coraa: (bookses)
coraa ([personal profile] coraa) wrote2009-05-06 03:01 pm
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Ask LJ: book reccomendation help

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.

[identity profile] rj-anderson.livejournal.com 2009-05-06 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Er, coming in from friendsfriends, just in case you were wondering. :)

[identity profile] coraa.livejournal.com 2009-05-06 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! I know she liked Mary Stewart's Arthurian books (assuming it's the same Mary Stewart), so that's a great idea.

[identity profile] rj-anderson.livejournal.com 2009-05-06 10:53 pm (UTC)(link)
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.