Hello and welcome to Recommended Reading, a new twice-monthly feature where we discuss books that we like, and offer suggestions to others about books that we think they might like.
Today, I would like to say a little something about the Eisner-award-winning comic epic Bone.
Published in installments from 1991 to 2004, Bone is now available in a single 1,332-page volume. It tells the story of the Bone cousins, three Pogo-esque slapstick scam artists who get run out of Boneville. They become separated and lost in a mysterious valley where, as it turns out, a high-fantasy epic war is brewing. There ensues love and hate, laughter and tears, unnecessarily-long homages to Moby-Dick, and stupid, stupid rat creatures!
This is the graphic novel I recommend to people who are looking to get into graphic novels. It’s approachable because it rests on the familiar elements of epic fantasy and the Sunday funnies. There’s obviously much to love if you are already a fan of the form, too. The art is both functional and stunning. Finally, it contains my favorite dragon: The Great Red Dragon, a chainsmoking, world-weary thing with puffball ear fringe.
The overall feel will be familiar to fans of Terry Pratchett. 11/10 highly recommended please read.
We also have a special guest recommender today, one of the only other Juicers known to have met Samwise–ruemara!.
She writes,
- Dead Boys by Gabriel Squailia – a fairly amazing and complex heroes journey, see review here
- The Last Policeman – the only police book I want to see made into a series, review here
- Chew, the graphic novels – weird, gruesome yet somehow fun, graphic novel series about Tony Chew, a cibopath. That means, “gets psychic flash on whatever he eats”. Yeah, a steak can be pretty horrible for him. No posted review for the graphic novels, but here’s a link.
What books are you bursting at the seams to share? Or maybe you’re looking for something to read–please ask, the hive-mind would be happy to help!
(If you go looking for any of these books on Amazon, remember to click through the Balloon-Juice affiliate link to get there.)
Mike J
Ruemara coming back for podcon II, the poddening? We have more beer here which needs to be drunk.
jacy
I would like to heartily recommend Paul Tremblay. We’re Facebook friends, and, in addition to being a fantastic writer, he’s a really cool guy. (He’s politically active and has a cute dog, so he would fit right in at Balloon Juice.) His novels A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS and DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK were excellent. I haven’t had a chance yet to read his new one THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD yet, but it’s gotten great reviews and is hitting the best seller lists. Horror/suspense, but in the very literary vein.
You can see his website here.
EBT
Everyone needs to read Transmetropolitan. 60 issues available in 10 trade paperbacks. A post post (yes two posts) apocalyptic cyberpunk political story told from the point of view of Not Hunter S Thompson. He also shoots the president with a weapon called a bowel disruptor at one point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmetropolitan
zhena gogolia
(About to go out for the evening — wish I could stay!) I’ve been enjoying the Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope (just finished Phineas Redux, the fourth out of six), and am also delighting in the lesser-known works of John Galsworthy. His One More River deals sensitively with the story of a woman trying to escape an abusive husband (basically the same plot as the Forsyte Saga, but with a gripping courtroom scene). Both he and Trollope are ahead of their times in the way they treat women characters. (Not so good on racial and religious Others, I’m afraid.)
jeffreyw
2d the rec on The Last Policeman.
zhena gogolia
@EBT:
That’s of timely interest!
cain
Any book by Tad Williams rocks. The Dragonbone Chair is a fine first book in the trilogy.
Betty Cracker
I read the first installment of “The Last Policeman” a while back and enjoyed it. I need to read the other two. I have a formidable pile of books in queue though, so it’ll be a while. I’ve been on a non-fiction kick for years now. Most recent: Grant. It’s fascinating in parts, especially the way he dealt with his old Confederate comrades (with the short shrift they deserved). Other parts were rather a slog, IMO.
jeffreyw
I enjoyed the Spiral Arm series from Michael Flynn
Elizabelle
Got to go out for a little while, but WRT graphic novels and comics: want to put in a plug for Bethesda, Maryland’s Small Press Expo (SPX), weekend of September 15-16, the best deal in town; $20 to get in for both days. Bethesda Marriott North; White Flint Metro.
Jeff Smith of Bone was there a few years ago (mobbed, I tell you); Gene Yang; Seth; this year they’ve got Roz Chast, Derf (my friend Dahmer, graphic novel coming out as a movie soon, I think), Jules Feiffer, and a wonderful group M4 and ruemara probably know but who are not known to me, yet. They’re still adding artists.
It’s chill and you can talk with the cartoonists. Got to meet John Lewis (not a cartoonist, the civil rights hero — March) and Lynda Barry and many more. Very approachable, and all the artists, well known and not yet, love when you buy their books. Which are treasures. Especially those from folks you have never heard of; so creative. I think it’s fun just to watch the audience, which skews young.
West of the Rockies
My daughter read the Bone series and enjoyed it muchly.
Mary G
I loved the Divine Cities series by Robert Jackson Bennett – City of Stairs, City of Blades, City of Miracles. Each one stars a different character who was a supporting or minor character in the earlier book(s) and they are wonderful people.
He has a new one coming out on 8/21 called Foundryside, book one in a new series:
I’ve preordered, which I almost never do. He also tweets, not very often, but well.
EBT
@zhena gogolia: I know the audience here.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
I read that in middle school for some interschool reading competition that was sponsored by a local university (that I dropped out of). I vaguely remember it but what I do remember of it was good.
Spoiler: It gave a weird explanation for how time seemed to be moving quicker in our world then in the past; time was escaping into some alternate dimension.
RSA
Added to my shopping cart!
karensky
@Betty Cracker:
I am reading Grant’s own memoir. He was a fantastic writer. It is long but very amazing in short readings. He was a hero.
I am a big fan of mystery fiction and would like to recommend Andrea Camillieri, a funny and crusty Sicilian dude who always winds some political stuff into each novel. Right now there are at least 10 novels that have been translated into English with more to come.
Elizabelle
If there are any other Small Press Expo fans, we could try for a meetup that weekend.
Major Major Major Major
@Elizabelle: I met Jeff Smith at a Book Expo shortly after he’d finished Bone. I walked by a little table and saw a guy wearing a Bone t-shirt, and upon closer inspection it was him, being wired up for an interview. We chatted while they got him ready, and he signed a notebook I had with me, a drawing of Fone Bone saying hi to me.
ETA:
Mary G
@zhena gogolia: I read the Palliser novels in the 70s (?) when Masterpiece Theater did a series of one. They are delightful, and if I ever get through the thousands of books in my Kindle, I’ll have to re-read them.
dmsilev
On the non-fiction side, a recent read which I’d recommend is ‘Bad Blood’ by John Carreyou. It’s the story of the rise and fall of Theranos, the company that claimed to be able to revolutionize blood testing but in reality was either an outright scam or something close. The author is the WSJ reporter who wrote the stories which exposed the company as being just a hollow shell, and the book-length version is very compelling and very well written.
jeffreyw
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Chabon has a faint echo of The Last Policeman. It, too would make a good mini-series.
JanieM
Highly recommend “Call Me American.” It’s a memoir by Abdi Nor Iftin, a Somali immigrant to Maine who grew up in war-destroyed Mogadishu, spent some time, along with his brother, as an illegal refugee in Nairobi, and finally, against all hope and odds, got a lottery-based chance at a green card. It’s an amazing story: upsetting, heart-breaking, and hopeful all at the same time, plus unputdownable.
JanieM
@jeffreyw: Seconded about The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. Loved that book.
aliasofwestgate
I recommend Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage Trilogy. I’m not much for military fantasy to begin with but the whole concept of mages who can use gunpowder to enhance their senses, but also make powerful explosions at will and extend the range of pistols/rifles in a world where actual mages exist was quite intriguing. Needless to say, i got sucked in, because it’s not just a military fantasy, it’s also a bit of detective story, and the role of a single sniper among the ranks too. Just read it and see what i mean. *grins* The author was a student of Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, Elantris, Warbreaker, etc), and it shows in how well he builds his world and the people in it.
Heidi Mom
@Betty Cracker: Grant — agreed. For anyone interested in the Civil War and the racial politics of the time, the greater part of the book flies by, but then we hit his second presidential term, where all the scandals are described in great detail. That’s a slog.
dexwood
I quite liked The Last Policeman enough to read the trilogy. Gotta say, though, I thought book two, Countdown City, was the weakest of the three. Recently, I read Semiosis: A Novel of First Contact, by Sue Burke which I found both entertaining and interesting. It led me to The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.
cain
I would like to further recommend “Art of the Deal” by Donald Trump. Mr. Trump weaves a tremendous and riveting dialogue on making the best deals. Meandering through his various successes, his near omniscience pours through in tail after tail, bombarding you with critical hits. New York Times reporter, Maggie Haberman writes, “This is the real deal. He’s simply terrific. The Art of the Deal far outpaced any runaway expectations I’ve had!”.
