Snow is coming -- not unusual for New Hampshire in February. Even the turkeys were unusually slow coming out of their house this morning, anticipating the storm, which for unknown reasons is taking its time arriving. I ran out early to the used bookstore to stock up the way some head for the grocery store for milk and bread. Everyone has their vices and, for me, devouring too many books is mine. I got a Luanne Rice book and two C.J. Cherryh books. I find both authors to write reliable, good escapist books. It made me wonder what good authors I am missing out on that you enjoy. I am always looking for that book that makes me want to stay up through the night to finish it. Such books aren't so easy to find.
Below the fold are a few of the authors whose books I sought out until I had read them all.
I adore Patrick O'Brian, who not only keeps me turning the pages, he even makes me feel like I'm learning some history as well. A friend introduced me to him when I had just become disabled. His books were a great comfort while I was bedridden. His naval stories of the Napoleonic era are simply riveting. I love horse racing and for some reason, the battles where one ship would try to outrun the other gave me the same kind of pleasure the description of a good horse race does.
Dick Francis isn't as good as Patrick O'Brian but then few authors are. But he is a long time favorite, especially since I trained race horses. His books aren't full of the irritating errors about horse racing that are in so many others which mention the sport and his plots are always grabbers. I much prefer his earlier books to his later ones but I read them all, anyhow. His hero is usually a different person with a different profession but it is always the same character. But it is such a likeable character that I don't mind a bit. His books are amazingly forgettable -- which you wouldn't think of as a virtue but that means that I can pick them up again every year or so and enjoy them anew.
I love dogs as well as horses so I've read through all the Susan Conant books, with her irrepressible Alaskan Malamutes. I've lately discovered the Patrick Kelley books too and particularly enjoy his dog training advice.
I like fantasy and SF too, and thoroughly enjoyed wending my way through all the thick Robert Jordan books. As I realized I enjoyed the first couple of them, that the wide shelf of his books and their ready availability in used book shops felt like money in the bank. Jordan's bio in the back of each book said he'd die at the typewriter but I would have appreciated it if he had finished the series before doing so. I find his books depressing, dark, and sexist -- usually qualities that have me disliking an author but he writes such interesting characters and plots that he kept me turning pages all the same. I was sorry to finish the series.
I love Susan Phillips, who writes romance but doesn't write bodice rippers. Everything about her books, including the fact that so often the male heroes are football players would make me think I wouldn't like them but I do like them. I met Beatrice Small, a best selling romance author, at a luncheon years ago, before I had read anything she had written. I told her that I usually skipped over the sex scenes in a romance book as I found them boring. She was quite distressed at this, saying she worked so hard to write interesting ones.
I've loved most of the Larry McMurty books. He writes wonderful characters whom you don't want to let go. He is one of those authors where his plots are secondary to the people he creates. I haven't quite found all the Dorothy Stanton Frank books in the used book stores yet. She is another author who writes wonderful, quirky characters whom I'm glad to meet.
Yes, I read plenty of non-fiction too but that isn't what I'm looking for to curl up with in a snowstorm. Tell me some of the authors who fill this function for you. I need to know some more and I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who is interested.
The snow has started.