Ohhh...I so agree with you about Harlan Coben. When he first became a recognized entity I read everything he wrote until I finally couldn't stand his style a moment longer. I swept all his books from my shelf and donated the entire collection to the semi-annual book sale at my library. But you're braver! I just couldn't open another tale of his for love nor money. LOL

I am, however, deeply embedded in Morris West's novels. It started with a dollar book at the library...The Shoes of the Fisherman...and over the past month...I've devoured the rest of that trilogy [The Clowns of God and Lazarus] as well as any other of his works I can get my hands on. I'm currently waiting for the library to locate a copy of The Devils Advocate [which will tie in nicely with recently read Nelson DeMille's new/expanded version of The Quest] while I read some of Jodi Picoult's older novels.

I won't leave the warm comfort of my home for a trip to the market...but I'll trudge through mounds of snow and ice to get to my library when I've turned the last page of whatever I've been currently reading. LOL

Anne

But you're braver! I just couldn't open another tale of his for love nor money. LOL

Braver or stupider, Anne. LOL

Thanks for validating my opinion of his writing style!

Braver! Never stupider!

When I've run the gamut of my book shelves and can't get out to get something new...I, too, venture back to something I might not have really enjoyed just to have something to read. It's never a good experience. LOL

Colleen McCullough died today at the tender age of 77. I shall miss her dearly...and may decide to venture through all her books again. She'd been ill for a long time...but I had hoped that she'd recover to write more. I seem to recall that your husband had been at Yale. Perhaps he knew of her there. She spent about 10 years in their neuroscience department. She was quite a brilliant woman...and her later Carmine Delmonica mystery series was based on a fictional CT town similar to New Haven and Yale territory.

Anne

I have immersed myself in Georgette Heyer novels...I read them over and over again many years ago and just decided I wanted to reread my favorites!! Right now I just finished Fredericka and am starting The Grand Sophy!! What a great writer she was!
Joann

I too put Coban on my Do Not Read list. In the middle of maybe my fifth book of his, I realized - there was too much sameness, it all seemed so formulaic.

I looked for and found a few interviews he'd given, interested in learning a bit about him and the stories he writes that are set in a part of the country I don't know very well.

With many other successful authors I've seen and heard, I've often perceived modesty and tentativeness in describing their work - "Here's what I decided to try, I thought maybe ......... in the story, I hope you like it". Not just a shy personality, but perhaps some humility. Coban, on the other hand, speaks with bravado about himself and what he does, and I just found him not my cup of tea.

There are many very good mystery writers. Amazon's Best Seller lists are good sources for inspiration.

It's becoming harder and harder to find novels that I want to read, movies that I want to see and television shows that I want to follow. I've always liked mystery and espionage stories, but I cannot read or watch plots about depraved, twisted, cruel characters and acts. I just finished The Burning Room by Michael Connelly which was somewhat unbelievable, but held my attention.

Next up for me is Blindfold Game by Dana Stabenow, but I haven't felt like starting it, so I've been re-reading the mysteries by Helen MacInnes. I love those and I can skip over any boring parts.

I've become addicted to playing Magic Puzzles on my iPad. It's a jigsaw puzzle app and takes a while because I play the 550-piece option. Add a few decorating books and cookbooks and my free time is filled.

As I get older, I am less and less drawn to novels. I do read a lot of magazines, but had not read a book in a long time.

I do prefer nature oriented books. For Christmas, a friend sent me "The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating" by Elizabeth Tova Bailey. I thoroughly enjoyed this invalid woman's writings about her fascination with a snail that had taken up residence in a potted plant that a friend had brought from the woods.

Also for Christmas, I received "Grandma Gatewood's Walk" . In 1955, Emma Gatewood at age 67 decided to walk the complete Appalachian Trail. Completely alone and very ill prepared, in one summer she did it. Her story garnered a lot of interest in the Trail and did a lot to bring it to the public eye. Again, a very entertaining read for someone who is into nature and personal accomplishments.

ghoghunter - I love Georgette Heyer too! She truly was a great writer. In fact, I'm currently reading Cotillion and will likely feature it on next week's Book of the Week. I really like her spunky, determined heroines who manage to achieve many of their goals, despite the fact that they are so often relatively poor and have low social status. What is The Grand Sophy about? Not sure if I've ever read it.

I have read three books so far this year. "The Golum and the Jinni," "Voyager" and " A Prayer for Owen Meany." I am almost finished with with "Second Watch" a JP Beaumont novel.

I recently finished and enjoyed The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. I just started reading After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family-1968 to the Present by Randy Tarabofrelli.

Mary52 - John Irving is one of my favorite writers and I really enjoyed A Prayer for Owen Meany. I also liked A Son of the Circus also by John Irving.

I just finished reading Flying Shoes by Lisa Howorth. It takes place in the South and although it centers about a cold case murder of a child, it still is entertaining and not morbid.

If you have read "The Glass Castle", is the author's mother a 'grandiose personality' or another kind of crazy?

I just finished The Girl on the Train last night. I wasn't sure if I really liked it or not but I have been thinking about it all day and am wishing for more. I guess I did like it after all.

