Help me, f-list-wan Kenobi! (BOOK REC NEEDED)

[amedia]

Just read the most recent book for the book club, which was very well-written and desperately sad. That seems to be what people in this club really like. Instead of complaining, I thought I'd try bringing something fun to the party! I've never recommended a book for us to read, and I think that if I did, it would be considered seriously.

It can be adult or young-adult, and it needs to be written by a woman, preferably fairly recently. (Otherwise I'd try to convince them to read Bloody Jack.) I'd love to recommend something fantasy or science fiction with a rousing adventure plot. Suggestions welcome--even if it's a book you've recommended to me before and I'm spacing on, don't worry about repetition--my mind is a BLANK!

Oh, and I need it by tomorrow night (meep!) . . . Thanks in advance for ANY assistance!!!!

Comments

[derien.livejournal.com]

I really like Kage Baker and Lois McMaster Bujold, although both tend to write serieses. Maybe "The Empress of Mars" by Baker? I haven't actually read it, so can't recommend it personally, but it's the only one I can think of that's not part of a series. Bujold's 'Vorkosigan' series you can actually read in about any order, but I don't know how that would feel for a lot of people. Also, not a lot of female lead characters from her. Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan is kind of Mary Sueish.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the recs!

I've snagged Baker for my wishlist so I don't forget--I think it's very interesting that the reviewers compared her to Connie Willis, who was also recommended in a thread below!

I think your reservations about Bujold (vis-a-vis the book club) are spot on, but I know a lot of people whose tastes I respect who read it--now including you!--so I will add that to my mental one-of-these-days list as well.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog, a time travel story inspired by Three Men in a Boat, P. G. Wodehouse, the Wimsey novels, Agatha Christie, and various other English classics. Hilariously funny but has a substantive plot.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Cordelia's Honor, made up of two novels that together tell a single story, in which the heroine collides with a planetwide empire and knocks it on its ass.

Janet Edwards's Earth Girl, which I just reviewed, left me a little disappointed but had a lot of good points.

Isabel Allende's Zorro is a really clever transformation of the original story, giving it a lot more cultural resonances while still remaining larger than life.

A. S. Byatt's Possession is a beautifully subtle story about ghosts and temptation and the ethics of scholarship. The literary history is so convincing it's hard to believe it was all made up. I do have to say that it's also well-written and desperately sad, though.

You already know about Dorothy Sayers, so I'll just say that Gaudy Night is one of my favorite twentieth-century novels. Not recent, of course.

[chorale.livejournal.com]

To Say Nothing of the Dog is a wonderful recommendation. I endorse it.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

To Say Nothing of the Dog was one of the two I printed out and brought with me to the book club . . . more on that in another post!

I looked at Zorro and I might recommend it someday as well--I think they'd go for it, actually. However, it had a lot in common with The Sisterhood in terms of setting and what you might call institutional characters (The Sisterhood's narrative went back and forth between Spain and the Americas and featured the Spanish government, the Catholic church, and the indigenous civilizations), which we read very recently, so I may wait a few months.

Another rec for Bujold! I really am going to have to read her work one of these days.

[chorale.livejournal.com]

I hope you will like Bujold as much as I do. She is fun, but she has heavy themes. Well-worth reading. Zorro is wonderful, but what else would you expect from Isabel Allende.

Edited to add the remark about Zorro.

[jeymien.livejournal.com]

Martha Wells, The Death of the Necromancer or The Element of Fire. They're both basically standalone if in the same universe. I love her books.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

The Death of the Necromancer looks utterly fantastic. I brought a printout about it (along with To Say Nothing of the Dog) to the book club, and they went for the latter, but now I want to read it! Thanks so much for the rec!

[jeymien.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I love all her books, but the ones set in Ile-Rien are just absolutely fantastic. Those two I recommended are great introductions :)

[kyleen66.livejournal.com]

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich will make you laugh out loud.

They get really formula writingeqse around books seven or eight, but mostly good fun.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Ooh--another rec for my list! Thank you!

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Welcome back!!!! It's good to see you back on LJ! Thanks for the rec--might be late for the book club, but I can add it to my own list. :-D