Books

My daughter is an avid reader, and I'm looking for some recommendations for her. I'm hoping y'all can help!

Books she's read and liked:

• Hunger Games (loved it)

• Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

• Shadow and Bone

• Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

• Harry Potter (loved of course)

• Warriors

• Ender's Game

• Rangers Apprentice

Hopefully that's an idea of what she's into. Ideas, please?

Filterable recommendations in different filterable categories, by NPR staff and "trusted critics".

There's a wide selection of books. For instance in "Sci-fi, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction" category, which is my favourite genre, I couldn't even recognize majority of authors. That doesn't mean much though, since I know embarrassingly few authors, but it means there is wide variety.

Any books that you didn't make the list, and you think should have? Or something that made the list but you didn't like? Or just a general recommendation?

There was a hilarious short piece I read on Kindle or something and it was a short piece where the protagonist gets in with a self-improvement guy who ends up making him foot all the bills incurred while he is rolling with him.

Pretty vague and I don't expect anyone to know what the hell I'm talking about but I would love to reexperience it

I hope this is allowed here, if not, feel free to remove my post, mods

My name is Richard Silva, I'm a young Brazilian writer(17) who just published their first book. Since I was a kid I wrote things, but for the first time, I made something I am going to share with the world. Currently, I'm finishing Brazilian integral high school, which in other words, wastes 9 hours of my day with mostly nothing. It's very stressful, and leaves me with not much appropriate time for actually writing quality content, so you might imagine how many reviews this book had to get before I felt like I was satisfied.

I would like to encourage you to read my book, and share your thoughts on it, of course, it's me first one, so constructive criticism is very welcomed. My desire is to be able to make a living out of my art, and when reading this book, you are helping me make this dream possible :)

And please, if you did enjoy it(even if it's a little bit), leave me a review on google play saying how much you like it, and why you like it. As for you, fellow Brazilians, a version in Portuguese is coming soon!

i do legitimately think i will enjoy each and it'll enrich my life though, so

you can always tell when someone has a real camera, i find. not in a competitive way but just in that it adds an extra sort of warmth or realness to it

Edit: Picked up "A Canticle for Leibowitz" for him - if you know a good book he might enjoy though, feel free to leave a comment as I'll either pass a list along to him, or use the list for future gifts to him. And thanks everyone for the great recommendations!

Looking for a short-ish, wide-appeal sci-fi or fantasy novel to gift to my dad for Christmas, in the Portuguese language - hopefully without strong religious components (more context and details below)

So my dad and I read a lot, but very different genres. I read almost exclusively sci-fi and fantasy, he likes biographies, historical, and religious books. Most out there book I know of him reading was The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour which he LOVED and talks about regularly, yet I don't think he's read any other historical fiction.

He regularly asks about what I'm reading and always says he doesn't understand why I like sci-fi/fantasy. He's never tried them though. I'm fairly confident he would enjoy the genres, he does fine with their movies.

Anyway, for Christmas I want to get him a book in Portuguese. He went to Brazil for 2 years on a mission for his church and he's still fairly fluent. My hope is he'll enjoy getting exposure to the language, while also getting to try a sci-fi/fantasy book.

There are some difficulties in picking a book for him though...

1. He is pretty religious and probably can't handle anything with atheist topics, maybe best to avoid fantasy with strong religious components as well
2. It probably should be on the shorter side - I haven't read many standalone novels so I'm not sure what's popular. I'm worried he'll lose interest in an epic fantasy novel, for example
3. He loves humor - I'm not a huge fan so another reason I'm asking for help

We did read Bad Omens, he liked it a lot, wasn't one that I see myself re-reading - but I guess some religious topics are fine?

I once tried to get him to read Ready Player One, thinking that it had wide appeal and having loved the story myself... I forgot about Wade's atheist rant in the beginning though. My dad returned the book and kinda started a fight with me on how I must have some plan to de-convert him - and he assured me the book was propaganda for Satan... So yeah, definitely sensitive to religious topics.

