Our Authors Talk Their Latest Favs!
What’s the best non-mystery you’ve read so far this year?
- Terry Ambrose:
Sunny Skies, Shady Characters by James Dooley. This book is all about old-time crime in Hawaii—think bell-bottoms, lava lamps, and neon everything. Yeah, those were the days—and, boy, was there ever trouble in paradise!
- Nancy J. Cohen:
I enjoyed Sins of a Wicked Duke by Sophie Jordan. It’s a historical romance where the heroine disguises herself as a man so as not to be harassed and gets a job as footman for a notorious duke. But how can she, even in this guise, resist his sensual allure? Person-in-disguise tropes always appeal to me.
- Debra H. Goldstein:
The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop.
- Cheryl Hollon:
This year marks the 250th anniversary of my all-time favorite author, Jane Austen. So when I spotted Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley, I couldn’t grab it fast enough. It’s a beautifully detailed and engaging portrait of Austen’s life told through the lens of the many places she called home. Worsley brings to life Austen’s childhood house, her schools, holiday lodgings, the grand estates and humble dwellings of her extended family, and finally the quiet home she shared with her mother and sister later in life. I absolutely adored every word. A must-read for any Austen admirer!
- Maggie Toussaint:
I’ve really enjoyed Martha Wells’ series, The MurderBot Diaries. This is in the realm of science fiction. What intrigues me is her premise: a Security Unit that is a hybrid of human and mechanical parts, learns how to turn off his control governor. In the process of seeking autonomy and hiding from those who would wipe his memory and turn him back into a MurderBot, he has a special affinity for binge watching the equivalent of Netflix and applying those situations to what he encounters.
- Lois Winston:
It’s hard for me to choose only one. There are two that packed an emotional wallop but in completely different ways, and I won’t soon forget either of them—The Dutch House by Ann Patchett and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.
We’ve been all over the map with our reading—crime in paradise, dukes in disguise, a snarky MurderBot, and even Jane Austen’s real estate portfolio. Now it’s your turn: What book has swept you off your feet (or knocked you over the head) lately? Let us know in the comments!
The best nonmystery well that is just it I just can’t pick just 1 so as they say jury is still out picking a favorite
ARCs I read that were great reads: ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS by Hank Phillippi Ryan, coming Sep 9 and CRIMSON THAW by Bruce Robert Coffin, coming Nov 4.
I finished A DEATH FOR THE RECORDS by Ellen Jacobson and now I’m reading HOME SWEET HOMICIDE by Rosalie Spielman
The Middle Falls Time Travel series by Shawn Inmon – it’s not time travel as you usually hear of it (though I like that, too) – each book is a redemption story of sorts. In each book, a different main character dies and wakes up in their own life at an earlier point (with all the knowledge and memories they had acquired before they died) and the story evolves based on how they change from the first time through life, what new choices they make, what they learn…. Very interesting, in my opinion, and I have loved every one of the books… so much that I am re-reading from the beginning of the series before reading the newest few!
I read Sara Driscoll’s Shadow Play, and it creeps me out when I go online…it’s a great thriller!
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. My foster son actually read this for English and thought it was so good he told me about it! Also, Strangers in Time by David Baldacci. These are both historical (set in WWII) and tell of what the war was like in England. And I just finished reading one called Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. It is an interesting (fiction) story with a happy ending.