Book Recommendations while you wait!

[leadchipmunk]

No, I haven't heard of him before.

[ZenGwen]

Based entirely on this quote...

It sounds pretty awesome, but then again I'm a 90's gamer kid that is into post-apocalyptic dystopianism.

...I think you would love him. (Hi, I am also a 90s gamer kid into post-apocalyptic dystopias.) I am slightly, but not entirely, biased by the fact that he lives in my city and I occasionally run into him at the local freaks/geeks/goths pub. "Slightly" because I am all about Edinburgh pride and he is one of our notable authors, "not entirely" because he has tons of REALLY COOL ideas from his REALLY AWESOME mind and is more than happy to pin you down listening to how awesome they are for hours in person. But they really are pretty damn awesome.

Here's his Amazon author's page.

I recommend starting with Accelerando, The Atrocity Archives, or if you're in the mood for something light and fluffy, Halting State.

The Laundry series (starting with atrocity archives) is probably what he's best known for, there's a tabletop RPG based on it and everything. He's written a couple of decent fantasy novels, too. Personally, I prefer Accelerando - post-singularity dystopia.

[CRad14]

Book Series to Checkout

Codex Alrera

Night Angel Trilogy

A Song of Ice and Fire

Farseer Trilogy

I think that is something like 16+ books, should keep anyone busy for a while.

[Vegemighty]

Ok, give me some recommends!

1. I've previously enjoyed reading The Rational Optimist, Fahrenheit 451, and the Foundation series.

2. Some TV shows I like right now are Game of Thrones (Amazing!), Breaking Bad, and the movie Amadeus.

3. Some things I don't like are Cormac McCarthy, his bare bones style just doesnt jive with me, Twilight, obviously, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people

Can you come up with anything?

[leadchipmunk]

Accelerando sounds pretty good. But I hate wikipedia. I always start looking at scifi books, then go onto the technology used in the book (in this case Matrioshka brain), then move on from there (to dyson sphere), then on from there and so on until I forgot what I was looking at, but deeply enthralled in sciency goodness.

CRad, is the A Song of Ice and Fire series better than the Game of Thrones show? I haven't seen the show but absolutely refuse to do so because everything I've heard of it makes it sound horrible.

2. Some TV shows I like right now are Game of Thrones (Amazing!), Breaking Bad, and the movie Amadeus.

Sorry Vegemighty.

[Strickland5]

1-3 books/series you've enjoyed in the past

Dresden Files - it is awesome, covered in amazing, and topped with a brilliant sauce.

The Elenium and The Tamuli - a pair of 3 book series by David Eddings which I enjoyed when I was younger and even more after I lived alittle.

1-3 movies/TV shows you enjoy

TV Shows - Supernatural (I recommend stopping at season 5), Mythbuster, TopGear

Movies - The Shawshank Redemption, Ice Pirates, Time Bandits

1-3 books/series/authors you dislike

Presently not digging A Game of Thrones and couldn't get into Codex Alera

Any hard limits or important preferences (i.e., no explicit sex, limited cursing, etc.)

Nope, I'll read most anything

[drsloomis]

Late to the party, as usual, but jumping in with both feet nonetheless.

1-3 books/series you've enjoyed in the past

Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, Cervantes' Don Quixote, anything by Kurt Vonnegut to name my some of my all-time favorites. More recent? King's 11/22/63, Russell's Swamplandia, and Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

1-3 movies/TV shows you enjoy

Only 3? TV: Top Shot, Fringe, The Walking Dead

Movies: Cabin in the Woods (truly awe-inspiring), Drive, Tree of Life (HUGE film buff, so could easily list dozens)

1-3 books/series/authors you dislike

Twilgiht, Twilight, Twilight

Any hard limits or important preferences (i.e., no explicit sex, limited cursing, etc.)

Haven't hit any yet (someone earlier mentioned American Psycho...good book, great movie)

[Librarian of Doom]

Oooh ooh, I could always use more recommendations! Especially for stuff available on Audible, I've got a couple credits waiting at the moment.

Recent stuff I've been reading... The Night Circus, Crimnoir Chronicles, Vampirates, Orcs, America's Women, Pillars of the Earth, The Crimson Petal and the White, biography of Marie Antoinette, biography of Abraham Lincoln... and lots of comics, mostly Marvel superhero stuff and ACTION PHILOSOPHERS. (Gosh I didn't realize I was reading so much, thank you audiobooks.)

