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If You Like This, You Might Like That: Trinity from Trin in the Wind Shares Some Recommendations

12/14/2012

Today, we are very happy to welcome our friend Trinity, who is 1. Wonderful; 2. Australian; 3. Blogs at Trin in the Wind, and 4. Is an aspiring author. I (Flannery) first met Trinity through mutual friends on Goodreads but we at The Readventurer have become fans of her reviews, which are both well thought out and well written. She has wonderful taste and I knew she'd be able to give a few unique recommendations for our If You Like This, You Might Like That feature, where people give book recommendations based on random likes and dislikes.

Thanks so much to Flannery for asking me to do a guest post (though it took me approximately a million years so I doubt I'll be asked back). (Note from Flannery: If you think being tardy for a guest post is grounds for me to not harass you, you are sorely mistaken) I tried to pick some lesser known books to harp on about and I hope you find something that you like...

Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda

This book was a result of me being flustered in Borders (pre goodreads days). Will this be any good? They made it into a movie, a French movie, with Audrey Tautou. It's a French book, I wish I were French, maybe if I read this book I'll be a bit more French…and so went my thoughts. Turns out I did like the book, quite a lot. (I like the film more though–Guillaume Canet mmm) I recommend if you like French stuff, quirky characters, lovely prose (though a bit dense at times) and a highly satisfying ending.

Shadows by Paula Weston

I feel like I can't shut up about this book at the moment. One of the best books I've read this year. I put this off for ages because, you guys, I'm not a fan of Angel-type books. I like to hang out on the contemporary side of the street. BUT YOU GUYS. This book, this book. Recommend if you don't really like angel books but do like swoon, action, brilliant brilliant prose and a glowing feeling in your chest. This book stands up with some of the best Aussie Contemp YA.

Shift by Em Bailey

This book was a surprising read for me this year, for some reason I thought it'd be crap (I think it's cos I saw it everywhere and it made me suspicious…over marketed books, they can't be good right?) But I did like it, so there you go. Shift is a YA psychological thriller but not overly scary just incredibly creepy. It's so enjoyable. It won the 2012 Gold Inky and I can totally see why. Recommend if you liked to be creeped out, like making up your own words and tend to spend too much time obsessing over the strange new girl at school.

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

I read this book as part of research for my own work and found it utterly sad and beautiful. It's a journal of sorts by C.S. Lewis after the passing of his wife. He is completely open and raw with his words and the way he articulates his grief just makes you stop and say that's it, that's completely it. He hides from the world, prays and shouts at God. At only 60 pages it is a very powerful read. Recommend if you want some insight into grief, if you're a fan of the man, if you like stunning prose and if you need a quick, poignant read.

Red Queen by Honey Brown

This is the first book I've read by Honey Brown and it certainly won't be the last. It is another psychological thriller, but where Shift was ultimately safe, this book is opened up wide. There are things here that ring with so much devastating truth. It is quite a bleak read. I'd like to marry her prose though. The story is quiet but charged with an unsettling edge. Recommend if you want to devour a book, if you enjoy being challenged and getting out of your comfort zone, if you want to read some exquisite prose.

What do you think of Trinity's recommendations? Have you read any of them? Do you now want to? If you'd like to connect with Trinity, you can find her on twitter, goodreads, and her blog. Thanks again, Trin!

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If You Like This, You Might Like That: Angie from Angieville Gets Personal with Her Recommendations

9/30/2012

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Today on the blog, we are happy to welcome one of the deepest wells of book knowledge on the internet: Angie from Angieville. I'd seen posts of Angie's not only on her blog but on other sites and I honestly thought to myself every time, "You've got to get her over here, that girl's got crazy random taste." This is about the highest compliment I could ever give someone. I knew she'd be able to recommend a few lesser-known titles and she's done just that. (along with a few you might already know) For other older recommendations, you should check out her Retro Friday feature, where she reviews older books or books that have fallen under the radar. If you're not following Angieville, you should be. And if you need another reason besides me telling you to do so, I'm sure she can convince you with her recommendations post...

When Flannery invited me to write a guest post for the excellent If You Like This You Might Like That feature, I immediately cast my mind about for a theme I could hitch my star to. But after rejecting any number of possibilities, I decided the randomer the better. So today you get a list of recs that not only reflect the eclecticness of my reading taste but give you a surprisingly accurate glimpse into my daily life and musings.

It has been pointed out to me on more than one occasion that I have a questionable fondness for cousin love. Ahem. How weirded out are you now? It's not like I go seeking it out. But I have to admit my Beloved Bookshelf includes more than one volume in which cousins . . . get friendly. My issues aside, today I'm pushing Touch Not the Cat by one of my oldest favorite authors Mary Stewart. It's not just the cousin love you're getting here (hey, it was 1970s rural England--go with the egg, my friend). Oh, no. You're getting all kinds of bang for your buck, including but not limited to telepathic romance, crumbling English manors, and an abundance of literary references.

