Book Rec

[Catrin]

Lately I've been reading far more than watching TV or Netflix, and I do enjoy good mysteries. I've been enjoying some of the Pitt series by Anne Perry. Perhaps not high literature, but enjoyable. I've heard about "Wild" at a book club I attend occasionally, it is one of the books suggested for next year.

I love "Bleak House" though it is quite bleak, Indy thanks for the recommendation for Jill Horner's book. I need to get away from my period piece/mystery run. I've also been reading "Mapheads" by Ken Jennings, a wonderful book on maps and those of us who love them and the different perspective they can provide.

For some reason I've not read John Irving, will add "In One Person" to my list.

[indysteel]

Thus far, I've not found Bleak House to be any more bleak than the average book that I've read. Maybe most of what I read is depressing; I don't know.

[Crankin]

I've hardly been reading, which is unusual. By the time I get home, and do my notes, I'm tired. But, I did read that book about the Olympic track cyclists, Gold. It was not that good. The writing seemed amateurish, even though the author (whose name escapes me now) had a huge best seller before. The ending was predictable, too.
It was the first book I read on a Kindle and I did not enjoy it. I had an actual physical feeling of wanting to turn paper pages and I couldn't read as many pages at a time; it was like when i tried to read research articles for school on line. I ended up getting a laser printer and printing them out! I know this shows my age, but it's a real, weird physical feeling I got when I was reading. I will probably download a couple of books to read while I'm away, but I will not make it a regular habit. I experience the same feeling when my morning paper doesn't arrive early enough for me to read and I read it on the I Pad. It feels like I'm reading some pop culture article on the Yahoo home page, instead of the Boston Globe.
Any recs for good historical fiction?

[Irulan]

I love well written and researched historical fiction. Not, bodice ripper historical fiction, if you know what I mean. Someone I know actually said that Outlander was historical fiction and I just about barfed. It's time travel romance disguised as historical. Not that I didn't enjoy the first few of that series, it's just NOT historical fiction. Sorry.

Sharon Kay Penman writes about Medieval England and I love her books.
The Welsh trilogy, Here be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning, is fabulous. Her series on Henry II is also very good, and her take on Elanor of Aquitane. http://www.sharonkaypenman.com/penman_bibliography.htm

For adventurous historical, you can't beat Bernard Cornwell. He's covered the Napoleonic Wars with the Sharpe series , King Alfred the Great with his Lords of the North series, and he's also done some great books on the Civil War. The Sharpe series is cut of the same cloth as the Patrick Obrien/Jack Aubrey stuff, so it's adventure tales with a lot of historical basis and detail. ( And Sean Bean played him in the BBC series, what's not to love about that?)

I've also really enjoyed the Thomas Shardlake mysteries set in the time of Henry VIII, by C J Sansom. This is literary mystery, not the usual fluff of many mystery series. It's pretty deep stuff, and very authentic to the period.

I could not get into Phillipa Gregory at all. I read one of them, and it seem so contrived I had to toss it. It may have been one of her true fiction and not the bios she's known for.

Wilbur Smith is another author I like. He writes about Africa, primarily South Africa, from about the 17th century on. The history is told through the Ballentyne Family, from the earliest settlement by Dutch to the end of Apathied. His really "famous" book ( ie, supermarket bestseller) "River God" is not his best work.

Hope you find something you like! I love reading on my Nook and iPad.

Who is on Goodreads?

[OakLeaf]

I just finished "The Weird Sisters" by Eleanor Brown and just loved it. It's about three adult sisters, daughters of a pedantic Shakespeare professor (hence the title), each with a crisis of her own, and an ailing stay-at-home mom, learning to find how they each fit into the family as adults.

It's totally NOT about my sisters and me, but there are enough parallels (probably common to any family of three sisters and a mother and father who've stayed married) that it was extra engaging to me - but I think any woman with a sister would find some home truth in this novel.

The conceit of the book is that it's narrated by the sisters collectively as a sort of Greek chorus. Each individual gets to speak in her own voice, but the whole history of their growing up together is always present. It doesn't necessarily sound like it would work, but it does.

[Catrin]

Irulan - I agree the Penman books are pretty good and I also have enjoyed the Shardlake series. I've not read anything by Bernard Cornwell yet though I have seen part of the Sharpe series - I will have to add him to my list.

It is nice to see what everyone is reading. I finally joined Good Reads the other day and am figuring out how it works. I read mainly classics and fiction - especially historical fiction, mysteries, fantasy/speculative/science fiction.

