While She Knits - Sounis Book Recs are the Best

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Over the past years (OMG ALMOST 9 YEARS REALLY???) we've had hundreds of posts tagged "book recommendations."  Because of all of you, I've read dozens and dozens of wonderful books I might never have found on my own.  The Vorkosigian Saga, Elizabeth Wein's books, Rosemary Sutcliff, and--of course--Diana Wynne Jones.  I count on y'all to keep my TBR list full to the brim.

So, what Sounis-recommended books have you read?  Books that might, while she knits cats, keep us going?  

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I recently read two books that I'd never have found on my own. I can't remember who recommended them, but THANK YOU. I really, really liked them both. they are:

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski. Loved this romance-fantasy with great characters and an exciting story. Can't wait to read the next two books.

A Matter of Profit by Hilari Bell. Loved her Farsala books, not as crazy about the Knight and Rogue series, but this stand-alone novel is fantastic. Terrific main character, great story, and a lot of fun. This book is a bit older and might be hard to find but was well worth the search. My public library copy had the most off-putting cover but don't let that stop you!

[furem.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I liked The Winner's Curse too--the Herrani reminded me of Eddis for some reason. But I'm the other way around with Hilari Bell: love K&R, couldn't get through her Farsala books. I think I only read the first one, years ago.

[(Anonymous)]

Yay! So glad you like A Matter of Profit!. It's one of my faves!

BTW, I'm finally reading Marissa Meyer's Cinder, and it's just fantastic.

Goodnight, Sounis! Happy Reading!

~deirdrej

[furem.livejournal.com]

The first Vorkosigan book and E. Wein's arthurian cycle. I probably would have read E. Wein's book eventually because I love CNV, but I never would have found the Vorkosigan books on my own. I need to keep hunting for the next one.

[quickasthought.livejournal.com]

I've found so many of my favorites through this community! I'm currently reading the Goblin Emperor, but authors I absolutely adored and only found out about because of this community are Connie Willis (To Say Nothing of the Dog), C.S. Lewis (Till We Have Faces), Steven Brust and Emma Bull (Freedom and Necessity), P.G. Wodehouse (Jeeves and his selected other stories), Patricia Mckillip (Everything of hers!), Robbin Hobb (Assassin's Apprentice), Gillian Bradshaw (Cleopatra's Heir), Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea), Jim Butcher (Dresden Files), Carol Berg (Transformation), M.M Kaye (Ordinary Princess), Sharon Shinn (Summers at Castle Auburn), Ruth Downie (Medicus), Patricia Wrede (Sorcery and Cecilia), Dorothy Dunnett (Lymond Chornicles), Dorothy Sayers (Peter Wimsey), and Elizabeth Marie Pope (Sherwood Ring/The Perilous Gard). These were random and eclectic recommendations besides the usual favorites and they seem to be hardly mentioned anymore. I just thought I'd re-mention them again~

[ccwtaylor.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the Goblin Emperor very much, and hope you are too!

[(Anonymous)]

I just started The Goblin Emperor and am absolutely loving it! Have you (or anyone else) read Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier?
~royal_sheep

[meltintall3.livejournal.com]

Summers at Castle Auburn was recommended here? I didn't remember that... but it was in my TBR pile and I just finished it. I really enjoyed it!

[frosted-feather.livejournal.com]

My absolute favorite is "The Winter Prince" and its sequel by Elizabeth E. Wein. Also Shannon Hale's four-book series that starts with "The Goose Girl" is pretty good. That series has different kingdoms and politics, with teenaged protagonists, so it's a little like the Queen's Thief series in that sense.

[brandy-painter.livejournal.com]

I read Dorothy Sayers, Connie Willis, Elizabeth Marie Pope, Rosemary Sutcliff, and Elizabeth Wein because of everyone here. All of them are favorite authors of mine now.

Still need to read Vorkosigan. Thinking of how much I love all of the above, I'm sure to love those too.

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

Am very curious what you will think of Vorkosigan.

[mikkaybear.livejournal.com]

I have to say, while I tend to only pop into the LJ community during my Queen's Thief-fueled fangirling episodes--one of which is occurring at the moment because I finished rereading The King of Attolia about half an hour ago and UGHHHH--I always seem to stumble upon these book recommendation threads! They're fantastic!

Plus, I've seen pretty much any book I personally might recommend mentioned at least once in all the threads I've seen, so I know you guys are pretty solid when it comes to literature. :P I'll also read anything Kristin Cashore or MWT write or recommend. Their interests collided in The Winner's Curse--even if that book didn't quite make this year's evolving new favorites list, as I mentioned in the last book recommendation thread I visited.

I'm in the midst of Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy, though I took a slightly unexpected break after Lirael to reread Megan Whalen Turner. I would like to get to Abhorsen sometime soon. Probably tomorrow.

So far this year, naming only books I read for the first time, my top five would have to be Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, Cress by Marissa Meyer, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and probably Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (which produced a book hangover so large, it took a semi-related nightmare to cure it). Honorable mention to Veronica Rossi's Into the Still Blue, which I loved mostly for atmosphere.