I love Sherlock Holmes. I love him in pretty much any incarnation, although I'll go ahead and go on record as being awfully partial to the Benedict Cumberbatch rendition. If you find yourself similarly Sherlocked, I highly recommend Laurie R. King's Mary Russell series. King switches things up by setting the series after the illustrious detective has retired to the Sussex downs. In fact, her young protagonist literally falls over Mr. Holmes and finds herself apprenticing with him before long. Start with The Beekeeper's Apprentice and read on through till dawn. King is particularly good with titles. A Monstrous Regiment of Women and A Letter of Mary are personal faves.

Is the election season getting to you, too? Whenever I find myself weary of the mudslinging and start questioning the sanity of any and all involved, I pop in a few episodes of The West Wing to feel better about the whole crazy rigmarole. I may or may not be on a two-episodes-a-night regimen at the moment. But if you love The West Wing like I do, then you will love the President's Daughter series by Ellen Emerson White. The original trilogy was written in the '80s and then updated a bit for the present day just in time for the publication of the fourth volume Long May She Reign in 2007. Smart, witty, and deeply affecting, protag Meg Powers is the daughter of the first female President of the United States. I adore her and I adore White's challenging, thoughtful prose.

It's officially autumn now and I always start craving cinnamon rolls round about this time. And when I crave cinnamon rolls, I immediately crave pulling out one of my three copies (I know) of Sunshine by Robin McKinley and cozying up. One of my few seasonal reads, I return to it every fall. Combining mouth-watering baked goods, a seriously introverted heroine, the most repellent vampires you ever will find, and Beauty and the Beast, it's just one of the biggest Angie books there is. Are you a cinnamon rolls/non-sparkly vampire fan? Perhaps it could be your book, too . . .

Speaking of fairy tales, don't you just hate Rumpelstiltskin? That dude creeped me the hell out as a kid. And I was forever outraged on behalf of the poor girl whose father sold her off repeatedly to a king who cared about nothing more than gold and was willing to kill her as soon as look at her. Then she gets saddled with his majesty's baby and the crazy dwarf that just won't leave her alone. Honestly. What is there to love about this tale? But then Elizabeth C. Bunce went and rewrote the maddening thing because it bothered her, too. And wouldn't you know, A Curse Dark as Gold is bloody brilliant.

One of my favorite movies (top ten for sure) is Casablanca. It's perfect as far as I'm concerned, and no matter how many times I watch it, I always tear up at the part where they stand up in Rick's Cafe and sing "La Marseillaise" in defiance. Imagine my delight when I ran across a tribute to that cinematic moment in a little-read book called My Heartbeat. At one point, the main character refers to her family watching Casablanca growing up and how her father always made them stand up and sing along at that point in the film. Somehow it remained a binding cord when everything else inside their family seemed to be falling apart.

So. Inappropriate cousin feelings, mad dwarfs, political commentary, baked goods, and French anthems. I better stop there before I reveal any other embarrassing literary quirks. Thanks so much for having me, 'venturers! I do hope you find something that suits.

Do any of these books sound like something you'd enjoy? I, for one, know I'll try more than one.

Thanks for visiting, Angie! We loved having you and your wonderful recommendations here at The Readventurer. Also, I think we all learned one or two tidbits about your life. (insert evil, maniacal laugh) Let me know where I should mail a framed picture of Aaron Sorkin to!

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If You Like This, You Might Like That: The One Where I Bribe My Sister, Aileen, To Give Some Recommendations

8/24/2012

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Le sisters at La Push, WA.

Bribery goes hand in hand with having siblings. I have three siblings and we absolutely work according our own sort of barter system where we call in favors to balance things out from years ago. Elephants never forget? Well I would argue that siblings never forget--it's one of the best and worst things about them. The other day, my sister found two huge spiders and she was too chicken to kill them. "Would I do it?" Of course I would...if she wrote a guest blog post for us! Muahahaha! Luckily, my younger sister Aileen is quite a reader. Though I tried to get her to explain why she likes several romance authors--Julia Quinn, Teresa Medeiros, Judith McNaught--she instead chose to not listen to me at all (as usual) and picked her own recommendations. Take it away, Aileen.

Flannery agreed to dispose of a spider in my room if I agreed to do an “If You Like This, You Might Like That” blog post. So here I am, arachnophobe and all. I’ve read different books than Flanna and she requested that I recommend a few:

The Chronicles of Prydain: How do I love thee, Lloyd Alexander. The movie version of The Black Cauldron does little justice to this wonderful series. Through five books, we follow Taran, assistant pig keeper, as he protects his land of Prydain from Arawn Death-Lord, who commands a legion of the undead and unsavory. This book is based on the same Welsh folklore as that of the Lord of the Rings, but each takes a very different interpretation. You will find some similarities, but they are very different novels. If you liked Harry Potter and are looking for something to fill that hole in your heart, The Chronicles are a good place to go. These novels are written for a younger crowd, but stand up well to adult reading. I could read all five in a weekend, and sometimes do.

