(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best family saga fiction books

Have you read any James Tiptree Jr? S/he was a SF writer of mostly short stories in the 70's and early 80's. She was actually a woman named Alice Sheldon, but for many reasons wrote under the name of and assumed the identity of a man (There's a fascinating biography of her by Julie Phillips that's practically better than any novel I've ever read). Tiptree was known for his/her very masculine puply writing style- which made him well liked and respected by male readers- but all his work is incredibly subversive. He might be one of the most effective feminist writers I've ever read. I especially recommend The Women Men Don't See. It is brilliant.

There's a lot of great queer/feminist/progressive science fiction and fantasy out there if you know where to look. Check out the James Tiptree Jr Award Anthology (yes, they named an award after him/her) which awards stories which explore issues of gender and sexuality. Also anything by Ursual K LeGuin (who is an amazing goddess-like woman and if you haven't read her you don't know what you're missing), Octavia Butler, Joanna Russ, Sam Delany, Margaret Atwood, Marge Peircy, and others.

Here are some links to some great collections of feminist science fiction which I have read, and I'm sure there are many more:

Daughters of the Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century

Feminist Philosophy and Science Fiction: Utopias and Dystopias

The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms


edit: I thought of the perfect book for you if you want something that explores gender, race, class and disability: Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy.

It's about a poor, Latina woman who has been institutionalized against her will for mental illness and is traveling back forth in time between 2 futures- one utopian egalitarian, and one not so much. It's great.

The Stuff the Canon misses

So like I said, the Canon leaves more out than it includes, and we’re going to talk about that a bit. There are plenty of these, left out either because they’re peripheral to the normal drive of Anglo-American literary studies, or because they look a little different from the stuff we’re used to calling “Literature.” This is, again, not a comprehensive list in the slightest, and it shouldn’t be taken as such.

Celtic literature

Ireland was very much on the periphery of the medieval world, as was Wales, except insofar as they both interacted with England. What that doesn’t mean is that there wasn’t literature being written! Wales’ biggest contribution to the literary world was its oral tradition, with the most famous, of course, being King Arthur, whose mythos didn’t get written down until much later. The Irish poets wrote vivid and beautiful poems, as well as long chronicles and epics. Here’s a nice sample from a very good translation of an Old Irish poem, “May Day”

>May Day! Delightful day!
Bright colours play the vale along.
Now wakes at morning’s slender ray
Wild and gay the Blackbird’s song

>Now comes the bird of dusty hue
The loud cuckoo, the summer-lover;
Branchy Trees are thick with leaves
The bitter, evil time is over.

While I imagine much of this gets studied in Ireland, at least in the states it often gets passed over. Ireland was not much of a political force, and in many ways its contact with the other textual communities of the Medieval world was limited. That’s why Irish literature from the period can be so weird and interesting! It’s not like anything else.

Norse Literature

While most of the Norse literature we have is in Icelandic texts from the 14th Century, that is not reflective of how old these texts are. Almost all of them are at least pre-christian, and stem from very old Oral Traditions. This collection of Norse sagas spans over 2000 pages (Also, I desperately wish to own it)! I have only read The Saga of Hrolf Kraki and some of The Saga of the Volsungs, but both were excellent, fascinating works (I’m a sucker for desperate last stands, and Hrolf Kraki has a doozy) that very few people in the USA would even know the names of. There’s also a fair amount of poetry, in genres ranging for advice poems that vaguely resemble Proverbs to mythic poems telling tales of the Norse gods. Also, if you read any of the major Norse works, you’ll almost certainly find things Tolkien stole for LOTR. It’s a good time if you’re a fantasy nerd like me

Arabic Literature

>I will make you content and die of grief. I will be silent, not grieving you with reproaches. / I knew you once when you wanted to be with me, but today you desire to avoid me. / Time has changed you, but then, everything tends towards change and passing away. J But, if in your opinion the right course of action is to break up with me, may God blind you to the right course.

Here’s just one Medieval Arabic poem I found that I though was both interesting and quite good, on just a cursory search through my school’s library. Unfortunately, I am neither a scholar of these works nor a specialist of any kind in Medieval Arabic or Islamic history. I can’t provide much of a narrative of them, but they existed, there were a lot of them. The famed One Thousand and One nights is the most well known in the west, but it is by no means alone, and was compiled starting in the 8th or 9th centuries. Unfortunately, this sort of stuff tends to get shunted into Middle East/Arabic studies departments, which often don’t interact a lot with the wider academic climate, and frequently suffer from limited funding and small numbers of students. This is something that I’ve wanted to study, but found it quite difficult to.

