Recommendations, Pretty Please.

It might be because I have a blog and am currently obsessed with them, but lately I have been asked by many friends to give book recommendations. When that friend is someone who admits to hardly ever reading, that is a lot of pressure on me! There are few books that I can say I would recommend to EVERYONE. As much as I wish it weren't so, not everyone likes the same things I do. Since one of the goals of all this reading and blogging is to inspire others to pick up more books, I'm a little nervous when I make suggestions. All I can do is make a recommendation and hope that it's good enough so they aren't discouraged from future reading.

A friend told me that she goes into B&N and doesn't doesn't know where to look or what to choose. A book store can be a pretty daunting place. Dozens of different sections, thousands of titles, such pretty covers, how do to choose?! Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed in a book store I have found the best place to look for advice is in the Employee Recommended Section. Usually there is a wide-range of reader tastes, as well as an explanation for why that person decided to give their stamp of approval.

If you aren't an avid reader, take all of my recommendations with this bit of advice: You might have to read a lot of novels before you really figure out what sort of books you like.

Also, please don't take my book list on the right as a list of recommendations. There are several on there that I would never recommend to anyone and several that I read before this year that I want to share!

Update Book 31: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't enjoy "A Reliable Wife," more than I did. This is a page-turner just like the reviewers claim. I finished it in under a day, but I felt like something was missing. There were several paragraphs where I just wanted the author to get to the point. After I finished I looked up the reviews on Amazon. I found it very interesting how split readers were; half gave it five stars, the other half one. There is a decidedly sexual tone to most of the book that I assume many found unappealing. There is a good story here with some unexpected twists and turns. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I guess I am one of the few sitting right in the middle at three stars.