Looking for Some New Books to Read

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is one of the best books ever! Fall of the Giants is his new book and the 1st in a series of three...not as good as Pillars, but good.

Stieg Larsson's Dragon Tattoo series is very good. I wasn't going to read it because of all the hype it has gotten, but I'm glad I did.

I also like Carl Hiaasen's books. If you like Florida and the environment, and have a bit of twisted sense of humor, you should like his books.

One of my friends is reading The Help, and says it is great...it's next on my list.
Happy Reading!

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I am really enjoying Ken Follet's latest, "Fall of Giants," which evidently is starting a trilogy he's writing. I love his books -both the suspenseful ones and the historical ones. He's very well known for "Pillars of the Earth" and "World Without End" -both of which I highly recommend. Here is a list of some of my all-time favorites if you haven't read them before (and I totally second "The Help" -great book!):

The Red Tent -Anita Diamant
A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules -John Irving
Confederacy of Dunces -John Kennedy Toole
She's Come Undone, I Know This Much is True and The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
The Prince of Tides, The Water is Wide, The Great Santini -Pat Conroy
Jitterbug Perfume, Another Roadside Attraction -and really most of Tom Robbins' books

If you like fast, suspense reads I highly recommend Jonathan Kellerman, Lee Child and Harlan Coben. Carl Hiassen is AWESOME and very, very funny and Tim Dorsey also follows along the same lines. James Lee Burke is one of both my husband's and my favorite authors -especially the Dave Robicheaux series -all set in Louisiana in and around New Orleans.

Also -Tom Perrotta, "The Abstinence Teacher" and "Little Children" -although for once I have to say I loved the film "Little Children" almost as much as the book.

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I'm reading George Bush's new book Decision Points. Love it.

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Iona Moon by Melanie Rae Thon
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Lucky by Alice Sebold

Authors I love: Stewart Woods, Brad Thor, Kay hooper, Michael Connolly

Let us know what u pick and how u like it!

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Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon is my all time favorite! It is historical fantasy with drama, mystery, romance and a bit of thriller/horror to boot all wrapped up in one adventure after another.

Loved the twilight series & didn't think I would.

I liked another book, can't remember the author, but I think the titke was The seat beside me.....drama, spiritual

A child called it was good too, but very disturbing.

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I just read "The Help" by Kathryn Socket (I think that's the spelling of the author's name). Awesome book.

I like scifi/fantasy, so if you like that, try Guy Gavriel Kay. His Fionvar Tapestry triology is the best. His other early works (Lions of Al Rasan, A Song For Arbonne).

Lois McMaster Bujold is an excellent author. Her Miles Vorkosigan series (scifi) is wonderful and she has some great fantasy stand-alone books.

Non-fiction--if you have dogs, I recommend "Good Old Dog," a new "owner's guide" that is simply & clearly written on helping aging dogs live to their fullest and common issues they face.

Also, if you like reading, check out the social network site www.goodreads.com. It's awesome!

I second Jane Austen, and if you like Jane Austen, and myteries, check out the Jane Austen Mysteries series by Stephanie Barron. Excellent fun.

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It really depends on what types of stories you enjoy. One of my favorite authors is Julie Garwood and she has a variety of different types of novels, everything from historical romance with some action/adventure and current suspense novels. A few of my favs are Ransom, Saving Grace (both historical action/adventures/romance) and Killjoy (current cop type thriller).

Nora Roberts has some good mystery thriller type stuff and she does romance too.

Mary HIggins Clark is a great mystery writer (and mysteries are not my fav!)

Dean Koontz is my all time fav author and he is definitely in the thriller category. If you like edge of your seat suspense Intensity is really a nailbiter, but anything of his is great for a horror/thriller fan.

Half Price books is a great place to go when you are stuck for something to read. I go an start reading backs of the paperback books!

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I read the Help, Wednesday sisters, Look Again and Firefly lane for my book club. I liked all of them a lot. Another mama was asking about books. Here is a list of my favorite authors. I just got the newest Susan Elizabeth Phillips book. It was wonderful. Made me laugh out loud.

