I am super excited to introduce you to my friend Stephenie AKA @reads.on.wednesdays today. She is a fellow boy mom and we have such a similar taste in books.
Welcome to another edition of my reading list and book recommendations guest post series. Today I have my first guest poster that is a librarian! While I consider myself a big reader, librarians are on a whole other level of reading awesomeness.
Welcome to another edition of my reading list and book recommendations guest post series. I have a great lineup of reading friends and book professionals sharing their current reads the next few weeks and I couldn’t be more thrilled!
Katie and I are #bookstagram buddies and you might know her by book tree she featured this past holiday season that went totally viral in the online book community!
Katie posts daily book content which I am always super impressed by and loves so many of the same genres as me so she is always a go-to for me if I needing some book feedback or inspiration.
Katie is not afraid to share her honest thoughts on the reads she reads which I always appreciate and is just so much fun (except when she gives me grief about not reading Harry Potter yet!!)
I am actually meeting up with her and two of my other reading friends Kristina and Stephanie this spring at the 2020 Book Expo in NYC and I can’t even wait! I hope you enjoy learning more about Katie today.
Hey everyone! My name is Katie (aka @katieneedsabiggerbookshelf) and I am a born and raised Jersey Girl! I spent my college years in Savannah, GA which is where the “y’alls” come in that I sometimes throw out!
I currently live in Delaware with my boyfriend Dave, my cat Brody, and his dog Courtney. They love each other deep down, they just never show it!
When I’m not reading, (aka when they force me to do that thing called work) I sell yearbooks for Walsworth yearbooks. I just started this job in May and am loving it so far!
I spent five years doing sales for Pepsi so when this opportunity came along to do sales but also get to add in my love of photography and graphic design I had to jump at the chance! I love getting to work with the students, and help them get creative with their book! I also love to crochet, knit, paint, photograph, sew, and really just do anything crafty!
One of my favorite stories is that I had trouble learning to read. When I was in first grade, I could fly through the math worksheets, but reading gave me a ton of trouble. I went to extra help for it and it was game over from there.
My math skills quickly disappeared once subtraction was introduced, and soon you couldn’t find me without a book in my hand. My reading tastes are really all over the map, especially since I started my #bookstagram. I read pretty much anything except I don’t do a ton of fantasy, and I really only read sci-fi if it’s by Blake Crouch.
I read any time of day! I don’t really read in the morning because I am NOT a morning person. I am a roll out of bed, get dressed and brush my teeth, grab a bite to eat and my coffee on the way out the door!
I will read if I get to an appointment early and have a few minutes in the car alone, and always on my lunch break (when I take them.) Since I spend all day in the car, I always have an audiobook or a podcast going! In terms of sitting down to crack a book, I am mostly a nighttime reader though.
I just finished The Simple Wild and Darling Rose Gold and am starting on The New Husband, Before Anyone Else, and The Other’s Gold.
This is a really tough one! There are so many I have loved recently. I am going to give my three 5-star reads from January though! A Sky Painted Gold, Hum If You Don’t Know The Words, and Catch and Kill. All were amazing reads that I couldn’t put down!
There are so many great sounding books coming out I don’t even know where to start! Some I am excited about include Truths I Never Told You, He Started It, Night Swim, and Beach Read! They are all repeat authors for me (except Truths I Never Told You-which I need to read her first one ASAP! It’s on my backlist shortlist!) And I can’t wait to see what they have come up with for their next read!
I was hoping to love Normal People, Three Women, and Saint X. But they just didn’t do it for me. The first two I did finish and was mad I bothered, and the third I DNF’d.
I am listening to The Others Gold, and am anxious for my pre-order of Children Of The Land to come in.
I generally prefer non-fiction on audio, but if I’m not listening to a book I love listening to Sarah’s Bookshelves Live, Here To Make Friends (the Bachelor is my guilty pleasure), or Bad On Paper Podcast.
My nightstand is pretty boring. I have my books (bottom is my next read, the middle is my current physical book read, and the top is my kindle.) I generally read my kindle in bed because I’m a side sleeper and its easier to read a kindle on my side than a physical book! So I almost always have three books going at once!
Then I, of course, have my phone and apple watch chargers, water, chapstick, and the tv remote to turn it off once Dave falls asleep! My favorite part isn’t my nightstand, but my amazing floating shelves above my nightstand! They make me so happy and contain some of my TBR, minus my superwoman one that has my lady power books!
