Guilty-pleasure books

[LGK]

OK I'm going to Costa Rica on Monday and I need to load my Kindle up with some good stuff to keep me amused for two weeks. Anybody got any suggestions? Just for fun! I tend to read a lot and have my favorite authors and genres, but I figured I'd ask for some new ideas. While fluff sounds pretty good for a 13 hour flight, I'm open to any good reads, since I will definitely have plenty of time to read whilst stuck with my mom and aunts and sans husband... we did this trip a few years ago and everyone else goes to bed at, like, 8PM and I'm a total night owl, so I spent a lot of time in the evenings reading!

(My favorite guilty pleasure series: the first six Kushiel's Dart books. Total Mary Sue main character, but I loved them anyway. And come to think of it I read the first one on a plane too, haha )

 

[sillyberry]

Some of my favorites are Maeve Binchy's books (particularly Circle of Friends and Tara Road) or The Thorn Birds. All are fat and juicy, easy to read but I feel less ashamed than I do when I read chick lit (and I totally love chick lit!).

Have a great time in CR! Be sure to eat lots and lots of fruit...mmm, the fruit.

 

[Arkteia]

I absolutely love everything written by Muriel Spark. Her novels are so good they are addicting, I can stay up all night reading them, but she has written many short stories, too.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Ooh Costa Rica! I loved it there when I went in March! Where in CR will you be?

Let's see...I like Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms books - the best one is the first, The Fairy Godmother, and I also liked the new one, The Sleeping Beauty.

I just finished The Hunger Games trilogy. While it's not light (i.e. lots of death) it's a very fast read, especially since it's originally aimed at the YA market.

Piers Anthony's Xanth series is super light. There's like 20 or so books in the series. I only read the first three or so.

For a total beach read, I love James Rollins' books. It's like Dan Brown's stuff but a bit more far-fetched in the science, but full of action and interesting storylines.

When I was in CR, I read The Mallorean, and Polgara the Sorceress and Belgarath the Sorceror. Great for the beach (read The Belgariad first though!)

I recommend S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire series (Dies the Fire, The Protector's War, A Meeting at Corvallis) and his related Nantucket series (Island in the Sea of Time, Against the Tide of Years, On the Oceans of Eternity) for anytime. Great great books.

I also recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, beginning with the prequels Shards of Honor/Barrayar, or beginning with the Miles story arc (Warrior's Apprentice) for anytime (but these are not available on Amazon for Kindle, but you can buy them at fictionwise.com). I also read The Curse of Chalion by her and it was really. She has a very nice way of drawing her characters so that you're really invested in them, and she adds a lot of humor to her books that make them very enjoyable to read. John Scalzi does the same thing (the humor, the well drawn characters) with his Old Man's War series (beginning with Old Man's War, and then there's also The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale).

Oh and if you haven't read them already, Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books! Beginning with Dead Until Dark, I think.

And I also recommend Terry Pratchett's Discworld, although I think only a few books are up for Kindle on Amazon. And along those lines, Neil Gaiman's (I liked American Gods a lot, as well as Neverwhere).

For a really interesting take on The Iliad/Odyssey, David Gemmell's Troy trilogy (beginning with Troy: Lord of the Silbow Bow) was very very fascinating (told from Aeneas' POV).

And if you like fantasy, George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire will definitely last you a few days (since each of the four books out so far are HUGE). Also, Name of the Wind by Phillip Rothfuss was amazing, but there are two more books projected for the trilogy and the 2nd isn't due to be out until March

I also thought Karen Miller's Empress trilogy was really interesting - begins with Empress, then The Riven Kingdom, and Hammer of God. Worth checking out.

Oh and Dan Simmons' books are also really interesting. Some, like Song of Kali and Hyperion, are great but freak me out, while I thought Ilium and Olympos was really well done (sci-fi but very literary).

Ok that's all I've got for now. Hope some of it helps!

And Christopher Moore's books are always a fun light read. Lamb is my favorite, but of the others, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, etc. are also really hilarious.