I love the following. I will try to put them in genre's These are my favorites and I go to the bookstore the day they come out. they are all good reads. if you want just light fluff make you laugh go for janet evanavitch quirky funny characters

Romance
Nora Roberts she has a lot of trilogy sets my fav is the Chesapeake series
which she later added another one too so there are 4 lol but you can get them all in one book now. she has a vampire series a demon series and a couple of witch series. but they can all be read as stand alones also. she is my #1 favorite author.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips has about 20 books which will make you laugh out loud till you cry. has a loosely put together series about a fictious football team called the chicago stars.
Susan Wiggs
Elizabeth Lowell does both current and historical all stand alones with some characters floating between books
Judith McNaught
Judith Michael
Jude Deveraux loads of books with characters from 2 different families floating between as well as a bunch of other stand alone books

Julie Garwood favorite series is called the rose series 2 novels and then 3 smaller novella's
Jayne Ann Krentz loads of trilogies and stand alones with some characters that float between books
Mystery
Nora Roberts
J.D. Robb (nora roberts writing under different name lol futuristic crime drama starring eve dallas )
Julie Garwood
Kay Hooper (really creepy paranormal stuff) the bishop series I think there are about 10 or 12 of them now
Catherine Coulter the fbi thrillers
Lisa Scottoline
Iris Johansen the eve duncan series is great
Lee Child
Harlan Coban
Legal Thrillers
John Grisham
David Baldacci
Historical Romance
Amanda Quick (jayne ann krentz writing under different name)
paranormal futuristic romance
Jayne Castle (jayne ann krentz)
children's literature which I also enjoyed
all J. K Rowling harry potter books
lois lowry the Giver which I just found out has 2 more books loosely associated with it.

good luck

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My new favorite author is Sarah Addison Allen. She has three books out: Garden Spells, Sugar Queen, and The Girl Who Chased the Moon. All three are excellent, but my personal favorite is Garden Spells.

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Ken Follet is my favorite author. Loved all his books but "Pillars of the Earth and World without End" are two of my all time favorites.
Other favorite authors where I have enjoyed pretty much all of their books are: Robert Ludlum, Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter, Lee Child, Harlen Coben, John Lescoart, James Paterson (very easy reads), Vince Flynn, Julie Garwood, Lisa Scotoline
other books I recently read and loved include:
Sarah's Key
Picking Cotton (true story)

Read "The Help" I recommend it but I can not say I loved it.

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I'm currently in love with the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong. It starts out with werewolves, and then eventually there's witches and necromancers and stuff, but not too horrory.

If you like Harry Potter, my husband and I just finished the Percy Jackson series, which was pretty good.

He also cant quit talking about World War Z, which is a book retelling the Zombie War, he isnt a real big reader and he loved it.

I also loved the Poison Study series by Maria Snyder. It starts with Poison Study, then Magic Study, then Fire Study, then spins off into a series about someone else from that universe.

What about OLD books as new books? I'm into Jane Austen, Dorothy Sayers, and Charles Dickens right now.

I love John Maxwell books. They inspire me!

I didn't read through all your responses, but briefly scanned and didn't see 'Still Alice' by Lisa Genova. Seriously, one of the best books I've ever read! Others I've enjoyed recently are 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' series by Stieg Larsson, 'The Next Thing on my List' by Jill Smolinski, 'Good Grief' and 'Happiness Sold Separately' by Lolly Winston, 'Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons' by Lorna Landvik, 'Little Bee' by Chris Cleave, 'The Other Boleyn Girl' by Phillipa Gregory, 'The Time Traveler's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger, and 'Water for Elephants' by Sara Gruen. Happy reading!!

I love Jodi Picoult books! some of her best are Plain Truth, Change of Heart, Handle with Care, and My Sisters Keeper.

I also loved the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer (I didn't think I would like these, but they were addicting!!)

