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Strontosaurus posted:Nah, I'm pretty much looking for "people eaten by nanites." Otherwise I'll just have to write about regular, boring, nonviolent nanotech sci-fi. Way old because I'm trundling through this thread doing a library book order, but Blood music by Greg Bear kind of fits your request. http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Music-Greg-Bear/dp/0759241740/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352576999&sr=8-1&keywords=blood+music
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Nov 10, 2012 20:50
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My son really likes "After man" can anyone recommend similar fiction/non fiction books that I can read to him? I can't read it to him a third time...
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Nov 9, 2015 17:22
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Kerro posted:This might be a somewhat vague request, but I've realised that some of my favourite books are centred around characters learning how to adapt and relate to each other and their environment within an unusual (or at least unfamiliar to the characters) and constrained setting. Stuff like Faces in the Water (set in NZ residential psychiatric institutions), The Secret History (set at an elite college), The Poisonwood Bible (a white missionary family in a tiny Congolese village), anything set within a cult/sect/etc. I don't think the specific setting is too important as what I think I enjoy in these stories is the focus on the relationships between characters and their attempts to make sense of and find a way to live within a context that creates strange challenges or limitations. As I said, kinda vague, but does it bring anything to mind? Preferably not too bleak (as Lord of the Flies also came to mind when writing this, but I'm not in the mood to want to read things like that at the moment!) and prefer not sci-fi/fantasy etc. They are non-fiction but Redmond O'Hanlon wrote three books that might appeal, "Into the Heart of Borneo" "In Trouble again" and "No Mercy: A Journey into the heart of the Congo" (this one is a little lord of the flies-y, or Heart of Darkness-y if it come to that...) The first two are lighter and funnier, he's a somewhat eccentric English professor who occasionally sets himself a mad task (find the bornean rhino, find the confluence of the Amazon and Orinoco etc.) and sets about it with an equally unqualified partner. They always have a terrible time and I enjoy reading about other people having a terrible time.
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Feb 23, 2021 08:05
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Kerro posted:This sounds amazing and I too greatly enjoy reading about other people having a terrible time (as long as it's not an outright traumatising time) Skip the third one then, I read it, and it is amazing, but also very traumatic.
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Feb 27, 2021 13:53
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feedmyleg posted:Been on a pre-history kick lately and would love some suggestions of fiction books about ancient peoples. Reading The Inheritors right now and digging it. It would be great to have something with more of an adventure tone to it, though. Anything pre-bronze age would be ideal—neolithic, megalithic, cave people, etc. I'm even good with slightly fantastical takes with magic or whatnot as long as it fits the vibe. Pre-civilization is more what I'm after, but also good with following people living, say, a hunter-gatherer or nomadic lifestyle outside of an existing civilization. Or just anything that's really good adjacent to those ideas (Raptor Red comes to mind). I really liked "Shamen" by Kim Stanley Robinson. Edit: "To the ice age" by Rien Poortvliet is sort of fiction, an illustrated history of The Netherlands starting at the present day and going back to the ice age, by the guy who illustrated the Gnomes book. yaffle fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Mar 28, 2021 |
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Mar 28, 2021 13:15
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Punkin Spunkin posted:Any recommendations on good historical fiction, preferably pre-renaissance...like, classical antiquity to early middle ages maybe...I'd love anything involving the ancient world particularly but I'm willing to settle for whatever period. I really enjoyed Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger, a somewhat irreverent retelling of the Arthurian stories. (More Jabberwocky than Sword in the Stone, if that makes sense).
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May 15, 2021 11:10
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Jack B Nimble posted:Hey, does anyone have a recommendation for a swashbuckling sci fi adventure novel, preferably some sort of classic. I'm going to be playing in a Star Wars game and, rather than actual SW media, I'd like to read something more like a spiritual precursor. EE "Doc" Smith's (actually Stephen Goldin) family D'Alembert books are pretty swash buckley.