Byzantine Greek Literature

Poetry, both Christian and Secular, Epic, Chronical, Law, Rhetoric, Drama, everything you’d expect from Rome was kept well alive in the Byzantine empire. Much of it, particularly the emergence of vernacular Greek literature (As opposed to Attic Greek, which remained an elite language throughout Byzantine History) is painfully understudied, but it’s there, it’s interesting, and it’s important. Much of the contemporary study of Byzantine writing that does exist is in Orthodox and other religious circles, meaning it’s off the grid of many Secular thinkers, but the Byzantines maintained a culture that was unique, rich, and varied up until the fall of the empire, and even after, Vernacular Greek survived as a literary language up until today.

The Various Oral Traditions

Many of the people on the fringes of the Western World, the Norse, the Slavs, the Pre-Islamic Arabs and so on had limited written tradition, but that doesn’t mean they were without literature. Traditional recitation differs sharply in aesthetics and composition from what we think of as “Literature,” but it has been profoundly influential. Many of these texts were transmitted to us today, either because they were written down after the period you cited (See the Viking Sagas, above), or because it has continued in the form of folk practice. Traditional folk songs may not seem like familiar literature, but they can be fascinating and beautiful in ways we are completely unfamiliar with. Again, this is an area with which I have only a passing familiarity, but it’s a fascinating area of study.

”The West” and the problems with it.

So you might have noticed that I included some Eastern Mediterranean and Arabic stuff in the discussion above, and you might have been thinking “That’s not Western! /u/stormtemplar, you said this was about the Western Canon!” Well buckle up, because I told you I was gonna take on “The West” so here we go.

To speak of a “Western Literature” or “Western Literary History” is always fuzzy and problematic, but to talk about “Western Literature” in a Pre-Roman, Roman, and Early Medieval context in particular is a tad ridiculous. Most of the intellectual life and culture of the major European civilizations of the period was focused around the Mediterranean, particularly the Eastern Mediterranean. It’s easy to project the biases of today onto the past, but in, say, 200 AD, Egypt was the richest part of the Roman world, and Britan was a comparative backwater. Rome was the Northwestern-most of the great Mediterranean cities, almost every other major city in the Roman world was located in the East. Cultural production was mostly focused on the Mediterranean world, and insofar as the Mediterranean interacted with the wider world, it was much more tied to “The East” than it was to “The West.” The Greeks had a much greater cultural exchange with the Persians than the Germans.

Unfortunately, comparative studies of a Mediterranean literary culture are in their infancy, but this Southern/Eastern textual and artistic community was much richer and more vibrant than any Northern/Western one. The reason we see Rome as a “Western” civilization and not an “Eastern” or “Southern” one says as much about our biases as anything else. Arguably, modern day Turkey or Egypt have better claims to Roman heritage than, say, the English, at least in their Art and Literature.

In short, our understanding of a “Canon” say almost as much about us as it does about literature, and that’s from my Canon-favorable perspective. Many others would be happy to jettison the Canon as a concept completely, because it seems to say so little about literature and so much about personal bias. I have my issues with that school, but after writing this sort of answer, I understand where they’re coming from.

I've got a few suggestions actually! Some are exactly like you describe, non-fiction but presented as a novel. Others incorporate accurate history, but the main characters are fictional.

First,Follow the River. This one is a true story presented as a novel. Great read, it's one of the first books that inspired my interest in what's actually edible in the wild.

Centennial is another great read. Pretty much any Michner is. You do have to get past the first few chapters though. He likes to start his books with a history of the area, which he goes all the way back to the crust of the earth cooling. Once you get past that though, he takes you through the history through the eyes of multiple people through generations. The people are fictional, but the history he covers is the real deal. For instance, did you know that camelids originated in what we call Alaska now?

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I think they've made a T.V. show from this one. It has science fiction/fantasy tones to it as it involves time travel, but the coverage of the history is accurate and fascinating. And told from the perspective of someone who was born and raised in WWII era.

And finally, let's go WAY back. Clan of the Cave Bear. The first three books in this series are fantastic. I wouldn't bother going further though. The author traveled to all sorts of digs and painted caves and the picture she brings to life of pre-history is wonderful. Bit of a Mary Sue as a main character, but I happen to like Mary Sues. =) AVOID THE MOVIE! I like a lot of book to movies, understand that they need leeway. They ruined this book on screen.

