Play Book Tag discussion
June 2020: Suspense
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Announcing the Tag for June
Excellent! Just what I voted for for my first choice :). Now I have to go choose something to read. I have a couple on my tbr, but will have to decide later.
YES! I voted for death, naturally, but this was my second choice and I love suspense :)
I can always find something suspenseful.I'm planning to read Walk the Wire and Eight Perfect Murders.
I was happy with any of the choices. I had so many books on all of the lists on my IRL TBR... here are my options for suspense:Sharp Objects
The Woman in Cabin 10
Inferno
And Then There Were None
Verity
Kiss the Girls
Mr. Mercedes
The Witness
The Stand
The Turn of the Key
Divergent
Or one of the following series/authors I read... Michael Connelly, Jeffrey Deaver, Iris Johansson, Tami Hoag, Jack Reacher, Rizzoli & Isles.... so many options!! Suspense is on of my favorite genres and one that I read heavily prior to finding PBT.
Yay! This has been my quarantine choice of reading.I'll be reading a few psychological thrillers. Probably whatever is easiest available for me,
This was my third choice, mostly because I feel I've been reading too much suspense lately (and just finished one I didn't really enjoy). But, took a quick glance at the tag and put In a Dark, Dark Wood on hold because I like Ruth Ware. (I thought The Turn of the Key was excellent, and The Woman in Cabin 10 pretty good, though a bit sloppy. Regardless, I always find that she writes really interesting characters!) I also recommend anything by Gillian Flynn – she's the master, in my humble opinion. :)Now I just hope the book will come in sometime before July. @_@ Is there any particular policy on finishing a monthly themed book late? I've fallen way behind because the ebook wait times at the library are so long – I'm still #25 in line for my May pick and I put the hold in a month ago!
In the mean time I'll keep chipping away at my on hand copies of A Song of Ice and Fire...
I am so behind on my reading. It is truly pathetic. I have a few readily available options. Please let me know if you have any insights on these: If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood
Bird Box.
Before the Fall
Anita wrote: "I am so behind on my reading. It is truly pathetic. I have a few readily available options. Please let me know if you have any insights on these: [book:If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family ..."
I liked Bird Box well enough and gave it 4 stars- it's not a literary masterpiece, but it reads quickly, and keeps you interested throughout the whole time. I loved the creepy vibe of it. Have you seen the the netflix movie?
Also Bird Box #2 is set to come out this Summer, very curious what will come of that.
Joi wrote: "Anita wrote: "I am so behind on my reading. It is truly pathetic. I have a few readily available options. Please let me know if you have any insights on these: [book:If You Tell: A True Story of M..."
Thanks, Joi! I definitely would like something that reads quickly (as someone who is still reading her 300 page comedy book, sigh). I have not seen the movie either.
Heather Reads Books wrote: "This was my third choice, mostly because I feel I've been reading too much suspense lately (and just finished one I didn't really enjoy). But, took a quick glance at the tag and put [book:In a Dark..."Heather, Cindy shelves the monthly books and Anita/Anna calculate participation points usually by the 5th of the next month (so by June 5 for the May books). So if you can review them in the May monthly tag folder by that date then they are typically counted!
However, if you are really behind, we do not go back and pick up older monthly tagged books. BUT, definitely still post your reviews in the folder for June books that do not fit the monthly tag! You'll still get a participation point for it and others will still be able to read your review!
I normally really like suspense, but it hasn't been my quarantine genre of choice. Having said that, I am sure I will be entertained by a good suspense novel!The two I am going with are:
The Girl Beneath the Sea and
A Good Marriage
Oooo, or if I get in the mood for a long book, perhaps it is finally time for Natchez Burning
Nicole R wrote: "Heather, Cindy shelves the monthly books and Anita/Anna calculate participation points usually by the 5th of the next month (so by June 5 for the May books). So if you can review them in the May monthly tag folder by that date then they are typically counted! ..."Got it, thanks! I will try my best. *stares down library hold list* lol
I figured this one would get it, so I'm glad I didn't waste a bunch of votes on other options.Might be able to work in a thriller since one of the things we can do as librarians working from home is try to find things outside our usual genres to expand our readers advisory skills.