Our room doesn’t have a lot of room for bookshelves, but I did just add these gems upstairs in the office. Since I had to put all my book tree books away it made for a good time to organize the shelves a bit better! And I see some blank spaces waiting to be filled! I have several bookshelves throughout the house, but this one looks the prettiest!
Thank you so much for sharing today, Katie. I loved hearing all about your recent reads and I now need floating bookshelves ASAP!
Disclosure: Some of the links above are Amazon affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission that helps support this blog at no cost to you. Thank you!
Welcome to the first Nightstand Series post in 2020! I love being able to share book content with a wider range of perspectives and genres and I am so appreciative of all my reading friends who have helped make this happen by sharing their reading list and recommendations.
I started this book friends series last January and it has been so fun looking back at all the people and books that were shared. You can check out all of my 2019 Nightstand Series posts below…
Kristy @kristy.dooley.photography
Kristina @kristinasbookishlife
If you are a reader and are interested in sharing your booklist & recommendations in 2020, please comment below and I will send you an email to get you on my guest post calendar.
Today I am so excited to introduce you to my friend Michelle AKA @michellenputney! She was one of my very first #bookstagram friends and I always love seeing what she is reading and enjoying.
Michelle writes the most amazing reviews over on Goodreads and is never afraid to share her honest thoughts while also sharing an incredible amount of detailed perspective. Anytime I see a book I want to read on there, I have to see what Michelle thought first because her reactions are always spot on!
I hope you enjoy getting to know more about Michelle today!
My name is Michelle Putney and I’m a 37-year-old bookworm from Buffalo, NY. I am married, have a 2.5-year-old daughter, Olivia and 2 golden retrievers Apollo (10) & Atticus (8.5). I would have 10 golden retrievers if I could, but sadly that isn’t a reality at the moment!!
I work in the life insurance industry but am happiest when I am with my family, walking the dogs and reading. I love instilling my love of reading in my daughter and so far she loves to read just as much as I do! We go to the library about every 2 weeks and check out about 10 books at a time so we can read before nap and bedtime.
I have always been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember. My parents used to yell at me to get my nose out of my books while driving to our family vacation destinations of Cape Cod, MA or Bar Harbor, ME so I could see the beautiful scenery. (Nancy Drew was much more interesting to me!)
Even though I have been reading/recommending books for years, I finally figured out that people use Instagram to connect with other like-minded readers and decided about 6 months ago to become a more serious #bookstagrammer.
My handle is @michellenputney (let’s connect and be friends!)
Since I have such a young daughter I don’t get as much time to read or be involved in the book community as I would like, but I am very appreciative to be a member of this great group of people. I typically read during Livie’s nap time or after she goes to bed.
I am reading All The Ways We Said Goodbye by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White and Long Bright River by Liz Moore.
The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup and Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano.
Westering Women, The Majesties and I have very conflicted feelings about Saint X.
For the rest of January and for February – Long Bright River (I’m only 100 pages in so I still have a lot to go), The Dark Corners of the Night (UNSUB #3), The Sundown Motel, A Good Neighborhood, and Eden Mine.
I would love to listen to audiobooks, but I wouldn’t be able to stay focused the way I need to while doing chores around the house (otherwise, I could get a lot more reading time in!). I only have a 10-minute commute, but I make it twice a day to spend my lunchtime with the dogs so I do get a chance to listen to some podcasts.
I am listening to the latest episodes of In The Dark right now, as well as The Rachel Maddow Show. I loved Serial and listen to Pod Save America and Pantsuit Politics as much as I can (I’m a political junkie too!).
My nightstand is pretty boring since I don’t want anything nice to get accidentally knocked over by my daughter since she is very inquisitive 😉
I have a stack of books I’d like to get to next, my iPad with everything I have from Netgalley and Edelweiss and the alarm clock I’ve had since 1997 (my first year in high school). The thing is a relic and is only used for the clock, but it reminds me of simpler times in life. I also like that it’s been in my childhood bedroom, my college dorm/apartments, and now my home with my own family.
Thank you so much for sharing with us today, Michelle. I am going to check out some of your political podcasts, I think I will need them during 2020! <3
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission that helps support this blog at no cost to you. Thank you!
It’s the time of the year where the end of the year recaps are everywhere! When thinking about how I wanted to share my own reading wrap up of 2019, I thought it might be fun to not only share mine but also include a bunch of my reading friend’s feedback from #bookstagram so that is what I am sharing today!
