Shepherdess
with an Automatic by Jane Satterfield
I know the poet; she went to the same high school that I did, and I really want to support writers that I know, because that's just good networking. Jane is a kewl person, and I recommend the book. Check out the info on amazon, at least.
Search amazon.com for books by Douglas
Adams,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life,
the Universe and Everything
So Long,
and Thanks for All the Fish
Mostly
Harmless
Well, the most obviously amusing thing about these books is that they are a trilogy of five.
Imajica
The Great
and Secret Show: The First Book of the Art
Everville:
The Second Book of the Art
I enjoy Clive Barker's work in general, but I recommend these three books the most. I feel the fantasy elements in them fit most with other things I recommend and that people who might visit my site would also enjoy these. Consider these recommendations for where to start. Imagica is currently and has long been my favorite of Barker's books. Partly I liked the design of the original hardcover edition, but please, don't only judge a book by its cover. You can buy any edition and enjoy it. You can even read the books at a library and not choose to buy from amazon so I get referral fees. I mainly want people to read.
Search amazon.com for books by Poppy
Z. Brite,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
Lost
Souls
Drawing
Blood
Exquisite
Corpse
The
Value of X
Thus far, Drawing Blood is my favorite of these. I will be writing more detailed reviews in the future, as my time allows.
Search amazon.com for books by William
S. Burroughs,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
The
Soft Machine
Nova Express
The Ticket
That Exploded
Kids with blogs that play video games and chat online should read these books. Um, don't accuse me of corrupting minors, though. I just think that these sort of books would give them stuff to really think about. And, reading is good!
Search amazon.com for books by Albert
Camus,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
The
Stranger
The Fall
The Plague
The Rebel
The Stranger inspired the oft misinterpreted The Cure song Killing an Arab. Maybe more people today should read that book, becase it rather dwells on the nature of outsiders in society sorta. (I know, it's like I read all these deep philosophical books and then I sound so vacant when I try to explain them.) That said, I think I most enjoyed reading The Plauge. I have a horror of diseases that cause swelling or blemishing of the skin (among other things); sometimes I think I died from some ailment that showed symptoms on the skin in a past life. So, reading about a city of people dying from the plauge was...I don't know how to say...cathartic maybe? But, apart from the subject matter, it's just a good story. I read in translation of course, as Camus wrote in French.
Search amazon.com for books by Angela
Carter,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Nights
at the Circus
The Magic Toyshop
Love
Wise Children
Heroes and Villians
Eventually I will be writing actual recommendations and reviews on this page, but for now I just want to say Heroes and Villians seems to be out of print, and if you find it in a used book store or auction, you should snatch it, because it's really good and one of my favorites. Also, the movie The Company of Wolves (Directed by Neil Jordan, who also directed Interview with the Vampire, which was based on Anne Rice's book) was based on stories in The Bloody Chamber, and I believe Carter even worked on the screenplay. The book and movie are both good. I could go on about paralells between horror stories, faerie tales and puberty, but perhaps later. You'll get what I mean if you check out the book or movie.
Search amazon.com for books by Nancy
A. Collins,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
Midnight
Blue: The Sonja Blue Collection
Angels on Fire
Angels on Fire is either out of print or close to going out of print. If you find this second hand, or in a library, check it out. The Sonja Blue books were good too. Sorta a blend of vampire and angel characters, which is what I write, or rather first wrote when I started writing. I actually hadn't read Collins at that time.
Search amazon.com for books by Neil
Gaiman,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
Good
Omens
Stardust
Neverwhere
American Gods
Coraline
The
Sandman Library
I really don't know how to say how much I like Gaiman's work. It's like explaining why I still listen to the Cure sometimes. It's like, sometimes you just feel a connection with the work, even though the creator of that work does not know you or your life. Maybe it's the age at which you discover these artists?? Anyway, I just think Gaiman's work is beautiful. I feel like I should call him 'Mister' or 'Gaiman-sama' or something. He's written stories that clearly seem more for children or for adults, but I enjoyed them all. I think he's really clever too. I have a Sandman #8 and a postcard signed by him! And once, back in the day, I sent him some icons and got email from him. It's not an infatuation thing, if you are wondering! It's like a 'great-respect' thing.
