What Are We Currently Reading?

[DearEvette]

On 9/19/2021 at 3:34 PM, Luckylyn said:

I am reading When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare which is book 3 in her Castles Ever After series.  Suffering from severe anxiety, Madeline makes up a fake Scottish fiancee to avoid being forced to into society.  To sell the lie, she sends letters to a made up name in a made up regiment.  But there’s a real Logan Mackenzie who shows up years later holding her letters and insistent they get married for his own reasons.  I do enjoy the characters in this series.  There’s a lot of humor and vibrant personalities.   

Huh.  I might have to give this a try.  I do read romance but I have never clicked with Tessa Dare, though I have tried.  It was her first few books that fell super flat for me so maybe her writing is different years later.  I like the premise of this and I like good humor in romance.

I just finished the #53 (Yes... fifty-frickin'-third) installment of J.D. Robb's In Death series, Forgotten In Death.  And I have to say after a few lackluster outings, this one was really well done.  She kicked aside her formula  a bit in this one and the book was much stronger for it.

[GHScorpiosRule]

5 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

I just finished the #53 (Yes... fifty-frickin'-third) installment of J.D. Robb's In Death series, Forgotten In Death.  And I have to say after a few lackluster outings, this one was really well done.  She kicked aside her formula  a bit in this one and the book was much stronger for it.

Ooh!!! Something to look forward to! SERIOUSLY need a ❤️💕❤️Roarke❤️💕❤️ FIX!

Whaaaat???

[Spartan Girl]

I just started The Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix, where survivors of serial killers gather together. It’s almost like what would happen if Laurie Strode met up with all the final girls of Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street. Omg that would be an awesome spinoff. Anyway enjoying it so far!

[scarynikki12]

9 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I know @scarynikki12, you've read the Malory series. But have you read any of the others?

I haven't read the Wyoming series but I have read select other non-Malory books. I've liked a few and hated a few. 

There were a couple that had one of the couple flat out rape the other but I'm spacing on the names. One has the heroine rape the hero while he's tied to a bed (he's a Viking I think?). The other has a...pirate(?) for the hero and not only does he rape the heroine, not only does everyone acknowledge that he rapes her, he rapes her so many times that his attitude is basically "if you'd stop being a bitch I'd stop raping you" AND THIS SOMEHOW IS NOT A HORROR STORY. 

I did like her Sherring Cross series. Well, just the first two as the third didn't interest me. 

Among the other books I read I like The Devil Who Tamed Her the best. I like how she explored Ophelia and that, despite the title, Rafe didn't actually end up taming her but became someone she could be herself with and having that outlet helped her deal with her pent up anger.

[GHScorpiosRule]

44 minutes ago, scarynikki12 said:

There were a couple that had one of the couple flat out rape the other but I'm spacing on the names. One has the heroine rape the hero while he's tied to a bed (he's a Viking I think?). The other has a...pirate(?) for the hero and not only does he rape the heroine, not only does everyone acknowledge that he rapes her, he rapes her so many times that his attitude is basically "if you'd stop being a bitch I'd stop raping you" AND THIS SOMEHOW IS NOT A HORROR STORY

GOD YES to that not being a horror story-it was A Pirate’s Love and what was more horrifying was his mother had also been raped. You would think that would have had some effect. 

The other was Prisoner of My Desire set in medieval times and Guy was a Knight. Rowena, raped him over the threat of her mother getting killed. 

 

[iwantcookies]

I haven’t read a book in a long time. I’m embarrassed by that. I used to read a lot. 

I am reading we were liars by e. Lockhart. So far very good!

[iwantcookies]

I did read the first 3 books in the bridgerton series but forgot all about the plots 😂

[Luckylyn]

I am in the middle of reading The Hunter and The Mage by Kaitlyn Davis which is second in her Raven and Dove trilogy.  I find the world the characters inhabit fascinating.  The world is divided between those who live on lands in the sky who have wings and people below.   The world above is ignorant of the one below.   The world below is in dire straits and they have a ruthless King who believes in doing whatever is necessary to save both worlds which he believes are in danger becoming of a prophecy.  We also have romance, spies, and betrayal.   I really am invested in the characters’ storylines.