Major Major Major Major
@aliasofwestgate: Oh, that sounds right up my alley.
gene108
You can read it on line, but they also have comics. If you have ever played D&D, Order of the Stick is a great read.
Link to comic below
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html
Also has one of my favorite quotes:
http://oots.wikia.com/wiki/Realizations_%26_Rationalizations
Major Major Major Major
@gene108: I adore Order of the Stick. Scary Go Round is my favorite webcomic though.
Frankensteinbeck
My experiences loving the little bits of Bone and being unable to afford it until I read an omnibus decades later were the inspiration for Penny’s love of the comic Sentient Life in my Supervillain books. Bone is a fun, charming comic with a wandering but never boring plot, and I highly recommend it. Get a collection, it’s huge.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@karensky: Ulysses Grant was a man ahead his time for sure. He wasn’t an anti-semite for one and tried to protect the newly freed slaves’ rights. Goes to the show that the “product of his time” isn’t a good excuse. Robert E. Lee was a slave-owning piece of shit who was a racist at heart. His tenure as college president at Washington and Lee University proves that.
dnfree
@Betty Cracker: Grant’s memoir is awesome. There are some new biographies out as well, and he’s being re-evaluated. (He is being recognized more and more, as some might say.) I got into reading about him via Ta-Nehisi Coates when he did a lengthy series of Civil War posts at The Atlantic, which were also awesome.
Here is one collection of those. https://absurdbeats.net/tncs-civil-war/
raven
“Through the power of Margaret Mitchell’s words and the film they inspired, the struggle for Atlanta became all that most folks needed to know about our nation’s four-year bloodbath. Russell S. Bonds has courageously focused his sights on retelling the story in War Like The Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta. Through the depth of his research and his skills as both historian and storyteller, Bonds has given us what might have seemed impossible–a fresh, new, and impressive look back at Atlanta.” –Robert Hicks, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Widow of the South
War Like a Thunderbolt
“This gripping story of the battles for Atlanta in 1864 provides new insights on a campaign that ensured Lincoln’s reelection and the ultimate destruction of the Confederacy. Russell S. Bonds has an impressive ability to combine combat narrative with shrewd analyses of commanders’ performances.” –James M. McPherson, author of Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
clay
Bone is great. I’ve been getting the books for my daughters and they’re loving it so far. Great for kids and adults!
@gene108: I love Order of the Stick, too. The uninitiated reader should be aware that the series starts out as basically a gag strip that pokes fun at an outdated version of Dungeons & Dragons, but it quickly develops into much, much more. It’s one of the best examples of long-form storytelling that I’ve ever read.
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: Cool!
RedDirtGirl
Jumping in with Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan. A very gratifying read, I thought.
Betty Cracker
@karensky: I’ll check out Grant’s memoir! Do you like Umberto Eco?
dnfree
Mentioning Pogo warms my heart. They are slowly working on issuing a complete collection including all the daily strips. It has been slow going because they have lost a couple of editors to cancer–it’s a labor of love, and probably mostly appreciated by people over age 70. Here’s a link to the first one in the set.
https://www.amazon.com/Pogo-Complete-Sunday-Strips-Through/dp/1560978694/
Major Major Major Major
@clay: This is a very good point–to a non-D&D-player the first, what, 100 strips of Order of the Stick would probably be quite a slog. But it’s worth it.
dnfree
If we’re including serious graphic novels, the first graphic novel I ever read, and one that made me recognize the power of the genre, was “Maus”. I hope everyone reads that. And I recently read “March”, which was done in collaboration with John Lewis in three volumes.
jl
Thanks for nice debut of the book chat. Interesting stuff.
Only, Cole hasn’t shown up to gripe, grouch and threaten to punch us all in the neck.
I’m not sure it’s an officially authorized BF feature.
But, what the heck, who cares? Looks good. Thanks so much MMMM.
gene108
The Heechee Saga by Frederik Pohl is a good read. Really captures how reckless we can be collectively as a species and the things we can discover as a result.
SmallAxe
For non-fiction reads I thought American Kingpin about the Silk Road founder takedown was excellent. I also highly recommend Burton: A biography of Sir Richard Francis Burton by Byron Farewell, what a fascinating and widely varied life he led.
Heidi Mom
For mystery lovers I’d like to recommend the series by Martin Walker that begins with Bruno, Chief of Police. Bruno is the nickname of Benoit Courreges, chef de police in the (fictional) small town of St. Denis, in the Perigord region of southwest France. Bruno is a serious, thoughtful man who loves his basset hound (and, later, his horse); his garden; rugby; hunting; cooking with truffles, foie gras, and wine; women, whom he treats with great respect; and most of all the people — funny, sad, law-abiding or not so much — of his adopted hometown. If this sounds like a frivolous series, it isn’t — the Resistance and the Algerian War cast long shadows, and St. Denis and the surrounding countryside struggle to find their place in the modern France of the EU. Readers who like Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series set in the fictional village of Three Pines, Quebec, will probably like this series as well.
jeffreyw
Neal Asher’s Polity Universe has some great reads. It rivals the Culture Series by Iain Banks, IMHO
EBT
If you like nerdery, Knights of the Dinner Table is a fantastic read. It’s a comic about a group of folks playing a not D&D fantasy RPG. The happenings of the game are often at least framing stories for the interaction of the players at the table.
jeffreyw
@gene108:
Hi there, fellow old timer!
gene108
Annals of the Former World by John McPhee. A history of the geology of America as told via going across I-80 from East to West.
It is a compilation of several books he wrote about this subject.
He started it in 1978*, before plate tectonics was settled science, so it is interesting to read how a theory goes from conception to acceptance and the limits it may have versus people, who want to use it for everything
*My first go around in college, from 1992-1996. I was a geology major. None of my professors were taught plate tectonics. I was basically the early generation of geologists to be taught plate tectonics as settled science.
Mary G
OT but heartwarming video of the audience reaction when Hillary Clinton shows up to see Bette Midler on Broadway in “Hello Dolly”
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: Scary Go Round (or more precisely, its predecessor Bobbins is home to the 2nd best time travel joke ever: http://www.scarygoround.com/bobbins/index-archive.php?date=20010619 – and the best time travel joke is from Manly Guys Doing Manly Things. I’ll find it later. But now I’m grateful this thread reminded me of SGR, because I’ve got years to catch up on. :)
On a completely unrelated note, I would add Ben Aaronovitch’s “The Rivers Of London” as a fantastic police/fantasy series. It takes place now, at pokes fun at the concept of modern policing while throwing some magic in as well – the main character is an apprentice magician who takes up as an apprentice of the last magician in England while he’s already a beat cop. Very funnily written, but manages to have serious and interesting storylines in each book.
jeffreyw
WW 2 history buffs would do well to get Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy.
debbie
I’ve just started reading “There There” by Tommy Orange, and (at least so far) it’s the best writing I’ve read in many years.
feebog
I recommend the Scattered and the Dead series by Tom McBain and Lex Vargus. Post apocalyptic adventure with compelling characters. The latest novel in the series came out on Amazon yesterday. Also, five book set is on sale.
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: I read the first two of those after one of the recommendation threads, so it was probably your recommendation! I liked the second one a lot better. Looking forward to picking it back up somewhere down the road, but not just yet.
raven
@jeffreyw: Incredible work as is The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point’s Class of 1966.
aliasofwestgate
@MisterForkbeard: I adore the Rivers of London books! I’m about 3 books behind at the moment, but what i’ve read i enjoy immensely. Peter Grant and his reactions to his new division are priceless and such a well made world and characters. It’s one of the better iterations of Urban Fantasy/Procedural that i’ve read. *grins*
oatler.
@dnfree: I remember Maus and also a sequel whose title I can’t recall.
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah, the first is a little more uneven than the rest, but I did really like the series. Apparently there’s also some graphic novels of it, though I don’t think I’ll read those.
@aliasofwestgate: Peter Grant and his reactions to both his division AND the nonchalant reactions to the general ridiculousness of modern London policing really make the series. I’m glad people are enjoying them too. :)
dexwood
@debbie:
My wife, a Native and big Sherman Alexie fan, has just started reading that. I get it next.
jeffreyw
The Fractured Europe Sequence, a trilogy by Dave Hutchinson, is pretty good. It starts strong with Europe In Autumn, meanders a bit in the 2d book, and finishes pretty strong.
CarolPW
@Heidi Mom: Thank you! I loved Penny’s Gamache and need a new series to start.
hitchhiker
Mary Doria Russell’s books about Doc Holladay (set in KS and AZ in the last quarter of the 19th century) are deliciously written and historically meticulous. (Doc, Epitaph)
Her book about the Italian Resistance during the last couple of years of WWII, same. (A Thread of Grace)
And, of course, her unlikely, amazing pair called The Sparrow and Children of God … oof, just read ’em.
