My Life in Books – Part 5: Loves and Hates

Last week I told you about some of the books I thought were five stars. But books don’t need five stars to be good and memorable. In this post I include

• Books I recommend even though I didn’t give them five stars (could have just been my mood that day!)
• Some authors I like
• Books that other people liked that I DID NOT.

This series is turning out to have more episodes that I thought! There will be two more posts in this series, possibly in the next two weeks, but maybe not. I am going to a publishing conference this weekend and to California the next, so I might write about something else. But there will be posts. The final two posts in this series will be

• Nonfiction, political, and books by “local” authors (meaning authors I know)
• Books I never read that you probably did — and that you would think I had, since I was an English major and an English teacher!

Recommended Reads

Here are some books that I would recommend even though I didn’t give them A’s:

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. In fact, any book by Mr. Gladwell. I think I read them all, but The  Tipping Point is an important book.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood  by Rebecca Wells. Every female read that one, didn’t she? The movie was good too.

Okay. Don’t start with me on this one. I know many of you HATED it and thought the writing was terrible. I disagree:

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. I read all three in the original series. I think I saw the first two movies. I liked the books, especially the second one. I thought they were well written. And I thought they showed that the woman ultimately had all the power in that relationship. And above all, it was a love story.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Hadden. I don’t remember a single thing  about this book except it was good, and it has a memorable cover.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Not really my kind of book, but I liked it and would recommend it.  Also a movie.

The Martian by Andy Weir. If I haven’t already mentioned this one I should have. Great movie too.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Written in 2004, the story of 2016. How prophetic can a book be?

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. Recommended to me by a writer friend. Interesting book about women and their husbands….

Authors I Love

You know how you find a book you love and then you read all the author’s other books? Here are some of those authors for me.

Maupin Armistead. Heard of him through a friend and then found out he was coming to my local bookstore. He was entertaining, so I read his Tales of the City. Most people had already seen this on TV, but not me. 

Kristen Hannah. I have read a few of her books and have loved them: The Nightingale, The Great Alone, The Four Winds

Mary Higgins Clark. Love her mysteries. Unfortunately she passed away a while ago. Her daughter also writes mysteries and wrote some with her. 

Sophie Kinsella. Confessions of a Shopaholic and some other fun chick books. Loved them.

Jennifer Weiner. One of her first books, Good in Bed, was made into a movie. I have read most of, if not all, her books. I have seen her in person twice and she is very funny. I more recently saw her at a virtual book launch, where she said she wrote women’s literature and she resented the phrase “chick lit” for any writer. Her books have gotten more serious, and  they are definitely not lightweight books.

Janet Evanovich. One for the Money right up to her Tempting Twenty Eight. I have read most of the 28 books in the Stephanie Plum series. She has other series, some of which she writes with other authors. The Plum books have gotten very formulaic, but I still love her and her characters.

Christopher Moore. Another funny guy. He wrote Lamb and many other books. He is a satirical guy.  I have seen him speak a couple of times. He reminds me of Carl Hiaasen.

Elizabeth Berg. She is the quintessential women’s literature author, and I love her books. 

David Baldacci. Read his first few books and loved them. Then I lost interest.

Lisa Genova. I wrote about her last week in the five-star books. She is a novelist and a neuroscientist. Her books are wonderful. Still Alice was made into a movie. She is amazing.

Lianne Moriarty. Didn’t everyone who read Big Little Lies go on to read her other books? I think my favorite was The Husband’s Secret. I didn’t like her latest (well, it was the latest when I read it), Nine Perfect Strangers.

Elinor Lipman. I went to college with her, although she was a year ahead of me. Years later I found out she was a notable author, so I read several of her books and enjoyed them.

VC Andrews. Although Andrews passed away a very long time ago, she is still  (or was last time I checked) writing books! Her family has apparently taken over the writing of her books. Her first book, Flowers in the Attic, was pretty popular and was made into a movie. The book was written in 1979 and actually labeled a young adult book and read by preteens and teens. It was banned from school libraries because of child abuse and incest. It was the first book in a series. Andrews wrote many series; her books featured creepy family members and eerie houses. I loved them and read a ton of her series. I actually picked up one or two at the library a few years ago, and I am now in the mood to see if there are any new ones I can read!

I Just Couldn’t’ Get Through These

Some people loved these books. Not for me.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. No thank you. 

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. First page was too sad. Done.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. b-o-r-i-n-g

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Could not get into it. 

H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald. And I is for ICK.

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. You might not know this one because it is a true romance novel. It was rated best romance novel of the  year, so I thought I would read it. It has over 14,000 Amazon reviews and an average 4.6 out of 5. I got to page two or three, finding that many obvious typos (or maybe they were actual grammatical mistakes) and either tense issues or just confusing writing. It was awful.

The Liar’s Club by Mary Carr. I read somewhere this was a good book. I didn’t like it. 

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen. EVERYONE raves about this book. I love Hiaasen. I hate trump. But I still didn’t think it was so great.  Or funny.

OK. That’s a wrap.