Ask LJ: book reccomendation help

[coraa]

More posting looking for assistance! Hi, LJ, I know that's not the only thing you're here for...

I'm looking to get my mom a Mother's Day present. (Her birthday -- which is about a week later -- I already have a present for: a pair of handmade earrings. I'll try to post pics of the earrings before I give them away.) She's an avid reader, and I usually get her books, but right now I'm a little stumped. Usually I just chitchat with her about what she wants, but I forgot, and now it's embarrassingly late for that, although I will if I can't think of any surer bets.

I'd say her favorite genre is mysteries, and I know she loves Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels and the Southern Sisters mysteries by Anne George, and the Cat Who books, and Miss Marple... but I suspect she already has all of those. I'd say that her mystery preferences are for cozies, especially those with some amusement value -- the new Vicky Bliss book would be perfect but I think there's a 60% chance she already has it.

She's fairly conservative and in a (happily! this is not an insult!) sedate middle age, so, while I just had a chicklit mystery series recced to me that looks hilarious and awesome, I'm not sure that'd be her kind of thing.

She also loves Barbara Tuchman's early-20th-century stuff, but I think I've bought her all of that. And certain kinds of alternate history (she's read a fair bit of Turtledove, but not much else, I don't think) and certain kinds of semi-thrillers like Douglas Preston's oevure, and she loved the movie National Treasure.

Any ideas? I can come up with something, but if any of you have ideas (and/or are a mystery fan yourself who can help me vet my choices), it would be a great boon.

Comments

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Has she read any of Mary Stewart's thrillers? Something like Madam, Will You Talk or Airs Above The Ground might please her.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Er, coming in from friendsfriends, just in case you were wondering. :)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I know she liked Mary Stewart's Arthurian books (assuming it's the same Mary Stewart), so that's a great idea.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

It is the same Mary Stewart, yes, and I enjoyed the Merlin books but I have to say, her thrillers are way more awesome. Well, except for Thunder on the Right and her last two novels Thornyhold and Rose Cottage, those ones are pretty weak. But otherwise, great reading.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Second Mary Stewart... also if she hasn't read any of the Alexander McCall Smith books, (#1 Ladies Detective; Scotland Street; Sunday Philosophy Club) these are very fun. I would recommend Margaret Coel's Arapahoe mysteries. I would also recommend Carol Goodman, Eva Ibbotson, and Sandra Gulland. Gulland's Josephine trilogy is phenomenal.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh! #1 Ladies Detective, that's a great idea, thank you. I think she'd find those a lot of fun.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a mom who loves mysteries and has read tons and tons of them: I'd rather have a gift card so I could pick my own. Ymother'sMMV, of course.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

If it were anyone but my immediate family, I'd totally go with a gift card, but that's not really done on her side of the family. Alas.

(I'll be the first to admit that it's peculiar, but I suspect that gift-cards will be something that gets introduced to the family dynamic at around my/my kids'/my brother's generation. I think it's because the ritual of asking what people want is so much a part of the family bonding communication, only this time I goofed and didn't ask soon enough, and she'll be out of contact until it's too late to do the shopping.)

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

OK, then, some possibilities, off the top of my head, are
the Em Hansen series by Sarah Andrews
the Dan Rhodes series by Bill Crider
the Texana Jones series by Allana Martin

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Very helpful.

[thegreatgonz.livejournal.com]

How about The Beekeeper's Apprentice and its sequels?

(If you're not familiar with them, they're about a young woman in WWI-era England who meets and eventually apprentices with a retired Sherlock Holmes).

[tedeisenstein.livejournal.com]

If she likes Miss Marple and Agatha Christie, perhaps one or two of the Peter Wimsey/Dorothy Sayers books?

I wouldn't exactly call these "cozy", but they are thoroughly comfortable, light whimsy, and well-written, to wit, any of PG Wodehouse's Bertie-Wooster-and-Jeeves story collections. Just right for a comfortable chair, a gentle smile, and a cuppa.

I'm almost tempted to suggest Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and Birds, Beasts, and Relatives, but, while they're not exactly racy (hell, my sister used to read them to her kids as bedtime stories), they're not exactly sedate. Or cozy. Just a hell of a lot of fun. If she doesn't like them, you can take them back - I'd certainly recommend them to you.