Five books that make me smile. Another Booknerd meme!
Typed up in groggy, half-drugged answer to a post I, in my haze, thought was typed by my good buddy ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
jenna_thorn, but turned out to have been in a COMM ENTRY, put up by jennabreen, (Shut UP! Even her choices were plausible for MY Jenna!) I landed on my five books that I go back to over and over again in order to smile.
Note there are actually seven, and make no rude comments, for I am vast, and contain multitudes. As well as pain meds.
#1. A Madness of Angels -- by Melanie Griffin. This IS how magic works in my world. It just IS. To the point that now it will feel as if I'm writing fanfic of HERS any time I write urban fantasy. I can live with that though, so long as she keeps writing more adult fantasy like this.
#2. The Oracle Glass -- by Judith Merkle Riley I've been a HUGE fan of her work since I pretty much found it (with this book, in fact,) she writes historical fantasy that stores hide in the literature section because of the exhaustive and exacting research she does on her periods. She writes about well known subjects, places, and things (in this case, the Paris Witch Scandal of Louis XIIIV's late rein, which was what prompted James the Bible Rewriter to include that little passage about suffering a witch to live.) but then she creates her own vibrant, clever, and compelling characters, human, angelic, and demonic, into the stories, and makes them just that much better. In fact...
#3. The Master of All Desires -- by Judith Merkle Riley -- this one features Nostradamus as a secondary character, up against Catherine De Medici. And a young petty noble girl from Orange, who has a really big dog and a tendency to put her foot right into trouble.
#4. Pride and Prejudice -- by Jane Austen. Shut up.
#5. Burying the Shadow -- by Storm Constantine. While I love and adore the Wraeththu novels, I keep coming back to this one, because it bloody well taught me something. I learnt how to Dreamwalk from this book, and though she wrote it as fiction, in meditation and trance therapy, it bloody well WORKS! (No, it's not a tool for hypnosis, as the dreamer must make the changes voluntarily and with full intent, but still!) And aside from that? These are the COOLEST vampires I have ever read, bar none. I love reading about their sources and culture, and go back to them over and over again.
#6. Something Wicked This Way Comes -- by Ray Bradbury. The prose will always, ALWAYS steal my heart, soul, and lunch on this one. Mr Dark seduces me every time, despite my wholly knowing better, as will golden haired, honest-eyed William, and poor, hurried Tom. The spider witch makes me cringe, despite quite liking spiders, and the darning-needle-dragonfly spell haunts my dreams for weeks after I read it. Addiction, I venerate thee...
#7 -- Smoke and Mirrors -- by Neil Gaiman. It's, in my opinion, the best of his short story anthologies. And since I think his talent shines better in short stories than in novel form, this is high praise indeed! I go back and re-read Shoggoth's Old Peculiar at least once a year, and The Grail Quest can always make me cry. As can Only The End of the World Again. I hereby declare that short story anthologies count.
So. What's on your top 5 comfort/keeper/make-you-smile books then?
Oh, and the irony of THIS song being the first to queue when I brought iTunes up! Lol!
jenna_thorn, but turned out to have been in a COMM ENTRY, put up by jennabreen, (Shut UP! Even her choices were plausible for MY Jenna!) I landed on my five books that I go back to over and over again in order to smile.Note there are actually seven, and make no rude comments, for I am vast, and contain multitudes. As well as pain meds.
#1. A Madness of Angels -- by Melanie Griffin. This IS how magic works in my world. It just IS. To the point that now it will feel as if I'm writing fanfic of HERS any time I write urban fantasy. I can live with that though, so long as she keeps writing more adult fantasy like this.
#2. The Oracle Glass -- by Judith Merkle Riley I've been a HUGE fan of her work since I pretty much found it (with this book, in fact,) she writes historical fantasy that stores hide in the literature section because of the exhaustive and exacting research she does on her periods. She writes about well known subjects, places, and things (in this case, the Paris Witch Scandal of Louis XIIIV's late rein, which was what prompted James the Bible Rewriter to include that little passage about suffering a witch to live.) but then she creates her own vibrant, clever, and compelling characters, human, angelic, and demonic, into the stories, and makes them just that much better. In fact...
#3. The Master of All Desires -- by Judith Merkle Riley -- this one features Nostradamus as a secondary character, up against Catherine De Medici. And a young petty noble girl from Orange, who has a really big dog and a tendency to put her foot right into trouble.
#4. Pride and Prejudice -- by Jane Austen. Shut up.
#5. Burying the Shadow -- by Storm Constantine. While I love and adore the Wraeththu novels, I keep coming back to this one, because it bloody well taught me something. I learnt how to Dreamwalk from this book, and though she wrote it as fiction, in meditation and trance therapy, it bloody well WORKS! (No, it's not a tool for hypnosis, as the dreamer must make the changes voluntarily and with full intent, but still!) And aside from that? These are the COOLEST vampires I have ever read, bar none. I love reading about their sources and culture, and go back to them over and over again.
#6. Something Wicked This Way Comes -- by Ray Bradbury. The prose will always, ALWAYS steal my heart, soul, and lunch on this one. Mr Dark seduces me every time, despite my wholly knowing better, as will golden haired, honest-eyed William, and poor, hurried Tom. The spider witch makes me cringe, despite quite liking spiders, and the darning-needle-dragonfly spell haunts my dreams for weeks after I read it. Addiction, I venerate thee...
#7 -- Smoke and Mirrors -- by Neil Gaiman. It's, in my opinion, the best of his short story anthologies. And since I think his talent shines better in short stories than in novel form, this is high praise indeed! I go back and re-read Shoggoth's Old Peculiar at least once a year, and The Grail Quest can always make me cry. As can Only The End of the World Again. I hereby declare that short story anthologies count.
So. What's on your top 5 comfort/keeper/make-you-smile books then?
Oh, and the irony of THIS song being the first to queue when I brought iTunes up! Lol!
