Library Book Recommendations

[RadioFanatic]

I just joined a library (yeah!) and I would like recommendations for books that would be there - i.e., not necessarily really new books. I love romance, historical fiction, sci fi, mystery - pretty much anything but non-fiction. Along with your recommendation, can I have a brief synopsis and why you liked it - thanks!

 

[poohluvrs]

Just wanted to write, in my area you can search the local library catalog online & request books online too, HTH

Check the NYT bestseller list, often times your local library will have a few copies!

 

[disneyeveryyear]

I love the Janet Evanovich series about Stephanie Plum.

One for the Money
Two for the Dough.....

There are currently eleven books.

Stephanie is a female bounty hunter who sort of on again off again dates a cop.

Fun books, a little mystery, a little romance, just light easy reading.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids all in a Row

From BTVS and focus in on Spike and Dru, very fun story and does not hurt to know the show

 

[simba928]

Any book by Nicholas Sparks is good. My favorite though is The Rescue. It is about a woman who is in a car accident and they can't find her son who was in the car with her. It is a love story of the woman and the guy that finds her son.
Another great book that I just finished is A Bend in the Road, also by Nicholas Sparks. It's about a sheriff who's wife was killed in a car accident and has to raise his young son. He falls in love with a woman while he is trying to solve the case of who was driving the car that killed is wife. It's a love story, but also has a small bit of mystery mixed into it.
I also read Rosie Dunne by Cecelia Ahern (I think thats how you spell her name). It is about a girl and a guy who met when they were real young and became best friends. Everyone thinks they are met for eachother except for them. They grow up and go their own ways, each marrying someone else and having kids. The interesting thing about the book is that it is all written in letters and e-mails that were sent between the characters in the book. It's worth reading, too.

 

[Disneyfan63]

Hi, RadioFanatic,

In my area, too you can search the local county library's catalog and request books online. You can get lists of recommended books by author (i.e., "if you like _______, you may also like"). If you do a web search for a specific genre (e.g., romance, historical fiction, science fiction, etc.), you'll be shown several web links related to that genre. Hope this helps!

Jim

 

[caitycaity]

i love centennial by james michener.

 

[RadioFanatic]

thanks to everyone so far and I would love to hear more recommendations!

 

[rigs32]

Since everyone's taste is a little different, I suggest you use amazon.com to get ideas. You can rate books and they will recommend other things based on your taste. I've found some wonderful books and authors that way. (psst - and then I get the books from the library rather than buy them)

 

[Karel]

Memoirs of a Geisha - very exotic and foreign. Just completely different.

Anything by Flannie Flagg. She wrote Fried Green Tomatoes. A Redbird Christmas was a short but very lovely read. She writes about the south and has great characters.

Harry Potter series. Just amazing in terms of fantasy and imagination.

I Don't Know How She Does It, The Devil Wears Prada and Nanny Diaries. Books about working women with over the top characters and 'interesting' work situations.

Betty Smith wrote Joy in the Morning and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Older stories, one about a woman who gets married and moves to a college campus so her husband can become a lawyer and a girl growing up in Brooklyn.

I suggest you go to the library and just 'browse' !!!

 

[Pooh67_68]

Do you like scary? any thing by Stephen King.

 

[jellymanoffspring]

Time and again by Jack Finney

I enjoyed this book...science fiction, time travel, NYC history etc.
below is a review I found...I did not agree that it was slow at first ....
Carol in NJ

I usually shy away from time travel books. Too hokey for my tastes, but Time and Again was one of the 3 time travel themed books I enjoyed and one of my favorite books of all time (no pun intended). The first few chapters are little slow, but it picks up. Of course it helps that I love NYC, it's architecture and people. Reading the passages where Finney gets into detailed descriptions of the city never ceases to enthrall me. While I was reading the book originally, I happened to work a few blocks from the house where Julia "lived" and I'd pass by on my lunch hour. I felt like I was looking at the city through new eyes. Walking in Central Park after the first big snow, the city strangely silent, it is so easy to imagine a different time period and then you hear the harness bells and hoof beats of one of the city's horse 'n buggy, you almost have to shake yourself. This book isn't just for lovers of NYC though. One of the things I loved most about this book is that although it's fiction, Finney's mix of history and photography give it an incredible touch of authenticity. Also the author doesn't romanticize the past. Finney's New York comes to life with it's crowded sometimes dangerous conditions, smells (delicious or repugnant), sounds and sights. It's heartening to know that it always took an insane amount of time to get cross-town. Do yourself a favor and get through the first few chapters, this is a good read.