[Crankin]

Oak, Weird Sisters sounds like something I would like.
Ha, Irulan, I am not into bodice ripping, fantasy, mystery, or series for that matter. I've read a lot of historical fiction about Ann Bolyn, etc., that era. I also have read quite a few books about the Inquisition, which sounds horrible (it is), but I learned a lot about Conversos, or the "secret" Jews, and many of their descendants who now live in New Mexico. Fascinating.

[Melalvai]

I love well written and researched historical fiction.

Me too, and I will check into some of those that you mentioned. I liked the one Penman I read, I'll have to get more.

You might like Miriam Grace Monfredo. Mysteries set in woman's suffrage pre-Civil War. The first one, a win for the suffragists in New York legislation turned out to be the key to the murder mystery. How cool is that?

50 Shades of Grey

I haven't read it but the amazon reviews were hilarious.

[Crankin]

I can't remember the name of the book I read that I loved so much about a female character in the Inquisition. I had read a review of it and miraculously found it at the library a couple of years ago. But, the one I am going to get for vacation is called By Fire, By Water, author's last name is Kaplan.

[emily_in_nc]

Re: 50 Shades of Gray

I haven't read it but the amazon reviews were hilarious.

I totally agree! Much better than the book, from what I gathered.

[malkin]

Earlier this year I read Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight.
Accessable, quick read, non-fiction, brain scientist describes her experience having a stroke.

She spoke at a conference I attended. Wow!

[GLC1968]

I love well written and researched historical fiction. Not, bodice ripper historical fiction, if you know what I mean. Someone I know actually said that Outlander was historical fiction and I just about barfed. It's time travel romance disguised as historical. Not that I didn't enjoy the first few of that series, it's just NOT historical fiction. Sorry.

Sharon Kay Penman writes about Medieval England and I love her books.
The Welsh trilogy, Here be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning, is fabulous. Her series on Henry II is also very good, and her take on Elanor of Aquitane. http://www.sharonkaypenman.com/penman_bibliography.htm

For adventurous historical, you can't beat Bernard Cornwell. He's covered the Napoleonic Wars with the Sharpe series , King Alfred the Great with his Lords of the North series, and he's also done some great books on the Civil War. The Sharpe series is cut of the same cloth as the Patrick Obrien/Jack Aubrey stuff, so it's adventure tales with a lot of historical basis and detail. ( And Sean Bean played him in the BBC series, what's not to love about that?)

I've also really enjoyed the Thomas Shardlake mysteries set in the time of Henry VIII, by C J Sansom. This is literary mystery, not the usual fluff of many mystery series. It's pretty deep stuff, and very authentic to the period.

I could not get into Phillipa Gregory at all. I read one of them, and it seem so contrived I had to toss it. It may have been one of her true fiction and not the bios she's known for.

Wilbur Smith is another author I like. He writes about Africa, primarily South Africa, from about the 17th century on. The history is told through the Ballentyne Family, from the earliest settlement by Dutch to the end of Apathied. His really "famous" book ( ie, supermarket bestseller) "River God" is not his best work.

Hope you find something you like! I love reading on my Nook and iPad.

Who is on Goodreads?

I love well researched historical fiction myself. I have some old favorites (Sarum, The Far Pavillions, Pillars of the Earth, etc) but lately I've been really enjoying the books by Anne Easter Smith. I finished Queen by Right about a month ago and just started Daughter of York over the weekend. For whatever reason, I'm partial to British history. I'll definitely check out some of the ones you've recommended!

I did like the few Phillippa Gregory books I read (The Queen's Fool in particular) but they do border on 'bodice rippers' for sure.

Shades of Grey - I read them all. In about a day. Seriously easy reading but I found the story entertaining enough to keep me engaged while traveling. I don't know how accurate the erotic parts are, but admittedly, I learned some stuff I never knew (and wouldn't dare to google!). Would I recommend the books? For literary value? No. For entertainment or light beach reading? Sure.

I read fiction for escape, so I'm typically not partial to stories or books that take place in a world like my own. They don't do it for me. I typically like stories that take me somewhere else (why I like historical fiction or sci-fi), and the Shades of Grey series took me to a world I don't inhabit (even though it was set here in the PNW). Between the kinky sex and incredible wealth, it was 'other worldly' to me which I think is why I enjoyed it even though it wasn't very well written.

For non-fiction I have two recommendations if anyone is interested. One is called 'It Starts With Food" and it kind of changed my life (for the better). The other is called 'The Dirty Life' and its about a city girl who falls in love with a farmer and their journey as they set up a rural, sustainable life in upstate New York. (anyone want to venture a guess why I liked it? )

[Irulan]

This is why I love Goodreads. It's very easy to go in and find some books by author suggestions, and mark as "to read".