More of What I've Been Reading: The Trilogies

The Lake Trilogy:
The Lake
Troubled Waters
Safe Harbor
by AnnaLisa Grant

The Kindle edition of the first book in this series, The Lake, had four stars and was free on Amazon.com. How could I pass it up? I got hooked on the story and wanted more when it ended, so I bought the next two books. (That's why they offer the free ones, right?) These books reminded me of the Twilight series, but without the vampires and werewolves.

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The Prairie Trilogy:
O Pioneers!
The Song of the Lark
My Antonia
by Willa Cather

I love historical fiction, and that's what these old books are. Willa Cather's words paint vivid mental pictures of times and places I wasn't alive to experience and made me believe I was there.  I only wish something exciting had happened during my visit.

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The Fifty Shades Trilogy Bundle:

Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades Darker

Fifty Shades Freed

by E L James

A few people told me, "You must read these books!" A few others said, "They're horrible! Don't waste your time." Finally, a friend on the "must-read" side convinced me, emphasizing that "the second book explains a lot about how [main character] Christian Grey got that way."

Well, I read them, and my opinion about Fifty Shades of Grey is neither black nor white. Some of the writing was better than I'd heard it was; some of it wasn't. The pages were about evenly divided between story and sex. I actually liked the story that continued through all three books, but the sex scenes grew tedious quickly. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing; once they became repetitive and boring, I could skim over several pages and get back to the story faster.

I will say that the only books I've ever read that were as sexually explicit as these were a couple of well-worn, dog-eared paperbacks my husband found on a power-plant construction site back in the '70s. Those had practically no plot at all.

Do you think that's what all the fuss is about? Do you think maybe the many thousands of avid fans of Fifty Shades have never had access to construction workers' libraries?

To read a description and reviews of any of these books,

click on its image above.