Best Y.A. Horror (Last Chance for "Recs" and "Secs")

What is the best young adult horror genre book (or series)?

There's a lot happening in my life, of course, so I forgot to give this all the shout outs that most of our prior conversations get, but we still have our ongoing book recommendation post for young adult horror.

Just don't forget to pop over to the ORIGINAL PAGE to drop that recommendation or check out the rules if you're unsure of them. If you put it here or on the social media pages where I'm sharing this link, it won't get tabulated and put on our list.

Also please keep in mind that we this is about books, not their A/V media adaptations. Coraline the book and Coraline the movie are….well they're pretty close actually, but there are some differences.

I'll be tabulating results in the next couple of days.

Thank you all for joining in our Book Rec Conversation. I've really love reading all your comments about the books you treasure and why.

Best YA Horror (Nominations and Seconds Needed)

What is the best YA horror book (or series)?

We had a lackluster start to this set of book recs, and I don't know if it was the timing or what. (The poll was extremely popular back when we were doing polls.) If you haven't yet, please don't forget to pop over to the original page to drop a nomination, see what has been nominated already, second (all) those you agree with, as well as brush up on the rules—there are a FEW after all.

Normally our book rec stuff would go up on Wednesdays, but I'm running behind on EVERYTHING this week due to the current deluge of medical consults and procedures. 

Again, please remember to go to the original page to drop your nomination (and familiarize yourself with the rules if you haven't yet). If you put it anywhere else (including a Facebook comment on this post) it will not be counted.

Thank you all for joining in our Book Rec Conversation. I've really love reading all your comments about the books you treasure and why. I hope we get a bit more input on this particular conversation.

Best Y.A. Horror Novel (or Series)—Nominations Needed

What is the best young adult horror novel (or series)?

It's just a few more days until the SPOOPY is upon us, and in honor of the season, I want to rerun a popular poll we did (back when these recommendation lists were polls). So today we're going to talk not about the fully adult horror novels, but the ones geared towards young adults. 

Maybe they're not QUITE as scary as The Haunting of Hill House or House of Leaves but they leave an indelible mark in our minds nonetheless, either because we read them when we were younger or we can relate to the way they play on younger fears.

Remember, instead of trying to figure out what more people think is the BEST (which usually turns into which book has the coolest movie adaptation anyway), we're just going to have a nice chat about good books and all come away with some suggestions for our To Be Read Pile™. We'll still have the system of seconds (and "thirds" and "fourths" and…well, you get the idea), but all that will really determine is which goes to the top of the list when I post the results. You can go HERE to see what the results will look like when all is said and done. And I'll link out the original nomination post for folks who want to go see what people are actually saying about the book. Eventually these posts listing the results will be compiled in a massive "book recommendation" post of basically any genre.

The Rules

1. Make two recommendations. Obviously, I can't stop anyone from making fifteen, but nothing beyond the first two will make it onto the master list. I'm a despot that way.
2. TELL US ALL A LITTLE ABOUT WHY YOU LIKE THE BOOK although obviously do so without spoilers! If you just drop a title name and it gets all the seconds, I'm still going to list it, of course, but the whole point of this is to have a "conversation" and gush a little about the books you think are great, exciting, well written, or unforgettable and a little (spoiler-free) squee about why.
3. For each recommendation, let us know if you're nominating it more as a BEST book in the genre or an UNDERSUNG HERO in the genre. Basically "undersung hero" is for books you think are great, tragically overlooked, NEED to be read by everyone (like…yesterday), but are maybe not necessarily the besty bestest best. They'll all end up in the list I compile, but I'll put them in different places.
4. As always, I leave the niggling over the definition of genres to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you want to nominate Shadow and Bone as horror (even though it's probably better placed as fantasy), you should show your work if you desire those sweet, sweet seconds (or thirds....or fourths) and there might be a discussion thread after your comment with a lot of people writing out the "If I may…"
5. Your book must should be aimed at young adults. Though there is no clear cut off for when a Y.A. novel becomes an adult novel and probably dozens of great titles that blur the line, if you're nominating It (Stephen King), I'm probably going to veto.
6. You get to mention two (2) books. That's it. Two. You can do one BEST and one UNDERSUNG HERO. Or you can do two BESTS. Or you can do two UNDERSUNG HEROES. But two is the total. If you nominate three or more, I will, with unimaginable cruelty, simply ignore the third and any subsequent books. I'm sorry that I'm a stickler on this, but it's just lil ol' me compiling this list by myself and it's a pain when people drop a spinosaurus list of every single book they can remember in the entire genre. However, you list more than two books and your third or later choice gets a second, I'll consider everything. (Even though that matters a lot less than it did when I was counting seconds to see which titles made the poll––see below.)
7. Did I mention two?
8. You may (and absolutely should) give a second shout out to AS MANY nominations of others as you wish. There is no more poll, so this will not be a cutthroat competition to see who makes it to the semifinals. It will simply dictate which titles I list first, and it may influence which books someone considers a good recommendation. ("This one got six seconds, and that one only got two, so I think I'll start with this one.")
9. Put your nominations HERE. I will take nominations only as comments and only on this post. (No comments on FB posts or G+ will be considered nominations.) If you can't comment for some reason because of Blogger, send me an email (chris.brecheen@gmail.com) stating exactly that and what your nomination is, and I will personally put your comment up. I am not likely to see a comment on social media even if it says you were unable to leave a comment here. 
10. You are nominating WRITTEN fiction, not their A/V portrayals. If you thought The Shining was the greatest Stanley Kubrick movie ever, but found the book a little disjointed and TOO character driven to have a satisfying climax, please nominate something else. (I love film, but it's a different medium.) 
11. Have a conversation, but check the typical internet assholery at the door. If someone likes something you think is terrible, it's okay to let them enjoy it. And if someone has one tight and polite bit of criticism about your recommendation ("I was not a fan of the X plot arc or the way that author writes women."), it's okay that they didn't care for it and there's no need to defend it like they have impugned you honor for seven generations.  I **WILL** delete shitty comments, and I absolutely know that's highly subjective, so better to err on the side of nice. 
12. TWO!

Best Stand Alone Classic Sci-Fi (RESULTS!)

