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Tag Archives: book group
Reading Recommendations From Just Desserts Members – January 28 2016
At the January 28th, 2016 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, following the discussion of the assigned book of the month, we had a round robin in which attendees were able to share recommendations of other books they’ve been reading recently.
Here’s the list of mystery books recommended by Just Desserts members in January 2016:
- Career of Evil — Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling)
- The Company She Kept — Archer Mayor
- FaceOff — anthology edited by David Baldacci
- The Lake House — Kate Morton
- The Crossing, also an audiobook anthology of short stories — Michael Connelly (several readers reading this one)
- The Promise — Robert Crais (several readings reading this one)
- Behind the Scenes at the Museum — Kate Atkinson
- Make Me — Lee Child
- The Theory of Death — Faye Kellerman
- A Christmas Carol Murder — Leslie Meier
- Random Violence — Jassy MacKenzie
- The Spirit of Steamboat — Craig Johnson
- The Humbug Murders — L.J. Oliver
- The Killing Trail — Margaret Mizushima
- Hounded and New Tricks — both by David Rosenfelt
- Eeny Meeny and Pop Goes the Weasel — both by M.J. Arlidge
- Dishing the Dirt — M.C. Beaton
- Dry Bones — Craig Johnson
- The Doc Ford series — Randy Wayne White
- A Fatal Grace — Louise Penny
- Call Me Princess — Sara Blaedel
- Every Dead Thing — John Connelly
- Wait for Signs — Craig Johnson
- The Alpine Christmas — Mary Daheim
- Tricky Twenty-Two — Janet Evanovich
- Depraved Heart — Patricia Cornwell
- House of the Rising Sun — James Lee Burke
- The Sherlock Holmes Book — David Stuart Davies [823 DoyYd]
- The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories — edited by Otto Penzler [832 DoyYp]
- The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries — edited by Otto Penzler [813.08 Pen]
And here were some non-mystery titles some group members recommended in August 2015:
- When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II — Molly Guptill Manning
- Changes — Jim Butcher
- The Goldfinch — Donna Tartt
- The Sky is Falling — Sidney Sheldon
- A Guide Book to Learning — Mortimer Adler
- The Short Job — Matthew Fitzsimmons
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?
Your Just Desserts hiatus reading assignment – 2015: Holiday Mysteries
During the Nov/Dec 2015 hiatus between meetings of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, we encourage regular attendees to continue to participate as a group…but in a virtual way. While we may not have an actual meeting scheduled during these two months, this blog is available to keep everyone active with their mystery reading and discussions.
Our “hiatus assignment” for 2015 is “Holiday Mysteries” — including Christmas, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, or New Year’s.
One of the most popular annual book displays at the Bennett Martin Public Library every year is the Mistletoe Mysteries display that goes up at the beginning of December…in fact, it’s hard to keep it fully loaded for all of December, as so many titles get grabbed by eager readers. In conjunction with that display, a special Mistletoe Mysteries booklist was created several years ago, and is updated each year on our website to reflect new additions to the “Christmas Mystery” category, as well as withdrawals of older titles no longer being read.
You can certainly wait until the start of December and check out the book display downtown, or you can click on the Mistletoe Mysteries links in this blog entry to jump straight to the online booklist, which will give you dozens, if not hundreds, of mystery reading choices for this festive time of year! So — your assignment is: read one or more Holiday Mysteries (either novels or short story collections), and respond to the question at the bottom of this post!
We look forward to seeing your comments here over the course of the next two months, until Just Desserts meets again in January 2016!
So…here’s your question:
Which of the “Holiday Mystery” novel or short story collection did you read, and what was your opinion?
Mystery recommendations from Just Desserts members – October 29, 2015
At the October 29th, 2015 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, following the discussion of the assigned book of the month, we had a round robin in which attendees were able to share recommendations of other books they’ve been reading recently.