[Danny Franks]

I'm almost halfway through The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper. So far it's a witty and smart read, without any harsh focus on the darker aspects of the story. It's candid and matter-of-fact, but doesn't dwell on how terrible the lives of the women are. But I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for something awful to happen to one of the characters.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Danny Franks

[isalicat]

I am halfway through The Secret Place by Tana French and again amazed by her incredible writing and plotting. I was going to skip this installment in the Dublin Murders sequence but someone here said to ignore the reviews on Amazon and read this one as a necessary prequel to the last in the series as well as a good mystery in its own right, and to that person: Thank you! So far, brilliant. The previous books in this series are all little masterpieces, in my estimation, and the way they link together is ingenious.

(as a stand alone, The Secret Place is by far the best book, so far, I have ever read about the machinations of the teenage reality. It takes place in Dublin close to the present time and I grew up in Los Angeles in the early 1970s as an original "valley girl", and yet this is absolutely right on and timeless in portraying the relationships that inevitably circumscribe our pre-adult world.)

[Bookish Jen]

I'm finishing up "More Than a Woman" by British writer, Caitlan Moran. This book is a collection of essays of what it's like to be a middle-aged woman in this day in age. It started off kind of slow, but I'm really liking it now. 

Next book? "Girl to City," a memoir by singer/songwriter Amy Rigby. I've been a fan of hers for years and I can't wait  to read it.

[grommit2]

Y'all may like D-Day Girls by Sarah Rose. This tells the true story of WW2 women serving as as Allied spies in France.  I was familiar with the stories of women helping downed pilots escape France through Spain.  But this was different.  There was reluctance to employ women in such dangerous roles.  But they proved to be smart, brave, strong, resourceful and successful.  Unfortunately, like many spies in enemy territory, some were captured and treated poorly...often in violation of Geneva Conventions.   
 

[Browncoat]

I finally got Project Hail Mary from my library, and finished it yesterday.  I mostly enjoyed it, but wondered

if Grace sent info back to earth about Rocky and his people.  I almost hope not!  And did he send xenonite back?  Or would it not fit in the beetles?  

[GaT]

Just started True Dead by Faith Hunter # 14 in the Jane Yellowrock series  I don't know how much longer this series can go on, it feels like it's become a bit of a stretch.

[Melgaypet]

I just finished His Father's Ghost, the 5th book in the Mina Scarletti Mystery series by Linda Stratmaan. I enjoy these books quite a bit. They're not groundbreaking - a British detective series set in the Victorian era - but they're different enough from that formula to be interesting. It's set in Brighton, not London, and the sleuth is a woman ghost story writer who finds herself debunking fake mediums in the midst of "spiritualism" craze.

If I have a criticism, it's that the characterization of supporting characters is a bit thin. For example, Mina's younger brother is a charming wastrel, handsome, lazy, irresponsible, none-too-bright, etc., but after 5 books he needs to show a little depth if I'm going to continue to like him and sympathize with Mina's continuing fondness for him despite all the trouble he causes her.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Melgaypet

[peacheslatour]

I'm reading The Crooked House by Agatha Christie. The tropes, of course, have been done to death (see what I did there?) but nobody (tee hee) does it better.

[dubbel zout]

Netflix made a movie of The Crooked House, and while it was a bit long, it was fun. Glenn Close is hilarious.

[Luckylyn]

I’m reading the nonfiction book The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shinning Women by Kate Moore.  When radium was first discovered it was treated as this wonder product and used in various things from treating cancer to painting watch dials so they would light up in the dark.   The book is about the girls and women who painted watch dials with paint that included radium and how they were poisoned by it.  I have heard of this horrible wrong done to those women but the book really showcases the callousness of the people in charge.  It’s so heartbreaking to read about the deterioration of their health which was incurable.

[Constant Viewer]

2 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

I’m reading the nonfiction book The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shinning Women by Kate Moore.  

Our high school did a play about this. I've been meaning to read the book.

