Sirens 2013 book list

[oyceter]

Original list, idea copied from starlady and thistleingrey.

I didn't go to Sirens, though I would love to at some point. It was just nice seeing a reading list I had actually read a fair amount from, as opposed to the usual "Guardian Top 100 Books EVAR," where my reaction is usually, "Don't know, don't care, don't care, don't care, read and hated, don't care, why the fuck are there only white men?"

Sirens 2013 Reading List

Books read are bolded, books started and never finished are italicized.

Required
Johnson, Alaya Dawn: Racing the Dark AND Moonshine
Kushner, Ellen: Thomas the Rhymer AND The Fall of the Kings
LaFevers, Robin: Grave Mercy
McCall, Guadalupe Garcia: Summer of the Mariposas

Two of the following (warriors)*
Bell, Hilar: Fall of a Kingdom
Britain, Kristen: The Green Rider
Carson, Rae: Girl of Fire and Thorns
Cashore, Kristin: Graceling
Chadda, Sarwat: Devil’s Kiss
Chima, Cinda Williams: The Demon King
Clare, Cassandra: City of Bones
Cremer, Andrea: Nightshade
Gaughen, A. C.: Scarlet
Goodman, Alison: Eon
Healey, Karen: Guardian of the Dead
Kushner, Ellen: The Privilege of the Sword
Lackey, Mercedes: Any Valdemar book
Maas, Sarah J. Throne of Glass
Marchetta, Melina: Finnikin of the Rock
Pierce, Tamora: The Song of the Lioness OR Lady Knight OR Terrier
Oliver, Jana G.: The Demon Trapper’s Daughter
Roth, Veronica: Divergent
Smith, Sherwood: Crown Duel OR Coronets and Steel
Vande Velde, Vivian: Heir Apparent
Young, Moira: Blood Red Road

Two of the following (faeries)*
Anderson, R. J.: Knife
Black, Holly: Tithe
Black, Jenna: Glimmerglass
Brennan, Marie: Midnight Never Come
Bull, Emma: War for the Oaks
Dean, Pamela: Tam Lin
Dolamore, Jacklyn: Magic under Glass
Hamilton, Laurell K.: A Kiss of Shadows
Jones, Diana Wynne: Fire and Hemlock
Lindholm, Megan (w/ Brust, Steven): The Gypsy
Livingston, Lesley: Wondrous Strange
Marr, Melissa: Wicked Lovely
Marillier, Juliet: Wildwood Dancing
McGuire, Seanan: Rosemary and Rue
Melling, O. R.: The Hunter’s Moon
Mirrlees, Hope: Lud-in-the-Mist
Pope, Elizabeth: Perilous Gard
Sherman, Delia: Changeling
Simner, Janni Lee: Bones of Faerie
Tomlinson, Heather: Aurelie
Warner, Sylvia Townsend: Kingdoms of Elfin
Windling, Terri (w/ Datlow, Ellen): The Faerie Reel

Two of the following (monsters)*
Billingsley, Franny: Chime
Blake, Kendare: Anna Dressed in Blood
Bronte Charlotte OR Rhys, Jean: Jane Eyre OR Wide Sargasso Sea
Carriger, Gail: Soulless
Clement-Moore, Rosemary: Prom Dates from Hell
Compestine, Ying Chang: A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts: A Collection of Deliciously Frightening Tales
de la Cruz, Melissa: Blue Bloods
Garcia, Kami and Stohl, Margaret: Beautiful Creatures
Grant, Mira: Feed
Halam, Anne: Dr. Franklin’s Island
Harris, Charlaine: Dead until Dark
Hodkin, Michelle: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Jenkins, A. M.: Repossessed
Kostova, Elizabeth: The Historian
Larbalestier, Justine: Liar
Link, Kelly: Pretty Monsters
Meyer, Stephenie: Twilight
Murphy, Pat AND Padgett, Lewis: His Vegetable Wife AND Mimsy Were the Borogroves
Okorafor, Nnedi: Who Fears Death
Peterfreund, Diana: Rampant
Reeves, Dia: Bleeding Violet OR Slice of Cherry
Ryan, Carrie: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Scheckley, Alisa: The Better to Hold You
Shelley, Mary: Frankenstein
Smith, Cynthia Leitich: Eternal
Stiefvater, Maggie: Shiver
Taylor, Laini: Lips Touch: Three Times
Whedon, Joss and Jeanty, Goerges: The Long Way Home (Buffy, Season 8, Vol. 1)
Yovanoff, Brenna: The Space Between

