Reddit mentions: The best contemporary literature books

Sure, I generally listen to fantasy style books so it might not be to everyone's taste. If so try /r/fantasy for some great threads of lists of audio books if your interested.

I listen to Terry Pratchett books (plenty of info on where to start with these on the web but I always recommend the guards books ) when I'm walking or jogging because when I start laughing it doesn't mess me up as much. Sometimes Ill slip in an "Iron Druid Chronicles" book by Kevin Hearne these are still light enough to let you enjoy your surroundings and are great for outdoors stuff because there is lots of nature waffle :D

for running I try to stick with something that draws me in like the Dresden files by Jim Butcher. or anything by Brandon Sanderson his stuff tends to jump character perspectives from one chapter to another so you find you run through a chapter to get back to find out what happens. Well I do anyway.

I listen to a large spectrum of stuff really but my core library is Fantasy so here is a list I prepared for a friend earlier in the year Hope it helps:

Books List

• Literally anything by “Guy Gavriel Kay”
  but mainly “Under Heaven”(Asian theme beautiful book), “River of stars” (semi sequel like a thousand years later) “The Lions of Al Rasan”. Most of his books are connected and there is this thing called the “Fionavar Tapestry” that connects them. His books can also be considered stand alone.
  
  
• Under Heaven
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Under-Heaven-Guy-Gavriel-Kay/dp/0007342101/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421678636&sr=1-1&keywords=under+heaven+guy+gavriel+kay
  
  
• River of Stars
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/River-Stars-Guy-Gavriel-Kay/dp/0007521936/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
  
  
• The Lions of Al-Rassan
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lions-Al-Rassan-Guy-Gavriel-Kay/dp/0007342063/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421678693&sr=1-5&keywords=guy+gavriel+kay
  
  
• Tigana
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tigana-Guy-Gavriel-Kay/dp/0007342047/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421678693&sr=1-4&keywords=guy+gavriel+kay
  
  
• Promise of blood
  Best use of gunpowder and magic I’ve ever seen it works really well kinda like a “Mistborn” magic system. (If you haven't read mistborn you might want to its another Brandon Sanderson series) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Promise-Blood-Book-Powder-trilogy/dp/0356502007/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421677263&sr=8-3&keywords=powder+mage
  
  
• Mistborn
  Really cool Magic system that revolves around swallowing Metals and “burning” them for access to their powers.
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Final-Empire-Mistborn-Book-One/dp/0575089911/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421677588&sr=8-1&keywords=mistborn
  
  
• Bloodsong
  Classic young lad raised by crazy monk types turns into renegade general / gladiator type trope but with an interesting magic system that guides him.
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Song-Book-Ravens-Shadow/dp/0356502481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421677442&sr=8-1&keywords=bloodsong
  
  
• Rivers of London books
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rivers-London-1-Ben-Aaronovitch/dp/0575097582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421677738&sr=8-1&keywords=rivers+of+london
  Metropolitan police have a secret devision that deels with spooky stuff that stems from the time of Isaac Newton. Has some interesting inner city London stuff with Newtonian magic and river gods and avatars of stuff.
  
  
• The Painted Man (The Demon Cycle, Book 1) [Also called “The warded man”]
  Humans are a primitive people living in small isolated towns and require wards painted on their houses to keep them safe from demons that rampage each night. This young lad is then forced to survive in the wild one night and decides he would rather fight than cower in fear. HE then seeks out a fabled tribe of demon fighting warriors and wants to join up with em etc. Pretty good a little dark at times.
  
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Painted-Man-Demon-Cycle-Book/dp/0007492545/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421677832&sr=8-1&keywords=warded+man
  
  
• The Dresden Files
  Slow building but a great series that everyone ends up recommending. Dresden is a modern day Wizard / Private Investigator. Carries a revolver and a staff etc battles the dark forces of the world and starts a few wars with spooky gangs as you do.
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Storm-Front-Dresden-Files-Book/dp/0356500276/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421678098&sr=1-1&keywords=dresden+files
  
  
• Iron druid chronicles
  Bit of a guilty pleasure this one I love ancient mythology and modern day wise assery so this hits the perfect combo of no higher brain function required tuning out on the bus good natured talking dog companion nonsense. plus there are like 9 of em
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hounded-Druid-Chronicles-Kevin-Hearne/dp/0356501191/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421678198&sr=1-1&keywords=iron+druid+book+1
  
  
  
  

How about Inferno by Dan Brown?