[sugarbaker design]

 

14 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I'm reading The Crooked House by Agatha Christie. The tropes, of course, have been done to death (see what I did there?) but nobody (tee hee) does it better.

AC created those tropes!  Crooked House is in my top five of AC novels.

Edited October 1, 2021 by sugarbaker design

[Mindthinkr]

I’ve been reading a lot while spending time in the hospital with a friend. I read Bloodless by Preston and Child. Not one of their best. A bit too far fetched. Then I read The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain. Although I figured out the ending half way through it, I was engaged by her characters. Today it’s Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher. It’s longer so I probably won’t be able to finish it in one day like the others. 

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, Mindthinkr said:

The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain. Although I figured out the ending half way through it, I was engaged by her characters.

I would far rather read a book where I figure out the twist but still keep reading because I find the characters interesting than a book with horrible characters that shocks me with it's twist. I might check this one out. I love engaging characters. 

[EtheltoTillie]

So I read The Golden Rule.  It is not a spoiler to say it's the same premise as Strangers On a Train, but with two women.  That's in all the promotions.

However, I found that

Spoiler

it was not believable

Spoiler

that the main character would agree so readily to kill the other woman's spouse.  And I figured out almost immediately that the other woman, who was soliciting the murder, was the same woman main character's husband was cheating with.  But that was not revealed until almost the end. 

The author combines mystery/suspense with social commentary.  She has interesting commentary on the current state of Britain after Brexit and class differences in general.  The book is set in Cornwall, an area that apparently has unique customs and accent.  So it was okay.  Not great.

Edited October 1, 2021 by GussieK

[peacheslatour]

31 minutes ago, GussieK said:

So I read The Golden Rule.  It is not a spoiler to say it's the same premise as Strangers On a Train, but with two women.  That's in all the promotions.

However, I found that

  Hide contents

it was not believable

  Hide contents

that the main character would agree so readily to kill the other woman's spouse.  And I figured out almost immediately that the other woman, who was soliciting the murder, was the same woman main character's husband was cheating with.  But that was not revealed until almost the end. 

The author combines mystery/suspense with social commentary.  She has interesting commentary on the current state of Britain after Brexit and class differences in general.  The book is set in Cornwall, an area that apparently has unique customs and accent.  So it was okay.  Not great.

I'll always have a soft spot for Cornwall because of Rebecca.

[SusanM]

i just devoured the two autobiographies written by the late great Beverly Cleary. A Girl from Yamhill and On My Own Two Feet.  How I wish she had written a third!  My two big probably never to be answered questions: who was Gerthard and what ever happened to him?* and did Beverly's mother ever calm the hell down and become a loving mother and grandmother?

* for those unfamiliar with Cleary's life, as a teenager she had a boyfriend (of sorts) - a bit older than her and very obnoxious and controlling who, for some reason, her mother adored so she kept pressuring Beverly to keep seeing him.  Reading this book now he comes off as a potential abuser.  Thankfully she managed to make a break with him and the relationship ended.  

 

[Starleigh]

I always figured her mother had unresolved emotional issues...reading between the lines, I don't think their relationship changed much, sadly. Her parents must have been quite elderly when they became grandparents, though, because IIRC Beverly was married around 15 years before having children. 

As far as Gerhard, on my last reread, I was wondering if he was possibly on the spectrum which obviously nobody in those days had an inkling about. It would have explained a lot of the rigidity in his behavior and difficulty picking up her lack of interest in continuing the relationship. They were so obviously wrong for each other, anyway, and it probably wouldn't have lasted past a few dates if her mother hadn't pushed it so hard. I felt bad for him, really. They were both victims of her mother's manipulation.

I would also have loved a third volume!

Edited October 3, 2021 by Starleigh

[Vanderboom]

On 9/30/2021 at 9:11 PM, Luckylyn said:

I’m reading the nonfiction book The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shinning Women by Kate Moore.  When radium was first discovered it was treated as this wonder product and used in various things from treating cancer to painting watch dials so they would light up in the dark.   The book is about the girls and women who painted watch dials with paint that included radium and how they were poisoned by it.  I have heard of this horrible wrong done to those women but the book really showcases the callousness of the people in charge.  It’s so heartbreaking to read about the deterioration of their health which was incurable.

