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2026 Reading Challenge

2026

READING

CHALLENGE

Alan Lampe has read 30 books of his goal of 28!

107%

Alan Lampe

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://www.alanlampeauthor.com

Twitter

alanlampeauthor

Genre

Historical Fiction, Fantasy

Member Since

May 2014

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Alan Lampe keeps an alligator on his business card, reading a book, held up by two frogs. It is a fitting mascot. There are several alligators in his debut novel, and like the gators of the Louisiana bayou, Alan's writing tends to move along quietly and then strike, lightning-quick, with a joke you did not see coming.

He has been writing since second grade. In the late 1990s, six of his poems were published by the National Library of Poetry. He spent the next decade writing short fiction between everything else life
demanded, until 2011, when he made a decision that would come to define his career: he chose to sit down and write instead of watching Super Bowl XLV.

That decision became Bill's Cajun House of Pleasure, a Southern Gothic tale co-c Alan Lampe keeps an alligator on his business card, reading a book, held up by two frogs. It is a fitting mascot. There are several alligators in his debut novel, and like the gators of the Louisiana bayou, Alan's writing tends to move along quietly and then strike, lightning-quick, with a joke you did not see coming.

He has been writing since second grade. In the late 1990s, six of his poems were published by the National Library of Poetry. He spent the next decade writing short fiction between everything else life
demanded, until 2011, when he made a decision that would come to define his career: he chose to sit down and write instead of watching Super Bowl XLV.

That decision became Bill's Cajun House of Pleasure, a Southern Gothic tale co-conceived with his former girlfriend and polished over years of workshops, critique groups, and conferences. Alan does not write what he assumes. To get the world of a Louisiana bordello right, he traveled to Fort Smith's Miss Laura's, a real bordello turned historic visitor center, to understand exactly how such a house would have operated. When an early draft described whiskey glowing peanut-butter gold in the sunlight, a critique partner pushed back, so Alan bought a 1950s glass whiskey jar, borrowed whiskey
from a coworker, and held it to the light himself. It turned out clear. That is the kind of writer Alan is: if he can find the truth of a detail in person rather than online, he will go looking for it.

The result is a story told in the tradition of Forrest Gump, narrated by the cantankerous, foul-mouthed Bill Valencourt from his room at Our Lady of Sorrows Nursing Home in New Orleans to a young reporter chasing what he thinks is a routine story about elder care. What he gets instead is thirty years
of empire, betrayal, and revenge, spanning 1939 to 1969, narrated by a man who ran a bordello, survived a war, and never once stopped being funny about it. Readers have responded to that voice: Bill's Cajun House of Pleasure holds a 4.79 star average across 91 Goodreads ratings and 45 reviews.

Alan's influences run through the whole book. He counts Edgar Allan Poe, who invented an entire genre, and Mark Twain, whose wit could work a dead cat into nearly every chapter of Huckleberry Finn, among the writers who shaped how he thinks about storytelling: atmosphere and darkness on one
page, a laugh-out-loud line on the next.

His second novel, Illegal Skills, has earned an even stronger reader response: 4.97 stars across 161 ratings and 39 reviews. Illegal Skills is a companion novel to Bill's Cajun House of Pleasure, not a sequel, but a story set in the same time period that brings back familiar faces from Bill's world. He is currently working on a medieval fantasy series.

Alan lives by a piece of advice he still gives to newer writers: finish the first draft. Set aside the same time every week to write, and do not let anything else claim that time. It is advice he has followed since 2011, one alligator-quick joke at a time.

You can follow Alan's ongoing work at alanlampeauthor.com and on Facebook, where links to his blog and his books are always up to date. ...more

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Combine Editions
Alan Lampe’s books

Average rating: 4.76 · 274 ratings · 145 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	Illegal Skills 4.75 avg rating — 165 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bill's Cajun House of Pleasure: A Southern Gothic Tale of Desire, Voodoo, and Revenge 4.80 avg rating — 91 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bill's Cajun House of Pleasure: A Romp in the Swamp of Historic Proportions 4.60 avg rating — 10 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Illegal Skills 4.83 avg rating — 6 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How to Take Over the World: a #vss365 story it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ralph the Vampire vs the Mime: A #VSS365 Story 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Torch to Burn 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Bill’S Cajun house of pleasure

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A sultry Southern tale filled with secrets, passion, danger, and unforgettable twists deep in the Louisiana shadows.

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Alan is Currently Reading

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The Second Stage of Grief (Ngaire Blakes, # 2)

by Katherine Hayton

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Aug 25, 2026 05:14AM

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Alan Lampe started reading The Second Stage of Grief (Ngaire Blakes, # 2) by Katherine Hayton	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 25, 2026 05:14AM · like
Alan Lampe rated a book really liked it The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton (Ngaire Blakes #1) by Katherine Hayton	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This mystery novel is set in New Zealand, but it doesn't focus too much on the beauty of the country. I don't read a whole lot of police procedural mysteries, but this is what the story focused on. Would like to have had the characters move around th ...more
Aug 25, 2026 05:06AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton by Katherine Hayton. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton by Katherine Hayton <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Alan Lampe rated a book really liked it Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This little-known story of World War II is a great read. The idea of taking a dead body, planting it with false information with the hope that the enemy will inspect the body and read the false data and act on it to save Allied lives is the stuff you ...more
Aug 14, 2026 05:05AM · like · see review
Alan Lampe rated a book really liked it Pequod Poems: Gamming with Moby-Dick by Wilda Morris	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is a nice collection of poems by Wilda Morris, all having a tie-in to Moby Dick. Herman Melville used different types of genre to write Moby Dick. Wilda uses different styles for her poems in this collection. It's a nice break from novel reading ...more
Aug 07, 2026 04:41PM · like · see review
Alan Lampe started reading Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 29, 2026 06:53AM · like
Alan Lampe rated a book liked it The Red Knight (The Traitor Son Cycle, #1) by Miles Cameron (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The story centers on the Red Knight and his mercenaries fighting the creatures of the Wild at an abbey. The creatures are fictional, but the abbey, and several other characters, give praise to Jesus Christ which make this a pseudo fictional story in ...more
Jul 28, 2026 09:43AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Red Knight by Miles Cameron. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Red Knight by Miles Cameron <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Alan Lampe rated a book liked it Great cities of the ancient world by L. Sprague deCamp	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
L. Sprague provided historical context for twelve great cities of the ancient world. I learned that several historical figures visited those cities in a short time frame. One thing I didn't like was his lack of use of BC and AD on dates. He used a ne ...more
Jun 10, 2026 09:24AM · like · see review
Alan Lampe rated a book really liked it Ordination (The Paladin Trilogy, #1) by Daniel M. Ford (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The beginning is a bit jumbled as characters with little backstory are put into motion. However, the story gets going after about chapter three. Allystaire, who is a lord in all but name, finds a young girl hiding in a well of a destroyed village. Th ...more
May 29, 2026 04:50AM · like · see review
Alan Lampe started reading Great cities of the ancient world by L. Sprague deCamp	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 28, 2026 07:06AM · like
Alan Lampe rated a book really liked it Ordination (The Paladin Trilogy, #1) by Daniel M. Ford (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The beginning is a bit jumbled as characters with little backstory are put into motion. However, the story gets going after about chapter three. Allystaire, who is a lord in all but name, finds a young girl hiding in a well of a destroyed village. Th ...more
May 28, 2026 07:06AM · like · see review