Just One More Canuck
Great choice with Bone – my daughter loves it, and I really enjoyed the couple I’ve read. We also both really enjoyed Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain, by some guy named Frankensteinbeck
For CanLit, The Rule of Stephens by Timothy Taylor is a good read so far – I just started it a few days ago (full disclosure – I went to university with him)
Gelfling 545
Rapidly copying titles and authors. Thanks for this. I just finished A City Dreaming by Daniel Polansky. Weird and interesting. I have also enjoyed the Hugo Marston Paris-themed mysteries.
Jeffro
M4: have to thank you for the thread and the Bone recommendation – I heartily agree, it’s a great read. I really liked it and my kids LOVED it (they were 14 and 10 at the time).
I think the only graphic novels/comics they’ve read and read and read some more than Bone were the various Tin Tin collections and Batman: No Man’s Land.
Mini-Me (my son, who’s now about to turn 13) is totally into Tom Strong, Hellboy, and Invincible. It’s not that he isn’t into all the Marvel heroes – he’s just kind of read them all and is branching out now.
dexwood
@dexwood:
To be a bit more clear, she finds comparisons between the two writers.
delk
@MisterForkbeard: there’s a great line in the second Peter Grant book that made me smile.
Little snippet of Pulp’s “Common People”.
Jeffro
@EBT: Hey EBT, total Transmet fan here! (I actually have a piece of the original art from #44, seriously!)
Transmet is a total blast and I keep promising my kids I’ll be Spider Jerusalem for Halloween some day soon. Probably better do it before too much longer, they ARE getting older…(sigh)…
I loved the whole series but the “I HATE IT HERE” collections were a special treat. I’ll probably hold on to those long after I’ve traded in/sold off the series…but first my son wants to read them and I think I want to wait until he’s just a biiiiit older…
Jeffro
@RedDirtGirl: I have that in my ‘to read’ pile!
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker:
So kind of like the Peninsula Campaign.
J R in WV
@gene108:
This!! Anything by John McPhee is great work. He wrote essays, which were then released packaged into books. About new farming outside NYC, new food at an anonymous restaurant outside NYC, the chef would only cooperate if McPhee agreed to keep the actual location strictly confidential.
In “Annals of the Former World” there are so many fabulous stories about people exploring the geology of North America, miners, scientists, a professor on his break from teaching re-mining an old gold and silver mine’s dumps, because in the old days, they only recovered 85% of the goods, and now they can get 98% – his goal was to put his kids through college.
I’ve tried Neal Archer’s stuff, and have gotten stuck a third of the way in. I might give it another try, I loved Iain M Banks’s SF work, his more mainstream fiction was less so for me.
I’ve dug out Walter Jon Williams gaming books, and now I’m going through Nancy Kress’s things I haven’t already read. She’s awesome.
Jeffro
Ok a couple of recommendations of recent reads (and then I’ll quit hogging the thread)
Best recent nonfiction: Everything Under The Heavens: How The Past Helps Shape China’s Push For Global Power, by Howard French. A pretty concise look at China’s long-term past and cultural worldview – provides an excellent lens for understanding the past 50 years of its history, current events, and how the next 50-100 years might play out.
Best recent fiction: Lincoln In The Bardo, By George Saunders. Just. Blown. Away. A grieving Abraham Lincoln sets in motion all sorts of reflections (and actions!) by the spirits in his son’s graveyard.
Honorable mention, fiction: Strange Weather, by Joe Hill. Four weather-based horror/fantasy novellas (hmm, sound familiar?) that’ll scramble your brains even more than they horrify you.
Comic- and graphic-novel-wise, the only thing I have been reading lately is the hardbound editions of The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu. I used to read MOKF occasionally as a kid and now here’s a chance to read Shang-Chi’s adventures straight through. Great kung-fu and spy fun!
Baud
@Mary G: I read about that earlier. It was heartwarming.
Mike J
@Frankensteinbeck: You need to bring that up more. I still haven’t got the latest one and I keep meaning to. Please hype yourself more often to remind me.
dexwood
@Jeffro:
Lincoln is great.
Gin & Tonic
@gene108: I dunno, I remember plate tectonics from Intro Earth Science in 73-74 or so.
piratedan
two series….
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Vorkosigan Saga
Glen Cook – The Black Company
stylistically, about as different as you can get, but great storytelling in each…
Emerald
Having a wonderful time with Martin Chuzzlewit. Am halfway through.
I swear, Mr. Pecksniff is a portrait of our current vice president*.
Dickens knew these guys. He knew all of these guys.
Gin & Tonic
Anyway, books. I mostly read non-fiction – currently reading the travelogues of ibn Fadlan and some other ~11th C Arab travelers to northern Europe. But having thoroughly enjoyed Laurent Binet’s HHhH recently, I’ve just ordered his The Seventh Function of Language.
ruemara
@Mike J: Yes, I am, in fact. I haven’t gotten tickets yet, but we’ve started the Ostium travel fundraiser and I’m hoping to have a creative writing session for POC writing horror & scifi. I thought we could use one. Not sure if we’re doing an Ostium discussion yet, but we’ll see.
@EBT: I loved Transmetropolitan.
I’m also a huge fan of Bone and frankly, I have made excellent use of the Kindle Unlimited to burn through about 20 new scifi series, plus I got comixology and have been enjoying their unlimited offerings. But, all good things. I ain’t paying $10 a month, Amazon, no way. Library Overdrive account, it is.
For those of you who enjoyed what you’ve read, please do try the rest of the series. Each one has it’s one rhythmic meter and a kind of melancholy beauty. Very worth reading.
Adam L Silverman
For a graphic novel, I highly recommend Kingdom Come. The story is very well written and Alex Ross’s art is amazing. This is the story that should have been made into Batman Vs Superman, once the decision was made to pit the two against each other on the big screen.
https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Come-Mark-Waid/dp/1401220347/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532821437&sr=8-1&keywords=Kingdom+Come
His Justice series is also excellent. Tight story, amazing art:
https://www.amazon.com/Justice-Jim-Krueger/dp/1401235263/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1401235263&pd_rd_r=1b0776b5-92c0-11e8-a9b7-f9452d2c743a&pd_rd_w=3FlGJ&pd_rd_wg=SkzeO&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=2610440344683357453&pf_rd_r=VBE4R15E3Q53Q9CD4WHV&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=VBE4R15E3Q53Q9CD4WHV
I will also say that if you are a fan of the old Fawcett and then DC Captain Marvel, now doing business as Shazam (same as the wizard), that in my opinion Ross and his coauthors have one of the best handles on the character and have used him as a primary character in Justice and as one of the four main characters in Kingdom Come that does the character and its history right, while still getting the paradox of the character: a child treated tremendously unfairly by life who never gives up hope is also the adult hero magically imbued with great powers.
Finally, as I’ve referenced a couple of times, I’m always partial to The Great Darkness Saga:
https://www.amazon.com/Legion-Super-Heroes-Great-Darkness-Saga/dp/1401244165/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532822099&sr=1-1&keywords=the+great+darkness+saga
I try not to recommend either fiction or non-fiction books, unless it’s the latter and it’s for professional reasons, as I’ve got strange tastes.
debbie
@dexwood:
Yes, I’ve also liked Alexie’s work. Does your wife like Louise Erdrich?
Jimmie Higgins
Too many great suggestions here and I’m suspect the of the last ants to the picnic. here. That said, if we are talking graphic novels. let me put in an urgent good word for Bryan Talbot’s lovely book about coming to grips with sexual abuse, The Tale Of One Bad Rat.
Not in print, I think but plenty out there on the intertoobz…
NeenerNeener
Martha Wells is releasing a series of novellas this year called The Murderbot Diaries. The first two are out, and they’re pretty nifty. I think there are two more coming out by the end of this year.
Jim Parish
@zhena gogolia: The Palliser series is good, but I prefer the Chronicles of Barsetshire, especially Barchester Towers and The Last Chronicle of Barset, the second and sixth books. (The first one, The Warden, is stylistically different from the rest; it shares some characters with the later books, but isn’t as good, IMO.)
Seconding the recommendations of Grant, Bujold, and Aaronovitch. On the nonfiction front, one of the best books I’ve read recently is If Dogs Could Talk, by Vilmos Csanyi. Csanyi has been studying the behavior of dogs for many years, and presents experimental evidence that dogs possess a theory of mind.
Jim Parish
@Gin & Tonic: Can you recommend particular editions? (What I’d really like is a good edition of ibn Battuta.)
Bex
“A Terrible Country” by Keith Gessen set in Moscow in 2008 when a Russian-born American academic goes back to take care of his grandmother. All of Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti (a police detective in Venice) novels. Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway archeological mysteries set in East Anglia. Robert Harris’ “Munich.”
dexwood
@debbie:
No. I asked her just now. She used “cashing in to 70s hippies New Age fads” to describe her writing. Having never read her myself, I can’t judge. Though, she thinks the money Erdrich has contributed to causes & communities makes up for it.
