Novels I've Read & Recommend from 2010

It's been a busy year for me. The year ahead looks to be fuller still. But there's always time (or should be) to read a good book. Here are a few of the books I've read and really enjoyed this past year. This isn't a Top 10 kind of list. The order is just from most recently read till earlier in the year.

The Cross Gardener - by Jason F. Wright. A great book by one seriously talented writer. He's the NY Times bestselling author of The Wednesday Letters and The Christmas Jars. I became aware of Jason this past year because Amazon kept linking our books together. Well, I guess our readers connected us together, because the same ones were buying both of our books. So I decided to find out why. Now I'm a fan and plan to make my way through all of his books in 2011.

The Book of Days - by James L. Rubart. This is Jim's 2nd novel, following on the footsteps of his successful debut novel, Rooms. It's a brand new release. I liked Rooms, but I liked this one even better. Jim has also become a good friend this past year, and I was honored when he asked me to read and endorse it. Then relieved, when I liked it so much. Here's what I said: “James Rubart is officially now one of my favorite writers. He takes grand concepts, weaves them together with mystery, suspense, some mischievous fun and a serious thread of hope. Book of Days is a great read, why people buy novels.”


Lost Mission - by Athol Dickson. This novel won the Christy Award in 2010 in the suspense category. Winning awards is nothing new for Athol. He's won many Christy's and other awards for his books. Lost Mission is certainly suspenseful, but it also depicts fascinating characters, meaningful and relevant themes, and a complex multi-layered plot which Athol weaves together in masterful fashion to a satisfying climax.




A Distant Melody - by Sarah Sundin. This is the first book in Sarah's Wings of Glory series. Sarah is a fellow Revell author and a fellow WW2 history buff. When it comes to WW2, Sarah really knows her stuff. A Distant Melody is a wonderful WW2 love story, set mostly on the homefront. But it also has plenty of action and suspense. Fans of my first 2 novels should definitely read this book and check out the other Wings of Glory novels. The second book, A Memory Between Us, came out in September (on my reading list) and the third comes out this coming August.

I may add a few more to the list but, right now, I have to run out and buy the pizza (not kidding).

Happy New Year everyone!