Recommending Books, Part 2 … Plus A Mini Wrap-Up
by Jenners • 06/28/2010 • Book Recommendations • 23 Comments
A Mini Wrap-Up
It was a very unproductive week here as a storm left me without a computer for a few days. Since I don’t have a backlog of reviews to post, no computer means no posts. So, for the first time since this blog started, I didn’t post a single book review all week. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a few written this week!
Since I missed my weekly wrap-up, I thought I’d do a quick one now. The bad news is I didn’t lose enough weight for my “Lose Weight/Earn A Book” project so I’m back to square one. I’ve got to lose at least .5 pounds from my lowest weight to start qualifying for another book. So far, it isn’t looking good for this week.
As far as reading, I finished two books this past week, and oddly both of them had the word “number” in the title. The first was Sloane Crosley’s new essay collection, How Did You Get This Number. Although I really enjoyed her first book, but this one seemed a bit weaker. There were a few essays I really enjoyed, but overall I was a bit disappointed. I’m on the fence as to whether the few gems in the book make the entire collection worth reading. The other book I read was John Verdon’s Think Of A Number, which is being released on July 6th. This was a pretty decent thriller that sucked me in. It would be a good summer read if you want a mystery/thriller that keeps you guessing. I’ll try to write my reviews of both books relatively soon.
Question of the Week
This week’s question comes from Nise’ at Under the Boardwalk who asks:
What book or books do you find yourself recommending over and over?
To answer this question, I decided to break up my answer into a series of posts where I recommend some of my favorite books in a variety of categories. Here are this week’s recommendations.
If you’re looking for fast-paced, involving thrillers (or what I also call “books you can get a non-reading male to read and finish”), I’d recommend:
- Nelson DeMille, particularly the John Corey books (Plum Island
, The Lion’s Game
, Night Fall
, Wild Fire
, The Lion
) as well as Word of Honor
, Up Country
, and The General’s Daughter
- Greg Iles, especially Mortal Fear
The Footprints of God Spandau Phoenix, Dead Sleep
, Sleep No More
, The Quiet Game
, Turning Angel, True Evil, The Devil’s Punchbowl
- Harlan Coben, particularly his Myron Bolitar books as well as The Woods
, The Innocent
, Tell No One, Gone for Good
- The Millennium Trilogy by Steig Larsson, which includes The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The Girl Who Played with Fire The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
If you’re looking for women’s fiction, I’d recommend:
- Lolly Winston, Good Grief
and Happiness Sold Separately
(I wish she would write another book … I love her!)
- Marisa de los Santos, Love Walked In
and Belong to Me
- True to Form by Elizabeth Berg (prepare to cry … a lot!)
- Marian Keyes’s book Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married
(this is totally chick lit but I loved it!)
If you like memoirs but want ones that DON’T focus on drug/alcohol/sex abuse or mental illness, I’d recommend:
- Haven Kimmel’s A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana
- Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
- Bill Bryson’s The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
- Andres Martinez’s 24/7: Living It Up and Doubling Down
- Jen Lancaster’s series of “memoir lite,” including: Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass,Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office
, Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest to Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer
, Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl’s Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me?
So what books can you recommend in these categories? What are your favorite thrillers? women’s fiction? memoirs without drug/sex/alcohol abuse? I want to know!!!
Tune in next week when I share my recommendations for books about restaurants, motherhood, and offbeat contemporary fiction!
Note: I am an Amazon Affiliate and earn a percentage of sales if you purchase a product using Amazon links on my site. So, if you do, thank you!
Love the list!
I love Bryson, but I haven't yet read Thunderbolt (own the print and the audio, you'd think I would have tried it by now considering I love his other books…. never mind). There are a ton of books in these lists that I have always meant to read but haven't and a few I actually did read. Nise' asked a great question.
I really enjoyed both Kimmel and Bryson's memoirs. Good recommendations!
Good luck with the "Lose Weight/Earn A Book" project… Possibly not the easiest of projects, but definitely one that sounds like it rewards well. You can do it!
great list! you know i love the stieg larsson part! hey did you know that he has a biography coming out! i can't wait to get my hands on that one to see how accurate it is!
i think i would add to your thriller list one i recently finished and just wrote a review on – scared the hell out of me! Still Missing by Chevy Stevens. Debut fiction about a realtor kidnapped. Very scary!
