Week Three Prompt

1. I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next!

Circus of the Damned is what you just finished? Great!  We’re looking for The Lunatic Café next.

2. What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.

Can I recommend Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens?  It has a lot of emphasis on the south and scenery, but a fun storyline that keeps evolving.  The voice is very authentic. 

3. I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern – historical. I like it when the author describes it so much it feels like I was there!

I haven’t read a novel set in Japan, personally, but Shogun: A Novel of Japan by James Clavell is well-reviewed.  An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro is another title set in Japan, just after WWII.

4. I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?

Well, first off, the book you loved is part of a series, so you could certainly stay with those characters and continue to read within that series.  Other mystery authors that you might enjoy are P.D. James or Mary Higgins Clark. I also recently read Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle and it had me guessing til the end.

5. My husband has really gotten into zombies lately. He’s already read The Walking Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend?

There is a Zombie Fallout series by Mark Tufo that is highly rated by readers and has a number of titles that he might enjoy.  There’s also a trilogy by Mira Grant called Newsflesh that sounds like something he might enjoy.

6. I love books that get turned into movies, especially literary ones. Can you recommend some? Nothing too old, maybe just those from the last 5 years or so.

Emma is coming back to the big screen this year and the Jane Austen classic is sure to check the literary box, but the book isn’t recent.

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn is a newer title that is coming out in theaters this year too. Five Feet Apart, The Sun is Also a Star, and Little Women are three movies from last year that are based on books, the last of which is also considered a literary classic.

7. I love thrillers but I hate foul language and sex scenes. I want something clean and fast paced.

Mary Higgins Clark is a clean author whose books have short chapters, making them fast reads and a romance element, but nothing graphic.  Colleen Coble also has several great thrillers, but her novels will often have a faith element in them, if you’re okay with that.  Dan Brown and Daphne DuMaurier are also great authors to try out.

My method to finding what to read is not at all special.  I have a GoodReads account, but I don’t log in often.  I primarily select books to read through the purchasing that I do at work.  I read the book catalogs from Doubleday to do my ordering and often select new authors to try from that.  I also pay a lot of attention to what books I see people reading when they’re on vacation or in an airplane.  Popular authors, materials that patrons bring back and rave about, Amazon’s best sellers.