A few days ago I shared on #bookstagram HERE that I would love to include feedback from my fellow bookworms when I shared my reading recap of 2019.
I asked them to share their favorite books that they read in 2019, the ones that didn’t meet the hype and the ones they are looking forward to reading/publishing in 2020 and boy did they deliver!
SO many reading friends took the time to share their feedback and today I am excited to be sharing it with you!
I love posting my own reading wrap-ups and recommendations but I also love being able to share other people’s perspectives and genres that might be outside of what I tend to regularly read.
While putting this post together I loved seeing the wide variety of answers because it is just so fascinating that we all react to books so differently…even when we read similar titles!
This blog post is definitely a long one, but I am hoping it inspires your own reading lists and helps you discover some titles and authors you might not have previously heard of.
While not everyone on this list is a “book reviewer”, everyone is an avid reader and I loved the diversity this allowed for. If they do share books publicly, I included a link to their Instagram page for easy access along with their first names.
You will notice that some of the books that are shared below are either ARCs that have not been officially published yet and some people shared books that were highlights of their 2019 reading even if they were published in previous years.
I am including links to all of these books for easy access where you can easily see more details about each of these titles.
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim, The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff and A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum.
Ninth House and Saint X.
I am excited about American Dirt finally coming out because I loved it!
Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center, The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer and The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo.
I read ARCs of The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and loved them!!
American Dirt, Just Mercy and The Most Fun We Ever Had.
A Good Neighborhood, Saint X, The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner, This Won’t End Well by Camille Pagan, and Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano.
The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff, Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.
Long Bright River (already read and loved!) by Liz Moore, We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owen and Where The Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah.
Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison.
A Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs.
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See.
I was really excited about The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman and it just fell flat for me.
Untamed by Glennon Doyle and The Ways We Said Goodbye by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White.
The Gift of Failure by Jessica Lahey and To Have and To Hold by Molly Millwood were my top two picks of 2019.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb.
Most excited about Jenni Allen’s book coming out called Get Out of Your Head but so much more! I am a lover of nonfiction mostly!
The Gown by Jennifer Robson, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and Wonder by R.J. Palacio.
Where The Crawdads Sing (loved the story, but it was such a slow read for me) and Sing, Unburied Sing (DNF)
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle and The Return by Nicholas Sparks.
Daisy Jones & The Six and The Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center.
Normal People by Sally Rooney and Three Women by Lisa Taddeo didn’t work for me.
American Dirt and My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell.
ErinInheritance by Dani Shapiro, Normal People and The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri.
I felt that both The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and The Most Fun We Ever Had did not live up to the hype.
American Dirt and Untamed!
Long Bright River, Dear Wife, and Little Fires Everywhere.
The Silent Patient & A Nearly Normal Family
Darling Rose Gold and American Dirt.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb, Inheritance by Dani Shapiro and This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel.
Sadly, City of Girls by Elizabeth GIlrbert did not live up to the hype for me. Neither did Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly (though I loved Lilac Girls the prequel).
Dying to get to American Dirt and Know My Name by Chanel Miller soon!
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager, and The Idea of You by Robinne Lee.
When All Is Said by Anne Griffin and The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo.
I’m most excited about Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey, You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, and Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel.
Night Road by Kristin Hannah, The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo, Say You Still Love Me by KA Tucker, and Bad Blood by John Carreyrou.
Dominicana by Angie Cruz and The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.
American Dirt and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (publication on the last day of 2019 counts as 2020, right?!)
ShannonThe Flatshare by Beth O’Leary and Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
The Unhoneymooners and Normal People.
American Dirt and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Maybe You Should Talk to Somone (total surprise as nonfiction books are not my favorite) and Where The Crawdads Sing.
The Giver by Lois Lowry (I have always wanted to read it but it was SUCH a slow read for me) and The Silent Patient (highly recommended but also a slow read and just couldn’t’ get into it.)
Soooo many on my TBR list, but thinking of starting with The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Things You Save in a Fire or The Most Fun We Ever Had.
Beyond The Point by Claire Gibson, Verity by Colleen Hoover, The Swallows by Lisa Lutz and Call me God.
My Friend Anna and Saint X.
The Missing Sister, The Girls Weekend and Long Bright River.
The Book Women of Troublesome Creek, Cilka’s Journey and Where The Forest Meets The Stars.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and The Flatshare.
