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the Unofficial Recommendation Thread


werewolfv2

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***big thanks to the Mod that made this a sticky***

Please do NOT discuss the books!

Please list up to 10 books+/- that you recommend.

Feel free to add a little blurb about "people might like this book if they like such-n-such book".

(lets see if this works instead of having the 10,000 "what should I read" threads)

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The Malazan Book of the Fallen (1st book: Gardens of the Moon) by Steven Erikson

A Song of Ice and Fire (1st book: a Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin

The Prince of Nothing (1st book: The Darkenss that Comes Before) by Scott Bakker

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

The Mithgar series (starting with Dragondoom and the Iron Tower Trilogy) by Dennis L. McKiernan (very tolkienesque)

Black Jewels Trilogy(1st book: Daughter of the Blood) by Anne Bishop

The Belgariad (1st book: Pawn of Prophecy)by David Eddings (great entry level fantasy)

Renshai Trilogy (1st book: The Last of the Renshai) by Mickey Zucker Reichert

Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover

The Twins by Gary Alan Wassner (newer author that shows promise)

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Pity The Nation--Robert Fisk

The Gift--Hafiz

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge--Carlos Castaneda

Journey to the End of the Night--Celine (first name?)

The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts--Louis De Bernieres

The Mantle of the Prophet--Roy Mottahedeh

Dune--Frank Herbert

The Silmarillion--Tolkien

Heart of Darkness--Joseph Conrad

The Biggest Secret--David Icke :P

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The Secret History by Donna Tartt

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

The Fruit Palace by Charles Nicholl

The Glory and the Dream by William Manchester

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Song of Kali by Dan Simmons

Books of Blood by Clive Barker

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Black Seas of Infinity edited by Andrew Wheeler*

*The best single-volume collection of H.P. Lovecraft.

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The Anubis Gates Tim Powers

Lord of Light Roger Zelazny

The Snow Queen Joan Vinge

King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard

Canticle for Liebowitz Walter Miller Jr.

Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte

Hyperion Dan Simmons

Wizards First Rule Terry Goodkind

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I joke! I joke about that last one. :P

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American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Braided Path series (1st book "Weavers of Saramyr") - Chris Wooding

The Scar - China Mieville

Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan

Culture series (1st "Consider Phlebas") - Iain M. Banks

Night's Dawn Trilogy (1st "Reality Dysfunction") - Peter F. Hamilton

House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski

Gridlocked - Ben Elton

Stone - Adam Roberts

Night of Knives - Iain Cameron Esselmont

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Shogun - James Clavell

The Sky Stone et al - Jack Whyte

Deer and the Cauldron Trilogy - Louis Cha

Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa

Dragon Bone Chair et al - Tad Williams

Assassin's Apprentice et al - Robin Hobb

1984 - George Orwell

Happiness - Will Ferguson

Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John Le Carre

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson

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10 series:

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

The Dark Tower by Stephen King

The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone by Greg Keyes

Myst by Rand and Robyn Miller

The Sega of Seven Suns by Kevin J. Anderson

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

Sucession by Scott Westerfeld

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell

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10 Fantasy/Sci Fi Series

A Song of Ice & Fire - George RR Martin

The Saga of the Exiles - Julian May

The Prince of Nothing - R Scott Bakker

The Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson

Memory Sorrow & Thorn - Tad Williams

The Rigante Cycle - David Gemmell

The Novels of the Discworld - Terry Pratchett

The Tales of Einarin - Juliet E Mckenna

Magician (& The Riftwar Saga) - Raymond E Feist

The Ashuak Chronicles - Tony Shillitoe

Will add some more in different genres later.

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The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

The Princess Bride by S. Mortgenstern, abridged by William Goldman

Daggerspell by Katharin Kerr

Magician by Raymond E. Feist

Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley

King's Dragon by Kate Elliott

Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Dragonclaw by Kate Forsyth

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No order:

American Gods (Neil Gaiman)

A Song of Ice and Fire (George R. R. Martin)

Firebrand (Marion Zimmer-Bradley)

Deverry Cycle (Katherine Kerr)

Perdido Street Station (China Mieville)

Empire triology (Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurtz)

Farseer (Robin Hobb)

The Baburnama (Babur, translated, edited & annotated by Wheeler M. Thackston)

Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan)

Foundation (Isaac Asimov)

