Another month of reading is past and it's time for a little summary of the 13 books I finished this month. March was really a mixed bag. I did not select all winners this month. You will find several disappointing choices but mixed in are a few genuine gems. My favorites of the month are Miracle in the Andes, Do You Feel Like I Do? and This Tender Land. The first 2 are non-fiction but just as riveting as a good novel. The last one, I believe, will become an American classic in the vein of Huckleberry Finn.

What ahve you read this month that you would recommend?
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The Myth of Perpetual Summer
By Susan Crandall, Read By Amy Rubinate

This book exhausted me a bit. 
The story revolves around the James family from Mississippi. The family is knows for a line of college professors and a long history in the area. By the time we meet them in the 1970's they aren't wealthy anymore and survive on the reputation of the family history. You know, the stereotypical Southern genteel family with lots of hidden baggage.

The story is told by Talulah James. Her mother is completely irresponsible to the family because she's more interested in traveling the US protesting various causes. Her father is a history professor who lives with undiagnosed bipolar disease. Talulah and her brother, Grif, keep things together with the help of their Grandmother.

I've got mixed feelings about this one. It was a really slow start. It took 7 or 8 chapters to decide that I was going to stick with it. But the author got me to like the characters and what to see what would happen. I suppose that I'd say that if you like Forrest Gump or Prince of Tides, you will like this one.

Everything I never Told You
By Celeste Ng, Read By Cassandra Campbell

Boy, I started this month on kind of a down note. Like the last book, this one is about another dysfunctional family.

The book is touted as a novel about a mixed-race family living in 1970's Ohio. OK, technically, yes, it is a mixed race family so, since we are into anything racial right now that's the hook. But the book is about a family, who happens to be Asian-American, and SOME of the issues they deal with might be about race. But the root of the problem is that the parents have projected their own desires/regrets on their oldest daughter and basically ignored the other 2 children. 

The book opens with the death of the oldest daughter and we are told what led up to it and then how it affected the family. It's an OK book. I didn't particularly like either of the parents so it was hard to like the book and the ending was a little forced. The narration is slow. If you are listening it will help to speed it up a bit.

Mortal Arts
By Anna Lee Huber, Read by Heather Wilds

This is the second book in the Lady Darby series. I liked the first one better than this one.

In the first book we learn that Kiera Darby is the widow of an anatomist and that she was forced to do his drawings. It was scandalous and now that she's a widow, she a social pariah. While solving a mystery in book 1 she meets Sebastian Gage and a weird love/attraction begins. Weird, because "something" keeps them apart.

In book 2 she's with her sister and BIL and they are traveling to Edinburgh. At a friend's estate she reconnects with childhood friends, William and Michael Dalmay. William is about to be married but Michael is the heir and is discovered to be mentally damaged. Today we would call it severe PTSD that was made worse by a stay in an asylum. Young local girl disappears, yadda, yadda, Michael blamed, yadda yadda, Kiera investigates with the help of Gage.

I'd call book 2 more of a romance novel than a mystery. It was clear from the beginning what was going on and it was really just background for the coming together and separating of Kiera and Gage. Why their relationship can't be a real relationship is never really explained and I expect it's dragged through future books which I will not likely listen to. It's a fine book for what it is, it's just not my thing.

As Bright As Heaven
By Susan Meissner, Read by a cast

This book gets rave reviews but it fell a little flat for me.

The story is set during the Spanish Flu pandemic in Philadelphia, one of the worst hit cities. The Bright family has moved from Quakertown so that the father can work at and eventually take over his uncle's mortuary. They recently lost a baby boy and the mother, Pauline, is still in despair. They move to Philadelphia for the hope of a better life for their 3 daughters, Evelyn, Maggie and Willa. Not long after arriving the Flu also arrives.

While delivering food and supplies to flu victims in South Philly, Maggie discovers a baby boy with his dead mother and sister. They bring the boy home to raise as their own.

The book covers the early flu years through abut 1925 as the girls become young women. I can see why it's so popular. It's a good story and ends well but it fell a little flat for me. As I was listening I found it was hard to imagine the events actually taking place in the 1920's. The conversation seemed too modern and I kept picturing the setting as more 1950's. The freedom of the girls, including one to pursue becoming a doctor, just didn't ring true for me. The narration was done by a cast, which was fine, but as the youngest girl aged the narrator didn't change her voice. We listen to scenes in speakeasys with the voice of a 10 year old.

It's a good book for a light read with some sadness and trauma but with a happy ending. 

The Cipher
By Isabella Maldonado, Read By Roxanne Hernandez

This is the first in a new series featuring FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera. She has recently joined the FBI after being a DC area cop for several years and she's the first Latin woman to reach some specific rank in the FBI. She, of course, has a past. She was literally thrown in the garbage as a baby and then spent many years in bad foster homes. At 16 she was abducted, raped and brutalized but managed to escape. At the opening of the book she is jogging and 2 college students think it will be funny to attack her, rape her and live stream it on the internet. Instead what's livestreamed is her beating the crap out of the attacker. It goes viral and her original abductor now knows who she (she had changed her name) is and where she lives. He abducts another young girl and leaves her discarded and dead as a message to Nina that he's back.

That sounds like a great storyline, doesn't it? The vast majority of reviewers would agree but I have come to believe that most of the reviews for this book are fake because this book is almost awful. It's not suspenseful because the plot and conclusion are so obvious from the beginning. The actions of the FBI, most of the time, are laughable and the dialogue is awkward. Maldonado is supposedly a former FBI agent so I'd like to think that she really does know how the FBI works. If they work like they do in this book then the organization is kind of a waste. It might explain why it took a group if amateur sleuths ("Scoobys", in the book) to solve the decades old Golden State Killer case and why so many people watch the ID channel and listen to podcasts like The Murder Squad. 

As for the dialogue, she uses conversation in the book to explain FBI things too the reader. Often the conversations reminded me of Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory when he would simplify things for his friends. Imagine that you and I are chatting about our quilting projects and during the conversation we explain to each other how to sew a quarter inch seam as part of our project discussion. It's just like that in the book. It made the characters flat and insipid. 

After doing a little research I discovered that this book is being made into a movie for Jennifer Lopez and it's probably perfect for that. In fact, I could believe that it was written specifically for her. Screen writers will fix the dialogue and JLo will get to beat up on a few men. There's no way that this book got almost all 5-star reviews on all of the book platforms. It's a 3-star book max. I'm glad I got it in the Audible daily deal for $4.

Miracle in the Andes
By Nando Parrado and Vince Rause, Read By Arthur Morey

It was the summer of 1974, just before I turned 14, that I discovered the non-fiction genre in books. I loved my summers because I could totally indulge my love of reading and I loved visiting the Bassett library to find new books to read. That summer our librarian introduced me to Alive by Piers Paul Read. It's the story of the 1972 Uruguay airlines crash in the Andes in October. The plane was carrying 45 passengers, mostly young rugby players. A search for the plan was relatively quickly called off because it was assumed that no one could have survived and the white plane was impossible to see on the glaciers and snow.

I sprawled out on our avocado green toile sofa one day and barely moved for 3 days until I read the last page. 16 of the 45 passengers survived for 72 days until 2 of them could hike out and try to get help.  Alive is the story of the facts of the events and how they survived in such a barren area for so long.

Nando Parrado is one of the 2 people who hiked for 10 days to try to get help. They hiked 37 miles in 10 days in an area where no human had ever passed before. The plane had settled at 11,700 feet and their hike took them to about 15,000 feet. They had no winter gear or hiking tools. They just had the will to live. They eventually saw a man on horseback and after tossing notes tied around rocks across a river, the man went for help.

This book is a perfect companion to Alive. This book tells much more of the personal side of the events and how the crash affected him as he resumed his life. Like Alive, I could not put it down. In the audio version you get to hear Parrado, in his own voice, in the prologue and epilogue. His perspective on death and on living is a wonderful lesson for all of us.

Alive will always remain one of my all-time favorite books along with Unbroken. These men are truly extraordinary and I don't think any group of people could have survived that trial without the "team" ethic that they formed playing rugby together. This book will make Covid seem really petty and inconsequential to you. It will also make you feel very grateful.

Daughter of Fortune
By Isabel Allende, Read By Blair Brown

I'm writing this immediately after finishing the book and the only thing I can think to say about it is that it's pointless. It's supposed to be about Eliza Sommers who was orphaned at birth but was raised in the British colony of Valparaíso, Chile, by the well-intentioned Victorian spinster Miss Rose. She falls in love with one of her uncle's employees, Joaquín Andieta. Joaquin leaves for California for the Gold Rush. Unknowingly, he left a pregnant Eliza behind. She decides to follow him by stowing away on her uncle's ship. The book follows her search for Joaquin for several years in California.

It's a fine premise but Allende seems to have trouble distinguishing secondary characters from primary characters. Everyone seems to get a chapter of full introduction and background. In fact the first 1/4 of the book seems to be nothing but background. She even introduces a new character in the last 20 minutes of the story and then it just ended. In the last 2 chapters there were a couple of storyline advances that seemed to propose some reunions or major turning points but they were left hanging. It's as if she got tired and decided to just end it with one specific event and ignore all the other hanging storylines. 

The other annoying thing about this book is that it was written in 1999 before our recent obsession with rewriting history. The book now has a introduction by Allende proposing that she wrote the book to tell the history of California from the perspective of the women, Chinese, Mexicans and South Americans who were robbed of their due in the new state. It's a good marketing angle to get this book back on reading lists but that it not what it's about. Not even close.

Blood Grove
​By Walter Mosley, Read By Michael Boatman

I first discovered Walter Mosley and his Easy Rawlins series in 1996 with White Butterfly, which is actually 3rd in the series. If you've hears of the movie Devil In A Blue Dress, it was based on the first book in the series with Denzel Washington playing Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins. But Don Cheadle stole the show with his portrayal of my favorite character, Mouse.

Easy is a WWII veteran and the books are all set in the 1950's and 1960's . In Blood Grove it's 1969 in LA and Easy has a small detective agency.  One day a Vietnam Vet walks in and asks for Easy's help in finding. He believes that he stabbed someone to death in an orange grove and want Easy to find out. He takes the case after he realizes how damaged the young man is by his war experience. He soon regrets that decision.

Meanwhile, his adopted daughter Feather, is a teenager and doing well in school so life at home is great. That is until Feather's white uncle shows up in town to meet her.

Mosely creates such rich characters that you feel like you could go to LA and find them....except that you'd also have to go back in time. I think the time period for these novels is genius. Having them take place in the 50's and 60's means that the characters have to work a little harder but that it's also easier to hide. There's no technology aside from the newspaper, library and telephones with wires. 

I love the whole series and Blood Grove is a great addition. If you aren't into violence, though, you should skip these books.

The Huntress
By Kate Quinn, Read By Saskia Maarleveld

Nina Markova is one of the famous Soviet Night Witches, a squadron of female bomber pilots in WWII. After the war British War Correspondent Ian Graham has given up journalism for being a Nazi hunter. In post-war Boston Jordan McBride works welcomes a new step-mother and sister to her family. She longs to become a photographer but her father wants her to take over the family antiques business.

All of these people come together in the search for a The Huntress, a woman known for murdering several people as a Nazi.

I've read one other Quinn book, The Alice Network, and she does "WWII spy" really well. Great characters and a narration that jumps between during the war and post-war as everything unfolds. Great narration too.

I enjoyed learning about the Soviet female bomber pilots that were put into service after Germany invaded Russia. The Germans nicknamed them the "Night Witches" because the only sound they heard when the planes were coming was the faint sound of a sweeping broom. Nina is a great character for one of these courageous pilots.

Do You Feel Like I Do?
Peter Frampton, Read By Peter Frampton

I don't know a ton about music but, for some reason, I really enjoy music biographies, especially artists from the 50's to the 80's. Peter Frampton was definitely an artist of my time and I remember what a big deal the talk box was. It had been used in country music some but it was Frampton that took it and owned it.

What I enjoyed about this book was his singular focus on making music. Whether he's making millions or making nothing, he seems to be all about the music and he seems to not carry around anger, resentment or jealousy for bad things that happened or things that could have been. I really enjoyed his story, how it intertwined with other artists of the time and I actually enjoyed hearing him tell the story. It was also fun to go to YouTube and listen to the songs as read the book. Watching clips of the Sgt Peppers movie was hilarious.

