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[Sappho]

Ack, the month flew by! Just a few more days left in the month, but of course you can keep going into September. They're both worth reading, I think.

And yes, people can certainly discuss the books. I suppose it will be my job to start the discussion, since the books were my choice. I'll do so tomorrow or over the weekend. But let's keep the discussion in spoilers until the start of September, out of respect for the people who are still (or not quite yet) reading.

I've messaged Yoink: time to suggest new books! Actually, it's a bit late, but that's my fault. I didn't notice how close to the end of August we are.

[Yoink]

Ooh, okay!
I'm still a bit under halfway through The Ear, The Eye and The Arm, but I should be able to finish it in time.
As for my suggestions, well, here goes. Two of my favourites. Once again, the first one contains a bit more 'questionable' stuff, whilst the second is a bit less violent/crude. Not as big a gap as the last time I suggested books, though, the first one isn't very explicit as far as I can remember.

Spoiler: The Wizards and The Warriors by Hugh Cook. (click to show/hide)

A great fantasy novel, and the beginning of a great fantasy series. Great all-round, really.
Takes a very different approach to the genre... I only wish the series was commercially successful enough to run for its intended length. That said, the ten books that were written and published are well worth reading, and there's no feeling of things being left unfinished.
Each book in the series can be read as a standalone story, each of them intersecting over a particularly turbulent patch of history, but I figured I'd choose the first book just for the sake of neatness. Also it's most likely tied for my favourite (with book 4) and contains slightly less... raunchiness. I think. Been a while since I read them both.

and

Spoiler: Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. (click to show/hide)

Not sure quite what to classify this as. Fiction? Adventure? *shrug* Last I checked there was meant to be a sequel coming out, but I'm not sure if it's happened yet.
I'd read and enjoyed a couple of Jasper Fforde's books before, but in this case I'd never heard of it and was just searching an airport bookstore for something to read on the plane. Pretty sure I read most of this during the flight with no real idea what to expect, and I then read it again. And again. Whilst on holiday in a foreign country, I was still engrossed in this book.

Don't want to give anything away but it is very good, and a novel take on a genre most of us probably love.

Yep. The Wizards and The Warriors by Hugh Cook and Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde.

[Sappho]

Thanks, Yoink! I've added them to the start of the thread. So, everyone, we have our assignments: time to track them down!

[Yoink]

The Wizards and The Warriors might be a bit hard to track down, but Shades of Grey should be much easier.
Oh, and I just googled it and apparently the full title has been changed to Shades of Grey 1: The Road to High Saffron. I'm guessing this was to avoid being confused with *shudder* 50 Shades of Grey.   

Anyway, it looks like you can get a Kindle version from Amazon, so that should make things easier for some.

[hops]

Aw man, I forgot about this.
I guess I'll read this month's book with the October books.

[Sappho]

GAH. How does this keep happening? I suppose the lack of activity in the thread makes it easy to lose track of.

It's October, so it's Draxis' turn to choose books. I'll send off a PM and update the first post. Please feel free to discuss the September books, those of you who finished them! I'll join in later, since I managed to get lost in part of the Dune series for... the whole month. 

[Arx]

I ordered the August books in August. They still haven't arrived yet. My local bookstore's suppliers are doing well, it seems. It's actually gone past the point where I can make jokes about the authors being handwriting copies for me.

[Sappho]

I ordered the August books in August. They still haven't arrived yet. My local bookstore's suppliers are doing well, it seems. It's actually gone past the point where I can make jokes about the authors being handwriting copies for me.

Jesus, that's terrible. There's always the possibility to read them digitally (even on a computer) if you're getting desperate. It's a difficult issue, really. It's great to support local bookstores (they certainly need it these days), but when the service is really that bad, it's hard to put up with, especially knowing you could probably get a used copy on Amazon for one penny and have it as quickly as your postal service can get it to you.

