I know that I have talked about this before on my site….  I have gotten many suggestions regarding new authors who I should add to my site. When I first put this website together, I pretty much included only authors I had personally read. There were a few authors who I hadn’t read, but since my cozy mystery reader friends had recommended them, I felt that they could be  added to my list. I tried to add a small note on the site that explained I hadn’t read any of that particular author’s books…. yet.

At first, I thought that I wouldn’t add new authors unless I tried them first, or one of my personal friends endorsed them. Now, with all of the new suggested authors, I have changed my mind. As I have stated before, I am not an unusually fast reader. If I tried every suggested author before I posted his/her chronological list of cozy mysteries, I wouldn’t be adding very many of those authors each year. I have many cozy mystery authors who I follow, who take up most of my reading time already.

Once I have an author’s name, I then go about looking up information about that author. I try to run down the author’s website, which, if I can, makes my chronological list of books a lot easier to get together. Unfortunately, many authors don’t have a website, which then means that I have to do web searches for the author, and then try to piece together what I can. (I remember… years ago……. how I found out the chronological order of an author’s books: I would go to the library, pull out all of a particular author’s books, and then check each copyright date. As I said…….. "years ago!">>>> and oh, I would then return the books to the correct library shelf location…)

Anyway, right now I am in the midst of adding several new authors to the site. (By "new," I mean "new" to me.) I know that a lot of the site’s users follow these  cozy mystery authors………. and eventually, I probably will too!

I know I haven’t written for a long time. I am pretty sure that the reason I haven’t wanted to write in my blog is that it was becoming (sort of) a chore. Rather than just talk about the mystery (and other types of) DVDs/movies that we enjoy watching, I felt like I had to put the links to Amazon so that anyone who might read the blog could find out what the movie/show was really all about. So, for now, I think that I will take a break from that…………….

I just started reading an author who I had never tried before………….Patricia Wentworth. She has an older woman sleuth (Miss Maud Silver) and I am enjoying the first book (Grey Mask) immensely.  I think that I would recommend the book to other cozy mystery readers, but since I am only half way done with it, I probably should wait and see how I like the second half. 

The Grey Mask was published in 1928, so as you can imagine, it is a classic, and doesn’t rely on gratuitous sex or language. I have found that recently, I have been craving the older "classics" which have withstood the hands of time. I am sure that I will get back into reading the newer cozy mysteries, but  right now, I am trying some new (for me!) "older" authors……… by which I mean books that were published a long time ago.

I am, however, listening to a delightful book on tape right now. I listen to it in the car and while I do my house hold chores. I must admit, I get more listening done while driving than while cleaning! I will write more about that book in another blog.

Gee whiz! I have missed just typing about the cozy mystery books that I read!

I previously wrote about one friend of mine who has almost the same/exact taste for cozy mystery books that I have. I have yet another friend who has a somewhat different taste for cozy mystery books, with her preference sometimes going for the more "hard-boiled" mysteries, but at the same time, she likes one particular "funny" author who I just don’t like at all. This author is a huge best seller, so there are obviously many other readers who think she is tops in the cozy mystery book field. I, on the other hand, find that the particular author "tries too hard" to be funny. I am not going to name the author, and, since there are so many authors who really and truly are funny, it will probably be difficult to guess who I am referring to…

This friend of mine, with the somewhat different taste in cozy mystery books, has "turned me on to" some authors who I never would have tried. And, I have added many of those authors to my "favorite author" list. I never would have guessed that I would like Jeffery Deaver, Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, but, I DO!

I guess that the moral of this blogging story is that sometimes you have to go outside the box (or should I say "book"?) and try different authors. Who knows, you may surprise yourself and enjoy someone who you had absolutely no intention of ever trying.

I have one friend in particular who shares the same likes and dislikes as I do when it comes to cozy mystery books and authors. When she recommends a cozy mystery author or cozy mystery series to me, I am 99% sure that I will share her opinion of the author or series. There have been very few times that I have tried one of "her" authors or series that I didn’t end up adding to my "favorites" list.

This particular friend has told me about many authors who I now follow. She also shares my enjoyment for reading seasonal/holiday cozy mysteries. I know that I can safely add an unknown (to me) recommended author to my Amazon wish list. I hope that I have been able to supply her with at least half of the author/series ideas that she has shared with me.  I am always in quest of a good cozy mystery book to read, and enjoy getting her suggestions.