Reading Books

[kimbo444]

Just thought of Maeve Binchley as well - I'm part Irish so I enjoy the setting as well as the story.

[Shandeh]

The Lovely Bones is a great read, but it is certainly darker than Jan Karon. I have not read the book by Gibbons, so I woul say Jan Karon.

Hmmm...
Maybe I should hold off on The Lovely Bones until I know more about it.
I'm such a scaredy-cat. Is it a horror novel?

[LuckyRainbow]

The Lovely Bones is not a horror novel. But, it is about a horrific crime. It is very sad. I would definately hold off on that one. I cried my eyes out through practically the entire book. It was one of Oprah's picks and in my experience she is not into "feel good" reads. I also had trouble with Deep End of the Ocean and Midwives. She tends to pick books with good character development, but they always seem to involve great tragedy.

[SavvySherri]

Shandeh

You will absolutely love the Jan Karon books, they will boost you mood.

[Shandeh]

The Lovely Bones is not a horror novel. But, it is about a horrific crime. It is very sad. I would definately hold off on that one. I cried my eyes out through practically the entire book. It was one of Oprah's picks and in my experience she is not into "feel good" reads. I also had trouble with Deep End of the Ocean and Midwives. She tends to pick books with good character development, but they always seem to involve great tragedy.

Hmmm.
Maybe she's more into stories that make an impact, or something.

I just want to relax and enjoy a good story for now. My life has enough craziness in it.

[Shandeh]

Shandeh
You will absolutely love the Jan Karon books, they will boost you mood.

Yay! Just what I want!

[witknit]

If you love Maeve Binchy....check out Patrick Taylor! You feel like you are right in the little irish village with him.

[Kaleigh]

I started rereading my favorite book last night - Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King.

ggrw.jpg

He does an amazing job of combining oral storytelling with the written word, and always keeps it entertaining (it's hilarious) and exciting

[Jcrochet]

If I could toss out a suggestion... I absolutely loved the Kate Morton books: The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours and The House at Riverton. Her books all follow the same outline of bouncing between a past event and current day.

The Forgotten Garden was by far my favorite, good pace, enough mystery with twists to keep you guessing.

[K1P1quebec]

If you love Maeve Binchy....check out Patrick Taylor! You feel like you are right in the little irish village with him.

These are two of my very favourite authors and I have absolutely read everything by them and am just waiting for the next ones to come out!

For those of you who like a bit of mystery and not violence, have you ever read M.C. Beaton? She has an Agatha Raisin and Hamish MacBeth series (Hamish has been done in televised bits through the BBC and is available on video too, as well as eBooks). They are both hilarious and I am very fond of those characters. Agatha is middle-aged and looking for ideal love (never successful), loves junk food, is very direct with people and no-nonsense. She gets herself into situations you wouldn't believe, but she's very caring and has good intentions. You can't help but love her.

Another WONDERFUL discovery I have made lately is Alan Bradley. Born in Canada and now living in Malta, he writes mysteries and his heroine is named Flavia de Luce, 11 years old and a chemical prodigy. I believe the first book is called the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. There are four Flavia de Luce mysteries now, and they are all good. Cunning, witty, all the books take place in 1950 in England in a village called Bishop's Lacey. Flavia has the run of a crumbling, underfinanced mansion and can wiggle in and out of situations and make contacts that police and detectives could never accomplish. A secondary character is Gladys, her trusty bike, if you can believe that!

One other author I enjoy is Alexander McCall Smith. Not only for his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency titles (first three books have been made into a mini-televised series), but also for his other series (44 Scotland Street, the German professors, Isabel Dalhousie and Corduroy Mansions). One of the most educated people around who is able to get into the human psyche and figure out why people do the things they do and why they can be so endearing or annoying and still be able to write about it to make it interesting for the very ordinary people we all are - lots of philosophical or ethical issues are raised to make you think about situations without having to make much effort at it.

For Kaleigh or Jen (who was it?) who likes Japanese/historical/mystery themes, have you read any Laura Joh Rowland mystery books? Her samurai warrior series with Sano Ichiro (takes place in the 1600's or so- feudal Japan, anyway) is absolutely addicting. I began with the Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria and was hooked and had to read them all. I love how she can figure out how to make Sano's intelligent wife find ways to participate in solving the crimes despite the very strict code of those times, where if you lose your honour you could lose your life. These are not horror but are very creatively done, and you learn a lot about the culture of the samurai class in Japan at that time.

If you like good historical fiction and women's issues, try Ami McKay. She became famous for her first book, the Birth House, but has a second now called the Virgin Cure. She's from Indiana but has moved to Nova Scotia, so is of interest to Americans and Canadians.

If you like funny, try Canadian Pie by Will Ferguson. Just cracks me up!

Another historical kind of read is the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book by Mary Ann Shaffer. All the NYT book review wrote about it was WWII setting and bestseller. I thought, not ANOTHER WWII book - how many can there possibly be? But this one is more about correspondence and developing relationships between people on the isolated island of Guernsey and those on the mainland during the war, and not about the war itself. It's about long-distance hooking up, which is very relevant to us today, since we do that by internet now (especially on forums like this). Only back then it was through letter writing and took much longer for people to get to know each other.

There's a great set of books about a knit shop owned by a lady called Georgia Walker, who raises a daughter alone in New York City, and creates a career and makes a home all through her designing skills. I can't think for the life of me what the titles are, but they are SO good. If anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it!

Better stop here, but I could go on for days with reading lists! Having worked in a library for the past 10 years and bookstores for 10 years before that, as well as studying literature, well, let's just say I have a few books in my home!