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I was asked to condense my book list down to a top 10 list of my favorites. (What's wrong with you people, you don't want to read the entire list?)
My top 10, in no particular order:
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond - I'm late to this party, but it's a fascinating and thought-provoking way of looking at history and evolution.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Sutterfield - One of those books that leaves you reevaluating everything the narrator told you to that point over and over again.
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. This author is one of my favorite world-builders and character-developers. Read Curse of Chalion first.
Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon - Terrible, misleading subtitle that makes this sound like fluff. It's not. It's a heart-breaking mindfuck of a book.
Storm Front by Jim Butcher - Maybe not quite as deep or well crafted as some of the others on this list, but really fun urban fantasy.
Sabriel by Garth Nix - Just because it's YA doesn't mean it isn't sophisticated.
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman - It's trendy modern fiction about an extremely self-centered Upper West Side mother, and yet it's not a shallow as it pretends to be, and I found it strangely entrancing.
Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers - Another from the "I don't usually read this" pile. Parallel stories from the book of Tobit and an old woman in Venice.
The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty - Written like a folktale but deceptively smart.
Persian Fire by Tom Holland - I am Sparta. Or rather, how the hell Sparta got into that mess. An interesting history of the Persian Empire, which will tie together the bits and pieces of Marathon and Thermopylae and all those other fragments of Greek history you could never quite get to fit together.
My least favorites:
The Fall of the Ancient Maya by David L. Webster - Seriously, dude, how did you manage to take such an interesting topic and make it so damn boring?
And Quiet Flows the Vodka... by Alicia Chudo, etc - Turns out the authors are all the same person. Should have been able to tell from the endless title that said author is not as clever as he thinks he is.
Darkness of the Light by Peter David - And Peter David finally completely gives up on quality in favor of quantity. Also proves that without the backbone of someone else's universe, he's incapable of creating characters who are not horrible people whom I spend the entire book wishing would all just die already.
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb - Oprah's bookclub-style wallowing in emotional pornography with random symbolism floating around to make it seem deep. Also, kind of offensive depictions of both lesbians and overweight people. Thanks, Oprah, for bringing this all to our attention. Umm.
The Affinity Trap by Martin Sketchley - Seriously one of the worst books I've read in years. Amazingly bad. A pointless, misogynistic, Marty Stu with a completely incomprehensibly stupid ending. There was quite a lot of ranting back when I was reading it, which I'm too lazy to go back and find now. But it's the kind of thing that make wannabe authors despair over why their adequate novel gets passed over while this incredible crap gets published. Practically a how-to on how not to write fiction.
My top 10, in no particular order:
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond - I'm late to this party, but it's a fascinating and thought-provoking way of looking at history and evolution.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Sutterfield - One of those books that leaves you reevaluating everything the narrator told you to that point over and over again.
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. This author is one of my favorite world-builders and character-developers. Read Curse of Chalion first.
Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon - Terrible, misleading subtitle that makes this sound like fluff. It's not. It's a heart-breaking mindfuck of a book.
Storm Front by Jim Butcher - Maybe not quite as deep or well crafted as some of the others on this list, but really fun urban fantasy.
Sabriel by Garth Nix - Just because it's YA doesn't mean it isn't sophisticated.
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman - It's trendy modern fiction about an extremely self-centered Upper West Side mother, and yet it's not a shallow as it pretends to be, and I found it strangely entrancing.
Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers - Another from the "I don't usually read this" pile. Parallel stories from the book of Tobit and an old woman in Venice.
The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty - Written like a folktale but deceptively smart.
Persian Fire by Tom Holland - I am Sparta. Or rather, how the hell Sparta got into that mess. An interesting history of the Persian Empire, which will tie together the bits and pieces of Marathon and Thermopylae and all those other fragments of Greek history you could never quite get to fit together.
My least favorites:
The Fall of the Ancient Maya by David L. Webster - Seriously, dude, how did you manage to take such an interesting topic and make it so damn boring?
And Quiet Flows the Vodka... by Alicia Chudo, etc - Turns out the authors are all the same person. Should have been able to tell from the endless title that said author is not as clever as he thinks he is.
Darkness of the Light by Peter David - And Peter David finally completely gives up on quality in favor of quantity. Also proves that without the backbone of someone else's universe, he's incapable of creating characters who are not horrible people whom I spend the entire book wishing would all just die already.
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb - Oprah's bookclub-style wallowing in emotional pornography with random symbolism floating around to make it seem deep. Also, kind of offensive depictions of both lesbians and overweight people. Thanks, Oprah, for bringing this all to our attention. Umm.
The Affinity Trap by Martin Sketchley - Seriously one of the worst books I've read in years. Amazingly bad. A pointless, misogynistic, Marty Stu with a completely incomprehensibly stupid ending. There was quite a lot of ranting back when I was reading it, which I'm too lazy to go back and find now. But it's the kind of thing that make wannabe authors despair over why their adequate novel gets passed over while this incredible crap gets published. Practically a how-to on how not to write fiction.
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Date: 2010-01-08 01:01 am (UTC)From: (Anonymous)xxxxxxxxxxx