The results are in! These are the books you all recommended (often more than once). I was really excited to see how active this conversation was. Unfortunately there were a lot of folks nominating outside of the rules—either books that were part of a series or books that were written after 1980 (sometimes both!), so as great as they were, I had to expunge them from our list. Tuck those great works in your back pocket for the day when they fit the nomination criteria. 

Thank you all so much for participating. Even I picked up a couple of books to add to the "To Be Read" pile this time around.  

Now on to the results…

The Best

The Gods Themselves, I. Asimov 4

Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein 4

Flowers for Algernon, D. Keyes 3

Frankenstein, M. Shelley 3

Cat's Cradle, K. Vonnegut 2

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? P. K. Dick 2

Kindred, O. Butler 2

Childhood's End, A. C. Clarke 2

The Lathe of Heaven, U K LeGuin

The Metamorphosis, F. Kafka

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, J. Verne

A Clockwork Orange, A. Burgess

Slaughterhouse Five, K. Vonnegut

War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells

Repent, Harlequin', Said the Ticktockman, H. Ellison

Day of the Drones, A. M. Lightner

Lord of Light, R. Zelazny

Nova, S. Delany

The Einstein Intersection, S. Delany

Blazing World, M. Cavendish

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, J. Swift

Undersung Hero

The Dispossessed, U. K. LeGuin 4

Solaris, S. Lem 3

Roadside Picnic, A. Strugatsky 2

Wait It Out, L. Niven 2

The Man Who Fell to Earth, W. Tevis

The Cyberiad, S. Lem

The Long Tomorrow, L. Brackett

Woman on the Edge of Time, M. Piercy

Best Standalone Classic Science Fiction (LAST call for "Recs" and "Secs")

What is the best stand alone Classic Science Fiction Book (published before 1980)?

It's my birthday today, so I'm going to drop a reminder and run. (And if you want to help me get a gift, my tip jar is always open.) This is your absolutely last chance to drop a recommendation for best stand alone classic science fiction books—so not a part of a series or a book with a sequel. Plus the recommendation that folks have already dropped need your seconds (and thirds and fourths). We'll be posting results soon.

Just don't forget to pop over to the ORIGINAL PAGE to drop that recommendation or check out the rules if you're unsure of them. If you put it here or on the social media pages where I'm sharing this link, it won't get tabulated and put on our list.

Also please keep in mind that we already ran a "could stand alone but doesn't" poll for science fiction. A few of our recommendations have sequels or are part of series, and even though they might have been written decades later, they disqualify the books from THIS particular conversation.

Thank you all for joining in our Book Rec Conversation. I've really love reading all your comments about the books you treasure and why.

Best Stand Alone Classic Science Fiction (Nominations Needed)

What is the best stand alone Classic Science Fiction Book (published before 1980)?

We've done best classic fantasy. Best modern fantasy. Best modern Science Fiction. Best science fiction AND fantasy that could have stood alone (but didn't). So now the only category left in this series is stand alone classic science fiction. (We'll start doing series and stuff soon.) As always, remember to take your recommendations to the comments on the blog if you want them counted (not as replies to the posts on FB or other social media.) And though the rules don't change much if you've done a lot of these before, please check them out if you're new or need a refresher.

I spent the weekend (and yesterday) in a final push of moving and cleaning, so it's a good day to start up our latest book recommendation conversation while I take a moment to catch up.

These days we've given up on those cutthroat polls (where the most recent movie adaptation with the slickest CGI usually ends up winning anyway) and instead we're just going to have a good chat about good books and all come away with some suggestions for our To Be Read™ pile. We'll still have the system of seconds (and "thirds" and "fourths"), but all that will determine is which goes to the top of the list when I post the results. You can go HERE to see what the results will look like when all is said and done. And I'll link out the original nomination post for folks who want to go see what people are actually saying about the book. Eventually these posts listing the results will be compiled in a massive "book recommendation" post.

Today we're doing stand alone classic science fiction. Those books that are not part of a trilogy, a series, or massive world building universe, but nonetheless are outstanding examples of the sci-fi genre. And since this would turn into a massive list if we did all science fiction ever, we're going to break it up into modern and classic. Today is classic—written before 1980.

The Rules

1. Make two recommendations. Obviously, I can't stop anyone from making fifteen, but nothing beyond the first two will make it onto the master list.
2. NO BOOK WITH A COPYRIGHT AFTER 1980 WILL BE ACCEPTED. We've do those in another conversation.
3. TELL US ALL A LITTLE ABOUT WHY YOU LIKE THE BOOK (or short story) although obviously do so without spoilers! If you just drop a title name and it gets all the seconds, I'm still going to list it, of course, but the whole point of this is to have a "conversation" and gush a little about the books you think are great, exciting, well written, or unforgettable. 
4. For each recommendation, let us know if you're nominating it more as a BEST book in the genre or an UNDERSUNG HERO in the genre. Basically "undersung hero" is for books you think are great, tragically overlooked, NEED to be read by everyone (like…yesterday), but are maybe not necessarily the besty bestest best. They'll all end up in the list I compile, but I'll put them in different places.
5. As always, I leave the niggling over the definition of genres to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you want to nominate Dragonflight as sci-fi (even though it's probably better placed as fantasy), you should show your work if you desire those sweet, sweet seconds (or thirds....or fourths) and there might be a discussion thread after your comment with a lot of people writing out the "Ahem……If I may…"
6. Your book must NOT be part of a series or more than tangentially related to a fictional universe. If it makes a reference to another book like once or twice is clearly taking place in the world of another book without being a sequel, prequel, or a grand unified series, that's fine, but if it takes place in Discworld, that's not "stand alone." (Nothing wrong with those kinds of massive universes, but let's get them their own conversation.) 
7. You get to mention two (2) books. That's it. Two. You can do one BEST and one UNDERSUNG HERO. Or you can do two BESTS. Or you can do two UNDERSUNG HEROES. But two is the total. If you nominate three or more, I will, with unimaginable cruelty, simply ignore the third and any subsequent books. I'm sorry that I'm a stickler on this, but it's just lil ol' me compiling this list by myself and it's a pain when people drop a spinosaurus list of every single book they can remember in the entire genre that they vaguely liked at all. However, you list more than two books and your third or later choice gets a second, I'll consider everything. (Even though that matters a lot less than it did when I was counting seconds to see which titles made the poll––see below.)
8. Did I mention two?
9. You may (and absolutely should) give a second shout out to AS MANY nominations of others as you wish. There is no more poll, so this will not be a cutthroat competition to see who makes it to the semifinals. It will simply dictate which titles I list first, and it may influence which books someone considers a good recommendation. ("This one got six seconds, and that one only got two, so I think I'll start with this one.")
10. Put your nominations HERE. I will take nominations only as comments and only on this post. (No comments on FB posts or G+ will be considered nominations.) If you can't comment for some reason because of Blogger, send me an email (chris.brecheen@gmail.com) stating exactly that and what your nomination is, and I will personally put your comment up. I am not likely to see a comment on social media even if it says you were unable to leave a comment here. 
11. You are nominating WRITTEN fiction, not their A/V portrayals. If you thought Disney's The Sword in the Stone was a great movie, but never really could get through White's The Once and Future King, please nominate something else. (I love film, but it's a different medium.) 
12. Have a conversation, but check the typical internet assholery at the door. If someone likes something you think is terrible, it's okay to let them enjoy it. And if someone has one tight and polite bit of criticism about your recommendation ("I was not a fan of the X plot arc or the way that author writes women."), it's okay that they didn't care for it and there's no need to defend it like they have impugned you honor for seven generations.  I **WILL** delete shitty comments, and I absolutely know that's highly subjective, so better to err on the side of nice. 
13. TWO!

