Membrejustmelissa

Real Name

Melissa

About My Library

Ian McEwan summed up my reading preferences beautifully in his novel Sweet Tooth (edited to the present tense): "My needs are simple. I don't bother much with theme or felicitous phrases and skip fine descriptions of weather, landscapes and interiors. I want characters I can believe in, and I want to be made curious about what is to happen to them." Or in my own words, I like books where interesting stuff happens to interesting people.

Rating scale rubric:

5 - excellent read. Would purchase for my permanent or lending library; might even read again. This is a book I want to give you to read, just so we can talk about it. Approx letter equivalent: A/A+

4 - more entertaining than my usual read. Would recommend to friends who read, but probably not purchase for my personal library. Approx letter equivalent: B+/A-

3 - adequately amusing, decently written, would read other books by the same author. Would put on hold at library. Most serialized mysteries and authors I read who write a book a year will go here. Approx letter equivalent: B-/B

2 - usually reserved for hand-me-down mysteries or other beach reads. not sorry I read it, but wouldn't recommend or pass on. Won't seek out the author in the future, but won't purposefully avoid. Approx letter equivalent: C.

1 - waste of time/energy/money. Approx letter equivalent: F

"We read to know we're not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone." The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

About Me

I'm a librarian who was a bookseller in my previous career. I love to read and devour a lot of books. Since I've stared keeping track, I have read between 60 and 130 books in a year.

The books I read generally fall into two categories: contemporary fiction or mystery/detective/legal fiction. Some of my favorites in the first category are Straight Man, The Magician's Assistant, Empire Falls, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Middlesex, Bel Canto, Poisonwood Bible, and I Know This Much is True. (I can't stand Jane Smiley, but somehow, every time she has a new book out, I think it sounds good. It never is. Someday I'll learn.)

In between, I enjoy lots of the one-book-a-year fiction/mystery writers with sassy or amusing protagonists or whose books are set in cities I've lived in: Crais, Lescroart, Kellerman (him and her, occasionally their son), Connelly, Evanovich, Scottoline, Cockey, Parker (though not those damn border war books), Jance, etc.

Ubicació

Somerset, NJ

Memberships

LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Also On

("justmelissa"), Facebook

Autors preferits

Ethan Canin, Nick Hornby, John Irving, Barbara Kingsolver, Wally Lamb, Dennis Lehane, Audrey Niffenegger, Ruth Ozeki, Carolyn Parkhurst, Ann Patchett, Richard Russo

Preferits locals

Llibreries: Vroman's Bookstore

Member Connections

Amics

andrealibrarian, Beecharmer, damejennylynn, despo162, Dogberryjr, dturnbow, Dutton, elleseven, hookedonbooks1, julko, MikeMcQueen, piankeshaw, porchsitter55, trespassersw, VinoFonseca

Biblioteca interessant

Dogberryjr, JGoto, purdypaint, RachelWeaver, sdreaders, Training_LHR, UCSDLMG

Contactes

dturnbow, julko, trespassersw