Pleasant Surprises

I want to give you the names of some authors, and their books, that were pleasant surprises for me.  I either had no expectations or had my expectations exceeded.  Whichever way it went, I would recommend these books.  They're all very good or really good (I'm making a distinction between the two, but I'm not sure what that distinction is).  Some of these authors have been in other blogs.

Billie Letts - She has written some very entertaining books:  Where the Heart Is and Made in the USA.  But the best one is The Honk and Holler, Opening Soon.  Bob and I read it probably 5 or 6 years ago, and we both rated it as the biggest surprise of the year.  We loved it.

Deborah Wolf - She's written 2 books - With You and Without You and When I'm Not Myself - These are relationship books that were very well done and appeal to both women and men.  I only read her because her mother was someone that worked for Rich.

Keith Thomson - He wrote Once A Spy.  It's about a 30-year old gambler with no direction who ends up on an escapade with his father, an ex-CIA guy who is in the beginning stages of Alzheimers.  His next book, Twice A Spy, is coming out next month.  He will also be appearing at Keplers on March 18 at 7:00.

Tom Rob Smith - I know he's been on a bunch of lists, but I bought his first book, Child 44, because I liked the cover.  And it took me almost a year to pull the trigger.  This is so good, about an up and coming KGB officer who gets a conscience, that I'm going to try and get it on every list.  P.S.  His second one, The Secret Speech, was just as good.

Lolly Winston - This is another relationship author who has written 2 very good novels:  Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately.  Joni saw her at the Saratoga Library and bought me a signed book.  Otherwise, I would never have read it.  Then I ate up the second one.

Sam Eastland - The Eye of the Red Tsar.  Yep, you guessed it.  It's another novel that takes place in The Soviet Union.  It was really entertaining.  And he just came out with a sequel that I will be starting tomorrow.  I think I found this one from a USA Today review.

David Benioff - City of Thieves.  This takes place in...THE SOVIET UNION!  I actually don't have a fixation with The Soviet Union.  These are just really good books that happen to take place there.  This one was handed to me by Tim.  I don't always love his suggestions (he's much more intellectual than me - but, then again, so are most people over the age of 3), but he was right on the money with this one.  After I read this one, I went right to his first novel, which was written 5 years earlier, called The 25th Hour.  It was good, not great.  It was made into a movie, starring Edward Norton.

Garth Stein - The Art of Racing in the Rain.  But you already know about this one.

Nicole Mones - The Last Chinese Chef - I didn't expect to care for this one very much, but I did.  It was a very good story about a Chinese Chef (no great surprise there) who goes back to mainland China from the US to cook in a competition.  He lives with, and learns from, his elderly relatives.  Mones does a good job of explaining Chinese culture, especially on the culinary side, and spends a lot of time on cooking procedures.  There's also some romance that is not too overdone or sappy.  She also wrote Lost in Translation that was made into a movie starring Bill Murray and directed by Sophia Coppola (who was oscar-nominated).  I haven't read that one or the other one she wrote - A Cup of Light.

Christopher Reich (of "just then" fame) - Joni went to a writers' conference in Salinas a few years ago.  Reich was one of the speakers.  He talked about how he had something like 60 rejections before a publisher finally picked up one of his novels.  She got me a signed copy of The Patriots' Club.  I read it, just like Winston, because she got it for me.  I really enjoyed his first 5 books, which all had a finance guy as the hero and were all standalones.  His last 3, which have been about the same character, not nearly as much.

Anybody want to share their pleasant surprises?