I can probably come up with a few more if you're interested at all. Reading is a bit of my hobby.

Ender's Game is seriously so much better than the movie. It's amazing what people will do to ensure the safety of the human race, without fully seeing the whole picture.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. I was hesitant at first, always seeing it, but never checking it out at the library. It wound up being one of my favorite books to read, it was that good. Story of a mute boy raised on a farm breeding dogs. He can sign, and has pretty good life, as far as things go, until his father dies. He tries to prove his uncle had a hand in the death, but the plan backfires. Hated the ending - not because it was bad, but it was so damn sad.

If you're willing to poke at a series, try Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards series, the first book is The Lies of Locke Lamora. The series centers around Locke and his shenanigans as a Gentleman Bastard - a notorious gang of thieves. They pull off some pretty intense schemes, some with great success, some with spectacular failures. It's a great series, and another set of favorites that I recommend to everyone that'd ask.

Congratulations on the new job, hope it works out well for you! Also, I love that you had such a great turn out for your book drive. My kids know how important it is to read - I actually push my daughter to read a little bit above her grade level. She keeps a reading log for homework, so her teachers are pretty impressed. She did amazingly well on her latest state reading/math test, and her teacher believes it's because of all the reading she does. If you do another drive, I hope it goes just as well.

We the Drowned (and it's actually the book I'd like if I win).

I suppose I'd call it a Multi-Generational Historical Fiction (I made that up?). It follows a family line (and some other characters) from a small port city named Marstal in Denmark. The author followed the history of the city, but created his own characters around events and stories he'd heard growing up.

This was a case of judging a book by it's cover for me. I was at the library and just putzing around, and for some reason I was really drawn to this book. It is a long read at 668 pages, but I was hooked from the first page and cried on the last. There is a lull in the middle, sure, but since there are so many characters and stories it picks up again pretty quick. It really has everything- stories of love and longing, stories of adventure, of disappointments. It really makes you feel like you are right there at the port or on the sea with the characters. Very deep and moving at times.

It also opened me up to other books of this type. Another book I'd recommend is New York: The Novel, which follows fictional characters through the founding of the city of New York. That is a really, really good one too, that follows multiple generations of families within the newly created city.

I'm not much of a reader, but when I do read I go hard. These are big books, but they are very, very good if you love following family lines and watching the history of a place grow.

Hello, my name is Ben. I am very hard pressed to tell you a book I would like, but then it hit me. Winter of the World. I'm about halfway through book one of the Century Trilogy (Fall of Giants) by Ken Follett and it's the first book in a long time that I haven't been able to put down. It's amazing, wonderful, and just downright excellent! It follows five families from 1911-1924. They are all interrelated and there's a mix of historical characters (read: real people) thrown in as well. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

This is one of the greatest contests I've seen in a while and, win or not, it makes me happy to see it on here!

Great! I'm happy you like the book suggestion; if you are a book person you should love it. Just don't hate me when you get to the... porridge part. Only the first book really takes place in Sweden (in the others they've crossed into America), so from a strict preparation perspective you would only need to read that. But if you should happen to like the series and read it all, then know that it has been made into both a movie and a musical.

Since you seem interested in this kind of stuff, here's a few more readings you could do:

• One about vikings; this is much more loosely connected to reality, but it's a great and raucous tale and surely there's something about Swedish mentality in there.
  
  
• One that was actually comissioned to be a children's geography book; this will maybe feel a little dated, but if you read it with a map on your coffee-table you will get a colorful view of the land.
  
  
• One about poor, hardworking people in early industrial Stockholm. This is set some 50-75 years after The Emigrants, when Sweden is industrialising, and written in maybe something of the same "earthy epic" style. If you should like it then you can go on with a whole series. There are walks and sites for this in Stockholm as well.
  
  Do come back and talk to us when you know where the wedding is.
  
  And thanks for the US advice offer, though we've pretty much done our year of research on that. About half finished reading this by now. =)

Shantaram. Rich, marvelous book.

Also Auntie Mame. FYI the movie with Rosalind Russell may change your life. At the very least it could become your favorite movie ever.

The books by Hornby that everyone mentions are good.

Motherless Brooklyn is really good. So is Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. Not so much that they're happy, but that they're engrossing. And they're not, like, Atonement.

Oh! Duh! Happiest book ever maybe: A Confederacy of Dunces. The story behind its publication is tragic, but the book, pretty much everyone who's read it says, is the funniest ever.

