Last year, I started a survey to find out what readers of my books like to read. I include a link to the survey when I welcome new subscribers to my email list.
It’s an eclectic collection. I was surprised to see so much fantasy among the favorites. Maybe readers of my current books will be interested in the next one. It’s not exactly fantasy, but it’s a departure from realistic literary fiction. I’ve just finished a final draft and I’m getting feedback for the next step. Stay tuned for more.
If you want something new from me immediately, see the just-published short story “Ramps Season,” which appears in Issue 16 of Typehouse. The link is to download a PDF where you can read the story along with all the other great ones in the issue.
If you haven’t participated yet, take the survey or let me know in the comments about some of your all-time favorite reading material.
Below, both visually and as a list with Goodreads links, are a couple of the categories I asked about. Sorry I couldn’t link each cover individually. Too tedious!
CATEGORY 1: Best book you read last year
CATEGORY 2: Favorite book of all time
List with links
A Ring of Endless Light
A Wrinkle in Time
And Then There Were None
Diary of Anne Frank
Eloy’s Discovery
Forever Amber
Forever Road
Gone with the Wind
Jane Eyre
Kingdom of Ash
Kitchens of the Great Midwest
Outlander Series
Positive Intelligence
Queen of Air and Darkness
Salvage the Bones
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Solomon’s Gold
Station Eleven
The Bell Jar
The Body Farm
The Firm
The Girl in the Box series
The Help
The Hobbit
The Keeper of Lost Things
The Nightingale
The Once and Future King
The Shining
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle
Travels With Charlie
Trials of Magic
Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?
Discovering new books
The best thing about the survey is that, thanks to my readers, I now have a great start on my 2019 TBR pile. I also have been following The Book Stop, which reviews books of all kinds and usually posts a couple of times a week. (Last year, she reviewed Tiny Shoes Dancing.) The reviews are in-depth and thoughtful. Plus, I’m in awe of anyone who can read so much!
AUDREY KALMAN 
I’ve read a few of these. My favorite of the ones listed is The Nightingale by Kristan Hannah. I listened to an audio version, which had a wonderful narrator. Briefly it’s the story of two sisters in France before WWII. The story is told alternatively through each of them, so it is historical fiction from a woman’s point of view, heavy on the day to day hardships of food lines, the hiding of Jewish children, the tension of Nazi officers in their midst. Really well done, even though I’m not a historian and cannot attest to historical accuracies. I recently finished Alice McDermott’s Someone, a short novel. The novel follows a woman named Marie from her childhood to old age, using episodes that go back and forth in time. It’s a “simple” story, taking what might otherwise be considered an ordinary life and making it extraordinary by its intimacy.
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Okay, I think “The Nightingale” has to go to the top of the TBR pile. I have heard raves from several other people. And thanks for mentioning “Someone.” It sounds like something I would enjoy!
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Interestingly, I also read or rather listened to The Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah, assuming it would be as stellar as The Nightingale. It wasn’t. It was quite melodramatic and none of the characters was likable. A bit of a shock since I was imagining as an ardent fan of Hannah. Just goes to show no one is perfect(?) 😉
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I’ve had that experience too, with different books from authors I love. True that no one is perfect and we shouldn’t expect it from authors (although one would hope that the editing/publishing process might help hone less-than-perfect ideas into more appealing ones!).
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Exactly. The Winter Garden was a strange novel compared to The Nightingale. Hannah is a bit of a history hound (she really does her research), and I might have given up on The Winter Garden if it hadn’t been for the story within the story, the mother’s story of growing up in Stalin’s Russia, the hardships and losses. If you’re tempted, I’d recommend just getting a copy from the library and skipping the modern melodrama until you get to the Russia story. Then again, you already have a lot of books on your list 🙂
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