Publication date: 2010 Pages: 362 Word count: 104491 Ages:Â YA âBe good, Gaia,â Capt. Grey told her, his voice grave. She still refused to look at him, but she could feel the heated flush of anger again in her cheeks. âCooperate with the guards. For your own sake,â he continued. âBe good yourself, Captain,â she said […]
This is just a quick post about something that’s been on my mind for a while. It’s sad that there are so many preconceived ideas about YA novels, ideas that show those who speak about them, very often haven’t read any. I’m writing for adults, children and Young Adults and in one of my writer’s […]
Publication date: 2015 Pages: 350 Word count: ? Ages: YA They are all innocent until proven guilty. But not me. I am a liar until I am proven honest. What a book! I finished it a while ago but Iâm still stunned. Sometimes you read a book and the topic shocks you. Then you read a book […]
Publication date: 2014 Pages: 198 Word count: ? Ages:Â YA Last year I read my first Dana Reinhardt novel (The Summer I Learned to Fly) and liked it a great deal. The story was cute, the characters lovable but what I liked the most was the tone and the voice. I knew I would read another […]
Publication date: 1993 Pages: 180 Word count: 43,617 Ages: MG 4 – 8 I wanted to read Lois Lowry’s The Giver for ages. Not only because it was a Newbery Medal winner but because it has become one of the great MG classics and has even been made into a movie. The Giver was written at a […]
Beauty is a Sleeping Cat 
Hi, Caroline. Sorry to hear of one of your favorite authors passing. I know my mom, who is also a big mystery and suspense fiction fan, has read and enjoyed her, too.
Thanks, Victoria. I find it very sad. There’s a lot to enjoy in her writing. Especially her standalone books are so much more than just crime. She was already 85, still, seeing a new novel of hers, every year, was part of the fun of going to the book shop.
I hadn’t heard and when I saw your post I was so shocked. I just bought her latest book; she was a great favourite.
It’s so sad, right? I’ve read loads of her novels and while I didn’t read her as often in the last year or so, I knew I’d get back to her and I was always scanning the shops for her latest and jusst somehow happy to know she was there and writing.
She was a great writer.
Yes, she was.
She was a brilliant writer. It’s very sad. Not a very good year. Terry Pratchett and now Ruth Rendell.
Yes, brilliant. I was thinking the same first Pratchett now Rendell. It’s like an era is coming to an end.
Lots of prolific authors are passing away. Sad. đŠ
It is sad.
Oh, no, how sad! She’s a terrific writer, and I keep meaning to do a proper reading project where I read everything by Ruth Rendell (including her stuff as Barbara Vine) in chronological order. ONE OF THESE DAYS.
Jenny, if you decide to take on that project, here’s a bibliography of hers I put together a while back:
http://bookchase.blogspot.com/2015/05/ruth-rendell-dead-at-85.html
Great resource, Sam.
It’s huge loss. I was thinking yesterday that I would like to do some kind of project as well or host a Ruth Rendell week.
I think she was very prolific, so it’s a huge project if you want to read everything but it should be rewarding.
She was fantastic. I think she was the author who veered me towards crime as my favourite genre, when I discovered her in 3rd or 4th year at secondary school. I dropped the Wexfords (I noted exactly where – Simisola – so I could go back to them, and will) but my pal’s mum bought all her standalones/Barbara Vines in hardback and lent them to me. I’ve read them all, bar two recent ones which I’ve been “saving”. I don’t think we’ll EVER see such a consistent crime writer. Required reading for any aspiring crime authors, definitely. An absolute master.
I couldn’agree more. I’ve not read nearly as much as you have but many. What you say about he consistency is very true. Some authors have a lot of duds in a long career like hers but she didn’t.
You’ve got to tell me which are your favourites.
I am sorry to hear about the passing of Ruth Rendell.
I never read anything written by her but she seems to have been very beloved.
Oh yes, she was. She write such intelligent psychological crime.
Isn’t it sad! Some of her psychological novels, like A Dark Adapted Eye are set to become classics, I’d hope.
I hope so too. I still have many of her to read but thinking that no new one will come is sad.
It is such sad news, Caroline. When I saw it in the paper, I felt really sad. She was a writer who wrote wonderful, intelligent mysteries, but who also explored other genres – her horror novels are wonderful too. I think with Ruth Rendell and P.D.James gone, it is the passing of an era. I don’t know whether we will see the likes of them again.
Yes, so sad, right’ Of course, P.D.James died recently too. I have still not read her, that’s why it affected me less. An era is ending. I wouldn’t be able to name a younger author with the same impact.
I’m going to read them both soon.
Oh no, I hadn’t heard this. Was just adding a lot of her books to my TBR pile. It bothers me a lot when a favorite author dies. It’s the end of the special world they created for us.
Yes, it bothers me as well. Just a couple of weeks ago I looked at my piles and was glad to see I still had a few of her unread books. And she was one of those who kept on writing great books, not like some who start to produce drivel.
And I remember Jeanette Winterson mentioning her in her memoir, saying how kind and supportive she was. Oh, it’s too sad.
I love her work, too, and was so sorry to hear she had passed away. I am at least happy that she left such a huge body of work behind and she is someone I will happily read and reread.
I felt the same. But as you say – she’s writte such a lot – there’s always one more to discover.