I'm actually a bit surprised I enjoyed Tender Morsels so much, because it came at the end of what felt like a very long, very awful chain of books I'd picked up that all had truly horrible father figures. It's sort of my fault. I finally worked up the courage to reread Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (sob through, more like) and after Leck it was the father in Ruby by Francesca Lia Block, and then Morsels and all of its despicable male characters, the father especially. I can't say I've ever been so negatively affected by literature before. I was physically depressed for about a week. Still, Tender Morsels was quite powerful. It's going to stick with me for a long time. Have any of you read it?

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth Wein is my big one--I get to be smug about being a fan pre-Code Name Verity. :) Plus the Vorkosigan books!

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

Wow, so many books I've discovered because of Sounis!! Some of them have become absolute favourites!!

The Farsala Trilogy by Hilari Bell
The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron
A Matter of Magic by Patricia Wrede
The Sherwood Ring, The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Pope
Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

among others! I always look forward to WSK posts because of this!

[1221bookworm.livejournal.com]

I was going to bring up Eli Monpress! Definitely one I saw around here!

Crown Duel!! :) One of my most favorite stories ever. It's one that should be more popular than it is. Crown Duel and the Farsala Trilogy, are alas, not ones I picked up from Sounis, they both predate the Attolia books by about a year, but both of them were picked up because they had Tamora Pierce quotes on the covers - and we were especially into Tamora Pierce at the time, so I know about looking for books that favorite authors have reviewed favorably!

[(Anonymous)]

I definitely recommend Rosemary Sutcliff's work - especially & especially Frontier Wolf, my most recent first-time read of hers! There's a scene near the beginning of it that really reminds me of Costis in the first chapter of KoA. It is, however, a rather sad book - as are most Sutcliff books I have read - but oh, so good.

And let me put forward a strong rec once more for the intense, gorgeous, heartbreaking Code Name Verity. Whether you like her earlier books or not, try it out. The companion novel to it is also powerful, though not so much of a mind-game / espionage plot. (Also, if anything, a touch more intense.)

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

I am reading The Goblin Emperor now too, and enjoying it very much! Thanks, Lois McMaster Bujold!

[1221bookworm.livejournal.com]

Wow Checkers, rec's I've gotten from Sounsians? the list is to long to even comprehend! Some of my more favorite/most recent include:

The Healing Wars by Janice Hardy and, if you're into manga, Fullmetal Alchemist. Never would have read it without the promptings of certain Sounisians over on Tumblr *waves to Leng* but found it ever so enjoyable and intense.

Checkers, that might be an idea to add to your WSKs stack: what mange/anime are out there for QT fans?

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

The strange thing is that I actually remember Fullmetal Alchemist being recommended here on Sounis too! It doesn't crop up too often, because I don't think many of us read manga, but I definitely remember seeing it mentioned once or twice. And then over on Tumblr, I saw people who recced it for Legend of Eli Monpress fans and Mistborn fans. So I thought, "That's it. I gotta try it!"

I guess in a way, that makes FMA one of the things I've discovered through Sounis as well!

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

The best recommendations from here were Elizabeth Marie Pope's books. I had them on my shelves for years and never read them until their titles kept popping up here.

[(Anonymous)]

The Goblin Emperor. It was recently recommended here and it's an excellent stand alone fantasy novel that focuses on palace politics and follows a young half goblin royal amongst his eleven subjects who is smart and patient and surprisingly well suited to his unexpected position, but very young and very lonely.

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

Uhm, where to start....
Fullmetal Alchemist, Hiromu Arakawa
The Healing Wars, Janice Hardy
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Incarceron, Catherine Fisher

These are just a few that I read on the recommendation of a Sounisian, I'm sure there are many others I'm not even thinking of right now!

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

Incarceron and its sequel were unique and engaging, and I'm glad I read them, but I could. not. believe. she ended it the way she did! It felt like a house of cards collapsing. Did she just not know how to end it? I was bewildered and disappointed when I realized she wasn't going to write another book to make sense of it all and tie it all up.

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

I recently read through the Vampire Academy series, and while it's not the most amazing YA/paranormal book series I've read, it was surprisingly thoughtful and moving. I especially liked the way the books dealt with thorny issues usually handwaved in YA book series, like becoming a warrior as a teenager.

I finally got Dreams of Gods and Monsters from the library and finished it - I liked it quite a bit, though adjusting to a YA book that actually has ambitions in terms of prose style was very interesting. Way more adjectives than I was used to. :) The ending is very satisfying, though a bit Return of the King (the movie, not the books) in the way it handled denoument (in a semi-flawed way).

I also just finished the new rewrite of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid. I really liked Joanna Trollope's rewrite of Sense and Sensibility, and I'm pleased that the project is continuing to be thoughtful and sweet, rather than tired and quick-buck-ish.