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Ten Epic Fantasy Series

1. The Black Company Chronicles - Glen Cook

2. Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien

3. Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien

4. Unfinished Tales - J. R. R. Tolkien

5. The Kushiel Trilogy - Jaqueline Carey

6. The Riftwar Trilogy - Raymond Feist

7. Tales of the Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin

8. Tales of the Otori - Lian Hearn

9. The Lyonesse Trilogy - Jake Vance

10. The Sevenwater Trilogy - Juliet Marillier

Ten Urban Fantasies

1. Tamsin - Peter Beagle

2. The Light Ages - Ian R. MacLeod

3. Winter's Tale - Mark Helprin

4. Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny

5. The Dark Tower Sequence - Stephen King

6. The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers

7. Sunshine - Robin McKinley

8. Finder - Emma Bull

9. The Borrible Trilogy - Michael D. Larrabieti

10. Red Shift - Alan Garner

Ten Miscellaneous Fantasies

1. Maia - Richard Adams

2. Fire and Dust - James Alan Gardener

3. Practical Magic - Alice Hoffman

4. The Tales of Alvin Maker - Orson Scott Card

5. The Nightland - William Hope Hodgson

6. Illusion - Paula Volsky

7. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

8. Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Kay

9. Coldfire Trilogy - C. S. Friedman

10. Six Moon Dance - Sherri S. Tepper

Ten mainstream books for teenagers (NOT young-adult fiction)

1. Boys & Girls Together - William Goldman

2. A Secret History - Donna Tartt

3. Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer

4. A Circle of Friends - Maeve Binchy

5. Snow Falling on Cedars - David Gutterson

6. Girl 20 - Kingsley Amis

7. Sloppy Firsts - Megan McCaffery

8. Bloodtide - Melvin Burgess

9. She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb

10. Durable Goods - Elizabeth Berg

10. Maggie: A Girl of Streets - Stephen Crane

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[b 10 b Sequences/Series (alphabetical):

-New York Trilogy by Paul Auster (City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room

-Culture sequence by Iaan M. Bankers (Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, The State of the Art, Use of Weapons, Excession, Inversions, and Look to Windward)

-Aeygpt tetraology by John Crowley ( Aegygpt, Love and Sleep, Daemonomania), fourth book forthcoming)

-Sandman by Neil Gaiman

-Viriconium by M. John Harrison (The Pastel City, A Storm Of Wings, In Viriconium, and Viriconium Nights)

-Between the Wars (aka Pyat quartet) (Byzantium Endures, The Laughter of Carthage, Jerusalem Commands and forthcoming,The Vengeance of Rome)

-Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake ( Titus Groan, Gormenghast, Titus Alone)

- The Jerusalem Quartet by Edward Whitemore (Sinai Tapestry, Jerusalem Poker, Nile Shadows, and Jericho Mosaic )

-Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, The Citadel of the Autarch, and The Urth of the New Sun)

-The Sea of Fertility tetraology by Mishima Yukio (Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, and The Decay of the Angel.

10 Stand-alones I like:

Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Dhalgren by Samuel Delany

Portrait of Ms Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford

The Chess Garden by Brooks Hansen

Occasional Gun with Music by Jonathan Lethem

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

Mother London by Michael Moorcock

10 Collections I like:

The Complete Short Stories by JG Ballard

Stories of Your Life: And Others by Ted Chiang

Fantasy Writer's Assistant by Jeffrey Ford

No Where Near Milkwood by Rhys Hughes

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link

Trujillo by Lucius Shepard

The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith

New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson

A Periodic Table of Science Fiction by Michael Swanwick

Secret Life by Jeff VanderMeer

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Ten old-Skool Sci-fi Authors (no particular order)

Cordwainer Smith (dated, but my all time favourite)

Larry Niven (and Jerry Pournelle, his co-writer on many occasions)

Robert Heinlein ( I complain about him as often as I recc him, but still one of the greats)

Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood's End is the must read by him, IMO)

Philip K Dick

Anne McAffrey (The Ship Who Sang, Crystal singers and the earlier Pern stuff. Nothing from the last 20 years!)

Zenna Henderson (Obscure, a little sickly-sweet, but never the less wondeful stories of aliens on earth)

Frederick Pohl (the High crusade - mediaevil nights abducted by lalines - great stuff)

Aasimov - robots!

Frank Herbert (Dune)

Hard to do lists of ten! there's so many more for that list.

Ten Modern Sci-fi Writers

Iain M. Banks

Peter Hamilton

Dan Simmons

Orson Scott Card

David Brin

Verner Vinge

David Zindell

Alaistair Reynolds

Kim Stanley Robinson

Richard Morgan

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In no order, other than Gormenghast being 1.

1.Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake

Viriconium by M John Harrison

Emperor of Dreams by Clark Ashton Smith (or any collection of his short stories)

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber

Heroes Die by Matthew Stover

Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson

The Darkness that Comes Before by R Scott Bakker

Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny

Riddlemaster's Game by Patricia McKillip

City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer

In Science Fiction, a shorter list:

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

A Scanner Darkly - Philip K Dick

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman

The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller Jr

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While others have named many of the epic/urban fantasies I would have named, here are a few that slip between the cracks:

Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciónes (English translation available)

José Saramago, Blindness

Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Miguel Cervantes, Don Quijote

Angélica Gorodischer, Kalpa Imperial

Horacio Quiroga, The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories

Aldofo Bioy Cesares, The Invention of Morel

Umberto Eco, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

Those, and many, many more that I'm not listing at this time.

