Saturday, September 4, 2010

Help! I'm missing out on genre fiction!

I'm coming up towards the end of my 100 Books in 2010 challenge, since I've read 88 books so far this year, so I've started to think about what gaps I have in my reading for the year. As a writer, I want to try and be well-rounded and read outside of favorite genres.

So here's what I've read so far  (view the full list of titles here)
Middle grade: 4
Young adult: 35
Historical fiction: 2
Romance: 0
Suspense/thriller/mystery: 5
Sci-fi/fantasy: 1
Fiction: 27
Non-fiction: 7

I've definitely skewed towards Young Adult and non-genre Fiction. Honestly, the wealth of genres within what we term YA (from contemporary romance to science fiction to fantasy to mystery) probably kept me from realizing earlier that my reading was so lopsided!

I have a few books I'm still finishing (both non-fiction, Richard Wright's Black Boy and Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran).  But I need to start looking for some new novels - and I'm thinking genre fiction deserves a turn.


Any fantasy, sci-fi, romance or suspense/mystery recs for me? And has anyone else taken a look at what they've read this year and noticed any trends?

9 comments:

Old Kitty said...

Oooh sci-fi: I'm currently reading an anthology "Norton book of science fiction (1993)". Like with all anthologies there are some sublime stories and some not so bad and some... well... they're ok!

Well done you with your 88 books read so far - wow!

Take care
x

Sophia said...

For historical fantasy with gorgeous settings and byzantine politics and too clever characters you can't beat Guy Gavriel Kay's duology 'Sailing to Sarantium' and 'Lord of Emperors' or his stand alone 'The Lions of Al-Rassan'. If you don't mind sex and violence and getting sucked into a fantastic unfinished fantasy series you can't go wrong with George R. R. Martin's 'A Game of Thrones'. Robin Hobb is also good but she's another series writer. Not many stand alone fantasy books these days!
- Sophia.

Unknown said...

How about something with a teen main character in a realistic setting but appealing to a general readership? If you want something like that, please visit my blog (leave a comment!) and my website. Thanks!

Summer Frey said...

You could kill the fantasy and romance together; I love J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series. She's also got a new series based around the 7 Deadly Sins--first one is called Covet.

Brent Weeks wrote a fantasy trilogy that was one of the best things I've read in years--the Night Angel trilogy. Big thick books that I'd read in one sitting, they were so engrossing. First one is The Way of Shadows.

dolorah said...

Sorry, I've read almost exclusively unpublished authors (as in beta reading) in the last year. But, I did read an awesome kinda urban fantasy thing - Maelstrom, by Ana Pino. She's a new author I got to know through the blogs. She'd love to have you read her novel, if you're of a mind. Its not YA :)

Cinders (Michelle Davidson-Argyle) is also not YA, but is a fairy-tale twist on Cinderella. An interesting read. A new author I'm dying to read is Alex J Cavanaugh, sci-fi, CASSATAR. Releasing in October, I think. His agent and publisher has gone all out on publicity for this novel, and the reviews are simply astounding.

If I could stop the world a few minutes though, I'd indulge myself in Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME. That - and several others - has been drawing dust on my bookshelf for almost a year now, and I'm jonesin to read it.

I need about a two week vacation so I can catch up on reading for pure pleasure again. Oh, how I miss it!

........dhole

Stephanie said...

I read the Queen of Babble series by Meg Cabot this year...LOVED it! It's more chick lit than romance though. Right now I'm reading Cinders by Michelle Davidson Argyle and that's fantasy. Love it so far! I read some of the Harlequins I got for free in their 60th anniversary giveaway: Dancing in the Moonlight, The Price of Passion and The Rebel Doctor's Bride. Enjoyed all of those! The only sci fi I've read was YA, but I really enjoyed it- The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld.

And if you want some edgy chick lit, you can try my book, A Bitch Named Karma!! ;)

Missed Periods said...

I started out the year with a challenge to myself to read Pulitzer Prize winning novels. I read a handful and then I got sucked into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, which was fun if you haven't read it yet.

notesfromnadir said...

Glad you asked!
I see you read more fiction, but scifi can be a fascinating genre.
Here's a link to an older book Make Room! Make Room!
which is about a very overpopulated NYC. They based a 1973 Charlton Heston movie on it entitled Soylent Green & it's quite different from the book.

For fantasy, I can recommend Piers Anthony's series Incarnations of Immortality There are 8 books in this series so that'll help out your scifi/fantasy quota!

HAPPY READING! :)

Unknown said...

For romance I'm a fan of anything Adult by Susan Elizabeth Phillips!! Two titles that are my favorites: It had to be you & Natural Born Charmer.

Historical Romance (YA): Prada and Prejudice

There are a few options :)