What fun book series should I keep on my shelf for power outages?
December 1, 2024 9:32 AM   Subscribe

We recently had a short power outage and I was SO BORED. I have some books, but none of them seemed appealing - not juicy, easy, entertaining enough. Recommend me some series that I might like - I'll try the first one and buy more to put on the shelf. Preferences inside.

Looking for page turners, easy, fiction. Series I've liked:

Early Pendergast series by Lincoln/Child (and some of the other Lincoln/Child books)

Evanovich (Stephanie Plum - I'm only up to #4 - maybe I should just get some of these? Do they get better as she gains experience? They're so dated now...)

Longmire series

Bill Gastner series

Tony Hillerman

James Rollins standalone novels (are his other series good?)

Darynda Jones's Charley Davidson series, before it jumped the shark.

Paranormal/slightly magical is great, but I'm less into outer space or military/special forces type stuff. Deterrents: if the main character is in constant danger, or too cozy.
posted by bluesky78987 to Media & Arts (26 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I'm decidedly not a reader, but the Stephanie Plum series has been my guilty pleasure, beach/pool read for, well, decades. The bad news is they don't really get any better. The good news is they're pretty much always exactly what you expect. If the old ones are feeling dated now (which makes sense given they were first released in the 90s) you can easily just pick up starting in the twenties and go from there. The underlying plot doesn't advance much.

The Spellman Series has strong Stephanie Plum vibes as well, but is marginally better written.
posted by cgg at 9:41 AM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: If you like Longmire and Tony Hillerman, there's a good chance you'd like C.J. Box, William Kent Krueger, Paul Doiron, and Peter Heller.
posted by box at 9:47 AM on December 1, 2024


Best answer: I've only read a few of them so far, but Donald Westlake's Dortmunder series, about a small time burglar, might work on your list.

I'll second the Spellman series.
posted by mark k at 9:49 AM on December 1, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: There's a slightly smaller, but still pretty good, chance you'd like John D. MacDonald, Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, and Tim Dorsey.
posted by box at 9:51 AM on December 1, 2024 [4 favorites]


Best answer: Early Pendergast series by Lincoln/Child

I'm a big fan of these books. I am also a fan of Michael Crichton and Michael Connelly. Different sort of subject matter, but very much in the genre of page flipping thriller fiction.

If you want a series, my best recco is the Lincoln Lawyer books. If you haven't picked up any of the later Pendergast extended universe books, the lately ongoing series with Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson have been very fun, and have found firm footing in their own right, I think.
posted by phunniemee at 10:04 AM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Agree with the Carl Hiaasen recommendation.

Of course Murderbot, and if that is too sci-fi, then The Cloud Roads Rakusa series by the same author is pretty solid.

I'm on a William Gibson kick right now, but not particularly easy reads. The Peripheral and Agency, followed by Pattern Recognition in terms of goodness.
posted by Windopaene at 10:04 AM on December 1, 2024 [3 favorites]


Best answer: The Miis Fortune series of mysteries is right up your alley.
posted by Enid Lareg at 10:08 AM on December 1, 2024


Best answer: I have no idea whether you'll like it, but the Penric and Desdemona novellas by Lois McMaster Bujold are favorites of mine. There are quite a few of them by now. I'm not sure I'd be capable of saving them for power outages though!

(I once printed out the remaining pages when my e-reader died while I was close to the end. I just couldn't bear to stop reading!)
posted by demi-octopus at 10:25 AM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe murder mysteries, as long as you can live with some era-appropriate attitudes (the first being written in the late 30s/early 40s).
posted by praemunire at 10:42 AM on December 1, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: The Adrian Mole series by Sue Townsend. The series begins with Adrian as a 13 1/2 year old clueless, unreliable narrator, which is where a lot of the humor comes from, and continues through his adult years. The first book was a huge bestseller and “In 2003, it was listed at No. 112 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's best-loved books.[4] In November 2019, BBC News included The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ on its list of the 100 Most Influential Novels.” (from Wikipedia). The other books were also very well received. You don’t have to be British to appreciate it.
posted by LiverOdor at 11:08 AM on December 1, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: These are 70s-90s series so predate a lot of modern technology: Harry Kemelman’s Rabbi series, Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhorne series, Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr series, and Gregory MacDonald’s Fletch series. The latter two are more humorous and of the four, only Block is still living and currently writing but they are all award-winning authors.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 11:16 AM on December 1, 2024


Best answer: Dr Siri Paiboun series was a lot of fun, with a side of magical realism.
Laos, 1976: Dr. Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old medical doctor, has been unwillingly appointed the national coroner of newly-socialist Laos. Though his lab is underfunded, his boss is incompetent, and his support staff is quirky to say the least, Siri’s sense of humor gets him through his often frustrating days. Interesting take on him trying his best to do a job he did not want, solve mysteries, and navigate the reality of laos vs. what he fought for as a young revolutionary.
Bonus, the author Colin Cotterill is impressive as heck.
posted by evilmomlady at 12:03 PM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: The Wayward Pines trilogy by Blake Crouch
posted by virve at 12:27 PM on December 1, 2024


