Multiple Pleasures
Posted by Gail | Filed under Gail Pleasures
If you love to read then you love it when you find an author with a big backlist: plenty of books to search out and devour. Sometimes I can’t stop reading until I’ve devoured everything he or she has written. Sometimes I space out my reading so that I have something I know I can count on because the author, the story, the repeating main character is that intriguing. Here are some I’ve enjoyed:
The Chalk Girl is by New York Times best-selling author Carol O’Connell who has won a wide fan base with her popular novels starring NYPD detective Kathy Mallory. In The Chalk Girl, a little girl is abandoned in Central Park—with her uncle’s body in a tree not far away. I love the bizarrely broken character, Kathy Mallory, and all the people who love her despite her many flaws.
In Judas Child, Carol Oconnell weaves a story full of rich prose, resonant characters, and knife-edged suspense. Just days before Christmas two young girls disappear from a local school. 15 years, exactly the same thing happened when Rouge Kendall’s twin sister was murdered. The killer was found, but Rouge now a policeman wonders: was he really the one? A former classmate named Ali Cray, a forensic psychologist with scars of her own says the pattern is the same: a child called out to meet a friend. The friend is the bait, the Judas child, and is quickly killed. But the primary victim lives longer. . .until Christmas day.
Sacre Bleu I’ve read everything Christopher Moore has written. In this novel Moore takes on the Great French Masters. This magnificent “Comedy d’Art” is part mystery, part history (sort of), part love story, and wholly hilarious It follows a young baker-painter as he joins the dapper Henri Toulouse-Lautrec on a quest to unravel the mystery behind the supposed “suicide” of Vincent van Gogh.
Lamb was the first book I ready by Christopher Moore and I was hooked. No one knows about the early life of the Jesus, the missing years — except Biff, the Messiahs best bud, who tells the story. If you can look past it’s irreverence, you’ll find this story surprisingly thoughtful.
Lisey’s Story by Stephen King. Everyone knows who Stephen King is. I started reading him as a teenager and I’m still reading him. He may be the most prolific writer ev-ah. If you’re a fan and you missed this novel, go and find it. If you’ve never read a Stephen King novel, I think it’s Stephen King’s best book. Certainly it is an extremely powerful story full of madness and love. Lisey Debusher Landon lost her husband, Scott, an award-winning novelist, and a very complicated man. Now Lisey’s must face Scott’s demons as her attempt to sort through the her husband’s papers becomes a journey into the darkness he inhabited.
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig is, like most of Doig’s books, set in rural Montana, which is where Doig is from. “Can’t cook but doesn’t bite.” So begins the newspaper ad offering the services Rose Llewellyn an “A-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition” The ad grabs the attention of widower Oliver Milliron. And so begins the unforgettable season where ever-whistling Rose and her font-of-knowledge brother, Morris, educate Oliver, his three sons, and the rambunctious students in the region’s one-room schoolhouse. If you fall in love with Ivan Doig you’ll be thrilled to learn that there are plenty more where this came from.
March 13, 2013 at 9:00 am
I am addicted to reading, it is a fun and frugal pastime as I get all my books from the library. When I travel I pay for downloads in my iPad but the 20 + I read a month are all loaned.
March 13, 2013 at 9:31 am
I love reading! Thanks for the ideas. I missed that novel of Stephen King’s so I’m going to find it at our local library!
March 13, 2013 at 9:53 am
Thanks for the reccomendations! I loved Lamb-I laughed my head off throughout this book. The other things I’ve read by Moore haven’t been quite as enjoyable yet, but I haven’t gotten to Sacre Bleu yet-will put it on hold at the library post haste! Doig sounds intriguing too. I know what you mean about the joy of finding a new to you author with a long list of books to be read-such fun!
March 13, 2013 at 11:10 am
For those that love to read, if you haven’t already, consider joining a book club. It’s a great – and inexpensive – way to read a new book every month, meet new people, and have an inexpensive night out once a month.
I’ve been introduced to so many wonderful people and books over the time I’ve been part of a book club or two.
March 13, 2013 at 1:15 pm
My favourite C. Moore book is ‘A Dirty Job’
The beginning chapter made me laugh hysterically.