There's a chapter in The Poisoner's Handbook about these women and the corporate corruption that tried to hide the danger they faced.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Vanderboom

[SusanM]

11 hours ago, Starleigh said:

They were both victims of her mother's manipulation.

Why do you think her mother was like that with Gerhard?  I found this aspect of things very confusing.  Maybe I should re-read the sections about him but I couldn't see what Beverly's mother wanted.  Beverly married to someone Mrs Bunn could control?  

[Starleigh]

6 hours ago, SusannahM said:

Why do you think her mother was like that with Gerhard?  I found this aspect of things very confusing.  Maybe I should re-read the sections about him but I couldn't see what Beverly's mother wanted.  Beverly married to someone Mrs Bunn could control?  

Very possibly, also I think it was a sense of her almost picking him out for her daughter, since she was at the dance when the two first met, and she was along on their first "date" with  him driving both home. I think it mainly came down to her being so possessive of Beverly and needing to live vicariously through her. As Beverly said, she would have been so much happier if she had been able to have a job outside the home (or had more kids to spread her focus out).

( I also think her mother was a bit paranoid about "what will the neighbors say" and although Beverly never listed specific parameters, I guess Gerhard met them (obviously he was the "right" type of religion, unlike Clarence Cleary!). 

[SusanM]

5 minutes ago, Starleigh said:

( I also think her mother was a bit paranoid about "what will the neighbors say" and although Beverly never listed specific parameters, I guess Gerhard met them (obviously he was the "right" type of religion, unlike Clarence Cleary!). 

I was glad that they eventually made peace with the idea that Beverly married :gasp: a Catholic.  I'd really like to have known how her mother reacted to her fame.  I'm sure she was proud of her - I'd like to think she managed to show it!  And to love her grandchildren when they came along.  She was certainly a very complex person.  You see a bit of her personality in the mother in The Luckiest Girl but only a trace!  

[Starleigh]

28 minutes ago, SusannahM said:

I was glad that they eventually made peace with the idea that Beverly married :gasp: a Catholic.  I'd really like to have known how her mother reacted to her fame.  I'm sure she was proud of her - I'd like to think she managed to show it!  And to love her grandchildren when they came along.  She was certainly a very complex person.  You see a bit of her personality in the mother in The Luckiest Girl but only a trace!  

I guess I'm cynical and jaded because I feel that this was something Beverly struggled with her whole life, and that's why her memoirs dwelled on it so heavily. I think it was a complex relationship for the rest of her mother's life, and Beverly never fully unraveled it.

In my own life, I never fully understood my mother's way of relating to me until I was around 40 and her own mother passed away and her own siblings and her came together to talk over their childhood and I had a glimpse of the threads of dysfunction that laid the pattern for how she treated me through most of my life. Not that her family was totally dysfunctional but my mother was clearly the unfavored daughter and her younger sister, the favored one. So, it made complete sense to see how my mother reversed things with her own kids to make the older daughter (my sister) the favored one and me, the younger sister, not. And I think that goes back even farther to my grandmother's own childhood. I will likely never fully understand the roots of everything but it made me feel a lot less gaslighted by my mother's treatment of the two of us, which gives me some peace of mind. But it's pretty clear to me this was something Beverly had trouble getting past in her adult life, as she must have been in her 70s when she wrote her memoirs.

[BlackberryJam]

Finished the latest Armand Gamache. Much better than the last few. I don't think the word "corruption" was used even once. I'm looking forward to her collaboration with HIllary Rodham Clinton.

I also read The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives and I have no idea why those characters liked one another. It wasn't even brain candy. It was like drinking a glass of water when I wasn't thirsty.

 

 

[blackwing]

On 9/30/2021 at 5:47 PM, peacheslatour said:

I'm reading The Crooked House by Agatha Christie. The tropes, of course, have been done to death (see what I did there?) but nobody (tee hee) does it better.

 

On 9/30/2021 at 6:57 PM, dubbel zout said:

Netflix made a movie of The Crooked House, and while it was a bit long, it was fun. Glenn Close is hilarious.

