Book, Blog and Subscription Recommendations

I'll start:

Subscriptions
Whole Dog Journal - this is a great way to keep up to speed on the latest in understanding dog health and behavior. Most people who work with dogs subscribe to this.

Books
Diana Gabaldon Outlander Series
Diana Gabaldon Lord John Series
Rachel Caine Weather Warden Series http://www.rachelcaine.com/page3/page3.html
Kelley Armstrong's Bitten Series http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/mSeries.htm
George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire Series.
Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse novels that True Blood is based on
Charlain Harris Mystery Series
Carrie Vaughn Kitty Norville Series
Patricia Briggs Mercedes Thompson Series
Ian McEwan Solar and Enduring Love
Elizabeth George Books about Scotland Yard Agent http://www.elizabethgeorgeonline.com/books.htm
R.A. Salvatore Legend of Drizzt Series http://www.rasalvatore.com/bookstore/itemDetails.aspx?asin=0786947772

Saturday, by Ian McEwan. He has a few more as well -they are all good.
Am I the only one who couldn't get into the Gabaldon books? Didn't finish the one I tried, can't remember the name of it now.

You must have started with Outlander. Didn't like it? Do you know why?

Here's Ian McEwan's site: http://www.ianmcewan.com/bib/books/index.html

Didn't like the writing style - it seemed a bit high schoolish to me. I may try it again sometime.
Laurie likes Ian McEwan as well, and she knows where he lives in London! He's my favorite of all time.

Hmmm. I wonder if it's the same book. Definitely try it again.

I've seen your comments about Ian McEwan - he's on my list of books to read.

Terry Brooks, 'Landover' series
Terry Brooks, 'Shanara' series
Michael Phillips, 'Caledonia' series "Legend of the Celtic Stone"

This is a great thread because I listen to a ton of books on MP3. I have a subscription to Audible.com and I just love it.

I love the Gabaldon books, but couldn't get into the Lord John series much. I like that character in the Jamie/Claire books, but not as much on his own. I've read them, though.

I love historical mysteries that are written from a factual information point of view. (Like everything I know about Scottish history I learned from the Gabaldon books. Sad, isn't it?0:) I also like historical fiction if it's well done. I used to be into Sci Fi, but haven't picked that up in awhile. Fantasy has to be really well done, or it has to be funny.
Here are my favorite authors from my Audible files:

Anne Perry - just about anything she writes. She is an excellent mystery writer and has several different series.

Laurie King - writes great books starring Sherlock Holmes and a young woman he ends up married to. It's a little Freudian, but the writing is very good. A Monstrous Regiment of Women, The Moor, The Art of Detection, Justice Hall, etc. I've either listened to or read her books many times.

Elizabeth Peters - her Amelia Peabody series of mysteries set in Egypt during the heyday of Epyptology. The author has a PhD in Egyptology and many of the characters are based on real people, although fictionalized. These are really easy reading with archetypal characters, including a 'master criminal'. When I don't feel like getting into something like Anne Perry or Laurie King, I read these. I've read the series numerous times and I own almost all of them through audible. To me, these are like the Nancy Drew books of my youth. Reliable, entertaining mysteries that make me laugh out loud.

Dorothy Gilman - the Mrs. Pollifax books. Again, very light reading, very fun. Stars an older woman who was bored in her retirement, wanted to serve her country, and walked into the CIA and applied for a job as a spy. Enough said. These are older books.

Ken Follett - World Without End, The Pillars of the Earth. These are intricate, historically accurate mysteries. They take a long time to read and are worth every minute. He weaves an intricate web of stories that involve Religion, Politics and Power.

Mary Doria Russel - The Sparrow and follow up book, the name of which escapes me. This is a tragic tale of religion, politics, and the misunderstandings that happen between cultures. It follows the lives of a group of people, led by the Jesuit branch of the Catholic church. They travel to another planet after life is discovered there. More religion and politics. Hmm I see a theme here.

Steig Larson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the other books in the trilogy. I read the 'Dragon Tattoo' when it first came out and it was a winner. Good characters, good mystery. I just saw the movie, and while it was probably considered well done from an artistic perspective, it almost ruined the book for me with its violent scenes. I do not need 'in my face' violence to enjoy a good story and don't need to be shocked by visual images of people being killed and tortured. I do not recommend the movie for these reasons. I spent much of the time with my eyes closed to spare myself the need to rid myself of cruel images. But the book is very good. Very dark, but very good.