Best Fantasy That COULD Stand Alone, But Doesn't (Results)

It was probably a mistake to think that I could drop into a new childcare schedule this week, still be adjusting to three types of transitions (and going through some tough personal stuff), all while in the final week of moving out of one place and into another, AND get up all my blog posts on time, but I really didn't want to take more than a week's vacation. However, even with a guest post just waiting to go and two half-finished articles in the hopper, I ended up…well, let's say the past couple of days, I've learned some valuable lessons.

Fortunately, today I can just post the results of the conversation we've been running for the past few weeks—what are the best Fantasy books that are technically a part of a series but could absolutely, unswervingly stand alone.

We didn't get a lot of seconds this time around, so there's not much excitement in ordering the list.

Best

The Curse of Chalion, LM Bujold 2

Tehanu, U. K. LeGuin 2

Ozma of Oz, L. F. Baum 2

Monstrous Regiment, T. Pratchett 2

The Giver, L. Lowry 2

To Green Angel Tower, T. Williams

The Silver Sun, N. Springer

Wee Free Men, T. Pratchett

The Psammead/Five Children and It, E. Nesbit

The Bear and the Nightingale

A Wizard of Earthsea, U. K. LeGuin

Dragonsbane, B. Hambley

Lord Valentine's Castle, R. Silverberg

Undersung

Jhereg, S Brust

The Bone Doll's Twin, L. Flewelling

[I really wanted to get all these lists updated on our master list over my staycation, but I ended up doing a lot of moving instead. That process, and I'm really hoping some of the rest of these rough transitions, are almost over.]

Best Stand Alone Classic Fantasy (Results)

The results of our book recommendations for best stand-alone fantasy (written before 1980) are in, and wow, are these ever some amazing books. This might be the first time EVER that I've read every single book on the list, and they all deserve the praise they got. Thank you to SO many people for participating and making this our best book recommendation post yet. Results will go onto our massive compilation post in the next few days.

We did have a hiccup (again) a bunch of you went ahead and ponied up recommendations for books that were NOT stand-alone. They have clear sequels or ARE clear and obvious sequels. So, like last time with the sci-fi results, I'll run a separate poll for books that AREN'T stand alone but totally SHOULD be. We will also of course do another such post for MODERN fantasy (written after 1980). 

On to the results…

Favorites (Remember, there was no voting, so the only "order" I've put them in is how many seconds they recieved.)

Watership Down, R. Adams 5

The Last Unicorn, P. S. Beagle 4

The Neverending Story, M. Ende 4 

The Phantom Tollbooth, N. Juster 3

Kindred, O. Butler 2

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast, R. McKinley 2

Fahrenheit 451, R. Bradbury 2

A Canticle for Liebowitz, W. M. Miller, Jr 2

Something Wicked This Way Comes, R. Bradbury 2

Drawing of the Dark, T. Powers 2

The Farthest Away Mountain, L. R. Banks

Out of their Minds, C. D. Simak

Operation Chaos, P. Anderson

Momo [The Grey Gentlemen], M. Ende

Undersung Heroes: 

This Time of Darkness, H. M. Hoover

The Shaving of Shagpat: An Arabian Entertainment, G. Meredith

The Princess Bride, W. Goldman 

Dandelion Wine, R. Bradbury 

Rule-Breaking Mention

I'll mention three rule-breaking exceptions that defied the rules of our post but not simply by being published after 1980 or having a clear-cut sequel. One is not a novel. So does each of its short stories count as sequels or part of a series? The other is a book that has multiple endings released over 40 years apart including one that opens up the possibility of a sequel (possibly for its TV serialization). The last is a world-building book for Lord of the Rings which doesn't really have anything to do with The Hobbit or LotR, but is still kind of an edge case.

The Stand, S. King

The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

The Illustrated Man, R. Bradbury (Short story collection) 2



The books that were part of series will show up on the next poll.

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, R. C. O'Brien 4
Bunnicula, D. Howe and J. Howe 2
Bridge of Birds, B. Hughart 2
The Dark is Rising, S. Cooper
Inferno, L. Niven and J. Pournelle
Over Sea Under Stone, S. Cooper

Best Stand Alone Fantasy (Second Call for Recs and Secs)

What is the best stand alone Fantasy book written before 1980?

[I don't normally post on Thursdays, but I spent Tuesday waiting for the last bits of information I needed from yesterday's guest blogger, but yesterday's guest blogger is on the other side of the Earth (quite literally) and sleeping during my business day, so by the time I got the reply, it was a bit late for throwing up a post, and I waited. So this one should have gone up yesterday.]

I'll be dropping the original page rerun over on WAW's Facebook page but for everyone else, here is a quick update post haven't already, please don't forget to pop over to the original page to drop that nomination, see what has been nominated already, second (all) those you agree with, as well as brush up on the rules—there are a FEW after all.

It seems a number of folks either weren't clear about the "stand alone" part, or didn't realize that their book was part of a series. I'll probably have to run a "could stand alone but is part of a series" book rec conversation like I did with science fiction. However, for THIS one, all these recs will not be taken, so please 

Again, please remember to go to the original page to drop your nomination (and familiarize yourself with the rules if you haven't yet). If you put it anywhere else (including a Facebook comment on this post) it will not be counted.

