I have something special to tell you all. I had, what was without a doubt, the happiest moment of my entire life yesterday. The kind of moment you don't think will happen but when it does you think, Yes. Thank you. I really do deserve this and I'm grateful for it.
I got a shipment of books from Amazon.
YESSSSSSSSS. Today I thought realizing I could probably get away without vacuuming for another day was the happiest moment of my life.
I'm kind of like a dog that way. BALL? BALL? THROW THE BALL. I LOVE PLAYING WITH THE BALL! Oop. TWIG??? TWIG??? THROW THE TWIG. I LOVE PLAYING WITH THE TWIG!
I really do get a tingly feeling in my toes when a big box full of books arrives. I'm not an order one or two books kind of person. I order them like pancakes. By the stack.
When last we met, several of you recommended a few books for me to read. In fact if you look at the comment section of the last "5 Books I've read, Plus 5 Books I'm Gonna Read" post you'll see there are hundreds of book recommendations from readers. I read all of those comments, cross referenced them with reviews from GoodReads and Amazon and put together an Amazon order. That was several months ago. I've since read my first shipment of books recommended by you and am now moving onto my second shipment.
I'd been hearing about the Hunger Games triology for a longgg time. I wasn't sure I'd like it but the set was on sale so I bought it. I absolutely loved the first book. Could NOT put it down. Which of course is the sign of a good book. Or blankie. The second and third books were good and very readable, but were a little flat compared to the first. Still an excellent trilogy that you can read in NO time. Probably because they were written for 12 year old girls.
I Still Dream About You - Fannie Flagg
I keep going back to Fannie Flagg based on her phenomenal book Fried Green Tomatoes. So far nothing has equalled that novel, but a few have come close. This isn't one of them.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver
Award winning novelist Barbara Kingsolver is know for her works of fiction like The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Tree but several years ago she wrote a work of non-fiction chronicling a period in her life when she uprooted herself and her family to move to a farm to live off the land. As in only eat what she could buy locally or grow/kill herself. Yep. If that sort of thing interests you, you'll love this book with all of your heart. If it doesn't ... it probably won't keep your attention.
I read other books as well, these are just a select few I thought I'd bring to your attention. The one book that came highly recommended by a lot of people was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I have tried and tried and I cannot get through this book. I find the kid (from whose point of view the book is written) annoying, the writing extremely jarring, pretentious and forced.
Mind you, it took me about 6 tries to finally get through Lonesome Dove, which I hated every time I started to read it. The Pulitzer Prize winning western is now my favourite book of all time.
The Book Thief - I'll admit it. I have a thing about novels revolving around WWII. I don't know what it is, but I'm inexplicably attracted to them. Two of the best I've read ... Sarah's Key and Suite Francaise.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Originally published in 1943, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. An American Classic about a girl coming of age at the turn of the century. Of my stack, I'm most looking forward to reading this book. I have no idea if that means I'll read it first or last. I'm kind of known for delaying gratification for as long as possible. Ahem.
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party (Book 18 of The #1 Ladies Detective Series) - I love these books. I just LOVE them. The television series was even better, but alas it's been cancelled. If you're looking for a series of books that are funny, heartfelt and just make you feel good every time you read them, this is the series to go for.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - I'd heard mixed reviews about this book that's written as a series of letters. So I checked the reviews on Amazon and if 1,638 readers gave it an average review of 4.5 out of 5 stars ... I think it's a safe bet I'll like it. Also takes place during WWII. Which I swear, I didn't know when I bought it.
Explosive 18 (Book 18 in the Stephanie Plum series) - These are great, no brain books. You can read them fast, they entertain you and there's always genuine laugh out loud moments. You're not tucking into it for the greatest story ever told, you're reading it for mindless entertainment, good writing and a guilty pleasure.
O.K. So let's have it. Let the next round of recommendations begin ...
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Karla Duell
An oldie but still one of my favorites is Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat. I read it in public school and still recommend it. I also recommend Wildflower Hill by Kimberly Freeman, The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, The Doomsday Conspiracy by Sydney Sheldon, Secret Daughter by Shilpi somaya gowda, Playing for Pizza and The Partner by John Grisham, and Ashes in the Wind by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss.
