SantaThingSantaThing Entry #59

LibraryThing member thebookmagpie

Book tastes

I'm really into literary and classic fiction, but I also like sci-fi and fantasy. I tend to care more about quality of prose and characterisation than plot (though all are important, just that my tastes tend to skew more towards the former). My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Charlotte Bronte, Kate Atkinson, Maggie Stiefvater, Leigh Bardugo, Kate Morton, Umberto Eco, Diana Wynne Jones, Libba Bray, Jane Austen, Miriam Toews, Marlon James, Steven Erikson, Helene Wecker, Nnedi Okorafor, George Eliot, Emma Jane Unsworth, and Jenni Fagan. Books I've read this year that I'd give "five stars": Strange Hotel, The Dreamer Trilogy, Are You My Mother?, A Heart That Works, All Quiet on the Western Front, All My Mothers, Bunny, Africa is Not a Country, Adults, The Sunlight Pilgrams, the Aaron Falk trilogy, Firekeeper's Daughter, The Tea Dragon Trilogy, Switch, Mooncakes, Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, The Bluest Eye, and Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness ! I hope that list isn't intimidating - I think it's probably better to have more information than less? I really will read most genres. I would also be interested in adding some diversity to my reading by reading things from outside of the US/UK mainstream canon, or by people from other cultural backgrounds (I'm Scottish).

Don't get this!

If it's already on my LibraryThing account, I have it. Every single book on here is one that I either own, or have owned, read and subsequently given away. So if it's on here already, please don't pick it. However, the kind of things I tend to buy might give you some ideas? I'm not so mad anymore about historical novels, or YA contemporary though I like YA in speculative fiction. I wouldn't rule either genre out completely but they're not my preference. Genre-wise, I can't think of anything I avoid like the plague - good examples of any genre will engage me, badly written examples won't. I can be fussy with non-fiction - in particular, I really don't get on with anything self-helpy, overly religious, or "spiritual". My sci-fi tastes are definitely more towards soft rather than hard. Here are some books that I have read and would consider an example of exactly what I don't like: White Noise, Atonement, Freedom (though I confess I couldn't finish it),Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Girl on the Train, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Spectacular Now, Love Letters to the Dead, The New York Trilogy, Disgrace, All the Bright Places, Let the Right One In, One Day, Fangirl, The Lovely Bones, and The Virgin Suicides. This year I have one or two starred: 29 Seconds, Lies Lies Lies, Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets, Both of You, Scabby Queen, All This Could Be Yours, and The Library of the Dead, and DNF'd You Should See Me in a Crown, The Selfless Act of Breathing, Ancillary Justice, No Way Out, For Darkness Shows the Stars, All of Our Demise, Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body, All That's Left in the World, A Discovery of Witches, The Craftsman, Animals Eat Each Other, The Abbess of Crewe, Girl Woman Other, A Way Back to Happy, The Librarian, All Adults Here, The Winter Garden, and The Boy Who Steals Houses. Some of these I really disliked, whereas some just weren't my thing, but I think they give a good idea of what I'm not fond of.

Other notes

If I don't own your favourite book, I'd love to receive it! I vastly prefer paperback to hardcover. Other than that, I'm open-minded to whatever you want to pick. Other random things: I love epistolary novels. I love boarding school/university campus novels. If held at gunpoint and asked to pick my favourite book, I'd pick Jane Eyre

Secret Santa

thebookmagpie's Secret Santa was katemcangus!

Purchasing Details

Store: Blackwell's (https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/home)

Gift Amount: $50 (USD)

If bookstore prices are listed in with non-USD amounts, use the currency converter below.

Comments/suggestions

Join LibraryThing to leave comments and suggestions here.

ablachly: ordered! (Dez. 8, 2023, 12:01pm)
katemcangus: I really wanted to get My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin, but it's not available in paperback until February. You might enjoy it based on our similar tastes. (Dez. 4, 2023, 9:26pm)
fionaanne: Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. Its an award-winning, beautifully written autobiographical novel about the author's childhood as a refugee arriving in the U.S. (Dez. 4, 2023, 8:33pm)
Petroglyph: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, by Elizabeth Taylor

Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy

Paris stories, by Mavis Gallant (Dez. 4, 2023, 6:47pm)
karenb: Santee might enjoy Witchmark by CL Polk (2018, 9781250162687, US$16.60), fantasy that has a literary feel to it.

Maybe A snake falls to earth by Darcie Little Badger (2022, 9781646140923, US$18.11). Two stories in one, both modern day and legend. (Dez. 4, 2023, 10:48am)
saroz: This user has - and has highly rated - many books I've read, especially ones that combine modern lit with sci-fi or fantasy. I think they might really like Arturo Perez-Reverte's "The Club Dumas" - conveniently available in paperback. :) (Nov. 26, 2023, 1:11am)