Random Book Suggestions
 

I've got two challenges for my reading in 2016 and I look for books early because being on a budget, I need to scope out sales and do a lot of searching through my library to see what is available.

What I need help with is suggestions for the following categories and yes I am aware that some are not really genres. As well, if you've got a genre I should try, tell me and I might make a substitution. Anyway, here are the genres and the book I've picked so far. Feel free to approve, criticize, mock, whatever. :rofl:

historical fiction:
horror:
science fiction:
banned:
history:
science:
literary fiction:
short stories:
biography / memoir:
fantasy:
magical realism:
dystopia:
chick-lit:
mystery:
romance:
steampunk:
humor:
folklore / mythology:
gothic:
thriller:
crime:
zombies:
western:
travel / adventure:
space opera:
pulp fiction:

Another note. I've also got a world challenge going on again.

My suggestions:

steampunk: The Forever Engine by Frank Chadwick
humor: The World of Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (all the Jeeves short stories)

Or combine the two: What Ho!, Automaton! by Chris Dolley

thriller: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
crime: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
zombies: Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo
space opera: With the Lightnings by David Drake

Thanks for the recommendations.

I am willing to take suggestions for other categories as well. My list is very malleable, although some that are hitting unusual countries are a little less malleable. The Drake looks perfect for what I am looking for.

I always enjoy watching you make and complete your challenges.

I haven't heard of most of your other selections and have only read two of them, which I enjoyed, so I don't have anything to recommend that might be better picks for those.

space opera: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

thriller: The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall

If you want some more non-fiction
crime: A Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule - it could fit in several categories (true) crime, biography, auto-biography, and history. She died in August 2015 at the age of 83.

I was looking at True Crime as a category and maybe that makes more sense instead of Crime as Thriller and Crime seem to have an awful lot of overlap in my searches. Definitely be looking to add that one as a book I'd usually never read.

Most of the books listed are going to be a bit more obscure just because the countries are getting more difficult now. For new countries I've got: Boliva, The Gambia, Guinea, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Colombia, Honduras, Hungary, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Mongolia, and Oman.

I might have to pare that down a bit because the cost of my challenge is looking to be >$100 if I don't rely on my library to inter-library a bunch of titles which might be dead ends as well.

I'm thinking of switching pulp with hard-boiled because the covers of all the hard-boiled titles from the 50s and 60s are just so great.

I'm not sure how similar our tastes are, but two books I would recommend:

Zombies: The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

And for thriller/crime/horror: The Bad Seed by William March. Looks like it's finally available as an ebook. I've wanted to reread it for a while, but the library lost their paper copy, so I've been checking for a new edition now and again.

My problem with "thrillers" as a category is that it seems too broad. Yes, crime novels are often thrillers but so are disaster stories or cold-war spy stories. They are all thrillers but are also very distinct so I have broken it down into crime/legal thrillers, political/spy thrillers, and medical/technological/disaster (other) thrillers to help me keep track of what type of thriller something is.

I thought that might be the case.

To add some value:
zombie: The Variant Effect by G. Wells Taylor - an indie book with a unique hook and a good story

Try one of Gil Brewer's novels.

Or Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze.

Zombies: Cell by Stephen King
Space Opera: Hyperion by Dan Simmons

My tastes run everywhere. what I shelved as favourites over at Goodreads.

The Bad Seed looks very interesting. I'm not fussy about format. I'll read paper or electronic. I've had The Girl with all the Gifts on my periphery for a while since one of my Goodreads groups read it for a monthly read.

I had run across Gil Brewer. The Vengeful Virgin looked like an ideal candidate. It just screamed at me to read this book. It ranked up there with Golem 100 by Alfred Bester as the book that I just had to read for 1980.

Black Wings has My Angel looks great too. My library has it as an eAudio selection. I might give that a try. My library also has two Gil Brewer titles including the one I thought would work.

No interest in non-fiction? Essays, Science, etc.

I haven't read a Stephen King novel in about twenty-five years. It sounds like a decent option and maybe I should read a newer Stephen King book.

Hyperion has been on my potential read list for ages. It just keeps coming back.

Some. I do have history, biography and potentially travel in the non-fiction realm. I might switch out some spots for other options and a science category might be good. Any recommendations for science?

As I said before I am not set on any books or even any categories really.

I'm taking out the listed books so people can recommend everything and I'll add science knowing that I will have to drop one category.

The books I had already listed are fulfilling countries, but I can always just try to read a few more books for my subchallenges.

The Bad Seed is good, though the movie version sticks in my head more than the book.


Vengeful Virgin was the first Gil Brewer novel I read, after initially reading a few short stories in noir anthologies.

I "read" Black Wings as an audiobook. Malcolm Hillgartner did a great job with the narration, if you go that route.