Catch-22 also is really, really good. And funny! If you're into irony anyway.

one of my favorite books ever. excellent recommendation!

on that note, most of john irving is really fantastic: deep, researched, poignant, compelling. some others to consider (ordered by my perceived "greatness"):

• a prayer for own meany
  
• the cider house rules
  
• the fourth hand - irving's attempt at a humorous novel that wouldn't have so much of his morose signature style...he gave up about a third of the way into writing the book with that approach
  
• a widow for one year - great book, and the movie (i.e. door in the floor) is a fucking great as well...one of the most perfect roles for jeff bridges ever - 'nuff said
  
• a son of the circus

It might be The Long Ships, originally written by Frans G. Bengstsson.

>Frans Gunnar Bengtsson’s The Long Ships resurrects the fantastic world of the tenth century AD when the Vikings roamed and rampaged from the northern fastnesses of Scandinavia down to the Mediterranean. Bengtsson’s hero, Red Orm—canny, courageous, and above all lucky—is only a boy when he is abducted from his Danish home by the Vikings and made to take this place at the oars of their dragon-prowed ships. Orm is then captured by the Moors in Spain, where he is initiated into the pleasures of the senses and fights for the Caliph of Cordova. Escaping from captivity, Orm washes up in Ireland, where he marvels at those epicene creatures, the Christian monks, and from which he then moves on to play an ever more important part in the intrigues of the various Scandinavian kings and clans and dependencies. Eventually, Orm contributes to the Viking defeat of the army of the king of England and returns home an off-the-cuff Christian and a very rich man, though back on his native turf new trials and tribulations will test his cunning and determination. Packed with pitched battles and blood feuds and told throughout with wit and high spirits, Bengtsson’s book is a splendid adventure that features one of the most unexpectedly winning heroes in modern fiction.

You are doing something very nice. Above all else they will notice the kind gesture. I can imagine they might be satisfied with Jewish related stuff. Perhaps a good book would be a nice gift, could be anything (cooking, mystery, etc). My mother just read and loved The Light Between Oceans.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1451681755

Sorry I am on my phone. I suggest purchasing the book at an independent bookstore.

Bagels are nice too, haha.

Hope this helps.

We replied in pm, but let me post my reply here so others can know:

• Lord of the Clans (Blizzard Legends). Is this the version you mean? (Your strikethrough makes me uncertain.) This is a new book, in paperback. Amazon it's not in stock right now, and without ordering I can't see how long it would take. However, it is cheap, you won't have to pay until it is in stock, and the shipping is free! It's also available from dutch web retailer bol.com!
  
• Cycle of Hatred. Also new, paperback, and Amazon.de, but pretty expensive. Alternatively you can get it from amazon.com second-hand, in 'good' condition for ~€15. You do have to add $4 shipping per order + $4 shipping per book + possibly a small import fee, but it is still cheaper than the book from Amazon.de.
  
• Day of the Dragon is on amazon.de second-hand in 'good' condition from ~€3 (+€3 shipping fee) which is insanely cheap. It's also on there as a 'new' book, but again pretty expensive.
  
• Sunwell Trilogy Volume 3. Once again, Amazon.de, second-hand, 'good' condition, insanely cheap.
  
• Warcraft: Legends vol. 5. Amazon.de has this one from about €25 second-hand, €27.5 new. Seems like an acceptable price for a collector.

cracks knuckles I have no idea if these have audiobooks. I'm sorry if they don't. Most of these are only three books long or shorter, sorry.

Sandman Slim and the sequel. It wasn't my favorite book, BUT it sounds a lot like what you're looking for. And it was fun.

China Mieville's Bas-Lag series (Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council. Three (~500 pg) books long, fantastic world building, twisty plots and great characters.

The Baroque Cycle, Neal Stephenson (Quicksilver, The Confusion and The Confusion of the World. Three books long, but you could kill a small animal by dropping one of those books on it. These are good, but his stand-alones are better (Snow Crash and Diamond Age for sure).

Most of Stephen King's stuff has the kind of sprawl you're looking for.

Dune, at least until God Emperor (#4).

Honestly, I think if you liked John Grisham, you'll like The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo books. I think I'm making that leap based on the last book in the trilogy. They're definitely entertaining.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry for little bit of culture through fiction and Texas by James A. Mitchner, which is technically still fiction but is really just factual history communicated by narrative.

I can't recommend these highly enough. Not only do they capture Texas perfectly, but they are highly enjoyable reads.

Edit: Also, skarter, thanks for taking an interest in Texas.

