My Best Books

One of my favorite Young Adult books is called What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones. Ninth grader Sophie tells her story of love, friendship, and maturity. Living in suburban Massachusetts, Sophie deals with high school, boyfriends and familial relationships. Sophie meets Dylan and falls helplessly in love. She daydreams constantly about kissing him or holding him and they meet up for secret rendezvous' near school or wherever they can. Soon Sophie realizes there is a difference between instant love and lust. While her best friends are away on vacation, Sophie strikes up a friendship with Murphy, the class nerd. Although she is nervous that her friends with make fun of her, Sophie becomes aware that she genuinely likes Murphy.

Sones tells this story from Sophie's point of view and in beautiful, flowing poetry. While most conventional books are broken down into chapters, this book is a compilation of one to two page poems that tells the story. The titles of the poems describe its content and the text of the poems creates an honest, somber mood as Sophie learns life's hard lessons from her experiences. Sones sporadically surprises the reader by ending a poem with a shocking feeling of joy and laughter.

This very moving work of literature is also aesthetically pleasing to the reader. Combined with the attention-grabbing language, the chosen font and layout is easy to read quickly, clearly making this a page turner. Occasionally, the fonts will switch to connote a change in speaker which makes it very understandable to the reader. In the last twenty pages of the book, a small sketch of a man and woman dancing appears in the lower right hand corner. This sketch correlates to the text of the story when Sophie is speaking about a flip book. When one thumbs through these pages quickly, the sketch appears to be moving and the man is giving the woman a kiss. This work is suggested for girls and boys embarking on their high school experiences, but this timeless tale, with unique storytelling capabilities, would be appreciated by any young adult or adult reader.

Chick-Lit is a contemporary description of literature aimed especially for women and girls. They are usually about a woman who just wants to fall in love and have a successful relationship. Her work problems and family crisis are thrown in their as well. And they usually have an outrageously wealthy best friend. The novels I read in this genus usually have to do with fashion and journalism. Sometimes the protagonist is a fashion writer at a fictional magazine. One of my favorite books that fit this genre is "How to Sleep with a Movie Star" by Kristin Harmel.

I'll admit that it was the title that grabbed my attention. Some people judge books by their covers, but I judge them on how catchy the title is. I knew this book would be just the type I like to read.

The main character, Claire, works at Mod Magazine and is always interviewing Hollywood hotties. Claire's world becomes complicated when she mixes pleasure with business when she strikes up a friendship with one of Tinseltown's most eligible bachelors, Cole Brannon. When the photographers snap pictures of Claire leaving Cole's apartment, aspects of their ?relationship' is misconstrued in tabloid fodder. Claire feels that her job is in jeopardy as well as her reputation.

Any romantic driven female will definitely appreciate this book. They will relate to Claire on all levels and fall deeply in love with the book's main hunk, Cole. It is definitely the type of book you never want to end.

One of my favorite works of historical fiction is The Lady and the Unicorn which was beautifully, poetically, and magnificently written by Tracy Chevalier. The title refers to actual tapestries currently hanging in Paris's Musee National du Moyen-Age Thermes de Cluny. Chevalier weaves (pun intended) a fictitious tale surrounding the commission of these tapestries, the creation of the works of art, and the love, secrecy, and extraordinary efforts that went into making them. Nicholas des Innocents, tapestry maker, falls in love with the daughter of the wealthy man who hired him to weave the six elaborate scenes. Chevalier relays each character's story through their own narration, including Nicholas' current wife with whom he has three daughters (but no sons).

Chevalier is known for her amazing pieces of historical fiction. Her first novel Girl with a Pearl Earring was even made into a motion picture. The story centers around the real artist Johannes Vermeer and his fictitious house made that became the title character. Chevalier describes the forming forbidden relationship between master and servant and how it may cause trouble for each of them.

Chevalier chooses a time in history that usually has to do with an artistic, creative historical artifact. Her current novel, Burning Bright surrounds the formation of William Blake's poetic works, 'Songs of Innocence' and 'Songs of Experience' and how two small town children influenced his work.

One will fall in love with Chevalier's works and truly respond to the time of the story. Other historical fiction novels by Chevalier include: The Virgin Blue and Falling Angels.

As an avid reader, I have read a great deal of books. I would never call myself a 'book worm', but I like to settle into bed before I fall asleep and read a couple of pages (studies show this will help get a good night's rest, so turn off the TV and read). The genre of books I like to read varies immensely depending on my mood, what I pick up at the library, and what's on the best seller's list that week. My favorite type of book to read is currently labeled 'chick lit'. These novels revolve around a 20s-30s protagonist who must overcome an obstacle in her professional life while trying to land the perfect guy in her private life. Most females flock to these stories because who doesn't like a happy ending?

My other favorite genre is historical fiction. I think people dismiss these types of books too quickly. Though I am no history buff, I like when an author weaves in a fictional story during a historical era. The reader gains a vast amount of knowledge, while enjoying some leisure reading.

