[ SECRET POST #3716 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3716 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 29 secrets from Secret Submission Post #531.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[ketita]

That sucks :/ I kind of feel you, though. I moved away for a Ph.D, and I'm kind of lonely here myself. I feel like I have a severe lack of people who... would rather spend time with me than do other things, rather than spending time with me as a sort of default. And my peers are all super busy, and everybody else is tiny undergrads.
Though even if you have good friends, it doesn't mean any of them'd be good reccers, lots of people are terrible at it.

I could try reccing you some stuff, if you want (though obviously that's less helpful from the loneliness perspective)

[randomdrops]

Part of it is that I'm honestly happy as a little hermit most of the time, so I don't really make much effort to go out. But then I'll kind of look around when I do want to go out or have fun with others and...then I just get sad.

Sure, I'll take recs! Who knows, maybe something will click and I'll dive in. (I'm also between fandoms, so the lack of direction in fic searching is hopefully going to help my goal of reading more books.)

[ketita]

Well, I'm an involved reccer - so what types of books do you like? What genres? What things bother you about your chosen genres?

[randomdrops]

These days it's mostly fantasy, with female characters. Magic, adventure, intrigue. I'd prefer no romance, but it's pretty much everywhere. I do read romance as a genre, I'm just weird about it being shoved into my fantasy adventures.

I've been re-reading YA books that I know I love to try and jumpstart myself back into books, but so far it hasn't worked. A Wrinkle in Time, Ella Enchanted, the Abhorsen series, Shannon Hale, Diane Duane, Tamora Pierce, Mercedes Lackey...to name some random things I've liked.

[ketita]

How are you with less modern stuff, or do you prefer something more recent (i.e. in the 2000s)
Also, have you read Diana Wynne Jones? Lois McMaster Bujold?

[randomdrops]

I've read Diana Wynne Jones, yeah. Don't think I've read Bujold though. I'm fine with less modern stuff if the writing style jives with me, which is really random and not very helpful for rec purposes I realize.

[ketita]

Hmm, okay so here goes.

The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold. While it does have romance, and a sort-of male protagonist, it's a really great book, and there are lots of kickass women, and the romance is not the most major part of the story. There's some politicking, and some actually good fantasy theology, and it's a standalone(!!!). But if you like it, there's an indirect sequel set in the same world that you can also go forth and read, which stars an older lady, who's pretty dang awesome.

The Deed of Paksenarrion - Elizabeth Moon. It's a trilogy about a lady knight doing knightly things. iirc there's no romance to speak of. I wasn't blown away by it, but I thought it was really nice and solid, and it has decent amounts of angst, which I appreciated.

The Fire's Stone - Tanya Huff. This is an adorable book. It takes a bit to get going, the beginning is kind of weak, but once it finds its stride you have a male-male-female group of heroes that all get development, and their dynamic is truly adorable. (and the romance doesn't go how you might initially think, but I don't want to say too much so as not to spoil).

N.P. - Banana Yoshimoto. It's Japanese, somewhat magical realism, a little strange, but what struck me about the book is that there was something very... kind about it. Like it made me feel all these gentle feelings towards the characters. ....though now, looking at the summary, which has all these codependent relationships and some implied incest and whatnot, I have no idea how that makes any sense. Um, take it as you will?
Like, this is one of the few books that when I finished it I wanted to write a letter to the author because she seems like such a nice person. idek XD

The Far Side of Evil - Sylvia Engdahl. This one's sci-fi, if you're open to that. It's about a researcher who's sent to observe a less-advanced planet with strict "no involvement" rules, but she kind of gets embroiled in the issues there. I don't remember if there's a romance, but I remember that the most important relationship was her friendship with a woman from the planet, who helped her. Bunch of h/c in this one too.

[(Anonymous)]

I love Banana Yoshimoto, although she writes nostalgia so intensely I feel it's practically weaponised. I enjoy her work, but man do I want a break when I come up for air.

[randomdrops]

Oh, I've actually read some of those! I enjoyed The Deed of Paksenarrion (though it did get super Jesus-y towards the end of the series, if I remember correctly. still fun!) and I've read Tanya Huff. I honestly cannot recall if I've read that one, but it seems familiar? Maybe I'll check it out and re-read either way.

I'll add the others to my list to look into. I've heard of Engdahl but never read. My mother probably has her books or something (she has a million and loves scifi). And your response to N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto definitely has me intrigued. I'll try and check them out this weekend!

Thank you for taking all this time just to rec me some books.

[ketita]

I tried to give you some variety in the recs.

Also, a book that I'm currently reading which I'm quite enjoying, though I can't give a definitive answer about because I haven't finished yet, is The Angel of Losses by Stephanie Feldman. A woman who's doing a Ph.D in literature is interested in tales of the Wandering Jew, and starts having some weird coincidences around her involving that figure that are tied to her grandfather and some notebooks of handwritten stories he left that may be linked to the legends. So far it's also looking like somewhere between fantasy and magical realism.

[maskitheclown]

*lonely high five*