thank you both! I look forward to starting. I'm game to try something new.
And the thing is, I like my evil like I like my men: evil. You know, straight up, black hat, tied to the train tracks, soon my electro-ray will destroy metropolis BAD.
Buffy ,'Sleeper'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
le nubian - Mar 31, 2011 3:26:08 pm PDT #14239 of 28293
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
EpicTangent - Mar 31, 2011 3:30:42 pm PDT #14240 of 28293
Why isn't everyone pelting me with JOY, dammit? - Zenkitty
Epic, yes, it ends in epic fashion (no pun intended) with the fifth book.
Good to know. I was debating picking it back up, guess now I will - when I finish the 2 library books I have out based off other mentions/recs in this thread - and try to finish it up (maybe with books 4&5 already in hand to ease the frustration).
I'll second the rec of Patricia Briggs, at least the first in that series (I waffle a bit because of something that a friend let slip about events in a later book).
One word of warning about Urban Fantasy, lazy writers seem to use it as an excuse to leave logic at the door. But going off of recs in here ought to be pretty safe.
BTW, I took one for the team Wednesday, and read the last Auel book. Basically, it's 800 pages of anthropology and herb lore cut-and-pasted from earlier texts and then 200 pages of lukewarm plot.
Wow, Erin, you are a giver. So the reading strategy (should I choose to accept it) will be the Auel-standard Flip the Page, Skim for Names or Dialogue, Flip the Page, etc.
Although as I'm currently reading Gabaldon's Outlander, my brain keeps telling me I should know more about medicinal herbs (y'know, in case I'm ever transported to the 18th century and need to make myself useful). Maybe I'll skim for names and plants...
You won't laugh, you won't cry, but it will finally be DONE.
The Completist inside is kind of a PITA sometimes, ain't it?
Amy - Mar 31, 2011 3:40:19 pm PDT #14241 of 28293
Because books.
Ultimate princess dress, made of recycled or cast off Golden Books. So awesome, it's boggling. Scroll all the way down to see the whole process.
Strix - Mar 31, 2011 3:44:43 pm PDT #14242 of 28293
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
I actually really read the herb lore pretty intensively in the first...3 books, and feel like, with a plant guide in hand to id plants, I might be a decent jackleg pioneer doctor's-assistant in a time-travel pinch (I like to plan for all eventualities) but there's nothing NEW in the Auel, except a lot of verbal drawings of cave art.
Which, I'm afraid, isn't as interesting (to me) as herb lore.
As far as fictional healers go, I far prefer Claire to Ayla.
ETA: Epic, I went more like "Read two pages, flip 10, read two, flip ten...)
meara - Mar 31, 2011 3:52:27 pm PDT #14243 of 28293
Hah! Thanks for taking that one, Erin! And I, too, feel like I should know herbs, in case I am transported through time. Or, as in many of my favorite books, the apocalypse comes.
Strix - Mar 31, 2011 4:08:18 pm PDT #14244 of 28293
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
The first thing I would do in an apocolypse is seek an gun store, a library and a pharmacy.
Rayne - Mar 31, 2011 4:27:07 pm PDT #14245 of 28293
"Oh no! Has falling sky liquid once again caused you the sadness?" -Starfire
Urban Fantasy is my drug of choice. I love Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series. I also love Kim Harrison's Hollow series as well, but as it continues on, I'm enjoying it a bit less. And Charlaine Harris' Sookie books. CRACK! Annoying at times but CRACK!
I started the first book in the fever series, but was annoyed by the protagonist's voice before the first chapter was done, so I stopped and picked up something else. I'll probably give it another try eventually.
I'm thinking of giving Illona Andrews' Magic series a try next (after I finish up Auel's book).
sumi - Mar 31, 2011 4:29:45 pm PDT #14246 of 28293
Art Crawl!!!
Erin: Walmart: guns, fishing rods, sewing stuff, groceries and a pharmacy.
Then a library.
Strix - Mar 31, 2011 4:41:31 pm PDT #14247 of 28293
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
That's an excellent shortcut for my apocalypse plans, sumi!
I third the vote for Briggs and Harrison, and I also enjoy the Sookie books.
I couldn't quite get into the Andrews books, but they have excellent reviews, so it may just be a quirk on my part.
Ginger - Mar 31, 2011 4:44:26 pm PDT #14248 of 28293
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
One of my favorite bits in Alas Babylon is Alice Cooksey, the librarian, bicycling into town to open the library every day. Without electricity and gasoline, "All entertainment, all amusements, all escape, all information again centered in the library."
I've enjoyed Seanan McGuire's October Daye novels.