Jen's Reading List

Science Fiction    ||    Fantasy    ||    Mystery     ||    Other Fiction

Poetry    ||   Reference, Science & Textbooks    ||    Other Nonfiction

Finding Books    ||     Don't Have the Time?

Below I have listed books that I cannot recommend highly enough.  Please use the links above to navigate this lengthy page.  This is not to be considered a comprehensive list in any sense.  Please email me with your recommendations ... I love to read great books!

Last update: 3/22/05

... but I haven't gone through to double-check that all the links are live since fall of '04, so don't be surprised if you find a 404 or two.



Science Fiction

Isaac Asimov (see also Other Books )

The Complete Short Stories (2 volumes)

Ray Bradbury (see also Other Fiction )

Fahrenheit 451
The Martian Chronicles

Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game

Arthur C. Clarke

"The Star"

William Gibson

Neuromancer

Robert Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land
The Green Hills of Earth (short stories)
The Man Who Sold the Moon (short stories)
Revolt in 2100
Orphans of the Sky

Frank Herbert

the Dune series (esp. Dune)
The Heaven Makers
Hellstrom's Hive

Walter M. Miller, Jr.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

Alexei Panshin

Rite of Passage

Carl Sagan

Contact

H.G. Wells

The War of the Worlds

Gene Wolfe


Free Live Free
The Devil in a Forest
There Are Doors
The Fifth Head of Cerberus
Peace
The Book of the New Sun: The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, The Citadel of the Autarch
To date, this is all of his work that I have read, but I'm working my way through the rest, and I'm pretty confident in recommending the rest unread, based on what I have read.



Science Fiction -- Comic

Douglas Adams (see also Fantasy -- Comic )

the Hitchhiker's Guide series: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe, and Everything , So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, Mostly Harmless


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Fantasy

Margaret Atwood (see also Other Fiction )

The Handmaid's Tale

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Darkover books (esp. Heritage of Hastur and Sharra's Exile -- but there are 21 total, mostly good)
The Mists of Avalon

Steven Brust

the Vlad Taltos novels: Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla, Taltos, Phoenix, Athyra, Orca, Dragon, Issola (so far)
other Dragaera novels: The Phoenix Guards, Five Hundred Years After
Brokedown Palace

Pamela Dean

Tam Lin

Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts

the Empire trilogy: Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire, Mistress of the Empire

Parke Godwin

Firelord
Beloved Exile
The Last Rainbow

Barbara Hambly

Dragonsbane
Sun-Wolf and Starhawk: The Ladies of Mandrigyn, The Witches of Wenshar, The Dark Hand of Magic
the Darwath trilogy: The Time of the Dark, The Walls of Air, The Armies of Daylight
The Windrose Chronicles: The Silent Tower, The Silicon Mage, Dog Wizard

Stephen Lawhead

Taliesin
Merlin
Arthur

C.S. Lewis (see also Fantasy -- Children )

Till We Have Faces
The Screwtape Letters

Gregory Maguire

Wicked

George R.R. Martin

Song of Ice and Fire series: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords (so far)

Anne McCaffrey

Dragonriders of Pern trilogy: Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon
the Pern Plague books: Moreta, Dragonlady of Pern, Nerilka's Story
the Dragonsong trilogy: Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums

Patricia McKillip

Moon-Flash
The Changeling Sea
The Throme of the Erill of Sherill

Riddlemaster trilogy: The Riddlemaster of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire, Harpist in the Wind
the Cygnet books: The Cygnet and the Firebrand, The Cygnet and the Swan

Robin McKinley

Deerskin
Beauty
The Blue Sword
The Hero and the Crown

J.K. Rowling

the Harry Potter books: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (so far)

Robert Silverberg

Lord Valentine's Castle
Valentine Pontifex
The Mountains of Majipoor
Sorcerers of Majipoor
Lord Prestimion

Sheri S. Tepper

Grass
The Gate to Women's Country
The Awakeners
A Plague of Angels
After Long Silence

J. R. R. Tolkien

The Hobbit or, There and Back Again
The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King

Jack Vance

the Lyonesse trilogy: Lyonesse, The Green Pearl, Madouc

Patricia C. Wrede

Snow White and Rose Red


Fantasy -- Children

Lloyd Alexander

the Prydain chronicles: The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King

L. Frank Baum

The Wizard of Oz etext

Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland etext
Through the Looking Glass etext

Roald Dahl

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Michael Ende

Momo

D.J. Enright

The Joke Shop

Brian Jacques

Redwall
Mossflower
Mattimeo

Madeleine L'Engle

A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet

C.S. Lewis (see also Fantasy )

the Narnia series: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Magician's Nephew, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Silver Chair, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Last Battle

George MacDonald

The Princess and Curdie
The Light Princess

Pat O'Shea

The Hounds of the Morrigan

Pamela Stearns and Ann Strugnell

The Fool and the Dancing Bear

Mary Tannen

The Wizard Children of Finn

Elizabeth Winthrop

The Castle in the Attic

Fantasy -- Comic

Douglas Adams (see also Science Fiction -- Comic )

Dirk Gently books: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul

Esther Friesner

the Demons trilogy: Here Be Demons, Demon Blues, Hooray for Hellywood

Tom Holt

Expecting Someone Taller

Terry Pratchett

the Discworld books (esp. The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort, Sourcery, Wyrd Sisters, Pyramids, Reaper Man, Witches Abroad)


