While You Wait for Gone Girl

I just finished Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, the plotty thriller that everyone and their brother has a hold on this summer. No spoilers: it's as good as they say it is, keep it on your list! Here are some lesser-known titles to tide you over until your hold arrives.

Last year's must-read plot twist novel was Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson. Reminiscent of Memento, the main character wakes up every morning missing most of her memory. She sees a forty-something in the mirror, but the last thing she remembers is being a twenty-something college student. This is not her beautiful house, and certainly not her beautiful husband. If you haven't read it yet, now is the perfect chance to peer into her diary as she tries to piece together the missing years. Read on for more ominous thrillers!

From Fanfiction to Mainstream

The latest SummerQuest is a really fun challenge involving creating a map of an imaginary place. You have to be a true fan to be that inspired by an imaginary world. Some are inspired to make maps, while others are inspired to write stories. So between that, and the fact that the controversial Fifty Shades of Grey continues to be one of our most-requested books, this seems like a good time to recommend some other authors who, like E.L. James, started out writing fanfiction. (You probably know already that that book started out as Twilight fanfiction...le sigh.)

 There's a good chance that you've seen the multitude of pink, sparkly books we have by popular child, teen, and adult author Meg Cabot. But did you know that she started out writing fanfiction, and is still an active member of that online community? Find out what the heck fanfiction is, and check out some more popular authors who started out writing it, after the jump!

Twinkie Novels

Christmas and New Years are over; everybody's starting to take down their decorations and hide the scales. Whether you find this time of year energizing or whether you're recovering from the holidays, I find this is a great time of year to indulge in twinkie novels.

What is a twinkie novel, you ask? A twinkie novel is one with no nutritional value. It's the book that you read purely for the pleasure of reading. It's also probably the book you keep shelved in the bedroom and put a paper bag over when you take it out in public. Everyone's definition of their twinkie novel will be different; what one person will boldly read on the bus, another will hide in their jacket. But my challenge for you this New Year is to display your twinkie novel proudly.

And so, I offer you my own twinkie novel of the year: Master of Smoke by Angela Knight.