The Mountains Wild
By Sarah Stewart Taylor, Read By Marissa Calin

There's one word that sums up the writing and narration of this book and that word is "sloppy". The writing is sloppy or the editor was lazy. There are too many inconsistencies throughout the story as if it was written quickly to get it out on the coattails of a previous successful book. I don't know if that's the case or not but that's how it feels.

The narration takes that weak base and makes it worse. Much of the book takes place in Ireland but the main character is from Long Island. She tries mightily to keep all the accents straight and consistent but fails miserably. Maggie D'acry (appropriate last name for a romance novel), our heroine, speaks about every 4th word with a Long Island accent. Or is it Brooklyn? Or Boston? Is she having cawfee today or coffee? She can't seem to remember. The accent is totally unnecessary and the book would have been better without it.

But the book does struggle on it's own. It wasn't so horrible that I couldn't finish it but it was a messy story. Maggie grew up with her cousin, Erin, on Long Island and honestly, they never got along well. After leaving high school, Erin decides to move to Ireland (the homeland she has never visited). One day they got a call that Erin had disappeared. Maggie drops everything (at the age of 18, 19, 20?) to go there and spend weeks "investigating" Erin's last moves. They never find Erin or what happened to her.

Twenty-three years later Maggie is a detective, divorced and mother of a 15 year old. They receive a call that Erin's scarf has been found. Maggie drops everything again to go to Ireland to help solve the crime because she's a famous detective now. I'm not buying it.

Once there she acts more like a lovelorn teenager than a detective. She actually spends time more or less stalking someone she had a fling with 23 years ago. She does eventually get her act together and, magically, solves the crime. 

It might be much better read, instead of listening to the bad narration but I thought it was a pretty weak story.

This Tender Land
By William Kent Krueger, Read By Scott Brick

William Kent Krueger is the author of the Cork O'Connor mystery series that I like so much. He also wrote a beautiful stand alone novel called Ordinary Grace. This is the book he wrote to follow on Ordinary Grace. 

Krueger is a masterful writer and I believe that this book will become a classic. It is set in 1932 at the Lincoln School in Minnesota, an orphan school for Native American children. Odie and Albert O'Banion are two white orphans that were also taken into the school. It's a horrid place and Odie is treated particularly bad. They eventually have to flee with their mute Native friend, Mose and a recently orphaned girl named Emmy. This is the story of their escape in a canoe heading toward the Mississippi. It's an epic story. Some parts are hard to listen to but the characters are fantastic and the landscapes are beautiful. This is a book that I would read again.

Scent of Evil
By Archer Mayor, Read By Tom Taylorson

This is the third in the Joe Gunter series. This is an older series and this particular book was published in 1992. Audible has this series included free with membership. I'm really enjoying reading these book set in a time where pagers were consider modern technology. So far they are all set in Vermont.

A local Brattleboro stock broker has been found dead and the obvious suspect is one of the local police officers. The officer's wife was having an affair with the stockbroker. But as he investigates, Gunther, finds more and more bizarre details. Whoever the killer is seems to always be a few steps ahead of him.

This was my least favorite of the three. I think there were too many characters to track and it was easy to figure out who did it. But I like the Gunther character and the series in general so I'll keep reading them.

Another great month of books! 14 books read in 26 days. This is what limiting news exposure does for you. You get to read more books and you are much happier too. All in all, it was a good month. There were a few disappointments (Eli's Promise, The Widow Clicquot and The Shoemaker's Promise) but none of those three were bad. There were more great surprises (The Last Garden in England, American Spy, The Venetian Bargain, The Dearly Beloved). One book I'd recommend for anyone willing to read a medical book is Chronic. I provided a link to an interview with the author that you can watch to see if it might be interesting to you. Most of the rest of the books were books that I knew that I'd enjoy.

What good books have you read this month? My wish list is a little slim and needs some seeding.
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Eli's Promise
By Ronald H. Balsom, Read By Fred Berman

This is the story of the fictional Eli Rosen and his family before WWII, during Nazi occupied Poland and in Chicago during Vietnam. It's historical fiction based on some real events. Definitely more fiction than history. It's beautifully written and tells the story of three time periods moving back and forth across time. I think that was a tool to help make the horrid parts more palatable to the reader. This book (and this author) has amazing reviews but I didn't love it.

I felt that Eli was portrayed as incredibly naïve and gullible and that just didn't ring true to me. He was a smart man and would have realized better what was really going on around him and would have known how to handle Maxilillian Poleski better. The book was a little slow and a lot predictable. But I didn't want to give up on it. I think most people who like this genre will find the book beautiful. It just didn't move me to the 4.7 stars that it has on Audible.

The Widow Cliquot
By Tilar Mazzeo, Read By Susan Erickson

Barbe-Nicole Cliquot clearly led a unique and fantastic life and lived at a very interesting time in history (Napoleonic Wars). Her husband died young and she, at 27, took over the family champagne business. She broke barriers and created a monumental business. But there's so little true documentation about her life that the telling of it is pretty lackluster. If the author said one more time "we can only imagine...." I was going to scream. If we have to do so much imagining then write historical fiction. I recently read The Indigo Girl, which is historical fiction. It made me wonder what the difference is between the 2 genres. There was clearly more factual documentation about Eliza Lucas' life than for The Widow Cliquot. With some dialogue, this book would have been much more interesting as historical fiction. The actual facts from her life can really only be documented in a pamphlet.  This was a lot of filler and history going on around her life. If you love champagne it might be interesting.

Open Season
By Archer Mayor, Read By Tom Taylorson

In my ongoing search for new series I discovered an old series. This is the first in the Joe Gunther Mysteries. This book was first written in the late 80's so it's not filled with technology. It's an old fashioned detective series and I enjoyed it.

Joe is a lieutenant in Brattleboro, VT. A series of crimes around town are starting to be tied to a jury pool from a 3 year old murder case. In that case a black man was convicted of murdering a woman. One of the jurors believed that he was set up.

Many people will pass this book by because of some of the language. If you can accept that language that isn't acceptable today was acceptable 40 years ago, then you can enjoy this book. I like that the book is just a good solid mystery. It's OK to read older books and enjoy them in the time they were written.

If you are on Audible this one is in the free section. I'll read more in the series.

Traitors Gate
By Anne Perry, Read By Jenny Sterlin

This is #15 in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series. I think I accidentally skipped #14 in the series but these books do not need to be read in order.

The year is 1890, Thomas Pitt is the Police Superintendent and information about Britain's strategy for Africa is being given to the German Embassy. Within Britain, there are strong disagreements over the strategy to begin with and those disagreements.

The story opens with the suicide or accidental death of someone close to Thomas Pitt. The man's son thinks it has to be murder and asks Thomas to look into it.

I like this series because it's a reliable good read. I like the characters, especially the eccentric Aunt Vespasia.

The Venetian Bargain
By Marina Fiorato, Read By Pamela Garelick

This was another find from the Audible free section. I believe this book was originally published in 2014.

It's 1576 in Venice. Five years earlier the Venetians had defeated the Ottoman Empire. A ship arrives in Venice carrying cargo that will deliver the plague to the town. There's a woman on the ship who knows about it and tried to stop it. Her name is Feyra and she was the Harem doctor and she is trying to flee a future as the sultan's concubine. She needs all of her wits and her medical knowledge to survive in Venice.

Through the book we are introduced to some real people of the day. Probably the most famous is Andrea Palladio, one of the most famous architects of all time who gave us Palladian architecture.

If you like historical fiction you will enjoy this. This is the only book by this author that's available in Audible.

I Found You
By Lisa Jewell, Read By Helen Duff

Last month I reviewed my second book by Lucy Foley and complained about the strict formula of her books from the characters to the plot. I could possibly say the same about Lisa Jewell because she does absolutely have a formula. That's where the comparison ends. Jewell's books are so much more sophisticated in terms of character development and plot. I have loved all of them so far and once I start I can't put them down.

In a seaside town, Alice finds a man on the beach near her house. He doesn't know his name or where he came from. She's going to try to help him figure it out. The same week Lily Monrose is expecting her new husband home from work but he never arrives. Both women are trying to figure out what's going on with the mystery men in their lives.

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American Spy
By Lauren Wilkinson, Read By Bahni Turpin

If you read the reviews in the publisher's summary of this book, or even the one quote on the cover of the book, you will completely miss what this book is about.  It is not an "espionage thriller" (Entertainment Weekly), it is not a "trenchant comment on race and gender in America" (Elliott Holt). In fact, I'm pretty sure that every reviewer of this book didn't actually read it. They saw the superficial qualities of the writer and character and made assumptions. That just shows how lazy we have become about judging everything. All of these reviewers are lazy and completely missed the beauty (and the point of) this book.

I honestly selected the book because I'd listen to Bahni Turpin read a medical text. She's brilliant. I'm so glad I picked this one. It's a very unique gem.

It's not really a spy novel but Marie Mitchell is spy and so was her sister. The espionage part of the book is set in the 1980's and Marie, as a black woman, has trouble being taken seriously in the New York field office (unlike her experience working in the Indianapolis office). She eventually leaves and contracts out to a private firm and becomes involved in operations in Burkina Faso (formerly Chad). It's the perfect place to center a novel because I'd bet none of us know anything about it. I didn't. Anyway, there are spy aspects and the opening is quite a thriller so it's a little misleading.

What this book really is, is a letter to Marie's sons written in 1993 (current period for the book). She's telling the story of her life in case she doesn't see them again. We learn about her upbringing, her relationships with her sister and parents, her career choices, her intelligence and her introspection. She recognizes that countries aren't all right or wrong, people aren't all bad or good and decisions have mixed results. We see Marie as a daughter, sister, mother AND spy and we recognize that all those parts are interconnected. It's a brilliant first novel....it's not dogmatic, it's thoughtful.

The Shoemaker's Wife
By Adriana Trigiani, Read By Lisa Flanagan

​It's a multi-generational family drama as historical fiction so it should be right up my alley. It was OK. This is the third or fourth Trigiani book that I've read and, for me, they are all OK. The characters all fall a little flat for me and the writing is a little messy. There are events or conversations that should presage a future event but then nothing eve happens with them. 

The story is based very loosely on her own family history of Italian immigrants to the US. Enza and Ciro meet in their hometown in the Italian Alps. Shortly after Ciro has to leave for the US where he will apprentice as a shoemaker. Enza follows later when her family falls on hard times. She and her father come to the US to work and send money home. Neither Ciro  or Enza knows that the other is in New York. 

In the end, I just didn't buy the story. But, saying that, she is a very popular author and people who like her work will like this book.

Chronic
By Steven Phillips, MD and Dana Parish
Read By Thomas Allen, Teri Schnaubelt

Without question, one of the most important books I've ever read. Dr Phillips came to specialize in "autoimmune" diseases when, as a young medical intern, he saved his father from a heart transplant by discovering that his problem was an underlying Lyme infection. By treating that, his father was cured. He eventually had his own health crisis (bed ridden and near death) that was ultimately determined to be a bacterial infection from spider bites.

He share research and case studies to show that some cases of heart disease, neurological diseases and autoimmune diseases are actually caused by Lyme and other vector borne infections. He also discusses the types of treatments that are needed to truly cure these infections. He's had patients diagnosed with everything including: ALS, rheumatoid arthritis,  arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia, schizophrenia, autism, MS, OCD and various other maladies and many turned out to be infection caused. 

He does not propose that ALL people with these diagnoses are actually infections but a significant percentage are. He explains about the different tests and which work and then talks about various approaches to treatment. 

If you want to check him out before buying this book, here's an interview on YouTube. It's a pretty heavy book. I did not read it all at one time. I had to break it up between a few other books but it was so worth the time invested.

Borderlines
By Archer Mayor, Read By Tom Taylorson

This is the second book in the Joe Gunther series. I read the first one a few weeks ago and enjoyed it.

This is a pretty old series and most of the books are in the free section of the Audible library. That's what drew me to the first one, Open Season. These early novels are set in the 1980's in Vermont. There are no cell phones or other modern forensic tools. These books are good old fashioned investigation and, for me, that's what makes them fun.

In this one Joe is in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont to help investigate an embezzlement case. But then there's a house fire that turns out to be arson/murder. The house is owned by a secretive sect that has taken over half the town in recent years. There's lots of pent up animosity to add to the intrigue.

There are 30 books in the series so far and 29 of them are free. I like Joe Gunther so I'll keep reading them.

The Dearly Beloved
By Cara Wall, Read By Kathy Keane

I pick up book ideas from all over the place. Some come from reading blog book reviews, some from book newsletters and some from friends. I feel certain that this book came from one of those sources but I don't remember. I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own.