Agatha Christie will forever be known as the Queen of Crime.  One of my bucket list items when I was younger was to read her complete oeuvre.  I checked that off about five years ago and I remember feeling sad when I was done.  Fittingly, I saved "Curtain" for last.  One of these days I will go back and re-read some of them that I thought were especially outstanding.

I really enjoyed "The Crooked House" adaptation with Glenn Close.  She was fantastic.  Some other notable names are in that movie as well - Terence Stamp (kneel before Zod!), Gillian Anderson, Christina Hendricks, Max Irons, Julian Sands.

12 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

Finished the latest Armand Gamache. Much better than the last few. I don't think the word "corruption" was used even once. I'm looking forward to her collaboration with HIllary Rodham Clinton.

Looking forward to The Madness of Crowds and very happy to hear that it doesn't involve the corrupt police force for a change.  Now if you said that the book doesn't mention that stupid YouTube with the warehouse gunfight, I'd be even happier!

I'm iffy on the Hillary collaboration.  I didn't read the ones that Bill Clinton did with James Patterson because I'm always skeptical to begin with on all of the hordes of co-authored books that Patterson has out there.  I am fully convinced he doesn't write any bit of them... these unknown or lesser known writers write the whole thing, he slaps his name on it, it hits the best seller lists because of his name, and he takes perhaps 50% of the profits.

With Bill Clinton, you would think that he doesn't need Patterson's name, that he could sell a book all on his own.  So maybe Clinton did write most of it and then Patterson (or more likely, Patterson's team) made edits and contributed the rewriting of some parts.

I think Hillary probably looked at this and thought she could do it as well, so went and got the help of a well-known female author to do the same for her that was done for Bill.

[BlackberryJam]

33 minutes ago, blackwing said:

 

Agatha Christie will forever be known as the Queen of Crime.  One of my bucket list items when I was younger was to read her complete oeuvre.  I checked that off about five years ago and I remember feeling sad when I was done.  Fittingly, I saved "Curtain" for last.  One of these days I will go back and re-read some of them that I thought were especially outstanding.

 

Looking forward to The Madness of Crowds and very happy to hear that it doesn't involve the corrupt police force for a change.  Now if you said that the book doesn't mention that stupid YouTube with the warehouse gunfight, I'd be even happier!

I re-read the Christies for comfort!

And you can be happier! If that gunfight was mentioned, I don't recall it. The book was written during the pandemic and is about the pandemic, but

Spoiler

it assumes that a vaccine was created and the pandemic ended.

That's not a big spoiler, and doesn't reveal anything about who is killed or whodunit or why, but it explains the backdrop of the book. 

[dubbel zout]

54 minutes ago, blackwing said:

  I am fully convinced he doesn't write any bit of them... these unknown or lesser known writers write the whole thing, he slaps his name on it, it hits the best seller lists because of his name, and he takes perhaps 50% of the profits.

A couple of years ago I read an article about him using coauthors more and more. It was interesting and explained how he works: He usually has the outline of the story, then gives it to the coauthor to fill in. Patterson reads it over and makes suggestions/changes, so he is involved but to a lesser degree. He says there are two advantages to using a coauthor: He gets more of his ideas out there in book form, and he gives budding/lesser known authors exposure they wouldn't otherwise get.

I don't pay that much attention to his stuff anymore because I find it repetitive, but I'm curious of any of his coauthors have had any success with books written solely by them. 

[Mondrianyone]

19 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I don't pay that much attention to his stuff anymore because I find it repetitive, but I'm curious of any of his coauthors have had any success with books written solely by them. 

Yes, at least one of them has: Andrew Gross.

[blackwing]

2 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

A couple of years ago I read an article about him using coauthors more and more. It was interesting and explained how he works: He usually has the outline of the story, then gives it to the coauthor to fill in. Patterson reads it over and makes suggestions/changes, so he is involved but to a lesser degree. He says there are two advantages to using a coauthor: He gets more of his ideas out there in book form, and he gives budding/lesser known authors exposure they wouldn't otherwise get.