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May 20, 2021 03:42
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Carly Gay Dead Son posted:I finally want to start getting good at reading Italian. My comprehension is, at this point, elementary at best. What are some good Italian books for kids/dullards? I don't know about kids and dullards but I'd love to be able to read Giovanni Guareschi's Don Camilo books in the original.
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Jun 13, 2021 04:31
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LLSix posted:Any good books about farm life with a strong narrative thread? Mostly I want to be transported for a little while to a world where someone can improve their life just by working hard or being clever. If you haven't read them then the Little House books by Laura Inagalls-Wilder are good for this.
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Jul 22, 2021 20:47
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WHY BONER NOW posted:I just finished Aliens: Phalanx, a fun novel about a primitive world where everyone lives in fort cities because there are black demons outside. Main character was a runner who had to go between forts to trade for medicine/food/whatever. Legacy of Herot by Larry Niven and the Destination: Void series by Frank Herbert?
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Aug 15, 2021 12:31
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Mr. Grapes! posted:Cool Book Uncle Mr. Squirrel and the Moon, by Sebastian Meschenmoser and anything else by him. The Church Mouse books by Grahame Oakley, a little hard to find these days but worth it. After Man by Dougal Dixon is back in print. If they liked the Brian Froud maybe the Gnomes book by Wil Huygen. Books by David Wiesner, Shaun Tan, Bill Thomson or Chris Van Allsburg. Not Now Bernard by Dave Mckee. Jan Thomas is really funny, Mo Willems is obviously huge but so great for that age. The Book with no Pictures by B.J. Novak. We Don't Eat our Classmates by Ryan Higgins. I Yam a Donkey by Cece Bell. Du iz Tak by Carson Ellis. The Hilda books by Luke Pearson. The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton (she was a goon, for a very short while). Professional Crocodile by Giovanna Zoboli. Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs. This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers. The Findus and Petson books by Sven Nordqvist. Should be something there.
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Nov 11, 2021 00:57
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a7m2 posted:A friend of mine is looking for a novel to help her practice her English. She specifically is looking for a book set in the current day with a lot of dialog in it since she wants to get more comfortable with the kind of vocabulary you'd find in everyday conversations. I realize this is probably an unusual request but I'd love to get some recommendations. Her English is quite good though certainly not fluent so something that's not too heavy on jargon or unusual prose is probably best. Maybe head over to the YA section of the library? If it's arranged by genre I'd look for realistic fiction. Failing that there's a lot to be said for a huge volume of junk, how does she feel about romance?
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Nov 14, 2021 16:25
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Rand Brittain posted:I've been thinking lately about how nice it would be, with online references getting worse and worse as they all pivot to trying to make money, to own a print thesaurus, and that got me thinking about other print reference books it would be nice to own now that I have the space. Maybe even, god help me, a print encyclopedia (it seems WorldBook is the only remaining one). "Who's Who in 20th Century Literature" is a fun book to have around, John Clute's Encyclopedias of Fantasy and Science fiction, The Re/Search guides to various things, a nice big atlas, there are book club editions of the greater oxford that you can pick up quite cheaply.
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Nov 16, 2021 09:19
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wheatpuppy posted:Thanks for the suggestions! I keep meaning to add Mieville to my to-read pile, dunno why I haven't yet. And yeah, I should have mentioned I've already read Discworld. I also love the Five Gods series, I have really enjoyed how LMB puts out smaller P&D novellas frequently instead of having to wait a couple years for the next book. Perdido Street station is creepy as gently caress, it made me feel like i'd had one of those nightmares where your dad has died and even though he hasn't it's so weird and horrible you feel sad for three days.
