boooooooooks.

[schmerica]

You guys, I'm looking for book recommendations. What can you point me towards in the way of:

a) your favorite Arthurian-inspired novels
b) your favorite Trojan War-inspired novels
c) good mystery series (= likable hero/heroine with relationships that change and grow from book to book, along with the installments being good books on their own)

Comments

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

Mystery series... my all-time favorite is the Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy L. Sayers. They're dated, of course, having been written decades ago, and it doesn't matter in the least. Smart and literate and entirely wonderful. Great big shiny hearts.

Another favorite and very different series (or rather, a pair of them) isn't quite so well written, but I love the books a lot -- the two Alaskan mystery series by Dana Stabenow.

She has one series of more than a dozen books about Kate Shugak, a half-white/half-native woman who used to be a cop and is now a sort of private detective, but she still works with the police on occasion. More recently she's started a second series featuring Liam Campbell, a cop in a small Alaskan town. Both are tremendously entertaining and fun to read, well-populated with interesting characters, and overflowing with fascinating glimpses into all aspects of Alaskan culture, history, mythology, politics, ecology, economics, and so on.

You know how every now and then you get the sense from reading a book that you would really like this author? That if you could just hang out, you're sure you'd become friends? That's how I always feel reading Stabenow's books.

Each series should be read in order for it to really make sense.

Here's the start of the Kate Shugak series: Books 1 (http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Murder-Kate-Shugak-Mystery/dp/042513301X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-3), 2 (http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Thaw-Kate-Shugak-Mystery/dp/0425135772/ref=sr_1_10/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-10), and 3 (http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Water-Kate-Shugak-Mystery/dp/042513749X/ref=sr_1_9/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-9).

And the Liam Campbell series: Books 1 (http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Ice-Campbell-Mysteries-Paperback/dp/0451197704/ref=sr_1_18/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-18), 2 (http://www.amazon.com/Sure-Death-Campbell-Mysteries-Paperback/dp/0451199448/ref=sr_1_14/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-14), and 3 (http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Gold-Campbell-Mysteries-Paperback/dp/0451202309/ref=sr_1_13/103-0977964-7589423?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176308088&sr=1-13).

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

OOOOH. I also happen to have a kink for stories set in the high latitudes, so that should hit me on two different fronts. Thanks!