I don't pay that much attention to his stuff anymore because I find it repetitive, but I'm curious of any of his coauthors have had any success with books written solely by them. 

Interesting.  So he does give an outline of plot but the actual writer is the one who does the writing.  I guess he is transparent about the process.  But I really hate how he considers it "his" book and his tagline "the world's most prolific author" or whatever it is.  If he didn't write any of the words, then it really shouldn't be his book.  I would think he should put the "co"-author's name first.  Or just have his own publishing house or something on the cover that says "From the James Patterson Factory".  Just seems completely like false advertising if he doesn't even write any of the words.

The first time I was aware of this practice of "co-author" was some years back when Tom Clancy introduced these other series that were in the same universe as the books he wrote but they were called "Tom Clancy's Op Center".  But I'm pretty sure those books clearly said they were "created by Tom Clancy" and some other author was credited as the author.  The books still sold well because of the Tom Clancy name but there wasn't this attempt to pretend that he actually wrote them.

Later on as he aged, I believe he did start using co-authors to write the Jack Ryan Jr. books.  The same goes for Clive Cussler.  He started using co-authors on all of his series (including his son on the flagship Dirk Pitt series, unfortunately, the son was and is a fairly bad writer).  What I wasn't sure of was the extent to which Clancy and Cussler still wrote.  The cynic in me says they didn't write any of those books but the process wasn't as transparent as it appears to be with Patterson.

Nowadays, it seems that even after an author has died, they still use the name of the author on the book cover but then they make it clear that someone else is writing the series.  Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Vince Flynn, Margaret Truman (regardless of whether she actually wrote the series while she was still alive), Dick Francis.  I'm sure there are others.

[Ohiopirate02]

7 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Nowadays, it seems that even after an author has died, they still use the name of the author on the book cover but then they make it clear that someone else is writing the series.  Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Vince Flynn, Margaret Truman (regardless of whether she actually wrote the series while she was still alive), Dick Francis.  I'm sure there are others.

The OG for this trend is V. C. Andrews.  She died back in 1986 after only completing 7ish novels.  Her family hired a ghostwriter to finish her drafts and he has not stopped since.  The V.C. Andrews name has been a pen name for Andrew Neiderman for the last 30 years.  

[Darian]

I keep seeing new books by Agatha Christie, by Sophie Hannah. I think  they just Poirot novels. Have read and enjoyed books by each author, but haven't read these and haven't planned to. Robert Parker's Spenser series continues, though Parker died in 2010. 

I'm in a dry spell. The last few books I've tried have not been good. Going to grab a bunch from my library e-accounts and hope for the best.       

[peacheslatour]

3 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

The OG for this trend is V. C. Andrews.  She died back in 1986 after only completing 7ish novels.  Her family hired a ghostwriter to finish her drafts and he has not stopped since.  The V.C. Andrews name has been a pen name for Andrew Neiderman for the last 30 years.  

I remember reading The Seven Percent Solution back in the seventies. A Sherlock Holmes story written by Nicholas Meyer. It's kind of another side of the coin. There are quite a few Holmes books written by people other than Conan Doyle.

[BlackberryJam]

6 hours ago, Darian said:

I keep seeing new books by Agatha Christie, by Sophie Hannah. I think  they just Poirot novels. Have read and enjoyed books by each author, but haven't read these and haven't planned to. Robert Parker's Spenser series continues, though Parker died in 2010. 

I'm in a dry spell. The last few books I've tried have not been good. Going to grab a bunch from my library e-accounts and hope for the best.       

The Sophie Hannah Poirot books are very very not good at all.

[Starleigh]

Agatha Christie wrote a few novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, IIRC. Totally unlike her mysteries. I tracked down a couple probably 15 years ago (back then you could still buy very cheap out of print secondhand books on Amazon) and they were decent in a very old fashioned soap opera sort of way. I do think her mysteries for the most part are classics in that they still read as fresh and undated despite their age.

I know it's a super cliched book, but my favorite is The Mystery of the Blue Train. Interestingly, Christie wrote that she considers it her worst book but that she had many people tell her it was their favorite. I also have a soft spot for Death on the Nile, as it was the very first of her books I ever read.