March 13, 2013 at 1:40 pm
I absolutely love finding a new series that has a huge backlist
Especially one where the author is still writing, although sometimes it is a challenge to find all the books still in print or at libraries.
I recently plowed through all of Kerry Greenwood’s Phyrne Fisher mystery series set in 1920’s Australia (that has been made into a TV series now) and even drove to three different library systems (not counting the one I work in) to get all the books! The nineteenth book just came out and I’ve already read it too. The books are a bit racy as Miss Fisher is not your typical Lady; she has a Chinese lover, flies planes, owns a pearl handled pistol she knows how to use and has a unique collection of friends and servants, many of whom she has rescued from horrible situations. The TV show is a much tamer version but still well worth watching.
I’ve recently discovered a similar mystery series set in England, in the same time period, by Carola Dunn with Daisy Dalrymple as the main character. Anyone watching Downton Abbey may enjoy these light mysteries where murder and mayhem strike English manors and small villages alike. Like Phyrne, Daisy is an Honourable but has come down in the world due to the war and flu epidemic that took her father and brother. Determined to work for her living, she becomes a reporter for Town & Country magazine but somehow she keeps falling over bodies. Daisy meets and eventually marries a Detective Inspector of Scotland Yard whose superiors shudder when they find out she is involved in a new case.
I’m finding it really interesting to learn about the time period between the World Wars and how the generation of men and women scarred by war are dealing with a return to a very different life from the one they left. Phyrne drove ambulances in France during the war and Daisy worked in a hospital and lost both her brother and her fiance. Their experiences helped show them women could be strong and independent.
March 13, 2013 at 3:08 pm
Thanks for the suggestions to add to my reading list!
I too love Stephen King. My favorites are Bag of Bones and the whole Dark Tower series.
March 13, 2013 at 5:00 pm
I also love writers you can count on, no matter what the genre they choose. Some authors I have enjoyed over the years have included Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Jean Auel, Ken Follett, and recently my daughter has got me started on George R. Martin (Game of Thrones). Howeiver, I would have to say my favourite author is Diana Gabaldon and her Outlander series which weaves historical fiction with time travel.
March 13, 2013 at 6:43 pm
Love reading, wish my eyes could read more, liked to try books on tape but wow the prices, keep my faves the ones I’ll read 5 times and share the rest.
March 13, 2013 at 8:07 pm
Tammy – get a library membership! You can get audio books through the library too (at least you can here in Alberta)!
I’m a huge reader and love a good series. The Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) and Game of Thrones (George R. Martin) are two fantastic series. I also really enjoyed The Hungar Games (Suzanne Collins) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larson).
March 13, 2013 at 11:30 pm
Elizabeth and Kelly-yes! Diana G, a wonderful read every time! I read in multiple languages and would highly recommend Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Pablo Neruda (both of whom, of course, have been translated multiple times into English).
Give me PD James, lots! and the Brother Cadfael series (whose author I cannot recall). Patricia Cornwall. Oh my, I am always surrounded by books, and like my mother, have more than a girlie can read in this lifetime. Thankfully I get many of them from the thrift store, where a paperback costs .50. Hooray!
Nothing better than a warm spring morning, my coffee, my kittie, and my book-all on the patio enjoying the sun.
March 14, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Also most libraries have a Large Print section as well as audio books.
Also you can borrow books on your ereader which allows you to change your font size
March 16, 2013 at 9:06 pm
I wonder what to do with fiction books after I finished it. Do you keep them?
March 17, 2013 at 5:52 pm
Christopher Moore is one of my favorites, and LAMB is definitely the best of his collection. If you read on the bus though, beware you may get some odd looks for bursting out laughing from this one.
One of my other favorite authors is Guy Gavriel Kay, a Canadian fantasy author. Check out The Fionavar Tapestry (a 3 book set) or Tigana.
March 20, 2013 at 6:04 pm
Gail, If you want an obscure and fascinating read, I suggest anything by K. Bannerman. She has a lot of online short stories that are deliciously deep and dark, but my favourites are her novels (Bucket of Blood is well worth looking for!).