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Nov 23, 2021 11:54
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Tulip posted:Looking for a suggestion for my dad. My dad likes relatively pop-y nonfiction. He recently retired (like 2 years ago) from being a chemist. He tends to like books that are not precisely on the stuff he's most familiar with (which is pollution/environmental chemistry) but relatively close - The Idea Factory, The Disappearing Spoon, other pop-ish history of science stuff really speaks to him. Liberal political nonfiction also tends to go over well. "First Light" by Richard Preston , (and anything else by him) is great. "The Body has a Mind of its Own" by Sandra Blakeslee is fascinating. "The discovery of France" by Graham Robb is amazing and you will know so many obscure facts about France (Whistled languages, Shepards on stilts, cannibals eating taxmen in the 1930's). Less science/historical, but I love it, "Children's Games of Street and Playground" by Iona and Peter Opie is wonderful, it's the result of 30 years of research into the games children play when they are alone and unsupervised. At the end of it they had found children in the UK playing games described by Plato and could tell almost exactly where you came from based only on what you called tag.
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Dec 14, 2021 13:22
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FPyat posted:What authors most successfully write scenes that are convincingly dreamlike? China Mieville's Perdido street station triggers the same feelings as a really bad nightmare for me, not the "wake up screaming" kind, more like the "everything is wrong in a way you can't define and someone you love has died" ones.
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Dec 26, 2021 14:54
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Hollismason posted:I like Glen Cook, Joe Ambercrombie, Robert Jordan fantasy novels. Any recommendations for old school fantasy novels? I am just now getting back into reading having just finished Jordans Wheel of Time and am now working on Glen Cooks Black Company series of novels. Raymond Feist's "Magician" books are pretty good fantasy, first three at least. David Gemmell's Drenai books are ok as well.
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Jan 7, 2022 09:01
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Ropes4u posted:Thank you, might have to skip past that section It kind of informs the whole arc of the main character and gets mentioned a lot (It's been a while since I read them though).
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Jan 9, 2022 04:38
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PlushCow posted:My grandma once loved to read and I'm looking for recommendations for mysteries (or thrillers too I guess), probably cozy mysteries would be better, and preferably recent-ish or widely well known that my local library system may have them in an ebook format. She might like Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael books, not too much racy stuff, he's a monk.
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Jan 25, 2022 13:51
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sloppy portmanteau posted:Can I get some recommendations for long fantasy/sci-fi series which stick with the same main or small cast of characters throughout and follows their growth? I recently read the Wheel of Time series and that's what I found I liked about it. The payoff with Rands, Matts, and Egwenes evolution especially, I enjoy the shifting power dynamics from the beginning of the series. Then I moved on to the Cradle series and found that satisfying for similar reasons. Currently reading Forge of Destiny due to recommendations in relation to Cradle, but finding it too meandering and will be dropping it. Julian May's "Saga of the Exiles" might fit the bill.
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Jan 27, 2022 07:11
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"Shaman" by Kim Stanley Robinson is pretty good. I guess "The Inheritors" by William Golding, although I last read it 30 years ago and all I can remember is one of the characters kept saying "I have a picture" when he imagined something.
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Feb 14, 2022 14:30
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Arc Hammer posted:28 years old and never knew much about the Cold War until I started picking up an interest in current day geopolitics. Are there any good recommendations for books that cover the proxy wars and regional conflicts that resulted from the decolonization of Africa and the subsequent efforts by western and soviet powers to influence the local situations? The gist that I've come away with from dipping my toes into this history is that the 70s and 80s were loving insane. "The Savage Wars of Peace" by Max Boot is pretty good, It's been revised and updated recently, I read it 30 odd years ago but I remember enjoying it.
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Mar 18, 2022 12:38
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PantsBandit posted:I'm interested in finding a sci-fi horror book, something in the vein of Alien. It's a surprisingly sparse niche as far as I've been able to tell! "Legacy of Heorot" by Larry Niven might be that, I remember reading somewhere that it was the result of asking "but why is the Alien like that?" "Relic" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child isn't really sci fi but has an Alien analogue as the beastie.
