It's book and video and music recommendation time!

[annathepiper]

So, spazzkat, solarbird, and I are going to Japan for Worldcon this year. Which in and of itself warrants a large WOO!, but that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is that we will be in the air for a perfectly ridiculous number of hours getting to and from Yokohama, and so I'm thinking to load up my iPaq and my iPod with various amusing things to read and/or watch and and/or listen to.

So my question for you all is this: what ebook, audio book, movie, TV show, or album do you think I should purchase to take with me on this vacation to amuse myself?

What I like to read: science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, thrillers, the occasional horror novel, romantic suspense, the occasional actual romance if it's a good one. Heck, I'll even read general fiction if it comes highly enough recommended.

What I like to listen to: I post enough about my favorite artists that y'all should already have a decent idea of what I like to listen to. Assume I'm already eying albums I don't already have yet by artists I already listen to (Carbon Leaf, Seven Nations, the Young Dubliners, Solas, Altan, most notably). Thanks to buying those collections of music that might have been played by Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, I have begun to develop a fondness for Vivaldi, Boccherini, Corelli, and other Italian composers as well. So I'm looking for recommendations that might fill in a sentence like "since you already like <foo>, you should check out <bar>".

Hit me with your best shots, folks!

Comments

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

I imagine you would quite like the "Dream of Eagles" series by Jack Whyte. The first one is "The Skystone", followed by "The Singing Sword". They're both about two and a half inches thick, so should last you a long time.

Roman centurions and Arthurian myth made historically plausible. Exhaustively well-researched. Very, very well-written. Lots of action, romance (Oh, Varrus and Lucceia! *swoons*), incredibly hot men (Picus!), druids, priests, leprosy, priests WITH leprosy, the works.

[annathepiper]

Thank you very much, I shall see if I can find these in ebook form!

[grian-ruadh.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you need to spend some time on pandora.com (pandora.com). I've uncovered whole troves of music that I love but had never heard before through that site. It rocks. Check it out. :)

[annathepiper]

Link doesn't work, I fear! But, plugging http://www.pandora.com, I see what you mean. Thanks for the link, I shall file this for future reference. :)

(Though I fear it won't be of immediate use to me on the trip; my iPod isn't equipped for radio. And I fear I listen to streaming content almost never. But if I get a chance, I'll stop by there for a visit!)

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i deeply, deeply desire to suggest some books of biology/natural history, for their intrinsic excellence, but they fall out of your listed genres. do you make exceptions....?

[annathepiper]

Well, the genres I listed are of course all fiction, but I'm not adverse to non-fiction works. For example, I really enjoyed A Brief History of Time. :) If it's something I can read on my handheld, I'm certainly willing to entertain suggestions!

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

excellent! here are a few of my favorites:

"ravens in winter", berndt heinrich

"good natured", frans de waal

"galileo's daughter", dava sobel

"1984", samuel r delany

have fun!!

[annathepiper]

Of this list, I see that I can actually get "Galileo's Daughter" in ebook form. Cool beans. Thank you very much. :)

[nanocorp.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend, if you want a bit of fluff that also involves vampires and supernatural romance - Charlaine Harris' books about Sookie Stackhouse.

The first one is called "Dead Until Dark." Its not your usual angsty vampire story. For one, its set in some po-dunk down in Louisiana, called Bon Temp ('let the good times roll1!') and the heroine falls in love with a vampire named Bill. Whats really important though is that this barmaid, Sookie Stackhouse can read minds.

Would love to know what you end up thinking about the Viking Vampire, Eric Northman...

[annathepiper]

Way ahead of you--I already own most of this series in paperback. ;) I've got the last paperback on my To Read shelf, waiting for my attention!

As for Erik? Hot. All those other guys in the series? Pah. Sookie totally needs to hook up with Erik.

[jessicac.livejournal.com]

Music: Glengarry Bhoys

[annathepiper]

Cool, thank you! I see they have a couple of albums available for purchase on iTunes; do you have a particular album by them that you like?

[suzene.livejournal.com]

Music: Tossers, Thea Gilmore, and Missy Higgins.

[annathepiper]

Thank you! I see several albums by these artists on iTunes; do you have particular albums by them that you like? If I were to purchase one album by each, which ones should I shoot for?

[suzene.livejournal.com]

I've only heard one by the Tossers -- Agony -- but I like it quite a bit.

For Thea Gimore, Harpo's Ghost.

I think Missy only has The Sound of White up as a full album. I like the Australian version best.

Oh, and Indigo Girls if you don't know of them already. 1200 Cufews is a live album, but it has a really great selection of some of their best work and some covers as well.

[suzene.livejournal.com]

Ahem...1200 Curfews.

[annathepiper]

Thanks much for the pointers, I'll see how many of these I can pick up!

And I do of course know of the Indigo Girls, though I don't own any of their work. solarbird does, but I don't know which of their albums she has. I'll have to look. :)

[uniquecrash5.livejournal.com]

So, spazzkat, solarbird, and I are going to Japan for Worldcon this year.

Cue the massive envy!!!!!!

