August 2010
I enjoy… editorial by Linda Hopkins*…reading a wide variety of fiction genres; Adventure/thriller, Mystery/thriller, some Fantasy (like Lord of the Rings), Chick Lit, Classics etc. As long as the book is engaging, fast paced and free flowing and the pre-amble captures my interest, I’ll read it. The perks of working on the check-in desk, all those newly returned books are a constant temptation!
I find I usually gravitate towards the adventure/thriller/mystery type books when I want some escapism. I do love intriguing and engrossing novels. My early favourite authors were Hammond Innes, Nevil Shute and Alistair MacLean. Their novels were my first taste of the adventure genre. I used to love reading these as a teenager and remember hiding under the bedclothes with a torch long after I should have been asleep!
Moving forward to the current years, authors that have captured my attention are Rosamund Pilcher (a gentler adventure, well crafted characters), Ted Allbeury and Geoffrey Archer, but my favourite author in the Adventure genre is John J Nance. Given his qualifications [as an airline pilot, lawyer, novelist] his books are action packed and have an air of authenticity and authority about them. Some of his books have been turned into TV mini-series’.
On the Mystery/thriller side, I began my interest here with the Readers Digest True Crime stories. These were the only books that interested me (and I was allowed to read) in my grandfather’s bookshelves on school holiday visits and I would devour them. Since then I have “matured” and enjoyed the earlier Sue Grafton “alphabet” novels, Patricia Cornwell and her Kay Scarpetta Mysteries, Lisa Scottoline (believable characters with a touch of humour), Iris Johansen (with forensic sculptor Eve Duncan), Kathy Reichs (Bones TV series is based on her books), Tess Gerritsen, Catherine Coulter’s FBI novels and JD Robb among many others.
* Linda is Specialist Librarian – Information Services at Devonport Library.
Best Reads…..
This month’s selection is from Vanessa Seymour.
Ordinary thunderstorms by William Boyd
The odd woman by Gail Godwin
Theodora : actress, empress, whore by Stella Duffy
The night book by Charlotte Grimshaw
Corduroy mansions by Alexander McCall Smith
Lola by Elizabeth Smither
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