TV/MOVIE and BOOK suggestions, please!

[aimeekitty]

TV AND MOVIE SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!
hook me up with some suggestions for your favorite. Doesn't matter whether it's Chinese or Korean or Japanese or whatever. (must have subtitles)

Also open to BBC and Bollywood suggestions. <3

Prefer romantic or action stuff, don't mind drama as long as it's not drama for drama-sake. If everyone dies at the end, it better have been a really good trip to get to that point. Extra points for pretty costumes, total adorableness or tragic heroes.

BOOK SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!
I'd like to read some more fiction lately. Maybe recommend your favorite sci/fi, fantasy or fairy-tale book? Young Adult stuff is fair game, too. I used to read Star Wars books back in highschool and liked some of them... (but haven't read any for years...) and I've enjoyed the New!Who! Audio books I've listened to so far. I also like stuff like Robin Mckinley's retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and I love the book of Howl's Moving Castle. I love Jane Austen and I love The Count of Monte Cristo. I love Sherlock Holmes. I'm enjoying reading Ella Enchanted right now. I liked Dune, but not the sequels... I didn't really care for the Sookie Stackhouse books or Laurel K. Hamilton's stuff. Don't really like the Pern books either.
I tend to enjoy stuff with really strong character development and I particularly like uplifting stories of coming of age, or a character who has a very strong character arc (ie like Kirk going from a kid in the middle of nowhere to being a StarFleet captain.)

EDIT: feel free to keep making recs, I'm going to make a list. <3
For my Dragoncon books, I'm going to start with Stardust and finish up Ella Enchanted since that's what they had at the library. I put holds though on several books you guys rec'd

Please see previous post for Dragoncon schedule.

Comments

[penwiper337.livejournal.com]

I'm going to second the recommendations for Bujold's Vorkosigan Series and pretty much anything Diana Wynne Jones. Try 'Deep Secret' - not only is it a very good standalone, but it's set at a sci-fi convention. :)

Megan Whalen Turner's Eugenides series (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia), set in a sort of Ancient Crete type world. The first book is all lighthearted, then she rips your heart out with the second one and proceeds to stomp on it here and there with the third - but they aren't depressing! Eugenides is brilliant, insane, tragic, and strongly in need of slapping in equal measure, and golly I love him. And Turner is brilliant at tippy, unpredictable, have-to-reread-immediately plots.

If you love Jane Austen, have you tried Georgette Heyer's regencies? Absolutely delish - there's a reason why she's only second after Austen in all the book lists. You might start with "The Talisman Ring", which is loaded with adventure and wit, or perhaps "Cotillion" for something a bit more society-oriented.

I also love Martha Wells, who writes absolutely delicious characters and vivid worlds. "The Element of Fire" (Elizabethen-ish) or "Death of the Necromancer" (Victorianish - what steampunk would be if it were magic-based) are two of my favorites.

Movies - "The Court Jester", starring Danny Kay, Basil Rathbone, and a very young Angela Lansbury. It's definitely spoofing "The Adventures of Robin Hood", and is hysterically funny, full of great songs, and has drop dead gorgeous costumes.

Television - I really love "Robin of Sherwood", an 80s British tv show. Spoils all other renditions of the legend for me. Okay, it suffers a bit from 80s hair and goes a bit silly-mystic at times, but the characterizations are wonderfully vivid and they gave historical authenticity a really good try.

BBC-wise, there is also the Jeeves and Wooster series, featuring Steven Fry and a young Hugh Laurie in this misadventures of a 1920s man-about-town and his brilliant gentleman's gentleman. Incredibly funny stuff, and the 20s atmosphere is delightful.