Anita wrote: "I am so behind on my reading. It is truly pathetic. I have a few readily available options. Please let me know if you have any insights on these: If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family ...</i>
I really like [book:Before the Fall, think you might too
This is a such a S t r e t c h y tag! Most of my leftover books from the Thriller and Survival tags could fit. I'll read at least one espionage book, and I could use a rec for a psychological suspense. As expected, there are a ton of mysteries with a suspense tag, and even some very cozy sounding books. I'm most surprised by the number of romance books on the list (from YA to steamy). There are some general fiction books on my TBR that I wouldn't have thought were suspense, but there are enough suspense tags for me to consider them.Preliminary list:
The Sun Down Motel - Simone St James
The Kite Runner also for bingo
The Girl Without a Name
The Alice Network
Finding Katarina M.
Big Lies in a Small Town
Hannah's War
The Song of David
A new Baldacci
The next Louise Penny (Gamache) book
The Night Masquerade Binti 3
Dear Edward not sure there's enough suspense
The Unsung Hero
Fingersmith or another Sarah Waters
The Witness - On the audible 2 for 1 list this week.
Murder on the Ballarat Train (also bingo)
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
A Different Blue
Where the Crawdads Sing (bookclub)
Virgil Wander (too much of a stretch?)
This Tender Land (too much stretch?)
The Satapur Moonstone
Defending Jacob
NancyJ wrote: "This is a such a S t r e t c h y tag! Most of my leftover books from the Thriller and Survival tags could fit. I'll read at least one espionage book, and I could use a rec for a psychological suspe..."Nancy, I know you would love The Alice Network
Yippee! I can just close my eyes and grab from one of my many TBR Towers! Soooo excited.
Oh Thank God! I actually voted for death, which is quite unlike me. But a lot of the books were the same, and I found that some really interesting titles landed there. But I am thrilled with suspense! I will probably read turn of the key and an anonymous girl. Because they’re both at my house and very high up on my list. I may even read in the woods. This works great.
Joanne wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "This is a such a S t r e t c h y tag! Most of my leftover books from the Thriller and Survival tags could fit. I'll read at least one espionage book, and I could use a rec for a psyc..."I've owned it for a very long time!
I'm not totally excited by this, but I always have a few suspense books on hand, so I will find something.My recommendations of books I have recently read and are tagged suspense are:
Sin Eater
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
Can't say I'm disappointed by the group's choice. It was my second choice but that's okay. I have plenty of suspense books to pick from.I think might read The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Devers. But I have many others to choose from such as those written by James Patterson, Dan Brown, and Douglas Preston.
I have a few to recommend as well:
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre`
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy and
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
I may actually finally get caught up with William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor series with this tag! Possibly Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti too, and definitely Michael Connelly's new book Fair Warning.
Anita Bird Box was good but I think you will like Before the Fall more than Bird Box.I'm happy death didn't win, sorry if it was the member nominated tag. I own plenty of suspense books so finding something won't be hard. Iron Lake is on tap to be read soon so I'll at least read it in June.
Rachel N. wrote: "Anita Bird Box was good but I think you will like Before the Fall more than Bird Box.I'm happy death didn't win, sorry if it was the member nominated tag. I own pl..."
Annapi and Rachel, I just added Iron Lake to my potentials list as well, but there is a long wait list for the first book. I also notice that it has lower ratings than many of the others. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good starting place for William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor series?
The most suspenseful (but not terrifying) books I read in the last six months: The Book Thief - It's narrated by death, so it's perfect for those who wanted the Death tag.
The Broken Girls by Simone St James. Gothic ghost story that felt like it could be real.
Verity by Colleen Hoover. For those who like domestic suspense. (I had some quibbles with it, but it has a high avg rating.)
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell. It's non-fiction (or based on a true story), but I thought it was riveting.
I agree that Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows has a lot of suspense. I just finished it and I think most people here will like it. It can fit many different tags.
I also liked The Woman in the Window, and The Silent Patient last year.
Heather Reads Books wrote: "Got it, thanks! I will try my best. *stares down library hold list* lol..."Good luck, Heather!
It does take me longer to get to the shelving (I try to get to it the first or second weekend of the month), but if you want the (more) participation points for it, and likely, for more people to notice your review when it's posted, earlier is better. :-)
Amy wrote: "Oh Thank God! I actually voted for death, which is quite unlike me. But a lot of the books were the same, and I found that some really interesting titles landed there. But I am thrilled with suspen..."I was hoping for death. It was the most narrow option, I thought.
I have so so many I could read! First, recommendations. I have a number of favourited books over the years that fit suspense, and one favourite author would be anything by
- Harlan Coben. Favourites by him include The Woods and Gone for Good
Also, Linwood Barclay and Mary Kubica. Chevy Stevens.