Kathryn Stockett - The Help. This book follow the stories of three, I think, black women who work as 'help' in the south at the very beginning of the civil rights movement. The book is about 19 hours to listen to and I probably took only two breaks. It's very, very good.

Ian Rankin - good mysteries

Daniel Silva - fast paced spy thrillers. Yes, I like them.

Deborah Rodriguez - Kabul Beauty School A true story of an American woman who opened a beauty school in Kabul. If you have any 'feminist' buttons to push, they will definitely get pushed by this book. Excellent story.

Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian. A really, really long book. Detailed and involved. I liked it very much.

Roberta Gellis - the Magdalene la Batarde series - A mortal Bane, Bone of Contention, A Personal Devil. She is the mistress of a whorehouse, which is the most powerful position a woman could have in medieval England. Good mysteries.

PD James - also good mysteries.

that's all I can think of right now. I'm going to look up some of the recommendations on the thread.

Okay - I'll just say that the Sparrow was weird. I got some points, but on the whole, it was just sad to me and didn't make any great statements other than point out the foibles of human miscommunication. The follow up is Children of God, right? I have that, but haven't picked it up. I see there's another one: A Thread of Grace.

I'm excited to have this thread and hope people will come here to add when they think of good things.

I thought it was a good book, although tragic. I've read Children of God, but it was so long ago. I haven't yet read A Thread of Grace. I don't think there are very many new points to make about how people misunderstand one another, but I appreciate it when the usual points are well made. It's true the book is different from most. Probably that's why I liked it.

Ooohhh... I love this idea for a thread!

Very avid reader, but my hard drive (aka brain) is full and it takes me a bit to remember details. I will add as they come to me.

Right off the top of my head, I will strongly second Patricia's recommendation of Terry Brooks. I have read everything he has written that I can get my hands on, and there is not a book I wouldn't highly recommend if you are into fantasy novels. The Magic Kingdom of Landover series is my favorite series of all time... lots of fun. The Word and the Void series is also wonderful and a good quick read. Love all of the Shannara books as well, but they require a bit more commitment to read as they are all quite long.

http://www.terrybrooks.net/index.html

Another author who writes crime/mystery books that I have enjoyed every one of is Phillip Margolin. A bit graphic and hard to keep up with the names at first, but a fantastic read.

http://www.phillipmargolin.com/books/default.aspx

There will be more when they come to me.

Pix's mention of sparrow reminded me of another author. Robert Hellenga - The Fall of a Sparrow, and The Sixteen Pleasures. Excellent historical novels by a talented author. He has another - The Italian Lover - which I have not yet read. I just ordered it for 1 cent. Really, 1 cent plus 3.99 for shipping. I often order used books from Amazon for almost nothing and they are usually just fine. Pix thanks for reminding me about the Sparrow book!

Julie - I've found a solution that works for me for the 'avid reader with full hard drive' problem. I use Shelfari to log all the books I read (well, I don't bother logging books that I really don't like or don't finish), so when I need to remember what I've been reading over the past two years I can go look it up. Plus it appeals to the spreadsheet geek in me.

So probably the only thing I like to talk about more than plants would be books - I'll try not to talk your collective ears' off.

I've read and enjoyed most of the authors and series already posted, so let me try to think of other books to recommend based on what has been listed.

Urban Fantasy: I already mentioned Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs (she's an auto mechanic and a were coyote in WA State!), and Carrie Vaughn (a late night talk radio host becomes a werewolf) on the originating thread. I would also add:
Kim Harrison: The Hollows series ~ witches and vampires and demons have all come out of the closet and are hanging out in Cincinatti.
Karen Chance: Cassandra Palmer series ~ vampires, ghosts, and time travel ~ also the Dorina Basarab series even though there are only two so far ~ she's a dhampir, half vampire/half human.
Karen Marie Moning: the Fever series ~ elves and fae are out and about in modern Ireland, plus the heroine gets to live in a bookstore, always a plus in my book.
Wendy Roberts: Ghost Dusters series ~ horrible name but fun plots about a crime scene cleaner who can talk to the dead.
Jim Butcher: The Dresden Files ~ a smart alec wizard
Julie Kenner: Kate Connor, Demon Hunter series ~ a demon hunting soccer mom

To be continued...

