geekyBecause every group is essentially a sociological tide pool, shifting slightly whenever the tide comes in but still cross-contaminating itself at a remarkable rate, we also tend to have a somewhat distorted view of "everybody." I bet if you polled a sample size of, say, the readership of this journal, you'd discover that Rosemary and Rue was one of the best-known books of 2009. Why? Because I wrote it, and talk about it constantly, and you read this journal, hence exposing you to it on a constant basis. I'm a literary pathogen!
On a more localized scale, we loan books to our friends, talk books up to our friends, and constantly infect each other with our literary passions. In the last year, I have caused my friends to read I Am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Shivers, A Madness of Angels, the complete works of Kelley Armstrong, The Mermaid's Madness, The Enchantment Emporium, and Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded. These aren't the only good books I've read in the last year; they're just the ones new enough to still be available, and to have excited me with their sudden existence.
So here is today's challenge: Infect us with books we may not have heard of, but which are so damn AWESOME that it verges on a crime that more people don't know about them. Go for out-of-print things (that's why libraries and used bookstores exist), or the first books in series that started eight years ago. Bring enlightenment to the heathen, in the form of literary smallpox.
I'll start with five of my favorites, books I honestly think everyone should read (whether you enjoy them is up to you):
Hellspark, by Janet Kagen.
Mermaid's Song, by Alida Van Gorres.
Emergence, by David Palmer.
The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, by Tim Pratt.
Paper Moon, by Joe David Brown.
Authors, feel free to pimp your own work here; just get the word out, and let's see what we're not reading!
May 22 2010, 20:07:25 UTC 7 years ago
Diane Duane’s stuffhas already been mentioned, along with Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown.
Two re-tellings of Tam Lin are on my list: Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean (which convinced me to never be a Classics major and always be on the look-out for fae), and Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones.
Actually, pretty much anything by DWJ. Howl’s Moving Castle is pretty darn awesome.
For non-SF/F, Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels. Not too old, but not widely known either. The writing is some of the most beautiful I’ve ever read, and has influenced my own greatly (and I thank the English teacher who made us read it every time I read it).
If we’re allowed to pimp AWESOME non-fiction too? Casanova Was a Book Lover (which may be impossible to find), by John Maxwell Hamilton. Blue Like Jazz is mostly memoir, but I think it’s absolutely brilliant, and the writing style is beautiful and very, very Portland (a minus, in some people’s books, I know).
Um. I think I’ve tl;dr’d enough.
May 23 2010, 05:59:56 UTC 7 years ago