I suspect that my face scares small children right now

[selenay]

In "I'm an idiot" news: this morning I fell down in the kitchen. For no good reason, except for a bit of random over balancing. Unfortunately, the kitchen counter was in the way of my chin. I now have the most amazing bruising and swelling. Nobody is daring to look me in the face because nobody wants to ask why I look like I've been mugged. I could not make this stuff up.

On the up side, at least I did not smash my glasses or bruise my butt when I landed on it. On the down side, now everyone thinks that I cannot be left on my own. Again. Seriously, I can actually manage to live on my own quite successfully despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

I'm suspecting this is one of those EDS/prioperception things (a lot of people with EDS having random falling down issues), but it's still rather embarrassing and it's frustrating that something so comparatively minor is making everyone worried again. If only the bruising wasn't in such a prominent location - nobody would have needed to even know it happened!

So, now that we've all had a good laugh at my klutziness, I think it's time to discuss books.

Apart from a couple of bad book choices early in the year, 2011 is turning out to be a wonderful reading year for me. I've discovered some new authors that I can't rave enough about (everyone really, really needs to check out Gail Carriger, Scott Westerfeld, Connie Willis and Brandon Sanderson) and I've had some wonderfully fun books from familiar authors. It's the new author discoveries, though, that are what I'm really happy about. Sometimes it's a bit scary to take a chance on someone new because I really hate finishing a book with my only thought being "well, that's xxx period of time that I'll never get back".

Most of the new authors have been based on recommendations from elsewhere, mainly the 75 books group on LibraryThing. Although they all write quite different things (Carriger is steampunk fantasy with vampires and werewolves, Westerfeld steampunk WWI, Willis is time travel, and Sanderson is epic fantasy) the thing that ties them all together is their creativity. They've all taken the genre that they write in and done something just that little bit different and unique. It's refreshing to say the least and all of them are also excellent story-tellers as well as being creative. Best of all, they create vivid, wonderful characters that you care about and some of them (Sanderson, I'm looking at you) aren't afraid to kill their amazing creations as well if the story needs it.

The Arthur C. Clarke nominee list has been out for a few weeks now and, as I did last year, I'm gearing up to read a few of them. I'll do the same with the Hugos list when it comes out. Last night I grabbed Declare by Tim Powers and Generosity by Richard Powers (not related) for my Kindle to read when I'm finished with Sanderson's last Mistborn book. They both look great, they're by authors I don't know, and I'm looking forward to exploring some unusual and challenging science fiction. There are a couple of others from the list that I've bookmarked to grab as well. Although last year's nominee lists produced Kim Stanley Robison's Galileo's Dream, which I found an unappetising slog, that was the only clunker in a fantastic group of books so hopefully this year will be the same.

It's possible that 2011 is going to be my best reading year yet.

Comments

[nosila]

I read The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers years ago, when I was still in my teens. Still remains one of my favourbyite books ever. And it has held up to many rereads as well.

[evil_plotbunny]

I adore Tim Powers.

Also, if you have not seen it yet, try to get your hands on the recent Nero Wolfe tv series starring Timothy Hutton (I don't remember if I suggested this when we were talking about tv at Redemption). It's an adaption of an American detective series done very much in the style of a British mystery series (at least it scratches the same sort of itch for me).

[selenay]

I've seen so many people raving about Tim Powers, so I thought it would be a good one to pick.

Mmm, I may need to see whether my library has DVDs of the Nero Wolfe thing. It sounds very intriguing.

[sineala.livejournal.com]

Is Sanderson good? I had been hearing so many excellent things about Mistborn and was really looking forward to picking them up sometime... then last week he got into a "rah rah I'm a Mormon and I don't want the state to force us to perform same-sex weddings" disgusting homophobic flamewar on reddit, and I don't know if I can take another round of Straight White Boy fantasy if that's what he's going to be like. (I want queer characters! Nice ones! Please, fantasy!)

[selenay]

I have to say, whatever is personal politics are he writes a good, creative yarn. There aren't any queer characters, but he doesn't shove straight romance in your face much even when it happens. He also writes some really strong female characters, which is unusual for the genre.

What I've been really enjoying is that he comes up with intriguing, unusual and incredibly logical magic systems and his set-ups have just enough of a creative twist to stand out from most epic fantasy. I'm loving the Mistborn books, so if you can put his recent rants out of your mind then I'd suggest giving them a go.

[netgirl-y2k.livejournal.com]

I keep having to remind myself to check out new authors, left to my own devices I'd read nothing but Terry Pratchett and Agatha Christie, but I do hate that feeling when I read something by someone new and have nothing to say about it beyond "finished it, but meh."

But having read the two Leviathan books I can't say enough good things about Westerfeld and people with excellent taste keep saying good things about Gail Carriger so she's moving up and up the to check out list.

[selenay]

You should definitely check out Gail Carriger, I think you'd thoroughly enjoy her books. They're so much fun.

It's that "finished it, meh" thing that sometimes puts me off. I've got so many authors that I love re-reading or who put out a new thing every year that it wouldn't be hard to never branch out. I just hate that sensation of being in a rut when I do that.

It's much easier to take a chance when you've got some good recs, though.

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

Connie Willis: marvellous stuff. In addition to To Say Nothing... I've also enjoyed Doomsday Book and Bellwether.

Tim Powers: Declare, as recommended in the Cthulhu panel, is good, but I do prefer his earlier stuff. Harder to track down, though. You might be able to get your hands on On Stranger Tides, his pirate book (yarr!), but The Anubis Gates, The Stress of Her Regard and The Drawing of the Dark are worth tracking down (the latter's an Arthurian tale that's all about, em, beer. And it's not a comedy).

[selenay]

I've read To Say Nothing... and Doomsday Book so far and thoroughly enjoyed them. I've got Blackout and All Clear on my wishlist and I plan to read everything she's ever written by the end of the year :-)

A group on LibraryThing did a read of The Anubis Gates last year, which is where I first heard the name Tim Powers, so that will probably be where I go next when I've finished Declare. Mostly I liked the fact that a) Declare was on The 2011 Nominee List and b) It was standalone. So I thought it was a good place to start. When I find a new author, I tend to binge and read everything they've ever written :-)