Search amazon.com for books by Hermann
Hesse,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
Siddhartha
Narcissus and Goldmund
The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse
Demian
Steppenwolf
Rosshalde
Narcissus and Goldmund is one of my favorite books of all time; I mean I am recommending all the books and authors on this page because they are my favorites, but I liked this book especially. It's a beautiful story that demonstrates the ideals of non-physical love, I think. (Narcissus is a brother at an abbey school and he always cares for Goldmund, no matter what trouble he gets into, and Goldmun also has great love and respect for Narcissus) The story, through the two main characters, also portrays the differences between spirit/intellect and body/emotion and how neither is wrong, but each a valid path to finding oneself and the truth. Sometimes in my life I disliked the body/emotion part of myself and got some extremist gnostic ideas, but I think that really it is important to see and seek balance between these two aspects in life, and that is very Buddhist with its yin-yang and such. This book is also a great portrait of Medival life I think. And like the Camus book I mentioned above, has chapters detailing living through a plague. It's sort of insulting to say so, but today this story would fast become fic fodder, though I think that those types of girls would not necessarily know who Hesse is. I don't think it should be fic-ed. Though, after I read this book I started to notice that in other books two males would have a sort of love (not necessarily physical) relationship and one would be blue-eyed and blond and the other black-haired, with green or black eyes. I think, maybe, it's an archetype from somewhere. Anne Rice's Louis is very like Narcissus, I think, and Lestat plays Goldmund to him.
Search amazon.com for books by Robert
Jordan,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
Crossroads of Twilight: Book Ten of 'The Wheel of Time'
The
Wheel of Time Series
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series is like a 'Lord of the Rings' written by someone who is more a writer than mainly a linguist and in which there actually exist numerous and realistic female characters. (There are plenty of male characters as well!) And, that doesn't even begin to explain how great this series is. My only complaint is that it seems to be written in DBZ time (you know, when it takes three half-hour episodes for five minutes to pass or one bad guy to fully power up) so that in one really fat book each character only gets a little bit done. Granted, Jordan is now following many characters on their various exploits as they part from and rejoin their friends and allies throughout the series, but it leaves readers jittery from waiting until the next book is released. Jordan is one smart guy, huh?
Search amazon.com for books by Vladimir
Nabokov,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
Despair
Lolita
Pale Fire
Pnin
Ada
I fear I will sound unintellectual if I try to describe these books. You have to read them to really get the brilliance of them. I mean, in several cases, these novels include entire fictional works, forewards, commentary and such, written by characters Nabokov has created. And, it's not just the clever devices that make the works good, it's the treatment of the content, and the wording of everything. Nabokov is just a really good writer. He was brilliant in at least three languages and I just really admire that, as someone who mainly only understand English.
Search amazon.com for books by Anne
Rice,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
I am too tired today to list all her books, but I have all of them, I think, and recommend them all. I will say that in some ways, her ealiest works are the best. When you read Interview with the Vampire, you can see that the vampires can be metaphor for other things (I mean several interpretations may make sense) but in later books about the same characters, I sense less metaphor and philosophy and more that I am reading a fantasy novel in which vampires are characters. So, supernatural as they may be, in my opinion, the later works are more grounded and literal.
Search amazon.com for books by Jeanette
Winterson,
or click to view and buy one of these recommended books:
Written
on the Body
The Passion
Oranges
Are Not the Only Fruit
Sexing the Cherry
I recall that I enjoyed Sexing the Cherry most, but I thought Written on the Body clever, because no where in its first person narration is the gender of the main character identified. It is a beautiful book/story as well.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the Cardcaptor Sakura series.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the Cowboy Bebop series.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the Descendants of Darkness series.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the Escaflowne series.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the Fruits Basket series.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the Gundam Wing series.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the Inu Yasha series.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the Noir series.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the Record of Lodoss War series.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the Vampire Princess Miyu series.
Search amazon.com for DVDs from the X series.