And if you like YA stuff, Michael Scott's Alchemyst series (starting with The Alchemyst) are a great read, as is the Percy Jackson series, and I also like Henry Neff's The Hound of Rowan series (two out so far, third out in the next month I think, and four books total).

 

[LGK]

Ooh Costa Rica! I loved it there when I went in March! Where in CR will you be?

Let's see...I like Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms books - the best one is the first, The Fairy Godmother, and I also liked the new one, The Sleeping Beauty.

I just finished The Hunger Games trilogy. While it's not light (i.e. lots of death) it's a very fast read, especially since it's originally aimed at the YA market.

Piers Anthony's Xanth series is super light. There's like 20 or so books in the series. I only read the first three or so.

For a total beach read, I love James Rollins' books. It's like Dan Brown's stuff but a bit more far-fetched in the science, but full of action and interesting storylines.

When I was in CR, I read The Mallorean, and Polgara the Sorceress and Belgarath the Sorceror. Great for the beach (read The Belgariad first though!)

I recommend S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire series (Dies the Fire, The Protector's War, A Meeting at Corvallis) and his related Nantucket series (Island in the Sea of Time, Against the Tide of Years, On the Oceans of Eternity) for anytime. Great great books.

I also recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, beginning with the prequels Shards of Honor/Barrayar, or beginning with the Miles story arc (Warrior's Apprentice) for anytime (but these are not available on Amazon for Kindle, but you can buy them at fictionwise.com). I also read The Curse of Chalion by her and it was really. She has a very nice way of drawing her characters so that you're really invested in them, and she adds a lot of humor to her books that make them very enjoyable to read. John Scalzi does the same thing (the humor, the well drawn characters) with his Old Man's War series (beginning with Old Man's War, and then there's also The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale).

Oh and if you haven't read them already, Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books! Beginning with Dead Until Dark, I think.

And I also recommend Terry Pratchett's Discworld, although I think only a few books are up for Kindle on Amazon. And along those lines, Neil Gaiman's (I liked American Gods a lot, as well as Neverwhere).

For a really interesting take on The Iliad/Odyssey, David Gemmell's Troy trilogy (beginning with Troy: Lord of the Silbow Bow) was very very fascinating (told from Aeneas' POV).

And if you like fantasy, George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire will definitely last you a few days (since each of the four books out so far are HUGE). Also, Name of the Wind by Phillip Rothfuss was amazing, but there are two more books projected for the trilogy and the 2nd isn't due to be out until March

I also thought Karen Miller's Empress trilogy was really interesting - begins with Empress, then The Riven Kingdom, and Hammer of God. Worth checking out.

Oh and Dan Simmons' books are also really interesting. Some, like Song of Kali and Hyperion, are great but freak me out, while I thought Ilium and Olympos was really well done (sci-fi but very literary).

Ok that's all I've got for now. Hope some of it helps!

And Christopher Moore's books are always a fun light read. Lamb is my favorite, but of the others, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, etc. are also really hilarious.

And if you like YA stuff, Michael Scott's Alchemyst series (starting with The Alchemyst) are a great read, as is the Percy Jackson series, and I also like Henry Neff's The Hound of Rowan series (two out so far, third out in the next month I think, and four books total).

We've got pretty similar taste in books I think S.M. Stirling's series is soooo geektastic it's great. The first few are the best, he kinda lost me on the last one a bit.( I made DH read the first one, he is always up for a good apocalypse, but has a hard time reading fiction... he did like Dies the Fire a lot though.)

Oddly enough I was reading a Dan Simmons when I went to CR last time, funny. I'll have to check out some of the others you mention, I haven't read any Piers Anthony since I was a teenager. And I keep meaning to try the Discworld ones again- one of my good friends loved them, and gave me the first of them, but I just couldn't get into it for some reason.

And I've got a couple of Mercedes Lackey's books on my Kindle right now for the trip already, ones I hadn't read since I was about 13 or so. Total guilty pleasure for sure!