Oh! Intensity by Dean Koontz - even better if you can get your hands on the audio! (Meli, have you read this one?)
For myself, I know for sure (for another challenge), I'll be reading Cat and Mouse by James Patterson. And I have plenty of others to choose from if I have time for more.
LibraryCin wrote: "Amy wrote: "Oh Thank God! I actually voted for death, which is quite unlike me. But a lot of the books were the same, and I found that some really interesting titles landed there. But I am thrilled..."Death was my second choice after I took a look at it and saw The Hunger Games and some other things on it.
NancyJ wrote: "Does anyone have a recommendation for a good starting place for William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor series?"It's really best to start at the beginning, though it's not absolutely necessary, since each mystery gets resolved at the end of every book. But there is some character development over several books. The first one, as in many series, is not as good as later books because the characters are just getting established. It's still a good book, though.
Plenty to choose from here. Just want I need in our current climate. I'm still finding it hard to engage in anything too smart or deep.
I've got the following choices. I'm going to start with The Passage as I'm currently reading it and it's a #chunkster, but hope to get to at least 2 more.
The girl who played with fire
And then there were none
The spy who came in from the cold
The historian
The passage
Casino royale
American assassin
A study in scarlet
The phantom of the opera
Station eleven
Daughter of smoke & bone
Children of blood and bone
Veronika decides to die
Burial rites
A death in Sarajevo
A girl in exile
The big sleep
The wolf and the watchman
Raven black
The final problem
The other mrs walker
The reckoning
Blood & sugar
The priest of evil
The strange case of the alchemist’s daughter
The ashes of London
The mask of dimitrios
The black mountain
A killer’s mind
The ides of april
Mercy
Pietr the Latvian
To die in Vienna
The girl who played with fire
And then there were none
The spy who came in from the cold
The historian
The passage
Casino royale
American assassin
A study in scarlet
The phantom of the opera
Station eleven
Daughter of smoke & bone
Children of blood and bone
Veronika decides to die
Burial rites
A death in Sarajevo
A girl in exile
The big sleep
The wolf and the watchman
Raven black
The final problem
The other mrs walker
The reckoning
Blood & sugar
The priest of evil
The strange case of the alchemist’s daughter
The ashes of London
The mask of dimitrios
The black mountain
A killer’s mind
The ides of april
Mercy
Pietr the Latvian
To die in Vienna
This was my third choice. Books on my Want to Read shelf
Rebecca (Don't know anything about it but its on my shelf)
Defending Jacob
Before the Fall
I have read so many tagged as suspense. I recommend:
Gone Girl,
The Girl on the Train
The Da Vinci Code
And Then There Was None
The Bourne Series
A Time to Kill
The Firm
The Partner
The Runaway Jury
The Last Juror
Jurassic Park
Big Little Lies
Dark Matter
The Martian
The Shadow of the Wind
Murder on Orient Express
Divergent
Jason wrote: "This was my third choice. Books on my Want to Read shelf
Rebecca (Don't know anything about it but its on my shelf)
Defending Jacob
Before the Fall
I have read so many tagged as suspense. I rec..."
Jason, this is what I know about Rebecca. In 1971, when I was 15 years old, my sophomore English class had two required reading lists, one for boys, one for girls. (Can you imagine the outcry if someone were to try that today?) Rebecca was on the girl's list (and I don't remember what else). Shane and Treasure of Sierra Madre were on the boy's list. I read everything on both lists. The best part of this curriculum was that after reading (presumably) they showed the classic movies to all 90 of us.
At 15, I enjoyed Rebecca. I've read it once or twice since then and still liked it. It has a gothic atmosphere, very much a slow burning psychological thriller. It was probably my first intro to an unreliable narrator .... if she was unreliable ....that's debatable. If you do read it you must try to see the original 1940 Hitchcock movie. It's a classic.
I am in luck. I don't read a lot of what I would call Suspense but I do read mysteries. I belong to a mystery book group at my library. We met around March 10 right before everything shut down and we all received the next book, which happens to be The Wedding Guest. I've never read Jonathan Kellerman because I had the feeling it was too dark for me, but I'm open to it. I put off reading it so that when a new meeting is finally scheduled, I can read it closer to the time and not forget it. But who knows if that group will ever resume? So I can read it now, as 12 people tagged it "suspense".
Jgrace wrote: "Jason wrote: "This was my third choice. Books on my Want to Read shelf
Rebecca (Don't know anything about it but its on my shelf)
Defending Jacob
Before the Fall
I have read so many tagged as s..."