Two of the following (retold tales)* **
Anderson, Jodi Lynn: Tiger Lily
Atwood, Margaret: The Robber Bride
Barnhouse, Rebecca: Peaceweaver
Bernheimer, Kate: Any Gold sister book
Black, Holly: White Cat
Bradley, Marion Zimmer: Mists of Avalon
Block, Francesca Lia: Roses and Bones
Bunce, Elizabeth C.: A Curse Dark as Gold
Carter, Angela: The Bloody Chamber
Collins, Suzanne: The Hunger Games
Cross, Sarah: Kill Me Softly
Diemer, Sarah: The Dark Wife
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee: Palace of Illusions
Donoghue, Emma: Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins
Durst, Sarah Beth: Into the Wild OR Ice
Flinn, Alex: Beastly OR A Kiss in Time OR Cloaked
George, Jessica Day: Princess of Glass OR Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow
Hale, Shannon: The Goose Girl OR Book of a Thousand Days OR Rapunzel’s Revenge
Hopkinson, Nalo: Midnight Robber OR Brown Girl in the Ring
Johnson, Kij: The Fox Woman
Kerr, Peg: The Wild Swans
Kontis, Alethea: Enchanted
Lanagan, Margo: Tender Morsels
Levine, Gail Carson: Ella Enchanted
Lin, Grace: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon OR Starry River of the Sky
Lo, Malinda: Ash
Lord, Karen: Redemption in Indigo
Mantchev, Lisa: Eyes Like Stars
Marillier, Juliet: Heart’s Blood
McKillip, Patricia: In the Forests of Serre OR The Cygnet and the Firebird
McKinley, Robin: Deerskin OR Rose Daughter OR Spindle’s End OR Beauty
Napoli, Donna Jo: Bound
Nyoka, Gail: Mella and the N’anga: An African Tale
Obrecht, Tea: The Tiger’s Wife
Oyeyemi, Helen: Mr. Fox
Patou, Edith: East
Pearce, Jackson: Sisters Red OR Sweetly
Petrushevskaya, Ludmilla: There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby
Reilly, LeAnn Neal: The Mermaid’s Pendant
Satrapi, Marjane: The Sigh
Sedia, Ekaterina: The Secret History of Moscow
Simner, Janni Lee: Thief Eyes
Springer, Nancy: I Am Morgan le Fay
Tacheuchi, Naoko: Sailor Moon Vol. 1
Tomlinson, Heather: The Swan Maiden OR Toads and Diamonds
Turgeon, Carolyn: Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale
Ursu, Anne (w/ Erin McGuire): Breadcrumbs
Valente, Catherynne: Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden OR Orphan’s Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice
Vande Velde, Vivian: The Book of Mordred
Wein, Elizabeth: Anything Arthurian
Wrede, Patricia C.: Snow White and Rose Red
Yolen, Jane: Brian Rose OR Snow in Summer

Three of the following*
Beukes, Lauren: Zoo City
Blackman, Malorie: Naughts and Crosses
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee: The Conch Bearer
Enchi, Fumiko: Masks
Fagan, Deva: The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle
Hulme, Keri: The Bone People
Goto: Hiromi: Half World
Hairston, Andrea: Redwood and Wildfire
Hamilton, Virginia: Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush
Hopkinson, Nalo: The Chaos
Jemisin, N. K.: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Lowachee, Karin: The Gaslight Dogs
Meminger, Neesha: Into the Wise Dark
Ogiwara, Noriko: Dragon Sword and Wind Child
Okorafor, Nnedi: Akata Witch
Ono, Fuyumi: The Twelve Kingdoms Vol. 1: Sea of Shadow
Parra, Kelly: Invisible Touch
Pon, Cindy: Silver Phoenix
Rhodes, Jewell Parker: Ninth Ward
Suma, Nova Ren: Imaginary Girls
Uehashi, Nahoko: Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
West, Michelle: Anything

