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According to Library Journal and Helium, Romance and Mystery/Thriller are the top two selling genres in books (romance, apparently making up for half of all sold paperback books). Since I don't read much of either (I'm not sure chick-lit is considered romance in the figures they are looking at) I need to get some recommendations.
Today I'm starting with Mystery. What are your favorite Mystery novels that you would recommend?
I'm excited to be entering my blog for the Book Blogger Appreciation Week awards. To register, each blogger must showcase some of their best in a post so that the judges can see some of your work that you deem worthy. I have chosen several reviews and a few articles that I think give a good view of not only what I read and review here on CL but also of my writing style. Here's what I've come up with:
Reviews
General Writing
Charlie and the Girls Above Him
Jane Austen was a Chick Lit Writer {and Thoreau was a hippie}
Once Upon a Time in a Disturbing Creepy Land
I'm honestly very excited about this. Of course I would be lying if I didn't say I hope I win an award, or at least get recognition for my blog posts (I wouldn't be entering if I didn't hope for this, nobody would). But after participating in Bloggiesta this weekend, I have learned that a major part of the goodness of these events is the becoming part of the book blogging community.
So here's to book bloggers!
Look at me, I'm being crazy and doing a post on a non-scheduled day. I might keep doing this if the mood strikes. However, I just read a list off of GoodReads (my favorite site as all of you consistent readers know) and came across this list of the Best Books Ever. This isn't a list of intellectually pretentious books, and mind you anyone can add any book they want to. I could add a Chelsea Handler book to this list and no one could do a thing about it. It's made up of people's opinions, which I have to say constitutes the definition of maybe not good (I imagine we have to have a concrete definition for that) but enjoyable literature. Sometimes literature that is deemed good (i.e. having all of the correct literary devices and form), can be mind-wrenchingly boring. Don't you agree?
(photo from DivineCaroline)
In any case, I think we should make up our own list of best books ever. There is nothing off limits... if you devour chick-lit, put it on the list. If you can't get enough horror books - add them. If you can't abide anything but classics, write their titles here. So, "best" in this situation does not mean that you think a professor of English Literature would dissect the book with their doctorate students as perfect prose (though it can mean that, I don't want to discourage those books if they fit this list), but rather you absolutely could-not-put-down-and-couldn't-wait-to-pick-up-again-and-had-to-carry-it-everywhere-in-case-you-got-a-chance-to-read-it type of books. We want a list of unputdownables. It's funny how many people tout pretentious books as their all time favorites, as if it makes them less of a person if they adore books that they actually want to read rather than books they should read. It makes me think about what the world of book lovers would have lost if those who turn up their nose at anything less than Proust had had their say instead of the eight year old little girl who opened the door for J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Makes you wonder who's in charge of what is "good" reading right?
This can be an ever growing list! Whenever you read an unputdownable, come back and add it to the comment section. I'll start with a few of mine, and will come back to add more in the comment section as my list grows and I remember more of the ones I loved...
***Repeats are ok... if you see a book on the list you can still add it (people will know it's a good book if more than one person adds it on the list).
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Evening Class by Maeve Binchy
Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lammot
Sammy's Hill by Kristin Gore
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Something Blue by Emily Giffin
Watermelon by Marian Keyes
The Senator's Wife by Susan Miller
If Only it Were True by Marc Levy
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office by Lois Frankel
Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Plain Truth by Jodi Piccoult
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks
A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks
Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
Vision in White by Nora Roberts
The Undead Series by MaryJanice Davidson
To Have and To Hold by Jane Green
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Your turn...
Calling all chick-lit lovers (I know you're out there)! For those of you who love chick-lit all the time, in between heavier reads, or only while you're on vacation... here's a list of some of the new-ish chick-lit on the market. Each of these books that I have listed below have gotten good reviews by readers... but you'll have to be the ultimate judge. If you like it, don't like it, or know something better, let us know! Use the comment section to add your favorites!