Beauty: Beauty, by Robin McKinley, is a retelling of (you guessed it!) Beauty and the Beast. McKinley’s Beauty is an awkward, pimpled, clumsy bookworm in a family of great beauties. Great beauties who are terribly nice, to boot. Beauty is funny and caring, and a good role model for young girls. If you like books with strong female characters who are into books and learning, you will like Beauty. Also, if you like Gail Carson Levine’s fairy tale retellings or Howl’s Moving Castle, you may like this.

Sabriel: Speaking of badass heroines, Sabriel has to be up there for books with a strong female lead. Garth Nix created a world in which the Victorian Age of a country much like England is separated from a more magical kingdom by a wall. The magical kingdom, much like in the Song of Ice and Fire series, is a place where the dead can walk. Sabriel is a necromancer in training who must leave school in the un-magical world and return to her birthplace once her father, the Abhorsen, dies. If you like Anna Dressed in Blood or Blood Red Road, chances are you will like Sabriel.

The Forbidden Game: Ah, here we come to what may be my most controversial “If You Like…” recommendation. The Forbidden Game is a trilogy of novels by L.J. Smith, of The Vampire Diaries and Secret Circle fame. Obviously, if you like either of those series, pick this one up. The Forbidden Game follows Jenny, our main protagonist, and her group of friends as they unleash a terrible evil while playing a board game. This might sound ridiculous, but it’s not. It’s actually a pretty freaky novel. Jenny’s whole life has been stalked by a supernatural creature who fell in love with her while she was a child and uses the game to escape into her world. She and her friends each have to live through their worst nightmare, as the game progresses and it’s both frightening and enlightening. Here’s the controversial part…If you liked Twilight, or any other book with a sort of helpless love/love triangle/beautiful men fighting over me novel, you’ll probably like this.

Maus: Maus and Maus II are divergences from my earlier recommendations, but the graphic novels are fantastic. Art Spiegelman retells the story of a Holocaust survivor through a graphic novelization with mice as the main characters. As a junior high/high school student, these graphic novels helped me get a narrative of the Holocaust that wasn’t too overwhelming while respecting the seriousness of the subject-matter. If you like The Book Thief or The Diary of Anne Frank, check these out.

The Blade Itself: Last but not least is Joe Abercombie’s The Blade Itself. I’ve only read the first of this series, but that was due to lack of funds and law school rather than lack of desire. Blade is a dark, twisted story of kings that takes place around the medieval era. If you like Game of Thrones, but wish there was less politics, or if you like The Name of the Wind, but wish there was more blood and torture, The Blade Itself is for you. Dark, complex, twisted, and wonderful writing.

It's always surprising to me how people who spend so much time together can manage to read so many different books. I'm a little ashamed to say that I haven't read a single one of these, though I often flipped through Maus when I was a kid. Also, though I'm sure Aileen will roll her eyes at me for this comment as I'm sure she's told me before many, many times, I don't think I knew that The Black Cauldron was based on a book. (New mission: Get Aileen to do a Book vs. Movie post) I am sad that she will be going back to Oregon this morning but I'm happy that she fulfilled her part of the spider bargain and wrote this post. Thanks for the recommendations, A!

Have you read any of these books? Do you agree with her picks? Do you have any other recommendations for us?

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If You Like This, You Might Like That: Maureen Shares Some of Her Favorite Books

8/13/2012

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Welcome to another edition of our feature, "If You Like This, You Might Like That," where we give book recommendations based on random things. Today, our friend Maureen (who recently wrote a recap of a book event with Susan Elizabeth Phillips) is sharing some of her favorites.

Hello again, Readventurers! Flannery asked if I could contribute some recommendations – and if there is one thing I like giving, it is unsolicited advice! For real, you tell me a story about your life and I will throw down advice like nobody’s business. However, advice about books to read is certainly less touchy (and more appreciated!) than life advice. So here are some new favorites, some all-time classics, and some generally lesser known books that I think more people should read!

If you like good old-fashioned fairy tales, with an excellent HEA, and stories about not-so-typical heroines – then you should read The Ordinary Princess, by MM Kaye. This story is cleverly told with great humor, and Princess Amy is seriously one of my all time favorite main characters – mostly because she is NOT the typical tall, blonde, and beautifully perfect princess. This was my favorite book growing up, and it never loses its charm. If you can find a version with the illustrations, it is an extra treat – MM Kaye did them herself and they are so gorgeous.

