Prompt #1: Readers have questions. Let's help them out!

1.  Reader wants the fourth book of the Anita Blake series, by Laurell K. Hamilton.

That would be The Lunatic Café (January 1996), followed by Bloody Bones (Oct. 1996).

2.  Reader wants something like Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer, same type of writing but faster paced.

According to NoveList, Barabara Kingsolver’s writing style is lush, descriptive and richly detailed.  If I look for those writing styles and add fast pacing to the search, I find several books that may be just right.  Emma Donoghue’s Frog Music is about the unsolved murder of Jenny Bonnet, a cross-dressing frog catcher in 1870s San Francisco.  San Miguel, by TC Boyle is based on a true story of women who found themselves on San Miguel, one of California’s Channel Islands at the turn of the century and during the Depression.  In Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, a researcher at a pharmaceutical company journeys into the heart of the Amazonian delta to check on a field team that has been silent for two years.  All of these are lyrical and descriptive with some faster pacing.

3.  Reader wants a historical novel set in Japan and wants to feel like they're there.

By using an advanced search with Japan as subject and historical fiction as genre, I’ve come up with some great ones.  First off, Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, was extremely popular when it came out and I, personally, loved it.  In richly detailed and compelling writing, it describes the struggles of a girl in 1930’s Japan to learn the arts of the geisha.  The Scarlet Kimono, by Christina Courtenay, is a romance set in Japan in the 1600s about an English girl who stows away on a merchant ship to Japan and is abducted by samurai warriors.  Entanglements with samurai warlord, Kumashiro, ensue.  The author’s great love of all things Japanese is evident in this richly detailed story.  James Clavell’s Shogun is a perennial favorite and a wonderful descriptive epic about 17^th century Japan.

4.  Reader loved Elizabeth George’s A Well-Schooled Murder but found John Sandford’s stuff creepy.  Any suggestions?

Elizabeth George’s writing is lyrical, detailed and compelling, with a strong sense of place, suspense and perhaps a little violence.  John Sandford’s is similar, but with a “gritty” aspect.  So in searching for read-alikes, I focused on avoiding “gritty”.  Dorothy Sayer’s Lord Peter Wimsey series looks like a great match.  Amateur detective Lord Wimsey, an engaging and amusing protagonist, along with his manservant, Bunter, investigates murder in post-WWII London.  Jacqueline WInspear’s Maisie Dobbs series is another historical British series with an upbeat, suspenseful mood and an engaging and witty protagonist.  P.D. James’ Adam Dalgliesh mysteries feature compelling and richly detailed writing and a menacing sort of mood, similar to Elizabeth George’s. 

5.  Reader’s husband is into zombies.  He’s already read The Walking Dead and World War Z.  What next?

The Walking Dead and World War Z are classified as bleak, gruesome, compelling and fast-paced.  As a short story reader, I can’t help but suggest The Living Dead, a collection of short stories edited by John Joseph Adams, which features the best in zombie literature from the last three decades, from the most renowned authors in fantasy, speculative fiction and horror.  In Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse, by Steven Schlozman, a few brave doctors attempt to find a cure by applying forensic techniques to captured zombies as the walking dead rise up throughout the world.  Day by Day Armageddon, by J.L. Bourne, is another series about a man’s struggle for survival in the midst of an unknown plague.  If the reader liked the Walking Dead graphic novels, the Revival series, by Tim Seeley, comes highly recommended on goodreads.com. 

6.  Reader likes literary fiction that gets turned into movies.  Recommendations?

I’m not sure if I’m recommending books or movies here, but I do have some suggestions.  My personal favorite, although not within the last 5 years, was Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier.  The book was really good and immensely popular, but the movie was outstanding.  This is the only instance I can think of where I liked the movie better than the book.  NoveList has a couple Recommended Reads articles that are great starting point for finding books/movies.  I happen to like goodreads.com lists more, though.  Lists such as “Best book to movie interpretation”, “Best books that have been made into movies”, “Worst movies from the best books”, “From the page to the screen”, are abundant.  Goodreads members vote on each list so it is possible to find the most popular selections.  If you can’t find something here, you’re not trying.  I could make some suggestions from here, but again, not sure what exactly the reader is looking for.

7.  Reader wants thrillers with no sex or foul language.

This is a tough one!  NoveList doesn’t seem to have a category for “clean reads” and thrillers are usually awash with sex and swearing.  There has been a trend in Christian thrillers, however, and we can be reasonably sure that these will not offend.  Further, community forums on sites like goodreads or librarything could turn up readers’ recommendations.  Finally, ratedreads.com has comprehensive lists of selections and ratings from “none”(sex, violence, profanity) to “DIRT”.  Either browse whichever category you’re interested in or enter a title/author into the search engine.  I’ve selected some Christian authors which are popular at my library.  Lisa Wiehl’s Mia Quinn series focuses on a Seattle prosecutor and single mother who investigates murders.  These are intricately plotted and fast paced Christian suspense stories.  Dee Henderson is also a popular Christian suspense author.  She creates carefully researched, richly detailed, action-packed Christian romantic suspense novels.  Her Evie Blackwell Cold Case novels are very popular.  Perilous Judgement by Dennis Ricci is a Christian suspense political thriller about U.S. District Judge Edward Lamport from California who regularly faces threats of violence arising from his rulings.

My favorite resources for finding books:

I love and recommend Goodreads,com to anyone who will listen.  Besides book recommendations based upon books you have already read and books you have marked to read, there are literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of lists ranging from "Best books ever" to "Best books just like Harry Potter books" and everything in between.  For every book you look up, there are scads of recommended similar books and lists on which the book is included.  Before I discovered Goodreads, I was all about NoveList, which I still love for looking up series and similar reads.  I also like to peruse year-end best books of the year lists.