h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Which is a hobby of mine! I have thousands of books I love, and would do reviews for...

I used to review books for a newspaper, as an actual job, once.

A handful of the best of 2002 for now:

The Heart Must Break James Mawdsley
Zlata's Diary Zlata Filipovic
Star Trek:DS9:Millenium: Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Book 3 - Inferno
Majestic Is Your Name Teresa of Avila, ed., by David Haszard
Thief of Time Terry Pratchett
Ode to a Banker Lindsey Davis
Changer of Days Alma Hromic
Stupid White Men Michael Moore

Well, Lil's Atelier recently had a combined book reading of Last Chance to See and the His Dark Materials Trilogy. The biggest problem we had was chatting while not spoiling the plot for those not yet finished. Still, I'd recommend both of these.

If you're Recomending Phillip Pullman (Dark Materials) Don't forget the Sarah Lockhearts. Ruby in the Smoke etc.

The Dark Materials ones are great, but did anyone else feel a bit let down by the ending? I guess it was inevitable, but it seemed a bit stupid.

Wasn't it Sally Lockhart? Short for Veronica, or something, cos that obviously makes sense. There's a 4th one of those that I didn't know about for ages, The Tin Princess, except she's not really in it much. Strange.

I don't review books for a living but devour them in the evening. I would reccommend Fall on your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald, Away by Jane Urquhart, Brideshead Revisited by Waugh, Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, The Poisonwood Bible , In the Skin of the Lion by Michael Ondatje, The Wars by Timothy Findley, The Shipping News, The Englishmen's Boy, The Stone Carvers, Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy, And yes, definately Lord of the Flies- one of my all time favourites! What about On the Beach? Still very relevent today! Oh, any book dealing with the Arherian Legends.

Ooh, ooh, I've got some more...

Hiroshima Robert Jay Lifton
The Alanna series (for teens)Tamora Pearce (also recommended by my son)
Lord of the Rings J R R Tolkien
ST:DS9 Millenium (series) Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Fey series Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Heart of Darkness
Lord Jim Joseph Conrad

Larry Niven, any and all. Ringworld(3 books) and Dreampark(3 again) especially.
JRR Tolkien again, AWESOME! The Silmarillion as well as the LotR.
Stephen Gould, Helm and any others you can find.

Jesi

If ST DS9 means what it looks like, then I have to ask about it because normally I steer clear of anything that was film/tv before it was a book. Books of films usually turn out worse than films of books.
Is it actually a novelisation of an episode/bunch of episodes or just based around the world and characters (the first one really doesn't work).

I'd recommed anything by Jeffrey Deaver (he wrote the Bone Collector, a much better book than film).

Star trek novelisations vary trememndously (!) - some are vile.. but the DS9 Millennium trilogy is fantastiche! It's a totally different plot from any episode, which they justify by having it 'unhappen' in the end, which is lucky, because they destroy the station, kill off major characters and even destroy the universe! I was afraid that the 'unhappening' of it would be stupid, but it's really not.

Has anyone read the Red Dwarf Novelisations?

I'd recomend everything by Haruki Murakami - the books are kinda weird, made me feel real strange for a couple of weeks, but are stiil very sweet and smart

Yeah, and also "Master and Margaret" by Bulgakov. I donno how it was translated in English, but the book is just plainly awesome.

But if stuff happens in a book of a series that obviously can't happen, doesn't that destroy any tension it could have because you know it'll have to unhappen.
Like I watched episode 2 last night and I was never slightly worried for any of the good guys in the battles because I knew they had to survive for the nest ones.

I know what you mean I saw episode two today, but I think that episode three will be worse.

In the DS9 Millennium (sp?) books, although I knew it all had to unhappen, I was able to suspend disbelief, because they are so well written! Another brilliant Star Trek novelisation, is: 'A Stitch In Time',by Andrew J Robinson(Garak). He reallyknows his character, and gets inside his head.

Poisonwood Bible is fantastic, also 253 by Geoff Ryman, Memoires of a Geisha is one of those books that just makes you feel really calm and contented, The Magus by John fowles for a completely head mangleing experience and my family and other animals by gerrald durrell for good fun and enchantment....

If anyone wants to continue the scifi chat I'm moving to a different thread, cos I think it might be more considerate to all the people that want to keep recommeding books.