L. M. GONZALEZ, Writer

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone is looking forward to the New Year  and has set some goals. Forget about the past, look to the future.

To be a good writer, you also have to read a lot, so this year ...

 I started keeping a reading list.  I didn't count the short stories from The Wild Rose Press and some stories I read from lit journals. I've impressed myself. Though I'm on a Cozy Mystery loop and some people on there read in the hundreds of books.

However, of those 60 books that I read: my Top Faves are:

Moon Pies and Movies Stars ? Amy Wallen

Mai Tai to Murder ? Candy Calvert

A Legal Affair ? Maureen Smith

Death On A Family Tree ? Patricia Sprinkle (family history mystery)

The Southern Sisters Mysteries by Anne George

Harl Everlasting ? The Scrapbook ? Lynnette Kent

15 Candles anthology ?Quinceaneras ? edited by Adriana Lopez

Harl Everlasting ? Dancing on a Sunday Afternoon ? Linda Cardill

10 Steps to Becoming a Latina ? Lara Rios

Deborah Knott mysteries by Margaret Maron (am on RITUALS OF THE SEASON) ? my fave- High Country Falls ? romance was added, some tension and hints in the previous 8 books

Harl Everlasting ? Upstairs at Miss Hattie?s ? Ken Casper

Shop on Blossom Street ? Debbie Macomber (re-read)

A Good Yarn ? Debbie Macomber

(Macomber's books both about a heroine who had brain cancer in her teens, then a relapse in her 20?s, now in her 30?s she opens a knitting shop and gives classes and meets women with problems and somehow knitting helps; of course, she also meets the man of her dreams)

The Woodcutter?s Gift ? Lupe Ruiz-Flores (children?s book)

These are in the order I read them except for the mysteries, those were intermixed.

I also read some books that were disappointments for various reasons, the writing style, the plot points, the "perfect beauty"of the heroine, etc.

These were:

Keepsake Crimes ? Laura Childs ?  (scrapbook mytery)[writing style]

Bloody Waters ? Caroline Garcia-Aguilera [unbelievable plot points]

Death by Darjeeling ? Laura Childs (teashop mystery) (writing style)

Sisters ? Danielle Steele (disappointing,"perfect beauty")

Secret Diaries of Miranda Cheever ? Julia Quinn (disappointing, didn't even finish the last chapter)

Since You?re Leaving Anyway Take Out The Trash ? Dixie Cash (racial slurs)

Strangled Prose ? Joan Hess (a mystery set in a bookstore, put down romance and romance writers as trashy, supposed to be satire, but I didn't like it)

What books did you read? Why? Did you like them? Would you recommend them to others?

Lupe