Nicholas Spark: True Believer and Dear John

Spark's plots are definitely on the romantic, diabetes inducing sweet side of life. (Which is comforting if you are looking for a book that will deliver just that.) I just read True Believer and recently listened to Dear John. I find Spark to be a solid writer, although his work is definitely at a lower reading level/skill than I generally enjoy.

What I do like about his stories are the characters. The people he puts in his stories I believe in, can understand why they act how they act, and, as another plus, are generally good people trying to make good decisions without being the saints of some of the Christian genre books. (This is especially true with Dear John. And to listen to, the narrator is wonderful.)

Overall, I recommend reading these when you want something enjoyable, uplifting, and not too challenging to read/listen to.

Mitford Series by Jan Karon

This serious of books follows a small town preacher and the lives of the people in the town. The characters are realistic and the dramas in the characters lives are believable.

Overall, the books are well written and worth reading. They don't keep me riveted to my seat or give me the drive to keep turning the page, but I enjoy reading them, as does Mike. I enjoy listening to them even more, as they have sort of a "Prairie Home Companion" quality about them.

The Sky Fisherman by Craig Lesley

Basic idea: memoir style coming of age book of a small town high schooler raised by his mother after his father dies and she leaves his step-father. Set in Eastern Washington/Oregon. (I get a kick out of reading things that refer to Yakima or to even briefly to my own high school, Crater, which was described as po-dunk.)



My overall take: funny dialogue, good writing, and mostly believable characters. Worth reading and enjoyable, but it didn't keep me up late at night. The main character/story teller became a real person to me.



What I didn't like: the ex-step father going wacky. It's fine that he was semi-psychotic, but maybe the character wasn't developed enough for it to have a lot of meaning for me; I was mostly just annoyed at him. Then theme of fire. The fires described were interesting aspects of the story, good story telling, but i felt as if I was supposed to write an essay on the theme of fire in the novel when I was done

an incomplete and unordered list of favorite authors from Tawn

Pat Conroy, Maya Angelou, Lee Harper, Brian Haig, Greg Isle, Isabell Allende, Jodi Picoult, Jeannette Walls, Jared Diamond, Steven Levitt, Margaret Mitchell, Jane Austen, Bill Bryson

This blog is for those who . . .

have books stacked on the nightstand
read shampoo bottles, cereal boxes, ingredient labels and anything else with print
are on the search for the book with both a good plot AND good writing
would re-edit many books if you were boss of the world
can't tolerate the likes of Danielle Steele and Dean Kootz
actually use your library cards for books
would rather listen to audio books than music