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle and Brave Girl, Quiet Girl by Catherine Ryan Hyde.
Where The Crawdads Sing, Queen Bee, and Cemetary Road.
Still Lives by Maria Hummel.
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver and The Lies that Bind by Emily Giffin
The Dutch House, City of Girls, and A Hundred Summers.
Normal People and the end of After The Flood.
Daisy Jones & The Six, Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain and Just Another Kid by Torey L. Hayden (while this book was first published in 1988 I read it for the first time in 2019.)
Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand and Run Away by Harlan Cobin were both books I really looked forward to and fell short for me.
Writers & Lovers by Lily King, My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell and The Honey-Don’t List by Christina Lauren.
A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum, Daisy Jones & The Six, The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton.
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah.
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Miracle Creek by Angie Kim.
Where The Crawdads Sing – I think it’s possible the hype was too high by the time I read it.
The Wreckless Oath We Made by Bryn Greenwood, Children of Virtue & Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi, A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum.
Red At The Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Long Bright River by Liz Moore, These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card, The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Madel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins.
A Woman is No Man, The Lost Man and She Said were some top books.
American Predator, Get a Life Chloe Brown and Verity (I know everyone loves it but aargh the stupid naive woman trope!!)
The Dearly Beloved, Ask Again, Yes, Ten Thousand Doors of January and Gilead.
The Last Romantics, The Huntress, and The Starless Sea.
The World That We Knew and The Dutch House were my absolute favorites.
Nevermoor and The Giver of Stars were books I was so excited about but just weren’t for me.
Very excited for American Dirt and The Heir Affair!
Daisy Jones & The Six, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and A Woman is No Man.
American Dirt and A Good Neighborhood.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo, The Dearly Beloved, The Dream Peddler, Ask Again, Yes, Daisy Jones & The Six, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and The Flatshare.
Three Women and Talking to Strangers (I felt hoodwinked by the marketing of both of them.)
Saint X, Valentine and American Dirt.
The Stand by Stephen King, The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton and The Chesnut Man by Soren Sveistrup.
The Whisper Man, Good Girl, Bad Girl, and Elevator Pitch.
The Other People by CJ Tudor, Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough and The Dilemma by BA Paris.
Ask Again, Yes, The Flatshare and Rise and Fall: The Story of 9/11.
Once Upon a River and The Bromance Bookclub.
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel!
A Woman is No Man, and There’s Something About Sweetie.
The Beautiful and We Met in December.
Such a Fun Age, Ten Things I Hate About Pinky and In Five Years.
Beyond The Point, The Girl in the Letter and One True Loves.
I have so many on my TBR that aren’t 2020 book releases…Things You Save in a Fire, Labor with Hope and The Most Fun We Ever Had.
The Great Alone, The Things We Cannot Say and The Idea of You.
Next Year in Havana (too slow for me)
Looking forward to American Dirt and Long Bright River!
The Silent Patient and The Unhoneymooners.
Looking forward to Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson and In Five Years by Rebeca Serle!
You probably noticed a pattern in this post, but American Dirt is most definitely the most anticipated book of 2020!! I read an ARC copy this past month and I can’t wait to share my thoughts soon, but let’s just say, I already know it will be one of my top 2020 reads because it was THAT GOOD.
My 2019 reading recap will be posted soon, in the meantime, you can see check out my favorites of 2019 (so far!) post from July, to see how things were stacking up at the halfway point.
Thank you to everyone who shared in today’s post! I hope this has inspired your own book list and helps make 2020 your best reading year yet! Happy reading. <3
*I apologize in advance for any errors or misunderstanding with titles/book covers when transcribing these results from Instagram to this blog post. I am happy to update anything if necessary! <3
Disclosure: Some of the links on this blog are Amazon affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission that helps support this blog (at no cost to you). Thank you!
Hello! I hope you are enjoying this time between Christmas and the New Year. This week of the year always throws me off because the kids are home from school but Lucas is quite busy at work during this time of year, so he doesn’t have a lot of time off.
So while it is festive, it is also kind of like normal…except we have none of our regular routines or activities scheduled! We tend to thrive off of this stuff, so each day is kind of a mixed bag. 😉
I always have these dreamy ideas of what school breaks will be like, and then I am snapped back into reality. While we do have fun, I still spend a large percentage of my life refereeing between our boys and answering the question “can I have something to eat?!” while I am currently cleaning up from the food we just made…
While I haven’t had as much time to devote to this space during the last two weeks, I am trying to stay consistent with my guest posts, and today I am excited to introduce you to my book friend, Tancy!
