Top Ten Thursday - My Top Favourite Novels/Authors

Being the mom of three busy kids is very time consuming, as we all know. I absolutely love to read. In fact, that's doesn't even come close to describing how much I really enjoy a good read.

However, it is difficult to get the time in to read a good book with the children constantly clamoring about. When I read I practically devour the book. I am not one of these people who take 2 or 3 weeks to read a book. That's a laugh. If the story is well written and captivates my interest then I want to read it and read it now and read it until the story is finished. Sometimes within a day or two depending on how thick the book is. This is not conducive to life with kids. Those darn children just want my attention too. Imagine that?

So when I read, it has to be good, it has be quick and the kind of put downable at a moment's notice and pick back up and jump right in kind of book. Which makes up for most of the books on my lists. Some are serious writing, some is pure fluff.

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Really any of Jane's novels are my favourites. I can read those a 1000 x over.

2. The Stand by Stephen King. I just love this kind of storyline. I'd love the challenge of trying to survive in a world when all the power goes off (just not all the bad stuff that goes along with it).

3. The Thin Woman - by Dorothy Cannell. This is the first in a murder series about Ellie Haskell and the mayhem that abounds around her. It has the sort of wry humour that I love. Another of her books, "How to Murder Your Mother-In-Law" has garnered a lot of laughs around my home. ;)

4. Outlander - by Diana Gabaldon. Now this is serious writing indeed. It was nice after a flush of fluffy type reads to actually get my teeth into a writer of calibre. She has an entire series that stems from this first book that I have not gotten to yet.

5. Inspector Rebus Series by Ian Rankin. Again a murder series set in Scotland. Can you tell I love murder mysteries? So much more interesting than the standard love stories.

6. The Dirty Duck by Martha Grimes. She has written a number of murder mysteries set in England surrounding Inspector Richard Jury. Again, well written and engaging.

7. Lestat by Anne Rice Queen of the Vampires. Absolutely love her vampire trilogy. Not a fan of the continuations from there but the first three books were amazing. They sadly were not well represented in the films. So much detail was lost.

8. Sign of Seven trilogy by Nora Roberts. Like many of Nora's trilogies this series involves some loving and some magic. Her standard formula is getting a little old (three women, three men, each ends up becoming a couple and written on relationship at a time per book) but I love the themes she comes up with in each of her trilogy series.

9. Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead. Now this book probably comes from left field. I may read a lot of fluff but I really do have complex tastes. This is a story about a 10th century Irish monk who is sent to Byzantine and ends up separated from his fellow pilgrim monks, ends up enslaved and struggles with his faith in Christianity. An amazingly well written story, gripping and captivating the whole way through.

10. Hamish MacBeth series by MC Beaton. Who is actually Marion Chesney who writes regency period novels of which I also a fan of as they are quick and easy to read, light hearted and fun in general. Hamish is an unambitious Scottish police officer in the Highlands who loves his job and his village and does whatever he can to protect it.

Well there you have it. There are so many others I am sure but those are upper most in my mind.

What are your favourite reads?

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