Love these q&a!
Thanks for sharing this list. My mom is reading the number book this summer, so I hope to have a review from her soon. You know she loves a good mystery!
I am always recommending Coben and I'm a relatively new Iles fan.
I really liked Happiness Sold Separately and Good Grief is waiting on my shelf to be read, as is True to Form. Thanks for warning me about the crying. I am still getting sick so I am trying to avoid anything else that may bring me down right now!
Great list of recommendations.
I've had my eye on Santo's Belong To Me for a while.
Funny enough, I havent read a memoir that didnt deal with some form of abuse.
One of my favorite thrillers is Dean Koontz Life Expectancy. Karin Slaughter's Undone was really good too.
And for womens fitcion, Best Intentions by Emily Listfield was fantastic. As was The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship.
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/
I love the cover of How Did You Get this Number…LOL, but since I wasn't crazy about her first book, and this one is weaker, I most likely will pass.
Hope this week is better than last for you.
ok, I do have one of the Santos books around here and am going to have to dig it out if both you and Sandy are SO BIG on it.
but second, regarding memoirs, are you telling me there actually are some with no 'drug/alcohol/sex abuse or mental illness'? Really? what could they be about?? lol
Not a huge fan of memoirs but last year I read the Private Papers of Eastern Jewel which I liked a lot. Not a non-fiction memoir but based on a real woman's life and fictionalized. Maybe that's why I liked it. If you like books set in Asia, you might try this one.
First of all, so glad you survived the storm. Yes, you do get to know your neighbors but I'm not sure it is worth the sweating and the stress! I myself am praying for a slow hurricane season. I love your list of recommendations. Can I just speak up here with my big mouth and say hell yes to the Santos books? And the Larsson books?
First of all, so glad you survived the storm. Yes, you do get to know your neighbors but I'm not sure it is worth the sweating and the stress! I myself am praying for a slow hurricane season. I love your list of recommendations. Can I just speak up here with my big mouth and say hell yes to the Santos books? And the Larsson books?
I'm afraid to say that I haven't read a single book on this week's list, something I intend to remedy, starting with the Bill Bryson book you mention.
At least your two "numbers" books can count for your Chance challenge!
I hope that life is back to normal after the storms.
A lot of storms around the country! We had some bad weather lately too and Wadena Minnesota (about 40 miles away) took a bad hit in a tornado.
One of the books I recommend time and again is Summerhouse by Jude Deveroux – every time I talk about it I want to read it again!
Good list! Wish I could remember the names of books I liked to add! :–) (that's actually why I write reviews – I have to review them myself to remember stuff!)
Seconding Half Broke Horses. Also, a recent fave is The Gargoyle.
I'm going to refer back to your list before my next library trip.
I think the Larsson books are the only ones on this list that I've read. I'll have to think on what other thrillers I've enjoyed. I'll get back to you on that….
Loved how you broke this up into categories because of course it would be too simple to just recommend a few titles!! I loved the first three memoirs on your list as well. I listened to Zippy read by Haven, a riot! I laughed hysterically as I drove to work.
You ARE a wordy woman, aren't you! Belong To Me is on my shelf. I really liked Love Walked In so I'm looking forward to reading BTM. I enjoy Elizabeth Berg's books but am not familiar with the title you listed. I need to look it up.
I read Alice & Oliver last year – a debut novel, thought it was pretty good. I'll have to think of some more. Did you read Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani? Loved that!
Jeners, I'll take Lolly Winston from your list, and offer in her place two memoirs:
'Honeymoon in Purdah' (I forget the author's name – Allison something?) which is an account of a woman's travel through post-revolutionary Iran. She wore chador, and travelled with a male friend, posing as a married couple due to the laws of the land, and tells stories of all sorts of 'average' people she met along the way, far from the politicized country that is seen by the world in the media. Really enjoyed it, especially since she seemed to try and describe what happend and allowing the reader to make up his/her mind on how to interpret it, rather than 'telling' him/her how ot react.
The second is 'Half Broke Horses' by the same author who wrote 'The Glass Castle'. It is an account of her grandmother's extraordinary life in the American West during a harsh time. I flew through it, felling like a wussy princess all the while.
Great list! I actually listened to my first Myron Bolitar book this year and just loved it, so now I want to listen to more. Steven Weber is Myron in my mind.