Want to recommend a book, or a series of books?

[Michael Tree]

I'll third Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books. They're a lot of fun, and an interesting and internally-consistent take on a high magic world. The smartass internal dialogue between Vlad and his familiar Loiosh alone are worth it, even without the great plots, dramatic action, and style. Best of all, all of the books are self-contained novels. The series is a serial of self-contained books, not some sprawling epic story that never ends. So if you want you can sit down and read a great 250 page book and get a complete story.

I also recommend Brust's The Phoneix Guards, which the author describes as "a blatant ripoff of The Three Musketeers", written in a hillariously long-winded writing style.

If you like dramatic fiction, I can't recommend Guy Gavriel Kay's books enough. Tigana is one of my favorite books of all time, a self-contained book about loss, sacrifice, and conflict. If you're interested in the Byzantine empire, Sailing to Sarantium (and its followup, Lord of Emperors) are also fantastic.

 

[Acid_crash]

Read Kevin J. Anderson's Hidden Empire in the Saga of the Seven Suns series. This book was really good, great space opera action and an ending that blew me away and one of the better ways to end a book I've ever read.

Another recommendation for the Night's Dawn trilogy from Peter F. Hamilton. Anything from Hamilton I recommend, he's great science fiction and blends it with believable characters and details his worlds in such a way that you can really see it in your mind.

On a different route, if you are into more supernatural stories, Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld novels set in modern time are really good books.

 

[RisnDevil]

You said you have read American Gods. If you enjoyed that, I have to recommend going back and reading some older Deil Gaiman, like Neverwhere and Good Omens. Very good books.

 

[LogicsFate]

The Area 51 novels from a year or two age

It revolves around Military action/aliens/world crisis/artifact

sadly I can't remember who wrote them

 

[Aus_Snow]

Neverwhere and Good Omens. Very good books.

Yes, I quite liked them too. Read them some time ago. If I'd listed all the books I'd read. . . well, I think posts have a line / character count limit or something, don't they?

But then I also like Pratchett, the co-creator of Good Omens. Strangely though, I found that book slightly less engaging, overall, than Gaiman's other works, or most of Pratchett's others either. Not to say I disliked it (that wouldn't be true), but I kind of felt their styles detracted from one another a bit. Many would disagree, and who am I to say. But there it is. :\

 

[CCamfield]

Someone recommended this to me recently...
If you don't mind, can you give a brief (non-spoilery) summary of the book and why you liked it?

Man travels back in time to early 19th C England and becomes stranded (early on). Mix in Egyptian wizardry, beggar guilds, and other strangeness. It is quite brilliant.

 

[CCamfield]

I would add...

Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart. If you haven't read it, well, it gets mentioned in most every book-reading thread for good reason.

I'd second the recommendations of One for the Morning Glory, and The Princess Bride.

All three of these would be good to read together. They all have a certain lightness, and are fun.

 

[Audhild&Krin]

Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Humor-Fantasy at its best. Just a warning he is British and if you are an American reader it can be a bit hard to understand his humor at first. DO NOT read Small Gods until after you have already read a few of his works, it is the most philosophical book of all his writings.

 

[Jdvn1]

Recommending books is part of my job, and I put effort into matching people with books. For Sci-Fi, I have my list of mandatory must-trys. My ABC's of Sci-Fi. Asimov, Bradbury, and Card.

Anything by Orson Scott Card. Start with Ender's Game, though. Awesome book.

Ender's Game is a wonderful book that appeals to a variety of audiences, but I wouldn't recommend to everyone to read the entire series. A gentleman came in, asking for a recommendation on a book, having just finished Ender's Game. The Ender's Series (I differentiate from the other series by called those others the "Shadow Series" or the "Bean Series") takes the first book in a very different direction, losing that excitement and quick pace of the first book. Instead, it's a bit more contemplative. Certainly not for all audiences. If you want more of the same, eg: action, go for the Shadow Series.

This guy really liked Ender's Game, but didn't want to try either. He wanted something still sci-fi, but completely different. My solution? Hitchhiker's Guide. Very different, very funny. Still Sci-Fi. He was really happy with his purchase.

I do encourage people to try a variety of books, though. A lady was looking for a mystery book, having had read lots of what I call "pop authors." The stuff everyone reads, the mass-market/series sort of thing. You want a good mystery? Try Graham Greene. Really awesome mystery author, but you won't find his books in the Mystery section, but the Literature section. You want to stay in the Mystery section? Try out Perez-Reverte. Club Dumas is a mystery about books--kind of a twist. He's a Spanish author, so not quite as common in the states.

This past weekend another lady came in looking for a book that her book club was reading. Some obscure title that was out of print, we didn't have it. She didn't care, since it was a last-minute book and the book club is a bunch of ladies sitting around and talking about random things anyway. It does give her a good excuse to read books, though. Well, she was worried about the next week's book, which she had to recommend. She had no clue what to do. So I came up with Triange: The Fire that Changed America. Really good historical account of the Triangle Waist Fire, which brought upon big changes in both Labor Rights and Women's Rights. The ladies were mostly teachers, so I thought this was a great fit, and the lady did too.

Other authors I'd recommend? Walter Mosley (mysteries that also brings up racial themes), Evelyn Waugh (quick author, as in fast writing style, fast read). If you're okay with depressing, Elie Wiesel has an excellent trilogy on the Holocaust (most students have to read the first one, Night) or Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes was big at the time, but the sequel didn't do as well--interesting read on the Irish, though).

That's the stuff that comes to mind right away. I'm sure I could recommend a few others, but after a point, all the stuff would be bestsellers and new releases, or stuff anyone else could recommend.

 

[Altalazar]

The Baroque Cycle Trilogy by Neal Stephenson. You'll never read anything like it - ever. It was great. I recommend reading Crytonomicon first, though it is only loosely linked. That is also a must read book. I loved it.