Thank you all for joining in our Book Rec Conversation. I've really loved reading all your comments about the books you treasure and why.

Best Standalone Classic Fantasy (Book Recommendation)

What is the best standalone Classic Fantasy Book published before 1980?

We wrapped up our last book conversation a while ago, so we're overdue to start a new one. And, as always, remember to take your recommendations to the comments on the blog if you want them counted (not as replies to the posts on FB or other social media.) And though the rules don't change much if you've done a lot of these before, please check them out if you're new or need a refresher.

Remember that instead of trying to figure out what more people think is the BEST (which usually turns into which book has the coolest movie adaptation anyway), we're just going to have a good chat about good books and all come away with some suggestions for our To Be Read Pile™. We'll still have the system of seconds (and "thirds" and "fourths"), but all that will determine is which goes to the top of the list when I post the results. You can go HERE to see what the results will look like when all is said and done. And I'll link out the original nomination post for folks who want to go see what people are actually saying about the book. Eventually these posts listing the results will be compiled in a massive "book recommendation" post.

Today we're doing stand alone classic fantasy. Those books that are not part of a trilogy, a series, or massive world building universe, but nonetheless are outstanding examples of the fantasy genre. And since this would turn into a massive list if we did all fantasy ever, we're going to break it up into modern and classic. Today is classic—written before 1980.

The Rules

1. Make two recommendations. Obviously, I can't stop anyone from making fifteen, but nothing beyond the first two will make it onto the master list.
2. NO BOOK WITH A COPYRIGHT AFTER 1980 WILL BE ACCEPTED. We'll do those in another conversation.
3. TELL US ALL A LITTLE ABOUT WHY YOU LIKE THE BOOK (or short story) although obviously do so without spoilers! If you just drop a title name and it gets all the seconds, I'm still going to list it, of course, but the whole point of this is to have a "conversation" and gush a little about the books you think are great, exciting, well written, or unforgettable. 
4. For each recommendation, let us know if you're nominating it more as a BEST book in the genre or an UNDERSUNG HERO in the genre. Basically "undersung hero" is for books you think are great, tragically overlooked, NEED to be read by everyone (like…yesterday), but are maybe not necessarily the besty bestest best. They'll all end up in the list I compile, but I'll put them in different places.
5. As always, I leave the niggling over the definition of genres to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you want to nominate The Time Machine as fantasy (even though it's probably better placed as sci-fi), you should show your work if you desire those sweet, sweet seconds (or thirds....or fourths) and there might be a discussion thread after your comment with a lot of people writing out the "If I may…"
6. Your book must NOT be part of a series or more than tangentially related to a fictional universe. If it makes a reference to another book like once or twice is clearly taking place in the world of another book without being a sequel, prequel, or a grand unified series, that's fine, but if it takes place in Discworld, that's not "stand alone." (Nothing wrong with those kinds of massive universes, but let's get them their own conversation.) Obviously (because of the preview image), certain non-sequel offerings that occur with the same character and world are acceptable.
7. You get to mention two (2) books. That's it. Two. You can do one BEST and one UNDERSUNG HERO. Or you can do two BESTS. Or you can do two UNDERSUNG HEROES. But two is the total. If you nominate three or more, I will, with unimaginable cruelty, simply ignore the third and any subsequent books. I'm sorry that I'm a stickler on this, but it's just lil ol' me compiling this list by myself and it's a pain when people drop a spinosaurus list of every single book they can remember in the entire genre. However, you list more than two books and your third or later choice gets a second, I'll consider everything. (Even though that matters a lot less than it did when I was counting seconds to see which titles made the poll––see below.)
8. Did I mention two?
9. You may (and absolutely should) give a second shout out to AS MANY nominations of others as you wish. There is no more poll, so this will not be a cutthroat competition to see who makes it to the semifinals. It will simply dictate which titles I list first, and it may influence which books someone considers a good recommendation. ("This one got six seconds, and that one only got two, so I think I'll start with this one.")
10. Put your nominations HERE. I will take nominations only as comments and only on this post. (No comments on FB posts or G+ will be considered nominations.) If you can't comment for some reason because of Blogger, send me an email (chris.brecheen@gmail.com) stating exactly that and what your nomination is, and I will personally put your comment up. I am not likely to see a comment on social media even if it says you were unable to leave a comment here. 
11. You are nominating WRITTEN fiction, not their A/V portrayals. If you thought The Martian was a great movie, but never really could get through Weir's written version, please nominate something else. (I love film, but it's a different medium.) 
12. Have a conversation, but check the typical internet assholery at the door. If someone likes something you think is terrible, it's okay to let them enjoy it. And if someone has one tight and polite bit of criticism about your recommendation ("I was not a fan of the X plot arc or the way that author writes women."), it's okay that they didn't care for it and there's no need to defend it like they have impugned you honor for seven generations.  I **WILL** delete shitty comments, and I absolutely know that's highly subjective, so better to err on the side of nice. 
13. TWO!

Best Stand Alone Sci Fi Book (that is technically part of a series)

What is the best Science Fiction Book that COULD stand alone, but is part of a series?

We're not doing polls anymore, but we are doing extensive lists of book recommendations (and hopefully some good commentary on why those books are so beloved.)

I had to babysit my Facebook page yesterday, and I'm still healing the "psychic damage" from all that today (and a serious week of nanny hours is about to start). So today I'm going to just remind everyone that we have a book rec conversation going on RIGHT NOW.

If you haven't already, please don't forget to pop over to the original page to drop that nomination, see what else has been nominated already, second (all) those you agree with, and check up on the rules (there are a FEW after all). 

Keep in mind, as there have been some charming A/V media adaptations (and a few terrible ones), that this is a poll about BOOKS. If you loved one or more film or TV adaptations of Dune, but found Frank Herbert's original novel to be like chewing cardboard, you should nominate something else. 

Again, please remember to go to the original page to drop your nomination (and familiarize yourself with the rules if you haven't yet). If you put it anywhere else (including a Facebook comment on this post) it will not be counted.

Thank you all for joining in our Book Rec Conversation. I've really loved reading all your comments about the books you treasure and why.