Four of the following*
Anderson, R. J.: Ultraviolet
Armstrong, Kelly: The Summoning
Berry, Julie: The Amaranth Enchantment
Bow, Erin: Plain Kate
Bracken, Alexandra: Brightly Woven
Bray, Libba: Beauty Queens
Briceland, V.: The Glassmaker’s Daughter
Bunce, Elizabeth: Star Crossed
Burgis, Stephanie: Kat, Incorrigible
Cashore, Kristin: Fire OR Bitterblue
Chima, Cinda Williams: Warrior Heir
Cooper, Susan: The Dark Is Rising
Cypess, Leah: Mistwood
Derting, Kimberly: The Body Finder
Duey, Kathleen: Skin Hunger
Durst, Sarah Beth: Vessel
Farmer, Nancy: The House of the Scorpion
Fisher, Catherine: Incarceron
Flewelling, Lynn: Anything
George, Jessica Day: Tuesdays at the Castle
Hale, Ginn: Wicked Gentlemen
Hartman, Rachel: Seraphina
Hoffman, Alice: Green Witch
Hoffman, Nina Kiriki: Anything fantasy
Jones, Diana Wynne: Anything
Jones, Jaida and Bennett, Elizabeth: Havemercy
Kittredge, Caitlin: The Iron Thorn
Knox, Elizabeth: Dream Hunter
Lanagan, Margo: The Brides of Rollrock Island
McEntire, Myra: Hourglass
McKillip, Patricia: Ombria in Shadow OR The Alphabet of Thorn
Pierce, Tamora: Trickster’s Choice OR The Will of the Empress
Prineas, Sarah: Winterling
Rees Brennan, Sarah: Unspoken
Reese, Jenn: Above World
Rubino-Bradway, Caitlen: Ordinary Magic
Schwab, Victoria: The Near Witch
Sherman, Delia: The Freedom Maze
Smith, Sherwood: The Spy Princess
Spotswood, Jessica: Born Wicked
Stiefvater, Maggie: The Scorpio Races OR The Raven Boys
Stevermer, Caroline: A College of Magics
Taylor, Laini: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Thompson, Kate: The New Policeman
Wein, Elizabeth: Anything fantasy (? Is this the same as "Anything Arthurian" above? Or does she have more books I don't know about?!)
Weingarten, Lynn: The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers
Whalen Turner, Megan: The Thief
White, Kiersen: Paranormalcy
Wilce, Ysabeau: Flora Segunda
Yolen, Jane: Anything

Four of the following*
Allen, Sarah Addison: The Girl Who Chased the Moon
Andrews, Ilona: Magic Bites (Kate Daniels Book #1)
Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid’s Tale
Bear, Elizabeth: Anything fantasy
Berg, Carol: The Soul Mirror
Bernobich, Beth: Passion Play
Bradley, Marion Zimmer: Any Darkover book
Carey, Jacqueline: Kushiel’s Dart
Clarke, Susanna: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Daniells, Rowena Cory: Anything
Dart-Thornton, Cecilia: The Ill-Made Mute (The Bitterbynde Book #1)
de la Cruz, Melissa: Witches of East End
Elliott, Kate: Cold Magic
Freeman, Pamela: Blood Ties (Castings Book #1)
Friedman, C. S., Black Sun Rising (Coldfire Book #1)
Gilman, Greer: Anything
Hamilton, Laurell: Anything
Hand, Elizabeth: Anything
Harris, Joanne: Rusemarks
Hobb, Robin: Anything
Jones, Tamara Siler: Ghosts in the Snow
Katsu, Alma: The Taker
Kerr, Katharine: Daggerspell (Deverry Book #1) OR Darkspell (Deverry Book #2)
Kiernan, Caitlin R.: The Red Tree
Lackey, Mercedes: Anything
Lee, Tanith: Any adult book
Le Guin, Ursula: A Wizard of Earthsea
Marks, Laurie J.: Fire Logic (Elemental Logic Book #1)
McCaffrey, Anne: Any Dragonriders of Pern book
Moon, Elizabeth: Anything fantasy
Moore, C.L.: Jirel of Joiry
Morganstern, Erin: The Night Circus
Neumeier, Rachel: House of Shadows
Novik, Naomi: His Majesty’s Dragon
Paxson, Diana: Anything
Priest, Cherie: Boneshaker
Rice, Anne: Interview with a Vampire
Riley, Judith Merkle: The Oracle Glass
Sedia, Ekatarina: Alchemy of Stone
Snyder, Maria V.: Poison Study
Snyder, Midori: Soulstring OR New Moon
Valente, Catherynne: Palimpsest
Whitfield, Kit: In Great Waters
Wisoker, Leona: Secrets of the Sands

