While She Knits--Belated, unlike the Fall of Erondites

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

So it's 10 (my time) on Friday, and I'm still thinking I'll be posting  tomorrow morning instead of early tonight, when I realize...oh no.
I recently changed my work schedule. My internal clock is tied and gagged.


But for this weekend's book discussion, I was thinking it would be fun to each present just one recommendation to the other Thief-struck bibliophiles here...with a reason why you think it would appeal to those who love MWT's books.

Feel free to chime in (being wary of spoilers) on other people's recommendations, though! So, ready?
What book do you recommend to us and why?

It might be kind of fun to check back if you do take a recommendation, too, though I don't know how that would work...another Friday/really Saturday or maybe I'll eventually figure this thing out...?

Comments

Howl's Moving Castle

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

And because I get to go first, I claim Howl's Moving Castle!

Not only is it explicitly tributed in KoA (right?), it is in the same league as a fun, far-too-quick, and clever read with The Thief. The titular Howl is a wild, flamboyant personality, the same strength of persona as Gen, I'd say. Though definitely not the same. That would be boring. MWT nor Diana Wynne Jones are anything close to boring.
This is a more standard fantasy, magic, witches, access between worlds. It's a great story, plain and simple, though--and it was made into a pretty neat anime, too.

Re: Howl's Moving Castle

[agentmaly.livejournal.com]

Nooo. I was just going to come along and recommend that. This is not fair. XD

But yes, Howl's Moving Castle is excellent. I read it a couple of years ago, and just bought it and am re-reading it right now (or was, until I realised that I had to finish my summer reading books before school started), and I'm remembering why I loved it when I first read it. It's so very clever, and Howl is just the kind of character who would appeal to Gen-lovers. I like Gen better, naturally, and he's not quite as ridiculous as Howl, but Howl definitely works his way under your skin even while you're wondering why you like him so much, considering he's really kind of annoying (and also endearing).

And, yes, everyone should read it.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

I would recommend The Once and Future King, but I have met very few other people who love it as much as I do, so...hm.

Actually, screw it. I can't think of any of the other books I brought with me, so I am, in fact, going to recommend The Once and Future King by T.H. White. It's a book that works on so many different levels that its reread value is almost endless. It's the best in-depth retelling of the King Arthur story I've ever seen, and it has it all--romance, action, politics, tangents on the nature of justice, humor, Scots dialect, just to name a few. The characters are fleshed out and completely human, and it doesn't mince words when it comes to the darker parts of the legend.
It's a bit long, and divided into four separate parts (and the first two parts are a bit weird, but still worth it), but I love love love this book like no tomorrow, and am thus recommending it to everyone.

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

I really need to get this one again. We read the first part in my Young Scholars class ages ago, and I read some of the second, but I was about ten and don't remember it very well.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

My mom told me to read only the first part--I loved it.

Hmm. Link? Bringing life to another time, I guess. With humor. And Merlin is delightfully wacky.

[avian-xj.livejournal.com]

Jade! I LOVE THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING :D

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Jade, I haven't read it in a while, but I really like Once and Future King as well.

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

I have never been able to finish Part 4: not because I dislike it (the opposite!) but because by then I'm always crying too hard to read. The end of Golding's The Spire has the same effect.

[velena.livejournal.com]

I recommend Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.

Like the Thief series, it's a Young Adult book, also set in a non-modern place and time. I read this book after I had finished the Thief series and was desperate for another good book, so I read about a billion children's books, and this was one of the best of the lot. It starts a bit slowly, but if you hang in there, it gets better.

By the same author, I also liked Princess Academy.

I know it sounds like one of those frilly, girly books, but it's actually not. I swear! More substantial than you would think. Neither of these are as good as MWT's stuff, in my opinion, but they stayed with me after I read them, which is unusual for a book that I picked up on a whim.

Finally, I'm sure everyone has read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (which begins with The Golden Compass) but if you haven't, I highly recommend it. Amazing, and Lyra is a lot like Gen, so I guarantee you'll like her. :)

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

I just picked up Princess Academy. I'm glad to hear something in its favor!

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

And Shannon Hale herself is a MWT fan. Just thought I'd toss that out there... we were supposed to connect these recommendations to The Thief books, so I thought I'd mention...