An obvious choice, I think, is Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. I may go with this if nothing else comes up. I don't love the book (not my favorite flavor of humor) but I think he'd enjoy it - I'm just hoping for something that might get him hooked on the genres.

Another serious contender is The First 15 Lives Of Harry August. I really liked this one, but I worry the themes of death and mental health might not be great for him.

Thanks for any suggestions! I know this is a bit specific

I am reading The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths. A Ruth Galloway mystery. It was supposed to be a quick read, but got busy with some stuff, so going slowly.

What about all of you? What are you reading, or listening these days?

Note: So, I posted this last week, but for some issue with federation it didn't actually sync. So, this will be another one and half week post.

Like the title says, I'm trying to remember the name of a book or short story I heard of in a podcast once.

The story revolves around a fortune teller who tells people that he can see into the future, but when people pay for their fortune, the teller says that he can only see one year into his own future, and always tells them "In one year I will still he working here at this carnival." However, one day he sees the end of the world in his vision and tries to warn people about it.

I remember the podcast mentioning that the author is a big name in sci-fi writing. Thanks in advance, I've been trying to remember the name for hours

"I do not need another copy of Blake, I do not NEED another copy of Blake, I do NOT need... Illustrations sure are nice though..."

Just finished The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty, the final book in The Daevabad Trilogy. I loved the series, a couple more series like this, and I would've to add Chakraborty to my favourite authors list.

Haven't started anything yet, may go with next book in Elly Griffiths' Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery. They are quick and easy to read, and work as good palette cleanser.

So, what have you been reading or listening lately?

Some tidbits:

• Second draft of The Devils is done and gone to editors.
• First discussion of cover image will start in a month or two.
• Have written about a thousand words for the next book.
• Some collector's edition info.

I am loving this so much, there aren't words. But I'll try. I'm such a fan, my heart is trying to burst out of my chest at the thought of this book. When I found, HE VOICES HIS AUDIOBOOK! That had to be the way to read this book, the first time. He does not disappoint, he pulls you into his world with the same talent he has, to do the same, in his works on screen. And what a life! To give you a feel for the tone, I feel his influences in the way he presents his story, I can feel spike Milligan in there, and probably more influences, I'm less familiar with, it also genuinely feels like he's a relative of Douglas Adams, with the way he describes the world and events that have formed his life. There's no grandstanding, he's humble and stoic and walks through the story with you, not at you. You're right there, rebelling against all the things in his life that tried to constrain him and break his spirit, but couldn't even slightly dull his shine. I laugh! It's funny! Even though some of the stuff he has lived through is genuinely heartbreaking, he tells it with the whimsy of someone who couldn't be broken, even though they tried so very hard, and he took all that they threw at him and used it to fuel his life, he turned all of that into a commodity for himself and found a way of enjoying his life, from the darkness. He, not only is a brilliant and genius comedian (imo) he's an inspiration in how to walk through this world, and take all the lemons and make a lime vodka. If you need something to lift you out of the darkness, right now, I would highly suggest picking up this book, in any form.

Finished The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty, the 2nd book in The Daevabad Trilogy.

Went straight to the sequel, The Empire of Gold, the 3rd and last book in the series.

What about all of you, what have you been reading and listening?

Concepts like freedom, anarchy, and dystopia, etc have been expounded in numerous non-fiction scholarly and popular works. I read some and understood most of them.

But, whenever it is about feeling them, I go back to fiction. Take dystopia as an example. What is a more complete dystopia than the Orwellian ones where there's no light on the other end of a long tunnel of darkness and torment?

Similarly, V for Vendetta gives me a more acute emotional understanding of freedom, and anarchy than anything. That is why, I re-read V for Vendetta this time every year, intended to finish by 5th November.

Maybe there are fellow readers here who would like to discuss/appreciate/criticize V for Vendetta. Let our thoughts flourish!