Optional: One of the following*
Elgin, Suzette Haden: Native Tongue
Kagan, Janet: Hellspark
Bujold, Lois McMcaster: Curse of Chalion
Butler, Octavia: Anything
Le Guin, Ursula: The Left Hand of Darkness
May, Julian: Anything
Norton, Andre: Anything
Rusch, Kristine Kathryn: Anything
Russ, Joanna: The Female Man
Tiptree, Jr., James: Anything
Willis, Connie: The Doomsday Book

*Please select books by authors whom you haven’t read yet first; if you have read all of the authors, then please select books that you haven’t read.

**Please select books that are retellings of different tales.

Comments

[jinian]

Partial commentary as I am trying to get to work at a reasonable time. I love this list!

The Cassie Clares are boring. They're soooo close to being not boring, but they don't make it.

Devil's Kiss annoyed me.

Eon is so great except the disability stuff where it is so not, and in its sequel Eona the great/not proportions are flipped.

Finnikin is cracktastic and fascinatingly messagey about women in war, I highly recommend it.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T READ ALL OF TAMORA PIERCE.

Seanan McGuire's Toby Daye books (Rosemary and Rue et seq.) are pretty good, I buy them when I see them. Nothing like as brilliant as Newsflesh (as Mira Grant, Feed et seq.), which you should read immediately.

Bones of Faerie and Chime are both excellent.

Soulless et seq. are fun popcorn.

Liar blew me away and so did White Cat, though the authors are hit-or-miss for me.

For Ekaterina Sedia I'd recommend The Alchemy of Stone, though it's more monsters than retold stories.

Typo: Yolen's book is Briar Rose.

Greer Gilman, anything: takes as long to read as the rest put together, is totally worth it.

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T READ HELLSPARK.

[jinian]

(Also Eon/Eona weird orientalism fail.)

[oyceter]

Haha, I probably should have italicized books on The Ever-Growing List of Things to Read, I think that would have been a lot of the list....

The Melina Marchetta and Seanan McGuide/Mira Grant are on the list, as are Greer Gilman and White Cat and Janni Lee Simner. I've mostly decided to skip the Cassie Clares and maybe Tamora Pierce's Alanna books too... I'm not sure if I'm too old for them now, though I do want to read the Knight series for what it does with the Second Girl thing. So will probably end up reading the Alanna books eventually.

I heart Alchemy of Stone so much!

I will probably skip the Soulless series... haven't been much in the mood for romance lately, and the first bits I read have too much alpha male for not-in-the-mood me. And started Eon but ended up annoyed at the world or the prose or both and never finished.

Wait, tell me about Hellspark and Chime! I don't know anything about either of them!

[jinian]

Well, let me start with the fact that rushthatspeaks and I each own two copies of Hellspark, and this is not because of any book collection merging issues, we each bought two copies of Hellspark on purpose. It is that awesome. It's a mystery novel on a largely unexplored planet that is mostly about linguistics and cultures of physical communication, with entertaining ecology and good aliens. There's also a lot about humanity and artifical intelligence, including a wonderful AI character. Kagan did not write nearly enough novels.

Franny Billingsley is also very good. Chime is about magic and overcoming abuse and learning to have a more adult relationship with your weird (autistic?) sister; a cute romance is there but not the point. (I cheat and send you to skygiants' review!) Some people really hate the writing style, but I liked Briony's scatty brattiness.

[oyceter]

SWEET, highly-recced obscure book I have never heard of! My used bookstore hunting list has been pretty short of late ;).

[gwyneira]

FWIW, I think that Tamora Pierce did a much better job with the Protector of the Small/Lady Knight books than with the Alanna books, so if you read those first and then don't read Alanna, you're probably not missing much.

I started Eon too and didn't finish it (can't remember why exactly); good to know I'm not the only one, since I do keep seeing it recommended.

[oyceter]

I vaguely just remember being bored at the beginning of Eon, but that's my only real recollection. Oh, that and thinking a Dragon Dragon seems kind of silly.

I've heard similar re: Tamora Pierce's Alanna books vs. Lady Knight, thanks for the additional data point!

