Summer Reading List

[Random_White_Guy]

We always have these kinda threads but it's summer time so I'll start off

Two days ago the novel "Skin Games" in the Dresden Files series came out in the US and UK.

Pick yourself up a book. It's awesome. It's like Film Noir/Detectives/Magic. The series is kind of long as it's been going on for a while but the first 8 books are so are a pretty quick read.

Edjucate yourselves.

[morva]

The Holy Bible

[MexicanGunslinger]

I read both books on the Wolf of Wall Street they were quite good also how to earn one million in property in a year i cant get a loan so oh well

[Pandip]

Pride and Prejudice.
teehee.

[Knight Of Pentacles]

Books of Blood by Clive Barker

[Ommadawn]

Books of Blood by Clive Barker

These are excellent, by the way. I recommend anything by Mr Barker.

On a related note, I just finished the Dark Tower series. If you haven't read them, you might want to give them a try.

[CollegeDropout]

The Stand by Stephen King

[Grotesque]

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.
It's somewhat like a sci-fi interpretation of The Count of Monte Cristo.
A stellar masterpiece in my eyes.

[petey512]

I rather enjoyed Good Omens by sirs Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

[Talir]

Good fantasy books I would recommend:

• The Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch (currently only three books).
• The Kingkiller trilogy by Patrick Rothfuss (currently only two books).
• The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence.
• Raven's Shadow (Blood Song and Tower Lord) by Anthony Ryan.
• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (not yet read the whole series).

[tinfoilhat]

I'm gonna second recommendations for The Gentlemen Bastards and Kingkiller Chronicles. Great books that take awhile between volumes but are well worth the wait.

Fantasy

• The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson- Only two books out of like TEN or something, but it has some great worldbuilding and characters.
  
• The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie- Pretty gritty fantasy with some pretty memorable characters
  
• Theft Of Swords by Michael Sullivan- Pretty light and fun read. Part of a series if you really liked it and want more but it's fine as a standalone.
  

Sci-fi

• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson- Pretty short and ridiculous. An entire chapter dedicated to describing a pizza delivery system. Main character named Hiro Protagonist. I don't really like his other works, but this one will remain a classic to me.
  
• Any Star Wars audiobook- These are pretty terrible books by themselves, but Random House Audio has ridiculous budgets for these things. Sound effects, licensed music, great voice actors make for dumb fun commute listening.
  

Fiction

• The Magicians by Lev Grossman - A more adult approach to Harry Potter. Magical school where the somewhat unlikeable protagonist Quentin experiences drugs, sex, and other college nonsense while doing (dangerous) magic. Part of a trilogy, the last book just came out a couple days ago.
  

[NamelessSong]

Malazan: Gardens of the Moon is a pretty great book by my reckoning so far.

[Ryan]

Here's what I read this summer.

Grasshopper Jungle: Young adult coming of age story involving a sixteen year old boy coming to grips with his sexual attraction to both his gay best friend and girlfriend. It is also about giant preying mantis' that do nothing but fuck and eat people. There are no euphemisms in that sentence.

Very spare, hypnotically repetitive prose and beautifully rendered teenage feelings put to paper. And it's got some good B-movie quality sci fi at work, so give it a read.

Random Acts of Senseless Violence: Remember in the 90s how overpaid social analysts were predicting that American inner cities would erupt in an orgy of post-millennial youth gang violence? In this book, that actually happens.

Written as a diary by a twelve year old girl whose life gets increasingly shitty, about the choices she's forced to make to survive. Interesting in how it starts off written in normal, juvenile prose and degenerates into a near-future slang ridden tirade.

Rogue Moon: A mysterious alien labyrinth is discovered on the moon - anyone sent inside to explore inevitably dies a horrific death, spurring an obsessive scientific project to chart the unknown and conquer mortality.

An intense character study with a lot of hard SF elements - writing style is rather blunt, but this eventually works in the story's favor in exposing many of the characters as flawed assholes.

[Winston Martin]

On the Beach by Nevil Shute
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
Earth Abides by George Stewart
The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill
Involuntary Witness by Gianrico Carofiglio
Call of the Wild by Jack London

[Dr Dragon]

Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men By Jean-Jacques Rousseau