TV shows I like - Law & Order, Firefly, The West Wing, Star Trek, Babylon 5, magical girl anime.

I'm open to pretty much anything but "chick-lit". Fiction, non-fiction, Young Adult, very adult, it's all good. I do mostly tend to go with fantasy/sci-fi (was president of the club in college oh yes), historical fiction, biographies and pop-sociology.

Okay, I apologize PROFUSELY for starting this thread and not being able to reply. I should've known better than to start something like this right before the last week of school. Mea culpa.

As far as vampires go, there's some really good YA stuff out there. My favorites are the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead and the Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine (although I haven't read the most recent 4 or so of the Morganville series, so I can't vouch for the quality). I got a chance to read an ARC of Julie Kagawa's new book, The Immortal Rules, and it was really good. Not sure if it's out yet or not, but I'm definitely planning to grab it for the library. You don't see many vampires-meet-dystopia books

Don't have any biography recommendations, really, although you might enjoy Chasing Lincoln's Killer, if you haven't already tried it.

More later if I think of them.

[Librarian of Doom]

I know this is going to surprise you all, but I really like horror books. (No, really, it's true! Honest!) But I also do the mystery/thriller thing, and just regular fiction if it's good.

1-3 books/series you've enjoyed in the past

For series, I loved Harry Potter and The Hunger Games (well, I'm in the middle of the second book right now, but I loved the first one), the Dexter series

For books, my all time favourites are A Clockwork Orange, Odd Thomas, Brave New World, American Psycho

1-3 movies/TV shows you enjoy

TV Shows - Law & Order SVU, Supernatural, Dexter

Movies - The Shining, The Lost Boys, A Clockwork Orange

1-3 books/series/authors you dislike

I'm in no way a fan of anything bodice ripping or period pieces, like Jane Austen's books. Can't do it.

I'm hit or miss with Stephen King - loved several, meh about a few, and Misery will go down as the book I have hated the most ever (it is also the only movie I've ever seen that was better than the book!)

I can't get into anything Lord of the Rings-ish. (I know, I know...please don't ban me.)

Any hard limits or important preferences (i.e., no explicit sex, limited cursing, etc.)

Bring it. Nothing bothers me at all.

EDITED TO ADD - Deep down, I really love a good ghost story the most.

As far as horror goes, I don't have many recommendations. You might check out the Dreamhouse Kings series by Robert Liparulo I've only read the first one, but it seems to straddle the line between horror and fantasy; I'm really interested to see how the rest of the series turns out.

If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, check out the Chemical Garden Trilogy by Lauren DiStefano. Only the first two are out so far, but they're really good, and I think you'd enjoy the dystopian/horror blend.

[Librarian of Doom]

I guess I read pretty much pop culturish; ie what's hot/popular now.

Aside from the obvious (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, The Girl with Dragon Tattoo series,ASoIaF, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, Dan Brown, Marian Keyes, Emily Giffen)

My favorite single novel is Prep by Curtis Sittenfield

I really enjoyed LJ Smith and Christopher Pike growing up, tried Charlaine Harris,House of Night YA series, didn't do it for me. Need mo vampires.

I also love forensic thrillers-Simon Beckett is great, Jefferson Bass, Patricia Cornwell (although her series is lacking lately)

a favorite series is the Besty-Tacy-Tib books...they're really old.

Favorite shows right now: Big Bang Theory, GoT, HIMYM. used to love Law and Order. Miss Stabler, though.

really only dislike religious books or nonfiction

no really hard limits...I did read Fifty Shades of Gray and

I'm all over the map. What do you have for me?

Okay, vampires vampires vampires!!!

As I mentioned in ZenGwen's recommendations, one of my favorite YA vampire series is the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. The main character actually grows and matures through the series, which I've found to be rare in YA.

I also enjoy the Morganville Vampires series( at least the first 6 or 7, haven't read the later ones) by Rachel Caine, and The Immortal Rules is the first book in a new series by Julie Kagawa that may or may not be out yet (I read an advance copy and loved it).

Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton was an excellent story that starts off like your standard paranormal YA and then takes a sharp left turn into Greek Mythology. Very original, very fun. I loved it.

