Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Recommended

No fashion today - I haven't been home to take a picture, and I won't be back until 9 PM tonight.  But!  That doesn't mean I can't fulfill the other half of my blog's raison d'etre.  Which would be stuff about scary stuff.  Furthermore, I've had a reader request (My first!  Yay!) for more book recommendations, and I do like to be useful.

Here is the stuff I'm reading right now.  Well, okay.  Not RIGHT right now.  Right now I'm typing.  Whatever, you get the point.

Loves:
Seanan McGuire's October Daye series.  Now up to book four, this series about the Fae living in San Francisco has really hit its stride.  Book number three is even frightening - especially if you have children.  Start with Rosemary and Rue, which should be available at your local library.  Not the scariest series in the world, but definitely a page-turner.

Ilona Andrew's Kate Daniels series.  If you are sick of sexy vampires, endless discussion about werewolf politics, and heroines that can't fight back, you'll LOVE this series.  Sometimes spooky, other times downright gory, the Magic series turns all those used-up monster tropes on their sparkly heads.

Dan Simmons' Summer of Night and A Winter Haunting.  Summer is a full-on supernatural freak show, while Winter is more of a psychological thriller.  Bother are scary as hell and extremely well-written.  Which reminds me, I should really re-read them both, and then read The Terror, and THEN read Children of the Night.  Simmons is the bomb, yo.

Let-Downs:
Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian.  So.  Many.  Words.  So.  Little.  Pay-off.  Snoooorrrrre...

Anne Rice, Everything.  Not scary, not well-written, not worth it.

Sarah Langan's The Keeper.  It was so good, right up to the ending.  What is with horror writers and good endings?  I don't expect, or even want horror stories to have happy endings, but I do want a sense of closure and a completion of the plot line.  I hate being left hanging.
The Keeper's ending was depressing, and at the same time it didn't tie up the story for me.  However - I do plan to give Langan another chance.  The Keeper was her first book, and chances are her next three will rock.  She's too talented not to hit it out of the park.

Tana French's In The Woods.  I hate this book.  Hate, hate, hate it.  So much.

So what are you guys reading?

5 comments:

  1. I just read Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. It was fantastic. I read it in 2 days, while in Jamaica! I couldn't put it down.

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  2. I really need to check out some of these. The Kate Daniels series sounds good. Like I told my husband the other night while watching Interview with a Vampire on tv, Anne Rice has some good stories, but her writing puts me to sleep.

    My mom lent me a L.K. Hamilton (Death of A Darklord) a few months back, and I didn't realize it was horror until halfway through the book, but talk about a downer.

    Not enough time to read anything for "fun" yet though! Trudging through my English books. Boo!

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  3. I LOVE Dan Simmons! Have you read "Carrion Comfort"? It's out of print, but you might be able to find it second hand. Also, try to fing "The Song of Kali" which holds my record for scariest book.

    Also, highly recommended for a short book that will freak you out: "The Comfort of Strangers" by Ian McEwan (who wrote the book "Atonement", you know, the Kiera Knightly movie from a couple years back?). I love his books.

    Have you read Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan books? They aren't scary, but her heroine is at least a strong character, and they are loads of fun.

    Thanks for the other recommendations!

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  4. I guess that reader was me... :) Danke!

    Thank you for the recommendations. I will check them out next week and probably go for the October Daye series.

    I'm currently reading:
    "The Dome" by Stephen King
    and
    "Legends Of Shannara: Bearers Of The Black Staff" by Terry Brooks.

    Both are okay-reads but definetely not favorites.

    I like both Richelle Mead's "Succubus" and "Dark Swan" series and I'm impatiently waiting for the next books to come out.

    Also, I recommend "The Strain" by Guillermo Del Toro and "The Passage" by Justin Cronin. Great books! :)

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  5. Blaspheme! I love Anne Rice. (Well, except for the Sleeping Beauty porn stuff.) However, we both share a love of Jim Butcher and Charlaine Harris, so all is well. ;)

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