Oh, I love mysteries too. Evanovich and Grafton are two of my favorites. I spent the winter reading everything I could get at the library by Ruth Rendell and everything she's written under her pseudonym Barbara Vine. No one does character-driven atmospheric mysteries better. She's English and all her mysteries are set there. I followed her up with Denise Mina, whose stories are all set in Glasgow, Scotland. Her Garnet Hill series is excellent, the heroine is very atypical, she's an alcoholic incest survivor who can't keep her nose out of other people's business. I also just finished reading a bunch of Laura Lippman's books, which are all set in Baltimore. I just learned she's married to one of the producers of The Wire. The other day I picked up a Tess Gerritsen book at the library. It sounds good. Is anyone familiar with Christopher Brookmyre? All of his books are also set in Scotland. They're very funny in that dry, dark humor kind of way. And if you want to read them, you have to be able to take some very colorful language.

It was fun reading all these titles, so many of which are favorites of mine. And one un-favorite: I hated Memoirs of a Geisha so much, I wanted to write to the publisher and demand my time back. I can forgive a lot of things, but not bad writing! It prompted me to send out an email to my friends and relatives asking them what book they hated to the point of outrage. (Clear winner: The Celestine Prophesy -- boy, do people hate that book!) I adore Bryson. I am just finishing A Brief History of Nearly Everything, and I love love love it. I won't repeat the ones others have mentioned. Here are a few you may not have heard of that are absolutely wonderful: A Lesson Before Dying New York Trilogy (read them as one book) The Metaphysical Club (don't let the name fool you) Defining the Wind (beautiful writing and hilarious) The first two are novels, the other two are sort of history of ideas. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Don't give up on War and Peace! It's just long, not hard, and it's terrific. He LOVES people -- if you like Ann Tyler, you'll like Tolstoy. The only tricky part is the names. One edition of W&P even comes with a bookmark that keeps them straight, or you can keep your own chart. But new translations of Tolstoy simplify the names as a matter of translation, which made Anna Karenina very easy to read. Reread Charlotte's Web now that you are an adult and can appreciate what an incredible piece of writing and philosophy it is. Some book!

Oh, yes, I re-read all the time. The ones I re-read the most are Jane Austen's novels, the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon, "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy (one of my favorite books ever), and "Far From the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy. I've re-read "To Kill a Mockingbird," too, but only 3-4 times.:)

I just finished Ordinary Grace; like many others here I really enjoyed it. An interesting story, nicely written, good character development. Thanks to the people who've recommended it! One thing I loved was how he handled minor characters. I've read a few books lately and by the time I get to the middle of the book and a character from the first part of the book is mentioned again and I have no idea who they are. So often the author gives no clue to remind the reader about them. He had a very subtle hand with that and I loved that it just took me a sentence or two to go, "Oh, that's who they are. I remember now."