Week 3

These are my responses for week #3 prompt. I found all my suggestions using Novelist.

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!

Book #4 in the Anita Blake series is The Lunatic Café. I searched Laurell K. Hamilton and then checked for the reading order of the series.

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.

I suggest Anthill by Edward Wilson or anything by William Faulkner. I found these suggestions by searching read-a-likes for Prodigal Summer and then I searched similar authors to Barbara Kingsolver. I narrowed my search to similar writing styles with a fast pace and came up with my suggestions.

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!

I suggest Dreaming Spies by Laurie King and Laura Rowland’s Sano Ichio series. I searched for historical books set in Japan and then narrowed the list by descriptive writing styles.

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?

I suggest books by Louise Penny, Peter Robinson, Dorothy Sayers, P.D. James, or Erin Hart. I found these by searching read-a-likes to Well-Schooled in Murder and similar authors to Elizabeth George. These are the authors that were on both lists.

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?

I suggest Cell by Stephen King, Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry, Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, and The Zombie Autopsies by Steven Schlozman. I found these suggestions by searching for read-a-likes to The Walking Dead and World War Z. Then I narrowed it to just books with zombies. These were a few that stood out.

 6. I love books that get turned into movies, especially literary ones. Can you recommend some? Nothing too old, maybe just those from the last 5 years or so.

I suggest Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, A Dog’s Promise by W. Bruce Cameron, The Circle by Dave Eggers, and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. I found these by looking at the Book to Movies Archive in Novelist. I look for things that were recent and literary works.

7. I love thrillers but I hate foul language and sex scenes. I want something clean and fast paced.

I suggest The Rooster Bar or The Whistler by John Grisham, House of Spies by Daniel Silva, or One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline. I found these suggestions by looking at the Thrillers genre. I then narrowed it down to fast-paced stories. Then I looked through my results for books that sounded like they were clean.

When I am looking for suggestions for myself or patrons at the library I use Fantastic Fiction, Goodreads, Amazon, or Google. These are websites I have found to be the most useful in the last few years, but it is nice to have some new sites to try. Novelist is really easy to use and has good suggestions for read-a-likes and similar authors.