Ha ha ha! Just kidding. How about some urban fantasy? It's all the rage in the finer boutiques. I would recommend Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews. It has a Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibe, with a genuine three-dimensional kick-ass heroine, lots of magic, plenty of evil monsters to dispatch, and a will-they or won't-they plot thread with a handsome [Spoiler.]

There's also The Rook, a fantastic book which I don't think got enough love when it was released and also featuring a great heroine. This has a better plot than most.

Rivers of London is the start of another great series set in modern London. It's about a young copper who discovers that ghosts, vampires and what-nots are real. Exciting and told in the first person with an intelligent, dry-witted voice.

And finally, if you've never read American Gods, well, then you've just been depriving yourself.

I know these recommendations aren't exactly what you've been looking for, but I think these are all great books set in the modern world. Just with some extra magic.

There's a book series I read, the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaranovich and the lead character, DC Grant, is a black copper. (Also, slightly a wizard).

And there's a thing that happens in them, which is that often when Grant meets someone he'll say if they're white or not. So I'll be reading merrily along and run into a line like

> She was a white, middle-aged woman who looked like she was already losing her patience

And for a while that was really jarring.

I'd literally stop reading to think "Why the fuck would you bother to mention that she's white?"

...And after a while, I realised that Grant mentions that she's white because he's a black guy. It makes sense he'd notice that sort of thing, when I personally wouldn't bother to describe a white woman as white - I tend to see people as white by default to the extent I'd forgotten that DC Grant was a black character with a different worldview to mine. That was a pretty valuable discovery for me, if I'm honest, because at least now I know I'm prone to think like that.

And I suspect that something similar might be happening when people listen to the descriptions of inclusive characters in TAZ.

It's very easy (assuming that you're more or less straight, white and cisgendered) to kind of forget that some people aren't the same as you. Not in a malicious way (or at least not necessarily in a malicious way), but if you happen to inhabit the same cultural space as most portrayals of "what people are like", being reminded that a character is outside those parameters can feel jarring.

It's a good jarring, if you ask me - it makes as much sense to say "But why is Merle a dwarf though?" as it is to complain that so-and-so isn't cisgendered, but people are conditioned to expect dwarves in the context of a fantasy narrative, and they're not (so) conditioned to expect LGBTQ or ethnic variations to be represented in a fantasy narrative or in the media generally.

Honestly the way the McElroys do it, as an aspect of a character rather than the central focus, is probably the best way to fix that lack of representation. I don't think people find it jarring out of malice, just because they're not used to it - but having that representation is how people get used to it. And for those demographics that are traditionally underrepresented, getting to that point is huge.

Not all within the last five years but,

Await Your Reply. Best if you don't read anything about it before you start.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

A Suitable Boy

The Ghost Writer

There is a book somewhat that effect, "Scepticism, Inc," about a man who has people bet that their faith is the One True Faith and gets insanely rich in the process. It was a good read in High School, not sure if it holds up with age, though.

http://www.amazon.com/Scepticism-Inc-Bo-Fowler/dp/B000HWYT6C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292219191&sr=1-1

There's an entire (good) sci-fi novel based in part on this idea of "the space between" in computer games - http://www.amazon.com/Spares-Michael-Marshall-Smith/dp/0553579010

If you like this stuff you will probably love it - it's a good novel in it's own right, too.

I finished this book this week and I'm going to recommend it:

https://www.amazon.com/Gone-Away-World-Vintage-Contemporaries/dp/0307389073

>"Reading The Gone-Away World is a bit like spending a week with a hyperactive puppy: there are delightful moments aplenty, but it's slightly wearing over the long run. Still, any author who has come up with the beautifully silly plan of melding a kung-fu epic with an Iraq-war satire and a Mad Max adventure has to be worth keeping an eye on."

It's very much "The Zone", it involves a superweapon that can erase information from energy and matter. The government deploys it without realizing that it creates fallout in the form of "stuff" energy and matter that reforms based on the contents of the minds it comes into contact with.

So for example, a army unit gets ambushed by the idea of an ambush, bullets flying out of nowhere, everything seeming too cinematic because the hallucination is based on their perception of war rather than the reality. But still deadly.

So the whole world gets eaten by "stuff" and there's one big company left producing "anti-stuff" and the world cowers beneath its skirts. It gets political but I don't want to spoilers.

Really can't say enough about how it was written, either. The first third was slower and didn't hook me as much as the rest of it, but once I got out of that section I couldn't put it down. I'm picking up another novel by him to add to my list because I so thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Maybe I should just start doing fiction review posts, instead of finding places to hide these

Highly recommend this collection.