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
Fonebone was a name used by Don Martin for his slob characters in Mad Magazine – I wonder if Martin was any inspiration.
debbie
@dexwood:
Her most recent book disappointed. She tried going dystopic, I guess because everyone else was. But the early books are among my favorites. I aspire to be Fleur.
Brachiator
Too long. Anything shorter, more self-contained?
Gravenstone
@piratedan: Cook is apparently revisiting the series and has a couple of new titles on the horizon. First one (Port of Shadows) is due late September.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: JL8 and it’s free!
http://limbero.org/jl8/archive
Major Major Major Major
@Schlemazel: interesting!
Schlemazel
@oatler.:
I was bored with comic books as a kid, never enjoyed them. My eldest introduced me to “Maus” and I finally saw some worth in the format. The comments here make me interested in the Bone one but I still am left a little unimpressed with the format. My fault I know I just feel like it is incomplete.
CaseyL
@dnfree: Mentions of Pogo are unexpectedly timely. My Mom recently said they could re-run the strips without changing them at all and they’d still be relevant.
I have trouble really getting into graphic novels. They’re weirdly slower and faster than print novels – slower because the action happens one panel at a time; faster because there’s a lot of time elision and discontinuity in graphic novels. I’ve enjoyed the few that I’ve read, but never wanted to make a steady diet out of them.
My favorite was early- to middle-era Cerebus the Aardvark (before the writer’s marriage fell apart and he either became or was revealed to be a deeply bitter misogynist). The snark, the cultural allusions, the sheer absurdity all delighted me. Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books set in Ankh-Morpork, particularly those featuring the Patrician Vetinari, have a similar vibe (while being, I hasten to add, entirely original).
My recs: I have just found another mystery series to adore and devour, the Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries by Donna Leon. They’re set in Venice, where the author has lived for nearly 40 years. I can’t say enough good things about these books: the plots are intricate without being insane, the characters are very well drawn and believable, and the chance to vicariously experience modern everyday Venetian life/society is just wonderful. The first books in the series are “Death at La Fenice” and “Death in a Strange Country.”
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: Smith’s newest series RASL is much shorter, at fifteen issues. Multiverse-hopping noir. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RASL
@Schlemazel: format, how so?
Ken B
Another webcomic is Darths and Droids. It chronicles a series of campaigns using a D&D-ish rules system.
They use screen caps from the movies, but write their own plots and dialogue. The characters are often very different from in the movies (Jar Jar is non annoying, for instance).
It’s fun to watch the group interact and to see (at least two of) them grow up.
Starts with Episode One, proceeds through both of the original trilogies, and is now finishing Rogue One.
jeffreyw
@NeenerNeener: Love the Murderbot stuff!
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
I still use “Fonebone” as a term to name a generic unknown person. Mad mad an impression on me I guess.
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
https://www.madmagazine.com/sites/default/files/imce/2014/08-AUG/Don-Martin_Fonebone-is-Watching-You_53f62f3bd1db42.06675369.jpg
can’t edit my comment
Gin & Tonic
@Jim Parish: I’m not enough of a specialist to be able to compare. I’m reading the Penguin Classics version of ibn Fadlan, translated by Paul Lunde. It seems serviceable.
Emma
Let me put in a good word for Sujata Massey’s The Widows of Malabar Hill. It takes place in 1920s Bombay, where one of the first female lawyers in India has gotten tangled in the matters surrounding the will of a wealthy mill owner who has left behind three wives living in purdah and a seriously creepy sort-of-successor.
What made it a great read was the absolute feeling that if you stepped outside your front door you would be in 1920s Bombay — a messy, busy, glitzy, roiling place. The women are all fascinating, and in spite of severe social and political limits they manage, somehow, to hold a place for themselves.
(added) And for those like me who have Venice at the top of their bucket list, Donna Leon’s mystery novels are an amazing guidebook.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mike J:
…that is the nicest thing I’ve heard in ages. Thank you! Yes, all five of the Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m A Supervillain books are now out. The final is out in paperback as well, and the audiobook is with the voice actress for recording. I’m planning on doing more books about kids in that world, but this is the end of Penny’s story. Right now I’m writing something totally different, and I’ll be trying to get a bigger publisher. To forestall the question, I read the Oz books, went ‘This could be WAY more magical and imaginative and filled with childish wonder’, and then it kind of snowballed and now there are murdered rag dolls, girls leaning lessons about overcoming self-doubt, and I think I’m getting diabetes from how sweet and adorable things get every time the inhabitants of Here are left alone to have a conversation with each other.
Steeplejack
@karensky:
You need to check out the Montalbano TV series. About 30 feature-length episodes over the last 15 years. First 10 are excellent, second 10 are consistently good, the last 10 have been up and down. Available on DVD, the MHz channel through Amazon or the MHz TV channel if it’s on your cable system. Currently showing some of the later episodes every morning at 7:00 a.m. EDT.
Major Major Major Major
@Schlemazel: one of the characters is named Phoncible P. “Phoney” Bone.
middlelee
Thank dog I live on the border of two counties, both of which have great libraries, because I have a new long list of books to read after today.
I recently reread the Deptford trilogy by Robertson Davies–Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders–written in the 1970s and they were as good now as then. It’s such pleasure when beloved books don’t lose their appeal.
Jim Parish
If webcomics are up for discussion, let me recommend Power Ballad. It’s a lesbian rom-com, and also sort of a superhero comic – at least, it involves a costumed vigilante. It’s sweet, funny, short, and complete – 26 rather long pages. Lots of fun.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jeffro: I thought Lincoln in the Bardo was wonderful.
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
Loved these, which popped up on a local PBS channel late night. Wherever it was they shot the series was very beautiful. The version shown on my local station seemed to have edited out some sensuality and nudity.
The series played in rotation with a couple of other Interesting international series.
Jim Parish
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks. It goes on my to-get list.
Emma
@middlelee: Robertson Davis, yes! I discovered him through the good offices of a graduate school roommate that thrust a copy of the Trilogy at me as I was getting into the Trailways bus for the overnight ride home. He’s one of the “paper only” writers for me. It feels wrong, somehow, to read him in e-book format.
gwangung
Third the recomendation for Bujold (a long series) and the Great Darkness Saga (I think Paul Levitz mentioned that I was the second person to guess who the villain was when it was coming out monthly, and the first person to guess the new Invisible Kid’s ancestry from French colonized Africa).
Let me add Marjorie Liu’s and Sana Takeda’s Monstress, a combo of steampunk and Lovecraft, with strong women characters who dominate the story. The duo took home Eisners this year (Liu was the first woman to win an Eisner for writing), but the worldbuilding is outstanding and the combination of cute and horror is enthralling.
Felony Govt
@debbie: I agree about Louise Erdrich’s latest. Pale version of the Handmaid’s Tale, so unlike her wonderful earlier books.
I recently finished a good graphic memoir (I guess you’d call It) called The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui, about the author, her parents and grandparents from pre Vietnam War era to modern day life in the US.
I also recently finished Cryptonomicon and loved it. Any other Neal Stephenson fans?
Thank you for this thread, Major Major Major Major!
Adam L Silverman
@gwangung:
The astroglider on the servant of darkness was a giveaway.
Brachiator
@Schlemazel:
There’s also Safe Area Goražde, about the Bosnian War, written by Joe Sacco.
And of course, the wonderful Persepolis, the graphic autobiography by Marjane Satrapi
I also think the Cartoon History of the Universe, by Larry Gonick is quite good. The first volume, which ends with Alexander the Great, includes an excellent, slightly iconoclastic summary of ancient Greece.
middlelee
@Emma:
A roommate was also my introduction to the Deptford Trilogy. Long bus rides used to be a great way to read whole books.
I read Donna Leon, Louise Penny, Camillieri, Deborah Combie, and just discovered Barbara Cleverly and her protagonist, Joe Sandilands. Lincoln in the Bardo was fascinating. Among my friends it’s definitely a love/hate book. One Buddhist friend said it’s a perfect description of the bardo. Not sure how she would know that but it would be rude to ask.
feebog
@Gravenstone:
Interesting that Cook is following up with the Black Company series. I loved that series, but felt it ran out of gas eventually. Will definitely give the new book a look.
Tony Jay
When I’m suggesting books and series for someone to read I always end up directing them to Dorothy Dunnett and her various historical fictions. The Lymond Chronicles sound a bit dry – mid-16th century Scottish nobleman returns from an unjust exile to play a major role in the courts and conflicts of the period – but Dunnett’s writing is so rich and immersive, so full of subtle clues and references, that it’s always a joy to read. It’s like sitting at the feet of your dazzlingly clever granny while she drinks good red wine and tells you tales of charismatic people doing important things in interesting times. Just brilliant stuff.