Thank-you JGrace. I will read it.
Jenny wrote: "I've got the following choices. I'm going to start with The Passage as I'm currently reading it and it's a #chunkster, but hope to get to at least 2 more.The girl who played with fire
And then th..."
Ooh. I can recommend Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Really loved it, and it's great in audio too. Your list is a good nudge for me too, though, because I own and haven't read Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter and Children of Blood and Bone yet.
Jason, after you read Defending Jacob, the series (that was filmed in my neighborhood and in my daily beloved woods) just premiered on Apple TV a couple of weeks ago with some big name stars.
Amy wrote: "Jason, after you read Defending Jacob, the series (that was filmed in my neighborhood and in my daily beloved woods) just premiered on Apple TV a couple of weeks ago with some big name stars."I will have to check it out.
Jenny wrote: "I've got the following choices. I'm going to start with The Passage as I'm currently reading it and it's a #chunkster, but hope to get to at least 2 more.The girl who played with fire
And then th..."
I can recommend a Study in Scarlet and Casino Royale. I will admit, the James Bond stories are very sexist and the Sherlock Holmes stories are better when you get into the short stories like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
I wish there was a new Cormoran Strike book ready for me to read it. But, the next one isn't expected out until the fall. I do recommend any of the books in the series. They are suspenseful, but long. The first one is The Cuckoo's Calling. I don't think of myself as a thriller/suspense reader. I don't like being jerked around emotionally, so I end up rating lower than the writing would deserve. It is a somewhat flexible category so I so have some favorites:
The Sun Down Motel
The Broken Girls
Lock In
And Then There Were None
Bel Canto
The Alienist
Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson
I'm not sure what I will read, but I'll be going for something that I already own.
I have Fingersmith and The Angel of Darkness which I bought at a library sale, maybe a decade or more ago .....
There's also Le Carre and P.D. James that I took off my dad's shelves when he passed away in 2007. I'm sure I can find something.
I was fine with whatever was chosen for this month but I really do have more suspense than anything else. There's actually quite the cross-over between the three tags though.I'm going to do Riptide and The Witness in audio
Long Road to Mercy and Sweet Revenge in print. I have a couple of others on order at the library, we'll see if those come in if I get through these!
Jgrace wrote: "I wish there was a new Cormoran Strike book ready for me to read it. But, the next one isn't expected out until the fall. I do recommend any of the books in the series. They are suspenseful, but lo..."Oh, is Bel Canto there? I really liked that novel when I read it, but it's been quite a while. Does it work for Play Book Tally?? If so, perhaps I'll reread that.
The Witness by Nora Roberts is on the 2 for 1 list this week on audible. Also the first book in the JD Robb ..In Death series. I'm thinking of getting both, but I'm not sure I want to start the series.
I´m looking at Som pesten (Like the Plague). It´s about a doctor who works for WHO at the beginning of a pandemic. A corrupt medical industry, politics etc. is part of it as well. I´m also doing the Popsugar challenge and I need a medical thriller for that. It´s supposed to be really good and eerily similar to what´s going on at the moment (it came out only last year or the year before) and I´ll see if I can stomach it...
Let's see - some I recommend: Jurassic Park
The Andromeda Strain
The Hunt for Red October
Any by Alan Furst, Helen MacInnes, Alistair MacLean, Joseph Kanon,
The Queens of Suspense, the authors that Gillian Flynn, Ruth Ware, et al. can only aspire to be classed with, barely allowed to kiss their hems as writers of suspense: Patricia Highsmith, Josephine Tey, Ruth Rendell
titles of particular suspense faves:
Gorky Park
Fatherland
SS-GB
The Salzburg Connection
Assignment in Brittany
Ice Station Zebra
Where Eagles Dare
The Day of the Jackal
Eye of the Needle
Also Rebecca. Of course.
These are all older, classics, so should be easy to get. Many have had movie adaptations, and at least two of those movies are on TCM this weekend.
Play Book Tag
Books mentioned in this topic
The Da Vinci Code (other topics)Odd Thomas (other topics)
Before the Fall (other topics)
Duma Key (other topics)
In the Woods (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Dennis Lehane (other topics)Alan Furst (other topics)
Helen MacInnes (other topics)
Alistair MacLean (other topics)
Joseph Kanon (other topics)
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suspense
Please share your reading plans and recommendations below.
Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as suspense on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.
One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
We encourage people to link to additional lists below if they find them.
Happy reading!