Susan Meissner is a multi-published author, speaker and writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. Her
novels include
A Bridge Across the Ocean;
Secrets of Charmed Life, a Goodreads finalist for Best Historical Fiction 2015; and
A Fall of Marigolds, named to
Booklist’s Top Ten Women’s Fiction titles for 2014. A California native, she attended Point Loma Nazarene University. Meissner is a pastor’s wife and a mother of four young adults.
Her latest novel is
As Bright as Heaven.
Recently I asked Meissner about what she was reading. Her reply:
One of the delights of having fellow authors for friends is getting to read their newest books early. I just finished I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon and my first response when I read the last page was, 
“Wow!” Most of us have probably heard what happened to the royal Romanov family during the Russian revolution, and perhaps even the mystery surrounding one of the daughters, Anastasia, when a woman named Anna Anderson claimed to be her. Anderson spent her lifetime claiming she had survived the brutal execution of the rest of her family. Lawhon has constructed a cleverly engaging look at both Anastasia Romanov of history and the woman who claimed until her dying day to be the sole surviving daughter of the last tsar of Russia. It is a non-linear tale, in that part of the story moves forward and part moves backward, but I loved how the story played out that way. It was a very unique architecture that 
was probably not easy to pull off, but Lawhon is a master storyteller and she totally made it work.
I am nearly finished with Chanel Cleeton’s brand new novel, Next Year in Havana. It is a dual time periods tale about a contemporary American woman of Cuban descent who travels to Havana to fulfill the wish of a beloved grandmother who asked that her ashes be taken back home to Cuba. Cleeton draws on her own Cuban background to tell the story, and her flair for detail will have you feeling like you’re right there in Havana for both storylines. And the cover is absolutely beautiful.
I recently become mad about Louise Penny’s inspector Gamache series. I’ve been reading them out of order, which is surprising, because ordinarily I would never do that. But Penny is such a great writer and the stories can and 
do standalone. Still, if you haven’t started this series yet I do suggest you start at the beginning. I like listening to Penny’s books in my car because her narrator is such a delight to listen to and the stories are so full of evocative and delicious detail. My most recent read was The Long Way Home, which is number ten. I am now listening to number two, A Fatal Grace. The cast of recurring characters in these Inspector Gamache books feel like family to me now and the setting, a fictional town called Three Pines in the rural environs of Montreal, Quebec, is a place I wish so very much I could visit. Like all murder mysteries there is always a dead body or two, and the whodunit is a key element of all of them, but along with those genre-specific staples there is always enjoyable, engaging, and insightful storytelling.
Visit
Susan Meissner's website.
Coffee with a Canine: Susan Meissner & Bella.
The Page 69 Test: As Bright as Heaven.
--Marshal Zeringue
novels include A Bridge Across the Ocean; Secrets of Charmed Life, a Goodreads finalist for Best Historical Fiction 2015; and A Fall of Marigolds, named to Booklist’s Top Ten Women’s Fiction titles for 2014. A California native, she attended Point Loma Nazarene University. Meissner is a pastor’s wife and a mother of four young adults.
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