[ballerina-222.livejournal.com]

there are also two more books after the goose girl. They are enna burning and river secrets. They are both great.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

The Folk Keeper, by Franny Billingsley. Yeah, yeah, I know, I should shut up about it already, but if I push, maybe y'all will go to the library/bookstore and check it out. I don't why I recently remembered this book, but I had just assumed that everyone around here would have read it by now. I sat down and reread it the other day. It's one of those books you devour in a few hours and then it lingers with you for a long time. The mood is wonderful, the writing is lovely. if we're looking for Thief comparisons, here are two: the main character has a number of secrets, and the setting is not quite in our world but almost.

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

I recommend Catherine Jinks's Pagan quadrilogy, because the main character is saucy and observant and in other ways as well reminiscent of Gen.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I ::love:: those books.

[jazzfish]

Norton Juster's _The Phantom Tollbooth_, on the off chance that there are people out there who haven't read it.

"I don't want to swim back!"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry. Most people can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and come out dry as a bone."

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Another GREAT YA book everyone should read, period.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Mostly because I just read it, I'm going to recommend The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett. MWT recommended it to the group, and I think it would appeal to many of you because of the main character and the intrigue. I would be bold enough to say that it may have influenced Megan's writing to some degree. (Should I go ahead and use the idiot icon now?)

It takes place in Scotland in the 1500s. It took awhile to get into, and I had to get past the Latin, the verse, the French and the geography to really enjoy it.

We mostly see Lymond through the eyes of other characters and get to know him very slowly. There's no doubt that he's charismatic, but he's been charged with treason and is on the run. In the first scene where we meet him he: is drunk, insults his new sister-in-law, steals his mother's jewelry, stabs his mother's friend and sets his brother's house on fire. Yikes.

Later parts of the book were the big payoff for me and now I'd follow him anywhere, even to France, which is where he goes in the second book.

[(Anonymous)]

I recommend Seaward by Susan Cooper.

Evil, magic, strange creatures, romance (just a little), all in something of an alternate dimension. Also, some Celtic mythology.

Thanks Philia for recommending The Folk Keeper. I loved it. Y'all really should read it!

Magic and Malice (Wrede) is also worth looking into--one of the main characters is a thief (well, housebreaker, actually)...

~Feir Dearig

[elsa12790.livejournal.com]

Oh, a huge second on Game of Kings. I just read it recently, too, and was so glad I persisted even though I found it intimidating at first (Dunnett is so erudite!). But Lymond is a complex, crafty character just as Gen is, and so much of the pleasure in the book was slowly coming to realize how much depth he had, and how there was so much going on under the surface of his game. I'm starting the second one now, but almost think I should go back and reread Game of Kings just to pick up all the things I missed the first time around (which was exactly what I did with The Thief).

Anyway, on to my recommendation: Inda, by Sherwood Smith. This, like GoK, was a little overwhelming at first, with all the characters, and new vocabulary, and a web of hugely complicated politics. However, the payoff was big, in my view. It's exciting, heartbreaking, swashbuckling, romantic and full of twisty intrigue. Like Megan's books, you have to think while you read. Inda is not a character like Gen, at all, but what seems similar to me is the extraordinary worldbuilding; you feel like the author has fully imagined the setting, politics, history, etc.

Inda is a fantasy, set in the world of her earlier YA Court and Crown Duet, but there's not much magic or other standard fantasy accoutrements. It's more about politics, and destiny, and friendship, and the choices you have to make...oh, blah, blah, blah. Give it a try. And the second one just came out so if you like it, the story continues.

YES! to Inda

[peanut13171.livejournal.com]

I want to second the recommedation for INDA. Brilliant!! The best book I've read this year. I haven't read the sequel yet, so that may be better ;-). Dunno.

Do print out the the info (characters and world) she has on INDA at:
http://www.sff.net/people/sherwood/inda.html

It will really help you keep the names and relationships straight when you first start.

Also, the really cool thing is the sequel, THE FOX, *just* came out. Can hardly wait to block out some time to read and enjoy it.

[sclerotia.livejournal.com]

Those of you that are Phantom Toll Booth fans might also enjoy these charming books.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie: Haroun is the son of a story teller whose stories have dried up and Haroun must help rescue the pure stream of stories. It has a lot of the sort of word play that is in the Phantom Toll Booth.

A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears by Jules Feiffer: Jules Feiffer illustrated the Phantom Toll Both and has written this thoroughly tongue in cheek fable complete with an in-joke on the Phantom Toll Booth.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks!

