My Library
I read for pleasure and to learn. Equally in love with fiction and non-fiction, I fall asleep to a book every night. During the fallow times of my creative cycle, I breathe in books like oxygen on a deep sigh. Voracious.
Below is a list of reading since 9/20/08. I’ll update periodically.
CURRENT: The Fire in Fiction, Donald Maas
Next up: We just picked up half a dozen books on a recent trip to Nashville/Cool Springs (half price book stores rock). I’ll work on that list.
Recent:
- Wings, Aprilynne Pike
- Untitled, Beta for a fellow writer
- The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
- Beta Novel for a friend (title withheld for now)
- Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, Donald Maass
- The Write-Brain Workbook, Bonnie Neubauer
- Writing Tools, Roy Peter Clark (highly recommended)
- The Write Type, Karen E. Peterson
- The Writer’s Book of Days, Judy Reeves (re-read)
- Writing and Selling the YA Novel, K.L. Going
- Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
- From Pictland to Alba, Alex Woolf
- The Reincarnationist, MJ Rose
- Murder List, Julie Garwood
- Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
- The Fiction Class, Susan Breen
- Naming the World, Edited by Bret Anthony Johnson
- Wizards, anthology
- Maid Marian, Elsa Watson
- Friend of the Devil, Peter Robinson
- Moods, Louisa May Alcott
- Every Day Deserves a Chance, Max Lucado
- God’s Solutions for Your Life, Charles Stanley
- Blood Engines, Tina Strite
- Assassin’s Apprentice, Robin Hobb
- This Present Darkness, Frank Peretti (re-read)
- Midnight Blues, Lynn Viehl
- Ravelin, Lynn Viehl
- His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik
- The Crystal Skull, T.K. LeBeau
- St Mary’s Avenue, Robert Mandatta Ponzio
- Abyssinia, Oliver Benjamin
- Slow Hands, Leslie Kelly
- The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
- Homespun Bride, Jillian Hart
- The Bride’s Baby, Liz Fielding
- Baby Bonanza, Maureen Child
- Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch, B. J. Daniels
- A Very Special Delivery, Linda Goodnight
- Irresistible Forces, Brenda Jackson
- Kiss Me Deadly, Michele Hauf
- Hide in Plain Sight, Marta Perry
- The Secret, Julie Garwood
- His Lady Mistress, Elizabeth Rolls
- The Shack, Wm Paul Young
- Escaping Into the Open, Elisabeth Berg
- The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch
- The Writer’s Book of Days, Judy Reeves
- Lifelines (beta), JC Hart
- Grace (eventually), Anne Lamott
- A Red Sun Rises (beta), Jaym Gates
- Bulletproof Book Proposals, Pam Brodowsky & Eric Neuhaus
- The Last Templar, Raymond Khoury
- Ancestors of Avalon (fiction)
- Elements of Style, Shrunk & White
- The List, J A Konrath, a free Ebook download from the author’s website.
- Origin, J A Konrath, a free Ebook download that I read in one sitting.
- The Illuminator (fiction)
- How Not to Write a Novel, Howard Mittelmark & Sandra Newman
- On Writing Well, William Zinsser
- Bersingr, C Paolini
- No Plot? No Problem!, Chris Baty
- The Art of Romance Writing, Valerie Parv
- The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova (fiction)
- Charade, Sandra Brown (re-read)
- Putting Your Passion Into Print, Arielle Eckstut & David Henry Sterry
- Courage to Write, Ralph Keyes
- The Tao of Writing, Ralph Wahlstrom
- Stein on Writing, Sol Stein (I couldn’t help it…I got the book and all other reading flew away!)
- Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
- Getting Things Done, David Allen
- How to Grow A Novel, Sol Stein.
- Waterdeep, City of Splendors, Ed Greenwood (re-read)
- The Gift, Julie Garwood (re-read)
- Silverfall (reread), Ed Greenwood
- The Elenium (reread)(trilogy: The Diamond Throne, The Ruby Knight, The Sapphire Rose), David Eddings
- Frostfell, Mark Sehestedt
- A Voice from Home, Rich Stevenson
- Adventures in Ocean Exploration, Robert D. Ballard, Malcolm McDonnel/National Geographic
- In the King’s Name (reread), Jo Walton
- Castles, Palaces, & Stately Houses of Britain & Ireland, Charles Phillips, Richard Wilson
- Foxe’s Book of Martyrs: Chapter on William Tyndale
- The City of Splendors (reread), Ed Greenwood
- The Kings and Queens of England, Ian Crofton
- The History of Writing, Steven Roger Fischer. This book is written in heavy academic language that can be hard to get through and is not considered light reading. I’ve been working on this one for a while and will continue to do so as the topic is fascinating.
Reference works with a permanent place on my desk:
- The Writer’s Book of Days, Judy Reeves
- Stein on Writing, Sol Stein
- Becoming a Writer, Dorothea Brande
- Writing from Both Sides of the Brain, Dr. Henriette Anne Klauser
- Creating a Life Worth Living, Carol Lloyd
- Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
- Writer’s Complete Fantasy Reference: an Indispensible Compendium of Myth and Magic, Writer’s Digest/Terry Brooks, et al
- Who’s Who in the Bible
- Bullfinch’s Mythology
- The Bible
