I thought since we have some avid readers amongst us we could share some of our favs. I am always looking for a good book to read.

My favorite Authors are:

Mary Higgins Clark
John Saul
LaVryle Spencer
Fern Michaels
Sandra Brown
Karen Robards
Belva Plain
Dean Koontz
John Grisham

Favorite Books:

I can't list all the good books I have read but everything I have read by all of the above have been good, and there are too many to list, especially by LaVryle Spencer-I have read all of her books and can attest to them all being good reading, that is if you like a good love story. With the exception of Bleachers by John Grisham. Now if you like football then that is the book for you. But the best book I have ever read and I have read it three times is: Lost and Found by Marilyn Harris-the best! I also liked:

A Painted House, The Summons & Skipping Christmas all by John Grisham
The Midnight Hour by Karen Robards
A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons
Yesterday, and Plain Jane by Fern Michaels
Buried Lives by Nancy Star
The Trap by Tabitha King
After The Fire by Belva Plain

Most recent reads: Daddy's Little Girl by Mary Higgins Clark (good one)
No Place Like Home by Barbara Samuel, also good and The Right Hand of Evil and another that I can't remember the title, maybe it will come to me,both by John Saul.


Just to name a few. I also like to read a lot of self-help books, inspirational stuff , all the Chicken Soup books, etc. Look forward to seeing others favs.

Oh my goodness......I don't know if I could name all of my favorites..

But I have most of Stephen Kings books.

How about childhood books? I used to have all of the Laura Ingals Wilder books Dr. Seuss!!

But off hand I like,

Dean Kootnz
Sue Grafton
Lisa Jackson

The books they wrote that I can remember:

Odd Thomas
A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, C is for Corpse
C is for Cowboy

Just to name a few because I really can't seem to remember the names of the authors of the books I have read. I've read so many but that was back in the day when I spent all my waking hours reading! Now I read before bed. With those three books.....each one is different. One is horror type book, one is a mystery type and the last one is a romance!!

This is a good thread....you all will give me idea's for future purchases!! Must prepare for my bookshelf that I'll get someday. (maybe by christmas)

Anyone ever read anything from Woody Allen??? I read a story that was VERY good. I really liked it. It was a twigh light zone type of short story. I read it in my Literature Class I had back the first time I went to school. I'm into those kinds of stories too.

Can you say Variety??

Marti~I too read Dr. Suess, and all the Laura Ingels Wilder books. LOL I loved the Little House on the Prairie books. Also, in school Dick and Jane! Don't know what it was about Dick and Jane. I recently found a lot of them at Wal-Mart and had to buy them. I told Vince they are a part of my past that I loved, and enjoyed and had to have them! Also, have some Dick and Jane paperdolls! Too funny! I've never read anything by Woody Allen, didn't even know he wrote! Anyway...I too am looking for ideas, and some good books to read.

Cristi--The story from Woody Allen was in one of my lit books.....it was about this man whose life was uneventful and he wanted some excitment in his life...
So he finds this place that has a booth, gauranteed to make your life exciting! All you have to do is find a book you would like to be a part in insert it in the booth, sit down and instantly you become a character from the book. The man continues to live his fantasies with all kinds of books, mainly the romance type.....but towards the end something horrible goes wrong while he's in the booth, it was unstable, and a huge explosion occurs and kills the inventor of the booth outside ...but leaves the man in the booth in limbo--stuck in the book that was inserted.......

During the explosion....a dicitonary fell in...and so the story ends with him walking through the words never knowing how to get out!!

I liked it. Sorry I just gave the whole story away...but it was just a short story. I would like to find more short stories from Woody Allen if they're all like that. Kind of like a Albert Hitchcock story or a Twigh light zone kind of thing!!

That sounds like it was good Marti. I like books like that-love a good mystery, or love story, or something freaky sometimes, freaky as in scary.

Great thread, Cristi,

My favorite book of all time is Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

I also like:
Non Fiction -
The Four Agreements - Miguel Ruiz (helped me to stop binge eating)
Dr. Phil's Ultimate Weight Loss Guide
Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
Any Beatrix Potter stories for children

Fiction -
John Grisham - especially the lawyer ones; The Client was my fave
Robert B. Parker - "Spencer for Hire" mysteries
Ed McBain - cop mysteries
Sue Grafton - I'm waiting for "R is for ?"
Barbara Taylor Bradford - A Woman of Substance (and it's sequels)
Belva Plain - Evergreen and the same story told in the man's point of view which is The Golden Cup
Mauve Binchey - Light a Penny Candle
Sidney Shelton - Master of the Game
Catherine Cookson - lots of Irish stories
JD Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye only. His other work was stinky.