Other recommendations: Austen, Dickens. The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton. Shannon Hale - recently read Dangerous, which while a bit more freewheeling than the tightly and lyrically constructed worlds of Goose Girl and the Princess books, was really enjoyable. Gillian Bradshaw's King Arthur trilogy, starting with Hawk of May. The Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow series, all of them (I'm unusually in loving them all fairly equally). Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small quartet (she's got very good series both before and after, but I think these four are her best). Aaron Allston's Star Wars: X-Wing novels - they are a bit off the beaten track for rec lists like this, but his death this year happened in the middle of a reread, and I again realized that tie-in or not, they're really well constructed and often powerful books that actually introduced me to science fiction and military fiction before I hit the "real" authors in those genres. Ruth Meyers's Maggie Sullivan series, starting with "No Game for a Dame" is a really nice, street-level female PI in historical setting (I think they're primarily ebook or print on demand). Steven Gould's Jumper series, up to three books, is really fun. I also read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall early this year, and while it wasn't as simultaneously moving and annoying as Jane Eyre, it was really enjoyable, and poked at a lot of things I was a bit surprised to see poked at. Excellent unreliable narrators and documentary narrative technique.

Almost forgot to mention Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - still the best Regency Fantasy ever, and I still say it's one of the few masterpieces I've read that has come out in my lifetime.

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I was wondering how Shannon Hale's "Dangerous" is like, because I just adored her Bayern Books. I think I'll try that one next.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell after seeing it recommended on Sounis. The name alone, plus the raven on the front, intrigued me right off.

I read Howl's Moving Castle in search of the similarities between Gen and Howl that I saw discussed here, and of course fell head over heels in love with it and with DWJ. I think for years I confused it with Castle in the Attic, or something. And anyway, for that alone, I owe Sounis a debt I'm sure I'll never fully repay, except perhaps by continuing to recommend gems like Crown Duel and Rosemary Sutcliff and The Scorpio Races to as many as I can!

Now, I must admit: Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm really intimidated by it for some reason. Can anyone help nudge me over the edge on this one? I feel the genre is out of my comfort zone and I'm bewildered by the number of titles. Should I persevere?

Also: I recently picked up Finnikin of the Rock. I seem to remember it being recommended. I liked the title and the premise and had hopes for it. But I'm halfway through and just about ready to pitch it aside. The world and the characters and the idea all feel like good concepts to me, but the writing itself is so dull and underdeveloped and confusing. It feels like a really hasty first draft. :( Should I press on, or move on?

[filkferengi]

Try _Sharing Knife: Beguilement_. It's book 1. If you like it, there're only 3 more, so that's nicely manageable. You might enjoy the relationships and conflicting cultural assumptions of the two main groups. Plus, the romance is lots of fun. I love smart, funny characters who both talk and listen to each other!

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I'm now in the middle of Juliet Marilier's Sevenwaters series - first book is Daughter of the Forest - and I love it. Irish fairy tale base; a good mix of magic and heartbreak and realistic characters. Tricky moral issues and thorny relationships sometimes, which reminds me of what we love about QT. Marillier has several other books too, so I'm stoked to have discovered a new author I can devour.

Are we allowed to self-promote? I hate doing so and I cringe at mentioning it. But I'm a writer too and my new series is Greek-myth-based (more directly so than the QT series; actual names of Greek gods used and stuff, like Riordan does), so maybe, just maybe, someone here would also like it. First book is Persephone's Orchard, if anyone wants to look it up. If such mentions are indeed forbidden, please slap my wrist and I'll edit out this comment. :)

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Hey, I am fine with self-promotion of published works, offered up just as you did as a recommendation in a While She Knits post. Congrats on this new series.

[bookishbabe.livejournal.com]

Bujold and E. Wein would have remained hidden from me if not for WSK posts. And that, my friends, would have been a true tragedy.

[creative-lefty2.livejournal.com]

I was recently looking through some month-old Publisher Weeklies and found an anouncment for a forthcoming series all Sounisians should find interesting. It's from the May 3 Children's edition and I'll just quote the whole thing.

"Alexandra Cooper at HarperTeen has bought, in a two-book deal, an untitled debut novel by Kathy MacMillan. The first book, which is scheduled for winter 2016, is described as 'a sweeping fantasy in the tradition of Megan Whalen Turner and Diana Wynne Jones.' It follows a girl from the underclass who is chosen to be one of four in the kingdom to learn the language of the gods, and who unwittingly uncovers a secret that goes back to ancient times. Steven Malk at Writers House did the deal for world English rights."

Sounds promising, right?

[(Anonymous)]

There a number of books mentioned here that I have enjoyed but can't remember if this is where I first heard of them or not (I'm thinking some yes, some no). Good company, though!

One series that I'm sure I did hear of through someone on Sounis is the Penderwicks series, by Jean Birdsall. Really good!

Also, I watched "Princess Tutu" thanks to a mention here. Funny, and deeper than you'd think.

--Handmaiden