Two couples, Charles & Nan and James & Lily, meet in 1963 in Greenwich Village. James and Charles are the new pastors of the Third Presbyterian Church. The story starts earlier to tell the stories of how each couple met and the influences on their lives. Charles was supposed to succeed his father as a History professor at Harvard, Lily had serious childhood trauma and says that she will never believe in God, James had a tough childhood in Chicago and wants to right all of the wrongs of the world and Nan grew up a minister's daughter in Mississippi where he father taught her how to connect with people. The book is, simply, about their lives: decisions, challenges and growth all amid the social changes of the 60's and 70's.

I almost didn't read the book when I got started and saw that it might have strong religious overtones but I soon realized that it isn't about religion at all. It does use faith (or not) as a method to show how we can reconcile differences in our lives. If a minister and his atheist wife can make a happy life then there's hope for others. Oh, and the church secretary is awesome.

It's cleverly written because you find yourself hating and then not hating and then liking a character as they move through their own phases of self-discovery and relinquishing their past demons. It's not going to be one of my favorite books of the year but it's a good one.

The Mother's Promise
By Sally Hepworth, Read By Barrie Kreinik

This is another, like that last one, that came to me from a list somewhere. 

Alice Stanhope is a single mother of 15 year old Zoe. Zoe has social anxiety disorder that I propose was caused by the mother absolutely smothering her from birth. The kid was never seriously socialized at a young age and Alice has always lived her life mostly alone. Now all that is about to come to a head.

Alice is diagnosed with cancer, a diagnose that she's pretty much decided to avoid. She gets treatment but had avoided truly understanding the seriousness of her situation. She is very lucky that  her nurse (Kate) and social worker (Sonja) feel a personal need to help her. Kudos to all the social workers out there because I expect there are a lot of Alice's in this world. 

It's a well written book with the unsurprising message that we can't survive alone. We need family and friends. I found Alice immature and wanted to slap her a few times but the story got where it needed to be at the end.

​Again, it wasn't my favorite but if you like deep emotional stories this might be a book for you.

Trickster's Point
By William Kent Krueger, Read By David Chandler

​After the heaviness of the last 2 books I needed something light. By light, I mean murder.

This is #12 in the Cork O'Connor series. It opens with Cork on a hunting trip with his high school friend-turned-politician, Jubal Little. During the trip Jubal is shot with an arrow that looks like one of Cork's homemade arrows. Cork has to find the real killer before he's charged with the murder.

There's not much for me to review about this series. So far I like all of them. I like Cork as a character and I like the mystical overtones from the Native community. I always read these quickly.

The Last Garden in England
By Julia Kelly, Read by a cast

If you like Kate Morton just go ahead and get this book. You will love it.
The story is told around the fictional Highbury House in the village of Highbury in England. There are 3 women who had close connections with the garden so the story move between 3 times to tell the story the garden and the connections between the women.

In 1907 Venetia Smith is a novelty. She's an up and coming female garden designer and is hired to design the gardens for Highbury House. In 1944, land girl Beth Pedley, cook Stella Adderton and Diana Symonds, the widowed mistress of the house, try to find some sort of normality as the house is requisitioned for war use. In 2021, Emma Lovett, is knows for breathing new life into neglected gardens. She's hired by the descendants of Diana Symonds to restore the gardens.

This book was a great way to end the month. I couldn't put it down. Damned if I didn't actually shed a tear at one point. That doesn't happen very often!

I got a lot of sewing, quilting and spirograph done this month. I know that because I finished 14 books! I can't really name favorites, I read so many good ones. I can say that three of them are pretty much duds for me. Those are:
The law of Innocence
The Guest List
Don't Look For Me

That's not a bad ratio for having made it through 14 books, many of which I dug out of the Audible free section. 

​What have you read this month that you would recommend? 

Northwest Angle
By William Kent Krueger, Read By Buck Schirner

This is the 11th book in the Cork O'Connor series. I'm happy to see that there are at least 6 more left for me to read because I really enjoy this series.

The books are set in Northwest Minnesota. Cork O'Connor is now a private investigator. The book opens with the whole family on a vacation in the remote Northwest Angle, the northern most part of the contiguous US states. A devastating storm hits that separates the group. Cork's daughter is stranded on an island where she finds an abandoned baby. Other people seem to be looking for the baby too.

Krueger is an outstanding writer. Along with the plot there's a non-intrusive discussion of God (both the Christian and the Ojibwe versions of God) and the use of God for good and evil. 

Lily of the Nile
By Stephanie Dray, Read By Kyla Garcia

This is the 1st book in the Cleopatra's Daughter trilogy. It starts with the death of Cleopatra and the caption of her children. They are taken to Rome where they are at the mercy of the new Caesar.

The store focuses on Selene and her years in Rome. It's an interesting book but it didn't quite capture me the way her books co-authored with Laura Kamoie do. It wasn't a bad book but I never really felt connected to Selene or any of the other characters. I'm not sure if I'll read the remaining 2 books.

No Stone Unturned
By Steve Jackson, Read By Kevin Pierce

A couple of months ago I read Monster by this same author. It was true crime book about the hunt for a serial killer. I like true crime and really enjoyed that book so I was happy to find another by the same author.

This book is an older book that was updated in 2015. It tells the story of NecroSearch, International. NSI is a premier forensic investigative team that helps with crimes all over the world. They started in Colorado in the 1980's as a group of people interested in improving crime scene investigation. They were known as "the pig people" because they did their original experiments using pigs. If you like true crime entertainment you will enjoy this book. It kind of reminds me of the new sleuths who use the internet to solve crimes that the police can't solve, as was the case with the Golden State Killer.

The Anatomist's Wife
By Anna Lee Huber, Read By Heather Wilds

This is the first in a series and is along the lines of Anne Perry's William Monk and Charlotte Pitt series. I'm guessing it's set during the Victorian Era but that's mostly because I call everything set in an olden time as Victorian. It's not relevant, it's just a time of Lords and Ladies and formal dress for dinner.

Lady Kiera Darby is a widow. Her late husband was notorious for his anatomy studies and he enlisted her to do his drawings. As a result she learned a lot. She's living with her sister's family now in Scotland to try to get away from the nasty rumors. During a house party one of the guests is murdered. Kiera's brother-in-law asks her to assist the handsome rake, Sebastian Gage, to investigate the crime. It's not long before she is a suspect.

I had a little difficulty getting into the book. I'm not sure if it's the book or the uptight narration. It was a good diversionary read. Now that I know the characters I will likely read more of the series. The narrator gets some really bad reviews. I didn't think she was all that bad. She's not the best, but not awful.

Tear It Down
By Nick Petrie, Read By Stephen Mendel

I think Peter Ash is my new favorite hero. He's an Iraq war veteran and has mostly settled down with June Cassidy on her property in Washington State. This is the 4th book in the series and it's probably best to read them in order to get the whole backstory on all the characters. 

June knows that Peter is getting antsy so she send him to Memphis to help her friend, former war correspondent Wanda, work on her house. He arrives to find that a dump truck has been driven into the living room and no one knows why. Meanwhile a young, homeless musician has been roped into robbing a jewelry store and it didn't go well. He and Peter cross paths during his escape.

​Just like the previous 3 books, it's action packed and the characters are vivid and interesting. I think there's one more book to catch up in the series and I'm going to try to hold off a month or two before I get it.

Bodily Harm
By Robert Dugoni, Read By Dan John Miller

This is the 3rd book in the David Sloan series. I like Dugoni a lot. I've read the Tracey Crosswhite series and Charles Jenkins too. Jenkins is probably my favorite series but this one is good too except that so many bad things happen to David! 

Sloan is an attorney and has just finished a malpractice case against a doctor who may not have treated a child appropriately. The child later died of septicemia. Immediately after the trial someone approaches Sloan and says that he's responsible for the child's death because of a defective toy.

Sloan is then thrown into the cut throat world of toy manufacturers and it puts his family in grave danger. Very fast paced.

Feast of Sorrow
By Crystal King, Read By Simon Vance

I found this gem in the free section of Audible. It's historical fiction set in Ancient Rome. The most famous cookbook of all time is the first knows cookbook written by Apicius. This is the fictional story of the development of that cookbook but includes a lot of interesting facts from the period and weaves in all of the "known" facts about Apicius.

The story is told by the slave that he purchased to be his cook. He was told by the slave trader that this slave would make him famous. They both have a deep love of food and discovering new flavor combinations and recipes. Mix in all the palace intrigue surrounding all Roman rulers and you've got a really good story.

One of the fun facts of the time is the luxury and popularity of asbestos napkins!

Rider of the Purple Sage
By Zane Grey

​This is another book that I came across in the free section of Audible. I'm trying to make full use of the free books. I've never read Zane Grey and I do enjoy a good Western. Apparently, this is the original version of the book. Originally it could not be published in his version because it addressed polygamy in the Mormon community. Audible has 8 versions of Riders of the Purple Sage but this is the free one.

What an outstanding book! I figure most of you have probably read it at some point but this 100+ year old book is new to me. The story is set in Cottonwoods, UT. Jim Lassiter has come to town to avenge his sister's death. The peaceful Mormons of this community are ruled by the tyrant Deacon Tull. Tull is also trying to take land and cattle from a single woman in the community. Great characters and perfectly narrated.

The Law of Innocence
by Michael Connelly, Ready By Peter Giles

This is #6 in the Lincoln Lawyer series and, frankly, it was horrible. Mickey Haller is set up for murdering one of his previous clients. It was easy to think he was guilty since the body was found in the trunk of his own car. Most of the book is the trial and it's a tedious mess of objections and sidebars interspersed with Mickey getting beat up in jail, Harry Bosch making some cameo appearances but not adding anything to the story and the pandemic! Yes, it's the first book where the pandemic makes an appearance and it's not handled very well. Sometimes people wear masks, sometimes they don't. Days go by without any mention of it and then, suddenly, lockdown. I feel like the book was written before the pandemic started and he went back and added in some token storylines around it. Of course if you are going to have a pandemic storyline you must have an anti-Trump story line. In this case we must prevent any Trump supporters from being selected for the jury. There was no point to that except for getting Connelly his woke gold stars. Everything about this book was annoying, including the narrator who must have hurt his vocal cords trying to maintain a fake deep husky voice for Haller.

Restoration
By Rose Tremain, Read By Paul Daneman

Another book from the free section of Audible! This one is set during the reign of Charles II (1660) amid the delights of plague and the Great Fire of London (and we think we have it bad).

Robert Merivel is our hero. His father was a glovemaker to the king and, through him, he is introduced to Charles. For lack of a better phrase, he become unromantically infatuated with the King and will do about anything to be in favor. He's the King's fool for a while and then he is asked to marry the King's mistress but not consummate the wedding. In appreciation he is given an estate in Norfolk.

What follows is a series of bad decisions that leads to the loss of his relationship with the King, finding service during the plague and again during the fire. Robert is emotionally weak and immature but has periods of  self-sufficiency and earned respect. 

The book is historical fiction in the way that it takes place during the English Restoration and is built around some historical events. But the story is all about one's man quest to restore himself to some semblance of respect and honor. He's not the most likable character but his path is interesting.

Some reviewers love the narrator and some hate him. I got used to him but if you are thinking about listening to this I'd recommend playing the sample first to see if you like the narrator.

The Guest List
By Lucy Foley, Read by a cast

Back in October I read The Hunting Party by this author and I really enjoyed it so I quickly put this on on hold at the library. I have to say that this one was a bit of a let down.

The story is about a power couple (she's a magazine publisher, he's a reality TV star) having a wedding at a remote resort in Ireland. Everyone in this story has problems and many of then seem to revolve around the groom. They are an unsympathetic lot. It's not a bad story but it's EXACTLY like the Hunting Party. She has a formula and she doesn't deviate from it.  If you have read one then you have basically read both.

Don't Look For Me
By Wendy Walker, Read by Therese Plummer

Molly Clark, wife and mother of 2 walks away from her life one night. She leaves a note at a hotel to not look for her. But, of course, that's not what really happened. Molly and her family have some heavy baggage for an accident a few years earlier. It takes a while for that to surface. But what you do know early is that Molly has been abducted and is being held to care for a 10 year old girl.

I should have never started this book because it's a psychological thriller and I really don't like those. This one gets rave reviews but I just hated it. Molly is so frantically overwrought that it annoyed me no end. Her alcoholic daughter searching for her was equally annoying. Was that the story or the reader? I'm not sure.

