Summer reading??

[Xarata]

my husband and i are mosty into fantasy and he's been shoving his books at me since i met him. If I buy a series and realize he'll like it, he's sucked in. Naturally, most of them take place in that mystical time where elves and dwarves and such walked the earth.

I LOVE R.A. Salvatore's dark elf series (which is compiled of several different series featuring the same characters). However, if you pick one up in a book store and decide you're interested, ask someone to put them in chronological order for you (the order they were written in is not the chronological order of the story itself- my husband put them in order for me when i read them, but i imagine some things would be very confusing otherwise)

The most interesting things he's shoved at me lately were the mistborn trilogy (people who can digest/burn metals for special abilities) and In the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (knowing the "true name" of things gives you power to manipulate those things. I really got sucked in only to find that it is NOT a stand alone book and the next one doesn't get published until next year)

When I buy for myself, i tend to go for more teen reads that i can power through in a few hours- L.J. Smith is really good for these and has recently started re-publishing and expanding on the series of series that she published in the 80s and 90s (when i read them- she stopped a few books shy of the end of a series when her child got cancer and has recently started rebuilding her reputation on the teen fantasy shelves- her series "Vampire Diaries" has been turned into a TV show- i don't recommend the show, but the books were good). The Night World series is good in that all the books CAN stand alone, but do relate- it's mostly a teen vampire romance series (though being the night WORLD also includes witches, werewolves, shapeshifters, etc). I own everything she's ever written and they were purchased in the 90s so don't let the new cover art fool you. She's only published 1-2 NEW books in the past 5 years.

i pretty much only read fiction of the magic-bound variety, but i see you've got a list going of the other types so you're sure to be set!

[ChristineLynnP]

I love people who read, I really do. It makes me happy. Reading is my biggest passion in life, even more so than MMU I even have a Sony Reader and it's my most prized "material possession," but ebooks are just so darned expensive, I can usually find ol'-fashioned paper books for cheaper! I think the saddest thing I ever heard was when Eric and I were at the mall and the bookstore was having a going-out-of-business sale, so of course we went in and got two bagfuls of books, so I lingered behind while he went out to put the bags in the car, and two late-teens/early 20-somethings, a male and female couple, walked by, rolled their eyes and laughed at the book store going under, and said "Who really reads anymore anyway?" I can't imagine NOT reading, I remember even before I knew how to read I'd sit flipping through my Little Golden Books for hours at a time, determined to learn to read ASAP so I didn't need to ask my parents or grandmother to read to me all the time.

So anyway, /end tangent now I guess.

I second Wicked, and even Son of A Witch, the sequel. A Lion Among Men is the third in the Wicked Years, but I wasn't able to get through it yet. I guess I wasn't in the right mindset to read it, but will eventually go back to it. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Mirror, Mirror by the same author, Gregory Maguire, are really good too.

I see that you like Patricia Cornwell. I'm a huge fan of her older stuff, but have been sorely disappointed by all the books from Predator forward, so I finally found an author I can compare to Cornwell's early awesomeness- Karin Slaughter. I absolutely love her! She can my gruesome though, but then, so can Cornwell, so I guess you'll be prepared for that! I still have to get a pic of my ferrets "reading" a book by her to enter a contest to try to win a signed copy of her newest release Along the same lines, I also enjoy Tami Hoag and Tess Geritsen (both used to be romance authors, those type of books aren't my cup of tea at all, but I just wanted to throw that out there so you know not to accidentally by their older romance books unless that's what you like), and J A Jance. Mary Higgins Clark and Mary Jane Clark are pretty good too for lighter, "fluff-reading" suspense books. I also like Nora Roberts' In Death series, written under the pen name JD Robb.

If you like fantasy/adventure books, I also recommend the Rhys Chronicles by Tracey Falbe. It's a little-known series we found online in ebook. Eric and I have both read it, he on his phone and me on my reader, and it's a really well-written series that leaves you wishing for me. It's a 4-book series and I'm not sure if it's available in paper or not, but I really think you'll enjoy it if you enjoy fantasy/adventure.

Right now I'm reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steigg Larsson. So far I would say that it's the best crime thriller that I've read in a long time, if not ever. It's on my list of all-time favorite books if it keeps up this strong the whole way through, and I recommend it to anyone. It's so sad to me that he never lived to see his books published (also The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest) and enjoy the wild success they've had.

On my "read eventually list" are also The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker, The Secret Of Rain And Lightning by Nancy Pickard, and the Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson series. I don't know if they're good or not, but they definitely sound intriguing to me.

[extemter]

Since you like David Sedaris, I'm going out on a limb and guessing you enjoy autobiographical, self-deprecating, and sometimes twisted humor. If so, check out Sh*t My Dad Says and Augusten Burroughs. I recommend starting with Running with Scissors.

[zeebs]

if you haven't read "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," or "The Great Shark Hunt"... Hunter S. Thompson is one of my faves... "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" is IMO one of the funnest things ever written. Yes, I am aware that 'funnest' is not a real word.

[Colleen]

My husband bought me a nook for Mother's day so I have been reading mostly free books on it lately. You can get older classics and such for free. I am reading Journey to the Center of the Earth right now. I have never read it before. It is very good. I guess that is why it's a classic.

