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The Complete Idiot’s Guide: The Ultimate Reading List by Shelley Mosley, John Charles, Joanne Hamilton-Selway, and Sandra Van Winkle is a comprehensive list of recommended reads. It’s perfect for someone who wants to try a new genre but doesn’t know where to start or if someone has read all the bestseller’s in a certain area but wants to delve deeper. It is also obvious these authors’ have done extensive research in coming up with such a comprehensive list.

The table of contents is clear and concise with each chapter on a different subject or genre. From true-crime, historical fiction and humor to romance and horror. Each section has a list of the classics and then recommended reads, and under each recommended book is a brief synopsis.

I dove into the romance section. The picks were perfect. French Silk by Sandra Brown. I loved that book, and of course Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught was listed. Actually, if this title had been missing I would not be able to recommend this book.

Other authors in the romance genre I hadn’t heard of. Examples are Eve Silver and her book Dark Desires and Date Me Baby, One More Time by Stephanie Rowe. Both books are on my must read list now.

I also spent tons of time in the horror section. I was glad to see so much more than Stephen King and Dean Koontz. I was pleased that Dead Until Dark by Charlene Harris was included under ‘More Great Reads’. Harris was one of my favorite new authors I discovered a couple of years back.

The only downfall to the book is that it is too short. I would love for the authors to have a book on each genre—one on romance, one on history, etc.

I do highly recommend this book. The authors have great taste, especially when I can’t really argue much with their recommendations. Who better to give advice than these authors who are all librarians with 75 years of combined experience? I don’t think anyone can top their wealth of knowledge on what people read and enjoy.

Lynne Logan

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