The Night Train at Deoli and Other Stories https://www.amazon.in/dp/014011615X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_EqxQAb9K3BX86

I love 'The Night Train at Deoli'. It's so down to earth! And it pulled just the correct strings of my teenage heart.

The book I am pulling these excerpts out of is "The Gone Away World" by Nick Harkaway.

It is the funniest, saddest, most entertaining, mind-warping tale of brotherhood, coming of age, romance, war, ninjas, and survival I have ever read. It has painted my ideals of politics, ethics, morality, philosophy, and writing that I still strive to come ever closer to each day.

Please dive into this book with nothing else (I've only spoiled some of the funnier quotes, thankfully not the plot nor any of the other insanely comical characters). I promise you, it will blow you away.

The Gone Away World is super fun, and a great big trip. Plus, the action scenes are mind blowing.

Not what you're thinking I think, but I'm reading Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch right now. Really fun and the detail about London is fantastic. Nothing new but he paints a vivid picture.

On a related note, there's an amazing short story/book called The Uncommon Reader. Premise is that the Queen develops a love of good literature, and becomes engrossed in it, and dissatisfied with her life as a monarch.

Well in that case you definitely need to read the Discworld series, has a lot of the same sort of humour. I'd reccomend starting with Guards! Guards!, it's the first book in the City Watch arc. Here's a guide to how to read the Discworld books, it's a bit chaotic I know but it's well worth it.

Whilst it's a lot less comedy I'd also reccomend the Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.

My neighbour was on the UK version and she filled me in with some of the process.

They actually go through 3 or 4 "audition-auditions" before going in front of the main judges and cameras. In these, they get told about mics and stuff.

You might also want to try Chart Throb by Ben Elton, it's a satire about all these shows while also revealing some of the mechanics of how they are made. As a bonus, it's a great read.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. A light and bouncy entertaining urban fantasy that has a great first-person protagonist.

My mistake there... It is Kureishi with a K.

The ISBN numbers and a lot more are linked from the articles:

The Buddha of Suburbia -- BTW the BBC mini-series adaptation was f-ing great.

My Son the Fanatic -- I did not watch the film but it don't look good from here

My unreserved recommendation for one of the greatest short stories of the last 20 years: The Body

Other books we discussed were books that Redditors had recently read or were planning to read:

The Snow Child

Purple Hibiscus

For We Are Many and All These Worlds Volumes 2 and 3 of the Bobiverse (and it wasn't me who mentioned it, smartass).

October

Silver Sparrow

Hidden Figures

The Glass Castle: A Memoir

And Danger-Moose mentioned The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, and he had completed The Gone-Away World, which a lot of us were not able to do.

Jbcoll04 suggested Homegoing: A Novel by Yaa Gyasi a couple of posts ago, and I don't want to lose track of that, because both me and darr76 want to read that at some point.

So, be thinking about our next choice. I'm definitely going to read October, Homegoing, and I'll try Volume 2 of the Bobboverse.

You should read The Uncommon Reader, it's super short and really all about reading and loving books. 126 pages. You can read it in one sitting on a lazy weekend afternoon.

Stephen Fry wrote an alternate History novel about someone smarter and more strategic being leader due to present day scientists sending a pill back in time to make all men infertile the night Adolf would've been conceived.

Making History by Stephen Fry

This book is close - but he doesn't kill his wife, he divorces her.

Double Vision

https://www.amazon.com/Double-Vision-Novel-Pat-Barker/dp/0374209057

Is this sort of how the story went?

There really isn't a definitive best book in Fiji. The only literature we did from Fiji in school were short stories. I thought Subramani was pretty good so try this:

https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Eaters-Stories-Fiji/dp/0894106317

The History of Luminous Motion by Scott Bradfield is absolutely amazing.

back to the beginning

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Current Selection#####

• Echopraxia by Peter Watts [Echopraxia]. Began September 3rd.
  
  
  ---
  

  Past Selections#####
  

  
  

  2014######
  

  
  

• The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke [Songs]. Began August 6th.
  
  
• 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson [2312]. Began July 7th.
  
  
• The Crystal World by J. G. Ballard [crystal]. Began June 4th.
  
  
• The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon [Lot49]. Began May 7th.
  
  
• The Lilith's Brood Trilogy by Octavia Butler [lilith]. Began April 7th.
  
  
• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie [Justice]. Began March 6th.
  
  
• [Invisible Cities] (http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Cities-Italo-Calvino/dp/0156453800) by Italo Calvino [Invisible]. Began February 5th.
  
  
• Machine Man by Max Barry [Machine]. Began January 1st.
  
