Most of the authors on this blog this month are writing about the authors they go to when they are looking for a good read.
Over the years, I've come across many authors that when I see a book by them, I purchase it. I don't always get it read due to time constraints, but I have enjoyed other books by them. By purchasing one, I feel like I'm at least saying, "Keep writing."
Back in the days of small children and until they were teens, I had four Nora Roberts books I read several times. The MacGregor Christmas and several of the other books in that series, and her Born In series: Born in Ice, Born in Fire, Born in Shame. For whatever reason, those books drew me to them over and over again during that time.
Before that anything by Agatha Christie and Dick Francis. I read every book by those authors that my local library had. Then I started the Alphabet series by Sue Grafton. Those books and watching a talk show about a woman who wrote a book about how to be your own private investigator started me writing mystery books. Only to ditch them when I could find no constructive help in writing them.
I loved LaVyrle Spencer's historical romance books. I read several of those more than one time. For a while, I enjoyed the Stephanie Plum Mysteries by Janet Evanovich.
I like books with a hint of humor, that show me another time or culture and that keep me turning the pages. Lately, I've discovered that in Sujata Massey's series A Mystery of 1920s India. I purchase each one of her books when they are available. Another series that I've been collecting and reading is by Alexia Gordon. She writes the Gethsemane Brown Mysteries set at a school in Ireland.
Currently, I am reading two mystery books by Native American authors and while they are intense, I am enjoying them. One is Never Name the Dead, written by D.M. Rowell. I met her at the Left Coast Crime conference I attended last month. The other book is Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon. This book is a page-turner, but I've needed breaks from it. The emotion and the atrocities in the book make me need to give it some space. It is heartbreaking to think there are people in this country who fear stepping outside their homes.
Reading for me has always been about being entertained and learning something. That can be about a culture, a setting, a profession, a struggle. I'm all about learning and expanding my horizons.
What are some of your favorite books and why?
Paty
Jager is an award-winning author of 61 novels, 11 novellas, and numerous anthologies
of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native
American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern
Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the
western lifestyle, she lives it. This is what Books a Plenty Book
Reviews has to say about the Gabriel Hawke series: "The blend of nature
tracking, clues, and the animals makes for a fascinating mystery that is hard
to put down."