And when it comes to showstopper sci-fi that’s a little bit different and inventive, Peter F Hamilton, particularly the Night’s Dawn trilogy. You like bio-engineered sentient spaceships? What happens when the Dead return to possess all sentient beings? Plus one of the is Al Capone. Highly entertaining.
Graphic novels – someone mentioned Transmetropolitan? Isn’t that Warren Ellis? His ‘Planetary’ series is awesome. A team of ‘mystery archaeologists ‘ dig through the secret history of an entire comic book universe on a mission to ensure their world remains fantastically strange.
Oh, and ‘Uber’ by Kieron Gillen. The Nazi’s crack the secret of creating superhumans the last days of the Reich and that’s when WW2 – starts – getting really bad. So, so bleak.
Major Major Major Major
@Tony Jay: speaking of Hamilton, I recently enjoyed Pandora’s Star and sequel. Very entertaining once you get used to the scale, even though his inner crank is showing a bit.
Another Scott
@Jim Parish: Subnormality – Comix with too many words is always inventive and thoughtful. (Scroll down).
The current issue will be of interest, especially, to the artists in our midst.
Cheers,
Scott.
Wapiti
@Mary G: I read City of Stairs and quite enjoyed it. Looks like I need to check out the others.
My current favorite webcomic is “Stand Still Stay Silent”; a Nordic distopian future. The artist is a pro, updating the pages 4 days a week with a couple of weeks between chapters. The story is in its last chapter, at page 939 or so if you’re into binge reading.
MobileForkbeard
@Adam L Silverman: I second Kingdom Come. It’s beautiful and an interesting discussion of what Superheroes are.
I’d also recommend Marvels, by Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek, I think. Its basically the major events of Golden and Silver Age marvel history through the eyes of a normal person. Its suddenly very obvious why the X-Men are supposed to be terrifying to the public, unlike almost other super teams.
Lastly, the entire Astro City run by Kurt Busiek is very good. “Confession”, about a young man who comes to the city to become a sidekick is possibly my most favorite comic story ever.
Just One More Canuck
@middlelee: @Emma: His Cornish Trilogy was very good as well
MobileForkbeard
@Frankensteinbeck: Wait, are ytheu the author of the “Don’t Tell My Parents…” series? Because those are amazing. I bought them for my wife and she loves them too.
I’ll have to tell her. She’ll flip. ;p
Adam L Silverman
@MobileForkbeard: I owe someone here a post about Dawn of Justice that got away from me two years ago. My plan was to actually write about it in regard to Kingdom Come.
Schlemazel
@Brachiator:
Thanks. I think @CaseyL: sort of identified part of my problem with the format. I can add these to my read pile; I am old but not to old to stop growing
Obvious Russian Troll
@NeenerNeener: I’d also strongly recommend Martha Wells’ Raksura books. I was underwhelmed by the book jacket copy and the premise–but I was completely wrong. The Cload Roads is the first of them.
Eric S.
Showing up very late but I’ve had The Last Policeman on my virtual to-read list for a long while.
schrodingers_cat
@Emma: Malabar Hill is one of the oldest and poshest neighborhoods in Mumbai. The Chief Minister’s official residence is there. My mother’s aunt used to live there. Before he formed Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah lived there too, there was a proposal to make his house into a museum. I don’t what happened to that.
MobileForkbeard
@Adam L Silverman: Do so when you’ve got the time, please. I’d like to read that.
Steeplejack
@Brachiator:
The exteriors are shot on location in Sicily. Montalbano’s house really exists, and it has become a tourist attraction.
MHz does some prudish editing as well. Even some paintings on walls and small statues are pixelated. Go figure. I have most of the early ones on DVD (from before streaming became a big thing), and they are not pixelated.
Returning to topic, I forgot to mention that Camilleri’s novels, the source for Montalbano, are also very good.
MobileForkbeard
@Obvious Russian Troll: Martha Wells “Murderbot Diaries” are also surprisingly great. I thought it would be much lighter than it was.
Hildebrand
@Betty Cracker: My Eco favorites: Foucault’s Pendulum and Baudolino.
hitchhiker
@Tony Jay:
Can confirm! Literature for people not in a hurry.
Do you like the Hilary Mantel books about Thomas Cromwell?
dnfree
@gene108: I have “Annals” on my bookshelf but have never tackled it. John McPhee can make anything fascinating, and I thank you for bringing it up again. Maybe I’ll drag (literally) it off the shelf and give it a try.
Steeplejack
@Wapiti:
Link?
Mary G
@Tony Jay: Enthusiastic agreement from me on Dorothy Dunnett. Doorstoppers that were quite intimidating when I used to check them out from the library, then sigh of disappointment when it’s done.
Jeffro
@MobileForkbeard: Astro City is indeed great! I have no idea how many AC issues/collections have been put out by now, but the first four are awesome (including the ‘Confession’ arc you mentioned).
Come to think of it, I probably like the first collection (Life In The Big City) for a sideways take on the standard superhero tropes, and the fourth one (Tarnished Angel) for its Mitchum-esque take on a hard-luck hero/anti-hero, best.
jeffreyw
@Felony Govt:
Yo!
HumboldtBlue
@raven:
Thanks for that.
Jeffro
@Tony Jay:
Agreed – PLANETARY is a real treat! Ellis really does a great job with writing the dysfunctional superhero ‘family’ of Snow, Jakita Wagner, and the Drummer. And I love how each issue of the 25 was a complete side-jaunt into other genres, yet still kept the overall story moving forward. Great ending, too!
Major Major Major Major
@jeffreyw: @Felony Govt: Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books.
ruemara
@gwangung: Monstress is amazing
Felony Govt
@jeffreyw: Yay! Have you read any of his historical novels? They seem somewhat daunting.
middlelee
@Just One More Canuck:
Thanks. Just checked and my library has the Cornish Trilogy. Also, the Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading, Writing, and the World of Books which I requested.
Felony Govt
@Major Major Major Major: I also enjoyed Reamde a lot.
aliasofwestgate
@piratedan: I have an odd preference for 1st POV in my fave series. Cook’s The Black Company is one of those series that does it right. Also just fun reading about Croaker and the rest of the rowdies! (Yes i read a LOT, nothing else was keeping me occupied as much as words and music and it still holds)
raven
@HumboldtBlue: Did you know that when GWTW opened at the Fox the Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir performed at the premier MLK was in the choir and in slave costume?
HumboldtBlue
@jeffreyw:
Wonderful series.
HumboldtBlue
@raven:
Nope.
bmoak
@Emma:
Fiction: I was a big fan of Sujata Massey’s mystery novel series about Rei Shimura, a Japanese-American living in Japan trying to make it in the antiquities biz. Start with The Salaryman’s Wife.
For a novel take on big space opera, I recommend Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie and its two sequels. Won the Hugo and the Nebula (which prompted Vox Day and other “anti-SJW” reprobates to launch the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies to hijack the Hugo Awards).
Can’t recommend the non-fiction I’m slogging through: The Building of Horyuji. Horyuji Temple in Nara is one of my favorite places in Japan, but the book, co-written by a master temple carpenter and an academic, is just so dry.
Major Major Major Major
@Felony Govt: coming from any other author I’d have loved it, but it seemed a bit too much like he was trying to do Snow-Crash-but-right-now.
MoxieM
Wow, Bone takes me back…. I am very surprised that nobody has given a shout out to Los Bros Hernandez (Gilbert & Jaime), and their various Fantagraphics series Love & Rockets, and more. Cannot recommend highly enough. The Hopey & Maggie tales are my all-time faves.
(I used to tell my daughter, when she was little, that she could grow up to be a Pro-Solar Mechanic just like Maggie if she wanted. I have no doubt it helped turn her into the slammin’ young person she is!)
Felony Govt
@Major Major Major Major: I can see that now. I read them in reverse order.
HumboldtBlue
@hitchhiker:
Do you like the Hilary Mantel books about Thomas Cromwell?
The most oddly punctuated book I have ever read. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but her use of commas was odd.
Major Major Major Major
@Felony Govt: for an example of a good my-old-cyberpunk-books-but-now, I recommend “Pattern Recognition” et al by William Gibson.
bmoak
@MobileForkbeard:
Kingdom Come? The Great Darkness Saga? These are great trade paperbacks, but I can’t think that anyone who is not a hardcore DC fan would be able to much out of them. Marvels is a little more accessible, IMHO. Astro City is all original characters but is so steeped in comic book superhero tropes that might pass by someone who really doesn’t know the genre.
As for newer trades, I was an early adopter of Image’s Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. The epic dark fantasy just cleaned up at the Eisner Awards this year, winning Best Continuing Series, Best Publications for Teens, Best Writer, Best Painter, and Best Cover Artist. Two volumes have been collected and another comes out in September.
J.
Totally shameless plug: Do you like mysteries? How about mysteries set on a tropical island with a sense of humor? If so, please check out my books. (I’m a new author, and it would be great to get the Balloon-Juice bump.)