 

[HeatherinNC]

I really enjoy Irish author Maeve Binchy. She's a wonderful storyteller. Her books take place in Ireland and follow the lives of several people and their relationships, romantic and otherwise. I wouldn't call them romantic novels, per se. They are more than that. Hard to describe. Ever see the movie "Circle of Friends" with Minnie Driver? The movie was based on a book of hers.
A good place for ideas is Oprah's Book Club. Her website may have a list of the books she recommends, and judging by the ones I have read, she has pretty good taste.

 

[jellymanoffspring]

I really enjoy Irish author Maeve Binchy. She's a wonderful storyteller. Her books take place in Ireland and follow the lives of several people and their relationships, romantic and otherwise. I wouldn't call them romantic novels, per se. They are more than that. Hard to describe. Ever see the movie "Circle of Friends" with Minnie Driver? The movie was based on a book of hers.
A good place for ideas is Oprah's Book Club. Her website may have a list of the books she recommends, and judging by the ones I have read, she has pretty good taste.

Yes, Yes, Yes.....
I was going to add her also.....
I just LOVE all of her books!!!!!!

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

The Redwall series by Brian Jacques
The DaVinci Code
Eats, Shoots and Leaves--I forget who this is by, but it's a hilarious book all about..you guessed it. Punctuation.

TOV

 

[JennInTN]

For mindless, historical romance I enjoy Jude Devereux. Her "Velvet" series, there are four, were amoung my favorite. These introduce the Montgomery family. I LOVED A Knight In Shining Armour and Sweet Liar. Her first, I believe, was The Enchanted Land, this one was written under a different publisher. It was my first (I got hooked on a solo trip to Walt Disney World in `92). I bought every used book I could get my hands on for 2 or 3 years in college. I will say that I have not enjoyed the Devereux books of more recent years, maybe just a change in my tastes.

I'll also plug Sandra Brown's Texas! trilogy. (Lucky, then Chase, finally Sage)

I am a huge fan of Patricia Cornwell. Her Scarpetta books are terrific. This is of the Forensic Science genre. I'll try to come up with list If you'd like me to PM it to you.

You have limitless possibilities. ENJOY!

 

[bcvgal]

bump for more input

 

[Jessie]

The whole series of 'Flowers In The Attic' by Viginia Adams

 

[Pooh67_68]

The whole series of 'Flowers In The Attic' by Viginia Adams

Do you mean Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews?

 

[jellymanoffspring]

I just found this book at our library this summer....I enjoyed it and the authors style of writing...so I plan to get more of her books from the library.

I don't know if your libraries borrow from one another , in our county if one town library does not have the book you want they get it delivered from another town....there is even an online site for you to see all of the towns in the counties holdings!! It is fantastic!!

Happy reading! Carol


Lucia Lucia by Adraina Trigiani
(Random House, 2003)

Set in the glittering, vibrant New York City of 1950, Lucia, Lucia is the enthralling story of a passionate, determined young woman whose decision to follow her heart changes her life forever.

Lucia Sartori is the beautiful twenty-five-year-old daughter of a prosperous Italian grocer in Greenwich Village. The postwar boom is ripe with opportunities for talented girls with ambition, and Lucia becomes an apprentice to an up-and-coming designer at chic B. Altman’s department store on Fifth Avenue. Engaged to her childhood sweetheart, the steadfast Dante DeMartino, Lucia is torn when she meets a handsome stranger who promises a life of uptown luxury that career girls like her only read about in the society pages. Forced to choose between duty to her family and her own dreams, Lucia finds herself in the midst of a sizzling scandal in which secrets are revealed, her beloved career is jeopardized, and the Sartoris’ honor is tested.

Lucia is surrounded by richly drawn New York characters, including her best friend, the quick-witted fashion protégé Ruth Kaspian; their boss, Delmarr, B. Altman’s head designer and glamorous man-about-town; her devoted brothers, Roberto, Orlando, Angelo, and Exodus, self-appointed protectors of the jewel of the family; and her doting father, Antonio. Filled with the warmth and humor that have earned Adriana Trigiani hundreds of thousands of devoted readers with her Big Stone Gap trilogy, Lucia, Lucia also bursts with a New York sensibility that shows the depth and range of this beloved author. As richly detailed as the couture garments Lucia sews, as emotional as the bonds in her big Italian family, it is the story of one woman who believes that in a world brimming with so much promise, she can—and should be able to—have it all.