A special hello to my old friend Brett who found my blog and wrote to say hi and sent me some fabulous sounding book recommendations to add to my list. (and hello to his beautiful wife Wendy!)
Here are his picks (republished without permission, but I didn't want to lose them)
Rumor has it that Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede are at work on a
sequel to 'Sorcery and Cecelia', a book I also enjoyed. I liked
Stevermer's 'When the King Comes Home', but my wife wasn't as keen on some
of her other books.
Speaking of other books, I think you might really enjoy Patricia McKilip's
work - I liked 'The Book of Atrix Wolf' quite a bit. Robin McKinley's
'Hero and the Crown'/'The Blue Sword' is one of my wife's favorites (I
think we're up to 4 or 5 editions of each, which isn't that strange given
my 4 editions of 'The Lord of the Rings'). Oh, and don't forget 'A Book
Dragon' by Donn Kushner, no relation to Ellen Kushner of 'Swordspoint',
although that's another excellent tale.
Oh, and there's also P.L. Travers' 'What the Bee Knows', a collection of
her essays about literature.
Going a little further afield from children's literature, you may also
really like Guy Gavriel Kay's work. I would start with either 'Tigana' or
'Lions of Al-Rassan' - both heartbreaking - and if you like them, run,
don't walk, to 'The Fionavar Tapestry'. It's possibly one of the best
fantasy trilogies of all time, praise I don't bestow lightly.
I've recently been trying out some mysteries - Dorothy L. Sayers is
amazing. I started with 'Strong Poison' and am working my way through the
rest of the Lord Peter books. Though it's not exactly a mystery, if you
liked 'The DaVinci Code' you may really enjoy 'Foucalt's Pendulum' by
Umberto Eco. It's a bit denser than Dan Brown's work, but I think you'd
like it.
I just finished Stephenson's 'The Confusion' and am eagerly awaiting 'The
System of the World'. I originally was going to wait to start this series
until it was out in paperback, but then I found a copy of 'Quicksilver' in
a Half-Price Books up north of Seattle on a vacation, and got quickly
sucked in. I'm sure you know the feeling!
The best history book I read recently was Jacques Barzun's 'From Dawn To
Decadance: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life.' (His 'House of
Intellect' was also good, but very, very, *very* dry.) I've been taking a
tear around Central Asian history recently; it started with Peter
Hopkirk's 'The Great Game' and branched out from there.
Thanks Brett! These look great! And it was fabulous to hear from you!
Posted by Emily at July 3, 2004 05:35 PM