I also highly recommend The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth, for fellow word lovers, The Girls in the Balcony by Nan Robertson (about the women of the New York Times and their struggle for equal pay in the ’70s — fabulous book), and Uprooted by Naomi Novik for my fellow fantasy fans.
MagdaInBlack
Im not much for fiction anymore, altho i’ve been reading Jumphra Lahiri and finding its a good thing to be provided a worldview different than my own.
I’m also reading Gary Lachmans biography of Colin Wilson and his of Madame Blavatsky.
THERE is a character !
J.
@bmoak: I’m also a fan of Sujata Massey’s Rei Shimura series — and actually met and hung out with Massey at Malice Domestic 30. And I bought her latest book, The Widows of Malabar Hill, which received good reviews. :-)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@HumboldtBlue: I listened to those on audiobook in the car, and as I recall, she did odd things with pronouns too. It was sometimes hard to know who she was talking about. And yet, I enjoyed them.
JR
@dnfree: Minor note — Art Spiegelman prefers the erudite term “comic book”
MagdaInBlack
@Major Major Major Major:
I just reread Neuromancer for the 95th time.
(I guess I read more fiction than I thought)
Emma
@schrodingers_cat: It was back then too, it seems. I was fascinated by the city itself, and the way it managed the multitude of cultures that cohabited in a sort of armed tolerance. And the ever-present British above all, and how they influenced everything — AND how people bowed to them, used them, and outwitted them. It must have been an amazing time.
dexwood
@debbie:
We have a decades long conversation in our kitchen about the influences of art, in general,across media, upon individuals. We long ago decided people often arrive at the same understanding about creativity and personal meaning in spite of cultural differences and interests. We think that’s pretty cool.
Though, images of poker playing dogs remain an exception for us. //s
James E Powell
I’m about halfway through The Beatles: All These Years – Volume I – Tune In by Mark Lewisohn. May be a bit too dense with detail for the casual fan, but for the ardent it’s required reading.
jeffreyw
@Felony Govt: I have read them all. First in paperback, then again on Kindle, and I have most of them on Audible through the discount program Amazon has for books you already own.
J R in WV
@Felony Govt:
I read all of Neal Stephenson’s work. Always.
I have trouble remembering authors’ names and relating them to book titles, so I have actually bought the same book more than once, as my taste remains the same. If I notice quickly enough, I take the book back, else I just have more than one copy.
I’ve enjoyed one of John Ringo’s series, a submarine turned into a starship using a small device found on another world through a gate to another, very dangerous, world. His work is mostly military SF with fantasy notes in it. Some folks won’t care for it, but I enjoy most of them.
Space opera, mysterious beings, are these people from this planet, if not how did they get there? All those sorts of books are fun for me.
Jimmie Higgins
Too many great suggestions here and I’m suspect Im going to be one of the last ants to the picnic here.
That said, if we are talking graphic novels. let me put in an urgent good word for Bryan Talbot’s lovely book about coming to grips with sexual abuse, The Tale Of One Bad Rat.
Not currently in print, I think but plenty out there on the intertoobz…
Just type the title into wikipedia for a short summary.
MoxieM
@HumboldtBlue: Yup I read at least one. I could tell something was different about her way with the text. Commas, you say.
I principally noticed that what had translated so well to a screenplay (maybe it’s Mark Ryland) was a more challenging read.
randy khan
@jeffreyw:
The whole series was quite fine, but man oh man was it depressing.
TomatoQueen
About a third of the way through The Jewel in the Crown, vol 1 of the Raj Quartet, after seeing the Masterpiece series twice (and missed the first episode twice). Lush, intricate prose, lively characters, shifting voices and points of view, most enjoyable so far.
Also second the Camilleri and Hilary Mantel.
For those of us who love His Dark Materials, vol 1 of the Book of Dust is a worthy companion.
schrodingers_cat
@Emma: I know. My family has deep roots in Mumbai. There is more to Mumbai than its gangsters and mafia. Every other book on Mumbai seems to be about the underworld. Mumbai played an important role in India’s freedom struggle. The Indian National Congress was formed in Mumbai in 1885 and the the Quit India movement was also launched there.
HumboldtBlue
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yes, I knew I was missing something, pronouns.
As always when the book talk comes up, I must recommend Patrick O’Brian and the Aubrey-Maturin series. Wonderful writing, witty, (touch esoteric at first due to language of sailing but informing), deep character development and rich enough to serve as the have-a-book-at-hand-if-we-get-caught-waiting standby.
debbie
@dexwood:
Keeps life interesting!
MattF
@Elizabelle: Hey, I’m an SPX fan– I’ve been to several– I live in downtown Bethesda and have been going to the conferences since a long time. I’m very in favor of getting together into a group and going to the conference en masse.
Elizabelle
@middlelee: I got to meet Robertson Davies when he gave a reading at Georgetown U, for What’s Bred in the Bone. Genial guy; we were joking about how Canadians don’t get no respect.
I wish he had won a Nobel Prize. I see that Saul Bellow (Canadian-American) and Alice Munro did.
Time to reread the Deptford series. My favorite books when I found them. Hard to become a top defense lawyer when the criminals had such modest ambitions, and all that.
Elizabelle
@MattF: We’re on. How fun. I think we can get Mumphey and some others to join us.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Tony Jay: @hitchhiker: @Mary G: Yay, other Dunnett lovers! I fell deep into the Lymond books years ago and have happily never climbed out. The first one, “The Game of Kings,” is a bit of an effort (untranslated quotes in several languages, a supremely twisty plot with twisty hero to match), but well worth the effort. And then it skyrockets from there. Great stuff.
James E Powell
For anyone interested in YA-SciFi. I’d recommend the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. The first book is being filmed with Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley in the leads. Out next spring.
I also really loved Moira Young’s Dustlands trilogy.
dexwood
Hey, M x 4, a good idea here, the books blogging. Thanks.
randy khan
@Steeplejack:
My wife and I really enjoy Montalbano. I’d second that recommendation.
However, it does make you want to visit Sicily.
frosty
Beyond the Call, a fascinating piece of WWII history. The author got his father to talk about his service in Eastern Europe and Russia at the end of the war, finding US POWs and getting them to Odessa and home. He became “The American” who everyone who wanted to get out looked for, regardless of nationality. A great read … it would make a great movie too.
hitchhiker
Before we’re done with this, need to say that I LOVED A Gentleman in Moscow. Also Norwegian by Night is a fine piece of writing.
MattF
Since SFF has been mentioned, I’ll push my current fave authors– Charles Stross (Laundry Files, mainly, though he writes a lot of stuff), N. K. Jemison, Ann Leckie, and Max Gladstone (Craft sequence).
randy khan
@Felony Govt:
Me! Me! Next you should read the Baroque Cycle to find out where all of the Shaftoes, Comstocks and Waterhouses (plus the one Root) came from.
In some ways, I think his best realized book may be The Diamond Age, but I’m also a real fan of Snow Crash.
randy khan
@Hildebrand:
I read Foucault’s Pendulum immediately after reading The Da Vinci Code during a summer vacation. That was extremely weird.
Major Major Major Major
@randy khan: I think Diamond Age and Anathem are his best realized. Also a big fan of Snow Crash though.
frosty
@James E Powell: YA sci-fi: the trilogy that starts with Ashfall, when the Yellowstone volcano erupts. I just finished Shipbreakers by Paolo B. His adult book The Water Knife was also really good. Both set in near-future post climate change times.
Speaking of which, New York 2140, which the author Kim Stanley Robinson described as a “comedy of coping”. Set in half- drowned NYC. Great characters and the plot moves along nicely.
randy khan
Two books I just read during my summer beach vacation that I’d recommend, both non-fiction:
Code Girls, by Liza Mundy, which details the work by women in the U.S. who had huge responsibility for breaking German and Japanese codes during WWII. (And if you like Cryptonomicon, there’s a lot here for you.) This seems like a book that @Adam L Silverman might want to read.
Space Odyssey, by Michael Benson, about the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Mike in NC
A wonderful novel is “City of Thieves” by David Benioff (Game of Thrones), about survival in WW2 Leningrad.
ThresherK
You had me at Pogo-esque.
OldDave
The discussion here is books – but also worthy of mention given the graphics novel discussion are the online comics “Girl Genius” and “Schlock Mercenary”. Did anyone mention “Saga”?
zhena gogolia
@middlelee:
I’m about to reread that. I also loved the Salterton and Cornish trilogies and the one with The Rebel Angels.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Oops, that is in the Cornish trilogy.
zhena gogolia
@Emerald:
Oh, yeah.
cope
My previous attempt to tell interesting stories about being a geology major in the late ’60s through then mid ’70s disappeared in a page reload so I’ll make it short and to the point…I’m mildly surprised nobody has mentioned the Archy and Mehetibel works of Don Marquis.
GregMulka
The Armoured Saint – Myke Cole: Gut-punch ending. Perfect inversion of what you expect.