Tancy is not only one of my Bookstagram reading buddies, but she also makes my most favorite book sleeves ever! You can visit her Etsy shop, Beyond Booked, HERE.
If you haven’t heard of a book sleeve before, they are fabric pouches that protect your books so you can bring them with you wherever you go! Tancy has the most gorgeous fabric choices and is just so wonderful to work with.
In addition to loving her book sleeves, I love reading her thoughts and reviews of the books she is reading. She is always so thoughtful with her feedback and she always inspires me to add new book selections to my TBR pile! I hope you enjoy getting to know more about Tancy today!
My name is Tancy Campbell and I currently live in San Diego California. I am a native of North Carolina but as a military spouse, I tend to move around frequently. My husband is a Master Chief in the US NAVY. He has served for just over 18 years and has plans to do 6 to 7 more. We also have two children, Kennedy 9 and Dallas 4. We have one 15-year-old Maltese who is about 5 pounds but has an attitude of a 70-pound dog.
I am a stay at home mom that loves to read, run, sew, and help others with their finances. I am in the process of turning my hobbies into businesses. I have an Etsy shop where I create stylish book sleeves for readers on the go. In addition to that, I am in the process of becoming a certified financial coach.
I’ve always enjoyed reading as a kid. I remember sitting my dolls in front of me while I read to them. I was a very bored kid but I could count on books to entertain me endlessly. Once I went to high school and college, academia sort of sucked the fun out of reading, so for about 8 years I read just to get by.
Once I graduated I began picking up books here and there but it wasn’t until I found the Bookstagram community in 2018 that the desire to read was fully reignited. This was a learning time for me, as I didn’t even know what I was interested in anymore. The more I read the more I found myself attracted to certain genres. I enjoy dystopian, WWII Fiction and Non-Fiction, and African American lit.
I read whenever I find the time. This maybe while for my daughter to get off the bus or whenever my son is in swim, or maybe I’ll get a couple of pages in while waiting in line somewhere. I tend to keep a book with me because you never know when you will have downtime. I plan to get in the habit of setting aside read time maybe every morning or every night.
I genuinely look forward to reading all the books. It’s such a nerdy thing to say but I get overwhelmed just thinking about all the books there are vs the time available to read them.
I am currently reading Becoming by Michelle Obama, and like most reviews will probably mention its fantastic. My favorite book this year is Atomic Habits by James Clear. It guides you on how to successfully create good habits and break bad ones.
Another favorite of mine this year was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I was very surprised to have liked this book, let alone LOVE it. I completely judged the book by the title thinking it was based on romance but after several recommendations from the Bookstagram community, I read it and LOVED it.
My podcast list is long and mainly in the area of personal finance and business. I’m currently listening to…
I’m also planning to listen to The Simple Path to Wealth very soon.
Currently, on my nightstand, I have 4 unfinished books and 2 books I would like to start soon. By having them on my night table I can see them and be reminded that I need to finish what I started.
I also keep a small jewelry box there, one I received from my children a couple of Christmas’s ago. Then, of course, night light and my phone charger. I’ll sometimes bring water up to hydrate before bed. Other things that can occasionally end up on the side table are my planner and pen so that I can jot notes for the next day.
Thank you so much for sharing today, Tancy! I have Atomic Habits on my bookshelf and you have made me want to read it ASAP.
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission that helps support this blog at no cost to you. Thank you!
It’s that time of the year when people often are looking for recommendations on what books might be good to gift to a spouse, family member or close friend. I have received so many questions about what I might suggest buying for a husband, partner, boyfriend, dad or brother.
While I don’t like to generalize and everyone is different, I do find that what I like to read isn’t always what many of the male readers I know are interested in. So, if you are looking for some suggestions from some very different genres than I usually talk about here, this post is for you!
My husband Lucas is a big reader but he also reads very different books from me. Last week I asked him if he might like to share what he has read this past year and some of his book recommendations. He was a little reluctant but I am persistent! He put this together the other night and I added the photos and book covers for your viewing pleasure!
Lucas has been a reader for as long as I have known him (the mid-2000s!). I remember when we were newly dating and I would first spend the night over at his house. I would borrow one of his James Patterson books to read before falling asleep as he always had a stack of them on his nightstand. I didn’t like the books very much, but I did appreciate that he loved reading too!