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Mar 21, 2022 05:56
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:Looking for a birthday present for my dad. A non-fiction, funny, memoiresque type adventure, very much like A Walk in the Woods. Maybe even another Bill Bryson book, actually. Or, since my dad enjoys sailing, has anyone written a nautical-themed book similar to A Walk in the Woods? Redmon O'Hanlon has written a number of books that might fit. He's a rather bookish English academic who occasionally goes mad and tries to replicate the journey of an 18th century explorer, or find a semi-mythical animal of some sort. He usually takes a completely unsuitable companion and they have a dreadful time. I wouldn't choose "Congo Journey" as it's a bit too traumatic, but any of his other books would be great. Sailing books: You could try "The Last Grain Race" by Eric Newby - at 17 he sailed on one of the last sailing ships to carry grain from Australia to Europe before the war. Obviously if your dad hasn't read the "Master and Commander" books you should infect him with those.
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May 11, 2022 21:20
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Franchescanado posted:Are there any good novels about or set during the Bubonic Plague / Black Death? Neal Stephenson's "The Baroque Cycle" takes place during the plague, but there's a lot of it and a lot of that isn't plague-centric.
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May 17, 2022 01:22
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Claeaus posted:I'm going hiking in the northern parts of Sweden for a week this summer and would like a nice book to read in the tent. Once when hiking I read Jan Guillous Brobyggarna which is a swedish book about three norwegian brothers and their adventures in the beginning of the 1900s. One is building bridges in the norwegian mountains. It was really nice reading about adventures in the snowy mountains when you're around mountains yourself. On another hike I started reading Leviathan Wakes and reading about space wasn't as fitting on a hike. "A walk in the woods" by Bill Bryson, "Eiger Dreams" by Jon Krakaur, "Touching the Void" by Joe Simpson and anything by Tim Cahill (I recommend "Road Fever", which isn't really about camping but is still great).
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May 31, 2022 23:27
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Doom Mathematic posted:I am looking for a book I could give to a six-year-old (reads at the level of an eight-year-old) son of a friend of mine for his birthday. His parents say "genre of your choice" and I'm veering toward science fiction but I don't have any idea what's out there. I also know children's books can be all over the place in quality. So, just like a fistful of recommendations I can peruse would be good? Thank you in advance. Popular series from second grade up at the moment (assuming an advanced reader): Keeper of the Lost Cities Ranger's Apprentice Wolf Girl (might not be available in the states) Warriors Dog Man How to train your Dragon A sequence of unfortunate events Bone Amulet Diary of a Wimpy Kid Timmy Failure The (number) story tree house My Weird School Captain Underpants almost anything by Raina Telegmeier and your usual Rick Riordan/JK Rowling etc if you can bear it. For an actual six year old, not the prodigy who will read all that stuff up there: A nice picture book like "The book with no pictures" or "This is not my hat" or "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus" Edit - My favorite kids book author right now is a German artist called Sebastian Meschenmoser - I recommend his "Mr Squirrel" books, although anything by him is great. yaffle fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Jun 11, 2022 |
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Jun 11, 2022 05:04
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Good-Natured Filth posted:Scholastic has a number of series in their Branches brand - both graphic novels and chapter books. My 6yo daughter really likes The Last Firehawk series which was recommended to her by our local librarian. Branches are a really good brand, they are all super popular with kids.
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Jun 13, 2022 04:27
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Huh, I Googled it and got 8-12. Classics for that age are tricky, my kids loved Emil, but not Moomintroll, they found Enid Blyton boring, but couldn't get enough of William (but only the audio books, I wasn't allowed to try to read them myself).
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Jun 13, 2022 08:43
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Well, Enid Blyton IS really boring. Well I really liked her when I was a kid 
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Jun 13, 2022 09:26
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Eason the Fifth posted:Yo do you happen to know the author for this? I remember reading it in 4th grade back in like 1990 and loved it as a kid. That and the D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths were incredible. The Rosemary Sutcliff Odysseus is very good, nicely illustrated by Alan Lee.