I liked the first 4 Anita Blake books by Laurel K. Hamilton. After that, the series basically became porn. I don't object to erotica, I have a rather large collection of it, but I do object to an author writing a character who strongly dislikes and distrusts vampires, who by book 5 is sleeping with a vampire for no apparent reason other than she got tired of telling him no. If you can pretend the series ends with book 4, it's awesome.

If you're willing to branch out into urban fantasy that's not necessarily vampire-centric, I can recommend lots more

[Librarian of Doom]

Anything for a Heinlein/Asimov fan who can't seem to connect to any modern SF books? I abhor cyberpunk, and post-apocalyptic is really grating on my nerves.

Not really a fantasy fan, although Charles DeLint's stuff is incredible (I may be a bit biased since he's from my hometown).

I have enjoyed Harry Potter and to a lesser extent, Hunger Games.

The Jack Ryan novels by Tom Clancy were very interesting, as was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Legacies by F. Paul Wilson. It's the first in the Repairman Jack series, and it's the best. It's not that the rest are awful, it's that Legacies is that good. [husband's note: for the Tom Clancy fan in you]

Armor by John Steakley is one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read. [husband's note: anything else by the author was crap. Sad panda]

Turning the keyboard over to my husband, since he's more sci-fi inclined than I

It all depends on how pulpy you want to go (Asimov could get crazy campy at times). I tend to love anything by Timothy Zahn, just because he wrote the only starwars books worth reading. His stuff lately has been kinda blah, but I recommend the Conquerer's Trilogy for the sheer laughs. The Lost Fleet books by Jack Campbell is a tale of space opera combat, only everyone actually matters. When ships are lost, you feel it. If you want to go for cheesier space opera than that, there's always David Webber's Honor Harrington's series. It's the cheesiest.

On the fantasy end, there's Jim Butcher. His Dresden Files are urban fantasy from a guy's perspective. In other words, big explosions, no flowery sex. The series gets better the further in you get, which is very good, as the first book is merely passable. By the time you hit book 6, it's awesome.

There are a lot of sci-fi authors that have created great works but haven't gotten the recognition by people who aren't fans of the genre. Benford is still producing interesting stuff, and if you haven't caught Paulson's works, you're missing out. If all of our books were unpacked, I could probably give you a list of ten more authors and maybe twenty titles, but right now with screaming daughter I'm having a hard time remembering all of them.

[Namednoname]

I haven't read for a while now which is a bit crazy cause growing up I'd happily spend an entire day curled up in a chair reading. Don't have a clue where to start again, so here goes

1-3 books/series you've enjoyed in the past

I honestly can't remember the last exact book I read. I've pretty much always picked up whatever books my dad has left around and read them. I've never been too bothered about what genre the book is, as long as it's well written and exciting enough to stop not my mind from wandering off.

1-3 movies/TV shows you enjoy

TV Shows - Game of Thrones is Boss. The Walking Dead. House.

Movies - Lord of the Rings films. Nolan's Batman Films. Taken.

1-3 books/series/authors you dislike

I hate twilight. Ummm. Thats about it, pretty easy going otherwise.

Any hard limits or important preferences (i.e., no explicit sex, limited cursing, etc.)

Not phased by it at all. Infact If pulled off right, I prefer edgier books, as long as it's done in a classy/intelligent way which adds to the atmosphere.

Also If you got any recommendations for non-fiction books based on the travels of famous explorers/adventurers, that would be great

[Librarian of Doom]

Some books I've enjoyed in recent history.

The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn (this is the book that last year's Limitless was based on, and I'm pissed it was so awful)

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy (if Sterling Archer and a less obnoxious Zooey Deschanel had a child, it would be the protagonist of this book galavanting around Paris doing whatever the hell she wants)

Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman (only if you can stand him bitching about how much he hates Coldplay simply by virtue of a girl he liked going to see them live instead of hanging with him)

Dress Your Family In Denim & Corduroy by David Sedaris (anything by him, really)

Serena by Ron Rash (reading it right now, they're making it into a movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper)

C*** by Inga Muscio (just trust me when I say it's a really great read, whether you have one or are into those who have them)

No Reservations by Anthony Bourdain (I want to be him when I grow up)

ANYTHING by Christopher Moore, this guy is f-u-n-n-y

I will be editing this list later when I come back from afternoon class.

