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Habitual Reader Profiles - Page 2
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Name: Jo A Hiestand |
| City & State: St Louis, Missouri | |
| Vocation / Avocation: Author | |
| Website: http://johiestand.com |
Why I'm a Habitual Reader:
I love the magic of words -- the worlds they create, the scenes that pull you into the writer's shoes and let you experience what the writer experiences. I can travel to any country on earth when I read. This feeling of adventure is part of the reason I love to read; I also love a good story and good characters. Books provide escape, humor, drama, mystery...elements that take me out of my locale and teach me about the larger world. I love matching wits with the author of a good mystery, or sensing a walk through a forest with a naturalist. Books are a constant companion and never let me down.
My List of Ten: Eclectic But Important
1. Scales of Justice
Author: Ngaio Marsh
Classic English mystery set in a sleepy village. The scales in this case belong
to a sought-after champion trout two men are trying to angle. Great characters
with a great plot twist. DCI Alleyn is in top form, as is Inspector Fox.
2. The Bat
Author: Mary Roberts Rinehart
Just a great old-time mystery about a "serial killer" the police
and newspaper journalists have dubbed "The Bat" and the odd goings-on
in a spooky old house that is rented for the summer by a mystery writer. Written
close to the turn of the 20th century, it's also fun to read about that era.
The movie didn't do it justice.
3. Wings of Fire
Author: Charles Todd
Classic English mystery with a great plot and superb writing.
4. Clutch of Constables
Author: Ngaio Marsh
Great classic English mystery with a bit of art history lesson thrown in. Complicated
plot, alternating between DCI Alleyn's narrative at a police academy in America
and his wife, Troy's, adventure on a canal boat cruise through the English
countryside. It shows Troy's vulnerability as she deals with a strange assortment
of cruise companions and also her strength as she deals with death onboard
the boat and her dependency on her husband. Wonderful plot that twists and
turns as much as the river Troy cruises on!
5. Rebecca
Author: Daphne du Maurier
The classic mystery about wife #2's battle with the memory of wife #1 and wife
#2's coming of age. Great atmosphere and will keep you guessing until the end!
6. The Daughter of Time
Author: Josephine Tey
Besides giving you an easily digestible and easy to understand lesson on Richard
III and the Princes in the Tower, it's a great mystery in its own right, with
the detective laid up in hospital and having nothing to do but delve into solving
an historical mystery. The pace quickens as you get toward the end of the book
and you are really involved with the characters.
7. The Three Musketeers
Author: Alexander Dumas
A rollicking, fun yarn of adventure, love and intrigue in 1700s France. Besides
learning a bit of history, it's a great story and shows the camaraderie of
the musketeers.
8. Ninth Lord of the Night
Author: Diana L. Driver
Diana weaves a very enjoyable, fast-paced novel of mystery, archaeology and
intrigue. While being engrossed in 17-year-old Zack's adventures, you learn
a bit about the Mayan culture and the jungles of Guatemala. Diana researched
this book very extensively, even going to the site in Guatemala. She wrote
an adventurous yarn that will have you rooting for Zack right through the end
of the book.
9. Nicholas Nickelby
Author: Charles Dickens
This is my favorite Dickens novel. As always with Dickens, there are superb,
quirky characters and multiple plots. The main plot of Nicholas, his mother
and his daughter trying to survive in London after their father/husband has
died, grabs your attention, especially Nicholas' time as a teacher in a desolate
Yorkshire school, run by that superb character, Wackford Squeers. But the other
plots are just as interesting, in my opinion: Nicholas' time with the acting
troupe, his sister's struggles with a group of fashionable men, and the secret
his uncle is harboring. Great characters, great plots!
10. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Author: Mark Twain
Mark Twain's wit and biting satire really come through in this novel as he
pits contemporary America with Middle Ages England. Twain holds up bits of
society and demonstrates for the reader how foolish we are -- as best exemplified,
perhaps, in the solar eclipse scene. Even if you don't read it for the satire,
the story alone is great...Hank, the blacksmith is transported back in time
to King Arthur's court. As you go along with Hank in his adventures, you are
always wondering how he will get back to his home in Connecticut or if he'll
even survive the tussles with jousts, knights, court intrigue.... One of my
favorites.
Have you read any of these titles? Review one now.
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