Some recommendations

In our meeting today I mentioned a couple of books. I just wanted to get the names and authors out there in case anyone was interested in actually looking them up or looking for them. With bullet points and Amazon links for convenience!

The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss.

• An author dealing with the fact that most epic fantasy is recycled tropes.
  
• It's a self-conscious novel, sometimes to the point of irritatingly so, but it's interesting to see Rothfuss blend "fairy tale comfort food" with more main-stream character treatment.
  
• There are some neat plot ideas and spins on the genre (did I mention the vegetarian dragon addicted to narcotics?) and the logic of the magic is really solid.
• In all honesty, Terry Pratchett and even Peter David do this better, but Rothfuss is more epic than Pratchett and less bleak than David. And sort of fun on his own terms.
  

Odd Man Out, Sarah Ellis

• Raia's Nathan made me think of this one.
  
• Kip gets stuck staying with his cousins while his mother and new stepfather are on their honeymoon. When he finds his father's old journals in the attic, Kip gradually begins to uncover the disturbing truth about the father he has never known.
• It's technically a kids' book, but fun to read anyway. The writing is a good reminder on ways to tell a story plainly and how to integrate humor into a more serious "grown-up" issue.