I Heart New York by Lindsay Kelk
June 2009
Paperback/ 305 pages
Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, get ready for the summer debut of the year...When you're running away from a broken heart, there's only one place to go...Adjusting tiaras at the foot of the aisle, Angela and her best friend prepare for the wedding of the year. But events don't go as planned. And when a girl is in possession of a crumpled bridesmaid dress - and can't go home - New York (for the very first time) seems like an excellent idea. Angela's new friend Jenny Lopez gives Angela a whirlwind tour of the city that never sleeps, and a makeover. Who hasn't dreamed of starting afresh with a sassy New York wardrobe, a new haircut and a trip to the make-up counter? Before she knows it, the new Angela is getting over her broken heart by having dinner with two different boys. And, best of all, she gets to write about it in her fabulous new blog. But it's one thing telling readers all about your romantic dilemmas. It's another trying to figure them out for yourself! Warm, funny and unputdownable, I Heart New York is an unforgettable debut.
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
June 2009
Hardback/ 435 pages
Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don’t get visited by ghosts. Or do they?
When the spirit of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie–a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance–mysteriously appears, she has one last request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, and Sadie cannot rest without it. Lara, on the other hand, has a number of ongoing distractions. Her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, her start-up company is floundering, and she’s just been dumped by the “perfect” man.
Sadie, however, could care less.
Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems as though they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie’s necklace leads to intrigue and a new romance for Lara, these very different “twenties” girls learn some surprising truths from each other along the way. Written with all the irrepressible charm and humor that have made Sophie Kinsella’s books beloved by millions,Twenties Girl is also a deeply moving testament to the transcendent bonds of friendship and family.
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
September 2009
Hardcover/ 390
#1 bestselling author Nicholas Sparks's new novel is at once a compelling family drama and a heartrending tale of young love.Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many levels--first love, love between parents and children -- that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts...and heal them. ** In production to be a major motion picture.
How did this happen? Georgie York, once the costar of America's favorite television sitcom, has been publicly abandoned by her famous husband, her film career has tanked, her father is driving her crazy, and her public image as a spunky heroine is taking a serious beating. What should a down-on-her-luck actress do? Not go to Vegas . . . not run into her detestable former costar, dreamboat-from-hell Bramwell Shepard . . . and not get caught up in an ugly incident that leads to a calamitous elopement. Before she knows it, Georgie has a fake marriage, a fake husband, and maybe (or not) a fake sex life. It's a paparazzi free-for-all, and Georgie's nonsupporting cast doesn't help. There's Bram's punk-nightmare housekeeper, Georgie's own pushy parent, a suck-up agent, an icy studio head with a private agenda, and her ex-husband's new wife, who can't get enough of doing good deeds and saving the world—the bitch. As for Georgie's leading man, Bram's giving the performance of his life, but he's never cared about anyone except himself, and it's not exactly clear why. Two enemies find themselves working without a script in a town where the spotlight shines bright . . . and where the strongest emotions can wear startling disguises. xo, What I Did for Love by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
January 2009
Paperback/ 416 pages
*** THOSE OF YOU WHO LOVE THE ANGIE/BRAD/JENNIFER TRIANGLE STORY, READ ON (it's supposedly based on them)... Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster
March 2009
Paperback /389 pages
Non-Fiction: In Pretty in Plaid, Jen Lancaster reveals how she developed the hubris that perpetually gets her into trouble. Using fashion icons of her youth to tell her hilarious and insightful stories, readers will meet the girl she used to be.
Think Jen Lancaster was always "like David Sedaris with pearls and a super-cute handbag?" (Jennifer Coburn) Think again. She was a badge-hungry Junior Girl Scout with a knack for extortion, an aspiring sorority girl who didn't know her Coach from her Louis Vuitton, and a budding executive who found herself bewildered by her first encounter with a fax machine. In this humorous and touching memoir, Jen Lancaster looks back on her life-and wardrobe-before bitter was the new black and shows us a young woman not so very different than the rest of us.