Lastly, another field of literature I enjoy reading are action/danger books. These mostly involve the CIA, scientists, the government, fighting, espionage, blackmail, deceit, kidnapping, and backstabbing.

Books are a method of escaping from reality. Some people use TV to do this, but the method of reading and visualizing at the same time allows one's creativity to imagine how the characters look in their own mind. I will be giving recommendations of good books to read according to different genres, as well as suggestions of how to search for books one likes to read.

Rare is the writer who can make a reader laugh out loud. Carl Hiaasen's exceptional humor can tickle the funny bone like no other.

The only writer in my collection to repeatedly make me laugh out loud is Carl Hiaasen. Technically, he doesn't even belong in the collection - he doesn't write a series with a repeating character and his lead character is usually not a detective (though it was in his first novel). But somewhere along the line the words, "funny," "hilarious," "wacky," and "hysterical," kept popping up in descriptions and reviews of Hiaasen's books so I made an exception and started at the beginning of the series. Hiaasen's been writing fiction for over 20 years (he was a reporter before trying his hand at novels) and his first attempt - "Tourist Season" - came out in 1986. That was where I started.

Hiaasen is a master of the absurd - no one can take a "serious" matter like saving the environment and turn it into an exercise of comic relief quite like Carl Hiaasen can. Hiaasen's books take place in South Florida, a popular venue for writers, and the author is fixated on one idea - the unfortunate and tragic reality of the natural, beautiful landscape of the area being taken over and destroyed by "progress," construction, and civilization. Hiassen's characters are quixotic and determined, off-beat yet intelligent and they tilt at the windmills of the blind and clueless establishment, vexing and hand-tying them by the end of every book. This description does nothing to explain the sheer silliness and bizarreness of most of the scenes and plots of Hiaasen's books. They bomb along at an out-of-control pace, taking no prisoners, and leaving the reader shaking his or her head. The humor is not for everyone - too absurd for some and too gross for others - but beneath the insane scenarios, Hiaasen's stellar writing is the real basis of his fame and fortune. His books tend to be the same after a while - recycled plots and characters - but he can still get a giggle out of me every single time.

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone books are an easy, addictive pleasure. One can only hope the alphabet - and the series - goes past "Z."

I have to admit that there aren't many female authors in my collection. A couple have been added in the last few years (S. J. Rozan comes to mind) but only one has been in it from the beginning - Sue Grafton. I started reading Grafton's Kinsey Milhone "alphabet" series years before I started my collection so it went without saying that I'd fill in the blanks and that her stellar series would have a starring place on the shelf.

Grafton launched her series - with "A is for Alibi" in 1982 and she is currently working on "T is for Trespass," which is due out in hardcover at the end of this year. The series is actually stuck in the 80's and takes place in a fictitious Californian coastal town called Santa Teresa. Kinsey is the best - she is a 30-ish, single, tough, unsentimental private eye who can get down and dirty with the best of ?em. She is totally self-aware, knows her limitations, and is happy to tease herself about all of them. She is a loner ? like every hard-boiled private eye should be - and Grafton has taken pains to let her social/love life evolve slowly over the course of 25 years. Kinsey has softened somewhat over time but only a bit; essentially, she hasn't really changed mht since the series began and I think it's because her fans like her as she is - plucky, independent, brave, smart, cynical, jaded and no-frills. Everyone can relate to some aspect of Kinsey's personality and - in the end of each book - she always gets her man. The books are easy reading; not great literature but, at this point, classics of the genre. Grafton produces about one Kinsey book a year (maybe every 18 months), which means that in the decade to come the alphabet - and the series - will draw to a close. I don't want to think about it - I just look forward to the next entry.

James Crumley sure can write! His Milo Milodragovitch series - comprised of just four titles - is a gem in his illustrious crown.

James Crumley is one of the best writers in the crime/detective genre, yet he produces books only once every 5 years or so. As a matter of fact, in his great Milo Milodragovitch series there are only 4 books, written over a period of 25 years(!). Yes, the first book in the series - "The Wrong Case" - was written in 1975 and the most "recent" book - "The Final Country" - was written in 2001. What this means is that every Crumley fan knows that he has to savor and appreciate every book he reads because he doesn't know when the next one is going to come around the bend, if at all.

And, man, can Crumley write! For some reason - and I can't remember why - I didn't discover him until last year (more than 5 years after starting my collection), which is amazing considering that almost all his books are classics of the genre. But once I started, I gobbled down (definitely didn't savor) the 4 books in the Milo series within a matter of a few months; I finished "The Final Country" just a few days ago. Milo turns 60 years old in that book, but it seems like he's always been old before his time. Must be all the heavy drinking, fighting, drugs and women; Milo is as tough as nails and is always living on the edge. His books take place in Montana, the plots are original and convoluted, the characters - particularly Milo himself - are unforgettable. And the writing is pure genius - nobody turns a phrase or lays down a metaphor like James Crumley. What he brilliantly concocts is a combination of rough-and-tumble plots and brilliant imagery, spiced with humor and cynicism and a touch of self-effacing honesty. Crazy plots aside, you won't find better writing than Crumley's anywhere in the genre.

