Book Recommendations Wanted!
 

Sadly I am still troubled by chronic insomnia and once again I come asking for book suggestions as I typically go through about 3 per week. I have vision issues and so listen to audio books, it is amazing how many books are now released on audio at the same time as hardcover as opposed to 20 years ago. Recently I was looking at quilting themed t-shirts and there was one something about "if I could only find a way to combine reading and quilting my life would be perfect" -- well audio books do that!

I find new books/authors in many ways but I really like quilter recommendations. I don't mind short stories but want longer reads than snippets like "Chicken Soup for the xx". I am willing to explore pretty much all genres but do a lot of "action" like Clive Cussler or Lee Child/Jack Reacher and legal/cop/courtroom like Michael Connolly. I dabble in some horror, some biographies and non-fiction, find prolonged "adult content" to be rather icky in audible format. I also like strong female/feminist stories (more than non-fiction). There are cozy mysteries I enjoy, sewing/quilting themed, on and on but new books or missed old favorites are out there too :)

In the last couple of years I'm current with CJ Box and Game Warden Joe Pickett. Just this last year I found William Kent Kruger and (former sheriff) Cork O'Connor, almost done with the available books there. I stopped reading Alex Delaware novels when my eyes went bad and am going back to those... talk about prolific authors Johnathon Kellerman along with wife/partner Faye is one of those so I have 10-20 unread ones in the series :)

In no particular order, some of the books I've found recently that made impressions on me were:

The Physicists Daughter by Mary Anna Evans,I also like her Kaye Longchamp series
Chronicles of St Mary's (series) by Jodi Taylor -- time traveling historians
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet -- series by Becky Chambers, also Monk + Robot series
When Women were Dragons, Kelly Barnhill
Gilded Age, Sara Donati -- I really liked her wilderness series, this is a different set of stories
Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnine Garmus

So what's made an impression on you??

A few newer books, to me, I read I really enjoyed.

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield,

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Bees: A Novel by Laline Paull

Thanks Onebyone! I'm just about to go out and meet some quilters but stopped here online first.

I did read Jonathan Strange, which I didn't find as satisfying as I had hoped from reviews and lists but was ok.

I just borrowed The Bees to be my next book, which is read by Orlagh Cassidy who I really like from Jacqueline Winspear (and other) books. BTW, I did rather like The White Lady which is a non-Maisie Dobbs Winspear book.

I also put The Thirteenth Tale on my wish list/bookmarks page -- you seem to have a grasp on the type of books I'm hoping to find :)

I go to the thrift store almost every week on half off day I get books for 13Cents each I usually buy 10 at a time I buy almost anything one of the girls calls them fluff! I have only found one or two that were not very good. I read almost every day in the summer at least one a day.

I like Child and Preston thriller series. The ones they write together are exciting to read and keep you guessing. If you like The Bees then read an older book, The Beast by Peter Benchley. I don't care for romance novel but do like historical fiction. when I start a good book, all I do is read until I'm finished. I can't listen to audio books, I tend to start thinking and have no idea what was said for several chapters. I have to search to find what I last remembered and star over.

You might like Kyla Stone books one leads into another It starts with /edge of Collapse. I think there are 12 or 14

For a while I was reading lots of series set in the outdoors - Alaska, national parks, etc. I think this was mostly during the height of the pandemic, which makes sense since I wasn't going anywhere.

Dana Stabenow with the Kate Shugak or Liam Campbell series
Sue Henry with the Jessie Arnold series
Nevada Barr's series featuring Anna Pigeon
James Doss series with Charlie Moon

I also read Lisa Jackson, Wendy Corsi Staub, Karin Slaughter, Harlan Coben, ... mostly mysteries/thrillers.

Some great recommendations for me! Audio books are not for everyone. they take longer for me to listen to than my reading speed, narrators and/or narration style can give you another reason to like or dislike books, and I've really grown to dislike "long silly name" fantasy books. As a long time reader of fantasy books, I find a lot of them just don't do so well when narrated and I don't appreciate 50 pages of the planet's history and social organization full of names that don't really have anything to do with the story once they get to it. Having said that, I do still listen to long fantasy books and series. If only George RR Martin would actually finish the Game of Thrones...

I do read a lot of the Nordic authors, I do have an upcoming Jo Nesbo book on hold (pre-release) but I haven't finished the Harry Hole books, probably haven't finished the Wallender books by Mankell either. I think the new author for "The Girl with" books is fine (original author passed) and read them as they come out. I think I'm confused between Camilla Lackberg and Sara Blaedel -- one set of characters/author I really like and haven't been as happy with the other.

Preston/Child books both as individual authors and together with Special Agent Pendergast are a big favorite. I am current on Pendergast and have Preston's newest non-fiction book The Lost Tomb on hold as pre-release.

As sort of a combination of Pendergast and Jack Reacher, I like Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger books. But with more of a Stephen King style, I really recommend his Pine Deep Trilogy.

Sadly my library doesn't have much Kyla Stone :( I can look on Audible to see if they have more options for me.

I do like the Dana Stabenow books, sadly I am current with them. Along with Joe Pickett and Cork O'Connor I also like Paul Doiron's Mike Bowditch books, about a game warden in Maine. For another "outdoor" series, I rather like Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series. Have some quibbles about the landscape which sounds a lot more like the rain forests of British Columbia than the forests of the Yukon, but once I get past that I'm generally favorable and I've started reading her other books.

The Longmire series from Craig Johnson!! This is the series that they created the tv show from. There are 19 books, so plenty to keep you entertained for a while. And the narrator, George Guidall, has a WONDERFUL voice.

This is the description of the first book in the series:

"New York Times best-selling author Craig Johnson introduces Sheriff Walt Longmire of Wyoming's Absaroka County. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, full of memorable characters. After 25 years as sheriff of Absaroka County, Walt Longmire's hopes of finishing out his tenure in peace are dashed when Cody Pritchard is found dead near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Two years earlier, Cody has been one of four high school boys given suspended sentences for raping a local Cheyenne girl. Somebody, it would seem, is seeking vengeance, and Longmire might be the only thing standing between the three remaining boys and a Sharps .45-70 rifle. With lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Moretti, and a cast of characters both tragic and humorous enough to fill in the vast emptiness of the high plains, Walt Longmire attempts to see that revenge, a dish best served cold, is never served at all."