[Die Marchen]

It was very interesting to read the suggestions and it is sooo nice that people read and love to!
But now I wonder - Karen, what did you read and did you enjoy it?
And you, ladies, what did you choose and how did you like it?)))

As for me - after my own advice to Karen to re-read Jane Austen I did it myself. Pride and Prejudice is gorgeous! And I liked the effect when discussing smth with my husband I said 'I have no pleasure of understanding you'. First he was astonished like many of the Bennets and mr. Darcy and even lady Catherine de Bourgh used to be. Then there was so much laughing)))

[stagemama]

Hi,
Karen thought I needed a Kindle so she bought me one. I really didn't want one, but now I love it! It helped that Karen loaded lots of books to it for me, one being "Sh*t My Dad Says"..... I laughed so hard, it's one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. I wondered why she didn't have the idea first.
I've also been reading the Sweet Potato Queens books. Those too are a stitch.
Some of the more serious books I've enjoyed are.. "The Help"..."The Kitchen House"..."Water for Elephants"... and "Driving in the Rain".

Why I like Kindle..... It fits in a small purse, it goes right back to the page I'm on, I don't have a bunch of books to recycle,and I have a whole library of good books to read.
As a side note, I'm not good at library book return so going to the library is out of the question.
Happy reading!
Linda, Karen's mama

[ChristineLynnP]

I just started reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, so I should be set with books now for about a year. For some reason epic fantasy series takes me so much longer to read than my normal mystery/suspense/thriller books do. I'm hoping that by the time I'm done, the new Android-based Sony Reader will be available. I can't wait to buy that bad boy and throw new e-books on it

Hi,
Karen thought I needed a Kindle so she bought me one. I really didn't want one, but now I love it! It helped that Karen loaded lots of books to it for me, one being "Sh*t My Dad Says"..... I laughed so hard, it's one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. I wondered why she didn't have the idea first.
I've also been reading the Sweet Potato Queens books. Those too are a stitch.
Some of the more serious books I've enjoyed are.. "The Help"..."The Kitchen House"..."Water for Elephants"... and "Driving in the Rain".

Why I like Kindle..... It fits in a small purse, it goes right back to the page I'm on, I don't have a bunch of books to recycle,and I have a whole library of good books to read.
As a side note, I'm not good at library book return so going to the library is out of the question.
Happy reading!
Linda, Karen's mama

I feel the same way about my Sony Reader. I LOVE it, but my big complaint is that ebooks tend to cost even more than paper books, so when money got bad I was forced to go back to paper (like you, libraries don't work for me, also there's the fact that even if I did use the library, I need to own every book I like in the end anyway, so it doesn't benefit me any). It's pretty sad when a new-release hardcover is on sale for $12.00 yet an e-book version costs $14.99... some backwards logic there

[karen]

I feel the same way about my Sony Reader. I LOVE it, but my big complaint is that ebooks tend to cost even more than paper books, so when money got bad I was forced to go back to paper (like you, libraries don't work for me, also there's the fact that even if I did use the library, I need to own every book I like in the end anyway, so it doesn't benefit me any). It's pretty sad when a new-release hardcover is on sale for $12.00 yet an e-book version costs $14.99... some backwards logic there

I don't understand that either...I have Amazon prime, so I do end up going to paper to save money on some things. You'd think that selling air is cheaper than printing, but I guess they haven't caught on. For some things a real book is still kind of the ultimate interface- it's just lot easier to go back and look things up if you have the book right there. I've been downloading a lot of the freebie books as well. I really like http://manybooks.net they have the classics in a lot of different formats including Nook, Kindle, and Sony Reader.

I ended up reading the Stieg Larsson series- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl that Kicked the Hornet's Nest, and The Girl Who Played with Fire. Amazon kept suggesting them, and I got hooked. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is available as a movie on Netflix streaming, and it's a great companion to the novel. They were really great page turners, so much so that I read them all in the span of a week. Lamb by Christopher Moore was one of the funniest books I've read in a while- I'm guessing it would upset some folks, but strictly as a work of fiction it was hilarious, and fascinating. Nip, Tuck Dead was funny, and a nice mystery. I do need to dive back into Pride and Prejudice- I started it, but got sidetracked with a lot of non fiction again (I read a lot of business type books). It amazes me how much the English language has changed in the past hundred years, and I do like reading the classics. I think next up might be To Kill a Mockingbird. Somehow I missed reading that in high school- and I've always felt like I was missing something by not having read it.

It is fun to be among readers! It's incredible how many great recommendations there are for books- it feels like I'll never get through them all, but I'm having a fun time trying. Thank you to everyone who suggested books- they made vacation really great!

[Die Marchen]

Ladies, have you tried iPad?
I feel it the most comfortable gadget I ever owned. You can't do programming&desigh on it, but I do not do it on my notebook either. As for other functions it goes great and it is a great reader too. You can turn pages with your fingers, it remembers where you stopped, and a very important thing for me: when I an unknown word I simply touch it and I get a dictionary article about it!
You can keep your books in it and it looks like book shelves)))