I suspect I am not hip enough to recommend books for you If you like Sedaris, you might enjoy I'm A Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson, or his other works.

[Librarian of Doom]

Yes! I'm taking you up on this! I would love some personalized recommendations!!

I consider myself nerdy because I love love love to read.. to the point where I've memorized all the library card numbers I've ever held..

Oh, I never buy new books.. so I guess there's a stipulation. MUST BE AVAILABLE AT THE LIBRARY.

Books/series you've enjoyed in the past:

Honestly, I like fluffy crap.

I don't read to get smarter.. I read to be entertained.

Series I've enjoyed: Twilight, Hunger Games, Ender's Game series, Sookie Stackhouse, The Millenium Trilogy, Pillars of the Earth/World Without End.

I think Jonathan Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You is the funniest book I've ever read.

Movies/TV shows you enjoy

Favorite movie of all time: The Professional.

Others include: Sherlock Holmes, Immortal Beloved, The Ring and The Mummy.

TV shows: House and Grey's Anatomy

Books/series/authors you dislike:

Used to love James Patterson's crime fictions, but can't stand it anymore.

Cannot get through "classic" books (Moby Dick, etc) or period pieces.

Any recommendations for me?

Okay, a little google-fu got me the catalog for the Hawaii State Public Library system, so everything I list here is available through them. I'm seconding ZenGwen's recommendation of the Kelley Armstrong series, and Dime Store Magic is my favorite of that series.

You might also like Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series, that starts with Dead Witch Walking. I like a protagonist that can face her own flaws and try to fix them.

If you liked The Mummy, you might like Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters; it's a mystery set in Egypt in the same time-frame as The Mummy. The language is a bit on the "classic" side, but it's fun. For one set in British-colonized Egypt with more modern language, try Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase. Very fun!

For fluffy that also includes crime, try the "In Death" series by J.D. Robb, aka Nora Roberts. Naked in Death is the first one. I like them because of the growing relationships through the series between ongoing characters. It gets a little formulaic at times, but give it a shot and see what you think

[Rosie]

Librarian of Doom can I just say I am amazed by your knowledge of books and genres? Kudos!

[alice-on]

3 books I enjoyed: (first of all, I'm an atheist and I loved this book) Lamb:The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood pal by Christopher Moore (super funny fiction that fills in Christ's past, hint: he does Kung Fu), Rant by Chuck Palahniuk (probably my favorite by him, mind fuck book as usual), Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (very funny end of the world scenario).

3 movies: Mirrormask (Jim Henson company, beautiful story and effects, great for fans of The Labrynth and The Dark Crystal), Pandorum (I'm big on science fiction and space, and though this wasn't HARD CORE scifi, at least to me, It had a very profound effect on me for some reason), Sunshine (another scifi, in the future our sun dies and a team of scientist go out with hopes of restarting it, very VERY good).

3 tv series (because I want a category separate from movies): Game of Thrones (duh), Mad Men (OMG so amazed at how good this show is, characters are out of this world), Once Upon a Time (I surprised myself with this one, it's actually quite fun to follow)

3 series: The Tim Dorsey series (doesn't HAVE to be read in order, but I think it helps for character development, funny books about a serial killer/psychopath in Florida), Terry Pratchett Discworld series (If you're a nerd, you must know about it, if you don't, go out and read them!), and A Song of Fire and Ice series (if you have or haven't seen the show Game of Thrones, you will still love the books).

[drsloomis]

Anything for a Heinlein/Asimov fan who can't seem to connect to any modern SF books? I abhor cyberpunk, and post-apocalyptic is really grating on my nerves.

Have you read much Piers Anthony? He and Heinlein were two of the authors I poured through in high school. As a starting point I'd recommend either Split Infinity (the first in the excellent Apprentice Adept series) or A Spell for Chameleon (the first in the seemingly interminable Xanth series...good, but a little inconsistent as you get to later entries). There's also Frank Herbert's epic Dune series. Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat and Larry Niven's Ringworld are also worth a look.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (very funny end of the world scenario).

{snip}

3 movies...Sunshine (another scifi, in the future our sun dies and a team of scientist go out with hopes of restarting it, very VERY good).