The following are some of my favorite books that I could think of off the top of my head. Hopefully you dig the list.

• Oscar Wilde - Picture of Dorian Gray
  
• David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
  
• Gabriel García Márquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude
  
• Charles Bukowski - post office
  
• Ned Vizzini - It's Kind of a Funny Story
  
• Tom Robbins - Jitterbug Perfume
  
• Nick Hornby - High Fidelity
  
• Chuck Palahniuk - Survivor
  
• Charles Bukowski - Ham on Rye
  
• Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
  
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Notes From Underground
  
• Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
  
• Voltaire - Candide
  
• Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums
  
• Christopher Moore - Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
  
• Katherine Dunn - Geek Love
  
• Kitty Fitzgerald - Pigtopia
  
• Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go
  
• John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
  
• C. D. Payne - Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp
  
• Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex
  
• Peter Conn - The Good Earth
  
• John Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath
  
• Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
  
• Cormac McCarthy - All the Pretty Horses, the Crossing, Cities of the Plain
  
• Philip Roth - American Pastoral
  
• James Clavell - Shogun (The Asian Saga Chronology)
  
• Christopher Moore - A Dirty Job
  
• Yann Martel - Life of Pi
  
• Jonathan Safran Foer - Everything is Illuminated
  
• Miranda July - No One Belongs Here More Than You
  
• Dave Eggers - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
  
• Ian McEwan - Atonement
  
• Joan Didion - The Year of Magical Thinking
  
• Jonathan Acuff - Stuff Christians Like
  
• Craig Thompson - Blankets
  
• Markus Zusak - The Book Thief
  
• Zadie Smith - White Teeth
  
• Orhan Pamuk - My Name is Red
  
• Tom Robbins - Still Life With Woodpecker
  
• Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
  
• Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  
• John Irving - The World According to Garp
  
• John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany
  
• Stephen King - The Shining
  
• Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
  
• Franz Kafka - The Trial
  
• Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five
  
• Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves

I just bought Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrammage on Kindle, plus I got A Tale for the Time Being and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena on Audible for long runs and entertainment while doing Christmas food prep :)

What to Eat looks interesting - would love to hear if you find it useful!

1. I decided 2 weeks ago I wanted to start sewing again after I made a pillow for my kindle
   
   Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders: 101 Sewing Projects Using Cotton... http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603425861/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_q-pgtb1AH5W23
   
   
2. This
   
   Because it looks really good.
   
   Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006LSZECO/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_Bdqgtb1MPW178
   
   Or this because I was just gifted the first book in this series by /u/jorianne . I have read the pillars of the earth by this author which turned out to be the best book I ever read in my life so I know once I start reading the first book of this series I will want to read the second right away.
   
   Winter of the World: Book Two of the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007FEFLTO/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_ccqgtb184PNWZ
   
   
   
3. If I were a book, I hope that I'd be a great one.

One of my favorite novels is A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. It is one of the most powerful books I have ever read about the aftermath of civil war in Chechnya. The plot and prose are perfection. https://www.amazon.com/Constellation-Vital-Phenomena-Novel/dp/0770436420/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520866861&sr=1-1&keywords=constellation+of+vital+phenomena+by+anthony+marra

My favorite, recent non-fiction book is Alia Malek's The Home that Was Our Country. It is essential reading for anyone who's interested in the modern history of Syria. Alia writes beautifully and powerfully as she intertwines Syria's national history with her personal family history across the last century. https://www.amazon.com/Home-That-Was-Our-Country/dp/1568585322

Those Who Save Us is an excellent novel that always makes me bawl. Taking place in WWII, it tells the story of those we don't often hear as much about. It's heart wrenching to think that the story is based on true events.

The Cider House Rules. The first third of it was excruciatingly slow and without action. I read it during my stage of never 'quitting' a book before finishing it. I'm glad I did because it was the best reading experience I ever had. It is very different than the movie and I recommend it whether you've seen the movie or not. The pain at the beginning in the orphanage makes the love story that much better.

Did you read the entire Homecoming series? I loved them and still re-read them from time to time. What did you like about them? Do you want books that are still considered YA or does it matter?

You might enjoy The Language of Flowers (foster care, homelessness, finding a family, family conflict, nature and botanical themes).

The Light between Oceans. It has the nature and water themes as well as adoption and family conflict.

Have you read any books by James A. Michener? He writes great history books that you might like. I especially loved Texas.