Here’s the list of mystery books recommended by Just Desserts members in October 2015:
- Sleuth (a play) — Anthony Shaffer
- Deathtrap (a play) — Ira Levin
- The Scam (in both print and audiobook formats)— Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg [past Just Desserts selected authors]
- — by Dorling Kingersley Publishing
- The ABC Murders — Agatha Christie [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- Maigret and the Headless Corpse — George Simenon [a past Just Desserts selected author ]
- My Cousin Rachel — Daphne DuMaurier
- Dare to Die — Carolyn Hart [a past Just Desserts selected author ]
- The Death of Lucy Kyle — Nicola Upson
- The Convictions of John Dillahunt — Andrew Hughes
- The Last 4 Days of Paddy Buckley — Jeremy Massey
- The Nature of the Beast — Louise Penny (several members were reading this!) [a past Just Desserts selected author ]
- Murder at the Paperback Parlor — Ellery Adams
- Memory Man — David Baldacci [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- The Hearse You Came In On — Tim Cockey
- The Keeper of Lost Causes — Jussi Adler-Olsen
- The rest of the Kate Burkholder series — Linda Castillo [this month’s Just Desserts selected author]
- The Lucy Stone series — Leslie Meier
- In Dark Places — Peter Robinson [a past Just Desserts selected author ]
- Long Upon the Land — Margaret Maron
- Rogue Lawyer — John Grisham (several Just Desserts members reading this)
- a whole bunch of Halloween-themed cozies — by various authors
- The Cormoran Strike series — Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling)
- The Girl on the Train — Paula Hawkins
- The Rule of Nine — Steve Martini [a past Just Desserts selected author ]
- The Day Shift — Charlaine Harris
- The Haunted Season — G.M. Malliet
- Driving Heat — “Richard Castle” [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- The Blue Last — Martha Grimes
And here were some non-mystery titles some group members recommended in August 2015:
- The Survivor — Vince Flynn
- The Ghost Fleet — P.W. Singer
- Station 11 — Emily St. John Mandel [a 2015 One Book – One Lincoln finalist]
- The Porcelain Thief: Searching the Middle Kingdom for Buried China — Huan Hsu
- The Pulp Fiction Screenplay — Quentin Tarantino
- Finders Keepers and Thinner and Carrie — Stephen King
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being — Milan Kundera
- Arthur and George — [on PBS]
- In Cold Storage — James W. Hewitt
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?
Linda Castillo’s “The Dead Will Tell”
When the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group met on October 29th, 2015, 17 of us enjoyed discussing The Dead Will Tell, a 2014 entry in the Kate Burkholder/Amish Country series by Linda Castillo Whether or not you attended the actual meeting, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions about these novels in a reply comment to this blog post, below.
For additional reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings and/or other announcements of interest to mystery fans, don’t forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, 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! Our selections for future meetings are usually posted there months in advance.
What do you think of the Kate Burkholder/Amish Country mystery series by Linda Castillo?
The Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group is currently on our year-end hiatus in November and December 2015. Join us for our 11th season at our next meeting on January 28th, 2016, 6:30 p.m. at the South Branch Library!
We hope to see you then!
Mystery recommendations from Just Desserts members – September 24, 2015
At the September 24th, 2015 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, following the discussion of the assigned book of the month, we had a round robin in which attendees were able to share recommendations of other books they’ve been reading recently.
Here’s the list of mystery books recommended by Just Desserts members in August 2015:
- The Company of Liars — Karen Maitland
- Death Without Company (on CD) — Craig Johnson [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- The Ranger — Ace Atkins
- The Girl With the Deep Blue Eyes — Lawrence Block
- Wicked Autumn — G.M. Malliet
- Memory Man — David Baldacci [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- Bloodline — Lynda LaPlante
- Princess Elizabeth’s Spy — Susan Elia MacNeal
- Remains of Innocence — J.A. Jance [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- Repair to the Grave — Sarah Graves [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- Invisible City — Julia Dahl
- Guardian of Lies — Steve Martini
- Strangers — Bill Pronzini
- The Bughouse Affair and The Spook Lights Affair — Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini [past Just Desserts selected authors]
- The Purification Ceremony and The Serpent’s Kiss — Mark Sullivan
- The Man Who Fell From the Sky — Margaret Coel [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- The Scam — Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg [past Just Desserts selected authors]
- Malice — Lisa Jackson
- Safe at Last — Maya Banks
- X — Sue Grafton [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- Speaking in Bones — Kathy Reichs [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- The Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- The Reckoning — Carsten Stroud
- Three Graves Full — Jamie Mason
- Code of Conduct — Brad Thor
- The Sound of Glass — Karen White
- A Fatal Chapter — Lorna Barrett
- Murder on the Horizon — M.L. Rowland
- Sworn to Silence, Breaking Silence and Prey for Silence — Linda Castillo
- The Murderer’s Daughter — Jonathan Kellerman [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- Woof — Spencer Quinn (for teens) [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- Driving Heat — “Richard Castle” [a past Just Desserts selected author]
- The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook
And here were some non-mystery titles some group members recommended in August 2015:
- Station 11 — Emily St. John Mandel [a 2015 One Book – One Lincoln finalist]
- The Taming of the Queen — Philippa Gregory
- Carthage — Joyce Carol Oates
- Wit’s End — Karen Joy Fowler
- A Confederacy of Dunces — John Kennedy O’Toole
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August — Claire North
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?