What are you reading? Would love recommendations!

[LBickford]

I'm as addicted to reading as I am to digi scrapping! Consequently I am always looking for new authors, and great reads. I subscribe to Bookbub and get lots of freebies and low priced books (electronically), but some aren't worth the paper they aren't printed on.

I'd love to know who your favorite authors or books -including series - are.

 

[LBickford]

Just to get an idea of what I enjoy:

Lee Child
Nora Roberts and JD Robb
Dean Koontz
Stephen King
Wool Series
Harry Potter
Twilight series (and other well written young adult books, like Divergent)
Jean Johnson - Sons of Destiny series
Douglas Preston
Memoirs
Michael Crichton
Nicholas Sparks
James Patterson

 

[Mother Bear]

Lori.....you like some of the same authors that I do. I have a kindle full of books I have yet to read, so I'm not any help.
I hardly have the time anymore and as soon as I start for some odd reason I only read a few pages and want to go to sleep.....lol!
Although I LOVE reading it actually puts me to sleep.

 

[LBickford]

Julie, I HAVE to read before I go to sleep, and I prefer to do it IN bed, all snuggled. When I'm not super tired but I know I need to sleep it is nearly as relaxing for me AS sleeping! Sometimes I'll read for 2hrs and then finally put it down. Other times, when my eyes just won't stay open (hardly ever happens, but on occasion) I might only read a few pages, then conk right out. I also read on planes, and since I travel for work, this means I get a ton read then. And when I'm traveling and eating alone at a restaurant, I read then, too.

Out of the list of authors, who is your favorite?

 

[Mother Bear]

Dean Koontz, James Patterson and Stephen King are all my faves.....Haven't read a book from any of them that I didn't love......

I also love anything by Tami Hoag and Karen Slaughter.

 

[Fayette]

Oh my, you need to check out the books by Khaled Hosseini. He's the author of The Kite Runner, And the Mountains Echoed and A Thousand Splendid Suns (this one was by far my favorite, but also a very difficult book to read because of the way some cultures treat women). But they're all fantastic books.

I love historical fiction & one of my all time favorite books is Follow the River by James Alexander Thom. Another fantastic author is Ken Follet - Pillars of the Earth was really amazing (*warning* there are some pretty graphic parts in this one)...but man, he can really make you feel like you're right there when they're building the cathedrals in medieval times!

I also love light reading like Nicholas Sparks. I have a lot of great "light reading" books on my kindle. Lol, I just went to get it to list some of them for you, but ummmm...it's dead. I'll have to make a new post when it's charged & I can get the titles & authors.

I love to read when I travel, too, even if it's just a short trip to go to one of my kids' homes. Lol, I always have a book with me. If Kees is really focused on driving, I just pull out my book

 

[Bright Eyes]

I am a voracious reader... have to read every day!

Kay Hooper is a a great author... she wrote some light romances - but I really like her Bishop FBI series.
Catherine Coulter is another with the FBI series featuring Savich and Sherlock. She also writes some romances.
And of course - Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series! Just finishing up re-reading these.
Robyn Carr - she has several series... all have been fun to read
Suzanne Brockmann - Navy Seals series
Love Christine Feehan's Sea Haven series and her new Shadow Rider [1st in the Shadow series]
Karen Robards - The Last Victim, Last Kiss Goodbye, Her Last Whisper,The Last Time I Saw Her
Lisa Gardner - great suspense
Julie Garwood - another great suspense writer
Dee Henderson - The O'Malley family Series
Kathryn Shay - After the Fire
Iris Johannson {and Roy Johansson} - Eve Duncan series
Anne McCaffery - all of the Pern Series - Dragons of Pern, etc...

Tony Hilderman
Tom Clancy
Dan Brown
James Mitchner
Alister McClain

 

[LBickford]

Great recommendations Faye, thank you! I have read The Kite Runner, quite awhile ago. I'll have to pick up the others!

 

[LBickford]

Oooohh - this is great! I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get Outlander - everyone speaks of it, and I feel clueless!

 

[LBickford]

I read Game of Thrones, liked it, even though it was longer and a bit deeper than I was wanting a the time. You know what though? No desire to watch it on TV. I generally DO like to see the movies after I read a book (I try to never watch the movie first) but I'm not a TV watcher anyway.

Has anyone else read the book Game of Thrones, and then watched it, and would recommend that I give it a try?

 

[Cyndiea]

I am the Pre-K through 12th grade librarian for our school district (as well as the preschool teacher) so I go through cycles where I only read books for teens or middle schoolers (and I love a great dystopian novel -- Hunger Games, Divergent, The Testing, etc) So my adult reading is sometimes in fits and spurts! Right now I'm reading "Dead Wake" The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" My light-reading go-to genre is cozy mysteries...nothing that really stretches my brain. However, the books that I've read and loved (many of which I've recommended to my book club and they have loved them as well) are:

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (who also wrote Winter Garden which was very good too)
Defending Jacob by William Landay (if you like thrillers or mysteries you may like this)
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (and all of his other books as well)
Ruta Sepetys has some wonderful books: I've read "Salt to the Sea" and "Between Shades of Gray"
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskins
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick (this one reminded me of Fredrik Backman's books)
Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey
Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (This was my book club's first book and I chose it without having read it first -- I thought.."Oh no what did I do" but it was very good and became a huge bestseller)
Fall of Giants by Ken Follett (I haven't found time to dive into the other 2 in the series)
The Martian by Andy Weir (I am SO GLAD I read this...and the others in my book club were skeptical but they all loved it. It's not so much a science fiction book as a book of survival)
I also loved the books by Gillian Flynn (Dark Places, Gone Girl) as well as Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
The Story of a Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

I think, regardless of your preferred genre, any of these are winners!

