Recommended Reading

I've heard from a few people that are in a bit of a lull, so I want to share some of my recent books.  I'm currently reading a mystery called, The Weight of Silence, by Heather Gudenkauf.  It's really good, but it's about two little 7-year-old girls who go missing, so it's kind-of tough to read.  The writing is very engaging, though, and it sucked me right in.  I read for four hours straight the night I started it - I couldn't put it down!! 

Another book I'm reading, that's really good:  Spoken from the Heart, by Laura Bush.  It's her autobiography and it's just a good, wholesome, sweet read.  She talks about her childhood, growing up in a small Texas town and "the way things were."  Republican or Democrat, Bush fan or not...if you are at all interested in the history of Texas towns or about the Bush family, you will enjoy this book. 

I wanted to let you know that Leighton put me onto Philippa Gregory and her books, which are about old England.  I read The White Queen and loved it so much, I started reading The Red Queen yesterday and I'm halfway finished!!  I went online to see what order they are in and I found that she's written about 15 books... I can't wait to read them all.  If you have any interest in historical fiction at all, you'd love these books.  They are all fact-based, which makes it really believeable.  Here's the author's website for more information:  http://www.philippagregory.com/

I also wanted to tell you about a few mysteries I've read recently (also tips from Leighton) - these are really great, too!!

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, by Tom Franklin (synopsis from bn.com)  A powerful and resonant novel from Tom Franklin—critically acclaimed author of Smonk and Hell at the Breech—Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter tells the riveting story of two boyhood friends, torn apart by circumstance, who are brought together again by a terrible crime in a small Mississippi town. An extraordinary novel that seamlessly blends elements of crime and Southern literary fiction, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is a must for readers of Larry Brown, Pete Dexter, Ron Rash, and Dennis Lehane

Never Tell a Lie, by Hallie Ephron (synopsis from bn.com)  It all started with the yard sale. Ivy was eight months and one week pregnant when she insisted that she and her husband, David, clean out the junk they'd inherited with the old Victorian house they'd bought three years before. Call it nesting, call it nerves she just wanted it all gone: the old electrical fixtures, the boxes of National Geographics from the 1960s, the four black wool greatcoats.

Neither she nor David recognized the woman at first. But it turned out that the customer asking about the lime-green glass swan dish the woman who looks just about as pregnant as Ivy was none other than Melinda White, a former high school classmate of David and Ivy's. When Melinda was a child she used to play in their new house, she explained. It looked like they'd been doing some work. Would it be all right if she took a look around? David took Melinda inside. And she never came out.

Now David's under police suspicion, and Ivy finds herself digging deep into the past to clear his name. But David's history, she begins to discover, is not necessarily the history she remembers, and before long Ivy has uncovered a twisted web of deceit, betrayal, and lies, both the ones we tell those we love and the ones we tell ourselves. . . .

Relentlessly fast-paced and disturbingly creepy, Never Tell a Lie is a page-turning thrill ride about how well we know the people we love, and how far we are willing to go to protect the secrets of our past.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I have!