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.
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!
Imajica by Clive Barker.
Reading this right now, and a little over halfway through. Enjoying it, but it took a long time for me to really sink my teeth into it. It’s a very long book and a slow burn.
It’s so intricate and intimate - I just disappeared into the book and isn’t that what we need sometimes?
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
edit: formatting
Piranesi is a real gem!
It’s probably been said, and is not exactly a hidden gem, but 1984 is something special. I read an excerpt of the first chapter and was hooked.
I’m actually reading a book like right now, The Bourne Identity, it’s phenomenal!
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….
Here’s some I have even reread.
- The chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. By Stephen R. Donaldson. 10 books
- The Galactic Center Saga by Gregory Benford. 6 books
- The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks 10 books
- LOTR
Love the Murderbot series too.
For some chill, positive vibes that had me up rather too late flipping pages, I’d recommend either or both of:
- Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree
- The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sangu Mandanna
They’re basically the novel version of a slice of life comic/manga. L&L is more high fantasy, while Very Secret Society is here on Earth if witches were real. It feels like there’s a sub-genre of these kinds of stories popping up post pandemic and I’m all for it.
For something more action-packed, this one was incredibly engaging:
- The Blacktongue Thief - Christopher Buehlman
My favorite book that I read in one sitting (though not hard to do because it’s so short) is The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman… made me cry with its beauty!
My two favorites so far this year are Babel by RF Kuang and The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
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?
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!
Hyperion Cantos -Dan Simmons Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson A deepness in the sly - Vernor Vinge Insane City - Dave Barry Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean.
FWIW I am a 29 yo man who has read alot of scifi/fantasy including WoT, Malazan, Cosmere, Lotr, Dune, etc… but back when Brandon Sanderson released his YA book (now trilogy? series?) “Skyward”, I read the whole thing in 2 sittings. I was enthralled. Haven’t experienced a total immersion like it since.
Oh interesting. Good to know! I dug The Stormlight Archives (still need to read the latest one…), but couldn’t get into Mistborn at all. Maybe I’ll give Skyward a go. If it’s YA it should be a fast read and I’ve heard good things!
I think it’s like 500 pages but it’s a pretty quick read. Definitely feels YA at times but overall I enjoyed it immensely. If you do read it, let me know what you think!
For sure, I’ll check in with you after I get around to finishing it!
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
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)
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.
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
