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I just finished World War Z and am looking for something similarly..enrapturing? My usual favorite author is Vonnegut but I'm looking for something a bit more concrete, less abstract, you know? Something with historical fiction elements would be nice too. I guess I'm looking for a really good historical fiction book that really drags the reader in.
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Jul 14, 2013 22:01
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Anatharon posted:I've never been too into novels but I quite liked Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird. Those're the only novels that I can think of that I liked, so anything like either could be nice. Maybe try On The Road?
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Jul 16, 2013 18:53
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Are there any books that accidentally tell another story than what is advertised? KInda like Exit Through the Gift Shop. Starts out as one thing, but ends up with a total different bent.
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Sep 23, 2013 00:07
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funkybottoms posted:Damned with faint praise. I would also add Lucifer's Hammer (it starts slowly, though) and maybe even World War Z. I would definitely recommend World War Z, the first two sections sound very much like what he's looking for.
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Sep 23, 2013 22:56
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Transistor Rhythm posted:She's either in ninth grade English, or hasn't really read books since ninth grade English. That article states that if your favorite book is The Great Gatsby, you stopped reading in the tenth grade. e; what the gently caress is wrong with you?
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Nov 4, 2013 19:08
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I dunno who was asking for it, but whoever is looking for something similar to The Devil in the White City I've just read The Inventor and the Tycoon by Edward Ball and it is fantastic and quite similar.
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Nov 8, 2013 01:43
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Ignited posted:That was me, I'm guessing Tesla / Edison? Eadweard Muybridge, Leland Stanford, and the "birth of moving pictures."
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Nov 8, 2013 07:38
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Franchescanado posted:
Is there anyway to get these onto iBooks?
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Dec 6, 2013 16:08
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about 12 Days of Deals.
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freebooter posted:This will sound like a weird ask, but I'm moving to England next year and am trying to re-stoke my flagging Anglophilia. What are some good books that are really, solidly, y'know... English? Across any genre. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman is another painfully English book, but also a bit fantastical, yet there's plenty of English mannerisms and humor and references you might like.
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Dec 9, 2013 01:48
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YF19pilot posted:I'm thinking of picking up a book for my soon-to-be 10 year old sister. As I am not, nor have ever been, a 10 year old girl, I'm wanting some recommendations as to good reads for someone her age. Now, I know myself, at 10, was reading everything from Boxcar Children to Hunt for Red October, and I know she reads a bit above her age level (most kids do, I understand anyways). I'm not sure what she's into as far as genres or what not, or if she'd be interested in non-fiction (I live some 1200 miles away from her). Otherwise, I know what books I really like, that I'd love to share with her, but am afraid they may be a tad above her level, but feel free to correct me; things like "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", or "Neuromancer". Also, I love to read very spergy history books, and while I'd love to get her into that, I'm sure sending something very in depth and niche may be too much to keep her attention. If you like history, or she is interested in history, might I recommend the Magic Tree House series? I loved the poo poo out of them when I was around her age and they do a good bit of instilling a sense of history along with your standard shlocky kids stories. I'd hold off on the stuff like Neuromancer, because wow, she's a 10 year old girl.
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Dec 13, 2013 17:58
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funkybottoms posted:Those, along with Earth Abides, are my standard recommendations. I was gonna recommend Earth Abides too, but there's really no "holy gently caress things" as an enemy, and is way more of a survey of a post-apocalyptic world.
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Jan 17, 2014 23:03
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I could really use a book right now that could make me cry, something powerful. Fictional history or very light sci-fi or post/pre/near apocalyptic (this especially) would be preferred. Things like self-sacrifice, suicide, people just giving up, etc really tug at my heart strings
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Jun 27, 2014 23:32
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funkybottoms posted:Ben Winters' The Last Policeman series, Shute's On the Beach, Morrow's This is the Way the World Ends, Blake Butler's Scorch Atlas Funny that you say that, I just finished The Last Policeman and was wishing it had a little more punch. The part that tore me up the most was Detective Andreas' death, but I wish it had delved into it more (suicides). Is On the Beach actually sad?
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Jun 28, 2014 00:17
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specklebang posted:I just remebered one more. That book seems more of like..a downer. I really am looking for something with someone just giving up on life, preferably how it affects others?
