Might be off topic - reading slump

George has a blog on Livejournal which I read. No set in stone publishing date yet. We have a neighbor whose license plate is Wntrfel. LOL

I think that there is way too much crap being published these days. And while I do read crap, mysteries being my favorite sort, I would like more than light reading.I find it very disappointing to look at the books on the best seller list. I guess it's time to go back to the classics and the biographies.

That said, I am currently reading an entertaining book about Zelda Fitzgerald, Edna Ferber, Dorothy Parker, and Edna St. Vincent Millay during the decade of the 1920s. It's called Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin and I like it.

Donna in Virginia

Added to my Amazon list.....

I'll see if the library has it or can get in on ILL.

I did find a great book - The Rhino with Glue on Shoes. It's short essays on being a wildlife/zoo vet. Great read, just too short.

Have you tried going back to some of the old classics? Some of them aren't that well written compared to some of the authors of today. However, for the times they were written, the storylines were quite interesting.

Regards,

Rick Boesen Olivet, MI

I'm just finishing a book written by Joan Didion called The Year of Magical Thinking. I think she wrote it as a catharsis after her husband, John Dunne died suddenly and her daughter was desperately ill. She just reported on her thoughts in the year following the disasters and it's basically a book about mourning.

It's an odd subject but she writes well and it makes for interesting reading.

Lucille

I I=92m not a science fiction or romance reader, really like mysteries, suspense and a good =93novel.=94 Here=92s some mystery series I=92ve enjo= yed in the past and are probably not on the best seller list:

Earl Emerson - his Thomas Black series - I like those a lot more than his firefighter stories.

The early J.A. Jance series about J.P. Beaumont, particularly back in the bad old days when he drank too much - Joanna Brady is not nearly as interesting IMNSHO

The Kat books by Karen Kijewski

Have you read Mark Haddon=92s The Curious Incident of the Yellow Dog in the Night? Very well done.

Our local =93One Read=94 this year is The Whistling Season=94. Better than some choices - good look at life in Montana - and have to love a heroine who can=92t cook!

And I know he=92s way overexposed, but some of the more recent Stephen King is interesting in looking at human relationships - Lisey=92s Story was really good and I=92m reading Duma Key - you can tell the latter was really influenced by his own brush with death. Don=92t bother with Cell though.

Linda

Too much petty but annoying stuff going on personally to want anything "reality". Either I want to escape to someplace else or laugh.

Well, the newest Christopher Paolini, Brisingr just came out, if you're into dragons. I've been reading a lot of fantasy lately: Melissa Marr has Wicked lovely and Ink exchange, both fairy stories, although Ink exchange is much darker than WL and, imo, better; Jeff Mariotte has the Witch season series; Nancy Holder has her Wicked series - another witch series.

Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series? I thought they were really good, especially for the young adult audience. She also has a sort-of scifi one out that is her first adult novel, The host, which I thought was really good, too. It's an alien-possession story but there's not really much to the "science" part of the the "sci"fi, which is probably why I liked it better than other scifi.

I've *just* started on a biography, Lucrezia Borgia, by Sarah Bradford. Guess why? ;) I haven't read many biographies and I'm hoping it's not too dry. She sounds like a *very* interesting lady. I've never known much about her so thought I should eddicate myself. :)

Joan

Oh how I understand that feeling. I even asked a friend to lend me some books that are just a couple of steps above Harlequin to keep me reading. I started one but it's so badly written that I may never finish it.

I'm kind of off reading and the Didion book is the first one in a long time to get me interested.

I really must get back to the library and get myself a couple of good mysteries or spy stories, or a decernt historical novel that's "almost" historically accurate but uses poetic license.

Currently reading Patricia McKillip's new one, The Bell at Sealy Head. She's always a good read (in my opinion). Have you read Jane Lindskold? Her wolf series is ok, but I definitely enjoyed Child of a Rainless Year and the Athanor novels. Have you read Judith Tarr's historical fantasies and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's St. Germaine novels (I know you said you weren't all that fond of vampire novels, but these read more like historical fiction rather than horror)? I was amused by Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint novels. I've been enjoying C. E. Murphy's books (Walker Papers series, The Negotiator series). What about Steven Brust? The Vlad novels are amusing, the Khaavren series an amusing Dumas pastiche, and many of other others are just really good.

Best wishes, Ericka

If you are into a bit of romance, and Regency, lots of Georgette Heyer is being reissued. She is the original Regency romance writer. I read lots of her stuff in highschool, but just finished Bath Tangle and find it holds up pretty well. No great depth, but lots of fun.

Dawne

Have any of you tried the Dame Frevisse series of medieval mysteries? The listed author is Margaret Frazer, but in fact, the first several of the series were co-authored by our very own Mary Monica.

There are 17 of them out so far, the first in the series being "The Novice's Tale." The history is accurate, except for occasional minor adjustments for the sake of the flow of the story.

While I'm de-lurking, I might as well put in a plug for paperbackswap.com of which I am a very happy member. I've gotten most of the Dame Frevisse series via that site along with many, many other hard to find and OOP books that I'd been looking for for years. Plenty of good stuff there to choose from. (If you want to put in my email address as a referral, I won't argue, but I'm not begging. :)

Nyssa, who has more books on hand than the local library...and a better selection too At River's End

More mediaeval - Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series. The detective is a C13 monk.

Joyce in RSA.

Maureen is a fan of Peter Tremayne's "Sister Fidelma" series. She has also read Michael Jecks' series of medieval murder mysteries, Candace Robb's "Owen Archer" series and for a change she liked the Deptford Mice series by Robin Jarvis, this starts with "The Alchemist's Cat". We both enjoyed Mary Brown's series of books beginning with "The Unlikely Ones".

I've been nabbing her at the library. She is fun. If you like to combine your Regencies with a mystery, try Tasha Alexander. Very, very good.

Cheryl

Good suggestion. I'm actually reading a trilogy of Anthony Trollope novels right now. I also am partway through the Lynne Truss collection - a couple of novels, a novella - published in one volume after "Eats,Shoots and Leaves" .

Ellice

I read almost anything - but not much on really light romances. On the SF/Fantasy front, I love anything by Stephen Brust. Droll, clever and funny. I also like the Robert Asprin series of M.Y.T.H. - ligheter than Brust, but funny and droll. For serious - Guy Gavriel Kay - beautiful writer. Really gifted in his use of language. Not amazingly prolific, but has several novels out - good to read in order, although the stand-alones are just that.

There's a lot out there about her, the Borgia family. The De Medici family, etc.

Just a thought - light romance - I like stuff by Jennifer Cruisie - very quick and escapist.

Ellice

She was one of my very favorites, years ago. But, I kind of lost interest with some of her stuff. LMK how this goes.

Wow - we have really similar tastes! Of course there are also the Katherine Kurtz Deryni novels - she just came out with a new one in hardback - I only glanced.

And for uplifting -I've read all the Alexander McCall Smith "No 1 Ladies Detective Agency" books - I really adore them. They make me keep life in perspective.

Ellice

LOL - I read them all. Along with Dorothy Sayers. I think as we finally unpack the house I'll start re-reading some of the favorites! Who knows what I'll find.

Ellice