​I read about the first hour and then just a minute or two of each chapter until the last hour. I just wanted to see how it ended. If you like the psychological thriller genre you might like this a lot.

The Indigo Girl
By Natasha Boyd, Read By Saskia Maarleveld

I don't mind the two previous "let down" books now because they were followed by my favorite book of the month. That's saying something because I ready some wonderful books this month.

The Indigo Girl is historical fiction but much more history than fiction. It's the store of Eliza Lucas. In 1739, at the age of 16 her father left her in charge of their 3 plantations in South Carolina. She was determined to make the successful experimenting with different crops. She planted oaks as a long term investment for ship building and she was determined to produce indigo. She knew of indigo production from her time living in Antigua.

I can't imagine any 16 year old today being mature enough to take on the pressures that Eliza had. Her plantation managers were determined to undermine her at every turn, her father was rapidly bringing debt on the farms to support his political aspirations and she had trouble getting honest help and advisement with growing indigo.

In the end she remains one of the most influential business people in the history of South Carolina. The book is based on a trove of letters that she left behind so we are given her own stories and relationships. Yes, she had slaves, but reading the book you can tell that slavery was destined to end simply because of the way that people like her treated them. She was one of the first to teach her slaves to read and write. To have that kind of foresight and conviction before the age of 20 is amazing.

The Desert Crucible
By Zane Grey, Read By Jim Gough

I enjoyed Riders of the Purple Sage so much earlier this month that I decided to finish out the month with the sequel.

At the end of RPS, some of the characters escaped and some hid in a valley in Utah. A disgraced young minister had heard the stories of the people left behind in Surprise Valley 12 years ago and he sets out to find and rescue them.

​I'm loathe to even pretend to leave a review for a classic book so I'll just say that January ended on a great note for me.

I don't know what I'd do without books. I like reading better than movies or TV and, sometimes, better than socializing. They keep me focused on my projects, keep me entertained when I need a distraction and, occasionally, shove in a few bits of knowledge through my thick skull. I started tracking my books on a spreadsheet in 1995 and have listened to (and sometimes read) 1609 books. This goes back to the days of Books on Tape where you would get boxes of cassettes in the mail and then ship them back when done. I had multiple boxes coming each week and one was always open in my passenger car seat and I had my Walkman going when I wasn't in the car or at work. Later I upgraded to CDs and a Discman. I even made a cross-body pouch to wear so I could carry it around. My lifetime average is 61 books a year but my pace picked up a lot in 2010 when I retired. This year I read 146 books, averaging 12/month. I wish I could read more. My wish list is long with more added every month. But don't ask me about TV or movies, I'm totally ignorant in those categories.

In my spreadsheet I rate my books and narrators. It's a way for me to remind myself to go back and look for new books by authors I love and to skip books by authors that I didn't love. In reviewing my ratings for 2020, and based on my feelings today, I'd say that these are my top 10 books of the year:

• Unaccountable by Marty Markary
• Forty Autumns by Nina Willner
• Total Power by Kyle Mills for Vince Flynn
• Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
• LIvewired by David Eagleman
• The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis
• Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith
• Secondhand by Adam Mitner
• The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
• Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow

​That list might be a little different next week but I'm sure that at least 5 of these books would be on the list always. I'm not worried or bothered if some of these are on your personal "worst" list, we all have different tastes. But I'd love to hear what your favorite books of the year (or December) are.

Here are the books I read in December. Some winners and a few serious losers.

Always the Last to Know
By Kristan Higgins, Read By cast

December did not get off to a great start because this book was a slog. I finished it but it wasn't because I liked any of the characters.
​
Here we have a family of 4. The children are 2 adult daughters and everyone is forced to start to address their "issues" when Dad has a stroke. The "issues" are basically decades of lack of communication. What follows is 12 hours of wanting to slap each one multiple times and yell, "get a grip, you were fortunate to have the life and opportunities you've been given!" This book is certainly written for today when everyone is encouraged to find the worst in their lives instead of being grateful for what they have. These are the kinds of people that I try to avoid in my real life. I found the whole thing tedious and the characters quite unlikable, especially the mother. She so obviously (and admittedly) favored one daughter over the other and now she's shocked that she has a bad relationship with the second daughter. They all found some sort of happiness in the end but boy was it a hard road to get there. Given that they all started in places of relative privilege that was no need for all the agony.

Hostage
By Robert Crais, Read By James Daniels

I think I found this book through an audible Daily Deal and didn't realize until later that I had read Crais before but it's been several years. I'm not sure why I didn't real more back the because he writes a good, fast paced thriller with a tight plot and story line. 

Jeff Talley is a former LAPD SWAT negotiator but the job eventually took a toll on him and his family. He's taken a chief job in a small town while he tries to heal himself and repair his marriage and relationship with his daughter. Of course, it's not a quite town for long.

One day 3 punks decide to rob a convenience store but the robbery goes bad when the owner is killed. They flee to a nearby neighborhood on the look for a car to steal. They end up taking a family hostage only this family has some business ties that complicate the entire situation.

I think I read this in a day and a half.

Freedom of the Mask
By Robert McCammon, Read By Edoardo Ballerini

This is #6 in the Matthew Corbett series and I was ready for it since I just read #5 a few weeks ago. When we last saw Matthew it was 1703 and he had been abducted and was on a ship to England and a rendezvous with his enemy Professor Fell.

This book picks up with his business partner, Hudson Greathouse along with Matthew's love, Berry Grigsby have found out where Matthew is are head to London to find and rescue him.

Meanwhile Matthew has murdered his captor on the ship and is arrested upon arrival to England and eventually ends up in the notorious Newgate Prison. He's escaped from prison by a mask-wearing vigilante. Soon he's allied with a local gang and discovers an underground world of highly addictive drugs and it all leads back to Fell.

It's an intense story with lots of interesting and well-developed characters and danger around every corner. As with all the books in the series, the story really never ends. But I think I am probably done with the series. I love murder and mystery books but this one crossed a bit too far into horror. I don't handle torture scenes well and there were some gruesome ones in this tale. I understand that book #7 is even more gruesome. I'll have to take a pass.

Invisible Girl
By Lisa Jewell, Read by a cast

Lisa Jewell is becoming one of my favorite authors. The publishers summary accurately calls this an "intricate thriller". You have to pay attention to everyone!

Saffyre Maddox has been under the care of child psychologist, Roan Fours, for 3 years when he decides that she doesn't need therapy anymore. Saffyer feels lost and abandoned. The Fours family has some of their own challenges. Meanwhile Owen Pickett is a neighbor of the Fours and his life is a mess and finds himself a member of an online INCEL (involuntary celibacy) community. When sexual attacks start in the neighborhood, Owen is the obvious culprit.

The cast narration worked really well and I'm not usually a fan.

Year of Wonders
By Geraldine Brooks, Read By Geraldine Brooks

Feeling depressed about our modern day plague? This book will put things into great perspective for you!
This tale is set in 1666 in Eyam, England and based in actual events. When the plague arrives in Eyam the village agrees to isolate themselves from the rest of the country. They work out methods of getting supplies and no one leaves. Anna Frith's husband has died in a mine accident and she's left to fend for herself and her 2 sons. She works as a housekeeper for the local minister. When plague arrives she becomes an unlikely heroine.

I enjoyed this book except for the ending. I wasn't really happy with where she ended up but I suppose it could have happened that way. The ending did not ruin the story, it seemed sort of randomly tacked on.

The Evening and the Morning
By Ken Follett, Read By John Lee

I've been waiting for this book for weeks. I like most of the Follett books and the Knightsbridge series was my favorite. This book is a prequel to that series. 

It's 997 CE at the end of the Dark Ages. The Vikings are rampaging all over the East of England and the Welsh are attacking from the West. 

The three focal characters are a Norman noblewoman who marries and English Alderman for love, a monk who wants to transform his modest abbey in to a learning center and a humble boat builder who arrives after the Vikings destroyed his home. Lots of family and political intrigue. Very typical Follett. If you liked his other books, you will like this one.

Find Her Alive, Detective Josie Quill Book 8
By Lisa Regan, Rad By Kate Handford

I'm always on the search for a new series to read and this book popped us as an Audible Deal of the Day. For $5 I could give it a try. Sadly, it wasn't even worth $5.

It's set in rural Eastern Pennsylvania and Josie is a Detective. Her twin sister , Trinity, has gone missing. When they discover bones everyone assumes the worst but it turn out to be another missing woman. They seem to have a serial killer. 

Seriously, this is an awful book. It reads like it was written by an amateur writer. Characters are not well developed, which is surprising for the 8th installment in a series. Dialogue is juvenile. Everyone calls Josie "boss". Who does that especially when she mostly behaves like a junior detective? It's not 1970 anymore. Because the missing woman is Josie's sister she is not put in charge of the case, except that for the rest of the book she is in charge of the case. There are tons of similar contradictions throughout. Another example, Josie is in an accident caused by the suspect. She happens to be on the speaker phone with her boyfriend at the time. When the suspect hears the boyfriend's voice on the phone he leaves the scene but the boyfriend didn't hear any of the conversation she had with the suspect. Ridiculous. Also, in what universe does the FBI allow some local yokel police department take the lead in a serial killer case? It doesn't, ever. Given the clues they went through to solve it it should have take less than 48 hours but we had to drag through days of talking about people's pasts. It's a rural area and the suspect has a giant scar on his face. How hard is it to find that person? It reminded me of a 30 minute TV crime drama episode except that it took longer to get to the end. 

Livewired
By David Eagleman, Read By David Eagleman

All the brain cells that I lost reading that last book were renewed reading this one. I found this book because I listened to a podcast where the author was interviewed. He sounded interesting and the book sounded interesting. I was not disappointed.

The book focuses on the amazing adaptability of the brain and the stories of people overcoming serious brain damage, like missing an entire hemisphere, are so inspiring. He talks a lot about current treatment/therapy protocols for various brain injuries and diseases, like stroke and Alzheimer's. The book is very accessible for those of us without a science background. I couldn't put it down and can see myself reading it again sometime. He even did a great job narrating his own book which is a rarity of it's own among author narrators.

Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas
By Stephanie Barron, Read By Kate Reading

Barron writes a mystery series with Jane Austen as the central character. They are all "nice, light reads". I picked this one because I wanted something Christmassy to read Christmas week. Jane, her sister Cassandra and her mother are spending Christmas with her brother and his annoying wife. Fortunately, as soon as they arrive, they are invited to the Vyne by the wealthy Chute family. 

The festivities don't last long when someone ends up dead and it doesn't look like an accident. Told over the 12 days of Christmas, Jane helps solve the crime.

Blacktop Wasteland
By S. A. Cosby, Read By Adam Lazarre-White

This has to be one of the hotttest books of the year to read. I had to wait a few months for it to come available. It's written by a Virginia author and set in Virginia so I was very interested in reading it. It also sounded like it my be a lot like Walter Mosley novels and Mosley is one of my favorite authors.

The story centers on Beauregard "Bug" Montage. He an outstanding mechanic, a husband and father who is devoted to his family. He used to be known as one of the best wheelmen (escape driver) around. Now his business is in financial trouble, his Mom is in financial trouble, his daughter needs tuition and his son needs braces. When an old friend approaches him about an easy jewelry store heist, he decides to participate. That's a great set up for a great story.

I wouldn't advise not reading this book because Bug is a great character. In fact, Cosby's genius is character development, all the characters are interesting and we can easily compare them to people that we have known. Well I could anyway. I knew all these people where I grew up. They are Southern Virginia through and through.

But there were 2 things that kind of annoyed me about the story. First, Bug may be close to poverty but he is not stupid. He's a very smart man and the smart Bug would have NEVER gone on this adventure with this idiot friend and allowed that friend to be in charge. Never, not in a million years. Of course, the whole thing goes south.

The other thing that bothered me was the Virginia setting. I don't understand why the author referred to real towns and cities but then made up county names and got landscapes wrong. For example, at one point the are driving from Richmond to Peaks of Otter. He mentions that they go there via Lynchburg and then talk about ears popping as they drive over the mountain. Had they driven the Blue Ridge Parkway route they would have gone over the mountain but not the Lynchburg route. That route is all east of the mountain. There were lots of weird things like that. It's not really relevant to the story, it's just annoying. Reminded me of some of the ridiculous stage setting and travel in the Crawdad Sings book.

But don't let that dissuade you from reading this if you are looking for a new African-American author to read since that's the hot genre at the moment. Cosby creates great characters and tells a good story. But if you want a better African American writer, check out Walter Mosley. I don't care what his background is, he's hands-down one of my favorite writers ever. 