[lenora_rose]

I've read the first of Protector of the Small and am in the middle of the first Alanna book. (I use it to read aloud to the baby while I'm putting him to sleep, a situation where I want simple, quick reads.) The former was MUCH better written even n a sentence level.

[oyceter]

Thanks for the data point!

[thistleingrey]

I could loan you Hellspark if you can't get hold of it otherwise and if (as I assume you will) you take good care of it; it's a merely-good-condition copy bought used, and they're hard to replace now. Hellspark is one of the titles on that list which're my "fault." :)

I tried to get into Tamora Pierce's books, tried hard enough to read seven or eight of them. No go--in my case, I did feel too old. One thing is that the Japan-culture stand-in does not impress me at all, and in the more recent stuff (Terrier and Bloodhound) we don't do much better with European country analogues versus West Asian ones.

If you ever read Cassie's big Draco-centric trilogy (fanfic), you have kind of read parts of City of Bones anyway.

Eon's world and gender-casting bug me, too.

[oyceter]

Thanks, re: Hellspark! I'll keep an eye out for it and let you know if I can't get my hands on it. (My current returning-books rate is embarrassing.)

I actually have never read Cassie Clare, fic or non-fic! But I kind of figure I am okay with that so far, given that I generally dislike fic-Draco anyway.

I got into Pierce's Circle of Magic books, largely because they have a lot of crafty bits in them, but I've heard enough about the Japan-analogues to want to avoid them. OTOH, it sounds like she does interesting things with sexuality and romance, especially in the Kelandry series with the Japan-analogue, so... *tosses coin*

[thistleingrey]

Cassie was one of the main promulgators of early fanon!Draco: sexy and relatively suave against somewhat bumbling Harry. But yeah, it's not worth looking for (she took down her fics after selling City, though I think I have downloaded copies of a bunch of writers' old fics somewhere).

Circle of Magic was better than the Tortall sequences for me, yes. Haven't read Keladry, though several friends really like that set, because at that point it seemed silly to read a ninth book in case I'd like it. I mean, that's how I got to eight in the first place. :/

[(Anonymous)]

There's an OEL (but drawn by an artist from Korea, I think) manga of "Soulless" from Yen Press that might be worth looking for at the library. Stories with overbearing alpha males can sometimes be easier to take when you don't have to deal with long verbal descriptions of how unbearably sexy they are and how the heroine is reluctantly going weak at the knees over them despite her indignation even as they're acting like prize jerks, etc.

"Sailor Moon" and "The Hunger Games" are tales retold? I thought the tales in question were supposed to be fairy tales? The only myth or fairy tale I can think of that "Hunger Games" resembles is the story of Theseus(?) and the Minotaur, only told from the point of view of one of the more ordinary young people who have routinely been sacrificed to the Minotaur for years. Actually, I guess that kind of works (although the resemblance between that and "The Hunger Games" is a lot less obvious than that between it and more modern stuff like "Battle Royale" or "Lord of the Flies"). But unless "Sailor Moon" was inspired by some Japanese legend I'm unfamiliar with, I don't get the "tale retold" angle on that one, since I thought it was pretty much the first "magical girl as superhero" series (unless the original "Pretty Cure" came earlier).

Marfisa

[oyceter]

From conversations with other people, Hunger Games seems to be on the list due to both Battle Royale and the Theseus and the Minotaur teen tribute bits. Re: Sailor Moon... Hrm. I don't think it's based on any one retold story per se, but it does weave in a lot of Greek mythology into the personalities and skills of all the various senshi, and in things like the pegasus appearing somewhere in there.

Thanks for the tip re: OEL Soulless! I am really looking forward to steampunk manhwa art.

[boxofdelights]

Wein, Elizabeth: Anything fantasy (? Is this the same as "Anything Arthurian" above? Or does she have more books I don't know about?!)

Code Name Verity isn't fantasy.

[oyceter]

Right, ergo my confusion about having "anything Arthurian" in the same list as "anything fantasy" since... aren't they the same? CNV is the only non-fantasy of hers I know of.

[boxofdelights]

Oh I see! Yeah, you're right.

[thistleingrey]

It's a squares/rectangles thing, I think--the later Telemakos books aren't Arthurian, strictly speaking, though they follow from The Winter Prince.

[seraphcelene]

I LOVE this idea and I LOVE this list.