[Draxis]

No worries about forgetting to tell me, I've forgotten too, since partway through the August book.  Recommendations:

The Things they Carried, by Tim O'Brien.  It's a very well-done, somewhat inaccurate autobiography O'Brien's experience in the Vietnam War, but with frequent digressions into more meta but related topics which I won't really describe because of spoilers.  He manages to do this in a non-affected and meaningful way, and it would be worth reading as a good war story even without them, for people who are into that.  Unsurprisingly, this one is pretty violent, even somewhat disturbing in a sort of surreal way.  It's also a very short book, less than a finger thick, and I would recommend reading it twice - some of the things talked about in the later parts put the earlier ones in a new light.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  A book which follows one family, and the Colombian town they helped to found, across an unspecified hundred-year period.  It's the canonical example of magical realism - having mystical and unexplained elements, but not treating them as anything special beyond the amazement of some characters who interact with them - and metaphorically describes the progression of postcolonial imperialism in Latin America.  This one's pretty long and dense, and while there are some squicky bits of various types nothing's particularly bad or explicit.  Hopefully everyone hasn't already read it, as it's pretty popular book; if so, I guess I can find another unless it's too late.

[Sappho]

First post is updated! I'll start looking for the books. I think I may have read the first one back in college, but now I'm not sure. I certainly don't remember it, so I'll have to track down a copy.

[Vector]

.

[Draxis]

Sure.  I haven't read it, so I'll do that one and then, depending how long that takes, reread one of the recs.

[Yoink]

Yeah... I was sorta AFK for most of the month, unfortunately. I didn't even have a chance to read my own recommendations- I packed one of them to read after I moved, but that bag (including some other books, some CDs, etc) weighed too much for me to take on my flight. >.> Whoops.

Added to that I'm still working on The Eye, The Ear and The Arm. I've almost finished it, though.
I'll try and grab the first book of Draxis' at some point, since I've read 100 Years before. It was interesting, that's for sure.

[Sappho]

Hi, everyone! I actually remembered this time!

I am behind on my reading: just finished my September book. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up, though in November I'll be trying to do NaNoWriMo, so who knows how much time I'll have...

I've PMed Pufferfish asking for the next book recommendations, but I haven't gotten a response yet. If he doesn't post/send anything by the weekend, Vector, would you be ready to suggest a couple of books? I know you do a LOT of reading. : )

Also, since I've totally dropped the ball on discussion so far, here's my opinion of The Wizards And the Warriors by Hugh Cook.

Spoiler: Not full of spoilers, safe to read if you're thinking of reading the book. (click to show/hide)

First of all, I mostly enjoyed reading this book. I certainly wanted to finish it. There's something compelling about it that makes me demand to know what happens next, even as I shake my head disapprovingly at the writing.

The writing was less than stellar. In fact, the whole book seemed like it hadn't been edited at all, neither by the author nor by anyone else. It felt like something he just sat down and started writing without any real plan, then just kept going until he decided it was a good stopping point. The writing style and tone are very inconsistent. At the start, it feels like it's going to be a funny book, then it becomes darker and darker as you progress. For the first quarter of the book, new characters are introduced with literal lists of information about them, most of which is of no importance. In fact, the whole thing feels like an autistic DND player recounting their most epic campaign, with absolutely no detail left out, no matter how irrelevant that detail may be. The main character changes several times, giving me the feeling that the player had switched to a new character and just continued the story from there.

Epic and interesting events are often summed up in a few sentences. One chapter will end with the group about to face a terrible challenge, and the next chapter will begin with a two-sentence summary of who died during that challenge, who won and who lost. Then there will be twenty pages of description of the monotonous and uneventful trip they take through a barren land, complete with details of what bugs they have to eat along the way, what names the bugs have in different languages, and of course how they taste and feel in their mouths -- continuing to describe the various illnesses they suffer as a result, and whether or not those illnesses are treated, and exactly how, if they are.

That said, after pushing through the first third or so, I did finally get sucked in to the world and the story. I had to know what would happen next, and although it was a very long book, I had no trouble reaching the end. In fact, I've just started reading the second book in the series (which seems far more promising in terms of writing, though I'm only one chapter in).

As an editor, if I had been given this book in its current state, I would have given it back and told the author to try again. I wouldn't reject it outright, because it is a story worth reading, but the writing itself needs some serious work.

tl;dr: A good story, badly told, but worth reading if you can ignore the inconsistent writing.

[Gentlefish]

AAAA I recommend Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) as book one and The Tommyknockers (Stephen King) as book two!

Both very good! I will be reading the tommyknockers and I have recently finished Clan of the Cave Bear!