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Jul 6, 2014 17:47
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Pork Pie Hat posted:In your searching, have you considered The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went To War In 1914 by Christopher Clark? It won't be the single book you're looking for, as it only covers the causes for the war and not the aftermath, but it is very good for all that. Second this for the opening part of the war, it's extremely thorough, as well.
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Jul 11, 2014 03:05
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tuyop posted:Yeah the original text. Frankenstein is highly capable and it tortures him so! And it’s also very interesting if you read it as a piece of feminist literature. Sort of the trope of the highly capable protagonist on its head, loved ones paying for the stuff that the man thinks he’s solely responsible for, things like that. idk man Frankenstein the doctor continually fucks up throughout the entire book. He creates a wife for his creation and then realizes if he gives this thing a partner it's kind will dominate the earth so he just sorta destroys it all, his creation is a disgusting nightmare because he created it overnight in a haze, and he's not even well respected in his field because he's too busy reading the works of losers like Cornelius Agrippa. I don't think that quite lines up with "professionally highly competent."
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Mar 27, 2022 20:35
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PRADA SLUT posted:If I’m only reading one Le Guin sci fi novel, should it be The Left Hand of Darkness? People seem 50/50 split on Left Hand vs. Disposessed. I’d say go left hand if you’re more interested in social issues and dispossessed if you’re more intrigued by economic systems?
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Apr 5, 2022 07:36
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Maybe Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin or Accelerando by Charles Stross? They both have concepts that are way more fantastical than Weir’s stuff but they both seem eager to root themselves in real, grounded issues.
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Apr 26, 2022 16:48
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Senjuro posted:Out of that list I only read Spin, it wasn't what I was looking for though. It was a character focused drama with some sci-fi in the background. I want just pure science and engineering porn like The Martian and Project Hail Mary. Yes, those have some additional elements to them but they're secondary and that's fine. Nix Accelerando from my recs, Three Body Problem might be what you’re looking for.
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Apr 26, 2022 18:02
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:I remember reading in an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson (wish I could find it) in which he says that speculative sci fi novels are typically either set in the near future (extrapolation of present conditions) or the far future (make up a completely new world, because so much has changed over the millenia that the future is unrecognizable from the present). Much rarer are stories set in the mid-future, in which the DNA of the contemporary world is still present, but there have also been vast changes through centuries of future history. What are some examples of this, other than some of KSR's own work? Star Trek is another one I can think of. Though I'm less interested in space opera here. I'd love to read a novel set perhaps 500 years in the future, on a richly detailed future earth. I just recommended it to the other guy but maybe check out Accelerando by Charles Stross. It starts maybe 15 years into our future and ramps up over three generations of a family and gets progressively more scientific and advanced, what with exponential growth and whatnot.
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Apr 26, 2022 19:53
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Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck, Kalpa Imperial by Angela Gorodischer, Lanark by Alasdair Grey
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Nov 13, 2024 21:20
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Have you read any Tremblay? I’m currently reading Disappearance at Devil’s Rock and it’s a fuckin’ fun little mystery.
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Nov 14, 2024 18:01
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Opopanax posted:Head Full of Ghosts, Cabin at the end of the World, and Horror Movie. I'm a fan for sure Word, then I also recommend Disappearance at Devil’s Rock and Survivor Song :v
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Nov 14, 2024 18:24
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Leraika posted:The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm is my go-to recommendation for young people wanting sci-fi that isn't uniformly white, though it's an older book and you may have more success with more recent things This post activated me like the Manchurian Candidate and then I looked up the cover and was immediately 10 years old again.
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Mar 4, 2025 19:50
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I’d recommend Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut and maybe Into the Woods but both of them as cautionary tales. I’m not sure I can think of a book, offhand, that actually has a running theme of “seize your life,” weirdly.
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Mar 29, 2025 20:05
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There’s another one called LibraryThing that’s supposed to be run by a nonprofit or something?
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Oct 2, 2025 22:50
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alnilam posted:Currently reading Earthsea for the first time and it's very enjoyable, and checks all those points off yeah Second, or thirded
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Oct 3, 2025 21:10
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