I actually don't know where all they've scheduled us to be, lol. One of my aunts lives in San Jose (she married a Costa Rican, and so I have a bunch of Costa Rican first cousins), so we'll definitely be in San Jose for awhile, and the beach at Manuel Antonio for sure. Probably the cloud forest again, which was awesome last time. Hopefully we'll pass on the tiny resort in Dota we spent like four days at last time, that was way up in the mountains, though the birdwatching was neat in the mornings, and we did see some quetzals. But the drive there was torturous especially with a zillion of us in the taxi van. Where did you go?

Thanks BEG & Sillyberry!

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

We've got pretty similar taste in books I think S.M. Stirling's series is soooo geektastic it's great. The first few are the best, he kinda lost me on the last one a bit.( I made DH read the first one, he is always up for a good apocalypse, but has a hard time reading fiction... he did like Dies the Fire a lot though.)

Oddly enough I was reading a Dan Simmons when I went to CR last time, funny. I'll have to check out some of the others you mention, I haven't read any Piers Anthony since I was a teenager. And I keep meaning to try the Discworld ones again- one of my good friends loved them, and gave me the first of them, but I just couldn't get into it for some reason.

And I've got a couple of Mercedes Lackey's books on my Kindle right now for the trip already, ones I hadn't read since I was about 13 or so. Total guilty pleasure for sure!

I actually don't know where all they've scheduled us to be, lol. One of my aunts lives in San Jose (she married a Costa Rican, and so I have a bunch of Costa Rican first cousins), so we'll definitely be in San Jose for awhile, and the beach at Manuel Antonio for sure. Probably the cloud forest again, which was awesome last time. Hopefully we'll pass on the tiny resort in Dota we spent like four days at last time, that was way up in the mountains, though the birdwatching was neat in the mornings, and we did see some quetzals. But the drive there was torturous especially with a zillion of us in the taxi van. Where did you go?

Thanks BEG & Sillyberry!

Ha, I actually thought we might have similar tastes. I think you posted on that Sci-fi/Fantasy books thread I had a while back

Dies the Fire was sooo good. I just reread it a few days ago. I'm still reading the books that follow (the ones that follow Rudi's journey) but you're right, they're not nearly as good. If your DH likes apocalypse books, he should read World War Z by Max Brooks. I thought it was really well done, and definitely one of the better zombie books out there. Also, The Passage by Justin Cronin is super dark but very evocative.

Piers Anthony's stuff was fine for a few books but the puns got on my nerves. Nevertheless it was a nice light break from some heavier stuff I'd been reading. I do like Lackey's books too! I've only read the 500 Kingdoms books but I might branch out more.

I went to CR for two weeks back in March for spring break and loved it. Flew into San Jose, then went to Arenal, Monteverde, then the beach at Playa Samara for a week, and then Manuel Antonio, and then back to SJ. Also visited Poas Volcano and lagoon and did a coffee farm tour. I went horseback riding and ziplining in Monteverde and thought the area was so beautiful, and of course, I loved the beach. I have a thread with tons of pics - I'd love to go back again. I'm jealous!

 

[zoebartlett]

I don't read much science ficton or fantasy but here are a few books and authors that I like:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett -- this is a GREAT book and I highly recommend it. It's about African-American maids in the '60s and the white women they work for.

Jodi Picoult books -- a bit formulaic after a while but I still enjoy her books

Anita Shreve books

Jennifer Weiner books -- I read Best Friends over the summer and I liked it. I know I've read other books by her but I can't remember the titles. (chick lit)

Madeleine Wickham and Sophie Kinsella books -- same person who writes under different names (chick lit)

Emily Giffin books (chick lit)

Elizabeth Berg books

Lisa Scottoline books (she writes thrillers, not horror but suspense, books)

As you can tell, I tend to stick to the same authors I know I like. I do need to branch out a little and try others.

Have fun in CR!

 

[Dreamer_D]

I really like to read escapist stuff, so most of what I real is fluff... I like series.

The Hunger Games series is fun!

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo series is dark and gross at times but utterly engageing.

All the Sookie Stackhouse novels of course.

The Song of Ice and Fire.

I read the whole Kay Scarpetta murder mystery series the other month and it is fun fun fun.



I can go on if you have read these.

 

[mrscushion]

Another vote for Song of Ice and Fire! Soooo good!

