Western week in my readers' advisory course was certainly an interesting one. I am not – nor have I ever been – a fan of westerns. I went into the week knowing that, and I came out of the week believing that even more strongly (haha). Considered a small and somewhat dying genre, the westerns being written today are embracing the idea of the genre-blend – incorporating elements like mystery, romance and the super natural from their respective genres and tying it into a more traditional western plot. Not only does it spice up life in the Great American West, it also makes non-western readers (me!) more likely to give the genre a shot. Based on my impressions from this weeks' readings, it looks like next time I will have to rely heavily on a good genre-blend if I'm to make it through another western ...

For this week's assigned title, the class read Doc by Mary Doria Russell, a novel about the famed dentist-turned-gunslinger, Doc Holliday. While a few members of the class with great interest in the OK Corral and Holliday's life raved about this book, I found myself agreeing with others who found it slow and hard to get through. It's well-written and thoroughly researched, but if you're not into westerns or the beginning of popular American dentistry – don't bother.

The book that I opted to read this week is a classic western: Hondo by Louis L'Amour. Again, I found myself struggling to get through it because of its slow pacing, but readers of the genre claim it is one of the best. It's definitely a "must-read" selection as far as westerns go, but nothing I would naturally recommend to the casual reader. Below is my review of the acclaimed Hondo – a great book, but one that I did not personally enjoy.

The next genre covered by my Readers' Advisory class was thrillers. Similar to mysteries, but usually quicker-paced and more suspenseful, thrillers are the types of books that get your pulse pounding. With recent hits like Gone Girl (2012), The Good Girl (2014) and The Girl on the Train​ (2015) [Wow, lots of 'girl' power here!] breathing some new life into the genre, thrillers seem to be more popular than ever.

The required text for whole class was One Shot by Lee Child (2005). While I found the main character of this ninth installment of the Jack Reacher Series a bit too cheesy to handle, I can see how some readers find great appeal in the series. The other thriller I read for this genre week was The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos (2006). Below is my review of the book.

If this sort of book sounds like something you'd enjoy I would also suggest Echo Park by Michael Connelly, another book that gives a detective the opportunity to reopen a cold case that has haunted him for years. The 12th book in the Harry Bosch Series, this mystery/thriller follows the detective of the same name after someone has reportedly confessed to a brutal murder that took place 11 years prior. When Bosch learns that his partner may have overlooked key evidence before the case went cold, the detective is left questioning himself, his colleagues and the truth of the proclaimed killer’s confession.

Read any great thrillers lately? Leave a comment or tweet me @TessaFoxReads or use #TessaFoxReads.

The second genre we focused on in my Readers' Advisory course was mystery. Prior to this semester, I had actually never read a mystery book – I know, "for shame!" Despite growing up playing the Nancy Drew computer games (I surprisingly never picked up the book series), I had sort of discounted the mystery genre. But after reading a few mystery titles lately, I just may be changing my mind.

As I mentioned in my previous post, each week of the course focuses on a different genre, with one title being assigned for the entire class to read and another title picked out individually by each student. For mystery week, our assigned reading was Alan Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009), which is the first installment of the Flavia de Luce Series. The quirky, inquisitive and poison enthusiast 11-year-old that is the protagonist Flavia de Luce is really what makes the first book so enjoyable, and no doubt the rest of the "cozy mystery" series as well. It's worth noting that I listened to the audiobook version of this title, and I think it was the narration that really captured Flavia's character and made me want to read the rest of the series.

But enough about young Flavia - I'd rather talk about the mystery book I selected to read: the late Robert B. Parker's first book in the Spenser Series, The Godwulf Manuscript (1973). Below is my review.

Another mystery series that puts its primary character in similar moral dilemmas as Spenser is the Prey Series (also known as the Lucas Davenport Series) by John Sanford. Sanford’s Lucas Davenport character fits into a similar mode as Spenser and has some borderline connections. The first book in the series is Rules of Prey, although the books can be read out of order. 

If like me, you haven't done much mystery reading, I highly suggest you start sleuthing around the genre, you never know what you might discover – maybe your next great read!