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Mystery

Robert Barnard

Death by Sheer Torture
Corpse in a Gilded Cage
Out of the Blackout
The Cherry Blossom Corpse
The Skeleton in the Grass
A Scandal in Belgravia
The Bad Samaritan
Fete Fatale
The Masters of the House
School for Murder

G.K. Chesterton (the Father Brown mysteries)

Agatha Christie (all of her mystery stories and novels)

Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes mysteries) (here also)

Dorothy Gilman (the Mrs. Pollifax novels)

Peter Lovesey

Rough Cider

Matthew Pearl

The Dante Club

Iain Pears

An Instance of the Fingerpost
The Dream of Scipio

Elizabeth Peters (the Amelia Peabody mysteries)

Ellis Peters (the Brother Cadfael mysteries)

Dorothy L. Sayers (the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries)

Dorothy Simpson

The Night She Died
Six Feet Under
Puppet for a Corpse


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Other Fiction

Richard Adams

Maia

Margaret Atwood (see also Fantasy )

Alias Grace
The Robber Bride
Cat's Eye
Lady Oracle
The Edible Woman

Ray Bradbury (see also Science Fiction )

Dandelion Wine
The Illustrated Man
Long After Midnight
The Halloween Tree
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The October Country

Willa Cather

My Antonia

Philip Jose Farmer

the Riverworld series (esp. The Gods of Riverworld)

Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones' Diary

John Galsworthy

The Forsyte Saga etext

Graham Greene

Travels With My Aunt
The Heart of the Matter
The Captain and the Enemy

Thomas Hardy

Return of the Native etext

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter etext
Twice-Told Tales (short stories) etext

Peter Hoeg

Smilla's Sense of Snow

John Irving

A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Cider House Rules
The Hotel New Hampshire

Stephen King

The Tommyknockers
It
The Shining

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Autumn of the Patriarch
A Hundred Years of Solitude

Colleen McCullough

The Ladies of Missalonghi
The Thorn Birds

John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey stories) (here also)

Flannery O'Connor (any of her short stories)

Ovid

Metamorphoses etext

Edgar Allen Poe

"The Pit and the Pendulum" etext
"The Telltale Heart" etext
"The Purloined Letter" etext
"A Descent into Maelstrom" etext
"The Cask of Amontillado" etext
"The Gold Bug" etext
"The Fall of the House of Usher" etext

Ayn Rand or here

Atlas Shrugged

Saki (H.H. Munro)

The Complete Saki

Sir Walter Scott

The Lady of the Lake

William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing etext
The Taming of the Shrew etext
A Midsummer Night's Dream etext
Romeo and Juliet etext
Julius Caesar etext
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark etext
The Tempest etext

Betty Smith

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Neal Stephenson or here

Cryptonomicon

Frank Stockton

The Lady or the Tiger (short stories)

Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer etext
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn etext
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court etext

Rebecca Wells

Little Altars Everywhere

Fiction -- Children

Joan Aiken

the Wolves Chronicles (esp. Black Hearts in Battersea, Nightbirds on Nantucket, and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase)
The Cockatrice Boys

Louisa May Alcott

Little Women etext
Eight Cousins
Rose in Bloom
An Old-Fashioned Girl
Jack and Jill

Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden etext

Daniel Defoe

Robinson Crusoe

Virginia Cary Hudson

O Ye Jigs and Juleps etext

E.L. Konigsburg

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Jack London

White Fang
The Call of the Wild

L.M. Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables etext

Gene Stratton Porter

A Girl of the Limberlost etext

Dodie Smith

101 Dalmations

E.B. White

Charlotte's Web
Stuart Little


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Poets

Emily Dickinson

Robert Frost

Andrew Marvell

Edgar Allen Poe

William Shakespeare

Sonnets etext


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Reference -- Language

Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology
Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins

Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus

Peter Bowler

The Superior Person's Book of Words

Bryan Garner

A Dictionary of Modern American Usage

Orson Scott Card  (see also Science Fiction)

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy

Reference -- Home

Cheryl Mendelson

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House excerpt

Mark Bittman

How to Cook Everything

Donna Rathmell German

The Bread Machine Cookbook
The Bread Machine Cookbook II

Reference -- Other

Edward R. Tufte

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Envisioning Information
Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative


Science writing

Scott Freeman

Biological Science (college-level textbook) website

Isaac Asimov (see also Science Fiction)

The Human Brain: Its Capacities and Functions (popular science)
Understanding Physics (popular science)

Lewis Thomas

The Lives of a Cell (popular science - essays)

Steven Jay Gould

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (popular science)

Tom Wakeford

Liaisons of Life (popular science)

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Other Nonfiction

Dave Barry (humor; includes anything he's written)

Edward Gorey (includes anything he ... wrote/draw/designed)

Shirley Jackson

Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons (memoir)

Garrison Keillor (humor/memoir; books and radio programs)

Art Spiegelman

Maus: A Survivor's Tale  (graphic novel/memoir/history in two volumes)

Hunter S. Thompson

Hell's Angels (documentary)

David Foster Wallace

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (essays)

James Alfred Wight (James Herriot)

It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (memoir)
All Things Bright and Beautiful (memoir)
All Creatures Great and Small (memoir)
All Things Wise and Wonderful (memoir)
The Lord God Made Them All (memoir)

Tom Wolfe

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (documentary)


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Finding Books

Amazon     ||     Barnes & Noble    ||    Powell's Used, New, and Out of Print Books

Half.com    ||    AddALL Used & Out of Print Books     ||    Bibliofind


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