I spend a half-hour on a BART train going to and from work every day, so I get a lot of reading done. I also love to listen to books while I knit or quilt.
Left to my own devices, I tend to find an author and then work my way through their entire collection [I'm fortunate enough to have five different library systems within easy access]. My book group reads a much wider range, so I do get some variety.
(* = the books with the best "readers"; # = a special favorite author)
My favorite mystery/detective authors are PD James#, Elizabeth George#, JD Robb*, Donna Leon*, Janet Evanovich, Nevada Barr, Martha Grimes (except the last few), Jeffery Deaver, Dick Francis, etc., etc.
I love anything by Alexander McCall Smith*#. [The woman who reads the "No. 1 Detective Agency" series is especially wonderful!]
Other recent and/or favorite books have included:
-- Any of several by Jodi Picoult, Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver
-- "A Prayer for Owen Meany"## and "The World According to Garp"# by John Irving
-- "The Time Traveler's Wife"# by Audrey Niffenegger
-- "Small Island"# by Andrea Levy
-- "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Stout
-- "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
-- "Everything Is Illuminated"# by Jonathan Safran Foer [watch the movie first and then read it, so you can hear their voices in your head]
-- "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"# by Jonathan Safran Foer
-- "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks
-- "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austin [so much better when read as an adult!] Extra treat: Read it in conjunction with Pamela Aidan's "Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" series to get both sides of the story.
-- "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows#
-- Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series
-- the "Eregon" series by Christopher Paolini
-- "And the Ladies of the Club" by Helen Hooven Santmyer#
-- "The Green Mile" by Stephen King [I actually like most of his stories. Just don't listen to one while taking a road trip -- you'll never stop!]
-- "The Lord of the Rings" by JRR Tolkein [I re-read this every decade or so, just to remind myself how good it is.]
I also love a good science fiction story (with the emphasis on "story"). Some of my favorites are David Brinn's "Uplift War" series, James White's "Sector General" series, Ursula LeGuin, Margaret Atwood, Theodore Sturgeon, etc.
And I'm a sucker for a good kid's book -- Lemony Snickett and his orphans, the Narnia series, the Borrowers, etc. etc.
There just aren't enough hours in the day to read all the books I want to read, to make all the quilts I want to make (or have fabric for!), or to knit all the things I want to knit.... I'll just have to live longer, I guess! :lol: