Reading~~A Vacation for the Mind!

“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”

Mason Cooley


It’s the middle of summer! Time to get away, which is not always that easy, so remember this: a book can take you anywhere you want to go. Where would you like to go?


Think about it~~want to visit jolly old England? Pick up a book by Edward Rutherfurd, Phillippa Gregory, Sharon Kay Penman, Alison Weir, Bernard Cornwell, just to name just a few. What did it take to build a cathedral in England? Pick up the classic Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Fantasy and British history together…Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley; Jennifer Roberson will take you on a very merry romp with Robin Hood and Maid Marion in her wonderful novel Lady of the Forest.


Take a trip through America? How else would I know how Centennial, Colorado started from a speck of sand millions of years before it became a town? I learned more about geology from James Michener in Centennial then I did in school. Larry McMurty took me on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana in Lonesome Dove that I wouldn’t have gone on otherwise. How about going along with Lewis and Clark in Stephen E. Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage as they head west to the Pacific? Civil War? MacKinlay Cantor’s Andersonville will haunt you with what one human being can do to others. Michael Shaara wrote, for me anyway, one of THE best fiction books on Gettysburg, Killer Angels. Don’t forget Margaret Mitchell to check out that most southern of southern belles, Scarlet, in Gone With the Wind. Even if you have already read it, celebrate Gone With the Wind’s 75th anniversary and read it again!

What to tag along and help solve a mystery? Help find out who the real killer is? Find out what happens when things aren’t quite what they should be? Any of these authors will love to have you tag along… Lisa Gardener; Chelsea Cain; Ridley Pearson; Charles Todd; Cara Black; Dashell Hammett; Raymond Chandler; James Ellroy; Nancy Pickard; Donald Westlake; Julia Spencer-Fleming; Karin Slaughter. This is a few of the variety of mystery authors that will envelope you in some twists and turns to the end.


How about helping to stop terrorism around the world? These are a few of my favorites, Daniel Silva; John le Carre: Stella Rimington (Rimington was the first woman to head MI5) Helen MacInnes; Alex Berenson: Clyde Eagleton; Charles McCarry; Tom Clancy; Len Deighton~~check any of these out and go on a page turning ride that will make your adrenalin pump.

Do you love a good legal thriller with great courtroom scenes? I know I do. Pick up Steve Martini; John Grisham; Scott Turow; David Ellis; Phillip Margolin; John Mortimer; William Diehl…just some that make you feel that you are inside the courtroom, watching the characters and give great descriptions of their reactions.


Ah, romance. What would summer be without romance? Some great historical romance writers are~~Lisa Kleypas; Rosemary Rodger; Katherine Woodiwiss; Jude Deveraux; Mary Balogh; Beatrice Small, without whom I would never have know what a Kadin was... nor, ahem… what they did.


Little paranormal romance? You can’t beat Diana Gabaldon; Karen Marie Moning; Kresley Cole; Lynsay Sands; Sherrilyn Kenyon; J. W. Ward; Gena Showalter; Charlaine Harris; Christine Feehan….vampires, werewolves, witches, shape-shifters, time-travel, men in kilts…oh my! What more could you ask for!


Enjoy more modern day romance? Here you go…Nora Roberts; Jennifer Cruise; Susan Elizabeth Phillips; Jennifer Weiner; Nicholas Sparks; Elizabeth Lowell; Emily Griffin~~to name just a few.


Hopefully one of these authors will take you away.

There you go~~pick where you want to go and lose yourself for a wee bit. As Dr. Seuss said, "Oh! The place you'll go!"


Happy Reading!