Sunday, March 04, 2018

List Day Four: Books to Read

In the interest of not publishing a book myself, I'm just going to list recent reads, and a few authors. I tend to skew heavily toward mystery, science fiction and fantasy, while staying far, far away from best sellers.

1. The Bible. Well, duh. Each rereading teaches you more.

2. Anything by Agatha Christie. Yes, by now the books are definitely dated, but Christie not only wrote well, she masterfully broke all the "rules" of mystery writing (see: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express for starters). In the same vein, check out Ngaio Marsh (New Zealander who was a contemporary of Christie), Dorothy Sayers (who doesn't love Peter Wimsey?) and Margary Allingham.

3. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. The first book in the series is Cinder, a retelling of the classic Cinderella story, with several twists. Cinder, you see, is part cyborg. There are five main books in the series, each bringing in another fairytale character. These are technically young adult novels, but are written well enough to be enjoyed by all ages.

4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I'm reading this for the third time to refresh my memory before the movie comes out next week. The book is a love letter to all things 1980s, and if you lived through that decade, the book is bound to bring a smile to your face. I've young friends who are already expressing disappointment in the movie, just based on the trailers. ::Sniff:: Their opinions don't hold much water, given they were barely toddlers in the '80s. The book is well worth the read.

5. Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. Vampires, werewolves, things that go bump in the night and much worse are real, and could be your neighbor. Good things MHI has a secret government contract to hunt down and take care of the dangerous ones. If you are a gun control nut, stay away from this series; Correia is a gun nut who shoots competitively and describes the arsenal in loving detail. The books are a well-written hoot. Bonus points because the main character is an accountant (well, until he stays late to do some work and ends up having to kill his boss, who has gone all werewolf on him).

6. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. There are three books in this loose series, all centered around food, though really about relationships. If it tells you anything, I see I read all three in under a week two summers ago. It should tell you something, as these are outside my usual mystery/scifi/fantasy zone.

So, so many more...

Cleo Coyle - actually a writing team, putting out mysteries revolving around a Greenwich Village coffeehouse. Bonus, books include an appendix with fun coffee facts and beverage and dessert recipes

Jennifer Chiaverini - Sylvia opens her home as a quilting retreat, and the books tell the stories of the women who attend. Bonus, Ms. Chiaverini is a Wisconsin resident.

Jim C. Hines - the Magic ex Libris series. Libriomancers are able to pull items from books into reality, using them to fight those bent on destruction. Bonus, the arguements between Gutenberg and Ponce De Leon. Really.

These are just the things that popped out at me as I looked down the list of titles in my kindle library. I'm close to 500 titles there; truly, there is quite a bit of nonfiction as well.

If nothing else, I'm hoping this list might inspire you to say, "Ugh! Horrible titles! I beat I can read better books than that!" That won't bother me, as long as you are reading.

No comments: