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Tag Archives: book discussion groups

Reading Recommendations from Just Desserts members – May 2023

Hey, mystery fans! Looking for something good to read?

At the May 2023 Just Desserts meeting, 17 group members and guests participated in our annual “Series Share” session.

Following the “assigned reading” portion of the meeting, we held our monthly round robin in which attendees shared recommendations of what other books they’ve been reading recently, with an emphasis on mysteries/suspense/thrillers. We continued a new policy this month that began in February, to make sure everyone got a turn in the Round Robin – everyone could share a single title during their verbal recommendations, but could share additional titles on a paper form – ALL titles recommended are shared below, however

Here’s the list of mystery, thriller and suspense books recommended by Just Desserts members in May 2023:

And here were some non-mystery titles some group members also recommended in May 2023:

What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?

Join the discussion of Chris Bohjalian’s “The Red Lotus”

The Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group held its third monthly in-person meeting, following over a year on Zoom, on August 26th, 2021. Thirteen attendees discussed the stand-alone thriller The Red Lotus by author Chris Bohjalian. If you read The Red Lotus, and would like to contribute your comments about it, please do so as a reply comment to this blog post, below.

For reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings (once they resume) and/or other announcements of interest to mystery fans, don’t forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, now that in-person meetings are possible again, if you’re logged into your account on Facebook, you can visit the Events page for the Lincoln City Libraries, and mark whether or not you plan to attend upcoming sessions of Just Desserts – this is a great way for you to help us promote this engaging discussion group!

So…What did you think of The Red Lotus? Have you read others by Chris Bohjalian?

The following handout was prepared for the members of Just Desserts: The Works of Chris Bohjalian.

Now that we’ve returned to in-person public meetings again, we hope to see you at future gatherings of the Just Desserts group. Watch the libraries’ website and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for the latest updates! In the meantime, we hope Just Desserters will join us on September 30th, 2021, for a discussion of the entire “Gaslight Mysteries” series by Victoria Thompson.

Just Desserts: Join the discussion of “Twisted Twenty-Six” by Janet Evanovich

The Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group was unable to meet on April 30th, 2020, due to the libraries suspending all public meetings (starting March 20th) as a safety precaution during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the group was unable to discuss Twisted Twenty-Six, the 26th entry in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. If you read this book, and would like to contribute your comments about it, please do so as a reply comment to this blog post, below.

For additional reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings (once they resume) and/or other announcements of interest to mystery fans, don’t forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, once meetings are possible again, if you’re logged into your account on Facebook, you can visit the Events page for the Lincoln City Libraries, and mark whether or not you plan to attend upcoming sessions of Just Desserts – this is a great way for you to help us promote this engaging discussion group!

So…What did you think of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, including the Twisted Twenty-Six and would you read more of these?

We hope to return to public meetings, including Just Desserts, by this Fall, although watch the libraries’ website and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for the latest updates!

Reading Recommendations in April from Just Desserts members

At the April 26th, 2018 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, following the discussion of the assigned topic of the month (the entire body of works by British mystery/suspense author Ruth Rendell), we held our monthly round robin in which all the attendees were able to share a few recommendations of what other books they’ve been reading recently.

First, here’s the list of Ruth Rendell mystery/suspense books discussed by Just Desserts members at our April 2018 meeting:

This meeting was audio-recorded, for eventual release through the libraries’ podcast series. This podcast episode finally became available in April 2020 — Click here to listen to the audio podcast recording of this meeting!

After our Rendell discussion, we had a few minutes for a general round robin. Here are the mystery and non-mystery titles recommended by Just Desserts members in April 2018:

Because we didn’t have as much time for our general “round robins” discussion, please feel free to respond here on the blog to the following question: What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?

Reading List from Just Desserts “Anthology” meeting – January 2017

At the January 26th, 2017 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, the theme of the monthly meeting was “Mystery Anthologies and Short Story Collections”. First, we had a round robin in which each attendee shared comments about whichever Anthology or Collection they had read for the month, then we had a second round robin in which all 15 attendees were able to share recommendations of other books they’ve been reading recently.


Here were the Anthologies/Collections read by group members specifically for the January 2017 meeting:

Here’s the list of mystery books recommended by Just Desserts members in January 2017:

And here were some non-mystery titles some group members recommended in January 2017:

What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?