- Isaac Asimov - favorites are Robots of Dawn, Robots of Empire, Robots and Empire
- James Lee Burke - I started out with Cadillac Jukebox and then picked up every other one I could find. Novels center around Sheriff's Deputy Dave Robicheaux as he solves crime mysteries in New Iberia.
- Taylor Caldwell - favorites are Pillar of Iron, Testimony of Two Men.
- James Clavell - My favorite is Shogun, closely followed by Taipan. There isn't a book he's written, in my opinion, that isn't worth reading.
- Tom Clancy My favorites are Hunt For Red October and Clear and Present Danger . My least favorite is Sum of All Fears. The ending of Debt of Honor spoiled the whole book for me. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Executive Orders continued on the overly fantistic ending of Debt of Honor.
- Arthur Conan Doyle - in addition to the Sherlock Holmes series, I've greatly enjoyed The Lost World and any number of his short stories.
- Patricia Cornwell - her Kay Scarpetta novels are fantastic. There isn't a bad or even mediocre one in the bunch. Scarpetta is a medical examiner who gets involved in her cases. Her characterizations are quite rich.
- Umberto Eco Interesting author. Preferable on audio for me.
- Ken Follett - favorites are Eye of the Needle and Pillars of The Earth.
- Dick Francis - mystery novels that never stray far from Britain's sport of kings
- Frank Herbert - the entire Dune series is good, but the original Dune is excellent.
- John Irving - recently read A Son of The Circus. His characterizations are excellent, as well as his detailed story building.
- Jack London - enjoyed all his works, but especially The Sea Wolf.
- Walter Mosley - crime novels about a different era
- Margaret Thatcher - just devoured The Downing Street Years
- Carole Nelson Douglas - I've only read her 'Irene' series, modelled on Irene Adler (famous as the only woman to defeat Sherlock Holmes). Excellent period writing.
- Edgar Allen Poe - Complete On-line Works - hard to pick a favorite, there's something good about all of them!
- Lawrence Sanders - my favorites are the McNally series
- Amy Tan - everything she's written so far has wonderfully explored humanity. Best to start out with The Joy Luck Club
- Ever the Twain Shall Meet - Mark Twain on the Web - another one where it's hard to pick a favorite.
- Page by Page Books
- The problem with reading long works online -- too much text on the page. Endless scrolling wastes time, and it's difficult to save
your place in the middle of a page. Page by Page solves this problem by putting one page length worth of text on each screen, so the experience is similar to reading an old-fashioned, dead-tree book. This makes for easy reading of hundreds of classics, all available here for free. Peruse the author list for everything from John Adams' inaugural speech to Edith Wharton's tale of old New York, "The Age of Innocence". View texts by title to find stories like "Adventure" by Jack London, "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle, and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In no time, you'll be curling up with a hot pot of tea and your computer monitor.
- BBC Bookcase - This brilliant site functions as its name suggests -- like a family's bookcase that represents the varied interests of each reader. The site is a potpourri of literary news, features, and games, and even offers an animated history of books guided by none other than Bill Shakespeare himself. Its editorial offerings are unpretentious yet informative and appeal to avid readers of all genres. From the would-be romance novelist, to the aspiring poet, there's a lot of practical advice here for beginning writers as well. So why not have a spot of tea with some scones, and let the BBC engage your imagination?
- BBC's Animated History of Books
- American Writers - This C-SPAN series examines the lives and works of selected American writers and explores their influence on Americans today. On the companion web site, you'll find detailed biographical and historical background for each featured author. We learned about the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition, experienced the world of Harriet Beecher Stowe while she was writing 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and explored the Declaration of Independence and other documents written by founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Jump in and take an in-depth look at 45 American writers who helped shape a nation.
- Guardian Unlimited Books: Top 10s - Readers around the world will delight in this distinctly British-flavored collection of book recommendations from authors, editors, and prominent individuals in the arts and sciences. We found intriguing variations on the usual "top 10" themes, such as Mariella Frostrup's most likely to impress me on a potential paramour's shelves, a timely list of sci-fi comedies, great reads from South African authors (selected by the daughter of two antiapartheid activists), and an appetite-whetting selection of slim volumes, relationship novels, fluid fiction, science books, and music biographies.
- Audio Books - if you like listening to audio books, these folks are for you!
- Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lists
- Mark Twain Resources
- The House of Usher: Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) - the highlight of this site consists of online editions of the American poet/short story master's works (courtesy of Virginia Tech), in conjunction with Poe's Virtual Library, featuring artwork, "Annabel Lee" in the author's own handwriting, secondary literature, audio of actor Anthony Quayle reading "The Purloined Letter", and humor.
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
- Book Lovers: Fine Books and Literature - a selection of useful places on the net on writers and poets, libraries, publishers and booksellers.
- BookWire Want to see where your favorite author will be on tour? At BookWire, that's just the beginning. The site is a wealth of book-related info, including bestseller lists, indexes of booksellers and publishers, and huge archives of reviews from a host of different sources.
- The On-line Books Page
- Sonnet Central An awesome collection of English sonnets that spans the ages -- from the early works of Thomas Wyatt in the 1500s to the World War I poems of Siegfried Sassoon, and beyond. It's an amazing labor of love, this comprehensive site: you'll find commentary, pictures, links, and sonnets galore. Polish the old iambic pentameter and jump right in.
- The New York Review of Books The New York Review was born during the New York publishing strike of 1963, and has since become a bona fide bastion of smarts. The magazine's illustrious cadre of contributors reads like a who's who of literary heavyweights: W.H. Auden, Edmund Wilson, Susan Sontag, Lilian Hellman, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Saul Bellow, Truman Capote, William Styron, and Mary McCarthy. The online version offers highlights from the latest issue, a lengthy archive, and buckets of book suggestions. The standout attraction, however, has to be the gallery of caricatures by artist-in-residence David Levine.
- short stories at east of the web British web-design firm east of the web presents this splendid collection of short stories organized by theme: fiction, romance, crime, sci-fi & fantasy, humor, horror, hyperfiction, children's, and non-fiction. How perfectly civil of them. Most of the stories are wonderful, and thanks to public interest copyright law, they're all free.
sjf@sherylfranklin.com
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