Best Stand Alone Sci-Fi Book That is Technically Part of a Series (Book Reccomendations)

What is the best Science Fiction Book that COULD stand alone, but is part of a series.

Maybe it's part of a trilogy, but the other books are absolutely lackluster. Maybe there are companion novels written in the same world and with overlapping characters, but just were not up to the One Book™. Maybe the author wrote a sequel or a prequel years later but it is their foundational work that really gets attention. Maybe you've never even HEARD of the other books, but they do exist. 

We're going "off script" for our next book recommendation conversation since so many folks offered up books already (for our last conversation) that turned out to be part of a series or have a sequel or something.

Remember, we shifted things up about six months ago. Instead of trying to figure out what more people think is the BEST (which usually turns into which book has the coolest movie adaptation anyway), we're just going to have a nice chat about good books and all come away with some suggestions for our To Be Read Pile™. We'll still have the system of seconds (and "thirds" and "fourths"), but all that will really determine is which goes to the top of the list when I post the results. You can go HERE to see what the results will look like when all is said and done. And I'll link out the original nomination post for folks who want to go see what people are actually saying about the book. Eventually these posts listing the results will be compiled in a massive "book recommendation" post.

Today we're doing "stand alone" science fiction that isn't ACTUALLY stand alone. But to be clear, we're talking about books that COULD stand alone, not just "the exceptionally good first book in a trilogy" or something.

However this does mean we have a small list already ready to go! But do notice there's no copyright year limitation, so the book can have been published before 1980, unlike our last poll. 

The Sparrow by M. D. Russell
Emergence_ by David R. Palmer
This Alien Shore, C. S. Friedman 
Who Fears Death, N. Okorafor 
Oryx and Crake, M. Atwood 
Hyperion, D. Simmons 
Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas. 

The Rules

1. Make two recommendations. Obviously, I can't stop anyone from making fifteen, but nothing beyond the first two will make it onto the master list. Because I am a meanie meanhead.
2. TELL US ALL A LITTLE ABOUT WHY YOU LIKE THE BOOK (or short story) although obviously do so without spoilers! If you just drop a title name and it gets all the seconds, I'm still going to list it, of course, but the whole point of this is to have a "conversation" and gush a little about the books you think are great, exciting, well written, or unforgettable and a little (spoiler-free) squee about why.
3. For each recommendation, let us know if you're nominating it more as a BEST book in the genre or an UNDERSUNG HERO in the genre. Basically "undersung hero" is for books you think are great, tragically overlooked, NEED to be read by everyone (like…yesterday), but are maybe not necessarily the besty bestest best. They'll all end up in the list I compile, but I'll put them in different places.
4. As always, I leave the niggling over the definition of genres to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you want to nominate The Many Colored Land as science fiction (even though it's probably better placed as fantasy), you should show your work if you desire those sweet, sweet seconds (or thirds....or fourths) and there might be a discussion thread after your comment with a lot of people writing out the "If I may…"
5. Your book must be part of a series or more than tangentially related to a fictional universe. It must have a sequel, prequel, be part of a series, or be part of a massive world (like Discworld). If it makes little more a reference to another book like once or twice is clearly taking place in the world of another book without being a sequel, prequel, or a grand unified series, it wouldn't count for this poll. (Sometimes Stephen King books have a small allusion to one of his earlier works. This wouldn't count as there are only a few S.K. books that are really sequels.) 
6. You get to mention two (2) books. That's it. Two. You can do one BEST and one UNDERSUNG HERO. Or you can do two BESTS. Or you can do two UNDERSUNG HEROES. But two is the total. If you nominate three or more, I will, with unimaginable cruelty, simply ignore the third and any subsequent books. I'm sorry that I'm a stickler on this, but it's just lil ol' me compiling this list by myself and it's a pain when people drop a spinosaurus list of every single book they can remember in the entire genre. However, you list more than two books and your third or later choice gets a second, I'll consider everything. (Even though that matters a lot less than it did when I was counting seconds to see which titles made the poll––see below.)
7. Did I mention two?
8. You may (and absolutely should) give a second shout out to AS MANY nominations of others as you wish. There is no more poll, so this will not be a cutthroat competition to see who makes it to the semifinals. It will simply dictate which titles I list first, and it may influence which books someone considers a good recommendation. ("This one got six seconds, and that one only got two, so I think I'll start with this one.")
9. Put your nominations HERE. I will take nominations only as comments and only on this post. (No comments on FB posts or G+ will be considered nominations.) If you can't comment for some reason because of Blogger, send me an email (chris.brecheen@gmail.com) stating exactly that and what your nomination is, and I will personally put your comment up. I am not likely to see a comment on social media even if it says you were unable to leave a comment here. 
10. You are nominating WRITTEN fiction, not their A/V portrayals. If you thought The Martian was a great movie, but never really could get through Weir's written version, please nominate something else. (I love film, but it's a different medium.) 
11. Have a conversation, but check the typical internet assholery at the door. If someone likes something you think is terrible, it's okay to let them enjoy it. And if someone has one tight and polite bit of criticism about your recommendation ("I was not a fan of the X plot arc or the way that author writes women."), it's okay that they didn't care for it and there's no need to defend it like they have impugned you honor for seven generations.  I **WILL** delete shitty comments, and I absolutely know that's highly subjective, so better to err on the side of nice. 
12. TWO!

Best Stand Alone Modern Sci Fi (Book Recommendation Results)

The results are IN!

Our book rec conversation about stand alone science fiction (written after 1980) came up with a decent list for your TBR lists. From Brin and Russell to Asimov, these are the favorites of many. 

I'm just going to drop this list and run. I have to get all my tax documents to my accountant in the next two days (all my crowdfunding and side gigs make my taxes way too hard to do on my own). This is why my "heavy" posts were at the beginning of the week this week. I will get our Master List updated this weekend (but you can go look and see what the results will look like, as well as check out our previous Book Rec convos). Plus, don't forget to go back to the original conversation to see what people said about the books they loved.

One small note. A LOT of people recommended books that weren't stand alone. I didn't take those nominations, and they aren't on this list. I won't finger wag too much here about following directions except to say that if you submit your writing to a venue, you're going to want to follow THEIR submission guidelines to the letter. Here, I will simply say to hold on to these great book recommendations. I'll be coming back around in time to do the best single book in a series.