A Bad Day for Sunshine
By Darynda Jones, Read By  Lorelei King

So, I thought I was getting a mystery/detective novel. What I actually got was a romance novel with a detective candy coating. It's not my schtick but for what it was, it was entertaining enough.

What I've learned since finishing is that Jones is a really popular author and she has a series with the main character Charlie Davidson who sees dead people. She tries to get them to pass on to the other world but sometimes they need her to solve their crimes.....or something like that. The people who love that series were a little let down that this heroine, Sunshine Vicram, is just a normal person.

Sunshine grew up in Del Sol, NM and now she's back as the sheriff. She got the job because her parents got her name on the ballot without her permission. Part of her objective in taking the job is to solve her own unresolved kidnapping and rape case that happened when she was a teen. The result of that event is her precocious 14 year old daughter, Ari. 

If you like real drama in your detective novels this will not be for you. If you like some drama and light romance in your romance novels then this is your next read.

The Queen's Gambit
By Walter Tevis, Read By Amy Landon

This book is an older book, I think it was written in the 1980's. It's been brought back to popularity by the Netflix series based on it. Audible offered it as a daily deal so I decided to give it a try, it has rave reviews.....and I don't get it.

Maybe there are a ton of chess aficionados that like having chess moves read to them. Otherwise, I do not understand the love unless it's just cool to like this book. It reminds me a a mystery series that I tried to get into a few years ago where the main character talked in detail about the meals that he ate. It's all just filler. This book seemed to be half chess moves that I didn't understand, or care about, and half drug addiction and loneliness. All that was told by one of the worst narrators ever. She was breathless and slow. I had to speed up to 1.15 to get through it. I hope the Netflix series is better but I won't be checking it out.

America's First Daughter
By Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, Read By Cassandra Campbell

What a delightful way to end the month and year. I had read one of their other books, My Dear Hamilton, a couple of years ago and loved it. I guess I forgot about these authors until a friend mentioned that she had read this one. These authors write some of the most meticulously researched historical women's fiction that you can find.

This book is based on the life of Martha (Patsy) Jefferson Randolph, the oldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson. It's honestly researched and tells the story of the extended Jefferson family from Martha's point of view. Cassandra Campbell does a beautiful Virginia accent and the authors put you right in the middle of the story. It's a long book (my favorite) and I enjoyed every minutes of it.

How do you shop for books? As with everything else in my life my book selections revolve around lists. I have an Excel spreadsheet of all the books I've listened to (or actually read) and that list goes back to January 1995 and by next month it will have 1600 entries. I believe books > TV. I reference the list a lot to see if I liked a particular author or narrator. The second list is the hold list at my library on Libby and the third list is the Wish List on Audible. When new books come out I peruse the Audible list and put ones that I think I might like on my Wish List. Then I wait a few months to see how the reviews come in if it's a new author. Sometimes I leave them on the Wish List until my library gets the book in and I can put it on hold. It seems like a lot to manage but it actually makes my book selections more streamlined. Because I find it pretty stressful to finish a book and not have another ready to start in Libby or Audible. When that happens I'll sit at the computer for an hour or so putting books on hold in Libby or purchasing in Audible to make sure that I have 5 to 10 books stacked and ready to read.

I know, it seems weird but it's not much different than having multiple projects to work on. Imagine the panic if you woke one morning and didn't have even one project to work on that day. The horrors! That's how I feel about an empty book list. 

All of that to say that I spent a couple of laptop sessions this week to get some books lined up for the next few weeks and now I'm all calm and peaceful again.

​What have you been reading? I had a great month of books. I liked all of them. If I have to pick a least favorite it would be A Good Marriage simply because of the unlikable characters. The best has to be the new Robert Galbraith, Troubled Blood.

Long Range
By C.J. Box, Read by David Chandler

This is #20 in the Joe Pickett series. If they ever switch readers for this series I think I'd have to give them up. Chandler has become Pickett for me.

In this book, the wife of the the local judge is shot by sniper fire. It looks like the judge was the target but the shooter missed. Joe is brought in to help solve the crime. It becomes more urgent when Nate Romanowski becomes the main suspect.
Box is still keeping these books fresh and interesting.

Total Power
By Kyle Mills (Vince Flynn), Read By George Guidall

This is book 19 in the Mitch Rapp series. One of the things I love about Kyle Mills is that he has a real talent for telling stories that could actually happen. This one is about an attack on the US power grid. It's scary how realistic it is. I couldn't put it down.

Say Nothing
By Patrick Radden Keefe, Read By Matthew Blaney

I was a teenager in the 1970's and I remember heard about "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland at that time but it was certainly not anything that we studied in school or payed much attention to.

This book is the story of that time and the key players in the IRA. It's told specifically around the abduction and murder of Jean McConville in 1972. She was a mother of 10 and was accused of being an information for the British military.

It's a fascinating book if you enjoy history. I do think it might be better read in paper than in audio. I found the narrator a little flat.

A Good Marriage
By Kimberly McCreight, Read by a cast

Many years ago when I was still working an co-worker and I were talking about a relatively new neighborhood nearby and I probably said something abut it being a boring suburb. He then proceeded to enlighten me that this particular neighborhood had a very active swingers group. His wife knew someone who participated and apparently there was (as you would expect) some crime that happened. Probably assault by a jealous spouse who couldn't handle what seemed like "fun". The whole thing kind of grossed me out and I think about it every time I drive near that neighborhood.

Well, that's how this book starts out. The characters are parents of students at a private school in Brooklyn. One of the parents has an annual party while the kids are away at camp and it's a "sleepover party". One of the attendees is murdered at her own home on the evening of that party. The husband is a prime suspect.

Every singer character in this book has a stupidly complex life with hidden secrets so anyone could have killed this woman. The husband calls on an old law school flame to be his attorney and she has secrets too! 

If this is what big city private school parents are like then I'm happy to be a country hick. All of these people are awful and are probably raising some really messed up kids. The book moves along at a good pace but the actual detective work is pretty small. Most of the book is about uncovering the secrets. I wanted a shower after I finished it and I'm really happy for my seemingly boring life.

The Masterpiece
By Fiona Davis, Read By Cassandra Campbell

I'm not sure how I found Fiona Davis but if it was one of you, thank you. I really enjoyed this book and I see that she had lots of others available for me to read.

The book centers around Grand Central Station. In the 1920's there was an art school in the station and Clara Darden is one of the instructors. She's not taken seriously because she's an illustrator and sells her work for commercial use. The school closes at the beginning of the Depression and Clara virtually disappears from the art scene.

In the 1970's Virginia Clay is newly divorced, still struggling with her identity after a mastectomy and, gratefully, finds employment in the information booth of GCS. Clara and Virginia's paths cross through Clara's art that Virginia finds in the abandoned art school. 

Nice character development and a perfect light, escapist read when you want a diversion from reality.

No One's Home
By D. M. Pulley, Read By Emily Sutton-Smith

When I'm stumped for a new book I like to go back through my Excel spreadsheet of books and look for authors that I loved and see if they have anything new. Pulley's The Dead Key is still one of my favorite books and I was excited to see a new offering.

Pulley is a master at moving back and forth in time intertwining stories. This book is set in a foreclosed mansion in Cleveland called Rawlingswood. It's in total disrepair when Margot and Myron Spielman decide that fixing up an old mansion won't be any stress on their already fragile marriage. Everyone in town thinks that the mansion is haunted and the Spielman family starts to believe it.

The story of the house is told through the three families who have lived challenging lives within the walls of the once grand mansion.

Monster
By Steve Jackson, Read by Kevin Pierce

If you are into true crime and you haven't read this book yet, put it on your list. It's the story of serial killer Thomas Luther.

I really wasn't sure about this book but I was hooked from the first chapter. It's a very methodical and detailed account of the life and crimes of Thomas Luther. The author must have done a lot of research and got a lot of people to share personal details and information because when you finish this book you know the detective, the victims, the victim's families, Luther's girlfriend, Luther's friends and everyone else remotely involved in this case. I know that sounds tedious but it isn't at all.

The book was originally written in the 90's but was updated in 2013. Jackson is an amazing storyteller and I can't wait to read another of his books.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes
By Jamie Ford, Read By Emily Woo Zeller

Jamie Ford tells wonderfully deep and poignant historical stories. His characters suffer immense hardships and they do it through actual historical places and events. He tells a great story.

In this one, 12 year old Ernest Young is a student at a charity boarding school and has the opportunity to attend the Seattle 1909 World's Fair. What he doesn't know is that he's going to be auctioned off with a raffle.

The winning ticket belongs to a madam at one of Seattle's most famous brothels where he will now live and work. There he befriends Maise (the madam's daughter) and Fahn (a maid). Learn about Seattle's history as their stories are told.

​The narration is fantastic. I couldn't put it down.

The River of Souls
By Robert McCammon, Read By Edoardo Ballerini

According to my Excel spreadsheet, I started reading the Matthew Corbett series in 2017 - 2018. I stopped because this book is less than 10 hours long. But as I was going through my latest round of bookshelf crisis I remembered the series and decided that I wanted to continue with it. This is the 5th book in the series and the only one less than 10 hours. After reading it, I realize that it's somewhat of a prequel to book 6 so it was very much worth the read.

These books are set at the turn of the 18th century and Matthew Corbett is a private investigator and has accepted a commission in Charles Town in Carolina colony. He is to escort a beautiful young woman to a fancy dress ball. Easy. Not so fast. Carolina in 1703 is rugged.

I'm so glad I read this one and I look forward to the next 2 in the series. Edoardo Ballerini is probably my favorite narrator at the moment. 

Troubled Blood
By Robert Galbraith, Read By Robert Glenister

I have been waiting for this book for weeks and was so excited when it became available at the library. This is the 5th book in the Cormoran Strike series. It's long, just as I like it, coming in at about 30 hours. The reason that I love long books is that there so much more character development and several subplots. 

Cormoran Strike is a private detective visiting family in Cornwall when he is asked to help solve the disappearance of Margot Bamborough in 1974. By this point Strike is almost a celebrity for the previous high visibility crimes that he has solved. His business partner is Robin Ellacott and both had some pretty deep relationship baggage that gets carried through the book. There are other investigations going on as well as things in their personal lives but the characters aren't stuck in cliché relationships with each other. They developthroughout the book. I couldn't put it down.

If you are a fan of Harry Potter and love mystery books than you will love this series. JK Rowling, as we all know, is an amazing writer and can create scenes that we feel we can inhabit. Robert Glenister is the perfect narrator because you completely forget that one person is reading all of the dialogue. The books in the series are intertwined, like with Harry Potter, so I highly recommend reading them in order. The first one is The Cockoo's Calling. With all of the books be prepared for some pretty gruesome scenes.

The Dollhouse
By Fiona Davis, Read By Tavia Gilbert

Earlier this month I read The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis and I enjoyed it. She seems to specialize in historical fiction set in New Your City landmarks. This one is centered on the Barbizon Hotel. Look it up on Wikipedia, it has a very interesting history and after 2006 there were still 14 women living there under rent control even though the hotel had converted to condos.

The core of the story is set in 1952 when the hotel was home to single women, mostly either aspiring models or business school students. One of those students is still living at the hotel and that is the basis for the story.

It's interesting but I didn't feel it was as good as The Masterpiece. The plot was kind of weak and the romance element was a little heavy handed for me. I think this was one of her earlier books so I might try one of her newer ones.

I write these reviews as I finish each book so that at the end of the month it's easy to finish off the post. This month I discovered a bunch of new podcasts that I'm listening too. (I will not tell you what they are because several are political in nature.) I only mention it because I thought it was really cutting into my book time. Now that I look over the month I was apparently wrong. 12 books is actually pretty normal for me. Aside from The Weight of Night and When Christ and His Saints Slept, this was a good month. I was a little disappointed with Squeeze Me but I liked everything else.

What are your favorite books from October?​

Squeeze Me
By Carl Hiaasen, Read By Scott Brick

It's been a long time since we have had a new book from Hiaasen so I was really excited to get my ear on this new one. The library hold for this one was months!

For those of you squeamish about snakes like me, I will warn you that the friendly python plays a prominent role in this tale. For those of you who are fatigued by novels blatantly portraying a Trumpian presidential character, you won't enjoy this. In my opinion writers have become incredibly lazy at presidential character development. It wasn't absolutely horrible in this particular book but it's there. I believe that books use that easy path will find that their books don't age well. I'm reminded of Vince Flynn/Kyle Mills who actually create characters so that they aren't too tied to current events. I prefer to escape from current events with my novels.

