In honor of her birthday on Sunday (Happy Birthday, Betsy!), I asked my friend Betsy if she would like to share some of her favorite books with us. She is an avid reader and mama of three of the cutest little girls. We met through our local chapter of MMRT. She blogs at Betsy’s Random Assortment of Thoughts about anything and everything. I’ve recently enjoyed her What I Learned Church Series – a weekly reflection on the Sunday sermon. This one especially.

And I have to tell you a story that happened at one of our book discussion gatherings. It was one of the earlier chapters and we were still getting into the swing of reading and then discussing the chapter. That week, we were all having some trouble remembering what we had read, except Betsy. Betsy had so many points and thoughts to add to our discussion. It didn’t matter that she had read it at a busy birthday party with numerous loud and distracting children running around. I was super in awe of her ability to read, process, remember, and discuss the things she had read.

Anyway, that’s my story. I’m in awe of her brain.

Withoutfurtherado: Betsy!

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When Erika asked me to write a guest post I was flattered. When she asked me to write about my favorite books I was excited. I LOVE reading. In fact, I read 89 books in 2013 and made a goal for 2014 to read 100. Anyway, in the process of getting this post together I realized that I don’t have favorite books, but I do have favorite authors and favorite series. So, here are my top five!

My Sweet Audrina – I am a huge fan of VC Andrews’ early books, but this one is my favorite. I think I have read it at least six times. It keeps you in suspense, wondering what is going to happen, and has a great plot twist! This is the only one of VC Andrews books that is a stand alone book. Most of hers are done in mini series’ of three or four books. I like her earlier work (the Dollanger series, the Casteel series, the Cutler series, the Laundry series and the Logan series) but have finally decided that I don’t like the newer ones. The “classics” are the ones I chose to keep on my bookshelf for reading over and over. I would recommend any of the above.

Mary Higgins Clark – This is another author I love that I have been reading since high school. I love the mystery and love that most of her books have a female protagonist. These books are straight up mysteries and not so scary that I can’t read them. I am a self-proclaimed wuss, but could handle these.

JD Robb “In Death” – This series was suggested to me by my friend Jan at the bookstore. She owns the shop I always go to when I am at home. I told her I liked Mary Higgins Clark and she suggested this series. I started reading this series and was hooked by book one. It is about a homicide detective set in the future New York. I love that they follow the same characters so you really get to know them and see them develop. I also love this series because you can pick up any of the “In Death” books and not get lost. They are each a complete story and you aren’t left with any huge cliff hangers from book to book.

Janet Evanovich “Stephanie Plum” Novels – These are another of the ones recommended by Jan and I am so glad that I listened. These are almost all titled with numbers and you may have heard of the first one, One for the Money which was made into a movie. I love Stephanie Plum! Her family, her love life, her job all make for great laughs. In fact, I just listened to my first audio book while driving home from my mom’s house. It kept me well occupied during my trip and almost made me feel like the time went faster.

PC & Kristin Cast “House of Night” novels – This series was suggested by a friend and once I started I LITERALLY could not put them down. There are 12 books in the series, only 11 are out right now and it only took me from September to November to read them all. The final one isn’t due out until October and I cannot wait to see how she wraps up the story. The whole series is based on this girl Zoey who is marked as a vampire and sent to a special school just for fledgling vampires. It differs from a lot of the regular vampire books. I won’t spoil it for you, but they are really great books. Like I said before, I couldn’t put them down and finished the first eleven in just over two months.
If you find yourself with similar interests, you should think about adding me as a friend on goodreads. I love getting suggestions for new books to read.
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Thanks Betsy for the great list! I haven’t read any of these authors before, I’ll have to check them out!
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Does anyone else like a good mystery? How about some of the other books
Betsy shared, have you read some of them?