Tag Archives: book group

Reading Recommendations from Just Desserts members – May 28 2015

At the May 28th, 2015 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, we held our third annual “Series Share” meeting. Instead of all group members reading the same book for group discussion, everyone was encouraged to read the first or second volume in ANY new mystery/thriller series, and share their first impressions of that series with the group. Most group members followed this theme, although a few also shared the other titles they’ve recently been reading.

Here’s the list of book and/or series discussed at this meeting:

• Naomi Hirahara — Murder on Bamboo Street — The Ellie Rush bicycle cop series
• Ben Aaronovitch — Whispers Underground — The Rivers of London series
• J.J. Cook — Fry Another Day — A Food Truck mystery
• Ellery Adams — Lemon Pies and Little White Lies — A Charmed Pie Shop mystery
• Miranda James — Bless Her Dead Little Heart — A Southern Ladies mystery
• Leslie Budewitz — Crime Rib — A Food Lovers Village mystery
• Tom Bouman — Dry Bones in the Valley
• Laura DiSilverio — Readaholics: Falcon Fiasco — A Book Book Club Mystery Series
• Maria Chance — Snow White Red Handed — A Fairy Tale Fatal mystery
• David Baldacci — Memory Man — Amos Decker series
• J.A. Jance — Payment in Kind
• Joanne Fluke — The Double Fudge Brownie Murder (also the new TV movie series adapting Fluke’s novels)
• James Patterson — NYPD Red #3
• Tess Gerritsen — The Silent Girl — Rizzoli & Isles series
• Erik Van Lustbader — First Daughter — The First Daughter series
• Wendi Corsi Staub — Scared to Death
• Lisa Scottoline — Every Fifteen Seconds
• Paul MacDonald — Smile Now, Cry Later — Charlie Restic series
• Paula Hawkins — Girl on a Train
• Ashley Weaver — Murder at the Brightwell — Amory Ames series
• Nele Neuheus — Snow White Must Die; Bad Wolf; and The Ice Queen — Pia Kirchoff and Oliver Von Bodenstein series
• Craig Johnson — Wait for Signs — Walt Longmire short stories
• William Kent Krueger — The Cork O’Conner series
• Paul Doiron — the Mike Bowditch game warder series
• Thomas Perry — Vanishing Act — A Jane Whitfield mystery
• Robert Crais — Suspect — A Scott Adams novel
• Lee Child — Personal — A Jack Reacher novel
• Michael Connelly — Void Moon
• Paige Shelton — If Catfish Had Nine Lives — A Country Cooking mystery
• Christine Huson — Snow Way Out — A Snow Globe Shop mystery
• Michael Connelly and John Sandford [eds.] — FaceOff — crossovers between popular unrelated series
• Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg — The Job — A Fox & O’Hare novel
• Ovidia Yu — Auntie Lee’s Deadly Special — A Singaporean mystery

And here were some non-mystery titles some group members recommended from recent reading:

• Hallie Ephron — There Was an Old Woman
• Timothy Schaffert — The Swan Gondola
• Malala Yousafzai — I Am Malala — (also in the Young Adult version)

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

Reading Recommendations from Just Desserts members – March 2015

Hey, mystery fans! Looking for something good to read? At the Just Desserts meeting on February 26th, after discussing our monthly “assigned” book (9th Judgement by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, we did a round robin at the table, asking attendees to share what mysteries they’d been reading lately that they felt they could recommend. Here’s a list of the novels that were hot in February 2015 with this mystery-savvy crowd:

MYSTERIES

• On What Grounds by Theo Coyle
• The Burning Room by Michael Connelly
• Breaking Creed by Alex Kava
• Ladle in the Grave by Connie Archer
• Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• Death of a Nightingale by Lene Kaaberbol, Agnete Friis and Elizabeth Kallick Dysegaard
• The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo
• The Anatomist’s Apprentice by Tessa Harris
• Stranded by Alex Kava
• Blind Fury by Lynda LaPlante
• The English Girl and one other title by Daniel Silva
• Copper River and Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger
• Die Again and Bloodstream by Tess Gerritsen
• Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta
• The Girl With a Clock for a Heart by Peter Swanson
• Darned If You Do by Monica Ferris
• Cane and Abe by James Grippando
• Crash and Burn by Lisa Gardner
• Shadowkiller and Most Likely to Die by Wendi Corsi Staub
• Silent Killer by Beverly Barton
• The Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen and Martin Aitken
• The Spook Light Affair by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
• Paw and Order on CD by Spencer Quinn
• The new issue of Mystery Scene Magazine
• A short story collection by Jeffery Deaver, including the story “Low Card’s Principle”
• Various volumes in the DCI Banks novel series by Peter Robinson

NON-MYSTERIES

• 33 Revolutions Per Minute by Dorian Lynskey
• Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
• A compendium of Virginia Woolf works
• The Hours and A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
• What Alice Forgot by LeeAnn Moriarty
• The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
• Boys of Steel by Marc Tyler
• Goodnight June by Sarah Jio
• Looking For Me by Beth Hoffman
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
• The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
• The Fault in Our Stars on CD by John Green
• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
• The Virgin River romance series of Robyn Carr

So, what mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?

Mystery recommendations from Just Desserts members in February 2015

Hey, mystery fans! Looking for something good to read? At the Just Desserts meeting on February 26th, after discussing our monthly “assigned” book (9th Judgement by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro), we did a round robin at the table, asking attendees to share what mysteries they’d been reading lately that they felt they could recommend. Here’s a list of the novels that were hot in February 2015 with this mystery-savvy crowd:

MYSTERIES

• 4th of July by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
• The Devil’s Breath by Tessa Harris
• An Undiplomatic Murder by Margaret Truman/Donald Bain
• A Fine Summer’s Day by Charles Todd
• Breaking Creed by Alex Kava (several people)
• Detective LaRue: Letters From an Investigation by Mark Teague (jP)
• Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver
• Case Closed by George Obrist
• In Hot Water by J.J. Cook
• Shelter, Seconds Away and Found by Harlan Coben
• Cold, Cold Heart by Tami Hoag
• Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves
• Private Vegas by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
• Skink No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen
• To Fetch a Thief by Spencer Quinn
• The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver
• Watch Me Die by Lee Goldberg
• Hope to Die by James Patterson
• The Dying Game and The Murder Game by Beverly Barton
• Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell
• Deadlock by Iris Johansen
• Deep Pockets by Linda Barnes
• Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben
• Blood Ties by Kay Hooper
• Dark of the Moon by John Sandford
• Rhymes With Prey edited by David Baldacci
• Dead Level by Sarah Graves
• Murder in Chinatown by Victoria Thompson
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• All the President’s Menus by Julie Hyzy
• Dead and Buried by Barbara Hambly
• Malice by Keigo Higashiro and Alexander Smith
• The Benjamin January series of Barbara Hambly
• The first 3 Derrick Storm novels by Richard Castle
• The works of Linda Castillo

NON-MYSTERIES

• Buddha Standard Time by Surya Das
• Buddhism for Beginners by Chodron Thubten
• Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini
• The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
• The Patriot by Pearl S. Buck
• The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Journal of Best Practices by David Finch
• The works of Philip Gulley

So, what mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?