I haven’t read the other suggestions, but here are my author suggestions:
Lisa See (similar to Amy Tan)
mysteries:
Elizabeth George
Ruth Rendel
P.D. James
Alexander McCall Smith
The Crimson Petal and the White, The Illuminator, the Outlander cycle by diana gabaldon
If you like english history try an author named Jean Plaidy.
This is a whole series so if you like the way she writes there is always another one. Check her out on Amazon and happy reading.
If you like English mysteries, try Elizabeth George’s series featuring Inspector Thomas Lynley and P.D. James’s series with Commander Adam Dalgliesh (hers go back to 1962 but still make great reads). P.D. James is a woman, btw, who didn’t start writing until her 40’s, if I remember correctly, after her husband became disabled and couldn’t work.
American mysteries: I really like the Kellermans, Jonathan (the husband) writes about a child psychologist helping the police, and Faye (the wife) has a whole series featuring the Deckers. Hers are especially interesting because the Deckers are orthodox Jews and, as a non-Jew, I found it pretty fascinating to learn about their beliefs and practices (actually the husband, Peter Decker, isn’t a practicing Jew in the first books in the series, but marries a young widow . . . ).
If you’re at all interested in novels written from a (kind of) feminist perspective, I really like Kris Radish. Try “Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral.” It’s all about how important women are to each other. Guaranteed to make you want to get together with all your friends and let them know how important they are to you.
This was a fun post. I’ve written down several suggestions and can’t wait to find some of them. Now, if they’re just available on books on tape, so that I can knit and “read” at the same time!
LOVE Janet Evanovich! Her Stephanie Plum novels are laugh out loud funny! Her grandmother, alone, is worth picking up the book, isn’t she?:roflhard:
Some of my favorite authors and books:
Mysteries/Crime/Forensics:
Sue Grafton
Marcia Muller
Sara Paretsky
Mary Higgins Clark
Janet Evanovich
Patricia Cornwell
Science Fiction:
Piers Anthony
Fiction/Romance/Epic:
Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Series)
P.C. Cast
Fiction:
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Non-Fiction:
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
The Anatomy of Desire by Michael Pollan
Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
Religious (Christian):
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver
Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer
Happy reading! 