A-Z List of Authors

People donate a lot of books for us to sell for charity and as part of this I sometimes read a few of the books before selling them. As a result I have found two authors that are fantastic and easy to read and they are Kristan Higgins and Jennifer Probst. There books are just sweet and light-hearted and make a change from the crazy supernatural books that I normally read.

With this in mind, I have compiled an A-Z list of some of my favourite authors. The only two letters that I could not find a matching author for were ‘Q’ and ‘Y’ and I might have cheated a little with ‘X’.

A.  Cherry Adair

B.  Marion Zimmer Bradley

C.  Kresley Cole

D.  MaryJanice Davidson

E.  Janet Evanovich

F.  Christine Feehan

G.  Tess Gerritsen

H.  Kristan Higgins

I.    Larissa Ione

J.   Jennifer Crusie

K.  Sherrilyn Kenyon

L.  Kathy Love

M.  Sally Morgan

N.  Nalini Singh

O.  Ruth Ozeki

P.  Jennifer Probst

Q.  ________

R.  Nora Roberts / J.D. Robb

S.  Gena Showalter

T.  Vicki Lewis Thompson

U.  Ursula Ferrigno

V.  Lynn Viehl

W. J.R. Ward

X.  Madeleine Roux

Y.   ________

Z.  Sarah Zettel

Who are your favourite authors?

Book Review: No-Fuss Fitness by Lee-Anne Wann

Title: No-Fuss Fitness: Your Guide to Working Out in the Real World

Author: Lee-Anne Wann

Publisher: Penguin NZ

RRP: $35.00

Copy Origin: Review copy provided by Penguin NZ

I am ashamed to admit that I have had this book to review since late September and I actually read most of it the day that I received it.

I loved Downsize Me (shown on TV3) and was excited to read the book that Lee-Anne had written.

I was gripped from the first page of the introduction; an introduction that shows that sometimes the face that we present to the outside world is different to what is going on inside us. I was blown away by Wann’s frank and openness about her breakdown and subsequent “healing”. It certainly made me realise that at the end of the day we are all just human beings and that there is a certain level of fragility in terms of our emotional/mental state.

Over the years I have read so many books about health, fitness and nutrition. I can honestly say that ‘no-fuss fitness’ is one of the best. It is so clear and easy to understand. As you can see from the photo above I have used post-it’s to mark parts of the book that I go back to time and time again.

The beginning of the book details the basics i.e. getting your ‘foundation’ right and posture, figuring out your body type, how much activity should you do and food. It even made me realise that my posture/stance is not great.

Wann has made it easy to figure out which workout choices are the best based on your body type. So for me (body type: overweight) I can do the ‘Beach Burn’ or ‘Fast & Furious’ among others; exciting right? Here is a book that finally makes exercise fun and achievable whilst still being challenging.

Then in the second half of the book are all the different workouts that you can do from home to work to the beach. During a time when people are busier (and some have mainly sedentary jobs) than ever; these workouts are fabulous and designed to fit in and around your life; even if you only have 15-30 minutes to exercise each day.

I can also appreciate that gym memberships and personal trainers might be the first things to do away with when people/families etc. are trying to save money. The beauty of this book is that you do not need a gym to do these exercises. You can use things from around your house or office i.e. a chair, water bottles, your front steps etc.

So whether you are ready to start or re-start your health and fitness journey then this a fantastic book to read and get you going and what better time to start than a brand new year! 

A side note: Lee-Anne actually came and spoke at Mark’s work just before Christmas. He explained to me that the whole time he was listening to her he kept thinking “I have seen her book somewhere…..” and then he realised that it was on my bedside table. On our way home that day he could not stop talking about her and what she had said and how it all made perfect sense to him. For Mark a light went on.  To be honest he was a little peeved that I had her book and already knew a lot of what she had talked about; competitive much.

Reading Romance

In 7th Form I was Head Librarian of our school. I love libraries. I love reading. I love books.

I am not into eBooks and prefer to buy the books I love in paperback format; I think it is the new book smell. I always have at least one book in my bag and have over 1000 books that I want to read.

I have just become part of a book club with 2 other women. For the most part we read the same genre’s which makes discussing books easy and it also means that we do not have to set ‘required’ reading for the group. We can also borrow and loan books to each other which is fantastic and totally cost-effective.

Now that all the Auckland libraries are combined there is a massive selection available to read. I request about 5-10 books at a time and they just all get delivered to our local library. It is utter bliss.

What I do want to say is that I think that Stephanie Meyer is a shit author. On the plus side she got people reading, but on the negative side I have tried reading her books and they are awful. Seriously, there are far better authors who have been around a lot longer than Meyer.

What really annoyed me 18 months ago were women being interviewed on TV in NZ and saying that they loved Meyer’s books and loved the paranormal romance genre because it allowed them some escapism and possibly to feel the romance that they were missing from their lives. Suddenly, romance was thrust (pardon the pun) into the limelight with teenagers – middle aged women enjoying these books. True Blood (based on the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris) have also helped paranormal romance become cool and hip. Seriously people…romance novels have been around for a very, very long time.

My problem is that I have been reading romance novels for well over 20 years and in the early years I was made to feel ashamed of my interest in that genre. However, I know longer care what people think I will read what I want. In addition to romance I read a very wide-range of fiction including mystery, thriller, comedy, chick lit, NZ/Australian fiction etc.

Authors I adore (but not limited to) are:

Charlaine Harris (I started reading her well before True Blood started)

Christine Feehan

Gena Showalter

J.D. Robbs (Nora Roberts)

J.R. Ward

Jane Austen

Janet Evanovich

Jennifer Crusie

Kathy Reichs

Kresley Cole

Larissa Ione

Laurell K Hamilton

Linda Howard

Molly Harper

Nalini Singh

Patricia Cornwell

Sherilyn Kenyon

I really wanted to find some statistics about the romance genre. This is the best I could do.  

For the record I studied New Zealand and Australian literature, 18th Century Literature and Byron when I was at university.

I am always interested in new authors and books. So tell me what books and authors do you love to read?