It's pretty typical Hiaasen but it's far from my favorite. But a bad Hiaasen is better than the best from some other authors! I don't love Scott Brick as the narrator. He's too serious of a reader to be given a humor book. George Wilson was a much better reader for Hiaasen's books.

The Lady of the Rivers
By Philippa Gregory, Read By Bianca Amato

This is a prequel to book I read a few months ago, The White Queen. This one ends exactly where that one starts but reading them out of order is no problem. Each is a full self-contained story. If you like historical fiction I think you will enjoy Gregory's novels.

The story is told by Jaquetta, a descendant of Melusina, the river goddess. As such, she can sometimes have visions of things to come. The story revolves around the court of King Henry VI. Jaquetta is a central figure in the court from her early marriage to the Duke of Bedford, English Regent of France. 

The Weight of Night
By Christine Carbo, Read by RC Bray and Sarah Mollo-Christensen

Oh boy is this book horrible. I did finish it because I was in the middle of some projects and didn't want to stop to book shop and I wanted to see how it ended. I had read 2 other books in the Glacier series. I liked one and didn't like the other. Now I'm officially done with the series.

There's a huge forest fire and a fire crew unearths a shallow grave while clearing a fire break. Meanwhile another child has gone missing. Monty Harris is a park police officer and Gretchen Larsen is the lead CSI. Both of them have bad things in their pasts that we get to hear about each time there's a scene related to the missing child. There's a formula:
Gretchen in the present finding a clue
Gretchen in the past
Monty in the present following clues
Monty in the past
Rinse and repeat 

Gretchen is from Sweden and, given her past, I'm pretty sure she would have never made it through immigration in the real world. So the initial set up bothers me. But the worst part about the book is the female narrator. Sometimes her accent sounds a little Swedish, sometimes Russian, sometimes Mexican and sometimes American. It's a hot mess. She's so bad that I had to look her up. She brags on her resume about her mastery of dialects. Hilarious.

I really like the premise of the main plot and I like how it played out but the forced insertion of each of their past lives made the story annoying. The narrator's voice made it all but intolerable.

Objects of My Affection
By Jill Smolinski, Read By Xe Sands

Lucy Bloom, thanks to her drug addict son's need for rehab, is broke and unemployed and she's determined to start over. She's written a book called Things are Not People, about decluttering. It doesn't sell well but it's enough of a credential to get her a job helping to de-clutter the home of an eccentric painter, Marva Meier Rios.

Marva seems to love ever object that she's acquired during her long life and Lucy has underestimated the challenge of getting her to let go of anything. Meanwhile an ex-boyfriend is back on the scene and her son's rehab isn't going well. It's a coming of age story for every character.

Lots of humor, secrets and tense relationships. I enjoyed it.

When Christ and his Saints Slept
By Sharon Kay Penman, Read By Anne Flosnim

I should love this book. It's historical fiction set around a King of England, two of my favorite things. 

It's the first in the Plantagenet Series and tells the story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

It might be good but the reader made it incredibly boring. I couldn't finish it.

Wolf Pack
By CJ Box, Read By David Chandler

After that last disaster book I needed something reliable so I returned to Joe Pickett. This is #19 in the series. Joe has his job back and he's having some problems with some people new to the area that no one seems to know.

One of the interesting scenes in this book is between the FBI and a ranger in another district. They threaten her with a FD302 where they can allege pretty much anything they want and as long as the 2 agents agree to what's on the form she will have no recourse or defense. I perked up with that because we now know that's exactly what they did in real life to Michael Flynn. It's only been in the last few months that it was revealed that the 302 form was falsified. Interesting!

All that aside it's a fun story and I'm always happy to see Nate Romanowski and his falcons involved. I'll be reading the newest one soon because Audible had it on sale for $6 the day I finished this one.

The Last Agent
By Robert Dugoni, Read By Eduardo Ballerini

I have to say that Robert Dugoni is one of my favorite M&I authors right now and I'm loving this new series. He's most well knows for the Tracey Crosswhite series but this book is the second installment in the Charles Jenkins series.

Jenkins is a former CIA agent and his specialty area is Russia. In this installment he returns to Russia to try to save Paulina Ponomayova. She sacrificed her life in the last book to help him escape Russia. Now he's found out that she's not dead but she's about to undergo interrogation. 

​It's very fast paced and perfectly narrated by one of my favorite readers, Eduardo Ballerini. It's clear at the end of the book that he will be heading back to Russia soon.

The Retreat
By Mark Edwards, Read By Simon Mattacks

I was looking for another Mark Edwards book and discovered this one already in my library. I don't know when I bought it but I had not read it yet. I must have bought it on sale because it's a bit shy of my 10 hour minimum. I'm glad I got it because it was quite an adventure.

Lucas is a horror novelist and arrives at Julia's house for a writer's retreat. Julia's daughter disappeared 2 years ago and her husband drowned trying to find her. She's turned her historic home into a writer's retreat. Julia is convinced that her daughter is still alive. Everyone else thinks she was taken by an apparition that shows up to take children. 

​It's got an Agatha Christie feel to it. I couldn't put it down.

Forty Autumns
By Nina Willner

I've had a lot of trouble getting myself interested in non-fiction lately. I've returned 2 history books to the library because I'm just mentally exhausted with American politics and history. I love both so I know I'll be back to it in a few months. But this book came up and I thought it might be interesting and I was not disappointed!

The author's mother escaped East Germany just before the Communists blocked off that country. She left her family behind to start a new life in West Germany. She married a Holocaust survivor who was serving in the US military. This book was written by her daughter and tells the story of the 40 years that the families were separated. It's a very well told story about an extraordinary family. I was totally captivated by it.

North and South
By Elizabeth Gaskell, Read By Juliet Stevenson

I discovered Gaskell last month in Audible's new free section. She's a Victorian Jane Austen so what's not to love! Supposedly Charles Dickens asked her to write this book.

Our heroine is Margaret Hale. Her father is a minister in beautiful Hampshire but he has to leave his post and the family settles in the fictional northern industrial town of Milton. It's a drastic change for Margaret as she sees first hand the consequences of the industrial revolution. If you like Pride and Prejudice you'll like this and it's perfectly narrated by Juliet Stevenson.

Return to Robinswood
By Jean Grainger, Read By Caroline Lennon

This is the second in the Robinswood series and you really have to read these in order. As a standalone book this would be a bit if a disjointed mess but as a series it carries on the characters from the first book right where they left off. It's another good light-hearted feel-good book. The bad guys aren't so bad and everyone is happy and hopeful in the end. 

The writing is good enough that you can imagine the post-war Irish countryside and the difficulties if living in England during a period of rations. 

The Hunting Party
By Lucy Foley

This was the perfect book to finish on the eve of Halloween. A group of university friends are getting together at a remote Scottish hunting lodge to ring in the New Year. They are all in their 30's and there are undercurrents of tensions and personal angst. They remind me a little of the cast of 30 Something or Mad About You , both shows that I hated for the self-absorbed nature of the characters. I was rewarded this time because one of them ends up murdered. It seems like everyone is a possible suspect. It was a fun read with little clues and mis-directions dropped throughout. 

I can't believe that it's the end of the month already! Time is flying by and I haven't started making Christmas postcards yet.
I'm not sure how I got through 12 books this month. In the evenings I've been taking a free online lecture class and watching my DrBeen medical videos almost every night. Clearly the rest of the time I don't talk to anyone, including my husband. I do admit that I have headphones on all day long. 
​My reading for September was a real mix of things and, frankly, not the best moth of reading ever. I think my favorites were Liar's Girl, Wives and Daughters and Thunderstruck. Lethal Agent was good, it was Mitch Rapp so it had to be good, but the subject matter was a little too current.

​Whatg was your favorite book of the last month?

The Darwin Affair
By Tim Mason, Read By Derek Perkins

This is a Victorian mystery that made me think it could be Charles Dickens writing about Jack The Ripper. It starts with an attempt on Queen Victoria's life that ends with the death of a petty thief. But that's just the beginning of the torturous murders in this book. Along the way you meet Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and other notables of the time. It was OK but it's quite gruesome and I found it hard to keep up with all the characters and story lines.

Force of Nature
By Jane Harper, Read By Stephen Shanahan

This is #2 in the Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk series. I read the first book in this series, The Dry, last month and really enjoyed it. This one was a bit of a letdown.

The basic storyline is good. Five female colleagues go on a corporate outback hiking/camping retreat. There's also a group of male colleagues on a separate hike in the same area. One of the women dies on the trip and everyone has a different story about the trip. 

In the last book Falk was the central character because the crime was in his own family. In this one the detective really could have been anyone. I don't feel his particular character added to the story. There really isn't much detecting because the story unfolds in a series of flashbacks. The hard part of the book was developing any sort of empathy with any of the characters. Two are sisters and one is the sister of the man who runs the company and none of them belong on a multi day hiking and camping trip. 

​I did eventually get into it and finish it but it was a bit of work for a while.

Heroes
By Stephen Fry, Read By Stephen Fry

This is the second in Fry's series on the Greek myths and we chose this for the book to listen to on our vacation drive. The first book was about the Olympian gods. This one tells the stories of the mortal heroes like Perseus, Jason, Atalanta, Theseus and Heracles.

Stephen Fry does the BEST job of telling these stories! If you like the myths you will love his series. We listened to this for part of our car trip from Maine.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
By Mark Twain, Read By Nick Offerman

I don't need to review this book. It's Mark Twain and it's free on Audible! Honestly, I'm not a huge Twain fan but Offerman does a great narration.

​This was our other driving book over vacation.

American Operator
By Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson, Read By Ray Porter

This is #4 in the Tier One series. Ember is America's premier Black Ops unit and this time they are trying to find Amanda Allen. She was the aid to the Ambassador to Turkey. The Ambassador was assassinated and Allen was kidnapped. She also happens to be a CIA operative. Ember is sent to Syria to try to find her.

These are books are tough men and tough women, lots of fighting and big egos. They are a little formulaic but they are fast paced, easy to follow and American usually wins.

The Liar's Girl
By Catherine Ryan Howard, Read by multiple artists

About a month ago Audible introduced a pretty large free library to subscribers. Free was kind of a cool concept so I decided to check it out. I expected it to be a bunch of mediocre or really old books. Instead I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the library and the number of seemingly good books available. This is the first one that I tried and I was not disappointed.

It's set in Dublin and a college student is found dead in the Dublin canal and then there's a second one. The police want the help of Allison Smith to talk to her ex-boyfriend to ask him to help solve the crimes. Allison has been living outside Ireland ever since her boyfriend, Will, was convicted of 5 similar murders while they were in college 10 years ago. Clearly he didn't kill the new girls so did he really kill the first 5?

I found Allison to be a bit too spineless as a character but I did like the book. I finished this one in 2 days because I couldn't put it down.

Wives and Daughters
By Elizabeth Gaskell, Read By Prunella Scales

This is another gem that I found in the free Audible library. I had never heard of Gaskell but she was a popular Victorian writer and her book reminded me very much of Jane Austen. It's not quite as funny as Austen but it's a similar theme.

Molly Gibson is the only daughter of the local doctor and her mother died when Molly was very young. Molly is well loved by the townspeople. Her father decides that Molly needs a mother so me marries a local widow who turns out to be completely self-absorbed and petty. Fortunately Molly does love her new step-sister. It's a good look at what it was like to live and love in Victorian society.

Thunderstruck
By Erik larson, Read By Bob Balaban

I really enjoy Erik Larson books. He has a knack for making historical events read like novels. In this one he tells of the invention of the wireless radio by Guglielmo Marconi and the story of Hawley Crippin, a mild mannered doctor who was convicted of murdering his wife. 

​The two stories overlap when Marconi's device is used for the first time to help solve the Crippin murder. 

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
By Kim Michele Richardson, Read By Katie Schorr

You might remember that in June I read The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. It was about the fascinating story of the depression era packhorse libraries of Appalachia. It was very prolific especially in Kentucky and was a much needed connection to the outside world for the people of the region.

This is another book about a packhorse librarian (except that she uses a mule).  Cussy Mary Carter is the daughter of a coal miner and they live a hard hand-to-mouth existence. Cussy's life is complicated by the fact that she's a "blue". Her skin is blue and she is the last known blue. Cussie is based on the real blue people of the Appalachia. Most were members of the Fugate family and had a unique genetic trait (shared by some groups in Alaska). It's called Methemoglobinemia and you can read about it here and see photos on the Fugate family.