I finished Death Masks by Jim Butcher, 5th book in the series. This is probably the best book in the series yet, pretty much no dull moment. And I have heard it just keeps getting better from here, so looking forward to that!

After that, looking for epic fantasy, started The Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty. Read the first book City of Brass and loved it. A different setting from the "medieval European" one we usually get, and thoroughly enjoyable book.

Before starting next book in the series, read Elly Griffith's The Janus Stone, 2nd book in Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery series. It was a quick but nice read, I'm going to continue with her books.

Just starting The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty, the next (2nd) book in The Daevabad Trilogy.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening?

Finished Chloe Marr by A. A. Milne. I liked the book, but it's very much product of it's time, the way men and women act. Also, if you can get the literary and pop-culture (of that time) references, you'll enjoy it a lot more. As it is, even though I enjoyed reading it, when I wasn't reading it, I didn't feel too much like picking it up.

Read Jujitsu Kaisen Vol. 3. Continuing my 1 volume per month for JJK. Same as The Dresden Files. Don't want to finish all the published work and wait for new ones. So, once a month will keep me supplied for quite a while.

Read Meet the Maliks - Twin Detectives: The Cookie Culprit by Zanib Mian. Got it for my kid, felt a little bit like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but more about muslim family and kids. Read it to see how it is, and I enjoyed it. It's first in the series though, the author has also written Planet Omar series, may try those for kid next.

Starting Death Masks by Jim Butcher.

What about all of you? What have all of you been reading and listening?

Some summary:

• Author got $20,000/- from publisher. $10,000 on sign up, and $10,000/- after delivering the final manuscript. After 10% cut of agent, author was left with $18,000/- for two years of writing and editing.
• They say it's good money (for independent press), their previous 3 books got them 4 digit advance (so, less than 10K).
• They sold 650 books to end up number 85 on USA bestsellers list.
• About 5000 books are also ordered by bookshops / sellers, so they are half out of 10,000 copies first print.
• Bookshops can return the books if not sold.
• Authors don't get any royalties until they have paid off the advance they get in the beginning. So in this case, until they have paid off the initial $20K, they won't get any money from the book.

It's the new urban fantasy series by Benedi Jacka, author of Alex Verus urban fantasy series.

Early reviews (from author's blog): https://benedictjacka.co.uk/2023/10/06/inheritance-of-magic-early-reviews/

Not much from my side. I am still reading Chloe Marr by A. A. Milne. It's an interesting book, even though I am missing every "pop reference" of plays etc. Someone who get those references would probably enjoy it a lot more.

What about all of you? What have you been reading (or listening) lately?

Finished Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King. I enjoyed the novel, going to try more of his work, but it was too long so probably not right away.

Wanted something quick after such a big novel, so went with Jujitsu Kaisen Vol.2. It's a manga, so was a pretty quick read. It's still the start so we are learning about the world and powers of different people. It was fun.

After that, read (and finished) graphic novel Starport by George R. R. Martin (basically a graphic novel adaptation of his novella). I saw it on discount in the shop, didn't even know about the novella, but got it because of GRRM. The story was and the art was good. It was a fun read, though I couldn't get into the seriousness of the mystery because of the colourful and jubilant art. Still a fun read though.

Finished The Crossing Place by Elly Griffiths. Her first book in Ruth Galloway mystery series. Don't really read much crime / mystery novels, recently read The Thursday Murder Club and now this. It was a quick read, and I liked the book, even though I wasn't the fan of how she portrayed all the relationships. I have got next 5-6 books in the series, will read them in-between different books.

Currently reading Chloe Marr by A. A. Milne. The author of Winnie the Pooh! It's about a young socialite in early 1900s. I have just started it though.

Phew that was a lot of books this week. Though, I was near the end of 1 last week, and 2 were comics/manga which are very quick to read, so not that much when you actually get down to it.

What about you all? What have you been reading or listening?