Sticking with the YA theme of books for kids that even adults can love, if you like stories about wilderness survival and ever thought that Thoreau wrote Walden just for you (clearly this is me!), then you should read My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George. This is the story of young Sam Gribley from New York City, who is fed up with his crowded life in the city and decides to run away to the Catskill Mountains to live on his own. This book totally fostered my love of the outdoors and camping and adventuring, and it is perfect for a little environmentalist in the making. If you aren’t into the wilderness, or hearing about how a kid can find food, make clothes, and live inside of a tree (still one of the most awesome things I can imagine!), than this book isn’t for you. But it should be, because everyone should like those things! (see, I'm pushy with my opinions, right?? #sorryimnotsorry).

Shifting gears, if you like books that restore your faith in humanity, that remind you there are really still good people in the world, and that talk about service work for young adults, then you should read Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, by Eboo Patel. Patel tells the story of how he struggled with understanding his religious identity, and how through that experience he came to understand the universality of this struggle for young adults to know themselves. He ended up starting a nonprofit that brings young people from diverse religious backgrounds together to spend a year doing service work. Through this year of service, they come to understand and respect each others’ cultures. I am sure Flannery would agree with me, that any type of story about young adults spending time doing long-term service work is probably awesome (since we are both alums of AmeriCorps)!

If you are riding that high on happiness and humanitarianism, and like books about global health and like Arcade Fire, then you should read Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder. Kidder tells the story of Paul Farmer – a medical doctor and anthropologist who was educated at Harvard and ends up starting a clinic in Haiti and founding Partners in Health (which is the pet project of the band, Arcade Fire). Farmer is tenacious and almost crazy in his commitment and dedication to improving the lives and health opportunities for people that live in poverty across the globe. This book made me mad, and inspired, and fired up about advocating for change. It is a great read for anyone involved in or interested in healthcare, social justice, international nonprofits, eradicating poverty, or infectious diseases.

Sticking with memoirs, but definitely changing genres here. If you like pie, happiness and/or Sandra Bullock, then you should read My Life From Scratch, by Gesine Bullock Prado (Sandra’s sister!). Honestly, this book is adorable. Gesine started off as an entertainment lawyer in Hollywood, running a movie production company with her sister, and hating every minute of her job and life in Hollywood. The only times she was truly happy was when she was baking pies or breads or cakes for friends and family and coworkers. So she quits her job, moves to Vermont and opens a bakery. Craaaaaziness! But awesomeness. Anyway, this is a quick and light read, interspersing some lovely recipes with the story of how she came to love baking as a child to her life as an adult running a bakery. Who doesn’t love a story about someone who follows their dreams? And gets pie at the end?

Finally, if you like Jane Eyre, The Eyre Affair, Clueless [note from Flann: As if anyone doesn't like Clueless!], or 10 Things I Hate About You, you should read Jane, by April Linder. Linder writes a modern interpretation of Charlotte Bronte’s classic, about young Jane, who is suddenly left penniless when her parents die and is forced to drop out of her elite college and take a job as a nanny. It roughly follows the plot of the original and I had fun re-imagining some of the characters in their modern selves. It might not have been as great without the original source material behind it, but if you enjoy re-tellings (like the Lizzie Bennett Diaries – WHICH I AM COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH!), than this is right up your alley!

Xs and Os, Readventurers!

Maureen

I'd like to tack on two more recommendations to Maureen's list: the books her father wrote. If you are thinking of going to med school or becoming a surgeon (specifically of the orthopedic variety), you are the spouse of someone in the first two categories, you like medical memoirs, or you like large families (Maureen has 11 siblings!), you should try Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death, and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years, Michael Collins' memoir of his residency at the Mayo Clinic. It is a quick read filled with humorous anecdotes, thoughts on the profession, and his personal story about raising a family when time and money were scarce. His sophomore work, Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs: The Makings of a Surgeon, is actually a prequel to Hot Lights, Cold Steel, in that it follows Dr. Collins from working construction in Chicago through his decision to enter med school and a bit further. I recommend it for people who are contemplating the medical profession, people who grew up in big Irish families, or people who are just confused about where they want to go in their lives. Also, I recommend both of his books for people who are curious where Maureen got 50% of her DNA from.

In terms of Maureen's other recommendations, I went on Goodreads to link up the Jane cover image and that book is definitely on my list of "The Books My Goodreads Friends Disagree About Most." No question. The reviews run the gamut from 1-5 stars with vehement fans on both sides, though many of my favorite reviewers fall somewhere in the middle. Coincidentally, The Ordinary Princess is one of those books I pretend I've read. I've been listening to Maureen go on about its wonderfulness for about a decade now. It is short, so what am I waiting for? Thanks for sharing, Maureen!

Do any of these books sound interesting to you? Are there any books you've had to read for college or grad school that were actually really interesting? I'm very curious.

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If You Like This, You Might Like That: Kelly from Stacked Shares Some Random Recommendations

6/7/2012

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Today we are very happy to welcome Kelly Jensen from Stacked, one of our favorite blogs, for a guest post. Kelly is a librarian in Wisconsin and is seriously in the know about both the book and blogging worlds. As it turns out, she also knows a lot about recommending random books, so get ready for a wonderful edition of our feature, If You Like This, You Might Like That, where we (or guest posters!) give you book recommendations based on random interests. We gave her free rein and she totally delivered. Take it away, Kelly!