It's a good book about hardscrabble living and the hopes and dreams of a young, blue girl who is blamed for much of the bad around the area. It wasn't as good as Giver of Stars but I still enjoyed it.

The Fall of Carthage
By Adrian Goldsworthy, Read By Derek Perkins

I love history and I should love this book. The Punic Wars led to the rise of Rome so it's an important series of events but there's way too much battle detail (battle-massacre-enslavement, rinse and repeat) to hold my interest. I may come back to it in bits to finish it off.

Waking Nightmare
By Kylie Brant, Read By Bronson Pinchot

Before I talk about the book I want to talk about the narration first. I generally love Pinchot as a narrator but he really ruined the voice of Abbie, one of the 2 main characters. She's supposed to be tough, brilliant and unapproachable. Instead she comes off as slow, soft spoken and demure. But, in the end, it doesn't matter because this book is it's own nightmare.

It's really a romance novel disguised as a detective story. The characters are all stereotypes and not particularly well developed. The 2 main characters supposedly show up with deep personal demons that they have been dealing with for years. Poof! Exposed and resolved in 2 days of great sex! Long term relationship in 4 days? Sure! Let's get this case wrapped up. Oh look, no surprise, the culprit was right in from of us the whole time. 
Yes, I did listen to the whole thing because I figured out everything in the first hour and wanted to see if I was right. I did skip a lot to get to the end though.

Lethal Agent
By Kyle Mills (for Vince Flynn), Read By George Guidall

This is the 18th book in the Mitch Rapp series and I needed reliable Mitch after the previous 2 dud books. I do love Kyle Mills writing Mitch now. The books are all full of intrigue and action.

Because it was Mitch Rapp I didn't even read the summary. Had I, I might have postponed this one for a while. Why? Because someone is producing a bat virus to unleash on the US! It's not the Chinese. In the series we are still focused on the Islamic terrorists and it is they who are producing the virus and hoping to transmit it with the help of Mexican drug smugglers.

It's a good book but you might not find this subject matter to be the escape from reality that you are looking for.

Another month of books is "in the books" so to speak. All in all this was a pretty good month! I really enjoyed the Jane Harper books and have another on my library wish list. I also enjoyed Westering Women and If You Want to Make God Laugh. Those are my favorite fiction books. I also really enjoyed both of the non-fiction books this month.

What have you been reading? I get some great recommendations from you. In fact, Westering Women was one of them.

The Dry
By Jane Harper, Read By Steve Shanahan

Sometimes when I finish a book and don't have anything ready from the library I'll go through Libby and look through what's available. I have to scroll through a lot of James Patterson, Lee Child and David Baldacci but eventually I find something new. That's how I found this book and the next one. I didn't realize until I started listening to the next book that I had picked 2 books from the same author! Good thing I liked both of them.

The Dry is the 1st book in a series based on federal agent Aaron Falk. I didn't even know that it was a series until I started writing this review and downloaded the image from Audible.

Twenty years ago Falk was accused of murder and his friend, Luke, provided the alibi. Now Luke is dead and Falk is summoned to return home. Falk reluctantly agrees to help investigate what happened to Luke but while here's there the old murder suspicions surface.

The Lost Man
By Jane Harper, Read By Steve Shanahan

This one is not part of the Aaron Falk series. It's a stand-alone novel.

Two brothers are on family land standing over the body of their dead brother, Cam, the middle child. Cam has been in charge of the homestead since their father's death. Cam knows how to be prepared for the hot and dry climate of the Australian outback. How could he have gotten here without supplies?

This isn't so much of a mystery as a book about the complexities of family relationships, especially when abuse is involved. I wouldn't say that it ended as a happy book but the characters got some resolution and growth so I'd say that it ended on a hopeful note. 

​Loved the Aussie narrator for both books!

A Long Petal of the Sea
By Isabel Allende, Read by Eduardo Ballerini

In the late 1930's General Franco overthrew the Spanish government and brought in his Fascist regime. Many people were forced to flee. This is the fictional story of Roser and Victor who first fled to France and then on to Chili. The book tells the stories of their lives until their deaths many decades later.

I should have loved this book. It's historical fiction and the story of a long life among many generations. But in the end, I just didn't. I finished it but only because I forced myself to. I just could not connect with these characters. They were like cardboard characters moving through a diorama.

The book has rave reviews on Audible so it's really possible that I don't know what I'm talking about and you might love it.

Light It Up
By Nick Petrie, Read By Stephen Mendel

This is the 3rd book in the Peter Ash series that I started last month. My library seems to have them available quickly and I think it's because once people start listening they can't stop.

Peter Ash is a good guy who is badly damaged from his experiences in Iraq. As this book opens he is rebuilding hiking trails on Oregon when he friend as him to help with a job for his daughter. The daughter runs a security firm that supports the marijuana business. He asks Peter to help on a cash run when they are ambushed and his friend ends up dead.

​Another good one!

Tidelands
By Philippa Gregory, Read By Louise Brealey

This is the first in The Fairmile series and is set in the mid-1600's during England's Civil War. It's not a war story, it's more of a family saga story centering around Alinor  and her two children. She's been abandoned by her husband and lives a day-to-day existence selling herbs, oils and as a midwife. One day meets James, a young man sneaking into the area . She helps him and things change drastically for her family.

​I've not read one of Philippa Gregory's novels before. It reminded me a lot of John Jakes novels. It was a little dark and sad at times but I couldn't put it down so it must have been good! 

Being Mortal
By Atul Gawande, Read By Robert Petkoff

Atul Gawande is a physician and through this book he explores the ways that medicine, families and individuals handle end of life choices. One of the examples that he uses in the book is his own father's illness and end of life choices.

It is not a depressing book but it is an important book. We spend a lot of time thinking about what we are going to wear every day but we spend very little time thinking about how we want to die. It's guaranteed that we are going to die and this book is a guide to help understand options and to give people the confidence to make their own decisions. 

The Last Widow
By Karin Slaughter, Read By Kathleen Earley

This is #9 in the Will Trent series and if I had taken 1 minute to check my book review spreadsheet I would have avoided this hackneyed storyline.

Will and Sara are still in some sort of weird relationship state more typical of teenagers, Will's boss still treats him more like a mother than a boss and Will is still emotionally damaged but somehow the three of them are able to solve a major crime.

The plot is trite and tired. Inspired by the Charlottesville riots, the story features a white supremacist sect determined to "fix" America. We've done enough Timothy McVey-inspired fiction. It's time to do something a tad bit more creative. 

Westering Women
By Sandra Dallas, read By Angela Dawe

Well, if you need a book to make you grateful that you life in modern times, this is it! Ste in 1952 44 women set off on the Overland Trail with the promise of finding husbands in Goosetown, CA. The book is about the harrowing journey, the friendships and the secrets that are uncovered on the journey. 
​Another blogger recommended this book and I'm glad I gave it a try. 

The First Conspiracy
By Brad Meltzer, Read By Scott Brick

I haven't read a Brad Meltzer book in about 10 years but this one popped up in the library and seemed interesting. I'm glad I found it!

It's all about a treasonous plot to kill George Washington during the Revolutionary War. It's got everything that a good spy novel would have except that it's not a novel.

People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks, Read By Edwina Wren

This is the second book that I've read from Geraldine Brooks. The main character is Hannah Heath, an Australian rare books expert. The Australian part is important because the narrator works very hard to get the Australian (and all other accents) almost to the point of distraction. I've never listened to a book where I felt the narrator worked sooooooo hard!

Anyway, Hannah is asked to conserve the Sarajevo Haggadah which was recently rescued from the Bosnian War (1996). Hannah discovers little fragments of things in the book (insect wing, salt, stains, hair) and that is the basis for telling the history of the book. There's lots of back and forth in time and LOTS of characters. 

I think, all in all, it's a good story but it was a lot of work to keep up and Hannah and her mother have a ton of baggage that I'm not sure was necessary.

The White Queen
By Philippa Gregory, Read By Susan Lyons

This is the first in the Plantagenet and Tudor series and tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to King Edward IV. The time period is during the War of the Roses.

Gregory's work is extremely well researched and she's clear in the interview at the end where she took literary license. She ahd lots of opportunity because the life of Elizabeth isn't well documents and there's no information in what happened to their two sons (heirs to the throne). It was a fun read although at the end Elizabeth's laments got a little tedious. But I felt that the ending was certainly plausible and it sets up well for The White Princess. #5 in the series. Books 2, 3 and 4 are about her mother and other contemporaries. Book 5 is about her daughter.

If You Want To make God Laugh
By Bianca Marais, Read By Bianca Amato, Bhani Turpin and Katherine McEwan

17 year old Zodwa live in poverty on South Africa.She is raped and becomes pregnant.
Across town, two sisters, Ruth and Delilah,  are reunited at the homestead after years of being estranged. Zodwa's grandmother used to work for Ruth and Delilah's parents. 

After the baby is born, Zodwa's grandmother steals the baby and drops it at the home of Ruth and Delilah thinking that the baby will have a better chance at life. Two days later the grandmother is dead and Zodwa thinks she will never see her baby again.

First, there is nothing in the book to make God laugh so I have no idea where the title came from. But it's a good story about life's decisions, circumstances and consequences. All of the characters deal with conflict, despair, forgiveness and hope.

​It was a good book to end the month on.

Wow, I finished 14 books this month! Can you tell that I've turned off the news? Most of the books this month came from the library so the reading order is just a function of availability. As always there's good and not-so-good. The Allen Eskins books and the Nick Petrie books were really nice surprises. I was also happy to read more from Andrea Penrose and Candace Fox. I'll pass on any more Spencer-Flemming books and I expect that I'll keep reading JoJo Moyes. There are 2 non-fiction books that are for very specific audiences.

What have you read this month? I'm digging deep into the library audio archives for new books to read so I can use all the suggestions that I can get.
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The Heavens May Fall
By Allen Eskins, Read By David Colacci, Any McFadden and RC Bray

Those of you who have read this book will know that it falls under my 10 hours minimum (9.5 hours) but I was able to get it free from the library so I decided to get it on your recommendation.

Detective Max Rupert is still dealing with the unsolved murder of his wife four years and it affects how he does his job. This story opens as the wife of a prominent attorney is found murdered in her home. The husband is the first and only suspect but he has an alibi. The husband hires Brody Sanden, a friend of Rupert's, as his attorney. From there the story keeps you guessing until the very end. 

I think that Rupert might be a series but it's not listed on Audible as a series. Eskins writes a good mystery and I'll read more.

The Ship of Brides
By JoJo Moyes, Read By Nicolette McKenzie

I read Moyes' The Giver of Stars last month about the Depression Era packhorse libraries of Kentucky. I enjoyed it so much that I couldn't wait to fond another of her books to read. Some of her books are straight up romance books but some are historical fiction. I prefer historical fiction and that's what this one is.

During WWII a lot of military men stationed away from home married women in the countries where they were stationed. After the war it required a lot of effort to get tens of thousands of women transported to their new homes around the world. This book tells the story of one of the "war bride ships". The HMS Victorious was tasked with bringing several hundred brides from Australia to Portsmouth, England. This book is the fictional story of that journey. It's researched well enough and we all know enough about human behavior in stressful situations to know that this story rings true.

I became very attached to the brides and couldn't pt this one down....to the point that I ignored my Mom and husband for part of the 4th of July afternoon.

Caleb's Crossing
By Geraldine Brooks, Ready By Jennifer Ehle (the one and true Elizabeth Bennett)

This is a historical fiction book that tells the story of the first Native American to attend Harvard, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck. Caleb and his classmate Joel Hiacoomes are real and were the first Native American to attend Harvard.

The story is told more as a the life story of Bethia, the daughter of a Puritan minister on Martha's Vineyard. Bethia meets Caleb as a a young girl and they strike up a friendship. They teach each other their languages. As a girl in 1600's New England, she was not allowed an education but she was clearly smarter than her brother.

This book isn't really about Caleb "crossing" into the white world. It's about Bethia and what it was like being a woman in that time period. It's really well researched and it's pretty interesting but it's also kind of awkward and a little slow. About 2/3 through we're suddenly with Bethia on her death bed and all that happens is that she continues telling the story but now in past tense. I don't know the purpose of that. 

Part of the slowness can be attributed to the narration. "Elizabeth Bennett", it turns out, isn't a great narrator. I sped it up a bit and that helped.

I liked the information in the book but it's not my favorite historical fiction book. But it's still worth a read I think.