I looked up a few sample pages of this book on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Story-Edgar-Sawtelle-Novel-P-S/dp/0061374237) - looks like it treats sign language as speech, only it doesn't use quotation marks:

>Edgar looked at the old man lying there, so small and frail. The same man who'd summoned the strength to lift him out of the snow by the back of his shirt.
>
>He wasn't so innocent. I heard them talking.
>
>His mother put her face in her hands. "How are we going to tell Glen?" she said. "I don't understand what's happened with you. We're going to have to . . . have to . . ."
>
>She looked at him. "Wait," she said. "I need to think for a minute. Page fell down the stairs."
>
>She dropped into sign. You need to go.
>
>I'm not going anywhere.
>
>Yes, you are. I want you to run, get out into the field. Find a place to hide until tomorrow.
>
>Why?
>
>Just go!

I like this approach. It makes the sign language easy to understand, but at the same time it makes it something alien, something unusual. Also, it looks like the book weaves in parallels with Kipling's The Jungle Book.

I've added this book to my list. Thank you for the recommendation!

Nebula award winning Slow River by Nicola Griffith is beautiful.

I just finished Confessions of a Long Distance Sailor, and it was interesting. When I told my father I wanted to sail around the world, he recommended Once Is Enough. I'm half way through We The Drowned and Two Years Before the Mast at the moment and enjoying both. Master and Commander is next on my list. Chapman Piloting and Seamanship is always good for leafing through and studying up on technical skills.

Cool beans. I've got the full five-volume set of English translations of the Icelandic sagas laying about the house, but I'm only part of the way through them. I'd be happy to help if I can.

Follow the River by James Alexander Thom

It's historical fiction and really well researched. He has written many books and most center around 18th and 19th century US history especially centering around the interaction of European settlers and Native Americans.

I've actually had the pleasure of meeting both him and his wife. They are amazing people.

What I'd really like to see is a well known male author who writes books that appeal to both genders swap and use a female pen name. John Green would be brilliant at this--I would love to see him secretly release something as a woman, and see how that compares to the reception his work received as a man.

What I find interesting is not simply a matter of quality, but rather a matter of targeted audience as a whole. Typically, things that are written by males are "gender neutral"--images that have no bias at all, or word-focused covers as opposed to image-focused covers. Even a book that seems targeted at women but is written by a man, such as Robert Goolrick's A RELIABLE WIFE, has tropes on the cover that seem to make it more gender-neutral. Compare this cover:

http://www.amazon.com/Reliable-Wife-Robert-Goolrick/dp/1565129776

to this cover (written by a female, in the "frequently bought together" algorithm by Amazon):

http://www.amazon.com/The-Language-Flowers-A-Novel/dp/0345525558/ref=pd_sim_b_8

Then again, it's certainly arguable that this gender bias doesn't exist in as strict a way outside of YA (where I do think it's more predominant). GONE GIRL is a great example of a non-female biased cover, despite the author gender and the title.

All sound great, though Gone-Away World gets my vote. I would also throw out this one, sounds really interesting (from the Stanford incoming freshman reading list description at least): Homegoing: A Novel by Yaa Gyasi

"Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. A fantastic book; one of those that you hate when it ends!
You may also enjoy "the Baroque Cycle" by the same author. It does not go back and forth to modern times (Crypt. does), but is another great story about science, the beginnings of physics, and the start of money, among other things

Oooooh thanks for the contest! I love books!

Here's a book

I've been wanting to read for awhile :D

Reading Rainbow!

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber is a great read. It is set in Notting Hill at the turn of the Century. You can smell the rain and filth.

William Boyd is a wonderful writer. All of his books are well researched.

The Renegaration Trilogy by Pat Barker

[Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks]
(http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6259.Birdsong). Heartbreaking.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

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.

Right now I'm reading Chris Voss's Never Split the Difference. It has some amazing negotiating tips, and I've had some luck already. The downside is that a lot of those tips come down to "learn to control your emotions", which I struggle with.

Since you asked for fiction, my recent favorite is Yaa Gyasi's incredible Homegoing: A Novel.

I just made a video about this 2 weeks ago. I included a lots of fiction because I think that's a good entry to get people thinking about deeper issues. My list has Pinker's Language Instinct, of course, and also David Ostler's Empires of the Word for popular nonfiction. That one is historical linguistics.

For fiction, I had Shaw's Pygmalion, C.S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet (linguist get kidnapped and taken to Mars, finds universal language. Strong Christian overtones.), and Maria Doria Russell's The Sparrow (Jesuits send an expedition to alien planet, linguistic, sociological, religious problems ensue.).