I agree with the postings about The Help, and Memoirs of a Geisha. Also the Outlander book by Diana Gabaldon is not only fantastic, it's a series! They are all wonderful.
I would also recommend
The Kitchen House-Kathleen Grissom
Unbroken-Laura Hildebrand (Hillenbrand? sorry)
Shanghai Girls-Lisa See
The Poisonwood Bible-Barbara Kingsolver
The Memory Keeper's Daughter-Kim Edwards
The Lake of Dreams-Kim Edwards
Middlesex-Jeffrey Eugenides
The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns-Khaled Hosseini
Angela's Ashes-Frank McCourt
Friday Night Knitting Club-Kate Jacobs
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood-Rebecca Wells
The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder-Rebecca Wells
Dirty Secret-Jessie Sholl

I love anything by: Jodi Picoult, Greg Iles, Jeffrey Deaver & James Patterson
I have also found that a lot of Oprah's book club picks (even though I don't like Oprah) are usually good reads.
I read constantly (in case you couldn't tell) so feel free to contact me anytime!

Updated

I agree with the postings about The Help, and Memoirs of a Geisha. Also the Outlander book by Diana Gabaldon is not only fantastic, it's a series! They are all wonderful.
I would also recommend
The Kitchen House-Kathleen Grissom
Unbroken-Laura Hildebrand (Hillenbrand? sorry)
Shanghai Girls-Lisa See
The Poisonwood Bible-Barbara Kingsolver
The Memory Keeper's Daughter-Kim Edwards
The Lake of Dreams-Kim Edwards
Middlesex-Jeffrey Eugenides
The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns-Khaled Hosseini
Angela's Ashes-Frank McCourt
Friday Night Knitting Club-Kate Jacobs
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood-Rebecca Wells
The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder-Rebecca Wells
Dirty Secret-Jessie Sholl

I love anything by: Jodi Picoult, Greg Iles, Jeffrey Deaver & James Patterson
I have also found that a lot of Oprah's book club picks (even though I don't like Oprah) are usually good reads.
I read constantly (in case you couldn't tell) so feel free to contact me anytime!

I like Debbie Macomber's books.
Check out eharliquin.com they have amazing sales and free book Fridays. The selection is incredible, not all romance.

The Christian bookstores have a wide variety of wonderful novels, anywhere from romance, history, mystery, to etc. They are not highly religious and are not devoted to any particular religion or denomination. I read them and pass them on to neighbors and they love them.

I LOVED Eat Pray Love, Tales of a Geisha, No Touch Monkey.

Light reads if you like mysteries are anything by Robert Parker or Lisa Scottoline. LIsa Scottoline writes legal mysteries that I love. Robert Parker just passed away but he wrote an amazing number of books.

The Shack
Bo's Cafe
She's Come Undone

I also loved The Help.

Everything by Ann Patchett is wonderful; Bel Canto is my favorite.

I'm reading Jane Eyre right now. It's very good, but wow, it's long.

Another long one that is worth reading is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It's phenomenal. A shorter one by Ayn Rand that I loved and that I have also taught to students is Anthem.

Other books that I currently teach students and love reading over and over are The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1984, and The Crucible (it's a play, but it's fabulous).

Happy reading!

Just wanted to put my two cents in. I have been reading Christian fiction, and anything by Lynn Austin is spectacular. Right now I am reading a great series written by Lauraine Snelling called the Red River series. It is so good! There are five books in the first and then there are three other series that follow the same characters. I also love the Diana Gabaldon series (never thought I would), and the Jean Auel series is great, too.

Any book by Janet Evanovich. They are good mysteries & make me laugh out loud at times.

I'm almost done with "The lovely bones". Good read. I also love "A child called it" and his other two books "The lost boy" and "A man named Dave".

Pride and Predjudice by Jane Austen

Paper Bag Christmas & Nine Lessons by: Kevin Alan Milne

The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton, is a great story that takes place at a grand English manor and has a mystery at its heart.

Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, is a big, romantic, trashy novel that is of the very highest quality. Everybody who reads it loves it. Time travel and romance; awesome.

The Help, by Katherine (?) Stockett, is a great book about the racist South in the 50s or 60s, about the relationship between white women and their black housekeepers.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by I-forget-who, is a great book about what happened on a small English island during German occupation.

Enjoy!