When the ladies at The Readventurer asked if I’d be willing to write a post for their “If You Like This, You Might Like That” feature, I read and reread the previous entries and debated for a long time what exactly I could add to the conversation. My tastes are a bit all over the place. Or maybe they’re not at all (insert a little bit of a laugh right here). Please. Take this adventure with me.

I love reading about what other people do all day. How do they make ends meet? Are they happy doing it? How did they end up choosing the jobs they do? If you like reading about other people’s working lives, I suggest checking out Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs, edited by Marisa Bowe, John Bowe, and Sabin Streeter. The book is made up of short interviews with Americans who work jobs that include the Walmart greeter, the UPS driver, a drug dealer, a heavy metal roadie, a porn star, a tofu manufacturer, a casino surveillance operator, a second-grade teacher, a doula, and more. It’s a tiny bit dated, but the stories are fascinating.

If you like reading about people’s jobs and you like the idea of traveling across the country, you might like Pete Jordan’s Dishwasher. Pete made it his mission to travel the USA and get a job washing dishes in every state. It’s interesting to see how his travels and his work meld. More interesting to me, though, was just how much of an asshole he was about the whole thing. I’ll leave it at that.

I have one long-standing rule in my life, and that is this: never end up on Hoarders (either variation of it!) I love the show without shame, and I find the show fascinating because of how painful it is to watch. It’s way less about the “stuff” and much more about the things that led the hoarder to find keeping material possessions comforting in the first place. If you like Hoarders, you might like CJ Omololu’s Dirty Little Secrets, which tells the story of the daughter of a hoarder. If you prefer your hoarding stories more of the non-fictional variety, then you might like Jessie Sholl’s Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding. Want your hoarding a little more scientific? You might like Randy Frost and Gail Steketee’s Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things.

My favorite movies have two big things in common: they feature teens as main characters and they serve up a hefty dose of dark comedy. Think Juno or Election. If that’s your cup of tea, you might like Pretty Persuasion, one of my favorite underrated films. Here’s a girl who wants to go all out to make a name for herself. And I mean all out. Bonus points for featuring Ron Livingston.

Now that I’ve eased you into dark comedy, how about we just go straight up dark and twisted films featuring teen main characters? You might want to check out Hard Candy or Teeth. Neither of those are for the faint of heart. I am not allowed to mention Hard Candy in the house when my husband is around. If you likeTeeth, you might like Ginger Snaps and vice versa. G Snaps bonus: werewolves (and if you like Ginger Snaps you might like Kathleen Peacock’s Hemlock which is also a werewolf story but more important, references the film).

So if either of those categories of film sound up your alley, then you should check out Joey Comeau’s books. Bible Camp Bloodbath should quench your thirst for a story about a kid who really loses his cool while at a sleepaway camp. It’s twisted and dark and bloody and horrible and also uncomfortably funny. Then feast on his The Girl Who Couldn’t Come. This is a collection of short stories about sex. Some are sad and some are funny. “Edith” is my favorite. You can read Bible Camp Bloodbath here and The Girl Who Couldn’t Come here.

I don’t feel qualified to offer good music recommendations because my taste is a little all over the place, but I have two bands to mention. If you like male-lead bands like Guster, Carbon Leaf, or Dispatch, or you like Pete Yorn, you might like Jump, Little Children. I know. They’re not new. In fact, they aren’t even playing together anymore. But their music is perfect. Their songs break my heart (this version is devastating),break it even more (this song is so, so gorgeous), and then they sing about super sexy times (no really).This song is one I perform regularly while driving, and this one just makes me happy. Like their sound? You might like the band Hey Marseilles, too. This is my favorite song of theirs (“all I want is love eternally / with your heart facing me”) but the video for Rio is pretty fantastic. Let me slip this one in, too (it makes my heart swell when it gets to the middle....I’ll leave it at that).

Like this kind of music? Well you probably like books that deal with relationships -- the good, the bad, and the ugly of them. May I suggest trying something like CK Kelly Martin’s I Know It’s Over or Trish Doller’s Something Like Normal? Both tackle tough things and good things in relationships from the male perspective. Oh, also, let me throw in CK Kelly Martin’s My Beating Teenage Heart, too. Especially the sexy parts. And the teary parts. And the parts where your heart gets so big you think it might burst.

If you prefer your music of the female vocal persuasion and you are over Tori Amos, you might like Marina and the Diamonds -- my favorite song is this one (“Better to be hated than loved for what you’re not”) but I also really like this one and this one. Another female singer worth checking out is Erin Ivey.