In 2009 we honeymooned in St. John USVI. Every day we would pack a lunch, drive to a different beach and then read, him in the sun and me in the shade. It was amazing! I am going to let him take over now to share more about himself as a reader…enjoy!
Let me start by saying that by no means am I a literary expert! I didn’t study literature or English in school and read the “classics” only because they were assigned. I do however enjoy reading. I read every night. Some nights it’s just 5-10 pages. Some nights it’s 40-50 pages…though those days are becoming rarer and rarer as our 9:30 PM bedtime sneaks up on us quickly with the kids staying up later now.
In fact, my motivation for sharing is partly (mostly) selfish. Perhaps “Gen the Bookworm “will be happy enough with my contributions to her blog that she’ll put her book down for a while…
Gen hoped that I could provide a different perspective on titles and authors that would be different from her mostly female readers and sharers. While I passed on an official “what’s on your nightstand series” post, Gen thought that perhaps I could provide some ideas for books that could be given to a husband or boyfriend or father as the holidays approach.
Prior to receiving a Kindle as a birthday gift a couple years ago I mostly stuck with the same few authors. I’d wait until Dan Brown or John Grisham or David Baldacci (to name a few) came out with a new book and purchase the hardcover, read it, and then wait until the next book was published by one of my favorite authors. My father and I would trade books back and forth as we both enjoy the same authors.
Once I switched to reading on a Kindle (I was VERY hesitant to use a digital reader and now I read on it almost exclusively) I discovered some wonderful new authors. Utilizing the Libby App also helped me broaden the scope of the authors that I read. Often the wait times on the Libby app are quite long for newer releases by popular authors. In turn, I found that wonderful, entertaining books could be borrowed with no wait times.
It also helped me to read titles from popular authors that are maybe less well known/received. (By the way, the best Dan Brown novel is a NON-Robert Langdon story. While I did enjoy Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code, The Lost Symbol, etc., my favorite Dan Brown novel is Deception Point. I’ve read it at least a half a dozen times).
I discovered Vince Flynn recently and am working my way through as many of his titles as I can. Red War, Order to Kill, The Last Man…any of the counter-terrorism operative Mitch Rapp novels are fantastic. And you don’t have to read them in order to follow along. The Mitch Rapp character is a stone-cold bad-ass and I can’t recommend those novels highly enough!
I’ve also enjoyed a couple Robert Crais novels recently. I especially enjoyed L.A. Requiem. The two Crais novels I’ve read center on private investigators Elvis Cole and Joe Pike and both were great reads.
I’ve read the Harry Bosch novels by Michael Connelly for years. I like some of Clive Cussler’s books…particularly the NUMA Files and Oregon Files novels (Devil’s Gate and Skeleton Coast were good).
Regarding lesser-known titles from popular authors…certainly most folks have either seen or read one of the many Jurassic Park adaptations, but I found Pirate Latitudes to be entertaining. It was kind of cheesy and far-fetched, but it was a perfect vacation read from our recent family trip this fall.
The Archer Mayor, Joe Gunther novels are good reads (I read Tag Man most recently and am waiting for my dad to finish his newest novel Bomber’s Moon). And Archer Mayor is from Vermont!
I’ve always enjoyed Tom Clancy and am currently reading Command Authority. Though the new Amazon Prime series “Jack Ryan” is affecting my enjoyment of both the book and the show…I NEVER pictured CIA operative Jack Ryan as John Krasinski!
Most of my reading is fiction. The occasional non-fiction titles I read are typically auto-biographies by an athlete or musician that I am fond of, however, after watching Chernobyl on HBO (which I HIGHLY recommend…even though this is a book blog!) I read Voices from Chernobyl.
It was incredibly powerful and moving, and also obviously sad and emotional. It is based on the author’s interviews of over 500 “eyewitnesses” that were involved with the victims, clean-up, medical care of victims, etc in the years following the Chernobyl disaster.
(I was also recently gifted The Boats in the Boat and I have that on my reading list.)
Hopefully, this is helpful! While I’ll still purchase new releases from my favorite authors, I’m happy to have stumbled upon authors that I’d previously never read.
And bad news loyal readers…the bookworm was already asleep when I went upstairs 🙁
I told Lucas I would let him write whatever he wanted and I would just copy and paste it…so I hope you enjoyed his recommendations, and his humor! 😉
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