Summer Reading—What’s on Your List?

blog46 Most writers are avid readers, even when we can’t find enough time to do the reading we’d like to.  Since it’s a hot and summery Saturday (here in North Carolina, anyway), it seems like a great time to exchange book lists.  I, for one, can definitely use some new reading material.  Currently I’m enjoying Lisa Miscione’s Smoke. Right now it’s a missing person’s case, but I’ve got a feeling a body will be popping up on the scene soon.

Stephen King gave his summer reading recommendations recently to Entertainment Weekly.  There were a couple of surprises: King reads Jodi Picoult and Charles Dickens. Who’d have guessed? I like Picoult myself, but guess her new book must be more on the thriller end of things than her usual.  Dickens I’ve admired for years, but I don’t usually wade through his novels during my all-too-brief summers (there was a period of time—can we say Bleak House?—where Dickens was being paid by the word.  He must have been trying to send someone to college at the time.)

My list here will be pitifully short (this is why I need help pulling a longer list together.) Right now I’ve got Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (because I didn’t get around to reading it last year) and the follow up The Girl Who Played with Fire (Coming out July 28.)  I also want to read M.C. Beaton’s next in the Agatha Raisin series, A Spoonful of Poison. P.D. James has Original Sin coming out on July 14, so I want to catch that, of course. My beach read will probably be Dorothea Benton Franks’s Return to Sullivan’s Island.

Any good recommendations—for any genre?

Elizabeth Spann Craig

View posts by Elizabeth Spann Craig
Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series (as Riley Adams) and the Southern Quilting mysteries for Penguin and writes the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently. She also has a blog, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers. There she posts on the writing craft, finding inspiration in everyday life, and fitting writing into a busy schedule.

9 Comments

  1. Galen KindleyMay 16, 2009

    Of course, I have a book recommendation by a great author
    you’ll just love. Even better, since the book is being republished, but not yet out, you can by the old publisher version at Amazon for like, 2 bucks! Does it get any better than great reading, for virtually nothing???

    So, the author is a really talented guy, Galen Kindley. His book: Hearts of the Morning Calm. I’d give it, oh…10, No, 20 stars. (Grin)

    Best Regards,
    Beauregard Rippy.
    The Tupelo Mississippi flash.

  2. Karen WalkerMay 16, 2009

    Galen presents an interesting point. Wouldn’t it be “supportive” of our classmates to buy each others’ books. Hmm. Mine just came out in February. It’s on Amazon.com discounted. It’s a really quick read (only 163 pages). But you have to like memoir and you guys are suspense/mystery readers and writers. Ah well.

    Karen
    http://www.karenfollowingthewhispers.blogspot.com

  3. Elizabeth Spann CraigMay 16, 2009

    Good plug, Galen! Actually, I meant to mention that this would be a good time to remind everybody when our upcoming books are being released.

    I guess I should have said I was looking forward to reading my own Aug. 1 release, but I recently finished all the edits and am a little tired of the (admittedly charming) book. :) But that’s because I’ve read the darned thing 50 or more times. Y’all would LOVE it though!
    Elizabeth

  4. Alexis GrantMay 16, 2009

    Oh, gosh, I have such a long reading list. And half the books are just waiting for me on my bookshelf! It’s never-ending, isn’t it?

    I like nonfiction, so I’m hoping to read The Nine, about the Supreme Court.

  5. Patricia StolteyMay 16, 2009

    My list is never-ending, but at the top I have the new releases by Beth Groundwater (To Hell in a Handbasket), Mike Befeler (Living With Your Kids is Murder), and new friend Barbara Fleming’s first novel, Journeying. I also wanted to read some fantasy so have picked up a book by Colorado author Carol Berg. Did I tell you I love those Colorado authors? And if you haven’t read Wyoming mystery authors Craig Johnson and C.J. Box yet, you should try them out. They are two of my favorites.

    Patricia
    http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com

  6. Marvin D. WilsonMay 16, 2009

    I have no idea what all books I’ll wind up reading. I get sent books by authors wanting them to be reviewed, I edit books for other authors, I gotta write my own books – sigh, sometimes its hard to fit in what EYE wanna read just for fun! But I AM going to read Divine Justice by David Baldacci for sure, and I know there’ll be others I read because I just want to. :)

  7. Julie LomoeMay 17, 2009

    A friend recently turned me on to Jodi Picoult, and I’ve been enjoying her books – thought-provoking with deeply drawn characters. My Unitarian Universalist book club will be reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks over the summer – their choices tend to be good, though on the “literary” side.

    I’m glad Galen broached the subject of promoting our own books. Naturally, I recommend my own – Mood Swing: The Bipolar Murders and Eldercide. Both are available on Amazon. And I’m going to retitle Eldercide as Evening Falls Early and republish it this summer. See my website, http://www.julielomoe.com, to read the first chapters of both.

    I’m all for buying, reading and reviewing each others’ books! Mystery and suspense writers, let me know if you’d like to do an exchange.

  8. Bob SanchezMay 17, 2009

    Well gosh, as long as we’re recommending our own stuff, may I suggest When Pigs Fly and Getting Lucky, both by (cough, cough) yours truly. Both have been described by reviewers as great summer reads.

    Bob Sanchez

  9. The Practical PreserverMay 27, 2009

    Reading the oldies. Dashiell Hammett and the pulps.

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