For lovers of Terry Brooks and George Martin and other High Fantasy series, I would also recommend:

Robin Hobb: The Farseer Trilogy and the Tawny Man series (Fool's Errand, the first of the Tawny Man series, was probably the first fantasy novel I read as an adult and the one that got me going on the genre)
Guy Gavriel Kay: Tigana
Raymond Feist: Just about anything, but maybe start with the Riftwar Saga
David Eddings: The Belgariad

I have a whole series of Robin Hobb that my brother gave me to read. Which was the one where she has a dog she talks to and travels with? Sigh, these lists will take me years . . .

For Pixy, who loves Anne Perry, Laurie King, and Elizabeth Peters. Have you tried:

Kerry Greenwood: The Phryne Fisher Mysteries ~ an adventuress in 1920s Australia. I read these less for the mysteries than for the setting. Our heroine is always dashing around in gorgeous gowns, drinking champagne, and driving her roadster at top speed around town. (Start with Cocaine Blues)
M C Beaton: The Agatha Raisin Mysteries ~ set in England, and the heroine is in the Miss Marple tradition - but fairly annoying to those around her.
Martha Grimes: The Richard Jury series (people who like Elizabeth George & PD James should also like this series)
Peter Robinson: the Inspector Banks series (ditto)

You are a veritable database!

Other mystery series I would recommend (along with the Ian Rankin that Pixy mentioned):

Lee Childs: The Reacher novels ~ trouble always finds Jack Reacher even with no fixed address, but the bad guys always get what's coming to them in these novels.
Robert B. Parker: The Spenser novels of course, also the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall series. Parker pretty much only wrote one book in his life - over and over and over - but it was a really fun to read book, and no-one writes snappy dialog like he did. I just finished his last novel published before his death and am very sad there will be no more.
John Sandford: The Prey novels and the Virgil Flowers series. The Virgil Flowers books are actually a spin off of the Prey novels, but I like them better. They're more light hearted and less grisly.
Michael Connelly: The Harry Bosch novels and his later lawyer series
Charlaine Harris: Her Aurora Teagarden and Shakespeare series are mysteries, and I love both of them.

Okay, I'll stop now - although I'll warn you I can be set off again at the drop of a hat.

I'll leave you with a tie-in book - mysteries and gardening!

The China Bayles Herbal Mysteries by Susan Albert. The heroine moves to a small town and opens an herb shop - and fights crime of course! And she also starts her own herb garden out back of the shop.

Hmmm... in the Farseer books there is a dog called Nighteyes that is a wolf/dog hybrid that I think journeys with the main character. Is that the Robin Hobb one you were thinking of Kathy?

Yes, that's it.

Most of my favorites have already been mentioned, but here are a few more- all Urban Fantasy, my favorite genre.

Lori Handeland- the Nightcreature series and the Phoenix Chronicles series.
http://www.lorihandeland.com/

Keri Arthur- the Riley Jenson Guardian series.
http://www.keriarthur.com/books/

Richelle Mead- the Georgina Kincaid series, (a succubus living in Seattle!) The Dark Swan series, and the young adult Vampire Academy series.
http://www.richellemead.com/books/books.htm

Caitlin Kittredge- the Nocturne City series.
http://www.caitlinkittredge.com/?page_id=389

Stacia Kane- I just started "Unholy Ghosts" and I'm really liking it so far. Very gritty dark urban fantasy.
http://www.staciakane.net/books/

Jaye Wells- the Sabina Kane series.
http://jayewells.com/books/

Karen Marie Moning- the Fever series. (the Highlander series is fun too, if you're in the mood for really schlocky romance)
http://www.karenmoning.com/

Mark Henry- the Amanda Feral series. These are not for everyone. They're seriously gross. Full of totally twisted snarky humor. Completely inappropriate. I love them.
http://www.markhenry.us/books/

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Of course I thought of more as soon as I hit send. :p

Scott Lynch- The Gentleman Bastard series. First book is The Lies of Locke Lamora.
http://www.scottlynch.us/books.html

C. E. Murphy- the Walker Papers series. A female cop turned shaman in Seattle.
http://cemurphy.net/archives/category/walker-papers

Cherie M. Priest- Boneshaker is what she's best known for. Very Steampunk.
http://www.cheriepriest.com/order-the-book/

Diana Rowland- the Demon series.
http://www.dianarowland.com/books.html

Okay. Now I'm done. ;)

Assuming we are not limited to urban fantasy series (which I've never read, but may well try):

'Still Alice' by Lisa Genora is an excellent novel about early onset Alzheimer's told from the perspective of a college professor who is diagnosed with it and follows her journey through dementia. It sounds sad and depressing, but was actually not. Gave me a much better understanding of the disease. Very heart warming.

