It’s the King, of course — Stephen King, who landed six titles in the top 100. Lee Child comes next, with four winning books. And, at three titles each, Michael Crichton, Dennis Lehane and Stieg Larsson tie for third.

NPR’s Top 100 Thrillers

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Voting ended July 28th

RESULTS

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3/23  “Caught” by Harlan  Cohen   A stand alone thriller about a missing teenage girl and the female reporter that tries to find her.  Book tour info.

 

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 3/30  “The Barbary Pirates” by William Dietrich  The fourth in this rollicking, fast paced historical action adventure series featuring American expatriate Ethan Gage.   Taking up where ”The Dakota Cipher” ended, Gage is enlisted by Napoleon Bonaparte to recover “an ancient super weapon that legend contends burned a Roman fleet.”  Book tour info.

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4/6  “Kissing the Mask”  by William T. Vollmann  Journalist and National Book Award winner examines the subject of beauty and femininity through the ancient tradition of Japanese Noh theater.  Book tour info.

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4/6  “Imperfect Birds” by Anne Lamott  The follow up to “Rosie” (my first and favorite Anne Lamott novel) and “Crooked Little Heart” finds Elizabeth Ferguson in her senior year of high school hiding the truth from her parents that besides being a straight A student,  she also sports a nice little drug habit.  Book tour info.

 
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4/13  “Beatrice and Virgil” by Yann Martel  Author of “Life of Pi” tells what one Amazon reviewer describes as his “Holocaust allegory.”  Book tour info.

 
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4/27  “Hannah’s List” by Debbie Macomber  A widower finds a letter from his late wife telling him to remarry and even giving him three candidates to consider.   Book tour info.

 
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4/27  “Island Beneath the Sea” by Isabel Allende  About a slave girl on the island of Saint-Domingue and the young plantation owner she is bound to.  Book tour info.

The Huffington Post reports that the general public is  reading more spirituality, more history, and fewer big brand new bestsellers this winter. 

Bookmovement, a site that keeps a running tally on what book clubs are reading, lists The Help, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Sarah’s Key, The Guernsey Literary Potatoe Peel Society and Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter Sweet as this week’s top five group reading picks.

This prompted me to take an informal poll of  twenty plus friends that I knew were readers.  The question posed, “What are you currently reading and is it for book club or pleasure?”  Turns out my friends are following the above mentioned reading trends.

THE RESULTS? 

Fiction is apparently king when it comes to book club picks and Bookmovement’s assessment was right on.  The Help, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Sarah’s Key were mentioned the most.  Other tried and true book club favorites are still being read, Elegance of the Hedgehog, Hotel On The Corner of Bitter Sweet, The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society, and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.  Others mentioned were A Reliable Wife, Netherland, and The Latehomecomer (memoir)

The independent readers are choosing non fiction to read.  Comments about Lost On Planet China, Still Alice, Beautiful Boy, Where Men Find Glory, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Stubborn Twig were the most compelling and enthusiastic.  Others mentioned were Papillon, One Man’s Meat, The Big Burn, The Women, Excuses Be Gone and The House At Sugar Beach.

Thanks you everyone who participated.

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Oprah’s book club e-letter suggests reading  Breath, Eyes, Memoryby Edwidge Danticat. 

Set in the island’s impoverished villages and in New York’s Haitian community, this is the story of Sophie Caco, who was conceived in an act of violence, abandoned by her mother and then summoned to America. In New York, Sophie discovers that Haiti imposes harsh rules on its own.

Edwidge Daniticut, one of Haiti’s most acclaimed writers, put together a reading and listening list of her own for the  Wall Street Journal.  She includes this reminder:

In this time of tragedy for Haiti, it’s worth noting that the country’s culture is far deeper than the bleak reports currently blanketing the news. 

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Tracey Kidder’s marvelous book Mountains Beyond Mountains tops The Daily Beast’s  The Best Books On Haiti .  Kidder’s book has long been a favorite with book clubs.

Tracy Kidder’s profoundly moving and inspiring account, Mountains Beyond Mountains, of Farmer’s work in the country is necessary reading for anyone wanting to understand what the Haitians have already faced and what one brave man was doing there before the world was galvanized into action.

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Forbes Ten Best Books On Haiti  is a commentary by Amy Wielentz, journalism professor at UC Irvine.  She writes:

Books are what drew me to Haiti, along with the exile newspapers put out by the New York and Miami refugees from Papa Doc and Baby Doc’s regimes. In the old days you couldn’t arrive in Haiti with a copy of The Comedians in your bag; it would be confiscated and you would be interrogated. Papa Doc was known to have his thugs wield scissors and cut out articles that offended him. Words matter in Haiti.