The Poppy War – RF Kuang: Based on, inspired by the Rape of Nanjiang.
Children of Blood and Bone – Tomi Adeyemi: Fantasy rooted in West African mythos.
All three are excellent. All three are a bit brutal. Adeyemi’s is technically YA but as far as I can tell that’s due to the protagonists being 17 and 18.
CapnMubbers
@oatler.: Um, the second Maus is…”Maus II”.
Old but excellent, Phillippe Druillet, The Six Voyages of Lone Sloane.
The Lodger
@EBT: +1 on Transmetropolitan. It’s time to bring them down from the classics shelf for a reread.
middlelee
@Elizabelle:
That’s so good to hear. I hate finding out a favorite author is not a nice person. And the way he treated his characters it’s easy to think he had a good outlook on life and people.
middlelee
@cope:
Yes! Archie and Mehitabel. “Kittens? What kittens?”
Emma
@randy khan: Must have given you intellectual whiplash.
middlelee
@zhena gogolia:
I’m glad we’re only doing this twice a month. I have a list of about 20 books to find and read, now including the Salterton trilogy. I’m in the middle of a year long shopping ban so cannot buy books, must find at library. Adds a little spice to the game.
Frankensteinbeck
@MobileForkbeard:
It’s a little late for this thread, but yep, I wrote Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m A Supervillain. I’m one of those people who feels bad mentioning anything I sell in a public forum, but I’m trying to get over it.
Jeffro
@frosty:
I have that in my ‘to read’ pile…gonna move it up!
Jeffro
@The Lodger: Right? I’m re-reading the Filth of the City 1-shot right now and laughing out loud…
TCS
Are novels, comics, graphic novels considered equally relevant? Are they all literature?
Jeffro
@James E Powell: Chaos Walking looks like the reverse of the graphic novel series Y The Last Man…the latter envisions a world where almost all the world’s males have been killed (instantly!), and what follows.
I couldn’t get into Y because of the kinda absurd premise…CW looks like it might have a better plot, but we’ll see…
cope
And from Archy and Mehetibel, it’s just a short side-step to George Herriman’s Krazy Kat.
Jeffro
Just a quick suggestion: if we’re going to do this twice a month, we ought to consider drilling down to more specific formats and genres.
Wait…that would mean staying on topic…
…and that just. isn’t. Balloon Juice.
Never mind and carry on!
tomtofa
Quite enjoyed the Harry Connelly trilogy ‘Way into Magic’. Characters are engaging, the world he creates is complex and interesting, the plot twists and turns. I think he’s better known for other works he’s written, but I found this to be the one that has stayed with me.
debbie
@middlelee:
I reread Catcher in the Rye a couple of years ago. I can’t imagine why I liked it as much as I did. What a whiner!
Major Major Major Major
@Jeffro: we can start on topic. And I agree, just wanted to see how this one went.
TCS
Patrick O’Brian
Redshift
“Little, Big,” by John Crowley – my favorite book of all time. Might be called “urban fantasy” these days, though it predates that term. Wonderful characters, sprawling and moving story.
For graphic novels, “Digger.” It won the Hugo a few years ago. It’s a fantasy story about a wombat. Great artwork, great story.
TCS
Catch-22. Superior novel. Sorry…unillustrated.
Pete Downunder
Very late to the party but:
1. Highly recommend all the Ben Aaronovitch Peter Grant books, though I’m not keen on the graphic novels he does in parallel;
2. Sad Pogo story. I was huge fan as a kid and my grandfather was a buddy of Walt Kelly and got me an autographed copy of one of the collections which sadly was lost somewhere in my zillion moves since childhood; and
3. Want to recommend series of (now four) mysteries set on Nantucket, featuring the (fictional) chief of police Henry Kinnis who also writes poetry. The books are Nantucket Sawbuck, Nantucket Fivespot, Nantucket Grand and Nantucket Red Tickets (an homage to Dickens’ Christmas Carol). The author, Steven Axelrod, lives on the island so lots of local color. Disclaimer he and I are related.
The Lodger
@dexwood: I’d also recommend _Underground Airlines_ by the author of _The Last Policeman_, Ben Winters. An alternate history where the Civil War is never fought and slavery not only survives, but goes corporate. I think the plot goes off the rails a bit near the end, but it’s still a thought=provoking book.
Neldob
There are some good interviews with George Saunders on Youtube, one with Stephen Colbert. Bourne by Jeff VanderMeer was stupendous I thought. Also, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami and On Such a Full Sea by Chang rae Lee. They are all science fiction/fantasy and just so good it makes me feel better, the fact that they exist, some good things in life.
And now I have more books on my list. Yikes.
Major Major Major Major
@TCS: never heard of it.
QueueMark
A Balloon Juice post devoted to Bone! Now there’s a topic that’ll jolt me ever-so-briefly out of lurking.
I discovered the series in grade school and suffered the agonizing wait while Jeff Smith gradually and glacially finished the series. Eventually I read the series to both kids as bedtime stories over the course of many weeks. @Suzanne knows my love for the series; maybe she’ll happen upon this comment! Better yet, maybe this post will convince her to finally read it!
Groucho48
Read about the first hundred posts. Lots of interesting choices. I’ve added a few to my Amazon queue. As for my selection, so many choices…narrowing it down as much as I can…
Best books ever for a sentimentalist…War and Peace, and Gravity’s Rainbow. Honorable mentions…Daniel Martin, and, A Dance to the Music of Time series, by Anthony Powell
SF. Skipping the classics. The Expanse series. Space Opera doesn’t get any better. A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet…small scale, humanistic, joyful.
Fantasy. Tigana, and A Song for Arbonne, by Guy Gavriel Kay. The Once and Future King by TH White. So many others. Extended lists upon request
Non-Fiction…The Path Between the Seas, David McCullogh…building of the Panama Canal. Fascinating read. The Power Broker. by Robert Caro. About Robert Moses and his work in NYC and effect on urban planning in the U.S. Well written, and inevitably sad. Pretty much all the bad things in large cities are due to his influence. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, David Halberstam…The right, after FDR, saw Truman as vulnerable and went all out to destroy the liberal vision of America. Almost every thing you see the right doing today got its impetus from attacking Truman, especially about the Korean War. They didn’t quite succeed, but, they did make the world a much uglier place. You can really get your hate on for Douglas MacArthur in this one. Moving on. almost anything by Halberstam is worth reading. For something a bit lighter The ’50’s is smooth reading.
Science. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! To the age-old question…who would you be if you could be anyone, my first choice would be Fred Astaire. My second choice would be Richard Feynman. This book shows why. Where Does the Weirdness Go?, by David Lindley. The subtitle is…Why Quantum Mechanics is Strange but not as Strange as You Think., which sums it up pretty well. A very accessible introduction into quantum stuff. Which is pretty weird, despite the subtitle. The Dawn of Human Culture, by Richard Klein, with Blake Edgar. Might be very slightly outdated. Is kind of dry and a bit technical. But, if you are interested in, well, the dawn of human culture, just the romance of that will suck you in. Below the Convergence: Voyages Towards Antarctica 1699-1839. Fascinating, well-written, full of anecdotes and examples of human endurance and ingenuity.
I could go on (and on and on) but, I’ll stop now.
joel hanes
I’ve been on a non-fiction kick for years now.
_A_Journal_Of_The_Plague_Year_, Defoe
The Hall and Nordhoff _Bounty_ trilogy, and the book Bligh wrote himself.
_Two_Years_Before_The_Mast_, Dana
_West_Of_The_Hundredth_Meridian_, Stegner
_The_Oregon_Trail_ , Francis Parkman
Everything by John McPhee. Everything. Start with _The_Control_Of_Nature_.
_Alive!_ , Piers Paul Reed
_Sand_County_Almanac_, Aldo Leopold
joel hanes
@dnfree:
Thanks for explaining what is going on with Pogo.
I set out to get them all, but the long lapses are discouraging, and now I’ve forgotten which I already have.
Same thing happened with the attempt at the Fantagraphics “dailies compleat in paperback” project, which foundered IIRC about volume eleven with several of Kelly’s last and best years yet undone, and with many errors, duplicated strips, or strips out of order.
joel hanes
@Tony Jay:
Dorothy Dunnett
Absolutely the best. Kafka said “A book must be an axe for the frozen sea within us”, and both of Dunnett’s historical series made me weep. One made me involuntarily cry aloud for pain and surprise. It took me about 150 pages for Dunnett’s style to entrain, but after that she _had_ me for life. These are the books I’m most impatient to re-read when I finally get to retire.
For Anglophiles, there’s nothing to beat Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey, as variously chronicled by Dorothy L. Sayers. _Murder_Must_Advertise_ is mordantly funny. _Nine_Tailors_ fascinating, _Gaudy_Night_ … I guess I can’t describe _Gaudy_Night_.
joel hanes
@TCS:
Catch-22. Superior novel.