The author who showed us what it was like to wait in line at the unemployment office with a Prada bag, how living in the city can actually suck, and that losing weight can be fun with a trainer named Barbie and enough Ambien is ready to take you on a hilarious and heartwarming trip down memory lane in her shoes (and very pretty ones at that).
The Coconut Librarian
(all descriptions came from goodreads.com. I have not read these books, I researched and compiled the list.)
If you still can't pick a book to read (after having read this blog and all the new book ideas over the past week) then your hopeless. Well, that or you just need a few more ideas! Take a look at Oprah's Complete List of Oprah's Book Club Books.
I'll thank the people at Harpo for doing the work, and will caution you that Oprah doesn't pick light books. Though these books are heavy and often hard to read, if you utilize the site, you will have the resources that Oprah has made available for the readers of her book club picks, which just might make the reading a bit easier (and more interesting). Enjoy!
xo,
The Coconut Librarian
Photo from Martha Stewart
Lisbeth Salander--the heart of Larsson's two previous novels--is under close supervision in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She's fighting for her life in more ways than one: when she's well enough, she'll stand trial for three murders. With the help of her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, she will have to prove her innocence, and to identify the corrupt politicians who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse. And, on her own, she will plot her revenge--against the man who tried to kill her and the government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.
Once upon a time, she was a victim. Now Lisbeth Salander is ready to fight back.
Imperfect Birds/ Anne Lamott
Riverhead Hardcover
Hardcover 272 pages
Rosie Ferguson is seventeen and ready to enjoy the summer before her senior year of high school. She's intelligent-she aced AP physics; athletic-a former state-ranked tennis doubles champion; and beautiful. She is, in short, everything her mother, Elizabeth, hoped she could be. The family's move to Landsdale, with stepfather James in tow, hadn't been as bumpy as Elizabeth feared.
But as the school year draws to a close, there are disturbing signs that the life Rosie claims to be leading is a sham, and that Elizabeth's hopes for her daughter to remain immune from the pull of the darker impulses of drugs and alcohol are dashed. Slowly and against their will, Elizabeth and James are forced to confront the fact that Rosie has been lying to them-and that her deceptions will have profound consequences.
This is Anne Lamott's most honest and heartrending novel yet, exploring our human quest for connection and salvation as it reveals the traps that can befall all of us.
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky/ Heidi W. Durrow
Algonquin Books
Hardcover 256 pages
This debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy.
With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white. In the tradition of Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, here is a portrait of a young girl - and society's ideas of race, class, and beauty.
Solar/ Ian McEwan
Nan A. Talese
Hardcover 304 Pages
Michael Beard is a Nobel prize–winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions, and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. While he coasts along in his professional life, Michael’s personal life is another matter entirely. His fifth marriage is crumbling under the weight of his infidelities. But this time the tables are turned: His wife is having an affair, and Michael realizes he is still in love with her.
When Michael’s personal and professional lives begin to intersect in unexpected ways, an opportunity presents itself in the guise of an invitation to travel to New Mexico. Here is a chance for him to extricate himself from his marital problems, reinvigorate his career, and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster. Can a man who has made a mess of his life clean up the messes of humanity?
A complex novel that brilliantly traces the arc of one man’s ambitions and self-deceptions, Solar is a startling, witty, and stylish new work from one of the world’s great writers.
Shadow Tag/ Louise Erdrich
Harper
Hardcover 256 Pages
Here is the most telling fact: you wish to possess me. Here is another fact: I loved you and let you think you could.
When Irene America discovers that her husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, as much the truth about her life and her marriage as the Red Diary - hidden where he can find it - is a manipulative farce. Alternating between these two records, complemented by unflinching third-person narration, "Shadow Tag" is an eerily gripping read.