I also recommend anything by Sohpie Kinsella. Hilarious!!!! She also writes under another name, Madeline Wickham, but is not as funny and much darker humor.
Enjoy.
karen@somewhatquirky
I too have read the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon. I love these books and count the main characters as 4 of my very best friends. The only problem was that I didn't get to read another book for over a year. I loved the Guernsey book - and it does take a couple of chapters to get in to it. It is so sweet and I was sorry that it was over. My sister and I liked it better than The Help. Reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell right now and REALLY like it. It is good like Ender's Game is good - when it is a genre you don't generally read but it is worth it to cross the line. I'm a Kingsolver lover and am really behind on those so they are probably next on my list. I loved Lonesome Dove and stuck out the hard parts because the television series is perhaps the best thing I have ever seen on television. Wally Lamb books are always good. Read Water for Elephants recently, loved the book, then watched the sucky movie. A Girl Called Zippy by Haven Kimmel and She Got Up Off the Couch (the follow-up) are wonderful (true) books. They are memoirs written from a child's perspective. Laugh out loud, read paragraph's to your husband while he is driving (which I NEVER do) funny. Enjoy your reading.
Karla Duell
My husband hooked me on the Ender's Game series, am eager to see how the movie turns out.
jen
I also order books by the stack. I read The Guernsey book a couple years ago and enjoyed it. I could not get through the Book Thief and I tried multiple times.
In my latest stack ordered from Amazon:
How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (non-fiction, collection of hilarious essays from British Moran)
Broken Harbor by Tana French (I have her other 3 in this series and really love them)
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith (memoir about author going through life after losing both parents by early 20's). SO SO good.
A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash - set in the mountains of North Carolina, follows an event centered around a snack-handler church. Fascinating read and what I think would end up a really good movie.
Kelly S
Diana Gabaldon's The Outlander Series...starts out at the end of WWII so i know you won't be disappointed...I fall hard into these and the family really has to pull to get me out of them....
Kim
I like Barbara Kingsolver, too, but was never able to get through The Poisonwood Bible. I DID love Prodigal Summer and the Bean Trees....both I found incredible! Same with Fanny Flagg...I keep reading, wanting more Fried Green Tomatoes...and as you said, they are close, but FGT is wonderful!
Samanatha
Unbroken. by Hilldebrand I think...she wrote Seabuscuit...I think. Anyway..if you like WWII reads, this is hands down, best book I've ever read. True story and I've heard rumors it's being made into a movie. And Life of Pi. Also a movie, this November I think. Oldie but a goodie.
Shannon
Thanks, Unbroken looks really good! Loved Seabiscuit, and Hilldebrand is a good writer. Another good racehorse novel is Ruffian: Burning From the Start. Had me in tears.
Lisa
Thanks Karen! I am the person who orders one or two books at a time... I just ordered Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Can't wait to dive into it! ~ Lisa
Bonnie
The Night Circus ( fantasy love storyish) and Gone Girl( mystery thriller).
Lyn
Loved The Night Circus! I listened to it, rather than read it. So wonderful!
Diane
I don't recommend reading Steve Jobs biography. It has taken me 4 months and my Kindle tells me that I'm still only at 23%. Which is disappointing since I was looking forward to reading it for so long. He was a fascinatingly brilliant man....the book, however, is not. It's long winded and every last detail of a kilobyte seems to be explained thoroughly. Which makes it more of a technical manual, if you're into that sort of thing.
But I will stand behind anything that Sophie Kinsella writes. If new to her novels I would recommend starting with the Shopaholic series. I never laughed out loud so hard because of a book. It is a really funny and easy read.
Sherry (BTLover2)
I love that you are an avid reader, Karen! I'm also drawn to WWII novels and have read a mountain of them. Of the stack you are about to read, I LOVED The Book Thief and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn!
Some of my recs are:
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani (right now the paperback is a bargain book on Amazon)
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok (right now the paperback is a bargain book on Amazon)
Daughters of Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt (right now the paperback is a bargain book on Amazon)
Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust by Edith H. Beer
Perfect Peach by Daniel Black
Enjoy!!