BEST:

Earth, D. Brin (2)

Snow Crash, N. Stephenson

Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, S. R. Delany.

China Mountain Zhang, M. F. McHugh

House of the Scorpion, N. Farmer

Silently and Very Fast, C. M. Valente

Sudden, Broken, and Unexpected, S. Popkes

The Positronic Man, I. Asimov and R. Silverberg

Story of Your Life, T. Chiang

UNDERSUNG:

Six Wakes, M. Lafferty 

The Gone World, T. Sweterlitsch

Best Stand Alone Modern Sci-Fi (Book Recs—More Recs and Seconds Needed)

What is the stand alone science fiction book (or short story) written AFTER 1980? Come join our conversation.

Remember there are no more polls. These days instead of a grudge match, we just have a conversation about some good books. ANY book can end up on our list with even as much as a single nomination. The only thing I do even remotely like "ranking" is to put the books in order by number of "seconds." 

I'm doing a week that is pretty extra on the nanny front, so we might have to do some jazz hands by the end of the week, but I'm still trying to hit all of our update goals and stick the landing.

However, we do have a book rec conversation going on RIGHT NOW, and you haven't already, please don't forget to pop over to the original page to drop that nomination, see what has been nominated already, second (all) those you agree with, and brush up on the rules (there are a FEW after all). 

Keep in mind, as there have been some charming A/V media adaptations (and a few terrible ones), that this is a poll about BOOKS. If you loved Jurassic Park The Lost World when it was scientifically inaccurate CGI dinosaurs running around eating people, but found Michael Crichton's 1995 technothriller to be a dry read that was nothing like the moview, you should nominate something else. 

Again, please remember to go to the original page to drop your nomination (and familiarize yourself with the rules if you haven't yet). If you put it anywhere else (including a Facebook comment on this post) it will not be counted.

Thank you all for joining in our Book Rec Conversation. I've really loved reading all your comments about the books you treasure and why.

Best Stand Alone Modern Sci-Fi (Book Recs)

What is the best stand alone Science Fiction Book (or short story) written after 1980?

It's time to start a new conversation (remember we are not doing polls anymore). And remember to take your recommendations to the blog if you want them counted (not as replies to their posts on FB.)

For those still getting used to our Book Rec Conversations, or who remember the years and years of more traditional polls we ran here, there are still rules (below). But instead of trying to figure out what more people think is the BEST (which usually turns into which book has the coolest movie adaptation anyway), we're just going to have a good chat about good books and all come away with some suggestions for our To Be Read Pile™. We'll still have the system of seconds (and "thirds" and "fourths"), but all that will determine is which goes to the top of the list when I post the results. You can go HERE to see what the results will look like when all is said and done. And I'll link out the original nomination post for folks who want to go see what people are actually saying about the book. Eventually these posts listing the results will be compiled in a massive "book recommendation" post.

Today we're doing stand alone science fiction. Those books that are not part of a trilogy, a series, or massive world building universe, but nonetheless are outstanding examples of science fiction. And because the further back you go, the more books are stand alone, we're going to have to break this up into two separate conversations. Today we'll be doing everything written since 1980. 

The Rules

1. Make two recommendations. Obviously, I can't stop anyone from making fifteen, but nothing beyond the first two will make it onto the master list.
2. NO BOOK WITH A COPYRIGHT BEFORE 1980 WILL BE ACCEPTED. We'll do those in another conversation.
3. TELL US ALL A LITTLE ABOUT WHY YOU LIKE THE BOOK (or short story) although obviously do so without spoilers! If you just drop a title name and it gets all the seconds, I'm still going to list it, of course, but the whole point of this is to have a "conversation" and gush a little about the books you think are great, exciting, well written, or unforgettable. 
4. For each recommendation, let us know if you're nominating it more as a BEST book in the genre or an UNDERSUNG HERO in the genre. Basically "undersung hero" is for books you think are great, tragically overlooked, NEED to be read by everyone (like…yesterday), but are maybe not necessarily the besty bestest best. They'll all end up in the list I compile, but I'll put them in different places.
5. As always, I leave the niggling over the definition of genres to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you want to nominate The Many Colored Land as science fiction (even though it's probably better placed as fantasy), you should show your work if you desire those sweet, sweet seconds (or thirds....or fourths) and there might be a discussion thread after your comment with a lot of people writing out the "If I may…"
6. Your book must not be part of a series or more than tangentially related to a fictional universe. If it makes a reference to another book like once or twice is clearly taking place in the world of another book without being a sequel, prequel, or a grand unified series, that's fine, but if it takes place in Discworld, that's not "stand alone." (Nothing wrong with those kinds of massive universes, but let's get them their own conversation.)
7. You get to mention two (2) books. That's it. Two. You can do one BEST and one UNDERSUNG HERO. Or you can do two BESTS. Or you can do two UNDERSUNG HEROES. But two is the total. If you nominate three or more, I will, with unimaginable cruelty, simply ignore the third and any subsequent books. I'm sorry that I'm a stickler on this, but it's just lil ol' me compiling this list by myself and it's a pain when people drop a spinosaurus list of every single book they can remember in the entire genre. However, you list more than two books and your third or later choice gets a second, I'll consider everything. (Even though that matters a lot less than it did when I was counting seconds to see which titles made the poll––see below.)
8. Did I mention two?
9. You may (and absolutely should) give a second shout out to AS MANY nominations of others as you wish. There is no more poll, so this will not be a cutthroat competition to see who makes it to the semifinals. It will simply dictate which titles I list first, and it may influence which books someone considers a good recommendation. ("This one got six seconds, and that one only got two, so I think I'll start with this one.")
10. Put your nominations HERE. I will take nominations only as comments and only on this post. (No comments on FB posts or G+ will be considered nominations.) If you can't comment for some reason because of Blogger, send me an email (chris.brecheen@gmail.com) stating exactly that and what your nomination is, and I will personally put your comment up. I am not likely to see a comment on social media even if it says you were unable to leave a comment here. 
11. You are nominating WRITTEN fiction, not their A/V portrayals. If you thought The Martian was a great movie, but never really could get through Weir's written version, please nominate something else. (I love film, but it's a different medium.) 
12. Have a conversation, but check the typical internet assholery at the door. If someone likes something you think is terrible, it's okay to let them enjoy it. And if someone has one tight and polite bit of criticism about your recommendation ("I was not a fan of the X plot arc or the way that author writes women."), it's okay that they didn't care for it and there's no need to defend it like they have impugned you honor for seven generations.  I **WILL** delete shitty comments, and I absolutely know that's highly subjective, so better to err on the side of nice. 
13. TWO!

