Advice

[rkold]

I'd like some advice on two fronts, and neither requires and interest in dolls or anime. *shock*

Lately, I've been reading at the gym, and I just finished the two books given to me by muscatlove and yanchamonkey The Nanny Diaries and Good Omens. So, I'm looking for some book recommendations. I don't want anything dry or depressing, so nothing involving peak oil or politics. The main characters should be engaging, because I find if I dislike or hate the main characters I can't easily get through something. (i.e. Catcher in the Rye where I kept wanting Holden Caulfield to get hit by a bus.)

My other request is somewhat gym related as well. In 2005, I bought a unique H.Eaven purse in Harajuku. It's lovely in that it holds more than it should, always gets comments, is non-leather, and has a perfect strap. However, it is also big and bulky and I can't stand just carrying it to the gym. So I'm looking for a new small purse. It just needs to hold an ipod, and a few other things. I prefer cloth, I like straps that go around your torso, cause I find that is the easiest way to keep purses on. I know a lot of people love etsy, but I really don't know who is good and when I tried to find "purses" I got a lot of hits and some were for laptop bags ~.~ I'd like something cute and different with not too much white. (which is why I am not using my berry purse)

Any help or suggestions with either query would be most appreciated.

EDIT

LIKED:
Nickel and Dimed
Traitor's Moon
Bed Knobs and Broomsticks
Office Ladies and Salaried Men


Neutral:
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Geisha of Gion


DISLIKED:
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix

Comments

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

As for purses, usually I carry vintage Dooney & Bourke (the old all-weather line) or Coach, but those are kinda plain. Alas, the most "unique" purses I have are ones my mother picked up for me on her many travels.

Right now, besides manga, I'm reading Memories of Silk and Straw (http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Silk-Straw-Self-Portrait-Small-Town/dp/0870119885/sr=8-2/qid=1170952874/ref=sr_1_2/002-6611800-4776851?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Junichi Saga. It's not fiction, but a series of memoirs based on interviews taped by a country doctor. It's fascinating. People talk about how life was in rural Japan in the 1920's. But I was a history major, so of course I find all that interesting.

Another Japanese-based book that was pretty good (and this one IS fiction!) is The Fox Woman (http://www.amazon.com/Fox-Woman-Kij-Johnson/dp/0312875592/sr=1-1/qid=1170953502/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-6611800-4776851?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Kij Johnson. The story follows a family of humans and a family of foxes who share the same house during Heian era Japan. The human husband becomes bewitched by the fox's daughter and chaos ensues.

I'll also fall back on my standard recommendation: Read George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series! The first book is A Game of Thrones (http://www.amazon.com/Game-Thrones-Song-Fire-Book/dp/0553573403/sr=1-1/qid=1170953144/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6611800-4776851?ie=UTF8&s=books). There are four books in the series right now, with a fifth expected within the next year or so. It's absolutely brilliant.

[ladybrick.livejournal.com]

Books books books. If you liked Good Omens, I'd recommend Neverwhere and Stardust by Neil Gaiman, as well as his short story collection Smoke & Mirrors (I like all three of those much more than Good Omens, actually)

I read a lot of young adult fantasy because I find it both more upbeat and more imaginative than most adult fantasy... some of my personal favorites are the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen), the first three books in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane (So You Want To Be A Wizard, Deep Wizardry, and High Wizardry), and anything and everything by Tamora Pierce.

(I'm too lazy to include italics tags for that many titles)

[thundermew.livejournal.com]

(i.e. Catcher in the Rye where I kept wanting Holden Caulfield to get hit by a bus.)

I.. I think I love you.
I thought I was the only one who hated him.

Lessee.. something I have that could be interesting to you... The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio and The Best of Everything, those are both good books. If you want recommendations on old true-crime stories, I've got a lot of those.

[sumeragiskank.livejournal.com]

I have a really amusing bag you can have if you would like it.... it has Da Vinci's Last Supper on it and says "The Original Boy Band"

As for books, I think you might like Carol Berg's Transformation series...it's very slashy and the main character is a bit of a snarky uke. It's a fantasy series, a little more serious than Nightrunner but I really enjoyed it. And Stephanie Meyer's Twilight is good for young adult vampire angst.

[sailorstarsun.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't say anything about purses... because I don't know anything about them... But I do know a few good books! =D

I've enjoyed pretty much everything I've ever read by Mercedes Lackey, especially anything from her Heralds of Valdemar series, and especially especially the 'Last Herald-Mage' trilogy. ::dies:: Soooo good! .;o;
They're kinda fantasy, I guess you'd say. .^,^ So if you like that kind of stuff, that's what I recommend. =3

[ad-exia.livejournal.com]

I have some book recs if you like fantasy, but that's mostly what I read so I don't have much in the way of other genres. ^^;

[bramblyhedge.livejournal.com]

Bah humbug to purses! I'm a cute-&-functional backpack gal, or in the event of no backpack stuff-everything-into-your-jeans-pockets-until-you-look-like-you-have-deformed-hips.
:P

I see a Neil Gaiman recc and raise it Robin McKinley.
(More specifically, 'Neverwhere' and 'Sunshine', respectively).

Have you read Diana Wynne Jones's 'Deep Secret'?
And now for something completely different: 'Maurice' by E.M. Forster, 'Boy Meets Boy' by David Levithan, and 'The Blue Lawn' by William Taylor. Respectively: angsty, fluffy, and down-to-earth - all gay male adolescent stories, all short, all non-preachy, all very enjoyable when in the right mood for that topic. :)

I gotta get around to reading 'Good Omens'. It's been sitting on my bookshelf for months.^^

[blacktempest.livejournal.com]

I really disliked OotP too >___< I'm actually rereading HBP right now because I only read it once and I don't remember anything that happened except who died, who the Half Blood Prince was, and being totally WTH at the Remus/Tonks pairing at the end XD

The one good book rec off the top of my head is Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. I reread it recently; you should definitely check it out if you haven't yet :)

[isachi.livejournal.com]

The girls who wrote Nanny Diaries also co-wrote a novel called Citizen Girl that was pretty amusing :3 All about post-college/working-world transition hijinx.

But I'm mostly a non-fiction person. I finished reading Balkan Ghosts two months ago which was unbelievably good, especially his essays in the beginning. Mostly a travel-log, which some first hand accounts (both gruesome and playful) mixed in.