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carlajpatterson
Posted 2013-02-25 2:05 PM (#4752 - in reply to #4502)
Subject: Re: Recommend a Book/Ask for Reccomendations		Quote Reply



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Posts: 38
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Location: Richmond, California		More recommendations - this time just books, not aware of them being available in audiobook or not:

Elizabeth Hand - The Speed of Dark
This is one of the best books I've ever read, period. Well-written and it has an exciting and satisfying story arc but it's the main character, and Hand's ability to speak from his viewpoint, which makes the book such a unique and wonderful experience.

Kit Reed - Fort Privilege, Attack of the Giant Baby, Thinner Than Thou
Reed is one of those authors you can love one year and find incomprehensible the next (YMMV) but I highly recommend reading these three books because the first is just a great story and well-written, the second is hysterically funny and scarily observant, and the third is both timely and well-observed. She is always right square in the middle of what's going on in current society and extrapolating it outward into directions which might be possible, if not probable.

Joanna Russ - Picnic on Paradise
In spite of the ridiculous title, I found the book to be a truly resonant read. All of the things she talks about in this book were so well-observed as to seem prescient as time has gone by. Her main character, Alyx, is just one incredibly interesting woman and her job is fascinating. Her relationships with the people she has to guide through a life-threatening situation are layered and real. I won't say more than that - just read it.

Anything at all by Octavia Butler is worth reading - and, usually, rereading. My favorite stand-alone novels of hers include: Survivor, Kindred, and Clay's Ark. There are ways that Survivor and Clay's Ark fit into universes shared by other novels of Butler's but one doesn't have to have read anything before them to have the full experience.

Nancy Kress is someone whose writing I enjoy but the book of hers that really stands out for me is Beggars in Spain. The sequels aren't as strong to my way of thinking. Her other series, Relativity Space et all, was also entertaining for me.

Zenna Henderson's The Anything Box and Holding Wonder were favorites of mine when I was a lot younger. I should reread them and see what I think of them now. I read them when they came out in the 60's.

I really love Amy Thomson's books The Color of Distance and Through Alien Eyes. I still see them as the best depiction of interactions between humans and an alien species that's ever been written. (Though Butler's work is also stellar in this area!) I also enjoyed her book Virtual Girl.




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