Winner of the “Most Rewards Re-Reading” Award.
And a reliable guide to the present.
“They can do anything to us that we can’t stop them from doing.”
Antonius
In case anyone hasn’t mentioned it, in the graphic novel category I’d highly recommend the limited series Locke & Key, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. I just finished it after it sat on my shelf for a couple of years, and thought that if Joe Hill had decided to write it as YA novel, the series would be as renowned as the Harry Potter books. Three siblings and their grieving, alcoholic mother struggle against an old evil with the legacy of a strange house and a few magic keys that keep turning up, in a story set in Massachusetts with roots extending back to colonial times. Logically consistent within its laws of magic, plausible, distinct and memorable characters, and pulls no punches on the prices of victories and defeats. A tour-de-force coming of age story.
Frankensteinbeck
@debbie:
I love Catcher In The Rye. I empathize with Holden surrounded by horrible people, struggling to find a reason not to become equally awful, and finding it finally in wanting to help children grow up happy. Hell, knowing his childhood best friend is being raped at that moment by a bully would be enough to make anyone question life. However, the jackass, adolescent mental convolutions he goes through on that journey are understandably too obnoxious for a lot of people to enjoy it.
debbie
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yeah, I’m sure I’ve become too old and cranky to relate to Holden anymore. Do something, don’t just whine!
In regard to non-fiction, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest is both epic and extremely readable. The book covers a great deal of territory, yet never feels plodding or dry.
Lynwood Allen
I volunteered in my wife’s elementary school library. The boys were Bone addicts, books were never on the shelves. When a new Bone book came in it was amazing to see the kids reaction. Seems like in the books there was a Grandma who was a retired warrior princess.
Hunter
Too many good things noted here, but I’m going to jump in anyway. (Disclaimer: I review books and just about everything else for an online review site.)
Graphic Lit:
Garth Ennis’ Preacher, 9 volumes in the trade paper collection. Gritty, pungent, beautifully done.
David Petersen’s Mouse Guard: intrigue, battles, mice that look like mice — the graphic work is right on target, and the stories are engaging.
Gail Simone, The Secret Six series, starting with Villains United — super anti-heroes, collected in six volumes (there’s a second series that, sadly, doesn’t quite cut it).
And of course, the legendary Sandman by Neil Gaiman, the series that got me hooked on graphic lit.
Fantasy’s another one of my strong suits:
Anything by Glen Cook; I usually recommend starting with The Black Company, but his new series, Instrumentalities of the Night, is a real masterpiece. He’s a master stylist.
Ditto for Steven Brust; the Taltos Cycle is his ongoing series — fantasy with a strong dose of Nero Wolfe; The Khaavren Romances is set in the same universe, and made me finally read The Three Musketeers.
Charles de Lint: sometimes not up to his own standard, but his newest, The Wind in His Heart, is superb. I started way back when with Moonheart and kept going. He’s been called “the godfather of urban fantasy.” Adept at combining mythic traditions and making it work.
Patricia A. McKillip: YA fantasy that can keep an adult engaged: elliptical, poetic, and witty. I started long ago with The Riddle-Master; one of her more recent books, Kingfisher, brings her work into the contemporary world — sort of.
These four are not only great fantasists, they are superb writers.
There are others I could recommend, but I’m going to stop before I bury you in books.
Hunter
@Hunter: And one more: Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds, set in “a China that never was”. Rich, inventive, raucously funny, and beautiful. Apparently it’s the first book in a trilogy, but I’ve never run across the succeeding volumes. It stand on its own quite nicely, though.
And at the risk of tooting my own horn, if you click through to my website/blog, I have pages set up with links to my reviews. Some may not work, because the site at which they were originally published no longer exists; I’m slowly but surely recycling them.
MazeDancer
Dorothy Dunnett! Dorothy Dunnett! Dorothy Dunnett!
MoxieM
@cope: thread is kind of passed, but: same illustrator (Archy & Mehitabel, and Krazy Kat.) My one and only tattoo is Mehitabel, since I love the Song of Mehitabel so much, Oh wotthe Hell, O wotthe hell, there’s a dance in the old Dame yet…etc.
Brian Marick
@Redshift: Second the recommendation for Little, Big.
BrianM
@Redshift: I second the recommendation for Little, Big. It’s a wonderful book to read aloud, by the way.
debbie
@cope:
The biography of George Herriman that came out last year is a great read.
ETA: Oops, it was late 2016.
https://www.amazon.com/Krazy-George-Herriman-Black-White/dp/0061732990/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QB13ST7XEG4SJYRBYDWZ
Miss Bianca
I’ll also jump on the Bujold bus, here.
Currently working my way thru’ the Vorkosigan Saga as well (for *some reason*, I got seriously depressed with the state of the world earlier this summer and binge-reading Bujold was pretty much the only thing that has started to pull me out of it).
For other fiction, recently read Sofphronia Scott’s “Unforgivable Love”, which is basically “Les Liasions Dangereuses” recast in 1940’s Harlem. I thought it was really, really good.
Two “Tempest”-related novels, since I was working on a production of that play: Margaret Atwood’s “Hagseed” (“The Tempest” as re-imagined in a Canadian prison, really wonderful); and “Miranda and Caliban”, by Jacqueline Carey, who I gather is usually a fantasy writer. That one is beautiful but heart-wrenching.
Don’t have any nonfiction recommendations at the moment – my tastes tend to be sort of esoteric and research-based in nonfiction, so unless you have a passionate interest in something like brewing or the dowry arrangements of 19th-century Irish aristocrats, I got nuthin’!
Di
@hitchhiker: The sequel to Norwegian by Night, American by Day, is also pretty wonderful.
Hope I’m not too late to the party. I wholeheartedly recommend Meg Elison’s Book of the Unnamed Midwife. Gripping post-apocalyptic trilogy from a female point of view. Two books are out so far, Unnamed Midwife is the first.
Kristen Lepionka is the author of a great new mystery series with a hard-bitten, troubled, bisexual female PI. First two in the series are The Last Place You Look and What You Want to See.
Thanks for this, M4!
cope
@MoxieM: Surely it is about dead but, yeah, that’s why I said it was a short side-step from one to the other.
cope
@debbie: Thanks, I did not know that.
Bobby Thomson
For comic books, I recommend Love and Rockets, written by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez and published by Fantagraphics. The 80s band stole the name-no connection.
For a sprawling Victorian era adventure, I recommend The Quincunx by Charles Palliser.
For nonfiction, try A Gathering of Saints, by Robert Lindsey (who also wrote The Falcon and the Snowman), about forgery and murder in Utah.
Bobby Thomson
@randy khan:
Brown blatantly ripped Eco off and got away with it because most of his target audience will never, ever read both books. Especially since Foucault’s Pendulum is a slow build.
J R in WV
@TCS:
You know, I enjoyed the first several of his books that I read. Then I learned that he was a scoundrel, personally, lied to everyone, abandoned his family, etc, etc. Just not a good person.
Now those books are dusty and covered by cat hair underneath books by people I can respect.
Plus, really, was there ever an institution more despicable than the officers of the British Navy? Lashings and beating will continue until morals improves was not a joke with the British Navy, to the point where they could legally kidnap young men into their crews.
So I gave up Patrick O’Brian totally and completely.
Ken
Bone was the first thing I found that my son would read. I loved it too.
grubert
only one was a scam artist; Phoney Bone. Smiley Bone and just Bone were as sincere as the day is long.
That is all.
grubert
Not quite all.. so many comments and no mention of Moebius.
One of the greatest comic epics of all times: The Incal.
LunarG
@jacy: I will second the recommendation for Paul Tremblay. A Head Full of Ghosts is just an astoundingly good book, about narratives & who gets to tell our stories. Plot-wise, an already financially-troubled family has a teen daughter diagnosed with schizophrenia; when psychiatric treatment does not yield visible improvement, they accept an offer of an exorcism performed on a reality show. The novel is narrated by the family’s younger daughter, being interviewed as an adult about her childhood; by a blogger who is a fan of the resulting reality show & is hyper-familiar with horror tropes; and by descriptions of the show. Our understanding of what exactly happened and what was amiss with the elder daughter is kept ambiguous, as the various stories overwrite one another. It’s psychological horror, mostly, and it is done nearly perfectly.
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock is also great; it just didn’t hit quite so many of my buttons.
weasel
Late to game, but so happy to see something I’ve read and loved up as the first in what I hope are many great (geek?) reading threads. Will need to check in to make sure I’ve read all of the Bones (read two long collections covering the intro and some subsequent story that didn’t impress as much as the first but was still a great read). Also happy to see ruemara covering Chew. That was some real good stuff there!
jame
The best ongoing series is Saga by Brian Vaughn and Fiona Staples.
I very much enjoy Girl Genius byPhil and Kaja Foglio, too.