NPR Audience Picks: 100 Best Beach Books Ever

Straw hat, sunscreen, favorite pair of sunglasses:   $163.00

23  books read:   $601.45

21  movie tickets to watch adaptations:   $144.48

11 authors escorted on book tour :   Priceless

There are some things money can’t buy!

Citizen Vince by Jess Walters – a darkly, comic, crime novel that has also been described as unexpectedly profound.   2005 Edgar award winner for best novel.   Pearl says simply, “Read it.”

City of Thieves by David Benioff – this story takes place during  WWII siege of Leningrad.  Two prisoners of the Russian army are given an impossible task, find two dozen eggs in time for the wedding of the colonel’s daughter or be hunted down and shot.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave – a dark, character driven novel.  Very powerful.  It will break your heart.

Field Work: A Novel by Mischa Berlinski -  Pearl describes this fictionalized memoir as  a ‘why dunnit’.  Set in Thailand, a journalist visiting his girl friend looks into the facts of a jailed American anthropologist who commits suicide while serving a 50 year sentence for murder.  One of the few books where missionaries are depicted respectfully.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Amy and Isabelle) – winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (Pearl served as one of the three judges).  Linked short stories set in Maine with an unlikeable main character.  In the end, a magical book.

Little Big Man by Thomas Berger – Dustin Hoffman starred in the movie version.  First published in 1964, it was hailed as one of the finest novels about the American West.

The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway (son of famed thriller writer John le Carre) – set in Britain in the not so very distant future.  A post apocalyptic tale.

The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert – graphic memoir about the humanitarian mission of the volunteers that work with Doctors Without Borders in war torn Afghanistan.

Click here to purchase these books from your favorite Indie bookstore

More Nancy Pearl summer reading  suggestions:

Airplane Reads

Mystery/Spy/Thrillers

Armchair Travelers

Vanished by Joseph Finder -  corporate espionage at its best.

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid  – from the prolific Scottish mystery writer, considered one of her best about a  past crime that leads to  consequences years later.

Revelation by C.J. Sansom -  historical fiction mystery set in the time of  Henry VIII.

The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer – contemporary stand alone spy thriller set in the world’s most gorgeous locations.  George Clooney’s company has bought the film rights.

Click here to purchase these books from your favorite Indie bookstore

More Nancy Pearl summer read suggestions:

Airplane Reads

Book Clubs

Armchair Reads

Note:  Plan ahead.  Four out of the six titles are books you most likely will NOT find at the airport bookstore.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley -  First time novel for this 70 year old writer and getting rave reviews about a precocious 11 year old girl that discovers someone murdered in a cucumber patch outside her bedroom window.

Beginner’s Greek by James Collins – another first time novel by an author in his late 50’s (lovin’  this trend).   An unexpected delight.  A romantic comedy where everything ends in the best possible way.

The Family Man by Elinor Lipman – a novel by an author that loves her characters.  Much in the vein of a Noel Coward comedy.  Two other Elinor Lipman books that Pearl l-o-v-e-s are The Way Men Act and  The Inn at Lake Devine.

In The Last Analysis by Amanda Cross – a mystery.  The first (and the best) of the Kate Fansler mystery series.  Smart and you will never guess the ending.

Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert – novel.  Especially for readers (including Pearl) that were ‘under whelmed’ by Gilbert’s memoir Eat, Pray, Love -  read this one.   Funny and well written about a spunky, eighteen year old girl that returns home to Maine and decides to work the lobster boats.

Silver Linings Play Book by Matthew Quick – novel.  Don’t be put off by the title and think this is a football book about the Philadelphia Eagles and their fans.   In short it is a  funny and uplifting book about a high school history teacher that has just been released (after four years) from a mental hospital and is looking to become the man his estranged wife has always wanted.

Click here to purchase these books from your favorite Indie bookstore

More Nancy Pearl summer reading suggestions:

mystery/spy/thrillers

book clubs

armchair travelers

“For many people, summer reading implies lighter reading – it doesn’t matter if saltwater splashes over it or the covers get ripped off,” Pearl says. “You don’t have a lot of emotional capital tied up in the book.”

I’ve sorted the twenty one books Pearl gushed about into four categories:  Airplane Reads, Armchair Travelers, Mystery/ Spy/Thrillers and Book Club Reads.  (Really, she is so enthusiastic about the books she loves that I’m ready to toss what I am currently reading and dive into any one of these.)  I will share her list of picks in my next couple of posts.   For now, I thought I would pass along Pearl’s thoughts on choosing that next good book to read.

If you are 50 years old or younger:  Read 50 pages.  If the book doesn’t grab you, give it away.  If you are compelled to solve the mystery or find out how the story ends, read the last chapter and be done with it.

If you are older than 50:  Subtract your age from 100 and read that number of pages.  It’s one of the few perks of aging, according to Pearl.

If you are 100 years and older:  Congratulations!  You are now allowed to judge a book by it’s cover.