My sister and I are big readers. Sometimes our tastes and favorites overlap, oftentimes they don't, but overrall our love of reading (and bookshops and libraries and writing) is one of an extremely few things that we bond over with joy and genuinely enjoy sharing. While we'll always give each other recommendations for general/contemporary fiction and sometimes memoirs or certain non-fiction topical reads, we don't really delve into each other's other preferred genres.
We're going on a trip in a few weeks (family girls trip – we and our female cousins are taking our mother's/aunts on a beach vacation) and I think it'll be fun if we both read something new to both of us that has elements of each other's favorite genres.
She has always loved romance, chick-lit, and more classic 19-20th cent. literature (like Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Oscar Wilde…). She's been a huge romance kick for a few years now, when I asked her to describe her likes/favorites of the genre she said, "Ali Hazelwood, Abby Jimenez, Emily Henry… I usually enjoy the enemies to lovers trope. I also like when they come from really different backgrounds…" And said she recently really enjoyed Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver. (Apparently first in a trilogy, and she hasn't read the rest of it yet.)
I've always been partial to (typically standalone) scifi and fantasy, a bit of mystery sometimes horror, and a hodge podge of non-fiction (nature-y things like Krakauer, sociology things like Matthew Desmond, Invisible Child, history like Radium Girls, I liked Maybe You Should Talk to Someone…). When I heard it was being adapted I decided to reread Project Hail Mary (listened to it the first time around and would 10/10 recommend, one of the few books I actually like the audiobook more than the physical book) and I've been in a sci-fi kick ever since. Sometimes I dip into fantasy still (was in a manga/anime fantasy phase for a bit with Frieren and Delicious in Dungeon) but it's been mostly sci fi on my nightstand for the last few months… I just finished (and really enjoyed) book two of the Bobiverse series; I really liked Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite; I recently finished The Summer War by Naomi Novik…
It's not that I dislike anything considered romance, I've just never been outright interested or leaned toward the genre. My sister's always felt the same way about science fiction and fantasy!
The tricky thing is finding something neither of us has read already, but I think it'd be cool if we read something leading right up to the trip or during it (we're both very fast readers when we have the time! So yay vacation!) to sort of make a cool 'book sisters' memory associated with this trip.
Titles I haven't read but have caught my eye due to title and/or cover art and/or blurb (that might fit the bill??):
Legends and Lattes
Agnes Aubert's Mystical Shelter
This is How You Lose the Time War
The House in the Cerulean Sea (not sure if she's read this or not but possible)
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
A Short Walk Through a Wide World
Any ideas or feedback??
by honey_penguin
3 Comments
You might both enjoy Olivia Atwater’s Regency Faerie Tales trilogy, the individual books are pretty short. Exactly what it says on the tin, it’s got Regency stuff, magic, faeries, romance, intrigue, all like that.
Similarly Patricia C Wrede’s *Mairleon the Magician*, which has that kinda thing as well.
CM Waggoner’s *Unnatural Magic* takes place in a pseudo-Victorian fantasy world, has an unlikely couple, young woman overcoming obstacles to learn magic, cool stuff. Also *A Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry*
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis is a light-hearted sci-fi, but really minimal on the sci-fi because it’s mostly just time travel, and it has a romantic element in it.
Outlander.