I’d be making a huge mistake if I didn’t recommend a woman named Courtney Summers in this space as the kind of author you’d like if you are a fan of the strong-voiced female. The characters in each of her books have a hell of a voice, and they’re each coming from places of pain and honesty and maybe even a little place of hope (some more than others). I put her books in camp Marina and the Diamonds. I’ll then go ahead and suggest if you’re more of the Erin Ivey sort -- who also sings of the highs and lows but maybe in a different kind of key with a bit of a different vibe (just as powerful though) -- check out Siobhan Vivian’s books.

Still with me? Good. Here is where I will probably lose you.

My favorite candy in the world is black jelly beans. I love and adore the bitter, burning taste of anise. If you like black jelly beans, you may also like Good and Plenty and black Twizzlers. You may also like Katjes Kinder, which I found in a little shop in small town Wisconsin not too long ago. Black licorice cats from Germany. They are amazing.

If anise is your thing and you’re of a certain age, you likely already know about Jaegermeister. If you like Jaeger, you might also like Black 100, which is an herbal liquor out of Minnesota (I don’t live there and found it out of state, so it’s not just a local brand). It’s a higher proof than Jaeger, so watch yourself with it.

If you like anise flavor and you want to go the opposite route, have you tried bok choy? You might like it. I love vegetables, and bok choy is one of my favorites because it tastes like licorice. It’s a little less bitter, but it’s got a crisp taste to it and it’s such a better flavor profile than celery.

So now that you’re sufficiently under the influence of the most amazing candy out there and some, uh, mind altering liquor (and enjoying your bok choy), you are prepared to delve into the weirder world of magical realism with your reading. You can absolutely enjoy these books without any of the above-mentioned aids, but I think you get even more fun out of them when you can really enter those worlds. Who better encompasses the genre than Haruki Murakami? You have talking cats, sleep walkers, and a world that is all at once familiar and totally foreign. I recommend After Dark to warm you up, then head on over to Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World. Don’t want to go that wild? Just going to enjoy some Good and Plenty without the alcohol? Dive into Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls. Want to ONLY have the booze without the candy? Perhaps you’re looking for Hello, Jell-O. Fair warning, though, is some of the recipes in that book will require you to have enjoyed a few shots before they sound half way appealing.

I wanted to lead you here gently, fair readers. If you’re still with me, I wanted to share with you a secret. As much as I am a book blogger and love reading book blogs, my secret passion is reading food blogs. Especially those with a heavy vegetarian sway to them. If you like to cook or read food blogs, you might like Becca’s amazing Amuse Your Bouche (I have made so many of these recipes and every single one has been a winner). And if you like food blogs with a side of sarcasm, snark, and professional styling, you might like my good friend Jess’s blog, Jonesing For. . .. The banana bread is to die for, by the way.

You now know way more about me than you ever wanted to know. It starts with going to the darkest places, enjoying the bitter humor, listening to good tunes, and eating really satisfying food along the way. I haven't even started in on The Jersey Shore yet, either . . .

Oh my, that was a post full of awesome. I know that I, for one, have added a bunch of books to my to be read list. Thanks, Kelly, for your recommendations across the board. Music, film, food, books...just so many amazing things going on here!

Don't forget to visit Kelly in her natural blogging habitat, Stacked. Today, in honor of her anniversary, she's done a wonderful post over there about books that remind her of significant points in her relationship with her husband.

What do YOU think of Kelly's recommendations? Anything you plan on reading,watching, listening to, or trying in the future?

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If You Like This, You Might Like That: Michelle from Chronicles of a Book Evangelist Gives Some Recommendations

5/13/2012

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We're always on the lookout for great book recommendations and readers/bloggers who have wells of information and recommendations to give to others. One such person is Michelle from Chronicles of a Book Evangelist, and we are ecstatic to welcome her for an edition of "If You Like This, Maybe That," where we give book recommendations based on interest in certain movies, television shows, love of characters, songs, and just about anything else you can think of.

If you are part of the 32% of American young adults who like to get your news from The Daily Show or The Colbert Report rather than traditional news outlets, you've got to read Melissa L. Rossi. With titles such as What Every American Should Know About the Rest of the World and What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running the World, Rossi combines humor, satire, statistics and historical facts in such a way that world politics and corporate machinations suddenly become entertaining and easy to grasp. Her books are like Cliff's Notes for life; sometimes fun, sometimes shocking, but always helpful in understanding how America (and its politics) fit into the larger global picture.

If you have been enjoying the recent outbreak of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic literature to hit the shelves, you should try George Stewart's Earth Abides. First published in 1949, Earth Abides is one of the grandfathers of modern day apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic literature. However, unlike many of its contemporaries, Earth Abides has held up surprisingly well over the years. George Stewart was a scientist, a geographer, and a studier of human nature. Rather than rely on fantastic otherworldly catastrophes or elaborate technological failures, Stewart's apocalyptic tale depends on a simple, natural virus and normal human behavior. It is how the survivors react to each other and the changing social, biological and physical landscape that makes Earth Abides so fascinating.

