Recommended Reading

My 2018 reading challenge includes a book recommended by a librarian. I have several librarian friends who recommend good books. I also look to www.libraryreads.org for suggestions. The January BookPage: America’s Book Review included the “2017 Favorite of Favorites,” chosen from “the 110 books to make the LibraryReads list in 2017, here are the ten which received the most votes from public library staff across the country.” The ten books include the following:

News of the World by Paulette Jiles, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, Eleanor Oliphant by Gail Honeyman, Glass Houses by Louise Penny, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, The Radium Girls by Kate Moore, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult, Bear Town by Fredrik Backman and The Dry by Jane Harper.

Out of those books, I have read News of the World by Paulette Jiles, Eleanor Oliphant by Gail Honeyman, Glass Houses by Louise Penny, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, and Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult. All of these books are excellent reads.

I read half of Bear Town by Fredrik Backman and gave up. I was disappointed that Bear Town did not keep my attention since I like Fredrik Backman’s other works. I first read A Man Called Ove and truly fell in love with the characters and the story. Liking A Man Called Ove led me to seek Backman’s other books. I read My Grandmother Asked to Tell You She’s Sorry. It is good, but did not grab me the way A Man Called Ove did. Then I read Britt-Marie Was Here. Britt-Marie is quite a fascinating character. She takes people very literally and she is punctual and follows rules. As a result, she expects others to be like her. Backman’s novella And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer gives us the story of an elderly man trying to hold onto his memories. I want everyone to read this book!

I did give Bear Town a fair trial. I did not like the way the teenagers acted, the drug use, the denigration of females, or the sexual assault. As a result, I quit reading half-way through the book. I will try Backman’s next book.

My genre of choice is fiction. However, I do read selected nonfiction books. I started reading Flowers of the Killer Moon by David Grann last fall. I found it difficult to read because of the atrocities and stopped, but I am now in a new book club that will be discussing the book in February, so I am giving the book another chance. I know the horrors have not changed. The book is important, so I am giving it another try.

The Radium Girls certainly continues to garner a great deal of attention. I read about it and am interested in the story, so I will choose it for one of my nonfiction reads this year along with Killers of the Flower Moon.

Jane Harper’s The Dry has been on my to read list for some time. Recently, I was in my local branch library to pick up some books I had requested when I noticed a hardback copy of The Dry on the sale shelf in the entry to the library. I bought the copy, so now I must read it. I was somewhat surprised to see the book being discarded from the library since it is still in high demand.

This list of ten books gives me some pause for thought simply because the list is eclectic. Louise Penny’s stories featuring Chief Inspector Gamache and the lively cast of characters who live in Three Pines are certainly absorbing. I enjoy seeing the old friends in the stories. Glass Houses is particularly suspenseful and draws upon an ancient Spanish custom of shaming a debtor. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine certainly held my attention. Eleanor has a mysterious past that readers discover in bits and pieces as the story unfolds.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is a must-read book! The intricately woven story of two families and what happens when people keep secrets keeps readers interested to the end. Ng is a writer to watch. Anthony Horotwiz is a brilliant writer and TV producer. He has written Magpie Murders with a bit of tongue-in-cheek. The story within the story is captivating and great fun. Paulette Jiles’ News of the World is another captivating story of kindness to a young orphan. Johanna has been living with a band of Kiowa Indians after they killed her parents and sister. Now, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is asked to return Johanna to an aunt in San Antonio from Wichita Falls, TX. This story is well worth reading.

Regardless of where one finds recommendations, good books abound. Occasionally, simply browsing the shelves at the local library or bookstore will yield an excellent choice! That happened to me recently at my library. I was returning some books and did not have one ready from my request list, so I started looking at books on the shelf. A book a librarian had stood up stood out, so I checked it out: The Stone Wife by Peter Lovesey. That happenstance has led me to a series I am now reading.