Heather
The Tent, the Bucket and Me
Mary Kay
I just finished reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Triology - very good!
Susan
Don't bother with 50 Shades of Drivel. Not worth the paper it's written on. But great promotional work by the editors or there are a lot of bored women out there.
Beach Strip, on the other hand is an excellent detective, sleuthy type of book. A can't put it down til I'm finished kind of summer read. Set on Burlington Beach Strip it about a cop's wife who finds him dead and proceeds to find his killer after his fellow officers claim it suicide. Excellently written by a very dear friend of mine, John Reynolds. An award winning author, John has captured my imagination and I can't wait for the sequel. I hope there is one. You are welcome to borrow my copy. ;-)!
burbhappy
The Age of Miracles | Karen Thompson Walker
I found this unsettling/disturbing, but am very glad I read it.
Janie Farmer
Janet Evanovich is my favorite, I have all of them in HC and have converted a lot of friends. Sue Grafton (alphabet murders)use to be but, after Janet, not so much. Her latest books are getting better. Charlotte Vale Allen's SOMEBODY'S BABY is excellent. Have only loaned it out once (to an ex librarian). Sdney Sheldon's THE DOOMSDAY CONSPIRACY. John Grisham's THE CLIENT was hooked from page one. Once you get past the first chapter books- THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (when the oldest 2 boys complained of summer boredom I handed him TCOMC and said get past the first 2 chapters. It is now one of their favorites and are arguing who gets it after I die). There are so many but, so little space. I love my kindle but, love the feel of a book in my hands.
Kari C.
Mark of the Lion Trilogy by Francine Rivers - I am not a Christian fiction reader at all, but this is one of my very favorite book series. So good!
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Happy reading!
Brenda
I'll second the "Mark of the Lion Trilogy"!
Beckie
The Help..Kathryn Stockett~ it took me a bit to get into it, but it was really good by the end
A Discovery of Witches
Shadow of the Night ...both by Deborah Harkness~ for me, you can never go wrong with vampires and witches and this is really well written vampires and witches
Gone With the Wind...Margaret Mitchell~ *my* favorite book of all time...I've read it about 12 times or better...there have been times where I have read the last page, turned back to page 1 and began to read it again, right then and there. Everyone know the "love story" of GWTW but it is so much more than that.
Summer Sisters...Judy Blume~ Judy Blume for big girls...easy read for a lazy summer day
She's Come Undone...Wally Lamb~ you will never believe this is written by a man...it is so...inside a woman's head...couldn't put this one down
I buy books like pancakes too!
Kimm
Thanks for sharing your book recommendations. I found so many that I want to read!
"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett is one of my all time favorite books. I listened to it on Audible rather than reading it. I would highly recommend listening to it. There are several different narrators, which really bring the characters to life. I know this is about books, but the movie version is fabulous also. One of my faves!
The "Mortal Instruments" series by Cassandra Clare is really good YA fantasy. Couldn't put them down.
Happy reading!
Lucy
Aaaahh, "She's Come Undone...." That one gets my vote, too. He's a great author and, as you say, you'd never know it was a man writing this.
Sharon
I just finished reading "Gone Girl" which I had a hard time putting down. The suspense just about killed me. If I hear one more reference to the "Fifty Shades of Grey" series, I think I just might gag! I'm sinking my teeth into "Butterfly" by Kathryn Harvey. Loving it so far. "Wild" was good as well. I listen to books on my IPad through audible.com. A fun way to read by someone telling you a story.
Janet
The Pull of the Moon - Elizabeth Berg
Actually anything by Elizabeth Berg - by far my favourite author
Lyn
Loved The Book Thief so much!
I'd recommend, if you haven't already read:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
American Gods
All of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad novels
The Hypnotist
Case Histories
Practical Magic (OK, that's a really old one, but Alice Hoffman is my favorite living author)
The Keeper of Lost Causes
I could go on & on...
Heather
I love Practical Magic. It is a beautiful book.