When the novel opens, Irene is resuming work on her doctoral thesis about George Catlin, the nineteenth century painter whose Native American subjects often regarded his portraits with suspicious wonder. Gil, who gained notoriety as an artist through his emotionally revealing portraits of his wife - work that is adoring, sensual, and humiliating, even shocking - realises that his fear of losing Irene may force him to create the defining work of his career. Meanwhile, Irene and Gil fight to keep up appearances for their three children: fourteen-year-old genius Florian, who escapes his family's unravelling with joints and a stolen bottle of wine; Riel, their only daughter, an eleven-year-old feverishly planning to preserve her family, no matter what disaster strikes; and, sweet kindergartener Stoney, who was born, his parents come to realise, at the beginning of the end.
As her home increasingly becomes a place of violence and secrets, and she drifts into alcoholism, Irene moves to end her marriage. But her attachment to Gil is filled with shadowy need and delicious ironies. In brilliantly controlled prose, "Shadow Tag" fearlessly explores the complex nature of love, the fluid boundaries of identity, and one family's struggle for survival and redemption.
Hope there was something in one of these lists for you! Check back and let us all know if you read any of these books, and if you recommend them to your fellow Coconut Library readers!
xo,
The Coconut Librarian
(Book descriptions taken from Goodreads)
From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.
Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn’t bother him. But he is troubled by his inability to remember anything about the first night that he moved into his new, spare, and efficient condominium on the outskirts of Baltimore. All he knows when he wakes up the next day in the hospital is that his head is sore and bandaged.
His effort to recover the moments of his life that have been stolen from him leads him on an unexpected detour. What he needs is someone who can do the remembering for him. What he gets is—well, something quite different.
We all know a Liam. In fact, there may be a little of Liam in each of us. Which is why Anne Tyler’s lovely novel resonates so deeply.
Remarkable Creatures/ Tracy Chevalier
Harper Collins
Hardcover 310 pages
In the early nineteenth century, a windswept beach along the English coast brims with fossils for those with the eye! From the moment she's struck by lightning as a baby, it is clear Mary Anning is marked for greatness. When she uncovers unknown dinosaur fossils in the cliffs near her home, she sets the scientific world alight, challenging ideas about the world's creation and stimulating debate over our origins.
In an arena dominated by men, however, Mary is soon reduced to a serving role, facing prejudice from the academic community, vicious gossip from neighbours, and the heartbreak of forbidden love. Even nature is a threat, throwing bitter cold, storms, and landslips at her.
Luckily Mary finds an unlikely champion in prickly, intelligent Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster who is also fossil-obsessed. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty and barely suppressed envy. Despite their differences in age and background, Mary and Elizabeth discover that, in struggling for recognition, friendship is their strongest weapon. Remarkable Creatures is Tracy Chevalier's stunning new novel of how one woman's gift transcends class and gender to lead to some of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century. Above all, it is a revealing portrait of the intricate and resilient nature of female friendship.
Where the God of Love Hangs Out: Fiction/ Amy Bloom
Random House
Hardcover 192 pages
In this sensuous, funny, and heartbreaking new book, Amy Bloom explores the unexpected patterns that all forms of love and loss weave into our lives. With her dazzling prose, strong voice, and unmistakable and generous wit, this award-winning author takes us to the margins and centers of real people’s lives, introducing us to some of her most unforgettable characters yet. A young woman struggles to come to terms with her roommate’s murder; a man and his daughter-in-law confess their sins in the most unlikely of places. In one set of interlocking stories, two middle-aged friends, married to others, find themselves surprisingly, comically drawn to one another, risking all for all and never underestimating the costs. In another, we follow a mother and son for thirty years as their small and uncertain family becomes an irresistible tribe.
Secrets of Eden/ Chris Bohjalian
Shaye Areheart Books
Hardcover 400 pages
"There," says Alice Hayward to Reverend Stephen Drew, just after her baptism, and just before going home to the husband who will kill her that evening and then shoot himself. Drew, tortured by the cryptic finality of that short utterance, feels his faith in God slipping away and is saved from despair only by a meeting with Heather Laurent, the author of wildly successful, inspirational books about . . . angels.