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Jun 15, 2022 11:11
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Blurred posted:Can someone recommend a book that just explains how everyday poo poo works? I've just ordered the nat geo "big book of why" for my son, and I'd love something similar for myself. Could be focused on scientific questions, or focused on how everyday social institutions function, or anything really. I consider myself pretty well read, but i think i'd draw a blank if asked to explain how aeroplanes fly or how credit cards work. It's sadly out of print but "Almost Everything There Is To Know" by Tim Hunkin is great, your son will enjoy it too. When I was a kid my grandfather gave us a bound collection of "The way things work" magazine which was fascinating. (This is impossible to get and very out of date).
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Jun 19, 2022 02:55
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CapnAndy posted:Anyone got some history recommendations about how interesting things got built? I just finished Disney's Land and Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution, and both of them disappointed me for the same failings -- a bad reliance on "a thing had to be done and nobody knew how and it looked really hard, but then it got done" narrative without covering the interesting bit of how they overcame those challenges, and in failing to include really obviously important bits (Disney's Land skips right from the monorail in 1959 to Walt Disney dying without mentioning the 1964 New York World's Fair at all, like inventing audio-animatronics and motherfucking It's a Small World isn't pertinent somehow, and Dogfight gets apparently distracted or something and veers off its narrative to discuss media moving to digital distribution, which is a)completely not the loving point and b)hilariously dated given that the book was written in 2013). By contrast, I really loved Losing the Signal, and Devil in the White City is one of my all-time favorite books. I've recommended it before in this thread but "First Light" by Richard Preston is a fascinating look at the history of telescopes and how they are built.
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Jul 3, 2022 06:04
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Maybe Robin Mckinley's "The Blue Sword "and "The Hero and the Crown"? Possibly "Dragonslayer" by Barbara Hambley.
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Aug 4, 2022 21:27
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mr. unhsib posted:Any near-future climate-focused sci fi recommendations out there? I just finished Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, would love to read more books in this vein. Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling is pretty good, Mother of Storms by John Barnes is ok but has some loving WIERD SEX STUFF in it, so, maybe not?
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Aug 28, 2022 22:10
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ovenboy posted:My book club will be looking for a detective novel soon and, being scandinavian, the market is pretty saturated in nordic noir which I am not too interested in. I've read and enjoyed some Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, but besides that I remember Kiln People, A Study in Emerald, the Watch books by Pratchett, and recently The Wolf and the Watchman. My parents read a lot of detective stuff, the "Unusual Premise" ones I remember were Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael books - medieval monk as detective.
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Oct 12, 2022 11:02
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Opopanax posted:Has anyone read any Chet and Bernie books and are they ok for a 10 year old? My kid picked one out at a book sale here, I took a flip through and it seemed ok but be nice to get an informed opinion A quick google suggests they would be ok, if the kid likes dogs, but I work in a very well funded elementary school library and we don't have them, our book supplier places them in the "adult" (as in for grown ups) reading range.
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Oct 22, 2022 12:22
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newts posted:Can anyone recommend a book series similar to Patricia C. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest series? My daughter loves these, but she’s almost finished with the last book. Tui Sutherland's "Wings of Fire" Series - Super popular right now, not funny as such. For funny fantasy you could try Terry Pratchett's YA books, although they can get super dark. Robert Asprin's MythAdventures, maybe even Bruce Coville, he churned out hundreds of fantasy books for kids.
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Oct 27, 2022 04:14
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A fair chunk of the Master and Commander books by Patrick O'Brian deals with espionage of one sort or another.
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Dec 3, 2022 13:54
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Kvlt! posted:i'm looking for a rec for a Christmas present for my brother. His favorite book is Between Two Fires, he's a big fan of fantasy but less traditional wizards and elves and dragons style and more "realistic" style (though that doesn't mean it can't have magic or creatures etc). He also likes the Black Company series if that helps. The Drenai books by David Gemmell might suit him.
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Dec 8, 2022 04:45
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