This post was edited by jkayd_il5 on Fri, Jan 30, 15 at 9:00

I liked Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls, and the Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, which Stacey recommended is the best!

I am stepping backwards in time and am reading Algernon Blackwood. I just finished a Prisoner in Fairyland, The Man Whom The Trees Loved and The Willows. Will read the John Silence series soon.

I have been behind on reading an decided to take a different path. Interesting to read books that were deemed scary back in the early 1900s.

I'm about 3/4 through Girl on a Train....I like it enough to finish it but it bogs down in a few places. I think I've guessed whodunnit.

Just finished DEEP DOWN DARK, the story of the 33 Chilean miners who were rescued a few years ago, remember? It was very, very good, well researched and well written. I believe a movie is coming out this summer.

I just finished reading the Myron Bolivar series by Harlan Coben. It was a 4 on a scale of 10; my best friend gave me the books and said I had to read them.

Also just finished the next-to-last in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. I love those books!!

Right now, I am reading "NYPD Red 2" by James Patterson. His Alex Cross and Women's Club books are great; his others are good.

I recently read "The Target" by David Baldacci. Every book he writes is fantastic!! The other writer who is always wonderful is Stuart Woods.

When my Kindle quit last week I was reading a book about the Jews in Germany before the war. It was very good. I will finish it as soon as I receive my new Kindle for free after I got a new one last August when that on had quit working. I am also reading a book DENVER which takes place in the early days of Denver.

I am reading Fern Michaels Sisterhood Series..........again! It is just as good as the first time around.

I recently read The Missing Place. It is a novel that takes place in the oil fields of North Dakota. I really enjoyed it.

Read two more Clive Custler books.

Oh, I am so very sad to hear of Colleen McCullough's passing. Several decades ago I read The Thorn Birds and enjoyed it. Little did I know what awaited her readers - several years ago I discovered her 7-volume Masters of Rome series and loved those books! She simply overwhelms with her knowledge of the Roman Republic and her research ability and her talent for inventive plots that make her characters live. One could travel in Italy for a year with only her books as guides! She had a btilliant mind. What a loss.

Now I've put aside the reading that I think I should be reading (Joan Didion, Rebecca West, some serious non-fiction) and am enjoying Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. Taking a break from John Sandford's Lucas Davenport series, which do sometimes venture into the creepy, but he has some delicious plots. Before that I liked J.A. Jance, both Beau Beaumont in Seattle and Sheriff Brady in Arizona. Although Jance isn't the greatest writer, Beaumont is my favorite detective.

Mary52 - Both my DS1 and my exH recommeded The Golem and the Jinni; it's waiting in my TBR pile. When I told DS1 that I was reading the amazon reviews of the book, he yelled over the phone "Don't say another word! Don't tell me anything!" LOL; that's when I decided to buy it.

I just finished Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah, it was pretty good. Now I'm reading The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. It's funny.

I'm running through the Jan Karon "Mitford" books. I recall reading a couple years ago, but I didn't keep up with the series. But someone brought her latest book in to work for the giveaway table, and I grabbed it, so I felt I needed to remind myself of the previous stories! (I forgot how tame these books are!)

Just to lighten things up, (recovering from surgery) I bought Fannie Flagg's book "the all girls filling station last reunion" Enjoying it, lots of laugh but now it's gotten in to a more serious issue similar to Fried Green Tomatoes. I actually bought the real book, not crazy about the Kindle.

Oh, I am so very sad to hear of Colleen McCullough's passing. Several decades ago I read The Thorn Birds and enjoyed it. Little did I know what awaited her readers - several years ago I discovered her 7-volume Masters of Rome series and loved those books! She simply overwhelms with her knowledge of the Roman Republic and her research ability and her talent for inventive plots that make her characters live. One could travel in Italy for a year with only her books as guides! She had a btilliant mind. What a loss.

Now I've put aside the reading that I think I should be reading (Joan Didion, Rebecca West, some serious non-fiction) and am enjoying Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. Taking a break from John Sandford's Lucas Davenport series, which do sometimes venture into the creepy, but he has some delicious plots. Before that I liked J.A. Jance, both Beau Beaumont in Seattle and Sheriff Brady in Arizona. Although Jance isn't the greatest writer, Beaumont is my favorite detective.

Mary52 - Both my DS1 and my exH recommeded The Golem and the Jinni; it's waiting in my TBR pile. When I told DS1 that I was reading the amazon reviews of the book, he yelled over the phone "Don't say another word! Don't tell me anything!" LOL; that's when I decided to buy it.

Stacy_mb The Grand Sophy is about Sophy Stanton-Lacy a young woman whose father Sr Horace has to go off to Brazil on a Diplomatic mission. So Sophy goes to stay with her Aunt and cousins in London and sees that the family is in a sad tangle she determines to fix. It is a really funny one. Sophy is a determined strong character who succeeds in fixing everything!
I love the language she uses and how well she researched Regency England.
Joann

I've been reading Robert Barnard recently, and he is very good. Other favorites are Michael Connelly, Deborah Crombie, Louise Penny and Susan Hill.