Reading recommendations

[lorimt]

I just remembered I *have* read something really good lately-ish that I haven't pushed excessively on people. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I'd tell you about it, but wouldn't do it justice. It's a YA novel that manages to be very dark, and still hopeful, in addition to really really good. I'm reading the sequel (Catching Fire) now - it isn't quite as good, but is still excellent.

Also excellent - the poem My Elf Policy, and the one in the comments it inspired.

Anyone read anything amazing lately? Because clearly my giant stack of reading material isn't big enough...

Comments

[ch3cooh.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Mitsfs should have it in a bit, I read the first few pages and just went over to request that the library acquire it. :)

[notsteven.livejournal.com]

The book I'm currently recommending to anyone who'll listen is Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart. It reads like a Chinese fairytale.

[lorimt]

I'll have to look into that as soon as my library pile decreases a little. (In other news - yay new library opening!)

[jibb.livejournal.com]

Don't know if you've already read any of these, but China Miéville's Bas-Lag novels (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council), of which I've read the first two and want to read the third, are good. Something of a blend of steampunk, cyberpunk, fantasy, Lovecraftian horror, and a bit of leftist politics.

Jo Walton's Farthing, something of a murder mystery/political intrigue set in an alternate-history England which negotiated a peace with Germany in the second World Wr, was also good. I've just picked up it's sequel, Ha'penny, and I'm waiting for the 3rd novel, Half a Crown, to come out in paperback, so I can have a matching set.

[lorimt]

I've definitely read the Farthing novels (that's how I started reading papersky. I tried to read The Scar once upon a time and couldn't break into it, but I've been meaning to try again at some point...