Who is your favorite author?

exaustedmom

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 8:05 am

Lee Child, Robert Ludlum, Stephen Frey, David Baldacci

PinkFridge

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 8:06 am

manhattanmom wrote:

Anyone else a fan of the chic-lit genre like--Sophie Kinsella?

Or, chick lit meets mystery cozy in Death of a Lit Chick by G.M. Malliet.
And have you read Kirsten Gore's books?

A few more in the mix:
Sharyn McCrumb
Alex McCall Smith is always a great read but NOT a favorite, just reliable (though La's Orchestra Saves the World didn't send me; The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was MUCH better)
And a few more that may or may not be faves but are always a reliable entertaining read:
Jo Dereske
Donna Andrews (not the Turing Hopper books, couldn't get into them)
Lisa Lutz
Stuart Kaminsky's Lieberman series (haven't read the others)

Just for the record, these are not great books of all times, but genre stuff with a bit more intelligence.

Last edited by PinkFridge on Tue, Mar 16 2010, 7:13 am; edited 1 time in total

HindaRochel

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 8:30 am

sim wrote:

I read the first few Number One Ladies Detective... but I got bored of it. I liked his La's Orchestra Saves the World, though. I didn't like any of his other series. Dorothy L. SAyers is a big favorite. Yes, I know about the anti-semitism, but if I was going to restrict my reading to philo-semites it would be sadly limited. HEr books are beautifully written, and contain a wealth of literary allusion.
I hated Great Expectations -- so depressing. Bleak House was the only one of Dickens's books that I really liked (believe me, I've tried). I think b/c his Esther Summerson character is so connectible, maybe b/c she writes in first person. None of his other characters are likeable -- Pip (ungrateful jerk), Carton (self-sacrificing --bleah), Little Dorrit (treacly).

I tried Little Dorrit. ARGHHHH treacly is the right word. I'm not big on Dickens...maybe I will try Bleak House though.

bashinda

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 10:02 am

Bleak House is long but probably the best thing Dickens wrote and if you like fiction that is cynical abut the law this is perfect.

I loved Great Expectations especially the opening. It is depressing, I had forgotten about that. When I read it I was in a goth period and maybe it would be too depressing for me now, who knows?

The rest of Dickens is just so dated and hard to read. I tried a couple of others after reading BH and GE and I was so disappointed in comparison. I was thinking maybe these two hadn't been serials but they were. I think some of the problems with him are ones I have with Jewish novels; they're so absorbed in their message they forget they have to write good fiction. These books manage to convey the messages without being overly preachy.

I still love Sayers even with all her biases but I did feel uncomfortable reading some sections last time I read her books. I doubt she was more biased than any other person of her era with her background, however and in a way it makes it even more interesting as it's a glimpse into what people really thought back then. I usually don't like genre fiction unless it's written extremely well and she's one of the exceptions in the mystery genre for me.

You didn't tell me who Gail Parkin was, however [:

I was reading about Stella Gibbons and it's interesting that Cold Comfort Farm was partly a parody of Thomas Hardy. Thomas Hardy is one of his authors whose descriptions I love but the plot belongs in an opera especially in Return of the Native. It has probably one of the best openings in fiction that I've read. Too bad the actual plot is kind of stupid.

I'm trying to think of my all-time favorite authors but I can think of more book titles. For Instance I loved Middlemarch by George Eliot but didn't enjoy Mill On the Floss and haven't tired any other books. Jane Austen is definitely on the list though. It's amazing how someone writing with so many constraints could manage to put so much in her novels. I think that's a lesson for any Jewish novelist. If JA could do it in the 1800s surely someone could put out a decent frum novel within the constraints that we have, with Hashem's help. As I mentioned earlier, I love Thomas Hardy's descriptive language but not his plot. I used to love Angela Carter but it's not really tsnius for me now. I loved Italo Calvino and Garcia-Marquez and the whole "magic realism" genre. (I guess that's one genre I do like). Iris Murdoch and Robertson Davies and Margaret Drabble and her older sister AS Byatt were also novelists I loved to read.

Nowadays I only dream about reading secular literature. Literally.

sofaraway

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 12:20 pm

Alexandre Dumas
Jane Austen (I readonly one book, but I loved it!!!)
Dan Brown

HindaRochel

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 12:28 pm

OK, writing all the authors whose names I didn't know down. Will go shopping tomorrow. Need to rob bank first. Defense: Imamother made me do it...hey, half the world blames the other half for their misdeeds, I think I could pull it off Smile

Tapuzi

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 12:39 pm

Kaye Gibbons, Frank Rich, Harper Lee, LM Montgomery, Ruth Reichl, Jeffrey Steingarten.

Raisin

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 1:22 pm

Quote:

The rest of Dickens is just so dated and hard to read. I tried a couple of others after reading BH and GE and I was so disappointed in comparison. I was thinking maybe these two hadn't been serials but they were. I think some of the problems with him are ones I have with Jewish novels; they're so absorbed in their message they forget they have to write good fiction. These books manage to convey the messages without being overly preachy.

I really enjoyed almost all of Dickens books. Oliver twist is great, so is David Copperfeild, the pickwick papers is hilarious. Hard times is a bit depressing and so is Great expectations for some reason. btw I read almost all of them for the first time as a teenager and loved them, so they are definately not hard to read.

PinkFridge

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 1:43 pm

HindaRochel wrote:

What's wrong with Ye Olde Public Library?
And how could I forget To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only book. It's writing like that that makes you weep and sing simultaneously.

sim

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 2:21 pm

Gail Parkin -- Baking Cakes in KIgali. relatively new.

Raisin

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 2:24 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

HindaRochel wrote:

What's wrong with Ye Olde Public Library?
And how could I forget To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only book. It's writing like that that makes you weep and sing simultaneously.

HR lives in Israel, I think.

sim

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 2:35 pm

You can get a lot of these books used. Alibris is a good place to start. I forgot about Josephine Tey.

Etonnemoi

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 4:48 pm

Megan Whalen Turner (genius) - read only in order, though, and her fourth coming out this Sunday I believe

The incomparable Terry Pratchett
Jim Butcher (not his Codex Alera trash though, his Harry stuff - slightly - erm, dirty? but the writing is so GOOD)

Karen Traviss. Her Republic Commando stuff should be a writing text.

bashinda

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 6:53 pm

there are English language libraries in Israel unless Tsfat was the lone exception. Maybe HR doesn't live near any of them, however.

HindaRochel

Mon, Mar 15 2010, 9:25 pm

Raisin wrote:

PinkFridge wrote:

HindaRochel wrote:

What's wrong with Ye Olde Public Library?
And how could I forget To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only book. It's writing like that that makes you weep and sing simultaneously.

HR lives in Israel, I think.

Yep...and I've been through most of our library books...I always hit the used bookstores when I can...

libramom

Tue, Mar 16 2010, 2:38 am

jodi picoult

helena

Tue, Mar 16 2010, 3:29 am

I love chaim eliav books:-)

racheleezzy

Tue, Mar 16 2010, 6:40 am

faye kellerman, harlan coban, james patterson, tova mirvis, nicholas sparks (I know his books are usually sappy but I love them)

PinkFridge

Tue, Mar 16 2010, 7:12 am

PinkFridge wrote:

HindaRochel wrote:

What's wrong with Ye Olde Public Library?
And how could I forget To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only book. It's writing like that that makes you weep and sing simultaneously.

Sorry, for some reason I looked at OP's location instead of yours.

DefyGravity

Tue, Mar 16 2010, 7:17 am

To Kill a Mockingbird was excellent.