 

[packrat]

I like to read Piers Anthony's Adept series often. They're very entertaining.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion can be quite... intense is perhaps the best word. Creating dispair, perhaps. I love them, but I can't read them sometimes.

Jasper Fforde is a great author. Most of his books are quite wacky (Thursday Next and Nursery Crimes series). Shades of Grey is by far my favourite, but the next book will only com out in 2014

 

[yennyfire]

Katherine Neville's "The Eight" is really good. Also Ian Caldwell's "Rule of Four"...both in the same genre as Dan Brown. If you want something more towards the historical romance, Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series is good...that's all I can come up with off the top of my head.

Have an awesome trip to Costa Rica!

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Ian Pear's "An Instance of the Fingerpost" - a murder mystery in Cambridge, during the Restoration. It uses 4 unreliable narrators with different points of view to flesh out the story of the murder of a Cambridge professor. Very well researched, too (ok, historical inacuracy bugs me way too much, which means I could never read 95% of "historical" romances).

Ian Pear also wrote "Scipio's Dream", which is a book that mixes historical fiction, philosophy and the question of how to choose paths in historically complicated times (the fall of the Roman Empire, the Renaissance and WWII). He does take the easy (and unbelievable) way out of a dilemma once, but I forgave him that

 

[April20]

I don't really read sci-fi or fantasy, but here are some fun "junk food" reads that I've enjoyed over the years... Mostly chick lit- humorous chick lit.

Anything by Marian Keyes, but especially the older stuff. Funny, but usually serious issues at the core.

I also like Isabel Wolff, but I'm not sure how many of hers are available on Kindle. The Trials of Tiffany Trott was a kick. It was published in '99, so I'm really not sure if it's on Kindle.

Jane Green is good as well as Cecilia Ahern.

I'm a big time mystery/thriller junkie. You can't go wrong with anything by Lee Child in the genre (except Nothing to Lose. Skip that one). I'm also a Michael Connelly fan and I really like John Sandford. Oh and Dennis Lehane- specifically the early books that had series characters- they're available on Kindle.

 

[risingsun]

I recommend The Likeness by Tara French. She's an excellent writer and this novel has a different kind of twist to it.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Anything by Marian Keyes, but especially the older stuff. Funny, but usually serious issues at the core.

"Lucy Sulivan is Getting Married" is probably my favourite!

Maeve Binchy also has some good books.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion can be quite... intense is perhaps the best word. Creating dispair, perhaps. I love them, but I can't read them sometimes.

Jasper Fforde is a great author. Most of his books are quite wacky (Thursday Next and Nursery Crimes series). Shades of Grey is by far my favourite, but the next book will only com out in 2014

Ditto about Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion. The priest's story in Hyperion freaked me so much. I read those two when living by myself in Tokyo and I swear I slept with my lights on for a few days.

I thought Instance of the Fingerpost was also good, though I wasn't quite as big a fan of Dream of Scipio (but I think I'm a little traumatized from my awful Philosophy major from college )

 

[LGK]

thanks for the recs everyone. i did download a number of them. i´m in san jose right now, we´re leaving for manuel antonio in an hour and my aunts are still fussing around packing. i got everything into a smallish carryon, so i´m packed, lol. hopefully mom will refrain from sacrificing one of her sisters to the volcano when we go up there, but judging by the fun family feuding it´s gonna be a near thing i´ve had a lot of time to read here and i´m quite glad i loaded up the kindle, for sure.

(this keyboard is making me crazy.)

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

thanks for the recs everyone. i did download a number of them. i´m in san jose right now, we´re leaving for manuel antonio in an hour and my aunts are still fussing around packing. i got everything into a smallish carryon, so i´m packed, lol. hopefully mom will refrain from sacrificing one of her sisters to the volcano when we go up there, but judging by the fun family feuding it´s gonna be a near thing i´ve had a lot of time to read here and i´m quite glad i loaded up the kindle, for sure.

(this keyboard is making me crazy.)

lol if she sacrifices a sister to the volcano, I'll come take her place! I'm so jealous! Have lots of fun, and tell us how you like the books!