Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Book Recommendations

Ok, I have a question to ask all of you. I'm trying to find some new authors to try out. I love to read and I've run out of books from the authors I know and love.

I've worked through almost all of Jodi Picoult's and Nicholas Sparks' novels. I loved the romance and drama in all of them. I also love the romance, angst, and drama that is prevalent on these boards, especially the romance. I would try some romance novels, but I'm afraid of picking one that would be your typical trashy romance novel with the sterotypical half naked hero on the front. I'm also a fan of mystery novels, but I like there to be more to the story than just the mystery (which basically means I want to be invested in the characters as much as the mystery they're trying to solve).

So my question to all of you is does anyone have any suggestions? Knowing these two authors (if you happen to be familiar with them) and knowing what I enjoy on the boards, I'm hoping someone will be able to think of something for me to look into.

I've already asked at Barnes and Noble for suggestions of authors close to those and they weren't much help. A friend told me to look into Melissa Senate books. I bought one but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Any thoughts on her?

If anyone is still reading at this point I hope you were able to follow all of that! I'd really love your input!

~Kristen

Hi Kristen,

I like books by those two authors as well. I am not into romance novels, though lol I sure am romantic at heart, but can recommend one that I actually got tricked into buying and enjoyed very much. (Okay the truth, is I am an educator, I read the first few pages of this novel and enjoyed them, seemed family oriented yet with a cute guy in it , only later to discover it was a harlequin book)! It's called "The Hometown Heartbreakers" by Susan Mallery. Definitely not at all trashy or lewd.

One of my very favorite recent books was "Comfort and Joy" by Kristin Hannah. Super sweet and just plain waffy plus now that I think about it, I can totally see and L and C fic with a similar theme.

Second, how about, The Lakeshore Chronicles by Susan Wiggs. They are currently 3 books in this series.

Hope this helps and great thread idea!

Mona, who loves to read.

If you want action and romance the Liad books by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee are a possibility. Sample chapters of the first book are at Baen webscriptions. The authors website is at Korval.com.

Any fiction by Andrew Greeley - The Bishop Blackie series is great as is the Nuala McGrail series - very romantic weaving of historic mysteries with modern day plots.

Ooh! I love books! *sigh* And I'm exactly the type of reader you seem to be! I haven't read Jodi Picoult, but I'm a fan of (most of) Nicolas Sparks. Here's a list of books I've really loved that fall along the lines of what you're looking for (though some of them are just plain chick-lit and not always too heavy on the drama ).

I haven't yet exhausted works by Wendy Markham, but I've really enjoyed her work so far. I've read Nine Month Plan twice (which is unusual for me with chick-lit). Once Upon A Blind Date was good, though not fantastic, that I remember. Likewise with Hello, It\'s Me

Most everything I've read by Jennifer Weiner so far, I've liked. Good In Bed is a good one, but my absolute favorite is In Her Shoes , which incidentally, has one of the best movie adaptations I've seen.

Several people on the boards here have recommended Jennifer Cruise to me. I've only read Anyone But You so far, but I really enjoyed it!

If you're really looking for drama and romance, I'd recommend Tami Hoag . She writes crime thrillers, and there's almost always (can't say always, as I haven't read them all) a great romance story to go along with it. Two of my absolute favorites are Dark Paradise and Lucky\'s Lady (the latter of which sounds just plain romance novel, but I promise it's not). Since you say you're really into the mystery solving, I'd fully explore Hoag's works. I've only read about a half dozen, but I've loved every one of them for all the reasons you list.

Some others that I've read and enjoyed (though they're more of the chick-lit variety than anything else):

Lost and Found by Jane Sigaloff
thirtynothing by Lisa Jewell (LOVED this one!!)
One Hit Wonder by Lisa Jewell
PS , I Love You by Cecelia Ahern (Love this one, too!)

That's all I can think of for now. I'll have to raid my sister's shelf for the titles of others that I've read and loved. Happy reading!

Sara

I'm a voracious reader myself who's run out of authors also, so thanks for the topic.

Might I suggest Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series? (Love, love, love this series).

Other authors I love and find myself re-reading are Lori Wick, Susan May Warren and Dee Henderson

Jo

Okay, this might get laughed at, lol, but have you read the book, Twilight , by Stephenie Meyer? It's in the teen section of Barnes and Noble which I outgrew years ago, but an adult recommended it to my best friend and she and I both tore through about 700 pages in two days. It's a "dark romance" so it has both angst and romance in there. It's also about a vampire... which I usually hate. But I think you'd probably fall in love with this guy. He kind of reminds me of Clark. Actually, he does a lot. It sounds like we have the same taste in books, so later I'll go get a better list of some of my favorite authors to send.

