Next round of what are you reading?

I recently finished two very old Tami Hoag books, ??? Sin. I can't remember the names. Lots of murder, mayhem and so-so writing but they kept me reading till the end. I must have picked them up at a thrift shop because the pages were yellow and fragile, If I didn't read it yet, it's a new book, right?

Now I have a Joy Fielding book called Charley's Web waiting. I haven't gotten past the first page yet so I can't review it for you.

Lucille

I'm reading "The French Gardener." Supposedly like Rosamond Pilcher.....not quite as good but not bad. I'm in a needing to find new authors so this one looked interesting. Family moves from London and learns the previous owners had wonderful gardens. Wife decided to look for a gardener....Frenchman shows up....seems he helped the previous owner plant them.

Nancy in Pgh, City of Champions

I've read Hoag, I'll pass. So-so writing and the one or two I read had a paranormal edge/theme. Don't read those, I'll have nightmares

Let us know

Sounds promising... I don't do any of the newer Pilcher. Liked a few of the early ones but then she got boring

Cheryl

I've had a run of good ones recently:

The first was "Love Mercy" by Earlene Fowler. A standalone (i.e., not her mystery series) novel that was very good about granddaughter/grandmother relationship...actually, several women of different generations coming to grips with choices made. Great characters, and fun when the characters of her mystery books made cameo appearances.

Coincidentally, the one I'd just read before was also a grandmother/granddaughter one, and was an extraordinarily good novel: The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton. Had a lovely fairy tale quality to it.

Just finished "The Help," by Kathryn Stockett, about life in the 60s in Jackson, Mississippi, and the relationships between women, some white, some black. Wonderful characters and a good story.

Just started "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See (someone here led me to "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" a couple of years ago; same author)and it's grabbed me from the get-go!

sue

I'm on a non-fiction bender. I am reading "Erased: Missing Women, Murdered Wives". It focuses on people like Scott Petersen who "erase" the women in their lives - often by killing them and denying it and GETTING AWAY WITH IT! Parts are written a bit too much like a term paper, but it is interesting.

I have another book on hold I have to go pick up - Cheryl, I think you especially might be interested - The triple bind : saving our teenage girls from today's pressures - about how women/girls today are expected to be the smartest, prettiest, most athletic, sexiest, etc., etc. I'll review when I get it.

I did read an old Ann Rice under another name book - Exit to Eden - old one - very ho hum but not about vampires at least!

linda

Completely different genre here - I like mysteries and have read 2 by an Australian writer, Garry Disher. Fairly standard police procedurals, not earthshaking but pleasant enough. I like the bits of Oz-ness throughout since I find myself happy when I know what they're referring to - such as the Holden cars they mention.

I would love to find a new WOW author though - I have put down a lot of books half read lately that don't seem worth the bother...there are enough books in the world to not finish the boring ones!

MelissaD

I agree!

I will have to look for that one. I quite enjoy her Benni Harper series, with the quilt theme.

Gill

I read "Scarpetta" - by Patricia Cornwall last week - it was good.

Currently reading "Miracle at Speedy Motors" from No 1 Ladies Detective Series. I love this series, it has such a nice take on looking at life.

Finished the new PD James , " The Private Patient." - an Adam Dalgleish book. I wonder if I like this series because he has the same last name as my 1xt grade teacher? Nah. But, I do remember Roy Marsden in that role on the series shown here on PBS.

Thinking about picking back up "Two Lives" by Vikram Seth

About to read "Hounded to Death" - the latest of the Foxhunting mysteries from Rita Mae Brown. I like this series a lot - but fear any non-horse types might find them a bit tedious (they are kind of formulaic & the heroine was clearly born first cousin to Superman - as at 70+ she is doing vaults to switch horses from sitting to standing on galloping horses, etc) But lots of local VA flavor, so.....

Read the last MC Beaton "Hamish MacBeth" book - IIRC "Death of a Witch"

And, have a huge stack of books on perspective, color theory, and historical needlework. Working on the "essays" for my MTP stuff. My fabulous book on Perspective was permanently "borrowed" by someone in a studio art class a few years ago, and while the instructor struggled to get the woman to return it, that never happened. Really annoying.

Well, that's it, I think!

Ellice

LOL about the Anne Rice. I think that is the "light" version cousin to her "A L Roquelaire" adult novels. There was a very bad movie made with Rosie O'Donnell & Dan Ackroyd based on Exit to Eden.

Ellice

Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Ackroyd? I imagine it WAS bad - she is definitely not the petite blond in a white dress type!

Nah, I think the "blonde" was played by the woman who had a lead in China Beach. Rosie plays an undercover cop, and IIRC Ackroyd is the socially maladroit partner. They're posing as "clients" - Rosie gets to wear black leather, and Ackroyd gets to be whipped, so to speak. It's slightly funny - but brutally bad at the same time. One of those movies you have to see in the MST 3000 mode (as in talking, making witty remarks, and imbibing at the same time).

Ellice

What a great description of a really rotten movie. All I remember is seeing Rosie in that outfit and it just aint a pretty sight.

I loved the first few Scarpetta books I read several years back but suddenly everything changed and I hated what she was writing.

I'm glad Scarpetta is back. Now I need to see if I missed any in the time I wasn't paying any attention to her writing.

Lucille

I'll have to check it out. I went on a binge with her stuff a couple of years back, and read all the Quilt block named mysteries. But, I could pick-up the most recent.

Sounds good.

Quite a variety here.

Thanks for the suggestions! Ellice

I also got turned off the last few years with Cornwell's books. I will have to get the new one from the library when we get home this fall.

I just finished a light mystery,Fatally Flaky, with great recipes in it. It is part of the "Goldy" series by Diane Mott Davidson. Light, easy bedtime reading!

Have any of you read the "Kate Shugak" books by Dana Stabenow? My librarian recommended the latest one, Whisper to the Blood, and I enjoyed it. I have one or two of the older ones to take away with me next month. This series is set in Alaska, and brings in a lot of Alaskan history, ad the Aleut culture.

Gill

I've read a few of them back when I was in CA and frequented the library. It's been awhile but I think they were decent.

Nancy in Pgh, City of Champions

I read "Fatally Flaky" and "Scarpetta" and enjoyed both. The authors of both have been through slump periods where their characters just got kind of -- well, tired, for lack of a better word. And that appears to finally be ending - both books were a return to form, I'm happy to say.

sue