'Coyotes' by Ted Conover. Non-fiction. A journalist joins Maxican illegals crossing various borders, working the fields, and lving their life in general. Very insightful.

Oh, this is a great thread! So many good recommendations! Since I buy so many of my books on Mp3 (so i can 'read' while I garden) I am a little limited because I have a rule for myself that a book can be no less than 12 hours of good listening pleasure. I generally try to find books in the 20 hour range. More bang for the buck. But then I do miss out on some of the good shorter ones. I'll have to start actually 'reading' again to get those!

I second the motion on: MC Beaton, Martha Grimes, and Peter Robinson. All good authors with good series. I do like a good character who continues in many 'cases'.
MC Beaton also does the Hamish McBeth series, about a bachelor Scot police detective in a very small town. Our Hamish would never live in a commune of any kind. He's too independant!

John Sanford - too grim for me as a rule. I can't remember why. I'll have to look at his stuff again.

I will try Kerry Greenwood. Sounds delicious!

No one has mentioned the queen of British Mystery, Agatha Christie. If you haven't read her stuff, then all the other stuff is like getting the roof without the house. Same with Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries.


Another true one that is really good is REading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. It's written from the perspective of a professor of literature who used to teach in Tehran.

Bonehead read Whiteout by Ted Conover and just started The Routes of Man. I like his writing. I want to read Coyotes.

So much to read and so little time! What's a girl to do? I tried books on tape but my mind wanders when I do that. My kids gave me a Nook for my birthday but I can't get used to it. Maybe we need to have a book exchange instead of plants and seeds.

Kathy, I think that you might have created a monster with this thread! So many listed that I know that I like, but SOOO many that I haven't read yet... and I am always looking for a new author.

A couple that are very popular and "mainline" that I enjoy are Stephen King (my very favorites are the Dark Tower series and Desperation) and Dean Koontz (Dragon Tears is my fav of his), and Nora Roberts (like the newer fantasy trilogies best and everything that she has written as JD Robb).

I have never really gotten into Ann Rule, but really enjoyed Memnoch the Devil in her Vampire Chronicles series because it presented an "outside the box" perspective of God vs the Devil (some may find it offensive, I found it interesting).

Another "popular" one that I really enjoyed was the Da Vinci code by Dan Brown... another one that made you think a bit.

Kymmco, I just glanced at Shelfari last night, and will definitely be looking into it further. Right now, I have copies of lists highlighted and spread everywhere.... Shelfari sounds much easier!

I've never heard the term Urban Fantasy before - once an author writes something that's believe to me, in the moment, then I forget that it's fantasy. It was that way for me with watching LOST, too.

My niece is a music therapist who works with Alzheimer's patients. She's a gifted musician, as well. She just got finished reading Just Alice and gave it rave reviews. I do have it on my list of books to read. I think I heard an interview with the author on NPR, but was then unable to find the book's name.

We clearly need our own book review site, with a searchable database and places for reviews, names of reviewers, etc. I'll get right on that. :-p

Ah, yes, Kathy a wonderul monster. I would have to read a book a day to get through this list in the rest of my lifetime. Oh......where to start? :)

I second Ken Follett and David Eddings. I've read Eddings series.
Some of the Urban Fantasy written for kids is really good.
If you like prehistoric Indian books, Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear write good well researched books. Sometimes together and sometimes alone.
I'm reading the 'Dune' series now. Some of the books are good and some not so good. The story is ok but I don't see why people think it is so great. Unless it was the era in which it was written, the 50's.

A couple more I haven't seen mentioned yet that I really liked

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. Not what I would call light reading as I think that the shortest one is almost 700 pages, but a very long and well written fantasy series.

http://www.terrygoodkind.com/bookshelf.html

Lisa Jackson does very well with what her website calls "Romantic Suspense" novels. They are more mystery/suspense with a splash of romance tossed in, and I have read at least six of them and have found every one difficult to put down. She also does historical romance and contemporary romance, but I have not read any of those.

John Grisham is hit or miss for me. I really enjoyed "The Associate" and "The Testament".

For light and humorous fantasy reading, Robert Asprin is wonderful. His "Myth Adventures" series and "Phule's Company" series were my favorites.

Another older but excellent fantasy trilogy is the Frost trilogy by Robin Wayne Bailey.

