Week 3 Prompt

1. I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next!

I did a series search in NoveList for “Anita Blake” and found the “Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter” series. The fourth book in the series is The Lunatic Cafe, published in 1994.

2. What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.

Before I tried NoveList, I checked with my partner (who’s a big Barbara Kingsolver fan) and she recommended reading a novel by Joanne Harris, who writes in a similar style to Barbara Kingsolver (very lyrical and descriptive sensory details) but tends to write somewhat shorter books than Kingsolver with a greater emphasis on plot. Good novels to start with would include Chocolat and The Five Quarters of the Orange.

Checking NoveList, I found a few good options. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett might be a good fit because it is a lyrical, character driven novel by a female author that travels out of her comfort zone for the sake of research. Frog Music by Emma Donoghue may also be a good fit - although it’s a mystery, it involves a biologist and is fast-paced with beautiful writing.

3. I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern – historical. I like it when the author describes it so much it feels like I was there!

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee might be a good fit - it’s set in the early 1900s in both Japan and Japan-occupied Korea. It tells a story of how people’s identities are formed in relation to their home countries, and offers a look at Japan’s historical relationship with its neighbors, which might give you a better understanding of different countries’ relationships with one another. If you’re looking for literature from a bit farther back in Japan’s history, you could try Shogun by James Clavell, which is the first book in a historical fiction trilogy set in and around Japan. If you’re looking for a riveting, fast-paced, and dramatic read, this would be a book to try. Another option would be The Samurai’s Wife by Gail Tsukiyama, which is historical fiction set in the 1930s that follows a young Chinese man who moves to Japan as he recovers from tuberculosis. (By the way, I hope you like tuberculosis, because it appears to be a major plot point in most of the Japan-centered historical fiction!)

4. I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?

Broadchurch by Erin Kelly is a police procedural murder mystery about an 11-year-old boy found murdered in a small British town. It lacks the graphic violence and gritty tone of John Sandford novels, focusing instead on a character-driven story with an atmospheric tone. Another mystery series you might enjoy is Martha Grimes’ Richard Jury books. Like Well-Schooled in Murder, these books follow police officers investigating crimes in England, but they have a lighter, more humorous tone to them. The first book in this series is called The Man With a Load of Mischief. You might also consider Louise Penny’s Inspector Armand Gamache series for a different locale - they are set in Montreal, and are highly descriptive with a strong sense of place.

5. My husband has really gotten into zombies lately. He’s already read The Walking Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend?

He could try out The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse by Steven C. Schlozman, which is another take on the zombie apocalypse similar to World War Z, but instead of interviews with survivors, it compiles medical notebooks from a doctor who is dissecting and studying zombie anatomy and physiology. If he’s looking for something a bit longer, he could try out the Newsflesh series by Mira Grant, a story of a conspiracy to cover up a zombie outbreak and the journalists who try to uncover it. The first book in the series is called Feed. Another option would be The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell, a beautifully written survival story about a band of people trying to find safety in a brutal, zombified world.

6. I love books that get turned into movies, especially literary ones. Can you recommend some? Nothing too old, maybe just those from the last 5 years or so.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman is a charming story about older man whose plan to commit suicide after his wife’s recent death is put on hold as he gets caught up in relationships with his neighbors. This book has been translated from Swedish and was released as a movie in 2015. Another option is The Children Act by Ian McEwan, a poignant story about a judge who must preside over a difficult legal case involving a dying child while she experiences difficulty in her marriage. The story was adapted into a movie in 2017.

7. I love thrillers but I hate foul language and sex scenes. I want something clean and fast paced.

Need to Know by Karen Cleveland is a new spy thriller that follows a CIA agent trying to expose undercover Russian agents in the U.S. - it’s fast-paced, thrilling, and suspenseful. Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly is a crime thriller that explores the life of a woman after her husband, a thriller novel writer, is attacked and put in a coma. It’s a suspenseful and intricately plotted page turner. Both of these books avoid gritty realism and explicit sex scenes.

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When I’m looking for a book to read, I usually start with Amazon, searching for a book that I’ve recently read and enjoyed, then looking at the suggested books to see what catches my eye. When I’ve found a few potentials, I usually head to Goodreads to see what people think of them. I find that lots of Goodreads users compare books in their reviews, and this makes reading reviews another good source for finding new reads. In the couple years I’ve started following Tor.com’s publishing blog, which I have found to be a fantastic source for learning about a wide variety of science fiction and fantasy books, as well as sci-fi/fantasy-adjacent books that straddle genres but often have one foot in the fantastical. I also enjoy looking through NPR’s end of the year book concierge that picks out highlights from lots of different genres published in the past year.