  

  2013######
  

  
  

• House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds [suns]. Began December 5th.
  
  
• Singularity Sky by Charles Stross [singularity]. Began November 4th.
  
  
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood [Oryx and Crake]. Began October 7th.
  
  
• The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway [gone-away]. Began September 3rd.
  
  
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin [dispossessed]. Began August 2nd.
  
  
• The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks [sonata]. Began July 3rd.
  
  
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clark [rama]. Began June 3rd.
  
  
• Jack Glass by Adam Roberts [glass]. Began May 3rd.
  
  
• Of Men and Monsters by William Tenn [monsters]. Began April 3rd.
  
  
• Solaris by Stanisław Lem [solaris]. Began March 3rd.
  
  
• Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan [carbon]. Began February 1.
  
  
• The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson [diamond]. Began January 4th.
  
  

  2012######
  

  
  

• Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke [childhood]. Began December 1st.
  
  
• Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo (aka Unto Leviathan) [fools]. Began November 3rd.
  
  
• Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg [dying]. Began October 4th.
  
  
• China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh [china]. Began September 4th.
  
  
• Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges [labyrinths]. Began August 4th.
  
  
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury [martian]. Began July 2nd.
  
  
• The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle [mote]. Began June 1st.
  
  
• Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky [picnic]. Began May 2nd.
  
  
• The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester [Destination]. Began April 2nd.
  
  
• Diaspora by Greg Egan [diaspora]. Began March 5th.
  
  
• Stories by Ted Chiang [Chiang]. Began February 3rd.
  
  
• Grass by Sheri S. Tepper [grass]. Began January 2nd.
  
  

  2011######
  

  
  

• Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny [lord]. Began December 5th.
  
  
• Zones of Thought Trilogy by Vernor Vinge [zones], [fire], [deepness], [children]. Began October 28th.
  
  
• Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami [Wonderland]. Began October 3rd.
  
  
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline [rp1]. Began September 1st.
  
  
• Rule 34 by Charles Stross [Rule 34]. Began August 2nd.
  
  
• The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi [quantum]. Began July 1st.
  
  
• Embassytown by China Miéville [Embassytown]. Began June 1st.
  
  
• The Dervish House by Ian McDonald [dervish]. Began May 2nd.
  
  
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin [LHoD]. Began April 5th.
  
  
• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. [canticle]. Began March 1st.
  
  
• Inverted World by Christopher Priest [inverted world]. Began February 1st.
  
  
• The City & the City by China Miéville [the city]. Began January 1st.
  
  

  2010######
  

  
  

• Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks [surface]. Began December 3rd.
  
  
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell [cloud atlas]. Began November 3rd.
  
  
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson [anathem]. Began October 1st.
  
  
• Blindsight by Peter Watts [blindsight]. Began September 1st.
  
  
• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi [windup]. Began August 1st.
  
  
• The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams [MoPI]. Began July 15th.

Someone who I don't even know (my mom knows them) recently gave me 1000 dollars towards a wheelchair!

Ebook :)

Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation. Weird story, but a good description of Brixton, London.

Sorry I don't know how to hyperlink:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Milk-Sulphate-Starvation-Martin-Millar/dp/094779591X

proof

looks like it isn't that great

Made me think of this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0575085487

But yeah, you're right.

May I recommend a book called Rivers Of London (Midnight Riot in the USA). Lots of fun, each river has their own personification.

• Wool by Hugh Howey
  
• Spares by Michael Marshall Smith

Rivers of London by Ben Aaranovitch! The lead is a Met Police officer who becomes involved in the supernatural wing of the force. It's set in contemporary London and the atmosphere and London scenes are incredibly vivid.

https://www.amazon.com/Gone-Away-World-Vintage-Contemporaries/dp/0307389073

"The Gone-Away World" by Nick Harkaway is essentially based on the premise of the title of this post.

There isn't a single mention of Taoism, but this book is 100% the culmination of Taoist teaching in the form of martial arts.

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway.

The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkoway It's probably difficult to accept, but I'd strongly encourage you not to read anything about it and just buy it and read it. Ignore the horrible cover on the book itself. It's fantastic. If you must know something about it, I'd say there's some Vonnegutesque writing, some Kung-Fu, some war. Some mimes. I've said plenty...

I thought that movie was disgusting. Who needs to see a four-year-old and a three-year-old hooking up?

^But ^it ^was ^also ^disgusting ^because ^it's ^a ^rip-off ^of ^Spares ^by ^Michael ^Marshall ^Smith^.