I knew this topic was a good idea... ^_^ v

Curse of Chalion

[sclerotia.livejournal.com]

High on my list of favorites is Bujold's Curse of Chalion. Cazaril has the same sort of convoluted way of thinking as the Eugenides and Miles, without the power...more like the Magus now that I think on it. And I like the gods and Cazaril's take on religion. It makes me reflect on my own.

Re: Curse of Chalion

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I second this!

Yes, he does remind me a little of the Magus too.

I'm late... been gone all weekend.

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

Mostly because I recently re-read it... I recommend The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. (She has a new book coming out! This September! I'm so excited! Hooray for exclamation points!!!) It's excellent.

In fifth grade my sister told me to read The Blue Sword. Read it, loved it. When I heard there was another book about Damar, I couldn't get it fast enough. I was SO EXCITED. I went out and bought the boxed set--The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, and Spindles End. I sat down and read THatC as soon as I got home.

I HATED it. (Wait, you say. I thought you just recommended this book to us. Just wait, ok?)

A few years pass. I re-read the Blue Sword... oh, a few hundred times... I dont touch THatC. Finally, in about tenth grade, I decide that I'll give it another chance.

LOVED it.

It's not as action-packed as The Blue Sword, and starts much more slowly. But the character development, and the world-building, and all the stuff my fifth-grader self hadn't learned to appreciate... it's so wonderful

Connection to The Thief books? Hmm... Aerin's position in Damar's court is not unlike Gen's in Eddis. S has 'an overabundance of relations' and she's friends with the heir to the throne because 'most of her other cousins are morons'. (Ok, I think I've been reading MWTs books too much... those quotes came straight to my head without any effort.) She's not really like Gen personality-wise... she's quiet, and is too unsure of herself to even try to be clever, and hates how very visible she is as King's Daughter (and the only red-head in a country of dark-skinned brunettes). But Gen hates being stared at, too...

Anyway. Read it. It's good.

Re: I'm late... been gone all weekend.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

But there is the snark.
McKinley cannot dispense with the snark.

[hemisofia.livejournal.com]

I'm going to put some of the recs here in my Goodreads "to-read" bookshelf! (It's how I keep track on what to read before I forget...)

I love these While She Knits threads ^^

[traboule.livejournal.com]

I've also been away all weekend...however...can't resist a conversation, especially when I get to pontificate about my reading...

1) Howl's Moving Castle is love and if you haven't read it you should. The Dalemark quartet is also worth a read partly because it's DWJ's best (and yes, I will fight you on that for however long it takes) and partly because it features someone who reminds me an awful lot of Sophos, and a character who looks like the Gen you think he is in The Thief. I love Mitt, I really do.

2) I'm a rabid Lymond fan (hence the icon) and I urge everyone to go out and get a copy of Game of Kings. If it doesn't work, try starting with the last book and asking questions. I did that for a friend of mine and it worked spectacularly well...I guess I'm the only person who falls head over heels for someone when he burns down his mother's house.

3) What I've been reading hasn't been very Thief-related, but can I recommend a TV show? I've been watching a lot of Rome recently, and for some reason I associate the two, maybe just because of the geographical similarities. Or because of the torture scene involving an attractive woman directing one of her servants to beat this rather pretty young man who had been sneaking into her house...
Plus there's Octavian, precocious and cut-throat, who hints at what might happen if Gen decided to go into politics full-time. The guy (kid?) they've got playing him is a damn fine actor.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

But what about Chrestomanci!? He's another in the line of Gen/Howl/such flamboyantly fabulous and overly talented heroes.

my recommendation

[srowan.livejournal.com]

I meant to post to here before, not to the main page. I'm sorry! Thank you to everyone for posting their favorite books to read right now.

I've been re-reading Hilary McKay's books about the Casson family and really enjoy them. There are four right now and the fifth one is about to come out. They are Saffy's Angel, Indigo's Star, Permanent Rose and Caddy Ever After.

The books are about a family where the parents are artists. A lot of what happens is kind of absurd and the books are generally very funny and very moving. My favorite is Indigo's Star, which is about the only boy in the family. They're not fantasy, which a lot of the recommendations seem to be, but they are great reads.

I've also read part of the Looking Glass Wars and am hoping to get the first one out of the library soon.

Sam