Getting Under the Hood (Admin, Meta)

Usually here at Writing About Writing, we start the week with some admin and lighter posts and kind of work our way up to a couple of meaty offerings towards the end of the week (unless, like last week, we've got something a little special going on). If you're thinking about blogging, be warned that daily content is nigh impossible and even a couple of "good" posts a week will take you most of the rest of your writing time until you have NO other job. (We will get back there ourselves some day, but for now we're helping chosen family with the fact that we are the only nanny they can safely pod with.) You can't build an audience with one or two posts a month, but you shouldn't assume that you can write a high quality post in fewer than eight to ten hours of solid writing time either. 

But since I like to keep things transparent around here, instead of just MAKING these changes quietly, I'll tell you what we're up to.

Today we had to get under the hood of an earlier post, specifically our Book Rec Master list, and make a trio of changes. We updated it with the most recent conversation about Romance (book or series). We also added the Undersung Heroes to lists displayed on that page instead of making you go to a link. This is because the links were going back to the results page, which had the undersung heroes listed, but was not where the "conversations" could actually be read. The "conversations" happen on the original topic announcement. So that's the third change I made. Those links now go to the original pages with all the threads of comments instead of just to the results.

We'll be starting a new conversation tomorrow. In the meantime, think….SCI FI. 

Best Romance Book Rec (Results)

The results are IN!

Our book rec conversation about the romance genre came up with a massive list for your TBR lists. From Bronte and Austen to Carriger and Dare, these are the favorites of many. In a genre of bodice rippers and Harlequin clones, sometimes it's easy to forget that there are some really GOOD books whose main plot (instead of just one of its subplots) is a romantic relationship.

I'll get our Master List updated this weekend (but you can now go look and see what the results will look like there and check out our previous Book Rec convos). I realized that I'm going to have to make a few adjustments to what is there, so it'll take a bit more than a cut and a paste. Plus, don't forget to go back to the page of the original conversation to see what people said about the books they loved.

Best Romance (Book or Series) 

Parasol Protectorate series, G. Carriger 4

When a Scot Ties a Knot, T. Dare 4

Outlander, D. Gabaldon 3

These Old Shades, G Heyer, 3

Reluctant Royals series, A. Cole 3

Jane Eyre, C. Bronte 3

Love Only Once, J. Lindsey 2

The Dark Hunter series, S. Kenyon 2

Psy/Changeling series, N. Singh 2

Love in the Time of Cholera, G.G. Marquez

Cecile, F. Burney

Tairen Soul series, C.L. Wilson

Cut and Run series, A. Roux and Madeleine Urban

The Hating Game, S. Thorne

The Lion's Bride, C. Mason

Red, White, and Royal Blue, C. McQuinton

The House in the Cerulean Sea, T.J. Klune

Guild Hunter series, N. Singh

Sevenwaters series, J. Marillier

Pride and Prejudice, J. Austen

A Long Fatal Love Chase, L. M. Alcott

Wild, J Barnett

Sweet Valley series (attributed to F. Pascal, but written by a team of ghostwriters)

Spindle Cove,T. Dare

Castles Ever After, T. Dare

The Chesapeake Bay Series, N. Roberts

Undersung Hero

Beautiful Creatures, K. Garcia and M. Stohl

Rise of the Iliri, A. Hadley

Best Romance (Book or Series) [Last Chance to Recommend]

What is the best romance (book or series)? This is the last chance to recommend your favorite (or just an underappreciated great one) and join our conversation.

This is the last call for nominations (or seconds of existing nominations) that will go on our compilation page. I'm still hammering out an early access post for my patrons (and we were kind of "out of the office last week), so I'll be posting the results on THURSDAY of this week instead. 

Remember there are no more polls. We just have a conversation about some good books. On Thursday, I will publish two lists: one of "undersung heroes," the books that aren't the best but that you love and want to see more people know about. And the BEST, which will have no ranking other than being listed in order of which got the most seconds.

We also finally have our Master List! So if you want to see the what the results of participation will look like or to see the results of earlier Book Rec posts, come check that out. 

Please remember to go to the original page to drop your nomination (and familiarize yourself with the rules if you haven't yet). If you put it anywhere else (including a Facebook comment on this post) it will not be counted.

Thank you all for your input. I've really loved reading all your comments about the books you treasure and why.

Book Recommendation Master List

All of these categories will come around every couple of years, so if you don't see a book you feel should really be on here, stay tuned, and eventually you'll get your chance to reshape these lists. Don't forget that each category has a link to the original page where you can go look at all the gushing reviews in the comments and check out the "UNSUNG HEROES" list (which are books that are maybe not "the best" but that don't get recommended enough and folks think everyone should know). 

Best Standalone Fantasy (Check out the conversation HERE)

The Night Circus, E. Morgenstern 
The Princess Bride, W. Goldman
War for the Oaks, E. Bull
Good Omens, N. Gaiman and T. Pratchett 
American Gods, N. Gaiman
Neverwhere, N. Gaiman 
The House in the Cerulean Sea, T. J. Klune 
The Once and Future Witches, A. E. Harrow 
Poison, C. Wooding 
Un Lun Dun, C. Mieville 
Le morte d'Arthur, T. Mallory 
Tailchaser's Song, T. Williams 
Kindred, O. Butler 
Dragon Pearl, Y. H. Lee 

Undersung Heroes 

Shades of Grey, J. Fforde 

Afterworlds, S. Westerfeld 

Glasgow Fairytale, A. D. McIver

Fire and Hemlock, D. W. Jones

Best YA Science Fiction (Check out the conversation  HERE)

Machine - E. Bear

Thunder and Lightning (series) - J. Varley

Dingilliad (series) - D. Gerrold

Succession (split into two volumes by the publisher) - S. Westerfield

Karen Memory - E. Bear

Matthew Looney and the Space Pirates (series) - Jr. J. Beatty

Have Spacesuit, Will Travel - R. A. Heinlein

Raybearer - J. Ifueko

Animorphs - K. A. Applegate 

Undersung Heroes

Foundations - I. Asimov

Epic - C. Kostick

Best Romance (Check out the conversation HERE) 