[Irlandesa]

11 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

A couple of years ago I read an article about him using coauthors more and more. It was interesting and explained how he works: He usually has the outline of the story, then gives it to the coauthor to fill in. Patterson reads it over and makes suggestions/changes, so he is involved but to a lesser degree. He says there are two advantages to using a coauthor: He gets more of his ideas out there in book form, and he gives budding/lesser known authors exposure they wouldn't otherwise get.

Maybe I haven't researched this enough but I quite respect the co-author route instead of using a ghost writer or burying the real author's name somewhere deep in the book yet the "name" author is prominent. 

It gives them more ownership and name recognition with the book reading audience.

As to whether or not it's cheating really depends on how detailed the outlines are.  Outlines can many pages long or half a page.  If the outlines he provides are half a page, then that's silly.  But if they're rather detailed with character connections and plot points/twists laid out, then I don't mind him taking more of an ownership. Coming up with a plot, mini-cliffhangers and an satisfying ending aren't always that easy. 

[GaT]

4 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

The Sophie Hannah Poirot books are very very not good at all.

Any of the "Agatha Christie" books written by people who aren't Agatha Christie are very very not good at all.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 10/2/2021 at 5:20 PM, SusannahM said:

 

* for those unfamiliar with Cleary's life, as a teenager she had a boyfriend (of sorts) - a bit older than her and very obnoxious and controlling who, for some reason, her mother adored so she kept pressuring Beverly to keep seeing him.  Reading this book now he comes off as a potential abuser.  Thankfully she managed to make a break with him and the relationship ended.  

 

Wow, this is interesting.  I recently reread Jean and Johnny, and this sounds like the makings of that story.  I will have to check out these autobios. 

[Tom Holmberg]

17 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

The OG for this trend is V. C. Andrews.  She died back in 1986 after only completing 7ish novels.  Her family hired a ghostwriter to finish her drafts and he has not stopped since.  The V.C. Andrews name has been a pen name for Andrew Neiderman for the last 30 years.  

There's a bio of V.C. Andrews due out soon, for anyone interested.  Also James Patterson has an autobiography coming out - like we need more James Patterson books.  Never read a James Patterson book, I'm waiting for "The Bible" written by James Patterson.

[SusanM]

26 minutes ago, GussieK said:

I recently reread Jean and Johnny, and this sounds like the makings of that story.  I will have to check out these autobios. 

One of the things I loved about reading both her autobiographies was seeing incidents from her real life that made it into her books.  Everything from the name of a casserole "It smells to heaven" to pounding bricks for a game of Brick Factory to calling people pieface!  Loved it.

[BlackberryJam]

14 hours ago, Starleigh said:

Agatha Christie wrote a few novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, IIRC. Totally unlike her mysteries. I tracked down a couple probably 15 years ago (back then you could still buy very cheap out of print secondhand books on Amazon) and they were decent in a very old fashioned soap opera sort of way. I do think her mysteries for the most part are classics in that they still read as fresh and undated despite their age.

I know it's a super cliched book, but my favorite is The Mystery of the Blue Train. Interestingly, Christie wrote that she considers it her worst book but that she had many people tell her it was their favorite. I also have a soft spot for Death on the Nile, as it was the very first of her books I ever read.

My favorite is The Secret of Chimneys because I love Lord Caterham and Tredwell, the butler so much. I know it’s ridiculous, but yeah. My favorite. I also love Death on the Nile and the thought of Armie Hammer playing Simon makes my skin crawl.

I love that her two man detectives are a pompous, not even remotely athletic, Belgian and a little old lady.

Books I am dying to read but will not spend money on, the Katie Couric trash fest coming out.

[EtheltoTillie]

34 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

Books I am dying to read but will not spend money on, the Katie Couric trash fest coming out.

I feel I got enough of the Couric book from the coverage in the Post and other tabloids. 

[Tom Holmberg]

1 hour ago, BlackberryJam said:

Books I am dying to read but will not spend money on, the Katie Couric trash fest coming out.

That's why God invented libraries!