Danielle Steel's early stuff was so much better than the cookie-cutter slop she has turned out in the past 10 years. It's all "creamy skin, rivers of champaign, buckets of coffee, blah blah blah..." Plus, she starts way too many sentences with the word "And".

I have more, but that's enough for now, lol.

Good ones Jana! I simply forgot about the classics-Gone With The Wind was also a favorite. So much so that when I was pregnant with C the name we had picked out for a boy was Ashley. I also love East of Eden. When Oprah started her book club up again I went and bought it and read it again-so good.

oh my,,,,
I will start with my earlier favs,,,Judy Blume,,,I read all her young adult books. Are you there God its me Margret, Fudgy. (this was another reason I wanted a girl,,,to read the same books I read)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory..Jacob Two Two and the hooded Fang, James and the Giant Peach
These were all read to us by our grade 3-4 teacher Mrs. Jessiman, I loved her so much she was the best teacher anyone could ever have...she sewed these huge cushions,,,made a small corner of her room THE NEST. We would all pile in and she would read these books. I was one of a few lucky ones to have her for 2 years,,,one for grade 3 then 4, in grade 3 I couldn't read,,,my name and that was it. I was a sickly child and spent months in the hospital and never had the chance to read with the others...so I was just bumped up and she caught on that I couldn't read. She would take me aside and help me as much as she could in school, then I would go to her house and do more lessons there...it helped that she read all these wonderful books to us all the time and I so wanted to read. By the time grade 5 came along I was an honor student and stayed that way to graduation,,,you should of seen Mrs. jessiman's face when I went up for my award...She was crying. Ok Im all weepy now...lol

My favorites now are Kathleen E Woodiwiss- Ashes in the Wind
Sandra Brown
Linda Lael Miller
James Patterson
Lisa Jackson
Beatrice Small
Nora Roberts
and my all time fav is Janet Evanovich
my favorite for reading to the kids was Dr. Suess and Robert Munch (Ill love you always is a great book to read if you want a good cry...I still can't read the whole THIN book without bawling and yes its a childrens book)
Angie

Angie - I first saw the Robert Munsch book right after MIL Fern died, bawled my eyes out in the store, and I bought it. When Neal read it, he cried, too.
His mom was 4'11" and frail, just like the momma in the book. Also, I believe I read Ashes in the Wind a long, long time ago. It was good!

Judy Blume!! I forgot about those!! Loved ready her books. I've seen somewhere that she had some books out for the older crowd. Wish I can find them and see what they're about.

Now you and Jana have me wanting to read that book from Robert Munch.....I guess I'll have to make sure I have tissues when I read it....

Oh Marti, my throat tightens just thinking of Robert Munche's book....I bought it for Tanner for Christmas one year,,,
also Judy Blume wrote Wifey and another one called Summer Sisters or something like that.

Angie

Wifey...that's the one I was interested in...but for the life of me I can't remember what it's about...just the title. Did you read it? Was it good?

Gosh Angie, how could I forget about James Patterson and Nora Roberts???? Two more I enjoy reading. Janet Evanovich (sp?) and Judy Blume sound familiar.

I hate finishing Janet Evanovichs books,,,I feel so depressed once Im done cause Im now done. I now have to wait for her next bok which could be a year or more.

Marti, yes I remember reading Wifey,,someone in school stole it from her mom and we all took turns reading it,,,pretty racey for 13-14 yr olds...its about a woman who has an affair cause her husband is not as romantic with her I think...its been 20 yrs or more since I read it.

well off to watch tv
Angie

I often say I will read anything except sci-fi. That includes the side of the cereal box or the milk carton. I think I like most all of the authors you gals have listed. I even found a new one this week. Cecilia Ahern is the daughter of the Ireland prime minister and wrote a book called PS, I Love You It was good, sad and funny all at once.
I also read Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, Linda Lael Miller, LaVryl Spencer, Danielle Steel, John Grisham, James Patterson, VC Andrews, Mary H Clark, and her daughter, but I can't remember her name. Jennifer Cruisie is one who just kept me laughing on Bet Me and I got another of hers today.

Looks like a board full of bookworms.

suetalks...but she also reads...