WEEK #3 PROMPT

1. I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next!

         

The book you want is called The Lunatic Cafe. 

2. What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.

Yellow Emperor's Cure by Kunal Basu, according to NoveList, is a "fast-paced" novel in which Basu writes prose that is, like Kingsolver's, "lush," "lyrical," and "richly detailed." Set in China prior to the Boxer Rebellion, the story involves a young Portuguese surgeon looking for a cure for his father's syphilis and falling in love with a native girl who also happens to be the assistant of an older, Chinese doctor who might hold the key to the cure.    

3. I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern – historical. I like it when the author describes it so much it feels like I was there!

My immediate reaction is to recommend James Clavell's Shogun, which is a drama about a British explorer who ends up becoming the right-hand man of a Japanese warlord after getting shipwrecked there. It's set in the 17th century, and Novelist has it rated at 5 of 5 stars.  

4. I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?

Well-Schooled in Murder happens to be the 3rd book in Elizabeth George's series about investigator Thomas Lynley, and there are 18 books in the series at this point, so you have the option to read some more of her work.  Novelist also suggests Ruth Rendell's Wexford series of mystery's, and calls them both "literate" and "character-centered" with "psychological trappings."  

5. My husband has really gotten into zombies lately. He’s already read The Walking Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend?

The As the World Dies series of novels by Rhiannon Frater is a popular choice with Walking Dead fans according to Novelist, and takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that is infested with zombies.  If your husband really likes graphic novels, American Vampire by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque is an Eisner award-winning series of horror books featuring a lot of blood and guts-- not zombies, but still excellent.