Guess what? The holiday madness is over! I don’t know about you, but after running around like a banshee for the past few months, now is my time to grab a book, sit down by the fire and read. Oh sweet bliss!
For as long as I can remember I have had a deep love affair with books and reading. As a child I used to sneak away when I was supposed to be doing chores, climb up into my favorite oak tree, and get lost in a book for hours. Typically, it was the Boxcar Children or some other kind of mystery. I was allowed to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes and travel the world, all from the safe spot in my tree.
This love has only grown deeper over the years. Books can influence your path in life, alter your thoughts, or simply give you a moment to escape purely for entertainment. This passion for reading is something I desperately want to pass along to my mini wildflowers. Each evening, whenever we are done with our chores or the swirly whirly craziness of our day, we take time to read and escape together.
Recently, I was at a dinner party with my girlfriends and the subject of books came up. Whenever this topic comes up, I geek out. I’m not even ashamed! I start throwing out names of my favorite books and scrounging for paper and a pen to scribble down suggested great reads. Seeing my crazy on full display, my girlfriends suggested I write a blog post about books I would recommend.
How does one begin listing all of the books I love? There are so many. I spent the last week or so wondering how I would categorize my list. By genre? By highest ranking to lowest? Quite the conundrum. As is typical with me, nothing fits perfectly into the pretty little boxes they are supposed to, including my favorite books.
When I read by myself, I am a super big True Crime and Thriller nerd. I know far too many facts about forensics, serial killers and how to dispose of a body than the average wifey and mother of two should probably know. I’m sure for some it borders creepy, but for me it is fascinating, especially when it comes to the psychological aspects behind crime. I have a degree in Criminal Justice, so I guess this helps to explain why I just can’t get enough of these types of books. My family teases me because when I leave a book store or library at least one, if not all, of my books include some kind of crime topic. My bookshelves for example have titles ranging from, My Life Among Serial Killers, Bodies of Evidence, Mindhunters, and Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer-America’s Deadliest Serial Murderer. Yep, you can judge me now!
When it comes to crime fiction, I tend to be drawn to books with a strong female lead. This isn’t due to a feminist standpoint, but more likely, I can relate better to the emotions of the main characters if they are female. There is more depth in my opinion to female characters placed in difficult situations, especially in a man’s world. It just makes for fascinating reading.
Based on this being my very favorite genere, I have decided this first round of book recommendations will be under the loose category, “Female Lead Crime Thrillers.” I could jam pack this category but I’ve tried to narrow it down to my top favorites.
I have the biggest girl crush on her and her delightfully twisted brain. Her stories enthrall me with their twists and turns. She has a compelling way of making it fun to solve mysteries and go on adventures with bad girls. I feel like I live in a type of book purgatory waiting for her next release. Be warned, her books are not for the faint of heart. But, if you can handle reading wicked, dark plots, I promise you won’t be let down! Gone Girl kept me up through the night, and Sharp Objects was no different. I would caution Dark Places readers as there is a child death. I am eagerly awaiting her take on Hamlet, as she has been tapped by Hogarth Shakespeare to release a rewrite for the 21st century in 2021!
Buying options (click the link for preferred format):
Gone Girl
Paperback Format Kindle Format
Sharp Objects
Paperback Format Kindle Format
Dark Places
Paperback Format Kindle Format
The Kay Scarpetta Series: Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series: I started reading this series in high school after a teacher saw my interest in forensics and criminal justice and recommended it. Before CSI and all of the following popular cop procedurals, Patricia Cornwell wrote about her fictional tough-as-nails Medical Examiner, Kay Scarpetta. Scarpetta works in a traditionally man’s world of early forensics and police investigations. It’s exciting to watch her navigate and kick-ass as one of the original strong females of this genre. I recommend starting by reading the first book in her series, Postmortem and working your way through them all. I’ve learned so much from reading this series that I’ve even toyed with the idea of becoming a medical examiner myself, if only I could handle autopsies!