If you enjoy watching Grimm or Once Upon a Time or both (Tor does a great Battle of the Fairytales recap of both each week), and you've read and loved Beastly or Kill Me Softly, or you are waiting on Shadow and Bone, perhaps you should try some time-tested retellings. In Enchantment, Orson Scott Card weaves together Jewish, American, Russian and Ukrainian culture and literature, religion and myth, to create an incredibly unique and vibrant blending of fairytales from the east and west into one fabulous story. Another great fairytale retelling is Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. This wonderfully twisty version of Cinderella is perhaps one of my favorite retellings of all time - please don't judge the book by its movie.

If, like Bria (or me), you were completely captivated by Starling in Kirsten Hubbard's Wanderlove, you should try J. Maarten Troost's The Sex Lives of Cannibals. It is the sometimes sad, sometimes gross, mostly funny and always true story of his and his girlfriend's experiences as global vagabonds out to save the world... one tiny Pacific Island at a time.

Are you thrilled by all of these wonderfully strong, smart, resourceful and independent young heroines defying the odds and taking to the skies? Do you want more of Maddie Brodatt from Code Name Verity, Ida Mae Jones from Flygirl, or Deryn Sharp from the Leviathan series? I suggest the memoirs of real-life pilot Beryl Markham, West With The Night. She was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from East to West, spent most of her years adventuring in Africa, and wrote so that Ernest Hemingway described her memoirs like this:

"As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers... I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book."

That was Ernest Hemingway, need I say more?

My final recommendation has a lot of ifs, but, oh! if those ifs are met, then it is a really wonderful then! If you love the darkly humorous tone and language-heavy literary bent of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief; and if you can stomach some serious amounts of violence, blood and gore (no, really, serious amounts); and if you like your blood and gore to be accompanied by a little bit creepy, somewhat relatable and always cerebral hero (think House from House, Dexter from Dexter or Bones from, well, Bones then Rick Yancey's Monstrumologist series is probably the series you've been waiting for most of your life. Yancey's writing is beautiful and dark and literary and organized and so hard to describe but very, very worth the read.

Well I don't know about you guys, but my to-be-read list has just gotten a little longer. If you liked any or all of Michelle's recommendations, don't forget to visit her blog at Chronicles of a Book Evangelist.

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If You Like This, You Might Like That (Part Two)

2/19/2012

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It's unsolicited recommendation time again! We've actually gotten a lot of hits on the blog for people searching phrases like "books for people who like..." and "if you like..." so I'm excited to do another in our series of "If You Like This, You Might Like That," since my first post seems to be coming up for people on Google searches. As always, I'd love to know if you have any contributions--let me know in the comments. Last time, the wonderful Chachic recommended Eva Ibbotson's work A Countess Below Stairs to fans of Downton Abbey and I quite agree. And we're off...

If you like wordplay and epistolary novels, you should read Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. In it, a town revers the man who created the pangram, "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." As the letters fall off the statue in their town center, the residents see it as a sign that they should remove them from usage in daily life. One by one, the letters disappear from the book as well, to rather hilarious results at parts. You can fly through this one in no time at all.

If you liked Unwind by Neal Shusterman, contemplating whether or not you'd want to clone a person, or if you just want to read an awesome YA book that doesn't get enough play, you should try House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. House of the Scorpion is set in a future where there is a section of land between the US and Mexico called Opium that is used for cultivating drugs. It deals with issues like slavery, cloning, classism, and socialism and quite obviously, drugs.

I happen to love everything Bill Bryson writes. His style is engaging and I always find myself chuckling while I'm learning a metric ton of interesting factoids about every topic he covers. I've yet to jump into his A Short History of Nearly Everything, but his travel books are some of my favorites. If you enjoy commentary and travel books, love the vignettes on NPR shows like Fresh Air, can laugh about getting lost, or love learning random facts about things, you should check him out. Oh, or if you judge how awesome a place is by how much great stuff you have to eat and drink, he's a kindred spirit. I recommend I'm A Stranger Here Myself, In A Sunburned Country and A Walk in the Woods.

If you are a person who loves to learn a lot about an occupation and how things work while you are reading fiction and you enjoy reading about insane serial killers, definitely read Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. (Am I the only one who DVRs "How It's Made?") I always wondered how scents like fresh laundry, grass, and cotton candy could be bottled and now I know (perhaps a little too creepily well) how this is done. It is also a great book for people who, let's face it, don't read a ton of "real" literature and want to up their street cred. Beware the ending. (I see on Goodreads that this book's ratings are are all over the place, in general and among my friends. This frightens me a bit but I say go forth and read, then come back and tell me what you think.