I also love Lisa Gardner, Nicholas Sparks, the earlier Patricia Cornwell books, Kathy Reichs, Jodi Picoult, Jonathan Kellerman, everything by Catherine Ryan Hyde (Pay it Forward author),

I'm also a huge fan of Outlander. I read it YEARS ago and have recently downloaded the whole series. Waiting for the right time to start in on it again when I can risk staying up all night reading! It's one of those books that, even though I haven't read it in years, I still remember it!

Also on my Kindle waiting for me is "Breath Becomes Air". Has anyone read this?

 

[Fayette]

Ooooh...I LOVED Unbroken...kind of a tough book to read though. I just can't believe what some people lived through.

 

[LBickford]

A Man Called Ove was really good, I read it on a friend's recommendation and was hooked.
The Martian - absolutely! Had to read it before I saw the movie - both are great, but the book really EXPLAINS things.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - I have this, but haven't read it yet. I need to move it up on my list!
The Help - goes without saying. Exellent read.
I need to get some of Jodi Picault's latest, love her. So many you mention I haven't heard of, so I'll be referring back to this list!

 

[Cyndiea]

The Outlander!!! I read this so long ago and yet it is one of those books that just stays with you! I recently downloaded the whole series...I can't remember how many I read the first time...but I need to find the time to jump into them because I know I won't do anything but read!

 

[Bryony - HSA]

Gosh I could have written this list myself!!
These are all awesome but especially:
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

And then other books that I read this year and loved were:
A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman
The Orphan Train: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

And then anything by:
Michael Connelly, Jonathan Kellerman and the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child (for light entertainment).

 

[Bright Eyes]

My son-in-law got the whole family reading the Odd Thomas series by Dean Kootz
Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Interlude [several of these], Odd Apocalypse, Deeply Odd and Saint Odd.

 

[Scrapbxl]

Wel, as a french speaker, love Guillaume Musso, Eric Emmanuel Schmitt and the best book I had reading of my live is "La vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert" by Joël Dicker.
I love thriller also, do you know Jussi Adler-Olsen ? Danish's writer, Love is hero : Carl Morck.
I work with teenager so I'm reading a lot of teen book.
And finally i'm a little it romantic, I start to read "outlander" Diana Gabaldon, Love Scotland LOL

 

[Scrapdolly]

I will have to look at your recommendations carefully ...loved The Kite Runner, loved the Twilight books and Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.

I enjoy joy books like The Gone Girl, girl on a train etc. I also loved While my eyes were closed by Linda Green, Mark Edwards books ... Good twists ... Lie with Me, I let you go.

i also like Jeffrey Archer, John Grisham, Ben Elton and anything by Jodi Picoult.

My favourite series of books were the Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean Auel.

 

[jenyurko]

chiming in here... the game of thrones books were great AND i love the tv series. it does not stray too terribly far from the books - which is a big deal for me. the show has actually gone beyond the books now and my daughter and i are chomping at the bit for the next season because we know what we know but the characters don't and it's like GAH! I WISH YOU KNEW! HURRY UP AND KNOW! lol! (You know nothing, John Snow!) I will probably binge the series again before the next season starts. i think it's awesome. I don't remember the books telling me why Hodor only says Hodor which is why everyone calls him Hodor.... but the show does - and it's magnificent, lol!

i am a HUGE fan of YA... particularly of the supernatural/paranormal variety, and my favorites so far are the Mercy Thompson and Jill Kismet series. i'm also a king and koontz fan!

i'm currently reading White Cat by Holly Black. I loved her book Coldest Girl in Coldtown & decided to try White Cat, on which the jury is still out.

*editing to add* now that i've finished the book, i liked it. jesse eisenberg (actor in Now You See Me and Zombieland) is the reader for the audible - he "fit" the main character... and the theme, which was magic "curse workers". it has a nice twist that i wasn't expecting, so it will get a good rating from me

i'm on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6426819-jen

you can see all my books read there - most of which are worth the read. i just took up the 2017 challenge with 75 books. i was so far off the mark for 2016 lol. the other day i remembered - hey stupid, you just went and got a library card a few weeks ago.... USE IT. derp. i have an audible membership, too. i prefer audiobooks because i can listen and work at the same time (my jill kismets are paperback so i've been slow to finish those UGH) plus they come in handy when i'm laying in bed trying to sleep and the man is just sawing some serious logs, lol.

oh, and i would also recommend Rick Riordan. he's got several different series - egyptian gods, greek gods... and there's a new series that i haven't looked at yet. the kane chronicles series was a hoot. i loved sadie lol

 

[Tami Miller]

Anything by Stephen King, I like Dean Koontz. Blake Crouch is very good, especially The Wayward Pines series, which has been turned into a tv show. Nick Cutter-a newer author, but his books The Troop and The Deep are good, if you have a strong stomach! They're much like Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

A good historical book my husband just read New York by Edward Rutherfurd. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons-very good WW2 book. The entire Outlander Series. Gone With The Wind I read every year. It's my "Comfort Book".

Robyn Carr is one of my favorite romance authors. When I want a feel good light book. Also, Kristan Higgins-cute and funny.

I really liked the YA Unwind series by Neal Shusterman, and Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles.

Anything post-apocalyptic. I could read post-apocalyptic and dystopian forever!