Heather survived a childhood that culminated in her own parents' murder-suicide, so she identifies deeply with Alice’s daughter, Katie, offering herself as a mentor to the girl and a shoulder for Stephen – who flees the pulpit to be with Heather and see if there is anything to be salvaged from the spiritual wreckage around him.
But then the State's Attorney begins to suspect that Alice's husband may not have killed himself. . .and finds out that Alice had secrets only her minister knew.
Secrets of Eden is both a haunting literary thriller and a deeply evocative testament to the inner complexities that mark all of our lives. Once again Chris Bohjalian has given us a riveting page-turner in which nothing is precisely what it seems. As one character remarks, “Believe no one. Trust no one. Assume all of our stories are suspect.”
Happy Reading... stay tuned for Part Two of this list on Wednesday!
xo,
The Coconut Librarian
(descriptions of the books taken from Goodreads)
Here are the top picks from book clubs around the nation...
1. The Help
2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
3. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
4. Sarah's Key
5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
6. Olive Kitteridge
7. One Thousand White Women
8. Her Fearful Symmetry
9. Loving Frank
10. In the Woods
The books are in order in which they have been voted for this week. Next time you are ready to hit the bookstore, make sure you bring this list with you! I just went to my local bookstore this afternoon to pick up Her Fearful Symmetry, which I will try after I finish the monster of a novel I am working on (Wolf Hall-- if you want a challenge, grab yourself a copy of this prize winning, yet challenging novel). The bookseller says she stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish her copy of HFS. Sounds good to me!
xo,
The Coconut Librarian
Can you believe that the year is coming to a close? Didn't it just start? Well, we can't let the end of the year go by without commemorating it with a best of list. The work is done for you, no need to open a hundred tabs on your already maxed out computer trying to browse through book recommendations for the year's hottest and greatest. Looking to the three top selling book sellers (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Borders) to tell us what they, and more importantly their customers, liked this year I have compiled the list for you. Feel free to share what your favorites have been in 2009!
Amazon
Editor's Top 10 Favorites
Let the Great World Spin
Strength in What Remains
Wolf Hall
Brooklyn
Beautiful Creatures
Crazy for the Storm
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The City & The City
Stitches
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Customers Top 10 Purchased
The Lost Symbol
Liberty and Tyranny
Glenn Beck's Common Sense
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man
The Help
Eat This Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
Dead and Gone
The Last Olympian
Cook Yourself Thin
Barnes and Noble
Editor's Top 10 Fiction Favorites
The Anthologist
Wolf Hall (listed above)
Finch
The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
White is for Witching
Asterios Polyp
Blame
Flying
Every Man Dies Alone
Brothers
Customer's Top 10 Purchased
The Lost Symbol (listed above)
The Twilight Saga Collection
Going Rogue
Liberty and Tyranny (listed above)
Breaking Dawn
Outlier
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man (listed above)
Eclipse
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
Cook Yourself Thin (listed above)
Borders
Editor's Top 10 Fiction Favorites
Half Broke Horses
Last Night in Twisted River
Chronic City
That Old Cape Magic
The Children's Book
The Angel's Game
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
A Reliable Wife
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
(From what I've noticed and heard on the literary scene, Border's editors got it right with their list of top fiction picks.)
Customer's Top 10 Rated
Dead and Gone (listed above)
Boneman's Daughters
Lover Avenged: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood
A Passion Denied
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Vision in White
Rooftops of Tehran
Afraid
The Associate
If these lists aren't enough to add length to your to-read lists then get ready for the upcoming year and lots of great new titles coming our way!
I hope you've enjoyed what I've brought to you this year, and I look forward to reading with you in the new year! Have a happy, safe New Year's... see you in 2010!
xo,
The Coconut Librarian
(photo from Vogue.com)
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