Looking for new books to read as I am preparing to head out on a much needed vacation and want to dig into some good reading. Can be fiction or nonfiction, just so long as it hooked you and made you want to keep reading and reading until the end.
here are a few of my favorites
Susanna Clark
- Piranesi
- The ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories
Vonnegut
- Cat’s cradle
- Slaughterhouse Five
Douglas Adams
- literally anything he ever wrote
Mark Haddon
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake
Ursula K. Le Guin
The Lathe of Heaven
Some great books there, that reminds me I need to read some Susanna Clark.
Great list. Piranesi was also a very fast read for me. I loved the way she painted pictures with her words.
Piranesi is a real gem!
A Short History of Chinese Philosophy by Fung Yu-Lan. I spent pretty much all of my time off work reading it. I found it insanely interesting since I knew almost nothing about Chinese philosophy, and the book is written specifically for people like that. The way their schools of thought developed through the ages and were influenced by each other constantly as one became dominant was very fascinating.
I scrolled all the down the comments and didn’t see Discworld by Terry Pratchett. Don’t listen to anyone and just start reading it. There’s no right or wrong way to do it.
Maybe the wrong way is to start with Book 1. I’d say try ‘Witches’ first, as I found the first book a bit offputting.
I read almost exclusively fantasy and sci fi. Here’s a few favourites.
Sci fi: Red Rising Trilogy Bobiverse The Martian and Project Hail Mary
Fantasy: The First Law Trilogy (my absolute favourite of everything I’ve read) Brandon Sanderson (literally any of his stuff. If you’re looking for a trilogy, start with Mistborn and if a stand alone, Warbreaker). Don’t be overwhelmed by his Cosmere world, if you only read mistborn era 1 it wraps up in a nice bow. Robin Hobbs first trilogy is a nice introduction to her series. If you don’t love it it wraps up nicely after the first trilogy.
Dystopian: Unwound by Neal Schusterman Arc of the Scythe by Neal Schusterman
You have EXACTLY the same taste as me. I definitely need to read First Law.
Nice!
I haven’t read Joe Abercrombie’s stand alone novels that follow after The First Law but apparently they’re even better. My favourite stuff used to be Sanderson until I read this.
My lemmy name is also my favourite character from that trilogy as well
Not sure if your into light novels, recently I’ve been addicted to Acendence of A Bookworm.
End of the World running club. As someone the UK the concept of a massive apocalyptic event set in the uk was intriguing. I loved the book.
Also Sphere by Michael Crichton. In my own head canon, I seem to recall reading this in one sitting over a single night I was doing an all nighter. It was just super gripping!
The expanse. I’m on book 8 right now and it’s been going fast. The world building is so good. It makes you wish you were there with them. If you’re into hard scifi, then you’ll love this series
I tried watching the TV series and couldn’t get into it. I finally tried the first book and it is so much better.
Wait til you get further in. Things just keep building and it gets even better. The books I mean. I liked season one of the tv show and that was it. But the books. Only one book out of the series so far has been a struggle. The rest I’ve blinked and finished because of how good they were.
Those books are sooooo good. Cannot recommend them enough
My two favorites so far this year are Babel by RF Kuang and The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
Seconding Babel. Such a powerful read for me as I grew up in a former British colony. Some of the parallels to the real world colonial system and how it affects locals are so relatable, even today!
Babel has been on my list for a while! Need to give it a bump to the top soon.
Have you read Yellowface? Or her other series, The Poppy War?
I feel like I have read quite a few books that I felt that way about, but it’s always hard to bring them to mind when someone asks. That said, the first few that popped into my head:
- Cradle (series)
- Wool (series)
- The Martian (Audio book is especially well narrated!)
- Murderbot Diaries (series)
- The Bobiverse (series)
If you love The Martian, you are going to love Project Hail Mary. The audiobook is really good as well.
Absolutely love cradle. Sad that it’s over now
The Bobiverse (series)
4th book was such a disappointment.
Overall message too, somehow went from “we are the avantgarde of transhumanism and the universe is our playground” straight up to something like “i wish 50’s back”. Every single Bob turned to either flat meme or boomer.
Haha yeah, I really enjoyed the first few books, and the last one just fell flat.
+1 for Cradle, I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I was going to
The Kingkiller Chronicles is a series by Patrick Rothfuss. The first book is The Name of the Wind. Definitely one of my absolute favorites
Be forewarned that the author has not released the third book and last I checked there’s no release date on the horizon
This is a hot take, but Street Lawyer, by John Grisham.
Hey I dig it. Some Grisham hits the spot for me.
However, I’m a lawyer myself so sometimes it’s hard for me to read legal thrillers because I want to escape real life….
- A Secret History
- A Gentleman in Moscow
- The Martian
- 11/22/63
- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
- East of Eden
I’d add Artemis too, or really anything Andy Weir writes.
A few books that kept me captivated recently
- Blindsight by Peter Watts https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
- Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Edges by Linda Nagata
- Mickey7 Ashton, Edward
- Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
Lilith by george mc donald
Gibson’s sprawl trilogy when I read them back in '89. The fact that it had many short chapters made it easy to consume in quick bursts of reading
I love all of Gibson’s books, have you read anything by Pat Cadigan? Fools may be the most mind bending book I’ve ever read, in a good way
