Just in time for Christmas shopping! Or Hanukkah or Solstice! Or, if you just like to look at pretty covers…
(for your shopping convenience, we’ve tried to link to the FIRST book in each series… the first hit’s always free!)
In no particular order.
1. The Tiffany Aching books, and indeed, all of Discworld by Terry Pratchett.
British fantasy humor at its finest. And oh so literary. More in-jokes than xkcd. Delicious! And the hero and heroine usually (but not always) get together just like in an Agatha Christie. :)
2. The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. 
Epic. Think Napoleonic wars… if they had dragons. And what if one of those dragons was an enlightened revolutionary mind?
3. The Amber Chronicles (parts 1 and 2) by Roger Zelazny. An early mind-trip. 
Walk the maze.
4. The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger. 
DEEEElightful! Spunky heroine we wish we could emulate! Steampunk. Oh, and vampires and magic and werewolves… but none of that boring overdone tripe.
5. Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey books. 
A spunky Victorian heroine that we identify with. She is very much ahead of her time, but in a way that is believable. This goes more into romantic suspense and murder. Barbara Michaels wishes she could write these!
6. Amanda Cross’s Kate Fansler mysteries.
A middle-aged and vibrant, feminist professor as occasional sleuth!
7. If we’re going for mysteries, can we fail to list Lord Peter? Especially after Miss Harriet Vane shows up? Of course not. 
8. Chrestomanci books (great for children and adults alike! JK Rowling has nothing on Diana Wynne Jones).
by Diana Wynne Jones
I fell in love as a child, and am happy that these continue. Long live Diana Wynne Jones. Please don’t die ever.
9. The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, starting with Over Sea, Under Stone (also great for children on your list who read chapter books). 
10. the Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust. 
Start with Jhereg.
11. I wish Carolyn Stevermer wrote more. A College of Magics, A Scholar of Magics, and her joint work… all delightful. 
If she wrote a book a year or every two years even, the world would be a better place.
12. Flavia deLuce books by Alan Bradley (They’re getting darker and sadder and more sordid, which means #2 likes them more as do our mothers… #1 wishes for more happiness for young Flavia) 
13. Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Just… incredible. Storytelling, art, fable, myth, dreams… “groundbreaking” hardly describes it. This series will change your life. Also an excellent start for an adult who doesn’t know where to dive in with graphic novels. Not for kids. Get the fancy Absolute Sandman omnibus editions if you can afford it and find it — it really does look great. If not, start with Preludes and Nocturnes. 
14. the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. 
Do you like puns? Have you read a LOT of books? Do you like books about people going into books and interacting with the characters? What if there was an entire connected book underground? Wonderful.
15. Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn: This started out like popcorn, but has gotten better and better as the series progresses. I regret sending earlier copies to the cousin! They’re about werewolves and vampires and stuff. But good!
What are your favorite series?
November 18, 2010 at 5:41 am
I actually have a post coming up (someday) about my favorite books, but I don’t usually get into series. Well, Harry Potter of course, I did read the Dragon Tattoo series. Some books by David Baldacci read like a series, even if they were not coined a ‘series’.
I will say one of my favorite books is Middlesex by Eugenides, although part of that might be because it takes place in the Detroit area so I can identify with some of it, even though it is mostly before my time. (Fiction)
November 18, 2010 at 6:32 am
Looking forward to it!
November 18, 2010 at 8:20 am
Laurie R. King’s Marry Russell series is great. I don’t usually get into books in the mystery genre very much, but Mary Russell is such a compelling character. I also like the Kate Martinelli series by this same author.
Jacqueline Carey has a fantasy series (or is it two separate series?) focusing on characters from a country called Terre D’Ange and taking place in a variant of our Europe. The first book of the primary series is Kushiel’s Dart. Love, love, love them! They are a bit saucy, though!
And I do love Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series and related books. They are large tomes that aren’t easy to carry around during commuting or vacations, but the characters are so interesting and the details of 18th century life are rich. The first book — Outlander — is currently available as a free Kindle download, too! (Remember, you don’t need a Kindle device; I have the Kindle app on my iPhone and can read it that way.)
November 18, 2010 at 8:30 am
DH loves the Jacqueline Carey stuff. It’s too hard-core for me, so I send it directly to the teen-age cousin after he’s done (DH doesn’t tend to keep books).
November 18, 2010 at 10:26 am
I read the first Outlander book and it was ok, but I didn’t feel inspired to continue. Likewise the first Jacqueline Carey book. (These should probably have gone in the “series we didn’t feel the need to finish” post)
November 18, 2010 at 3:11 pm
I love getting lost in books, but haven’t read a good book in about a year. I have a pile that I just haven’t gotten through. Maybe I need a fresh one from this list to get me going again.
I don’t know how you manage to read this much. I’m very impressed.
November 18, 2010 at 7:28 pm
There’s always great YA fiction… that can be finished in the bathroom…
November 18, 2010 at 4:59 pm
My all-time favorite is the “In Death” series by J.D. Robb followed closely by Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Discworld, and anything by Jasper Fforde (although the Nursery Crimes series is probably my favorite). I’ve also really gotten into the Harper Connelly series by Charlaine Harris (it’s even better than True Blood). I am currently in the middle of about 15 series, so it is really hard to play favorites, lol.
November 18, 2010 at 5:08 pm
My mom loves the Harper Connelly series. When I read the first True Blood book, I was like, hey… I’ve already read this book only without you know, vampires.
November 18, 2010 at 7:24 pm
For a while I was really into action books, and really enjoyed the Shane Schofield series by Matthew Reilly. It starts with Scarecrow and is full of over-the-top action. Lately I was into Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files (contemporary mage detective…though the first few are a bit rough) and Codex Alera (fantasy magic/elementals). I’ve read a lot of science fiction, but I’m not sure I had a favorite series…maybe Larry Niven’s Known Universe (Ringworld, Mote in God’s Eye) if those can be considered a series.
November 18, 2010 at 7:29 pm
I have the Jim Butcher books and one of my colleagues loves them, but I just haven’t had time for anything that thought intensive yet. Maybe over Thanksgiving… except I have SO MUCH work non-fiction to read…
November 19, 2010 at 6:53 am
What, no Twilight?
Just kidding. My husband loves Sandman. I tried reading some Neil Gaiman, but it gave me really weird dreams.
I don’t have any series to contribute…unless you can count every Thomas Wolfe book as a series.
November 19, 2010 at 6:57 am
Yeah, funny that no twilight. (#1 doesn’t read Sandman either… too scary! I do like Good Omens. But Pratchett balances out anything.)
November 19, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Re #13: I think receiving the Absolute Sandman was the first time I hugged AND jigged with a comic simultaneously.
Discovered PiC’s old shelf of classics last weekend and stripped them to bring back with me to peruse so I’m working on those for a while before I get back on my hunt for Pratchetts at the library.
March 22, 2019 at 2:52 am
[…] “Natural History of Dragons” series through your recs, and I’m also 3 books into the Temeraire series – both of them are super fun! Do you have any other favorite or recommended books with […]