendation of this book into a post and don't think I'm going to stop there. Finni recced 1984 because it served as a wake-up call to the world about the dangers of government control and public surveillance. I am reccing this for much the same reasons although I found Little Brother to be infinitely more interesting (yes I said it. I don't really care whether a book is famous literature or not, it still needs to have characters and writing that grabs me). It also has the benefit of ending happily, which 1984 did not. I'd put it forth as a great book club read: it could spark alot of discussions about privacy, liberty, and technology. Plus, you don't even have to pay for it!
6. The Winter Prince by Elizabeth E Wein. Because it's a King Arthur re-write/exploration that will appeal to more people then just me. :) I like King Arthur. I will put up with alot for any book that draws on any Knights of the Round Table tale. I am aware this is not the viewpoint of most so. The Winter Prince has two aspects I like. 1: It's handling of Mordred! Dude got a raw deal in the original stories. >( Far more sympathetic here (and by sympathetic I do not mean she ignores the whole son-of-Morgan-le-Fay-who-is-evil-unless-you-happen-to-be-reading-Marion-Zimmer-Bradley-in-which-case-not-so-much aspect. By sympathetic I mean she includes that, makes you understand why Mordred (known as Medraut in the book) is the way he is and, if you're me, spend a lot of time trying to appeal to his better nature ("No Medraut! Don't do it! He is trying so hard to be good, why do you keep messing him up?!" ;_;)). And 2: you will still enjoy this book if you've never read anything about King Arthur whatsoever (which you should remedy immediately but that's just my opinion).
7. Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo by Andy Greenwald. Because if you're to be dissing emo kids/music/clothing, please to be understanding what it actually is. Also it is interesting non-fiction. Plus it is fun to see people try to figure out what to say when they ask you what you're reading and you whip this out.
8. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Apparently there are people who haven't read this book. I recommend it because it's one of those childhood classics that still holds up as a good read 10 years later.
mistful has a very nice post in her memories that further articulates the awesome that is The Secret Garden.9. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. I'm cheating by putting an entire series here but I don't care. I suffered a similar shock as in regards to The Secret Garden, in finding out people haven't read these books. :/ What were you guys doing with your childhoods? I mean I know most kids weren't weirdos who spent their recess reading but there still ought to have been time to read classics like these. The Chronicles of Narnia also shares another quality with The Secret Garden: they're timeless. These books rock no matter what age you read them at.
10. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. Oh my God, you have no idea how hard it was to pick this last book. I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin, and Monster by Walter Dean Meyers were all close competition (see the sneaky recommendation there? I'm not saying you should totally read these books but...). The story behind this book is almost as cool as the book itself.
I was actually fifteen when I first began [The Outsiders]. It was the year I was sixteen and a junior in high school that I did the majority of the work(that was the year I made a D in creative writing). One day, a friend of mine was walking home from scool and these "nice" kids jumped out of a car and beat him up because they didn't like him being a greaser. This made me mad and I just went home and started pounding out a story about this boy who was beaten up while he was walking home from the movies-the beginning of The Outsiders. It was just something to let off steam. I didn't have any grand design. I just sat down and started writing it. I look back and think it was totally written in my subconscious or something.
...Ponyboy's gang was inspired by a true-life gang, the members of which were very dear to me. Later, all the gang members I hung out with were sure they were in the book-but they aren't. I guess it's because these characters are really kind of universal without losing their individuality.
I really wish I had the book on hand because I really loved some of her character descriptions and I can't remember the exact words right now. I had to read this book for school in 8th grade and read it all in a day, afterwards proceeding to read it along with the class (my class went slow. A chapter a day, what?) It's a book I still love despite having to go through the numerous vocabulary lists and other assignments that were the fate of any middle school book I was made to study. Talking about it now has made me really want to re-read it.