What's On Your TBR? by Shari Randall

 Yes, I've been a bit quiet lately. As my younger daughter says, life has gotten a bit "lifey." But it's in these "lifey" times that it's wonderful to escape into a good book. Tonight I'll be diving into Louise Penny's The Gray Wolf and I'm looking forward to getting my copy of the eighth Guppy anthology: Gone Fishin' Crime Takes a Holiday.

What's on your bedside table tonight?

MY TBR LIST by Nancy L. Eady

 I truly love being a member of Writers Who Kill and having my name associated with the other talented writers who blog here. One of the proudest days in my writing life was the day I was asked to join this group as a blogger.

But in the midst of the many positive benefits of being a Writers Who Kill blogger, there is one drawback—the length of my “to be read” (“TBR”) list keeps growing exponentially. For example, Elaine Douts did an interview with the author of the Haunting Danielle series, so I gave the first book in the series a try. Within the next three weeks, I had purchased and read the remaining 22 books in the series, and now I wait impatiently for each additional book in the series.

I don’t remember which blog post it was that encouraged me to try Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series, but I am grateful. It is the rare book that can present me with new vocabulary words, but Elizabeth George throws out at least two or three per book while keeping me enthralled with the pacing, suspense, and characters in the mystery. Since I just discovered this series, I have only reached book four, but the rest of the books are on my list.

I eagerly await each new release in Debra H. Goldstein’s Sarah Blair mystery series and Allison Brooks’ (aka Marilyn Levinson’s) Haunted Library series. And many of the books on my TBR list were written by my fellow bloggers here.

I am a little OCD with series, which does not help shorten my list. Each time a new book comes out in one of “my” series, I start with the beginning book and read through the newest book. For example, in one of the few series on my list that didn’t show up through Writers Who Kill, the Meg Langslow mystery series by Donna Andrews, the 30^th book came out a couple of weeks ago. I am on Book 14 in my mandatory re-read, so it will take me through the middle of September before I get to book 30. If I’m lucky, I’ll take just long enough that I won’t need to re-read books 1-30 when the 31^st book, a seasonal Christmas mystery, is released.

When I need to decide what I want to write about, when my turn for blogging rolls around, I flip back through the blogs we’ve posted in the last couple of weeks. In doing so for this blog, another nine books (from Alyssa Maxwell’s The Gilded Newport mystery series) popped onto my list. Doesn’t the idea of a mystery set in the world of Newport society during the Gilded Age sound fascinating? 

Whether you are visiting Writers Who Kill for the first time, or have been a regular visitor for years, please take a minute to click on each name in the yellow box towards the top of the page and look at each individual author’s writing repertoire. I guarantee you will find more than one book you need to add to your list.

SinC Up: What's On Your Nightstand?

The wonderful Mary Ann Corrigan, author of the upcoming By Cook or By Crook, the first in her Five Ingredient culinary mystery series, and short stories in the Chesapeake Crimes anthology series, tagged me in the September Sisters In Crime Blog Sinc Up. Taggees are given a choice of questions, including the opportunity to dish on what books are on their nightstand.

Books on my nightstand? How about the books by the cozy chair in the living room, the books on the coffee table/foot rest in the family room, the books in the tote bag, or the books by the front door waiting to go back to the library? And the book club book on tape I’m listening to on my commute. (Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. Beyond good, go check it out).

Since my husband and I have a mixed marriage (he’s an early riser, I’m a night owl)  I don’t read in bed. I do my reading on the fainting couch in the living room (Chaise longue if you’re feeling fancy, half couch I won in a furniture store contest if you’re wondering where I got it).

The chaise longue is furniture made for reading. Its arms wrap around you as you recline in Victorian-lady comfort. There’s even a spot on the arm that’s wide enough to hold a cup of tea or margarita – depending on what I’m reading. Yes, it’s a couch with a built-in, stealth cup holder.

Sisters in Crime wants to know about my TBR book stash, so here is a list of the books by the chaise: The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah (Thanks for those bags under my eyes, Sophie. Your infernally twisted book kept me up way too late last night); The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, a story in that special category reserved for books that change the way you look at life; and classics of two kinds: Peter Lovesey’s Skeleton Hill and David Simon’s Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.

Sisters and Misters in Crime are represented in the TBR by Louise Penny’s latest, The Long Way Home; a copy of Ellery Queen Magazine; Fat Cat at Large by Kaye George/Janet Cantrell; and Murder Strikes a Pose by Tracy Weber. Was Dorothy Gilman a Sister? I adore her Mrs. Pollifax books. She’s represented in the TBR by Mrs. Pollifax Pursued.

Last, but not least, is the book that makes my husband nervous, Deadly Doses: A Writer’s Guide to Poisons by Serita Stevens. Just a little light reading before bed, I assure him.

Many thanks to Mary Ann for the tag.

What books are on your nightstand?