Crais combines humor and suspense in his Elvis Cole series. This is one no detective fan should miss.

I'm not sure I mentioned it, but back in the late 1980s a friend recommended Robert Parker's Spenser series and, in a way, that was the real beginning of my collection. I'm mentioning him now because the next series on my shelf - Robert Crais's Elvis Cole books - reminded me so much of Parker that it was a bit annoying at first. I like my detectives either funny or noir, with a leaning toward the former, so Elvis sounded just right to me when I first read about him (like Coben and Connelly before him, I had never heard of him until I started snooping around).

Spenser has Hawk and Elvis has Joe Pike but the similarities went beyond that coupling. The humor was the same - dry quips and smugness abound in both of the series. I started with "The Monkey's Raincoat," which took me back over 10 years to the beginning of the series and I worked my way through, watching the series get significantly better and better as it went along. By the time I was half-way through, Elvis's/Crais's voice was strong and independent and not reminiscent of anyone else in the genre. In fact, while Parker merely treads water these days, Crais and his characters keep developing and changing. By the time I was caught up, in 2003, Crais was publishing the seventh book in the series, "Indigo Slam," and I was a dedicated fan. Since then, he's written another three books to bring the series up to date (along with a number of best-selling stand-alone novels, which I haven't read) and, just a few months ago, he came out with "The Watchman," a Joe Pike novel, which I'll read even though it's not strictly part of the Elvis Cole series (it's allowable, though, 'cause Pike is a character in the Cole series). This is a series I had my doubts about at first but which has morphed into one of the strongest and best in my collection.

I broke some rules to get Cook into my collection but it was worth it. The Frank Clemons series is "just" a trilogy but it's a true classic.

About a year ago, I discovered that I was pretty much caught up with all the writers I started with back in 2002 and I had to expand my collection with new writers in order to have a constant flow of reading material. I abandoned Amazon and went into Google instead and discovered a super site for my purposes - The Thrilling Detective Website (subtitled "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Private Eyes and Other Tough Guys.") This site lists hundreds of PIs by their names (and not by authors) and I read through it carefully and picked out a few that I had missed over the years that sounded just right.

In order to make the final cut for my collection, an author had to be alive, American, and the series had to be ongoing. I've made exceptions over the years and one of them was for Thomas H. Cook's Frank Clemons series. When you read a description like - "These books are true classics of the genre, one of the truly great P.I. trilogies. With these three books Cook tapped into something truly special, slipped the surly bonds of a generally earth-bound genre and truly touched the face of the gods of the genre." - it's hard to ignore the allure. Thomas H. Cook is still writing but this series spanned 3 years only - 1988-1990 - and it clearly wasn't going to be revived. Nonetheless, I was smitten by the glowing portrayal, and I bought all 3 books - "Sacrificial Ground," "Flesh and Blood," and "Night Secrets"; it turned out that they really are classics. Frank Clemons, former police detective (like so many others in this genre), is the darkest of all the characters in my collection, more noir than noir (pitch noir, as it were). If it weren't for the superb writing, the series would be downright depressing but Cook's prose rises above the ordinary and sweeps you along with him. Because I'm such a stickler and such a series-freak, I haven't read any of Cook's other books but based on these three, I'd go so far as to recommend them blindly.

I've watched Micheal Connelly become semi-famous in the last few years and deservingly so. His Harry Bosch series is one the best in my collection.

As I've said, when I started looking for crime/detectives series I was a relative newbie so just like I had never heard of Harlan Coben I also never heard of Michael Connelly, whose series sits next to Coben's on my shelves. But everything I read about the Harry Bosch series, begun in 1992, sounded perfect. And it was - is. Like Coben, Connelly has gotten pretty well known in the last 5 years; his books are reviewed in the NY Times Book Review section, if that's any gauge. He is a super writer - one of the best. I like him so much that I even bought and read his last stand-alone novel, "The Lincoln Lawyer," which I liked in spite of myself.

But Harry is my true love. As soon as I read the first book in the series, "The Black Echo," I realized that this was a winner. Harry (Hieronymous) Bosch is a dark-souled cop, sort of like Dave Robicheaux but a tad less violent. Connelly used to be a crime reporter and his prose is spare and direct (nothing like Burke's flowery poetic writing). The books take place in L.A., the perfect, classic noir setting and Harry's dark persona is most fitting for the venue. Harry evolves throughout the books; he's a renegade cop and his off-again-on-again relationship with the force is an ongoing theme. I caught up with the series in 2003 at the 7th book, "A Darkness More Than Night," and I've been reading each one as they've been published. Thankfully, Connelly is a prolific writer and he keeps 'em coming at a rate of about one a year. I read his latest, "Echo Park," just a few weeks ago and it seems that Connelly and Bosch just keep getting better with age. The Harry Bosch series is one of the best in my collection; luckily Connelly is pretty young so I see a long future ahead for Harry and me.