Reading List
Books I Like
Go to Nonfiction
Here are some books I’ve read lately that I highly recommend.
Fiction (Contemporary)
I used to believe that life was too short for fiction. I was so intense and serious that I believed my reading time had to be spent productively, and to me, that meant with a nonfiction book. And as a former English major, I had this notion that all the good novels had been written prior to 1950—coincidentally, the year I was born—so I dismissed contemporary fiction as second-rate. Thankfully, a friend talked me into reading Susan Howatch’s Church of England series, and I’ve since read all six books twice. That made me realize how wrong I had been about contemporary novels.
Big Trouble, Dave Barry
Church of England series, also known as the Starbridge series, Susan Howatch. Specific titles, in order, are: Glittering Images, Glamorous Powers, Ultimate Prizes, Scandalous Risks, Mystical Paths, and Absolute Truths.
The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
Ghosts, Adrian Plass. A
hauntingly beautiful novel.
Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
Kay Scarpetta series, Patricia Cornwell. Specific titles, in order, are Postmortem, Body of Evidence, All That Remains, Cruel and Unusual, The Body Farm, From Potter's Field, Cause of Death, Unnatural Exposure, Point of Origin, Black Notice, and The Last Precinct.
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Peace Like a River, Leif Enger
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson
Because I write features and news for a publishing trade magazine, review books for the same magazine, and suffer from a lifelong addiction to reading, I go through a lot of books in a year. I can't possibly list all that I like, so I've tried to pare down this list to less-familiar titles and authors whose works are so appealing to me that I try to read everything they write. That's why I've separated the nonfiction list into two subcategories.
Authors
John Eldredge: The Sacred Romance, The Journey of Desire, Wild at Heart, and Waking the Dead.
Jon Krakauer: Eiger Dreams, Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven.
Ann Rule: Too many titles to mention, but two of the best are And Never Let Her Go about Thomas Capano and Stranger Beside Me about Ted Bundy—and the author's eerie connection with him.
Titles
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
A New Kind of Christian, Brian McLaren
Raised in Captivity, C. McNair Wilson
Running from the Devil, Steve Kissing
Waiting for Morning, Cindy Crosby
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