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Doomsday Book – Connie Willis

Bellweather – Connie Willis

Hotel Paradise – Martha Grimes

The Long Goodby – Raymond Chandler

Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maughm

The Razors Edge – W. Somerset Maughm

End of Days – Dennis Danvers

The Promise – Donna Boyd

Coal Run - Tawni O’Dell

Judas Child - Carol O’connell

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My list of Top Ten (Fiction) Books to Read (Not complete, there are too many good books, I guess you can tell that my favorites lean towards the darkside- except for The Mouse which is great satire, so it has a darkside too):

A Wizard of Earthsea By Ursla Le Guin

Curse of Chalion by Lois BuJold

Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Perzifal by Wolfram von Eschenbach

Lays of Beleriand by Tolkien

The Black Cauldron by Loyd Alexander

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Dune by Frank Herbert

The Mouse that Roared by Leonard Wibberley

Watership Down by Robert Adams

As a special tip to Tyrion lovers- check out The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois BuJold

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From the resident HS English Teacher:

Fiction:

1. To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee

2. Of Mice and Men-John Steinbeck

3. Farenheit 451-Ray Bradbury

4. The Jungle-Upton Sinclair

5. Old Man And The Sea- Hemingway

6. Rebellion's Chose-Lannister (Plug for the BWG)

7. The Prince of Crows-Brady (Plug for the BWG)

8. The Briar King-Greg Keyes

9. Zorro-Isabele Allende

10. Animal Farm-George Orwell

Nonfiction:

1. Maus-Art Speigelman

2. Guns, Germs and Steel-Jared Diamond

3. Fast Food Nation-Eric Schlosser

4. The Devil's Broker-Frances Stonor Saunders

5. Black Boy-Richard Wright

6. The Savage Wars of Peace-Max Boot

7. Killer Angels-Jeff Shaara

8. Angela's Ashes-

9. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings-Maya Angelou

10. Band of Brothers-Steven Ambrose

Children's Lit

1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-Roald Dahl

2. Gregor the Overlander-Suzanne Collins

3. Whale Talk-Chris Crutcher

4. Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes-Chris Crutcher

5. Summerland-Michael Chabon

6. One Fat Summer-Robert Lypsyte

7. The Hobbit-Tolkien

8. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe-Lewis

9. Dragon Rider-Corneila Funke

10. Artemis Fowl-Eion Colfer

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Top Ten Personal Favorites

The Killer Angels - Shaara (it is a historical fiction book, not non-fic, btw)

I, Claudius - Graves

Thank You for Smoking - C. Buckley

Speaker for the Dead - Card

A Prayer for Owen Meany - Irving

The Idiot - Dostoevsky

Snow Crash - Stephenson

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein

The Right Stuff - T. Wolfe

Gates of Fire - Pressfield

Top Ten Series (of all types)

Masters of Rome - McCullough

A Song of Ice and Fire - Martin (incomplete)

Dance to the Music of Time - Powell

The Prydain Chronicles - Alexander

Sandman(graphic novels) - Gaiman

Empire Trilogy - Feist and Wurts

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Adams

Foundation Trilogy - Asimov

His Dark Materials - Pullman

Hyperion Cantos - Simmons

Top Ten Graphic Novels

Box Office Poison - Robinson

Watchmen - A. Moore

Squadron Supreme - Gruenwald

Marvels - Busiek

Astro City: Life in the Big City - Busiek

Fortune and Glory - Bendis

The Waiting Place - McKeever

Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius - Winick

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Vol 1 - A. Moore

Fables: Legends in Exile - Willingham

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Fantasy and Science Fiction:

Ender's Game, by Card

O-Zone, by Theroux

Boat of a Million Years, by Anderson

Way of the Pilgrim, by Dickson

Starship Troopers, by Heinlein

The Forever War, by Haldeman

A Book of Dragons, by Manning-Sanders

A Song of Ice and Fire, by Martin

The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, by Keyes

The Farseer Trilogy, by Hobb

Fiction and Literature:

Heart of Darkness, by Conrad

A Farewell to Arms, by Hemmingway

In Our Time, by Hemmingway

Without Remorse, by Clancy

Red Storm Rising, by Clancy

Congo, by Crichton

The Gold Coast, by DeMille

Lord of the Flies, by Golding

The Lovely Bones, by Sebold

Sons and Lovers, by Lawrence

Military Theory, History, Psychology, and Culture:

On War, by von Clausewitz

Warfighting, by Gray

On Guerilla Warfare, by Mao Tse-tung

Achtung-Panzer!, by Guderian

The Future of War, by Friedman and Friedman

The Savage Wars of Peace, by Boot

Panzer Battles, by von Mellenthin

Dungeon, Fire, and Sword, by Robinson

On Killing, by Grossman

Carnage and Culture, by Hanson

Philosophy and Political Science:

Meditations, by Aurelius

Enchiridion, by Epictetus

The Code of the Warrior, by French

Stoic Warriors, by Sherman

Warrior Politics, by Kaplan

The Paradox of American Power, by Nye

Leviathan, by Hobbes

The Prince, by Machiavelli

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