danuv | (no subject)

(no subject)

So I'm loving the new Kindle so far but it doesn't seem to be the best for reading my nonfiction on it which is what I have right now and I want to get some fiction novels that are newish, not sci-fi/fantasy but that are good. I have no idea where to start. I don't trust amazon's ratings because evangelical crap like Tim Lehay's novels are right up there with everything else. I know nothing about contemporary fiction. Nada. Zip. Zero.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What sort of stuff have you liked semi-recently?

I'm finishing up the George R. R. Martin Song of Fire and Ice series and it's ok but I'm not really interested in any more fantasy right now. The problem is that all I've read in terms of fiction in the past 15 years has pretty much been classics, scifi or fantasy. I did read Middlesex 6 or 7 years ago and liked that. I loved Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle books but not so much his last one. Oh and I loved the Haruki Murakami and Junichiro Tanizaki books I've read.

Awesome on the Murakami, it's one I would have recommended. Want something on that level on complexity and depth? (I've been reading light stuff for lunchtimes at work, like Christopher Moore)
Recent fiction I've also liked:
Ron Currie, Jr. : Everything Matters
Mark Z. Danielweski -House of Leaves
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory
Jeffrey Eugenides - The Virgin Suicides (a movie was made, but the book was worth reading)

I've been wanting to pick up some fiction that's not sci-fi/fantasy, too, but since I set in mind that I want to read Infinite Jest, I think it's been intimidating me into reading light stuff lately :)

Amazingly you picked a selection of books that are either unavailable on the Kindle or cheaper to buy in paperback than Kindle form. *snicker* I have actually read The Virgin Suicides, forgot about that one. Enjoyed it. I keep meaning to read House of Leaves but just never got around to it. The Poe album inspired by (or whatever) it got constantly play around here the summer that came out.

I don't know that I need books that are incredibly complex or deep but certainly something with more substance than the Hot Vampire Killer Chick novels I was ripping through earlier in the year. Of course the back of a cereal box probably has more depth than some of those.

House of Leaves is one worth getting in "real" form because of how the text is handled.
Is Gaiman too sci-fi/fantasy for this at this point?

Nope, I've just read all of his stuff. :) I suppose I lump him in with 'fantasy'.

Yeah, I think I'll go ahead and buy House of Leaves.

Cool :) I was actually put off by the hype, and that was silly of me.
It was a really well done novel, and while you can see he's smart and really proud of it, it works.

Oh yeah, and on House of Leaves, after I finally read it after over 9 years of listening to the Poe album, I was very much "HOLY SHIT! That means something different too me now, and they're both geniuses!"

Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies! It's like the Baroque Cycle, only slightly more literary, and in India!

Michael Chabon also gets a nod from me. Yiddish Policemen's Union was faboo.

Sea of Poppies looks great!

I think you'd like the new A.S. Byatt, The Children's Book, which was one of my favorites in the last year. I can't think of the writer but Wench might be up your alley, too, a painful and beautiful book about a resort in Ohio where white men bring their slave mistresses. The other best soul-destroying book about slavery of the last few years is Marlon James's The Book of Night Women, which is intense and brutal and amazing.

I'm not a huge Murakami fan, but if you like that you might (maybe) be interested in Home Boy by H.M. Naqvi. I'll keep thinking!

Oh those do sound up my alley. Thanks for the rec's.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only