Can a guy recommend romance?
If so I think you should read the SF novel "Cordelia’s Honour" by Lois Mcmaster Bujold. I believe it would appeal to the many women that like romance on this board. And it’s nothing like a harlequin novel.
It's full of waffs and whams and it has a brilliant twisty plot. Bujold are a very good at creating a number of different interesting star nations and cultures and isn’t afraid of tough questions. And some of the supporting characters are extremely memorable.
In short Cordelia is a captain in the Betan Astronomy survey(Beta Colony is a very advanced and liberal world) that stumbles on a Barrayaran
staging ground for an invasion (Barrayar is a rather aggressive male dominated imperial power.) Where she captured by Lord Aral Vorkosigan the infamous "butcher of Komarr" and things move on from there.
Don't be discouraged by the SF setting it's nothing awkward.
But you can see for yourself, the ten first chapter are here .

Baen Books are simply the best.

Thank you all so much! I've been trying to find some new authors to read for a few months now and I just didn't seem to be having much luck on my own. This is one of the reasons I love it here. I can get help from all over the world. And I trust your opinions.

I'm pretty bogged down with classes right now, but I'll probably procrastinate a bit by looking into your suggestions. And please keep them coming! I'm glad others are benefiting from this thread besides me.

Oh, and if anyone hasn't read Jodi Picoult, I highly recommend her! A few of her books have been turned into Lifetime movies, but they didn't do them justice. My absolute favorite was The Pact. It's very emotional and I've created quite a few Jodi fans on this book alone.

Thanks again!!!
~Kristen

My mother gave me a copy of "Mrs. Mike" by Benedict and Nancy Freedman for the 13th birthday and it's been one of my absolute favorites ever since. I can't recommend it enough!

Jessi

ANOTHER GREAT TEEN BOOK/series (actually often in australia this is more fashionably called young adult, between the ages of 14 and 18....)
is the Tomorrow Series by John Marsden (author's website)


In "serious literature" (non-fanfic) I am not really a Romance-type, so do not know your authors above.....
however
from review by R Simpson


a link listing places to find the books

I read them when a teenager, but if I could get my hands on a set (for my b'day??? hmmm better ask mum!) then I would probably need a new one every year as I would read the whole series over and over until the pages fall out....

There is ACTION
ROMANCE
and o.m.g. (A hint of) Ethics

the series is written for teens, but in a way that does not patronise them at all... with highly developed emotional insights, and not always being in WAFFY scenes....

[note: I don't know if I should mention that despite being listed as an optional text for the yr10 syllabus (15-16 yr olds) in some states, at my school the books were banned from the library because of some "questionably X-rated" scenes (REMEMBER it was written for teens) but the content of the books (in my opinion) could possibly be described as similar to that found here within the n-section, but only one such scene per book. I still found them at the bookshop and learnt to skip a few pages here and there.... ]

packed full of WHAM, and bits of WAFFs thrown in here and there...... I think you guys get the message, and since I am not getting paid for this splurge, I better get back to my real work

Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Hands down. Go, read... cry your eyes out.

Best book I have read this entire year. ^_^

I recommend Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos. That was the best book I read in 2006.

Great pic JoJo - You HAVE to read The Time Traveler's Wife - I read it last summer & have recommended it to everyone I know since. It's easily my favorite book right now.

Other books to read - Have you read anything by Barbara Kingsolver? She writes differently than Jodi Picoult - but I enjoy her books, too. Start with The Bean Trees/Pigs in Heaven (I forget which one comes first) - they're great.

And in terms of crime - have you read any of the Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson? They're a bit cheesy, but quick, fun (sometimes sad, actually...) reads that are pretty interesting. I think there are 6 books now - the first 2 or 3 were my favorite, though - "1st to Die", "2nd Chance" etc.

I'm glad to see this thread - now I've got a few more books to add to my list!

Happy reading everyone!

Have you read the sequels, Laura? You really should. Very good. They're called 'New Moon' and 'Eclipse'. I think she's writing a fourth too.

As for my recommendations, I recommend Jasper Fforde and his Thursday Next series - very quirky, and highly addictive. His website is hilarious too. It goes along with the whole scenario/world that his books set up. Check it out: http://www.jasperfforde.com

The books are (in order): The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, First Among Sequels.

He's also written two in a series of nursery crime books, but you sort of need to read the third Thursday Next book in order to understand that world (by nursery crime, I mean nursery rhymes...it all becomes obvious when you read them!).

~Anna.

after rereading my own post from a couple of days ago, I think I ought to clarify the rating issues mentioned as an aside for the TOMORROW SERIES


within the series our main character (15yr old girl) looses her virginity...and if I remember from 9 or so yrs ago when I read the book the scene was written with a little detail over what happened (I do not remember much, and could not compare with any real rating for your own comparison)

this was not appreciated by the board of directors for my private catholic school (as you could imagine)

however....
the content of the scenes in question and the series as a whole are not really XXX, as you can guess because not only are they approved for marketing to an audience of 14-18 year olds,
but they are also quite often used for school-based compulsory readers in English classes,

hence you should take what I said originally about the ratings with a grain of salt, remembering that I went to a catholic school