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Lately, I've been awash in good books. Here’s a sampling of my latest must-reads (I've also updated my recommendations page to include them):

(1) Joyride by Lindsay Faith Rech: A completely addictive novel about friendship, love and betrayal. I've had this on my nightstand for months -- I knew from the chatter at the chicklitbooks.com forum not to pick this one up until I had the time to get lost in it -- and it just blew me away. And Lindsay is only 26 years old . . . how does someone so young write so well? I can't wait for her next book . . . she's truly a writer to watch for.

(2) The Women of the Other World series by Kelley Armstrong: This is another writer I learned about on chicklitbooks.com. Supernatural plots have really never been my thing, but one of the women posting there was so enthusiastic about Armstrong's books, I decided to pick up Bitten . . . and now I'm hooked. I loved Bitten so much, I immediately ordered her other three books, and despite all best efforts to space them out, I gobbled them up, one after another.

(3) Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner: To be completely honest, although I enjoyed Weiner's other books, I kept putting off reading this one. I knew that one of the topics it covered was infant loss, and that I might have a hard time reading about that. Finally I decided to get the audio version and listen to it while I ran . . . and immediately became so absorbed in the story that I've been carrying around my cd player and listening to it while I eat lunch, do the dishes and cook dinner. Weiner reads the book on the audio version, and she's wonderful . . . she has a beautiful speaking voice. I'm so glad that I didn't miss out on this book.

(4) My Losing Season by Pat Conroy: I'm a die hard Conroy fan . . . The Prince of Tides had such a profound affect on me, I still remember the first time I read it. It was the summer after my sophomore year in college, and I had a dreadful job waitressing at a country club in the Adirondacks (think Dirty Dancing, minus Patrick Swayze, the dancing and the fun). I started to read The Prince of Tides, and was so caught up in the story, all I did was sleep, work and read. Conroy's memoir, My Losing Season, is basically a sports book -- which I never read -- but this will appeal to all Conroy fans simply for how much background it gives you on his wonderful novels. I didn't know that Conroy has had such a tragic life, which saddens me . . . clearly great talent doesn't guarantee a happy existence.

Posted 25 January 2005 at 05:57 PM