Best Romance (Book or Series) 

Parasol Protectorate series, G. Carriger 

When a Scot Ties a Knot, T. Dare 

Outlander, D. Gabaldon 

These Old Shades, G Heyer, 

Reluctant Royals series, A. Cole 

Jane Eyre, C. Bronte 

Love Only Once, J. Lindsey 

The Dark Hunter series, S. Kenyon 

Psy/Changeling series, N. Singh 

Love in the Time of Cholera, G.G. Marquez

Cecile, F. Burney

Tairen Soul series, C.L. Wilson

Cut and Run series, A. Roux and Madeleine Urban

The Hating Game, S. Thorne

The Lion's Bride, C. Mason

Red, White, and Royal Blue, C. McQuinton

The House in the Cerulean Sea, T.J. Klune

Guild Hunter series, N. Singh

Sevenwaters series, J. Marillier

Pride and Prejudice, J. Austen

A Long Fatal Love Chase, L. M. Alcott

Wild, J Barnett

Sweet Valley series (attributed to F. Pascal, but written by a team of ghostwriters)

Spindle Cove,T. Dare

Castles Ever After, T. Dare

The Chesapeake Bay Series, N. Roberts

Undersung Heroes

Beautiful Creatures, K. Garcia and M. Stohl

Rise of the Iliri, A. Hadley

Best Standalone Modern Sci-Fi (Check out the conversation HERE)

Earth, D. Brin (2)

Snow Crash, N. Stephenson

Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, S. R. Delany.

China Mountain Zhang, M. F. McHugh

House of the Scorpion, N. Farmer

Silently and Very Fast, C. M. Valente

Sudden, Broken, and Unexpected, S. Popkes

The Positronic Man, I. Asimov and R. Silverberg

Story of Your Life, T. Chiang

Undersung Heroes:

Six Wakes, M. Lafferty 

The Gone World, T. Sweterlitsch

Best Romance Novel (or Series) [NOTPoll]

What is the best romance novel (or series)? 

It's time to start a new conversation (remember we are not doing polls anymore). We've never done romance here on Writing About Writing and with Singles Awareness Day/Hallmark Holiday so close that I thought with EVERYTHING that's been written in the genre, it is time to recognize that even though a Harlequin Romance with a triple digit number on the spine might not, in a manner of speaking, be the literary event of the century, there's still some good stuff there over the years that deserves to be celebrated.

For those still getting used to NOTpolls or who remember the years and years of more traditional polls we ran here, there are still rules (below). But instead of trying to figure out what more people think is the BEST (which usually turns into which book has the coolest movie adaptation anyway), we're just going to have a good chat about good books and all come away with some suggestions for our To Be Read Pile™. We'll still have the system of seconds (and "thirds" and "fourths"), but all that will determine is which goes to the top of the list when I post the results. And I'll link out the original nomination post for folks who want to go see what people are actually saying about the book. Eventually these posts listing the results will be compiled in a massive "book recommendation" post.

One thing to note is that much of the romance genre (and a lot of the best of it) is cross genre. So while I won't police this, it's up to you to keep an eye on whether you're nominating a Romance Sci-Fi or just some Sci-Fi that happens to have a strong romantic subplot.

The Rules

• Make two recommendations. Obviously, I can't stop anyone from making fifteen, but nothing beyond the first two will make it onto the master list.
• TELL US ALL A LITTLE ABOUT WHY YOU LIKE THE BOOK (or series ) although obviously do so without spoilers! If you just drop a title name and it gets all the seconds, I'm still going to list it, of course, but the whole point of this is to have a "conversation" and gush a little about the books you think are great, exciting, well written, or unforgettable. 
• For each recommendation, let us know if you're nominating it more as a BEST book in the genre or an UNDERSUNG HERO in the genre. Basically "undersung hero" is for books you think are great, tragically overlooked, NEED to be read by everyone (like…yesterday), but are maybe not necessarily the besty bestest best. They'll all end up in the list I compile, but I'll put them in different places.
• As always, I leave the niggling over the definition of genres to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you want to nominate The Thorn Birds as romance (even though it's probably better placed as family saga), you should show your work if you desire those sweet, sweet seconds (or thirds....or fourths) and there might be a discussion thread after your comment with a lot of people writing out the "If I may…"
• You get to mention two (2) books. That's it. Two. You can do one BEST and one UNDERSUNG HERO. Or you can do two BESTS. Or you can do two UNDERSUNG HEROES. But two is the total. If you nominate three or more, I will, with unimaginable cruelty, simply ignore the third and any subsequent books. I'm sorry that I'm a stickler on this, but it's just lil ol' me compiling this list by myself and it's a pain when people drop a spinosaurus list of every single book they can remember in the entire genre. However, you list more than two books and your third or later choice gets a second, I'll consider everything. (Even though that matters a lot less than it did when I was counting seconds to see which titles made the poll––see below.)
• Did I mention two?
• You may (and absolutely should) give a second shout out to AS MANY nominations of others as you wish. There is no more poll, so this will not be a cutthroat competition to see who makes it to the semifinals. It will simply dictate which titles I list first, and it may influence which books someone considers a good recommendation. ("This one got six seconds, and that one only got two, so I think I'll start with this one.")
• Put your nominations HERE. I will take nominations only as comments and only on this post. (No comments on FB posts or G+ will be considered nominations.) If you can't comment for some reason because of Blogger, send me an email (chris.brecheen@gmail.com) stating exactly that and what your nomination is, and I will personally put your comment up. I am not likely to see a comment on social media even if it says you were unable to leave a comment here. 
• You are nominating WRITTEN fiction, not their A/V portrayals. If you thought Bridgerton was a great Netflix show, but never really could get through Quinn's written version, please nominate something else. (I love film, but it's a different medium.)
• Have a conversation, but check the typical internet assholery at the door. If someone likes something you think is terrible, it's okay to let them enjoy it. And if someone has one tight and polite bit of criticism about your recommendation ("I was not a fan of the X plot arc or the way that author writes women."), it's okay that they didn't care for it and there's no need to defend it like they have impugned you honor for seven generations.  I **WILL** delete shitty comments, and I absolutely know that's highly subjective, so better to err on the side of nice. 
• TWO!

Hopefully, we all get some great book recommendations out of this new format.