As for reccommendations, if you are not familiar with the works of Iain Banks (both his science-fiction and his straight fiction), I cannot reccommend anything more highly.

[annathepiper]

Thank you very much! I'm aware of Mr. Banks, but I have yet to read anything by him. Are there any books of his that are your particular favorites?

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

Here's my list of book recommendations, although I've probably mentioned a couple of them before.

Kindred, Octavia Butler - Sort of a sci-fi book set in between 1976 and plantation time in the South. The main character, who is black, time travels between the two and has to deal with the consequences.
The Innocent, Beatrice Small - A romance book set in England and Wales in the years between 1143 and 1159.
The Eye of the Dragon, Stephen King - Not one of his usual gruesome haunts. This one is a fantasy book.
Tam Lin, Pamela Dean - You've probably heard of this one before.
Tiger Burning Bright, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, & Mercedes Lackey - Fantasy focusing on a queen, her mother and the queen's niece, who is next in line.
Lady of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley - This book really explains the circumstances of the events in Mists of Avalon.

[seimaisin.livejournal.com]

Oooh, a second to Tam Lin, which is one of my favorite books ever. :)

[annathepiper]

Got it already--it is a wonderful book. I bought that ages ago. But not immediately useful for trip purposes, since I'm trying to avoid taking physical books if possible. :)

[annathepiper]

I've not only heard of Tam Lin, I own it. But in physical book form, so not immediately useful for trip purposes. :) Wonderful book though!

Kindred I'm aware of, and have kept meaning to read me some Octavia Butler. I've got another of hers waiting on my To Read shelf, but this one in ebook form wouldn't suck.

Thanks for the list! I'll see how many of these I can pick up. :)

[seimaisin.livejournal.com]

Yay, Worldcon! That is awesome!!

Let's see, can I recommend anything? Music, do you have anything by Oysterband? I can't remember ... but, if not, you definitely need Holy Bandits like whoa. :) I also recommend Ashley MacIsaac's older stuff - he's apparently got a new album out that's a straight rock album, but the three that I have (Hi How Are You Today, Fine Thank You Very Much, and his self-titled album) are completely awesome fiddle music.

As for books ... Rob Thurman's books (Nightlife and Moonshine) are really fun urban fantasy, I can vouch for their use as good popcorn plane reading. :) Also, Lilith Saintcrow's books, Working For the Devil and Dead Man Rising. And, have you read Jacquelyn Carey's Kushiel books yet? I'm not remembering everything you've posted about reading, but if you haven't, those are highly recommeded!

[annathepiper]

We're really looking forward to it, this'll be the first real vacation we've had in a while. :D We're going to do a guided tour thing after the con, too!

I own nothing yet by Oysterband, though I did at one point hear their rendition of "When I'm Up", yeah. Good call! (Which reminds me I should also see if I can find some Runrig, since they are apparently the progenitors of the original "Beat the Drum".) Also good call on Ashley MacIsaac--I only have one track by him, the one he did on Fire in the Kitchen, but I hear tell he is indeed a wicked good fiddler. :D

I've got Nightlife in paperback form already--if I can read it before the con, and it's intriguing enough, I'll see about picking up the sequel as an ebook. Ditto re: Kushiel; I've got Kushiel's Dart in paperback form, just haven't read it yet.

But! Haven't read Lilith Saintcrow yet. Thanks for the tip! :)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

OK, you like Aubrey and Maturin, you like good SF... I could make you a David Weber Honorverse CD; it has all ten main-arc Honor Harrington books on it, four volumes of short stories, a couple of other full novels, and... some Echo's Children filk! (In handy MP3 format....)

You can also get the Eric Flint 1632 stuff in e-book format... have I told you about that yet? (take a small town of Virginia coal miners from the year 2000, drop'em in the middle of Germany during the Thirty Years War, and see what happens. If you find you like it, you can participate in the story arc... the last volume I read had a whole BUNCH of stuff from otherwise unknown authors...)

If you like Seven Nations, check out Emerald Rose. Back-east band that does a lot of stuff like 7N... they rock. Oh, and Tricky Pixie (http://www.trickypixie.com/)!!! "The Faeries are All Out of Bubblegum"...

[annathepiper]

I have heard tell of both Weber and Flint, but have yet to tackle either. Better not hit me with the whole pile of Weber, that might overwhelm my handheld. ;) I'll see what I can find on the ebook sites I've been looking at.

Echo's Children--ah yes. Now if you'd like to share some of that, I'd be interested in a sampler. And I'm definitely interested in Tricky Pixie, but is there any Tricky Pixie to be had for purchase yet?

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I'll talk to cflute about EC stuff... and there isn't Tricky Pixie to be had *yet*, but by the time you leave there will be, since they're due to release a live album at FaerieWorlds, which is sometime in July, and Worldcon isn't until the end of August... and s00j has some of her solo stuff on sale alreddie.

I need to sit down and do a sampler for a *lot* of folks... one of these days *sigh*

[annathepiper]

Thanks! I'll keep a look out for the live Tricky Pixie album. :)