There really are a lot of overlaps with Scalzi's style, that's for sure.

I've read some Robinson but never 2312, I'll have to check that one out. Thanks!

EDIT: For anyone that sees this nowish - 2312 is on sale today for 3 bucks.
https://smile.amazon.com/2312-Kim-Stanley-Robinson-ebook/dp/B004RD8544?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0

I would say read Rise of the Horde then Lord of the Clans then Day of the Dragon then the War of the Ancients trilogy. Those are the best of the books in my opinion

The Book of Strange New Things sounds a lot like The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Sentient life is found on another planet and while everyone is freaking out over what to do about it the Jesuits secretly send a team to go up and meet/study them. The story is told from memory by the only known survivor of the team. The sequel, Children of God, is pretty much the same story from the POV of the aliens.

Slow River is an interesting story of a woman finding independence from her family: http://www.amazon.com/Slow-River-Nicola-Griffith/dp/0345395379

I recently discovered Tanya Huff. If you enjoy vampires, try her Blood Books, about Vicki Nelson, a private eye who gets turned. http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Books-Vol-Price-Trail/dp/0756403871

And the short stories in Stealing Magic are wonderful, they star Terazin, a thief, and Magdalene, the world's most powerful wizard. http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Magic-Tanya-Huff/dp/1894063341

I hesitate to recommend them, as I've decided S. M. Stirling is a decidedly 2nd rate writer, but you might get some enjoyment out of his Dies the Fire trilogy (I did, despite the cliches and melodrama and Mary Sueism). One of the two main characters is Juniper Mackenzie, a busker, Wiccan priestess, and single mother who, when all technology suddenly stops working, founds a new community based on her Scottish heritage. http://www.amazon.com/Dies-Fire-Change-S-M-Stirling/dp/0451460413

Linda Nagata's 'Memory' is a bit of a coming of age story for a young woman, and her investigation into what is wrong with her planet. http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Linda-Nagata/dp/0765309009/

Oh, and you must surely already have read Clan of the Cave Bear and Mists of Avalon

Amazon links for reference, but try your local library.

My old stand-by: His Dark Materials Omnibus by Philip Pullman.

I just finished The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and I'm still all in my feelings over it and suspect I will be for quite some time....I'm perfectly ok with that.

Hi! yeah I've been reading this really good book called We The Drowned by Carsten Jensen. I'd definitely recommend it. It's all about these different generations of sailors in this small town in Denmark. It's one of my favourite books now. what about you?
here's the book if you're interested. http://www.amazon.com/We-Drowned-Carsten-Jensen/dp/054773736X

Texas, by Michener. Its enormous, you can read it on the plain on the way over here.

Also see Lone Star by John Sayles. Its the best, most realistic depiction of modern (1996) Texas race relations and politics I can think of.

Hey I just played the game and just found this sub and just idly read this one, but the whole time I played the game I thought of this book. Brutal story, practically a memoir.

https://www.amazon.com/Constellation-Vital-Phenomena-Novel/dp/0770436420

Yup, this one: http://www.amazon.com/Ships-Review-Books-Classics-ebook/dp/B003WUYOP2/

They just announced it's being made into a film: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-a-better-world-girl-526159

Here's an excellent lecture series I listened to recently: http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=3910

(Don't be put off by the price. Teaching Company stuff goes on sale all the time, usually for around 75% off.)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It put me into such a bad/depressed mood I just couldn't get through it. Fantastic book though.

Can I recommend a book? Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy.I read it a couple of years ago for a lit. class and I still can't decide if I like it or not...but I do find myself musing over some odd remembered scene quite often. Very powerful.

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. Short fiction collection.

Ilium by Dan Simmons.

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel Delany.

The Islanders by Christopher Priest.

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson.

On My Way to Paradise by David Farland.

# | Book | Links
---|----|----
1 | Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson | (Powells) (Amazon)
2 | Contact by Carl Sagan | (Powells) (Amazon)
3 | Bellwether by Connie Willis | (Powells) (Amazon)
4 | 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson | (Powells) (Amazon)
5 | The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin | (Powells) (Amazon)
6 | The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang | (Free)
7 | The Practice Effect by David Brin | (Powells) (Amazon)
8 | A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan | (Powells) (Amazon)
9 | The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell | (Powells) (Amazon)
10 | As She Climbed Across The Table by Jonathan Lethem | (Powells) (Amazon)

This happens as a story about a Nazi in Those Who Save US.

https://www.amazon.com/Those-Who-Save-Jenna-Blum/dp/0156031663

"Those who save us" by Jenna Blum

https://www.amazon.com/Those-Who-Save-Jenna-Blum/dp/0156031663

Fulfilled: Kim Stanley Robinson (plus two or three more). And, to be more directly Marxist, his thesis advisor Fredric Jameson.

