lishmcbride
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Favorite Rereads
🕑 Added 2022-09-20 00:37:45 +0000 UTCI am a huge fan of rereading. I know, I know, there are so many new books out there. How can I waste precious reading time on books I've already read? This is a valid argument...but hear me out.
I reread for a few reasons. First, because I find it really soothing. I can actually tell how overloaded or stressed I am by whether or not I'm suddenly driven to reread old favorites. I do this a lot when I'm in a rough editing project, or at a writing retreat where I'm writing 5-10,000 words in a day, or just plain stressed. I supposed I could just not read for a few days?
*insert laugh track here*
I can't not read. Sorry. But there's something just so cozy about dipping my toe back into an old book. Sometimes I miss the characters, or maybe I forgot about a particular scene or plot moment. I can enjoy these at my leisure without worrying that it's going to turn out badly because I've already read it!
Another reason I like to reread--it's never the same exact book twice. Reading a book is a sort of collaboration between the writer and the reader. I do my bit, but you do your bit as well. You're brining your own lens to the page. Your own experiences and world view. That changes how you interpret the story, character motivations, and how you feel about things in general. So a story you read in your teens will hit different in your 20's and even more different in your 40's. I like to see what changes for me between readings.
So what are some of my favorite books to reread? Mostly series books. I am a big nerd for series. Here are a few of my favorites:
Beka Cooper series by Tamora Pierce. (Young Adult, fantasy) I mean, I think most of Pierce's books are worth a reread. The Beka books are just my favorites? They're sort of prequels, but you don't have to be familiar with the series to read them. Beka is basically a neighborhood beat cop in the worst neighborhood in her city. The series starts her off as a trainee and follows her path. It's also an epistolary novel, told through diary entries. Not something I usually like, but it works.
Kate Daniels series and Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews. (Adult Urban Fantasy, Adult Fantasy Romance) There's something about their writing (Ilona Andrews is actually a husband and wife writing team) that really works for me. Lots of adventure, cool magic systems, battles, humor, and found family. A ton of snark. The covers for the Kate Daniels series are...unfortunate, but I loved the series and have read it many times over the years. I liked Hidden Legacy so much that the with the first one I basically wanted to start over from page one the second I finished book one. I never do that.
Mercy Thompson series, Patricia Briggs. (Adult Urban Fantasy) I bet you're seeing a pattern here. Ha! I love how this series builds and changes--how the werewolves themselves change and adapt over the series arc is interesting on its own. Plus the added bonus of being set in Washington state. We don't get a ton of books, Eastern Washington especially. (Head's up that a few books into the series there is a depiction of sexual assault.)
The Elenium series by David Eddings (Adult fantasy) Okay, so I grew up reading this series as well as the Belgariad, The Mallorean, and the Tamuli. I loved them all, but the first Sparhawk series was my favorite. I loved his attitude, but I also think Eddings--and he later credited his wife on the books--was just a little better at stream lining a story at this point. A caveat--these books were written in the 80's and 90's. While at them time, I felt they were on the progressive side, now the way we represent genders and races is a bit different. For example, a lot of these books have very few female characters. The few that are there are pretty bad ass or complicated, but there just aren't that many. Which was pretty normal for fantasy in that era. So, you know, grain of salt and all that.
The Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong (Young Adult, Horror/Urban Fantasy) So, Kelley is another writer where I will basically read whatever she does. I loved the Women of the Underworld series a whole hell of a lot. The Darkest Powers is connected to those, but you don't have to read the whole series to jump in on these. Shocking no one, this series has a necromancer and werewolves and witches, so of course I like it. But I like that Armstrong's characters act like actual teens. I also like that the love interest isn't totally gorgeous with airbrushed abs and perfect manners.
For may romance reader friends, I like to reread Lisa Kleypas and Tessa Dare. Both do historical. Kleypas's books aren't as funny, but I like her characters. (Could not get into her contemporary stuff.) Marrying Winterbourne might be my fav? Tessa Dare's books are much more humor based. When the Scot Ties the Knot involves a rogue lobster in a castle, and her newest series (Girl Meets Duke) has a book--I want to say it was the third one--where the male leads have to help deliver a baby goat that had me crying I was laughing so hard.
Horror...so I don't reread horror as much. Not sure why? But I did recently reread Christopher Pike's Final Friends series. (I think they renamed the series at some point?) Christopher Pike was along the lines of RL Stine in writing horror for young adults when it YA was just really starting to be a thing. This is another one of those "it was of its time" kind of series. Still, Pike was writing about actual teen topics and writing the way teens really interacted at a time when you just didn't run into that. I still loved a lot of the characters in this series when I reread it.
Some books that I think will be future rereads for me: Alexis Hall's Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake and Boyfriend Material, the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, pretty much anything by T. Kingsfisher, but especially Paladin's Grace. ML Brennan's Iron Night series. Deanna Reybourn's Veronica Speedwell books.
I'm fairly certain I'm forgetting a few favorites, but this list is already wicked long. Do any of you reread? What are some of your favorites? Post in the comments!
-Lish
Comments
If I ever get to meet T. Kingfisher I will absolutely ask for that. I want to know what happened to the other swords! Paladin's Grace was so good, though. I have read the first few of the Rivers of London series. I need to get back to it and finish it! I'll check out the audio, too. Thanks for the recommendation! I'm so pleased you liked ALTF that much! I'll have to post another snippet of the next book soon for you.
ditto re-reading in general and your work in particular—I've read Familiar twice already. There's something very comforting and comfortable (and funny!) about your world. Have you read/listened to Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, aka Detective Peter Grant? I like audiobooks, esp the part where I can get things done AND still ingest a story, but Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's narration of RoL may be one of the few where the audio is even better than reading it to myself. The next time you're at the Secret Author Meet-Ups, will you ask T. Kingfisher about the possibility of continuing the stories of the other swords in Swordheart's world?
I love the Innkeeper series, too. I need to catch up on it. I haven't read Clocktaur yet or Wizard's Guide. On my TBR. Loved The Twisted Ones, though not so much a comfort read as a creepy read. I love that HMCN and Firebug are rereads! Thank you!
Michael Grundy
I reread Ilona Andrews Hidden Legacy series when the latest book came out. That was part getting the universe back in my head for the final story in the series and part because it's awesome fun. Their Inkeeper series I've reread and plan to again when the final version of the new book hits the shelves. Last year I reread Ursula Vernon's (T.Kingfisher) Clocktaur Wars books, the Saint of Steel books, Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and Swordheart. That was a total comfort read. I went through my GR data and I reread way less than I thought. The only other rereads I found (that weren't just redoing the first book because I missed the rest of the series [2 examples]) in the past 14 years were HMCN and Firebug.