Good Omens is fabulous and Sunshine is a criminally underrated work from director Danny Boyle (not as taken by the climax, but the film overall is fantastic)...I would highly recommend both to anyone. I'm also a big fan of Gaiman's Anansi Boys and American Gods--a bit more dense than Good Omens, but similar tone and style.

[Rivanariko]

I could use some book recommendations for one of my residents... I work in psychiatric residential treatment with adolescent girls.

One of my girls is a voracious reader, but I'm not up on recent YA books enough to recommend too much for her. She is 11 years old, but is highly intelligent and her reading level is definitely above her age. She is absolutely against anything that is written "for little kids".

She absolutely devoured the Harry Potter books and bugged me daily for spoilers on them (which I refused to provide because i'm mean like that). She loves Goosebumps and anything by R.L. Stein, but we're trying to discourage the horror genre because she has problems with nightmares, hallucinations, and a heavy history of abuse. She refused to clean her bathroom mirror for weeks because she was sure something was going to jump out of it. I think she read the Twilight books before she was admitted and really liked them. She started Hunger Games (because her teacher got them, I tried to discourage those because of her history) but thought they were boring within a few pages and put them down. She wants to read more "grown up" books, but they need to still be appropriate for her age, so no gratuitous violence, sex, etc. ESPECIALLY sex. Seriously, nothing with sex.

As far as tv... she usually watches the Disney Channel with our other younger residents, but I think that's mostly just for companionship sake. Like I said, she's very intelligent, and I'm trying to encourage the reading habit as much as possible. She has a lot of respect for books and doesn't destroy them like she does all of her other belongings. Only book I've ever seen her throw was a dictionary, as opposed to all of the rest of her things, which regularly get flung around her room/at people or torn apart in a fit of rage.

[airen123]

I could use some book recommendations for one of my residents... I work in psychiatric residential treatment with adolescent girls.

One of my girls is a voracious reader, but I'm not up on recent YA books enough to recommend too much for her. She is 11 years old, but is highly intelligent and her reading level is definitely above her age. She is absolutely against anything that is written "for little kids".

She absolutely devoured the Harry Potter books and bugged me daily for spoilers on them (which I refused to provide because i'm mean like that). She loves Goosebumps and anything by R.L. Stein, but we're trying to discourage the horror genre because she has problems with nightmares, hallucinations, and a heavy history of abuse. She refused to clean her bathroom mirror for weeks because she was sure something was going to jump out of it. I think she read the Twilight books before she was admitted and really liked them. She started Hunger Games (because her teacher got them, I tried to discourage those because of her history) but thought they were boring within a few pages and put them down. She wants to read more "grown up" books, but they need to still be appropriate for her age, so no gratuitous violence, sex, etc. ESPECIALLY sex. Seriously, nothing with sex.

As far as tv... she usually watches the Disney Channel with our other younger residents, but I think that's mostly just for companionship sake. Like I said, she's very intelligent, and I'm trying to encourage the reading habit as much as possible. She has a lot of respect for books and doesn't destroy them like she does all of her other belongings. Only book I've ever seen her throw was a dictionary, as opposed to all of the rest of her things, which regularly get flung around her room/at people or torn apart in a fit of rage.

I have younger sisters, and I love YA myself.

The Summer I Turned Pretty-3 book series. Pretty good YA romance-they don't "have sex", but one guy cheated on her that way, and she ends up marrying the brother. No violence, no horror. Great beach and young love read.

The Help?

The Lying Game,

Pretty Little Liars (show does not do the books justice), not really violent.

Divergent

Trylle Triology

I also liked the Privileged/Private series, but they're a long series and can get expensive...

vampires? House of Night

some of the Sarah Dessen books. would do some research as some touch on the "sex", but they're soo good.

[Librarian of Doom]

Ok, give me some recommends!

1. I've previously enjoyed reading The Rational Optimist, Fahrenheit 451, and the Foundation series.

2. Some TV shows I like right now are Game of Thrones (Amazing!), Breaking Bad, and the movie Amadeus.

3. Some things I don't like are Cormac McCarthy, his bare bones style just doesnt jive with me, Twilight, obviously, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people

Can you come up with anything?

I might recommend the novels of the Change by S.M. Stirling, starting with Dies the Fire. I base this on the fact that you liked the Foundation novels. This is a potential future, post-societal-collapse story with multiple generations of characters.