Read "The Sparrow", its an... interesting first contact story.

https://www.amazon.com/Sparrow-Novel-Mary-Doria-Russell-ebook/dp/B000SEIFGO

You might also be interested in reading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle.

I'm currently reading 2312 which has a strong female protagonist. I originally thought the author was female as well, but I just googled and nope it's a dude named Kim. And dammit now that I really think about it (spoiler:) the protagonist has both male and female genitalia.

Can't find the Blizz pro link I saw before that pointed me there, but here are the books on Amazon:

Rise of the Horde


The Last Guardian

Lord of the Clans

If you'd like a similar setting about the early industrial revolution, enlightenment and political intrigue there is Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle https://www.amazon.com/Quicksilver-Baroque-Cycle-No-1/dp/0060833165

The author's name isn't on the spine. Edgar must be the title character because the book's title is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel, by David Wroblewski.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Story-Edgar-Sawtelle-Novel/dp/0061374237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345000862&sr=8-1&keywords=edgar+sawtelle

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi takes place in Ghana. It starts in the 1700s, and each chapter of the novel is narrated from the perspective of a descendant of either Effia (who marries at British colonizer) or Esi (who is sold into slavery), one representative for each generation, and the two bloodlines alternate up to the present day.

Miguel de Unamuno "Tragic Sense of Life"

Paulo Freire "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"

John Ruskin "Unto This Last"

William Morris "News From Nowhere"

Marge Piercy "Woman on the Edge of Time"

Aristotle "Nicomachean Ethics"

Tommaso Campanella "City of the Sun" / Michel de Montaigne "Of Cannibals"

Habermas "Philosophical Discourse of Modernity"

Soren Kierkegaard "Either/Or"

Kafka "The Castle"

Lewis Carroll "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There"

Of each, I would do as the King says: start at the beginning, and go on until you reach the end: then stop.

•I like Choke a lot
•Slaughterhouse Five. Hands down. Favorite of all time.
•Its called We, The Drowned.

Edit: Fixed the link

Amazon link

Looks a wee bit pricey.

I've never seen mention of the story of edgar sawtelle here. Two big thumbs up.

Also: https://www.amazon.com/Sparrow-Novel-Mary-Doria-Russell-ebook/dp/B000SEIFGO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483037984&sr=1-1&keywords=the+sparrow+by+mary+doria+russell

The Long Ships (aka Red Orm)!

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Ships-Saga-Viking-Age-ebook/dp/B003WUYOP2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394084543&sr=8-1&keywords=the+long+ships

Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle

The book opens with the main character chatting it up with a ten year old Benjamin Franklin. I think you know how that will go.

Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfus (fantasy-ish)

[The Shadow of the Wind] (http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zaf%C3%B3n/dp/0143034901/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374006329&sr=1-1&keywords=shadow+of+the+wind) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (hard to describe, but really engaging)

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (cool historical fiction)

The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell.

Old books, out of print as oyñthers have mentioned. Blizzard is re-editing though:

https://www.amazon.com/Warcraft-Lord-Clans-Blizzard-Legends/dp/0989700119?keywords=lord+of+the+clans&qid=1537540428&sr=8-1&ref=mp_s_a_1_1

The Light Between Oceans

Atonement by Ian McEwan gutted me.

lol, I got the year wrong, it's 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson and here it is on Amazon

I liked Slow River quite a bit. I'd call it lightly dystopic science fiction. There is relatively explicit sexual content, but no more than you would see in a book with relatively explicit heterosexual content.

for novels

Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow

Gregory Maguire - Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Bram Stoker - Dracula (was not at all what I was expecting; its formatted as a succession of letters, diaries, and I think news articles written from the POV of the various characters)

Two ain't so bad:
Nail Ploish

The Reality Dysfunction under ann_arbor_books

im really suprised no one has recommended niel stephenson yet. the baroque cycle is one of the most off the epic pieces of historical fantasy ever written. i took me three tries to get through the first hundred pages of the first book but when i finally got through it i couldn't put it down for the next 4000 pages of the series and the second book has sooo many wtf moments.
http://www.amazon.com/Quicksilver-Baroque-Cycle-No-1/dp/0060833165/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375674363&sr=1-11