Best answer: Tony Hillerman's daughter Anne Hillerman has picked up where he left off and written several books.
posted by mareli at 12:55 PM on December 1, 2024


Best answer: Mystery series that are character-focused but not too cozy:
Joanne Kilbourn series by Gail Bowen
Kate Shugak series by Dana Stabenow
Kate Martinelli series by Laurie R. King
Lomax and Biggs series by Marshall Karp
Books by Dick Francis (not series but all loosely focused around English horse racing)
posted by Daily Alice at 1:43 PM on December 1, 2024


Best answer: You could try the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovich for your paranormal/magical requirement.

(I know you’re looking at paper books for powercuts, but it’s also worth noting that the audiobooks are narrated by the fabulous Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.)
posted by penguin pie at 2:06 PM on December 1, 2024 [4 favorites]


Best answer: Well, there's the Christopher Paolini book series of which I have read them all. It's classed as Fantasy. I also read "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" which is more science fiction.

Cory Doctorow has published a number of books, I wouldn't call them a series, and he is a bit quirky. Some are non-fiction. On the other hand, some of these books are free.

When I was much, much younger I read the Complete Sherlock Holmes on the train to and from work each day. And then there was the matter of the dog that didn't bark!

nthing Murderbot, of course. Not so much a series as a modern phenomenon.

Isaac Asimov was an incredibly prolific author, spanning fiction and non-fiction. There is of course both the Foundation and Robot series which seem (?) as vast as the Sherlock Holmes works (though I haven't checked page counts or anything).
posted by forthright at 2:40 PM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Seconding the Michael Connelly (esp. Lincoln Lawyer) & the recent Nora Kelly/Corrie Swanson series by Lincoln/Child.

A recent series that's scratched the Pendergast itch for me (well-defined characters, easy page-turner) has been the Scotland Yard Murder Squad series by Alex Grecian, set in Victorian London just after the time of Jack the Ripper.
posted by soundguy99 at 3:23 PM on December 1, 2024


Best answer: Can it really be that nobody has suggested Terry Pratxhett’s discworld, or the Charles Stoss laundry files series? Those are my go-tos
posted by NotAlwaysSo at 4:18 PM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Here are some books I could not put down once I picked them up. Real page turners.

Tana French, In The Woods. Dublin Murder Squad #1
As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children. He is gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

Liane Moriarty, Here One Moment
There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.”

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:46 PM on December 1, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Terry Pratchett's Discworld is mentioned above, the early titles are kinda goofy, but as it goes along it turns fascinating. I like to recommend starting in the middle and working out from there, but you could start anywhere.
posted by ovvl at 5:48 PM on December 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Seanan McGuire's October Daye series are fun urban fantasy mysteries.
posted by metasarah at 5:52 PM on December 1, 2024


Best answer: The Jack Reacher series is juicy, easy, entertaining and military. There's an excerpt here to get a taste.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:33 AM on December 2, 2024


Best answer: Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series. There are enough books to get you through at least a 2 week outage.
posted by tafetta, darling! at 7:56 AM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Seconding Elizabeth Peters and Ben Aaronovitch.

And I'll add the Falco mystery series (plural!) by Lindsey Davis, set in Ancient Rome. There are twenty books starring Marcus Didius Falco, starting with The Silver Pigs, and then twelve and counting starring his daughter Flavia Albia, starting with The Ides of April. I particularly enjoy the tone of these books, and they have a real sense of place (and time) too.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:28 AM on December 2, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: To build on what ovvl said, I refer you to a semi-famous Tumblr post:
thestuffedalligator
The Discworld fandom is something I affectionately think of as a kaiju.

The Discworld fandom is, despite all outward appearances of being this lil’ ol’ ma and pa fandom, actually very, very big. Unbelievably big. Vastly, hugely big.

Discworld has a dedicated convention. Discworld had published filk albums. Discworld has officially licensed video games on the PS1. Discworld has a twinned city in the real actual United Kingdom.

Because Terry Pratchett was called the highest selling author in the United Kingdom for a slice of time. Not the highest selling fantasy author, the highest selling author, full stop.

There are a lot of people who have read Discworld, and of those there are a lot who would consider themselves fans of Discworld. And it’s a fandom that largely lies slumbering on the sea floor, content, quiet, until something happens and the whole fandom rises out of the ocean like fucking Godzilla to bellow “HAAAVE YOOOU REEEAD DIIISCWOOORLD III HAAAVE FLOOOWCHAAARTS” and stomp on a building
But yeah, because Discworld is a series of interconnected storylines that cross over each other, the flow chart thing is totally legit. Here's a good one to help you pick a starting point and here's one for the Discworld as a whole. ENJOY!
posted by yggdrasil at 9:51 AM on December 10, 2024 [1 favorite]


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