Read these Fantastic 50(ish) Books and thank me later…
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Affinity by Sarah Waters
Beyond Redemption by Michael R. Fletcher
Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch
City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg
Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
Eifelheim by Michael F. Flynn
Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Fool by Christopher Moore
Get Carter by Ted Lewis
Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
How To Behave In A Crowd by Camille Bordas
I.Q. by Joe Ide
Lexicon by Max Barry
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Misery by Stephen King
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Postmortal by Drew Margary
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
Sharpe’s Tiger by Bernard Cornwell
Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo
The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill
The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M. Robinson
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Regional Office is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzales
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
The Scar by China Mieville
The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Troop by Nick Cutter
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
You by Caroline Kepnes
I’ll thank you now… for the list. Thank you!
Also, glad you were not in the wrong place at the wrong time today. Horrible!
Goodness. I’ve actually read several of these. The Princess Bride Is my favourite of those. World Book Day on my birfday (shameless plug). I like it!
It’s going to take me years to get through the reading list you’ve given us.
Oh, we made it to today and I guess I had to turn 50. When’s the next end-of-days?
We share a birthday, it seems. Hope you had a good one. 🙂
Thanks, and same to you!
Thank you!
Belated happy birthday to the both of you.
Thanks for the list! I’ve read some and enjoyed them.
I would add Ken Liu’s The Grace of Kings to your list. I think you would really enjoy it.
Thank you for the book list, Joe! That’s like a Christmas present. Sometimes you can hit a stretch of mediocre books and wonder where the good ones are. I also loved the list of Classic SciFi authors & books from the Christmas Eve blog. Meant to say so then, but we had a houseful of family and kids, and the merry mayhem distracted me. I bookmarked that page and this one, for future reading. 🙂
Am also very glad that you are okay, and assuming Akemi and other Toronto blog family are okay as well!!! Prayers of thanks for that.
Happy Birthday to glowyzoey and Kathy!
Thank you! 🙂
Thanks!
Thanks for the list! I loved ´The Lies of Locke Lamora´. So much detail, and the story went in an unexpected direction. A satisfying yet devastating ending. I was reminded a little of ´Six of Crows´ by Leigh Bardugo.
Always look forward to your recommended reads. In another life, I read more, but particularly Science Fiction. Then, being able to read was over taken by life and other events. Having your recommendations points me to goooood stuff to enjoy.
There are some familiar names in the list from previous recommendations.
Still love the Blade series by Joe Abercrombie, The Speed of Dark by Elizabethe Moon, and Old Man’s War by John Scalzi.
Other authors – Jasper Fforde, John Twelve Hawks, Kage Baker, Lou Anders, and Michael A. Burstein.
THANK you again for sharing with us.
And ditto Ponytail’s and mannas7mom comments that it seems you were not in the wrong place at the worst time. As well as other of the Toronto blog family are ok too.
Happy birthday to gloweyzoey and Kathy!, I am still celebrating mine! One day is not enough…
~~and Joe thanks for the book list, I love to go thru your suggestions and thank you now!!
Thank you!
Thank you and Belated Happy Day to you!
Have you read Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders? I just finished it and here’s my review: if you love words and phrases you’ll want to eat it.
Thanks for posting your list! It’s going to take me time to go through them all. I’m reading one of my favorite (kind of) western authors, C. J. Box. The first book in the Murderbot series by Martha Wells was a good one. I’m going to pre-order the second book soon.
Nice list; I might have to check a few, but I already have a heavy list. I was at B&N today ordering a book mentioned by King Banaian on his radio show and picked up a copy of “the Defiant” by Lesley Livingston. It was an impulse buy as I was sold on the cover art