Cool Books


I just sent this list to Becky at The Book Frog, where I get to talk about books next month; other people's (which is really fun to do) and my own (which tends to make my guts twist up in little knots).

Compiling the list was fun. First, the easy books - the ones that directly or indirectly influenced the story, characters, or writer (that's me) of Marking Time: On a Pale Horse, by Piers Anthony, Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, The Name of the Wind, by the incomparable Patrick Rothfuss, and The Ivanhoe Gambit, by Simon Hawke. Those are piled in a precarious stack on the most beautifully useless piece of furniture in our living room - a display shelf made from a repurposed Indian wedding carriage that's too narrow to hold anything other than family photos. Which, in a room groaning with books, is totally wasted space.

The other books, the ones I buy extra copies of because I'm constantly loaning them out, or the ones I read out loud to the boys (my excuse for re-reading really cool middle-grade books), or the ones I burn through on my iPad at 4am when it's too cold to get up and write; those took some hunting.

On the living room shelves I found Dragonsong, by Anne McCaffery, the entire Charlaine Harris collection beginning with Dead Until Dark, The Liveship trilogy from Robin Hobb, all the Time Wars books (The Ivanhoe Gambit is in the easy book stack), The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart, all the Gregor the Overlander books by Suzanne Collins, and all of Diana Gabaldon's books including another copy of Outlander.

From the bedroom bookshelves I gathered Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor, Graceling, by Kristin Cashore, The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner, A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness, and The Graveyard Book, by the master of his genre, Neil Gaiman. Also in the bedroom were my favorite non-fiction books: Wild Stories, the best of Men's Journal, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, and Shadow Divers.

And the iPad holds my bargain YA books, the treasures I find as I troll amazon's kindle deals, and the indie authors whose work I've stumbled over in my random midnight "if you like this, you'll love this" searches: Divergent, by Veronica Roth, Time Mends, by Tammy Blackwell, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs, Under the Never Sky, by Veronica Rossi, If I Stay, by Gayle Forman, Girl of Fire and Thorns, by Rae Carson, Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and the not-YA books; Bloodsong, by Anthony Ryan and the entire Fever series, by Karen Marie Moning.

 And you know, the most exciting thing about doing this author-talk/book-signing event in a bookstore? Becky's going to build a very cool display of books "recommended by the author of Marking Time." Now that is cool!

*And because linking books makes the names turn blue (and unreadable) on this blog, here's the linked list in case anyone's interested. They're all linked to amazon, because that's easiest, but www.betterworldbooks.com is an awesome place to find used paperbacks, and of course, your local independent bookstore (in my case, The Book Frog) is the best of all.



On a Pale Horse, Piers Anthony
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
Ship of Magic, Robin Hobb
The Ivanhoe Gambit, Simon Hawke
Dragonson, Anne McCaffery
Dead Until Dark, Chairlaine Harris
Daughter of Smoke and Bone,  Laini Taylor
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
Graceling, Kristin Cashore
The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner
A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
If I Stay, Gayle Forman
The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Gregor the Overlander, Suzanne Collins
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
Under the Never Sky, Veronica
Bloodsong, Anthony Ryan
Girl of Fire and Thorns, Rae Carson
Faefever, Karen Marie Moning
Divergent, Veronica Roth
Time Mends, Tammy Blackwell
Beautiful Creatures, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Non-Fiction
The Code Book, Simon Singh
Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond
Wild Stories, The Best of Men's Journal
Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, Gary Kinder
Shadow Divers, Robert Kurson

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