Recommended Reading

I mentioned in my last post that I had read quite a few good books lately and several folks have asked me for a list . I'm a voracious reader and could list about 200 off the top of my head, but here are some of my recent favorites:

The Bright and Distant Shore- Dominic Smith
Dominic Smith is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. I read The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre last year and fell in love with it. I even wrote to Mr. Smith to tell him how much I enjoyed it and he wrote back to me!  Then a few weeks ago, I got another email from him letting me know that his new book was out.  I scurried to get it and it was WONDERFUL.  There are so many layers to this book; the World Expo in Chicago, the building of the Field Museum, a sea adventure to collect artifacts, human rights issues with island natives all drizzled like awesome sauce over an underlying love story.  Sigh...it was like the best box of chocolates ever-little nibbles of so many delicious treats!

11/22/63 by Stephen King
Stephen's last couple of books have been a departure from his 'monster' books.  I loved Under the Dome when I read it a few months ago, but this one was even better than that! There are a lot of levels going on in this book and a lot of things to consider regarding time travel. If you avoid SK because of his ghosties and ghoulies, you should give this one a shot. Not a ghoulie anywhere-unless you consider J. Harvey Oswald!

Nightwoods by Charles Fraiser
I LOVED Charles Fraiser's Cold Mountain, [Not the movie, Nichole Kidman ruined the ever lovin'  h*ll out of that like she does every movie she's in .I loved the book version so much that frankly I'm a little bitter...] and also his second book Thirteen Moons,  so I eagerly awaited getting my little hands on this new one. It's a departure from his historical fiction and deals with a present day single woman who inherits her sister's to emotionally damaged children and tries to raise them.  Awesome read!

The Night Circus-Eri Morgenstern
A mystical, magical, delightful adult fairy tale.  The prose in this book makes it so easy to see all of the wonders in your head. I was disappointed when I came to the end. It was like cotton candy! I wanted more!

The DoveKeepers-Alice Hoffman
I love anything Alice writes, and this book was no exception. In fact it's now one of my favorites from her. It's historical fiction based on a famous tribe of Jews in 70CE who held off their aggressors in  the  mountaintop kingdom of Masada.  The three central figures are females who keep doves for religious rituals.  Beautiful book!

The True Memoirs of Little K-Adrienne Sharp
More historical fiction about a prima ballerina in St Petersburg Russia during the rein of the last Tsar. Lots of interesting details about the Romanov lineage and the splendor of that short period of time; pomp, circumstance, Faberge eggs and illegitimate children!

The Man In The Rockefeller Suite; Mark Seal
Amazing true story of Clark Rockefeller, a con man who insinuated himself into posh society for YEARS. A fiction writer could not make up what this guy got away with!

Undress Me In The Temple Of Heaven-Susan Jane Gilman
Excellent story about two sheltered American girls who upon graduating from Brown University decide, almost on the spur of the moment, to backpack around the world in a year. I loved watching the romantic preconceptions about international travel bump up against the reality that they faced from the very beginning-first stop was Communist Russia (1986). No cell phones, no Internet, no language skills.  Left me with a lot of 'what would I have done' thinking to do!

Ashes-Ilsa Bick
I'm not a big fan of zombie books and this has a few in it, but mostly it is a post-apocalyptic story about a girl who went backtracking to scatter her parents ashes in a state park. While she's there, there is some kind of 'event' that kills all electronics and changes come people.  Because she is in the wilderness it's not evident at first.  I sucked this one down in one sitting.

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin
This was a quirky book that I liked very much and have recommended to a lot of people already. It's historical fiction about a little person who was 'discovered' by P.T. Barnam and brought to 'marry' Tom Thumb and travel on the circus circuit. The story of the couple is only one part of the story. I enjoyed understanding more the man who was PT Barnam and reading details about his marketing brilliance! It's also the story of family relationships and the lengths to which they are stretched and grow. VERY GOOD!

So there's a handful to get you started! What have you got for ME to read?

Comments

Linda L. said…
I just finished "The Weird Sisters" by Eleanor Brown, and heartily recommend it. There are few books that make me cry, but this one did!
Some of those have been added to my to-read list. All I seem to read is medical text books at the moment!

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