And let's not forget Nelson DeMille. I loved Plum Island, The General's Daughter, The Charm School - action, espionage, adventure - great plots.

http://www.nelsondemille.net/content/books.asp

I loved The Sparrow. The follow up was okay.

I read a lot of kid's lit but my favorite genre is time travel, which is what led me to the Outlander series, which has time travel but isn't really a 'time travel' novel. Time Travelers Wife, now that's a time travel novel!

A favorite author is Steven Gould. He wrote Jumper which a fairly bad movie was made from. The book is different and SO MUCH better. There is also a great sequel, Reflex. Apparently there's now a prequel. I need to go in search of that.

He also wrote Wildside, which I loved (Alternate dimensions, set in Texas, a group of high school graduates find a hole into an alternate reality, a pristine world unspoiled by man and human caused extinctions. They start a gold business and are discovered by the government.)

Another book I loved is Watchers by Dean Koontz. (On his 36th birthday, Travis Cornell wakes up at five and goes hunting. While in the woods he meets a dog that will change his life. The dog, whom Travis names Einstein, turns out to have near-human intelligence, the result of government research. The same lab also created a hybrid monster known as "The Outsider", which is loose and hunting the dog... and capable of following it by a psychological link that binds them even over hundreds of miles.) Loved loved loved this book

Speaking of genetically modified dogs, Lives of the Monster Dogs is very fun. (A race of superintelligent dogs arrive in 21st century Manhattan. Elegant monster dogs in top hats, tails, and bustled skirts become instant celebrities when they come to New York in 2008. A riveting exploration of the permeable boundaries of the human and animal worlds is the most arresting and brilliant fictional debut of 1996...a weird and haunting parable for our times.)

Then there are genetically-modified children - James Patterson's When the Wind Blows and its sequel The Lake House. He also wrote a teen series based on the same characters called the Maximum Ride series. There are 5 books in that series. It becomes confusing with the adult books and teen books side by side and not knowing in which order to read them. But I liked them all (haven't read the last two teen books).

That's it for now. I'm currently reading Little Bee.

Let's remember pretty much everything by Michael Crichton (imo)

I particularly liked CONGO and TIMELINE.

OMG you people are worse with books than you are with plants.

I read Terry Goodkind's series and Robert Jordon's Chaos series. I finally quite reading the chaos ones. They didn't go anywhere.
Lynn Kurland has a scottish time-travel series that is really good. All books with the same people intertwined.

I also really like 'The Dragons of Pyrn'(sp) series.
Any Mauve Binchey book in great. Her characters become your friends.
Jean Auel's prehistoric 'Mammoth Hunters' is the best.
'Anthony Adverse' is myfavorite all-time book. And 'The Secret Garden'.

This message was edited May 26, 2010 1:30 PM

OMG How could I have forgotten... Christopher Moore! His books are hilarious!

I also like poetry by Ogden Nash.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski is a good dog story with a bit of woo-woo thrown in - a mute boy and his parents living somewhere in the remote heartland raising ultra-intelligent dogs. Inspired me to work more with my own dog, who is sweet as can be but not as well-mannered as I would like (as in she doesn't always come when she should, likes to chase some but not all cats, etc.) Anyway, good read.

I LOVE Christopher Moore! Did you read Fluke? And Christ's Life According to Bip or whatever that one was called was hilarious.

I liked Christopher Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck: A Love Story - definitely a tie in to the urban fantasy genre much under discussion here! I didn't love the other one I read - I believe it was a Christmas time story and Santa got beheaded with a spade? It was alright, but it didn't tickle my funny bone quite right I guess.

And thanks Pony for mentioning the Seattle set urban fantasy series (CE Murphy and Richelle Mead). I was trying to pull those out of my memory last night and couldn't. Isn't there one set in Vancouver BC as well? I'm drawing a blank at the moment.

Pixy, if you've ready John Sandford and found him to grim in the past, I wouldn't necessarily revisit his books - they are quite grisly and you have to be in the right mood. But do check out his Virgil Flowers spin offs, they're higher on the wit and lighter on the gore.

Also, those make me think of the Virginia Houston Loon Laking Fising mystery series (because Virgil Flowers loves to take off from detecting to go fishing). I'm not really interested in fishing, but I do like the Loon Lake series, a good setting and protagonist.

And I'm glad you're going to check out the Kerry Greenwood - those were the ones I was most excited to recommend. A great series that not many people have read.