My personal library these days

Q: Do you recommend books to your fans? Do you recommend books like yours, or books you enjoy? Have you noticed your book tastes changing during quarantine?

-from Susan

My readers rarely ask me for recommendations unless I’m teaching, which I can’t do this year, alas, because we’re sheltering in place. But to friends, I am much more likely to recommend books outside of the crime fiction genre – new and especially exciting fiction, socially relevant non-fiction, fiction by international authors, history books that have opened my eyes to evaluate both that part of history I have lived through or periods that were covered less than well in previous times. Here are a few I can offer today:

I can honestly say that I have recommended books by all of my current and past Criminal Minds blog peers at times, though, because I know the integrity, talent, and experienced perspectives they bring to their writing, which makes it so good. Canada, Texas, upstate New York, Scotland, Chicago, India, L.A….so much that’s fresh, distinctive, and atmospheric. 

My tastes may have changed a bit, less because of the pandemic than because #BlackLivesMatter and I have a lot to learn. Also, because this is a time to go back and relish the voices that first – long before the hashtag – waked me to the power and glory of the American Black experience and the tortured history of being Black in America. 

At least there’s time to read (and cook) these days.