[Librarian of Doom]

I have two set of books I liked that I would like to read something similar.

•1-3 books/series you've enjoyed in the past

Good Earth by Pearl S Buck and The Robe my Lloyd C Douglas. I generally don't like older books but these two have a special place in my heart.

The First Law Series by Joe Abercrombie. I have read all five of his books and love his style and how he takes a classic trope and twists it.

and for general recommendation some other of my top favorites are Howl's Moving Castle, Clockwork Century (awesome Steampunk read for anyone into the genre), KingKiller Chronicles (oh I can't wait for the third book!).

•1-3 movies/TV shows you enjoy

Anything by Studio Ghibili, Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmare, any thing action adventure

•1-3 books/series/authors you dislike

Chick-lit, Twilight, High Scifi (info dump world building William Gibson comes to mind)

•Any hard limits or important preferences (i.e., no explicit sex, limited cursing, etc.)

Open to anything

Okay, if you liked Howl's Moving Castle, have you read other Diana Wynne Jones books? House of Many Ways also involves Howl and Sophie as secondary characters. Enchanted Glass is also very fun.

You'll probably enjoy "Sorcery and Cecilia" by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermere, and the two sequels

If you're open to reading YA, try out the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. It's got a great, snarky tone, and is a lot of adventurous fun.

As someone else mentioned in this thread, Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series is a lot of fun to read

[Librarian of Doom]

I'ma just leave my library here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dforck42

Are you sure that's not my library? Oh, wait, there aren't enough books in it to be mine

If you like Pratchett, and I can see that you do try Heroics for Beginners by John Moore. It's got a lot of the same sort of humor. Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles are also fun.

I didn't see the Hitchhiker's Guide books in your library; if you haven't read them in the past, you might give them a try. The Vlad Taltos series by Stephen Brust is also good for someone who likes the Dresden Files; it's got that snarky, noir-movie quality to the narration.

[Guest Gemeaux]

Hi ! I teach 3-5 year olds , anything that's popular with the kiddies there ?

[Librarian of Doom]

1-3 books/series you've enjoyed in the past

Dresden Files - it is awesome, covered in amazing, and topped with a brilliant sauce.

The Elenium and The Tamuli - a pair of 3 book series by David Eddings which I enjoyed when I was younger and even more after I lived alittle.

1-3 movies/TV shows you enjoy

TV Shows - Supernatural (I recommend stopping at season 5), Mythbuster, TopGear

Movies - The Shawshank Redemption, Ice Pirates, Time Bandits

1-3 books/series/authors you dislike

Presently not digging A Game of Thrones and couldn't get into Codex Alera

Any hard limits or important preferences (i.e., no explicit sex, limited cursing, etc.)

Nope, I'll read most anything

As mentioned in a previous recommendation, if you like Dresden, as any sane person does, the Vlad Taltos books by Stephen Brust have a similar voice.

For high fantasy whose characters don't take themselves seriously, with a side of awesomesauce, definitely read the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. I really wish he'd been writing Wheel of Time from the beginning, then I wouldn't be unable/unwilling to go back and reread the first nine books.

The Warded Man by Peter Brett was pretty awesome, although I couldn't get into the sequel, but YMMV

Oath of Swords and The War God's Own by David Weber are pretty cool. The third book feels Mary-Sue-ish, but the fourth book starts moving an overarching series arc forward, so, again, YMMV. The first book is definitely worth reading.

[HorrorGeek]

almost kicked a "tween" girl as a reaction to her squeal when seeing Jake. Honestly, I couldn't control my leg.

The secret to this is to find a "grown up" theatre. Many of them now have 21+ only showings. It doesn't eliminate the problem (drunk college girls can be just as bad as tweens) but its far less of an issue.

I heard the Sookie Stackhouse books were better than the show. Is that true? I loved the first 2 or 3 seasons of the show, but got rid of my HBO subscription after that.

I like the books better for the most part. She's not really that great of a writer, but the stories are better. Alan Ball is really messing with a lot of the storylines and they are not an improvement. However, my biggest complaint about the books are the ridiculously veiled sex scenes. Either write them, or don't. Don't "suggest" it like it's a dirty word. Clearly, anyone who has seen the show knows this is not an issue.

And dammit to hell I want them to bring Bubba on the show! (readers will know what that means)