Buying options (click the link for preferred format):
Postmortem
Paperback Format Kindle Format
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: Stieg Larsson
Yes, I know that everyone has seen the movie. I’m also aware that it has one of the worst rape scenes in current pop-culture literature. However, do not do yourself the injustice of not reading it due to these reasons. Aside from the first very slow 30 pages, I was unable to put this book down. This truly tops my list of one of the best mystery/thriller books I’ve ever read, and it’s my favorite genre so that’s saying a bunch. Lisbeth Slander was a completely fresh character when she showed up on the scene. A brilliant, isolated and badass hacker, she is driven in this book by the desire to avenge crimes against women. From the moment I met her I fell in love with her traditionally unloveable character and was eager to learn why she became the woman she was. All of this while investigating the mystery around the disappearance of a young girl during a bone-chilling winter in Sweden.
Buying options (click the link for preferred format):
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Paperback Format Kindle Format
Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult:
It’s been quite a few years since I’ve read this book, and the impact is still with me. I love Jodi Picoult, she has a faithful reader in me. Not only are her books fantastic, but I appreciated that she took the time to speak and take a picture with me when I fan-girled over her at the Library of Congress’ National Book Festival. By the way, every book lover should attend this festival at least once. I don’t typically geek out over movie stars, its authors that I freak out over!
Nineteen Minutes is told from the different view point of characters in the book. However, the main character is Josie Cormier, a high school student who is the state’s star witness in a high school shooting. The problem is, Josie does not remember what happened at the time of the shooting. The book is compelling as it keeps you guessing about what actually happened as you turn the pages. With interesting twists and turns, everything you believe in the beginning about who the good and bad guys are will change. The book is an interesting look at what makes a person reach their breaking point, and the depths some go to in order to protect secrets.
Buying options (click the link for preferred format):
Nineteen Minutes
Paperback Format Kindle Format
A Good Marriage, Stephen King:
Oh, Stephen King. I am one of the many of your devout readers. Some may shrug you off as being too scary. Other’s give you a hard time about your prose. I ignore them all, because you Sir, are a master storyteller. My favorites thus far have not been the huge bestsellers, although I love those too. Instead they have been more of the quiet tales found in your short stories collections, the burning ones that quietly haunt you. In this case, A Good Marriage, found between the pages of your book, Full Dark, No Stars is just that. A woman discovers an incredibly sinister secret about her husband of 27 years, and is trapped searching for what to do with this secret. It is not a traditional horror story, like in Carrie or IT. Instead, the creepiest moments take place in calm conversations between husband and wife. If you are like me, the only way to bounce back from reading this is to interrogate your husband for dark, hidden, sinister, secrets.
Buying options (click the link for preferred format):
Full Dark, No Stars (includes A Good Marriage as a short story)
Paperback Format Kindle Format
The Hannibal Series, Thomas Harris:
Although technically this can not count as a full female lead series, it does include Silence of the Lambs, which features Clarice Starling. Starling is an incredibly strong female lead and will forever be one of the original female ass kickers, thanks to Thomas Harris. For many of us, this conjures up the vision of Jodi Foster and Anthony Hopkins separated merely by prison bars. Fantastic cinema from Harris’ breathtaking writing. All four of the novels in this series leave you biting your nails in fear and anticipation. I was given the last book, Hannibal Rising, as a Christmas gift in 2006 when my husband was deployed. I was visiting my parents and slept on the sofa in front of the fire and near their bedroom for a few nights because I was haunted. These books are some of the best psychologically riveting work I’ve ever read. Make sure you have a cozy blanket nearby, and a few days to read as these are nearly impossible to put down.
Buying options (click the link for preferred format):
The Silence of the Lambs
Paperback Format Kindle Format
Red Dragon
Paperback Format Kindle Format
Hannibal
Paperback Format Kindle Format
Hannibal Rising
Paperback Format Kindle Format
Other notable books in this category (click on the link for buying options):
All the Missing Girls, Megan Miranda (Stick with it, the first 65 pages are slow, but pay off!)
The Body of Evidence Series, Christopher Golden (I binge read this YA series in high school)
The Winter People, Jennifer McMahon
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
2 comments
I love the break-down and explanation of our opinions! Having a ‘female-lead’ bias should never necessitate an apology! The chosen interest of the reader is what publishers strive to discover! I especially love the fact that you instill a strong and independent self-worth in to your young ‘Wildflowers’!
Thank you so much for the encouragement and support! Love you.