{"id":2810,"date":"2012-07-02T12:55:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T16:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=2810"},"modified":"2012-07-02T12:55:57","modified_gmt":"2012-07-02T16:55:57","slug":"my-recent-reads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/reading\/my-recent-reads\/","title":{"rendered":"My recent reads."},"content":{"rendered":"

A while back, I mentioned that I’d heard a reading by Audrey Niffenegger \u2013 author of The Time Traveler’s Wife<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A good read - the short story is even better.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a wonderful story about the death \u2013 and afterlife \u2013 of independent book stores.\u00a0 I’ve just discovered it’s available to listen to on NPR <\/a>\u2013 National Public Radio \u2013 site. I don’t know if this will work for those of you outside the US \u2013 but it’s worth a try. The reading is that good \u2013 and there’s some pretty good music on the recording as well.<\/p>\n

Listening to it got me to thinking about the books I am currently reading. I do tend to read a lot of big name best sellers- but also books by lesser known authors as well. There’s no telling where you will find a real gem.<\/p>\n

So here are a few recommendations for you from my recent reading\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A hero to die for - thank you Sue Moorcroft.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Love and Freedom : Sue Moorcroft<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have read most (if not all) of Sue Moorcroft’s <\/a>books. They are contemporary romances \u2013 with a light touch of humour.<\/p>\n

But that’s not why I read them.<\/p>\n

I read them because of the heroes. Sue writes THE best heroes.<\/p>\n

I don’t think I’ve ever gone past chapter two without falling just a bit in love with the hero\u2026 and this book is no exception. Who could fail to fall in love with a hero who is smart and funny and honourable and caring \u2013 and did I mention drop down dead gorgeous.<\/p>\n

Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A terrific read - but not for the faint-hearted<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Never Coming Home : Evonne Wareham<\/strong><\/p>\n

This book recently won the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s award for a first novel. I’m not surprised.<\/p>\n

It’s romantic suspense and had me totally gripped from the first page. Each time I thought I had figured it out, another plot twist took me by surprise.<\/p>\n

It’s … gritty in places,\u00a0which is a good thing in the context of the book. I like that grittiness, but some might not.<\/p>\n

And again \u2013 a fabulous hero.<\/p>\n

If this is a first novel <\/a>\u2013 I can hardly wait for the next. I’ll be pre-ordering it the day it hits the website.<\/p>\n

Definitely recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A Dance With Dragons : George R R Martin<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This epic fantasy has become hugely popular on the back of the Game of Thrones TV series (and with Sean Bean setting the stage who was surprised?).<\/p>\n

I was introduced to George R R Martin <\/a>years ago \u2013 with a fabulous book called Fevre Dream. It’s about vampires \u2013 but was written long before Twilight or Vampire Diaries or True Blood It was the first book I read where the vampire was a hero.<\/p>\n

Game of Thrones \u2013 or as the books are called : Song of Ice and Fire \u2013 is just amazing. The story is so complex, yet so well-dawn that it seems totally real.<\/p>\n

There are two more books to come to finish the story. Martin takes a long time to write each book (they are the size of a house brick) \u2013 but it is absolutely well worth the wait.<\/p>\n

– what’s more recommended than highly recommended?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
This one made a flight pass very quickly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sweethearts’ Knitting Club : Lori Wilde<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since coming to the US, I’ve begun reading “small town” book series \u2013 a sequence of novels all set in the same location, with recurring characters but a complete story to each book.<\/p>\n

I think\u00a0 I like the small town books because I grew up in a small town. This one was fun.<\/p>\n

The Sweethearts’ Knitting Club is the first in a series set in a town called Twilight, Texas<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0There is a nice vein of humour going through it. The heroing is engaging… and the hero is a bad boy turned good, which is never a bad thing.<\/p>\n

It made for good plane reading \u2013 but it didn’t touch me as much as the series done by other authors such as Jodi Thomas and Robyn Carr.<\/p>\n

And enjoyable easy read.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Keeping Faith : Jodi Picoult<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
I didn't think this was one of her best - but she is never bad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As always in a Jodi Picoult <\/a>novel, there’s a child, a court case and questions of faith and morality.<\/p>\n

I enjoy the way she writes, but in this case I really didn’t warm to the heroine.<\/p>\n

I read and write books about strong women. I don’t care if she doesn’t start the book as a strong woman \u2013 but she’s got to show signs of becoming one.<\/p>\n

The heroine on this book allowed everyone to just walk all over her \u2013 her ex-husband, mother, lover. \u00a0As the book progressed, she just didn’t find the inner strength I wanted her to have.<\/p>\n

Not one of Jodi Picoult’s best books \u2013 I wouldn’t recommend it \u2013 but it won’t stop me from reading others.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And finally \u2013 what am I reading right now..<\/p>\n

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gripping and gritty - not at all romantic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I know this seems a strange addition to the list above.<\/p>\n

Ira Levin<\/a> is probably best known for Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives and Boys From Brazil\u2026 none of which is light hearted or romantic.<\/p>\n

A Kiss before Dying was his first novel. It won an Edgar award and is considered an American crime classic. Written in 1953, the writing style is a little dated\u2026 but that really doesn\u2019t matter. It is gripping.<\/p>\n

It’s not a comfortable read \u2013 but it’s not supposed to be. I’m a little over a third of the way through and have a nasty suspicion that there are shocks to come.<\/p>\n

I would recommend this one \u2013 but only if you can handle getting up close and personal with the mind of a murderer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A while back, I mentioned that I’d heard a reading by Audrey Niffenegger \u2013 author of The Time Traveler’s Wife. It was a wonderful story about the death \u2013 and afterlife \u2013…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}