Wednesday, May 16, 2007

A meme experiment.

Megan tagged me with the Thinking Blogger Award. Thanks, Megan! This got me thinking (appropriate, eh?), where do memes like this start? Who does it? And then I decided I wanted to start one myself and see what happened. So I can harass my blogging buddies. :D

The Little-Known Favorites Meme
Rules: List and describe three of your favorite books that other people might not be familiar with. Then tag five people. See, easy!

Books I love that you might not have heard of:

The Thin Woman, by Dorothy Cannell - The funniest mystery ever, imo. British humor. Ellie Simons doesn't want to show up at a family reunion alone, so she hires Bentley T. Haskell from an escort agency. Ellie's eccentric uncle takes a liking to Ben, and when the uncle dies suddenly a couple months later, Ellie finds out that the uncle has left everything to her and Ben. With the stipulation that they live together at his house, Merlin Court, for a year. She must lose 4 stone (she's overweight) and he must actually finish writing a book (he's a struggling writer).

I have loved this book so hard the binding has come loose and the text block has fallen into three pieces. I need to buy a new copy.

Desiree, Annemarie Selinko - Fabulous historical fiction! Desiree Clary is the youngest daughter of a French silk merchant. Her sister Julie becomes engaged to a young man named Joseph Bonaparte. Desiree meets Joseph's charismatic brother Napoleon and promptly falls in love with him. Napoleon is a lowly general currently much out of favor in the military. He has great ambition though, which eventually leads him to jilt poor Desiree in his haste to move up the political and social ladder. But don't worry, Desiree meets someone else who's much better. ;)

This book is like a history lesson, only interesting and fun. LOL. It taught me who all of Napoleon's siblings were and which conquered countries he made them regents of. But really, it is a fascinating look at the rise and fall of Napoleon. It was also made into a movie with Marlon Brando, but I've never been able to find a copy.

Celia Garth, Gwen Bristow - More historical fiction. Celia is a young lady living in Charleston during the American Revolution. Once Charleston falls to the British, she helps the patriot cause by becoming part of a spy network---listening for gossip among the occupying forces, and then passing it along to the American side. And there's a wonderful love story. I've tried other Bristows and not been impressed, but this is an old favorite. Look at that funny cover!

I tag:
Megan (HA! Not too happy you tagged me now, are you? Mwahaha!)
JMC
Rosario
Cindy S.
Dance Chica

16 comments:

dancechica said...

Aw, this is a hard one for me, Jennie! *shakes fist at you* I'm gonna have to think on this one. Hmm...favorite, little-known books...hmm...Okay I think I might have two, maybe three now. :-P LOL.

dancechica said...

Okay, it's up on my blog! :-P

nath said...

The Thin Woman sounds like a great book! and I bet a very difficult one to find! but I'll be looking :D

Jessica said...

Jennie--Have you ever read Lynn Viehl, aka PaperbackWriter that Rosina Lippi/Sara Donati is always going on and on about in her blog? I started reading her Darkyn series, which is very Kelley-Armstrong-but-shorter-and-with-vampires-instead-of-werewolves-only-don't-call-them-vampires-because-they-don't-like-it. You might think about it.

Jennie said...

Dance Chica--Yay! I like your list. ;)

Nath--The Thin Woman is still in print, I think. And used copies shouldn't be too hard to find. It's so funny.

Jess--Funny that you mention that. I have occasionally looked at PBW when Rosina/Sara links to her but not been terribly interested because it's all about writing and I'm not a writer. ;) But recently someone else was gushing about the Darkyn books. I am not fond of vampires, but I noticed that she's also written a bunch of scifi. So I just bought the first in that series, StarDoc (I think is the title). I don't read much scifi, but they sounded interesting so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

I heard the Darkyn series was quite violent, so I'm not sure I can stomach them.

~ames~ said...

I feel so in the loop, as I've already been tagged, and I've been MIA for almost two weeks. LOL

Coolness re: starting a meme. :P

Anonymous said...

Little known books that I love? *puts on thinking cap* I can do this, I know I can.

Megan Frampton said...

I can do this, too, only I keep thinking of favorites and realizing EVERYBODY loves them--Jane Eyre, Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe, Raymond Chandler. I will do this soon, though, and honestly? Thanks for the tag. I love getting tagged.

(Oh, and the United Methodist Church book sale is the first Saturday in June. It doesn't have a lot of romance, but a lot of other good books are there).

Jennie said...

Ames--you're always in the loop. ;)

JMC--Woo hoo! Let's see them!

Megan--You know, I've never read any of the Sharpe books or Raymond Chandler (though I have heard of them :D). Hmmm. I like getting tagged too, makes me feel all special. :)

Thanks for the heads up on the book sale!

Mailyn said...

I love historical fiction but I tend to be more of a historical mystery freak.

Devon said...

Oh, I love Dorothy Cannell. Do you have Down the Garden Path?

Jennie said...

Mailyn--Historical mysteries can be very good. I just bought a Sharon Kay Penman mystery about a man who works for Eleanor of Aquitaine. It looked good. :)

Devon--You know, I've never read any of the later Ellie Haskell mysteries. But my mom just emailed me today to tell me that she bought me a new copy of Thin Woman, plus the first sequel. (Yes, she spoils me.) So maybe I will get to Down the Garden Path eventually. Is it a good one?

Megan Frampton said...

I just did this, and all your books sound so cool! I love British mystery humor, and of course, I'm all over historical fiction.

Devon said...

Down the Garden Path is related to The Thin Woman, but stands alone. It is almost like a takeoff on a Gothic. Reminds me of Elizabeth Peters (ever read her?) I haven't read it in years, but I have a soft spot for it. Now I feel like re-reading it to see if it was as good as I remember.

Since hstorical mysteries were mentioned, I've gotta pimp my two favorite series: Sharan Newman's Catherine LeVendeur series and Lindsey Davis' Marcus Didius Falco series. Medieval France and Ancient Rome, respectively.

Anonymous said...

I'll second the rec for the Marcus Didius Falco series. And make another suggestion for ancient Roman mysteries -- the SPQR books by John Maddox Roberts.

My 3 are up.

Jennie said...

Devon--I've read a few Elizabeth Peters and one Barbara Michaels and mean to read more sometime. I LOVE Marcus Didius Falco! The newest one is out soon, I think. I haven't heard of the Newman series, but I should tell my sister about them because she loves books set in France.

JMC--I've wondered about the SPQR series, but never tried them. I'm heading over to see your books. ;)