Iceblossom

Peckish -- I'll have to give Travis McGee a listen. I like the way you describe the series. When the books were big I wasn't reading much in the adventure thriller?? sort of thing but I'm really enjoying those sorts of books now.

Rilene -- good suggestion! I did listen to Tom Hanks narrate The Dutch House and enjoyed that and didn't find his distinctive voice distracting. Should be really good with his own works.

Carol In Wi -- another good call, I have a strange relationship with the Andy Carpenter books, because I enjoy the stories but don't really like Andy... The author has another related and still with dogs series, the K Team. Still set in the "universe" or at least the same town but with mostly different characters.

Kalama -- I had forgotten about Patrick McManus. I have, however, put one of his books on my wish list.

As for books I don't like, I have decided that life is hard enough without forcing myself to spend time with books or people I don't like. I used to make myself finish everything -- the one exception I can think of was Titus Groan/the Gormenghast series. Which was something you'd think I'd like but I don't think I ever got past 100 pages in the first book even though I bought the 3-book collection, that was back in college so 40 some years ago but I still remember because I didn't finish..

Audio books take much more time than my old reading speed. I used to give myself one disk/hour. Now if I'm not enjoying the book or the characters (or the narrator) I give up any time after 15 minutes. There is a whole genre apparently since Gone Girl with "unreliable narrators" and no characters that I can like, particularly by British authors.

My latest book was non-fiction, The Invention of Prehistory. It was an interesting set of thoughts, not a whole lot on prehistory... We are driving up to visit the MiL and will finish The Golden Spoon on the way there, with four hours left just about the perfect amount left for the drive. I have the latest Elm Creek book off hold, and The Ministry of Time by Kailene Bradley. Not part of the Chronicles of St Mary (which I enjoy/ed quite a bit) about time traveling historians but sounds like a good match for me.

LogCabin82

If you like Science Fiction books, I recommend The Murderbot Diaries. It's a bout a SecUnit Robot that disabled his governor module and now he is a rogue robot. These are relatively short books so far, I'm almost done with book two, but they're fun.

aashley333

I am currently enjoying Ken Follett's newest book,
The Armor of Light: A Novel (Kingsbridge Book 5).
Read Pillars of the Earth; it grabs you from the first page!

beckyboo1

For anyone who loved Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books, his son is writing books under the name James J Butcher. I'm reading the first one now called Dead Man's Hand. I'm about 1/3 of the way through and so far, it's pretty good

Iceblossom

I'm currently having quite a bit of vision issues and am waiting for my eye appointment on July 5. Had to spend a week sans contacts and did more listening than usual...

Beckyboo -- Good timing on the James Butcher books (I love Jim's Dresden Files). The 2nd book (Long Past Due) was released late 2023? I have it on hold and it should be mine any day now. The third book is coming out in Spring 2025 from what I've found.

LogCabin -- I put the first Murderbot book on hold. Hasn't come up yet. For what I think is a kinder and gentler robot, I like Becky Chamber's Monk and Robot series. Again relatively short books and only 3 of them.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/97812...orthewildbuilt

The Women by Kristen Hannah just came off hold and will be my next book. I think Southern Man, the latest Penn Cage book by Greg Iles will be the next book off hold.

I just finished 2 of the non-Cork O'Connor books by William Kent Krueger, This Tender Land and The River we Remember. Of the two, I rather more enjoyed This Tender Land which is sort of a retellling of Huckleberry Finn and The Odyssey set in the Great Depression. People who like Leif Enger would appreciate it as well. If you don't know Cork but you like Longmire (Craig Johnson), or Joe Pickett (CJ Box), or Mike Bowditch (Mike Doiron) you might enjoy Cork.
https://williamkentkrueger.com/cork-oconnor-series/

In my rediscovering (recent) Stephen King, I rather liked Fairy Tale which was published in 2022. It was reminiscent of The Talisman in some ways.

I also enjoyed the latest Jennifer Chiaverini Elm Creek Quilters book, The Museum of Lost Quilts. It is sort of a reboot of the series which had been planned to end with the Wedding Quilt.

Iceblossom

Well -- I just finished The Women by Kristen Hannah. Very well told story, but it was hard on me as I thought it would. My career military father was in Viet Nam for his second tour in 1967. His cousin, who I referred to as my Aunt was an Air Force nurse there, but I think she was a bit later starting in about 1968. They both came home again. Sadly only a few years later my father was attending the War College in Carlisle, PA and died in a car accident while not wearing a seat belt. Best guess from the scene was that he braked sharply on a rural road, maybe to avoid a deer?? She just passed last year.

Anyway... hard subject, hard memories. I generally avoid war movies/stories. I am semi-ready to take on an adult understanding of what I lived as a child some 50+ years later.

Southern Man by Greg Iles came off hold and is my next book as I had guessed... yikes! something like 43 hours!!! After the emotional impact of The Women, it might be a bit too much for me.

Mkotch

I liked the Museum of Lost Quilts (Chiaverini), too, as a check-in with old favorite characters. The story was a bit meh but that's OK. I do like reading series and just finished Susan Elia MacNeal's last Maggie Hope book. It was OK but didn't really get going until the last half. Now I am about to start the last Maisie Dobbs book.

WMUTeach

Ditto on the "Museum of Lost Quilts". It was so nice to spend time with "old friends" and to catch up. A lovely effort to tie content from previous books to a current or should I say more current situation. I heard tell the Jennifer Chiaverini will be doing more Elm Creek books because of the many requests by her reading public.

A book I highly recommend is "The Naturalist" by Darrin Lunde (The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History - Full title.) This is NOT focused on Roosevelt's presidency. Rather it is about how it came to be that he was so interested in the study of natural history that resulting in his passion for the land, it's animals and preservation of large swaths of our country as national parks.

Iceblossom

Mkotch -- The Comfort of Ghosts (aka, the latest and last Maisie Dobbs book) just came off hold too! I decided to listen to it with the reasonable 10ish hours first before starting Southern Man with its 45 hours.

SusieQOH

Iceblossom, I passed on The Women because of all the violence I read in the reviews. I'm not crazy about that author anyway.
I just read an incredible true story called The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen. It's beautifully written and extremely sad but I loved it.
Currently listening to Fairy Tale. I just love Stephen King. I'm not a writer by any means but his book entitled On Writing was fascinating.

I'm also reading a book called Calm Your Mind with Food. Very interesting. The woman is a nutritional Psychiatrist! Never heard of that one.