Prompt Response: Week Three

1.)  I searched by author, then clicked on the Anita Baker: Vampire Hunter series link to find the next book in the series, The Lunatic Café.


2.)  I looked for Barbara Kingsolver and Prodigal Summer, then narrowed my search by “Writing style”, and decided to include some more fast-paced books from Barbara Kingsolver, including:

• Flight Behavior
• Pigs in Heaven

Also I would suggest from the Read -A-Like authors of this particular book:

• The Maytrees by Annie Dillard
• Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen
• Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
   

3.   In Novelist I searched “historical fiction” under Genre and “Japan” as subject as well as adult     audience. I chose books that were more current and/or based on a real-life setting:

• The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
• The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz
• The Pure Land by Alan Spence
• Shogun by James Clavell

4.   I looked up the title and its Read-A-Likes on Novelist and considered suspense books with a calmer tone. I also searched the series recommendations:

• Still Life by Louise Penny
• The Man with a Load of Mischief by Martha Grimes
• Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers
• Cover Her Face by P.D. James
• A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie

5.)  Both books include zombies and that subject should be included in the selections.

• The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
• Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
• Blackout by Mira Grant
• The Dead Man by Adam Mansbach
• The Zombie Autopsies by Steven C. Schlozman

I go to amazon.com for new books and recommendations and also Entertainment Weekly has great book reviews and top ten fiction and non-fiction lists from Publishers Weekly, New York Times, or Nielsen BookScan to find books to read (http://www.ew.com/ew/books/).

Suspense Annotation (C.J. Box)

 

 

 

Force of Nature

by C.J. Box

New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2012.

385 pages

ISBN: 978-0-399-15826-1

 

Summary: Dutiful game warden Joe Pickett joins the search to locate his friend Nate Romanowski, the main suspect of several murders in the ubiquitous natural Wyoming wilderness; the truth is finally revealed of Nate’s Secret Service past, but fighting back is not always law-abiding.

Series Information: This is the 12^th book of the Joe Pickett Mysteries series; there are 14 books in total. The first book of the series is Open Season.

Genre: Suspense/Mystery

Characteristics:  There is a prologue before the story begins which makes the book a Suspense novel. The action is fast paced and takes place in a short time span. The setting is always “stormy” and “dark”; real-life scenes are detailed and at times violent and graphic. There are chapters from the protagonist and suspect’s point of view which aid in the development of these characters. The description of the suspect and his whereabouts are often discussed throughout the book. Readers begin to sympathize with the suspect, and though he is smart, manipulative, and does illegal activities in some scenes, he justifies his actions in the book. The protagonist Joe Pickett is also in danger and focuses on solving a crime which makes this book a Mystery.

 

Appeals:

• Emphasis on hunting/fishing/outdoors
• Heart-pounding chase scenes (ongoing plot)
• Protagonist has flaws but is good-hearted
   

Read-a-Likes:

Novelist:

• Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
• The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson
• Ice Hunter by Joseph Heywood
• Track of the Cat by Nevada Bar
• Iron Lake by William K. Krueger