I think I must've been a weird kid. Looking back, my favorite books are mostly the ones that are completely whackadoo, but I wouldn't want it any other way. My two favorite series were Betty Macdonald's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series and Louis Sachar's Wayside School series. Both series are early chapter books and accessible to most elementary-aged kids but they are so much more valuable because they are books I still enjoy as an adult and that parents will enjoy themselves when reading along with their children. In Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, a quirky neighborhood woman who lives in an upside-down house helps to modify behaviors of local children in bizzare ways. I only just found out this minute that the books were originally written in the 1940s and 50s! The Wayside School books are set in a school that was accidentally built one classroom per floor vertically instead of spread out. Each student is weird in their own way and I still remember a bunch of their individual stories 15+ years after I first read them. (I also love Holes, by the same author.)

Like girls who do math? Reading about the Mexican-American experience? You should read What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Pérez . Published by Carolrhoda Lab, which is a publisher I actively check to see what they are releasing with giddy anticipation, What Can't Wait will appeal to people who enjoy the Fuentes brothers books by Simone Elkeles but maybe wish they were more about self-examination than romance. I am excited to read her new release, The Knife and the Butterfly.

Are you the type of person who daydreams about what it might be like to be in someone else's brain for a day? Freaky Friday social experiments? I'd love to be Kelly Link for a day, or actually, in many short story authors' brains. They are a hard sell and often times I find short story collections to be inconsistent. Pretty Monsters is fantastic. The only negative is that I wish each story was later developed into a full-length novel! I still smile thinking about the image of an entire kingdom in a handbag. If you like fantasy and short stories, you are missing out if you don't give this one a try.

I hope one or more of these books will strike your fancy. Do you have any book recommendations based on liking random things?

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If You Like This, You Might Like That

2/2/2012

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I'm always excited to find out about new things whether it is a television show, board game, book, website, beer, recipe, ANYTHING. The downside of this (or perhaps just my personality) is that I get extremely excited to tell other people about these things. I will tell you all about this Discovery Channel special I watched about building a transatlantic tunnel, make you watch Summer Heights High, dance like Dawn Weiner from Welcome to the Dollhouse, and show you about 40 YouTube videos that I watch all the time. So, without further adieu, here are some completely unsolicited recommendations for books based on liking other things.

If you are into shows like Battle star Galactica and Firefly, you should try the Grimspace series by Ann Aguirre and The Native Star series by M.K. Hobson.

Just a little reminder of how awesome the show is.

Click and buy it. So innovative.

If you are into British humor and tons and tons of puns and literary jokes, you should try the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. (I also absolutely recommend his work, Shades of Grey!)

If you like the feeling of laying on your back in water in direct sunlight, you should read Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar.

If you like the movie Heathers, you should read Fury by Shirley Marr.

If you like the worldbuilding in shows like Merlin and want to feel immersed in a world, you should try Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, any books by Tamora Pierce, or anything by Brandon Sanderson.

Seriously beautiful cover.

If you like YA and science fiction exploration stories, you should read Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman and the Touchstone series by Andrea Höst .

If you like books about rehab and are looking for great LGBT YA lit, you should try Suicide Notes.

If you like being dropped down in the middle of a community and following large casts of characters, you should read any of Maeve Binchy's books. (I recommend Tara Road, Circle of Friends, Light A Penny Candle, Firefly Summer, and Minding Frankie)

If you want to read some great short stories (for free! online!), you should try Harrison Bergeron, The End of the Party, Ponies, All Summer in a Day, and 2BRO2B.

If you like MMORPGs, you should read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

If you like zombies and politics (there are some of us out there!), you should read the Newsflesh books by Mira Grant.

If you like Nora Roberts books but wish they were a little sexier, you might try Susan Elizabeth Phillips. (try Kiss An Angel)

I love this book.

If you liked Buffy during the college years, you should read the Chicagoland Vampires series by Chloe Neill.

If you like Doctor Who, you might like Walls of the Universe by Paul Melko and Replay by Ken Grimwood.

If you are an teen/adult who liked the tone of The Hunger Games, you should read Stephen King's The Running Man and The Long Walk.

If you still think Penny from Inspector Gadget deserved to be recognized as the brains behind the operation, you might like What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn.

If you liked The Thirteenth Tale, you should try The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell.

Thirteenth Tale and Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox covers

That's it for now. If you have any random "If you like this, try that" suggestions, comment away!

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If You Like This, You Might Like That: Trinity from Trin in the Wind Shares Some Recommendations

If You Like This, You Might Like That: Angie from Angieville Gets Personal with Her Recommendations

If You Like This, You Might Like That: The One Where I Bribe My Sister, Aileen, To Give Some Recommendations

If You Like This, You Might Like That: Maureen Shares Some of Her Favorite Books

If You Like This, You Might Like That: Kelly from Stacked Shares Some Random Recommendations

If You Like This, You Might Like That: Michelle from Chronicles of a Book Evangelist Gives Some Recommendations

If You Like This, You Might Like That (Part Two)

If You Like This, You Might Like That

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