EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all, here's the place to post suggestions for the next book selection.

Standard rules.

Please make sure you give a sentence or two why you think we should read it together, not just a list of books you're planning on reading.

If a book is recommended that you also want to recommend, you can mention it again to add support. If there's a bunch of titles, I'll just pick the ones that seem to have the most interest in the poll, if there's just a few i"ll pull them all.

This is a new selection round, so if you want to suggest a book you've suggested before, put it here again to be considered, I won't be going back to past suggestion posts.

Happy reading everyone!

How about a mystery? I don't think we've tackled a mystery before, at least not since I've been participating. I've wanted to try the Cork O'Connor books for a while, so I'll propose the first book Iron Lake. I enjoy mysteries, but I'm fairly picky about them - this series was recommended to me by fellow readers when I asked for books similar to Tana French (her Dublin Murder Squad books are amazing).

I'd be on board with that.
In terms of mysteries I've had my mother (extremely hard to please) talking to me about Louis Penny's inspector Gamache books (I mean the woman talks about these books with extreme affection) so I propose 'Still Life' to help me get started on this.
Louis Penny is extremely popular and my mother talks about the characters and their relationships in such affectionate terms.

I suggested it last time and it came in 2nd place and it is a fun mystery. It is The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. I have read it, I'm now on his next book and it was a fun and funny story.

@heather - your mother might really enjoy this book too!

I'd be on board with a mystery. I haven't read one in a while. I keep hearing good things about this book and it might be fun to give it a try: Fortune Favors the Dead, a historical mystery set in the 1940s, starring two female detectives.

Has anyone read Arsenic and Adobo? I've seen lots of people talking about it in the popsugar group and seem to like it, although the actual goodreads reviews seem all over the place. It looks cute, and is on the cozy mystery side of it.

Sheri wrote: "Has anyone read Arsenic and Adobo?

I read it recently and was pretty disappointed. I had to force myself to finish it. It's cute enough, but the plot is transparent and the characters, while moderately entertaining, just didn't hook me. The author does a whole lot of telling, not a lot of showing, and it just feels forced. It reminded me of a lot of the books that came out at the end of the chick lit craze - trying too hard to to be cute and breezy, and failing spectacularly. I read a LOT of fluffy, undemanding books, and I'm not a picky reader, so when I have to work this hard to enjoy a light read, I'm chalking it up to poor writing.

I'm next in line at the library for the Thursday Murder Club, so I'm going to throw my vote behind that :)

Haha ok, well I guess I don’t suggest that then! I don’t really read mysteries so I’ll just see what others suggest :)

I love mysteries! I would re-read Kerry Greenwood's Miss Fisher series, if anyone were interested in trying her.
But based on the read alikes, I'd like to suggest Lucy Foley's "The Guest List". If it is anything like Where the Crawdads Sing, it sounds good.

I was about to pick up Books Can Be Deceiving but the Miss Fisher series or the Maisy Dobbs books might be good for the group.

I've had a few friends recommend the series Books Can Be Deceiving starts.

I guess the question is do folks want a cozy type mystery series, something classic like Agatha Christie or Dorthy Sayers, or more modern mystery thriller? There are so many types of Mysteries out there.

I really enjoyed this comedic cozy mystery featuring a kind of American take on Miss Fisher - Come Hell or Highball. I'd be happy to read a Miss Fisher story, too, but I can personally recommend Lola Woodby :)

My favorite mysteries are the ones that focus just as much on the detective as a character as the mystery to be solved - but that can be any type :)

On a different group we were discussing women detectives. I would nominate B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton (I read it first back in the day)