Saturday Spotlight (2) - Favorite Male Mystery Writer

So Lori (@ Lori's Reading Corner) has started a new meme called the Saturday Spotlight where various book related topics will be "spotlighted."

This week's spotlight is on our Favorite Male Mystery Writers.

I have to say this is difficult for me. It'd be much easier if it was just Male Writer or Male Fantasy Writer. The problem is I apparently don't read much by Male Mystery Writers.

• I've read 2 James Patterson books as a teen and hated them. I've been meaning to try again, but haven't yet.
• I've been stockpiling Lawrence Block books, but I wanted to have most the series before I started so... no go.
• I read one Harlan Coben book, but I don't feel I can say he's a favorite until I've read more.  Same for John Sandford.  And I LOVED The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (read as audio...Elliot Gould was the perfect voice for it). But again, I've only read the one book by him.
• There is John J. Lamb and his cozy Teddy Bear Collector series. But while I enjoyed the series, can I really say he's my favorite male mystery author?
• And as a teen I read a lot of John Grisham and Jack Higgins (particularly his Sean Dillon books), but those are more thrillers, right?

So thanks to all the great male mystery authors I've read (and those I've yet to), but my favorite remains a mystery.

A belated Saturday Spotlight

So Lori (@ Lori's Reading Corner) has started a new meme called the Saturday Spotlight where various book related topics will be "spotlighted." I'm late coming, but wanted to participate anyway.



So for this week, as the first, the spotlight is on ourselves.

I'm 25yo, from the Midwest (US). I did live in Australia (Brisbane...attended Griffith Uni) for a whoppin' 4 1/2 mo in 2005. I have to mention that because it's my one big adventure. =) I love travel, but don't get to do much of it (costs money, ya know?). I'm an animal lover in general, and have two cats, Beth-el and Jeu'el (from the local humane society) of my own. I'm also aunt to a 2yo nephew and 1yo niece. I went to school to become a librarian (I have a MLS), but remain unemployed. I call myself a student (I went back for more), but even that's coming to an end (2 finals on Thursday).

What else? I love music; I tend to wake up with a song in my head. I love the emotion behind it, but I'm bad about actually listening to the lyrics. I enjoy movies, have sampled crocheting (after reading Monica Ferris's Needlecraft Mysteries), and of course I have something of an attachment to the computer and Internet. I despise cooking. I feel like it's a waste of my time, but I don't seem to feel the same way about spending hours at a time daydreaming (which I can, and have, done).

ETA: And apparently I have a love for parenthetical statements.

What I read...

I'll try most everything. Mostly I read mysteries (primarily cozy), fantasy (high, urban, dark), and romance (contemp, paranormal, historical)... but I'll toss in the occassional inspirational, chick lit, thriller, sci fi, ... I've even read a few westerns. The one genre I will not read is erotica. I tend to prefer fiction, but I've been venturing out and sampling some non-fiction here and there. Of those, I think (since I'm still in wee numbers) I prefer memoir/biography types. Maybe history, too, but I need a larger sample to really say.

Oh, and the bulk of my reading is adult, but I have no problem reading YA (esp. since so much of the paranormal I love is now YA), and I love reading children's books. With my niece and nephew, yes, but also for myself. Children's book can be so cute, charming, and fun.

As for how I got into blogging...

I discovered PBS (paperbackswap) in May 2007, "met" Lori when she hosted a newbie swap, started visiting her blog (I don't know when) to stalk her WL (as it was the most up-to-date list I could find of not-yet-published cozy mysteries). I don't know what exactly prompted me to start my own blog December 2008 (something to do with keeping better track of what I was reading, I think), but I doubt it would have happened if I hadn't started visiting Lori (and various other PBSers' blogs discovered via her blog) first.