Requesting: Book recs!

[sarea]

About a month or so ago, I joined PaperBackSwap and have slowly but surely whittling down my book collection. There are pluses and minuses about the program; there are certain types of books that are perfect for it and others that would be more reasonably dispatched elsewhere. Still, I have about 19 credits to my name right now, but I don't know what books to request (I haven't ordered even one).

While they have a fairly wide selection, popular books often have waiting lists (that can be several hundred people long), so it's not that I can't think of a single book I want; it's that the ones I want are all waitlisted. :/

But I KNOW there must be great books to read that aren't "super hot" anymore and thus would likely be available.

So if you have the inclination, please tell me: What are your favorite books? What's something you've read recently that you really enjoyed? When someone asks you to recommend books, what 3 books pop immediately to mind?

I have wide and varied interests/tastes, so really I'm open to just about any rec. :D

Comments

[selinakyle47.livejournal.com]

I just finished Elizabeth Lowell's Blue Smoke and Murder and it was pretty good. If you can't get that, maybe try The Wrong Hostage, which features some of characters in the previous book.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

They didn't have the first but did have the latter. Thanks!

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

Have you read the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris, or the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong? Both are awesome, imo.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Re: Charlaine Harris, alas, they only have Sweet and Deadly and A Secret Rage. But I will put the Southern Vampire series on my wishlist!

They do have books 1, 3, and 4 of the Otherworld series though, woot! (Women of the Otherworld is the full title right? Want to make sure I don't get the wrong thing.)

[noelleleithe.livejournal.com]

As I think I've mentioned before, I read mostly nonfiction, and a lot of that is medical and/or social history. I recommend "Polio: An American Story" by David M. Oshinsky and "The Great Influenza" by John M. Barry. Also anything by David Halberstam.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

No luck on either. :( Thank you for the recs though.

[obtabius.livejournal.com]

I would rec The Eyre Affair by Jaspar Fforde, Power of One by Bryce Courtney (which is amazing) and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Oh! and something by Alice Hoffman, The Probable Future is lovely.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the recs!!

[corianderstem.livejournal.com]

Oh good! I'm glad you're liking that site!

Hey, back from vacation - we should get together for sushi at that place in my neighborhood soon. You can try the lobster roll, and I can give you back that discount card you'd given me. ;-)

Oh! And I think I finally learned what they wrap those lobster rolls in - soy paper. Wait, that doesn't sound right. Soy something.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

It's a deal! Is this coming weekend too soon? This weekend or the one after both work for me. I actually have somewhere I can use the card for once (other than IMAX)!

Can't wait to try the lobster roll, whatever they wrap it in, lol.

[corianderstem.livejournal.com]

This weekend would be great! I can pretty much do any night, or afternoon Saturday or Sunday. Are you interested in seeing either Tropic Thunder (which is showing at my neighborhood theater) or Pineapple Express? (Not sure where that's playing, but probably somewhere relatively close.) We could do dinner and a flick ... or even the Traveling Pants flick?

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Awesome. I am SO THERE for Tropic Thunder. But would also be into seeing the Traveling Pants movie. Dinner then movie, or movie then dinner sounds good! I'll email you to hash out the details.