Thanks to everyone’s suggestions last week of recommended books! By request, here is a recap with all the suggestions in one place:
- The Eye of the World (and subsequent books, including the most recent Gathering Storm) by Robert Jordan
- Earth to Hell (part of the Dark Heavens series) by Kylie Chan
- Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip
- Children of Chaos series by John C. Wright
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman (I’ve been in a holds queue for this book at my library since September!)
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (I read this several years ago and it was great)
- Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary ed. by Carol Serling
- Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (just finished reading this. I wouldn’t have thought I’d like it, since at the start it seems to be like a horrible version of Survivor and I hate reality TV, but this book was great!)
- Sword of Shannara series by Terry Brooks (it’s been so long since I read these!)
- The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain De Botton
- Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
- Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
I’ve got most of the above titles which I’ve never read before now on hold at my library, and I guess I just have to hope they’ll trickle in slowly instead of all arriving in a great lump like what happened last week. Oh, but on that note, allow me to add to the list of recommended books Graceling by Kristin Cashore. It’s a YA fantasy about a warrior girl who is “graced” with an extraordinary ability to fight, and her struggle to understand her power and herself. I’d put it in the “pretty good” category as opposed to the “great!” category, but I include it because it was still an enjoyable page-turner.
If you’ve got more you’d like to contribute, please keep ‘em coming! 
Oh! I didn’t notice the request last week. Yeah, I’ve read some good things recently. Here are a couple:
Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato. This is a literary novel narrated by a young girl. Very strong character voice and excellent study of emotions. Highly recommended.
Logicomix – This is a graphic novel about the life of Bertrand Russel and various other logicians. I really enjoyed it. You will like it too.
I can lend you ‘The Magicians’, if you still haven’t gotten ahold of it from the library by the next time I see you. And yes, it’s really good.
Nice third panel this week! Very wide-screen-y
@John– excellent! I shall definitely look into those.
@Stephen– Oh, that’s nice of you! I’m hoping the library will pull through for me eventually, though… I’m #16 in queue now, so it shouldn’t be too much longer of a wait.
@Kev– thanks! That panel does make me feel like there should be some sort of orchestral soundtrack to go with it, as in those movies where the camera pans to see the characters crossing a wide stretch of landscape.
I would suggest American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I’ve listened to it on my iPod a couple of times, and found it even better the second time.
Also, I like how the plot has gotten more dramatic!
Yeah, the Wheel of Time is pretty good up to about book 6 or 7, then it gets ridiculous. I have another suggestion, if I may. The Coldfire Trilogy by CS Friedman is freakin sweet! I’ve read it at least 3 times and wouldn’t mind rereading it again sometime. The first book is called “Black Sun Rising.” You won’t regret reading this series, I guarantee.
Thanks for reminding me about this page – I was getting the red X over at girlamatic as well. In fact, I’m having difficulty getting anything from girlamatic just now – I suspect storm related service provider issues or something…
As for books, I haven’t been reading as much lately, but I always recommend Bujold and Moon. Anything by them is worth reading. Most people already know about the Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois, but The Deeds of Paksennarion trilogy by Elizabeth Moon is lesser known and it is stupendous.
I recommend The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, it’s the first book in a sweet trilogy. Be forewarned that the series is sort of a grim take on typical fantasy and the author is not always nice to his characters, but this makes it the most interesting thing I’ve read in a while.
I also recommend Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb – I love first person fantasy where I really get to know the protagonist
I just read through your comic, and enjoyed it so much that I was kicking myself for not pacing myself better because now there’s no choice but to wait for new pages! I was happy to see the book recommendations. Anyway, I’m happy to chime in with a few of my favorites from the past year!
I really liked the trilogy of books by Sandra McDonald (starts with “The Outback Stars”), possibly because of the sheer amount of things that happen. I thought it was standard space navy fights the rebellious colonies, with a hint of forbidden romance, but then it started to get weird.
“The Thirteenth Child” by Patricia C Wrede is another start to a trilogy, and it’ll take some patience until the next book. A YA series about nineteenth century pioneers near the Mississippi River in a world filled with magic. It’s rather controversial as the Americas were devoid of Americas prior to western colonization (thus the Mississippi is the Mammoth River), but otherwise fun.
“Silver Phoenix” by Cindy Pon was another YA fantasy. It reminded me a little of Laurence Yep, possibly because I haven’t read all that much YA fantasy set in China!
I’m kind of late on this, but the first book that popped into my head to recommend was “A College of Magics” by Caroline Stevermer. The current edition has a terrible cover, but it is a terrific fantasy of manners set in a slightly different early 20th century Europe.