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Book Recommendations!

Maus652Maus652 Posts: 226 Member
edited October 2019 in Off Topic Chat
So there's this thing going round FaceyB again and I thought there's a lot of word games here... but actually book recs might be quite handy.

The thing on FB says to just post the front cover (one a day) but not say anything. I think it's worth adding notes like - "Recommended to people who enjoy..." or "Aimed at ages...." or even just the genre.

I shall start off with this:

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Fantasy, Young Adult (just barely) Fiction.

Excellent for those who enjoy twists on fairy tales; those who are familiar with Russian fairytales; people who look for strong female characters (Read: fleshed out, individual characters with agency, not just "I can smash things"); Will They Won't They style romance that isn't a key driver to the plot....

It's just beautifully written and honestly I did not think Naomi Novik could write so well.
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Comments

  • AyeffenAyeffen Posts: 258 Member
    edited October 2019
    Maus this is a t'riffic idea.

    I'll nab my post from a different thread because I'm a lazy boi.
    noblead wrote: »
    The last book I really loved was A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. Vol II of the Wayfarers trilogy - it follows Sidra, an AI installed into a cybernetic body or 'kit' has to come to terms with identity, relationships and feeling isolated just to their "body" and not the vast network of equipment and technology they're used to being a part of. I really didn't want it to end and I felt quite bereft at the end that I had to leave the characters behind.

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    Science Fiction, (probably almost YA).

    I would say if you love science fiction you will love the nuance with which Becky Chambers writes. The universe in which all of her characters exist is so rich and textured but overall makes for an easy and well-paced read.
    Post edited by Ayeffen on
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  • Maus652Maus652 Posts: 226 Member
    edited October 2019
    Day 2~ My book recommendation today is:

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    YA Fantasy.

    Set in a totally different world where most people are born with a special gift of some kind - e.g. ability to smell poisons, ability to tie shoes in 30 seconds, ability to get a bulls eye every time they use a bow and arrow - Graceling children are collected to serve the king of the region. Those with abilities he can use, he keeps. Those who are as useless as tying shoes in 30 seconds go home.

    This Graceling appears to be gifted in fighting and, especially, killing. Perfect little war machine.

    Except she's not. She is stubborn and rebellious and has compassion and to put a not-so-fine-a-point on it, wants to bring down the patriarchy, monarchy bad men in charge.

    There's a fantastic world built, wonderfully diverse characters and another two fabulous books to follow in the series.

    If you like Buffy, The Wind Singer trilogy, stuff like that, then check it out!
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  • Ilovecats8Ilovecats8 Posts: 7 New Member
    I recommend the book Hunted :) I'm not sure how to post a picture but if you look up 'hunted book' it should pop up. It's a retelling of Beauty and The Beast and by the author Meagan Spooner. Here's the summary of it in the book "Beauty knows the Beast's forest in her bones-and in her blood. She knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter that has ever come close to discovering them. But Yeva's grown up far from her father's old lodge, raised to be a part of the city's highest caste of artistocrats. Still, she's never forgotten the feel of a bow in her hands, and she's spent a lifetime longing for the freedom of the hunt. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there's no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas...or submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva's father's misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he'd been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. Deaf to her sisters' protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory-a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva's heard about only in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin-or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?" I LOVED this book! And that's saying something because I hardly ever read lol. This is a YA book but teens can read it too. Its other genres are Fantasy and Fiction :) If you guys read it, I hope you love it! :)
  • Maus652Maus652 Posts: 226 Member
    Ilovecats8 wrote: »
    I recommend the book Hunted :) I'm not sure how to post a picture but if you look up 'hunted book' it should pop up. It's a retelling of Beauty and The Beast and by the author Meagan Spooner. Here's the summary of it in the book "Beauty knows the Beast's forest in her bones-and in her blood. She knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter that has ever come close to discovering them. But Yeva's grown up far from her father's old lodge, raised to be a part of the city's highest caste of artistocrats. Still, she's never forgotten the feel of a bow in her hands, and she's spent a lifetime longing for the freedom of the hunt. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there's no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas...or submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva's father's misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he'd been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. Deaf to her sisters' protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory-a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva's heard about only in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin-or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?" I LOVED this book! And that's saying something because I hardly ever read lol. This is a YA book but teens can read it too. Its other genres are Fantasy and Fiction :) If you guys read it, I hope you love it! :)
    51BbSfn1DnL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

    There you go!

    Ooo thank you! I've not read a twist on B&B in ages. Have you read "Beauty" by Robin McKinley or "Rose Daughter" by Robin McKinley? I very much recommend those. The first one is a lighter read, but the second one is more intricately told and has a fantastic ending <3
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  • Ilovecats8Ilovecats8 Posts: 7 New Member
    No I haven't but thank you so much for recommending them! Also thanks for posting an image of it for me :)
  • Maus652Maus652 Posts: 226 Member
    I recommend Flora Segunda of Crackpot Hall

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    It's fantasy again (I am suddenly struck by how much fantasy I read!) but it very much has an almost steam punk feel. The world's culture seems very based on 18th and 19th century behaviours BUT the women aren't treated like rubbish.

    It's very much YA fiction and is the first in an excellent trilogy. (I was undewealmed by the short story collection so don't go there, if you get hooked.)

    I am going to include the blurb cause I really can't explain it well enough: "Flora Fydraacca should know better than to take shortcuts in her family home, Crackpot Hall. Ever since her mother banished the magickal butler years earlier, Crackpot's rooms move about at random. Or at least some do - Flora's never figured out how big her own House really is. But everything changes on the day Flora, late for school, decides to take a shortcut by way of Crackpot's unpredictable Elevator. BIG mistake..."

    Which barely scrapes the surface imo.
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  • Maus652Maus652 Posts: 226 Member
    edited October 2019
    This is totally not fantasy. :lol: It's Moomin genre. Which is a mixture of things.

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    This is the first full Moomin novel Tove Jansson wrote, but second in the series (it comes after the beautiful picture book "The Great Flood"). It's fantastic - read it with your children! I read it to my class every year and they adore it. It's also full of wonderful vocabulary that they won't otherwise pick up when reading "Diary of a wimpy"/"Dork Diaries". They will find it weirdly enjoyable. Even the small side stories which are full looped back into the main plot.

    A comet is coming. It is looming overhead, with an ETA of 7th October at 8.42pm, or possibly four seconds later. Moomintroll and Sniff travel to the observatory in the Lonely Mountains to find out what can be done. Along the way they meet Snufkin - a chaotic neutral tramp - and The Snork and Snorkmaiden, each with their own foibals.

    It's a story of adventure - Moomintroll has save himself from hungry crocodiles, rescue another from a man-eating plant and be rescued himself from a cliff-edge and a giant octopus!

    Will the world, so drastically altered by the impending comet, recover or even survive?


    Seriously, you'll have to read it to find out. Also Tove Jansson's illustrations are delightful.

    She wrote this in 1946, and the comet is a parallel to nuclear war / an atom bomb. Fortunately, she handles it all with her usual light-hearted, witty commentary.
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