Iceblossom

With the pace and volume of volumes, it is very hard to find the classics of tomorrow. I think you have to keep consuming. And some just depends on the genre. John Grisham is a great procedural crime novelist -- do his novels really touch greater themes? Maybe/maybe not... do they have to? Do I really need to touch upon the fundamental understanding of the universe or can I flow with the zeitgeist of the moment??

I'm generally on the side of "light entertainment" whether for books or movies or other media. Most of the time, I want the Princess Bride, not Schindler's List. I'm ok with that. I will go into things that disturb me but that is not my happy place

Modern opinions shaping our views of things, I can't read/enjoy Sir Walter Scott because of the rampant bigotry in the novels like Ivanhoe. I can read Gone with the Wind because it is a romance (and quite possibly the Great American Novel) and not history.

Some people only have one great song or story in them. Others have many. It is certainly easier to judge someone with 60 years of multiple works, than it is a Harper Lee or her childhood friend Truman Capote for being a celebrity more than an artist...

It is easier in audio to forgive writing mistakes and to just go along with the story. But the Twilight books by Stephanie Myers are still horribly written... tell a good engaging story but just badly written. There are many authors that are very popular because they do tell good stories, even if they tell them badly.

Style matters, Hemmingway can tell great stories, greatly written, but his writing style is very sharp and abrupt, is like gun fire as opposed to James Fennimore Cooper and his 113 word 26 punctuation mark sentences.

Of modern "great" authors, I think Umberto Eco deserves comment. From the success of The Name of the Rose to Focault's Pendulum, to his later works he has a great collection of work and writing.

Haven't read anything by her recently, but Possession by AS Byatt was a major read to me when it came out. LOL, not nearly as earth-shattering maybe but as big to me as discovering Ayn Rand in my teens and 20s... (which going back to Rose Lane is a connection). Not an easy read and I don't know how well I would follow in audio but gorgeously written.

Onebyone

I read at night after supper until I get sleepy. A habit I formed when in grade school. i bought Drood by Dan Simmons on a librarian's suggestion. I'll start that tonight. It's a long read, over 800 pages.

GingerK

When I was facing cataract surgery a couple of years ago, I downloaded a few free audio books from Kobo. Guess sometimes one really gets what one pays for, because both mystery authors I chose seemed to use the same boilerplate plot/story development (pretty sure a lot of it was either AI generated or plain old cut and paste LOL) I had three from each author. Anyway, what with a potentially serious complication to my surgery, I ended up needing to keep my eyes closed for 48 hours and those crappy audio books did help--when they weren't either putting me to sleep or irritating the heck out of me!! The experience definitely put me off that type of book.

However, I think I need to try again, especially for the sewing room. I also have to check out what my local library has to offer--something I have neglected lately.

And I do have a recommendation that is probably significantly different from other books you've heard. Try the Wingfield series by Canadian author Dan Needles. Eccentric small community life at its best -- and worst!!

LAF2019

Happy to follow along with another Book thread! I also am an avid audio-booker and utilize Libby as my resource. I love to read hard books too, but I feel more productive when I can combine reading with something else (quilting, cooking, gardening, etc).

In a fantasy-ish genre, I enjoyed Dreamfall by Amy Plum, I will be waiting for the sequel to find it's way to audio. And How to Summon a Fairy Godmother by Laura J Mayo was a fun/different perspective on the old Cinderella classic. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is one I've re read more than once and I've enjoyed several of his other books. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

Other fiction titles I would recommend are: The Wedding People by Alison Espach. Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q Sutano. Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris.

Non fiction is not my traditional go-to book of choice, but I did like David McCullough's The Wright Brothers and Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Not sure if those are repeats from the other thread, I don't recall where I picked up the recommendations.

I will be following along to add more books to my list!

Iceblossom

Thanks for the recent suggestions, I was down to just 2 books left on my holds list (and one isn't released for another couple of months!). I did finish the Girls in the Stilt House. I'm not giving anything away, but I had it on my list for so long that I didn't realize it was a murder mystery, I thought it was going to be a living on the bayou sort of thing... My first suggestion from this thread, The Water Keeper should be released to me in a day or two.

GingerK, the Dan Needles stories sound wonderful to me, but I don't have them available

While living in Seattle for so long, I used to watch a lot of Canadian TV and always enjoyed the yearly show Canada Reads. For Canadian authors, I've been going through Iona Whishaw's Lane Winslow books set in a small BC community after WWII. I haven't started it yet but I just got the first book by Tessa Wegert, Death in the Family set in the 1000 islands (east coast). I really enjoyed the early books by Vicki Delany, like the Constable Molly Smith books (also set in BC). She writes perfectly nice cozy mysteries now, enjoyable but I liked the heavier themes. Another just put on the list book isn't by a Canadian author, but is inspired by Anne of Green Gables, Anne of a Different Island by Virginia Kantra which looks fun but a lot more romance perhaps than my usual choices I also enjoy Kelley Armstrong's Rockton books, once I got over her descriptions of Yukon forests being much more like the coastal rain forests.. suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the cast/story. I also read some of her other series.

LAF2019 -- I have added Dreamfall to my wish list. Sounds like a good one for me! I see my library does have the 2nd book available as ebook but not as audio. I have enjoyed Neil Gaiman, but I am having troubles coming to terms with recent revelations of his personal life. Will look into the others as well.

SusieQOH

I just started Queen Esther by John Irving. Part of it takes place where The Cider House Rules was. He is getting up there in years (darn) as he is a favorite author of mine.

JanieW

Lots of good recommendations in this thread. Thanks for all the contributions.
I am currently on a Barbara Kingsolver kick. I will be sorry when I run out of her books. Right now I'm reading her Flight Behaviour and can't put it down. Her writing is so descriptive that I feel like I'm in the location she writes about.

oreo1912

I know you have read CJ Box. Have you read the Anna Pigeon series by Nevada Barr there are 17 of those. She is a park ranger in Arcadia National Park. Or perhaps Paul Dorian his series with Mike Bowitch who is a game warden in Maine there are prob 20 of those.

Iceblossom

Mawmaw, I just finished The Water Keeper. I'm on a trip to visit a friend with a 3 hour flight between us so got a lot of solid listening time. There was a lot of background and a little difficult to keep straight, but I am anxiously waiting for the next book!

JanieW, Barbara Kingsolver is great! Her non-fiction book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is about being a localvore which is part of what my husband and I do and why part of our move was about being closer to our food sources. (Although I didn't find her book until after my move -- it was discussing Demon Copperhead in the last thread that led me to it.)

Oreo, you are correct that I am a big CJ Box fan, also Paul Doiron and sadly I am current on both authors. But Nevada Barr is new to me and I have the first Anna Pigeon on hold probably be ready by the time I am home again.

toogie

I haven’t seen the first post about books, but I have read all the comments on this thread. There are a few suggestions I will see if my library has.
I just finished The Women by Kristin Hannah. I really was right there, with all the ups and downs, that my emotions were exhausted. My sister was a nurse and I told her to read it, but it was stressful-she said that’s all she needed, more stress in her life!-lol
I also just read The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. I read two others last week. You Don’t Own Me by Mary Higgins Clark and I think the other was Killer Cupid or Cupid Killer. The librarian chose them for me and hubby picked them up. I like the actual books and since I can’t do much right now, I read. I have read The Girls in the Stilt House before.