The Guise of Another
By Allen Eskens, Read By Jonathan Yen

I read my first Allen Eskins book a few weeks ago and like it enough to look for another. This one is actually the first in the Max Rupert series. Max actually plays a small role in this book. This one focuses on his brother, Alexander. 

Alexander is a war hero and Minnesota police detective. He's under investigation for corruption. When a new case comes his way he jumps on the opportunity to improve his reputation.

The case is about a car accident victim who seems to have a false identity and someone has been looking for this man for years. 

Lots of twists and turns and a good read. 

In the Bleak Midwinter
By Julia Spencer-Fleming, Read By Suzanne Toren

This is the first in a series set in upstate NY and featuring Episcopal Priest Clare Fergussen and local Detective Russ Van Alstyne. This book is almost 20 years old but the story holds up well. The biggest sign of it's age is that no one has cell phones. They actually look up number in a phone book!

Clare is new to the area and one day a baby is left on the steps of the church. She finds it and delivers the baby to the hospital. There's a search for the baby's mother that, of course, leads to a lot of surprises and murder. 

If you are triggered by anything religious then you want to avoid this book. I didn't find it very religious but there are church scenes and a prayer or two. It's a pretty good story and it held my interest. The sexual tension between Clare and Russ is awkward. It will be interesting to see how that develops in future books. It's set in winter and there were actually times that I felt cold. That's a miracle in July in Virginia....or I have a covid fever. (I don't.)

Burning Bright
By Nick Petrie, Read By Stephen Mendel

I don't know who recommended this book to me but I thank you! This is actually the second book in a series featuring Peter Ash. Ash is a war veteran with PTSD. He can't go into buildings or sleep in enclosed places. He mostly camps and that's how he meets June. June's mother was killed recently and now people are after June to get access to the program that her mother was developing. Ash's friend, Louis, joins in to help.
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It was a fun read and I really liked the characters.

Hidden Valley Road
By Robert Kolker, Read By Sean Pratt

Get down on your knees right now and thank whatever deity you pray to that you were not a member of this family. Their story is devastating.

HVR is about Don and Mimi Galvin and their 12 children, 6 of whom developed schizophrenia. It is incredibly interesting but also very heavy. 

The Galvin children were born between 1945 and 1965. The two youngest are girls and the other 10 are all boys. Six of those boys developed schizophrenia by the mid-70's. Very little was knows about the disease and the treatments were rudimentary, at best so their suffering (individually and as a family) was horrible. But this family provided a unique was to research if there was an identifiable genetic marker for the disease. 

The story is told very compassionately. No one is made out to be a villain. It's just the story of this family and the story of research and treatment of the disease. It was really interesting but also very heavy, so be prepared if you decide to read it. If you have a family member or friend with schizophrenia you can be very grateful to this family and the contributions that they were able to make to the science.

What Once Was True
By Jean Grainger, Read By Caroline Lennon

This is the first in The Robinswood Series. Robinswood is an estate in Waterford Ireland and the book opens in 1939. Lord and Lady Kenefick's fortunes are declining and keeping up the big estate is getting harder by the day. Dermont Murphy and his family live and work on the estate and do their best to keep things in running order.

War is looming and the old, reliable, social structure may be breaking down. 

I enjoyed the character and the story. It had a little bit of everything: family drama, romance and mystery. 

Murder at Kensington Palace
By Andrea Penrose, Read by James Cameron Stewart

This is the 3rd book in the Wresford and Sloane mystery series set in Georgian England, a time where there was a lot of interest in scientific research.

Charlotte Sloane's cousin is murdered and his brother is charged with the crime. Charlotte will have to reveal her true identity so that she and Wrexford can find the real killer.

This is a fun series. With each book new characters are introduced and each book has an underlying story that is true to the time. In this one people are experimenting with the Voltaic Pile (the first battery) and with the prospect of bring the dead back to life with electricity following on with the work of Luigi Galvini. 

Gone By Midnight
By Candice Fox, Read By Euan Morton

This is the 3rd book in the Crimson Lake series. 4 boys are left to play in a hotel room to play while their parents have dinner. During one of the hourly checks it's discovered that one of the boys is missing. The mother wants Ted Conkaffee and Amanda Pharrell to help with the search and investigation. 

​Another fun read in this series.

The Housemaid's Daughter
By Barbara Mutch, Read By Bahni Turpin and Cat Gould

I selected this book because of the comparisons to The Help. This book is NOT even close to The Help. I really don't get the love for this book. It reads like a series of diary entries. Part of it is diary entries but the parts that aren't still read that way. The whole thing is flat and it's impossible to develop any empathy for the characters. In The Help you wanted to KNOW those characters;not in this book.

Ada is born the daughter of a housemaid in South Africa. Catherine, the mistress of the house, seems to have taken much more interest in raising Ada than her own two children. She teaches Ada to read and to play piano. The book is the story of Ada's life told in a series of short chapters that fall as flat as diary entries. Ada, who is very well read, is portrayed as naive right up until the time of her death. "What does this word "beneficiary" mean?" There's a lot of that throughout the book. It's ridiculous.

I finished the book because I could listen to Bahni Turpin read the phone book but I don't really recommend it.

A Fountain Filled With Blood
By Julia Spencer-Flemming
Read By Suzanne Toran

This is the second in the Rev Clare Fergussen and police chief Russ Van Alstyne series.  I read the first one earlier this month and gave it a hopeful review. I hit a dry spot in book availability this week (every book on hold but none available). I found that this one was available a decided to give it a try.

The series is set in update NY. Both characters are ex-military which give then some unexpected talents and hangups to make the plot more interesting. The good Reverend likes to spend more time solving crimes and being a social justice activist than she does ministering to her congregation. She only prays when she's in trouble, like most of the rest of us. She's also got a serious crush on the married police chief.

The police chief, meanwhile, has a crush on the Reverend (about 20 years younger of course) but he's married. It's hard to accept that he's married because in 2 books his wife has never made an appearance.  In fact, he seems to purposely leave home every time his wife is there. The relationship between the two is incredibly annoying. By now they would have either started having an affair or he would have left his wife because it's clear that he doesn't love her because he's never home!

There are murders that seem to be hate crimes (against gay men) but they may also have something to do with a resort development that isn't going well. Clare does a whole bunch of really stupid stuff (that no trained military helicopter pilot would ever do) and eventually she and Russ bungle their way into solving the crimes. You could tell from the first chapter who was behind it all.

The worst part is the narrator. Clare is from southern Virginia and I know the accent there very well as it's my own. Toran gives her a Southern Georgia plantation accent as if she just stepped out of Gone With the Wind. It bothered me a little in the first book but it really grated on me in this one because it really doesn't fit the personality and dialogue of the character. I won't read any more books in this series.

The Drifter
By Nick Petrie, Read By Stephen Mendel

This is the first book in the Peter Ash series. I reviewed the #2 book, Burning Bright, above. I had put this one on hold at the library and it became available pretty quickly. I'm glad because it was refreshing after the last 2 books. 

This is the book that introduces Peter Ash, a war veteran who is dealing with PTSD. His PTSD manifests itself as claustrophobia. He sleeps outside and avoids all inside spaces. He's come to Wisconsin to help the widow of one of his Marine friends. While working on her porch he finds a Samsonite suitcase stuffed with cash and explosives...
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I finished this one in less than 24 hours. I'm putting #3 on hold right away.

Conquering the Electron
By Derek Cheung and Eric Brach
Read by Eric Jason Martin

I felt it was time I dove back into some non-fiction so I ended the months with this book. If you like human scientific history then this is the book for you! It is a VERY detailed history of the electronics age. It's interesting but reading this is like taking a college course. Lots and lots of information. It even included the development of the Voltaic Pile that I learned about in the Penrose book above. The narration could have been better but I sped it up to 1.15 and that helped a lot.

2020 has a lot of bad karma, primarily as the Year of Covid. But, for me, it's also the Year of Books and that's a really good thing. I'm running through books at a really fast pace. Books are the perfect escape from everything that's going on now. Chris and I go days without turning on the TV. In the evenings we like to just sit and read (and crochet or quilt). 

Before I get into the books I read this month I'll quickly tell you about two books that I couldn't be bothered to finish:

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds: This should have been right up my alley but this author could not have made it more boring and his narration made it even worse.

The Real Watergate Scandal: Watergate was the first political event that I remember being engaged with as a young person. I thought it would be interested to revisit it 40+ years later from another perspective. I think he has some good information and points but the presentation is painfully rambling.

What have you read (that you liked) this month? I need a continual supply of recommendations!

Red River
By Lalita Tademy, Read By Bahni Turpin

Tademy is a brilliant writer and storyteller. Her books are fiction but they are based on her own ancestry and the intense genealogy she has done on her family. I read her first book, Citizen Creek, a few years ago and absolutely loved it.

This one tells the story of the post- Civil War reconstruction in Louisiana and starts with the Colfax Riot of Easter Sunday in 1873. The book tells the story of the Tademy's and Smith's as they try to build better lives for themselves and their families in the generations to follow. 

Bahni Turpin could narrate a biology textbook and I'd listen to it.

My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry
By Fredrik Backman, Read By Juan Walker

I'll admit that I only got this book because it was free from the library and I wanted to see if I'd like it better than A Man Called Ove. 

I didn't.

I think that Backman struggles with making his lead character consistently true to their age. Ove was only 57 but if you didn't know that you would swear that he was 85. In this book the main character, Elsa, is 7. Sometimes she behaves like a 4 years old and other times she's allowed the independence of a teenager. If you liked Ove, you will love this because I think it's better. But, for me, it was still tedious and plodding.

Rare Objects
By Kathleen Tessaro, Read By Susan Bennett

I read another of Tessaro's book in January, The Perfume Collector, and I loved it.

Rare Objects is set in depressio-era Boston. Maeve Fanning is a poor 1st generation Irish immigrant. She's a bit on the wild side and loves fast men and lots of gin. She ends up in a psychiatric hospital after having an abortion. There she meets Diana van der Laar. She doesn't realize who Diana is until a few years later, while working in a antique store, she delivers some items to the van der Laar family. She and Diana re-connect and Maeve becomes entwined with the family and Diana's handsome brother.

It was a good read, although most of the characters are quite unlikable for most of the book. But they do grow and develop....mostly.

Fair Warning
By Michael Connelly, Read By Peter Giles and Zach Villa

First off, I want to mention that Zach Villa narrates the part of the villain and he sounds a lot like Jon Hamm - he was hard to hate.

This is the third in a series focused on a reporter named Jack McEvoy. The first 2 books were published several years ago (1996 and 2009) so maybe as the Bosch novels fade he's focusing more on this storyline and the Mickey Haller books. If so, I'm cool with that. Bosch is getting a little stale.

In this one McEvoy is now working with in digital media at a website, FairWarning (which happens to be real), writing about consumer protection topics. One day he is stopped by police to be questioned over the death of a woman that he met at a bar a year ago. He hasn't seen her since. But as he's drawn into the case he discovers other similar murders and a link to a DNA processing website. 

I enjoyed it and it was a refreshing break from Bosch. I think it's very current in the way it brings up risks with DNA processing sites just as those sites have been selling massive DNA databases to commercial companies and government entities.

The Book of Longings
By Sue Monk Kidd, Read By Mozhan Marno

The Secret Life of Bees is one of my all-time favorite books but I haven't red any more of Kidd's books since the huge disappointment of The Mermaid's Chair. Some authors only have one good book in them and that's what I felt about Kidd.

Recently I've been seeing this book on a lot of recommended lists so I decided to give it a try and I'm glad I did. 

In this book Kidd imagines that Jesus had a wife. Her name is Ana and she is raised with wealth as the daughter of the head scribe to the ruler of Galilee. Judas is her adopted brother. Her father allows her to learn to read and write and she begins to document the lives of important women. Her ambition and knowledge, however, is her downfall when she is betrothed to an older widower at the age of 14. It's during this time that she first meets Jesus. She marries him and settles with him and his family in Nazareth. With Jesus finding his faith and following John the Baptist their lives grow more complex and tumultuous. 

First, as a book, it's really compelling story with well-developed characters and perfect narration. I did find Ana with a few too many of our modern feminist traits but it wasn't "in your face" and every culture and society does have it's outliers. The hang up for many people will be the proposal that Jesus was married. The Bible doesn't say he was or wasn't but it's assumed that he wasn't. Kidd is simply imagining that he might have been. If it's something you think you would have problems with I'd suggest listening to her afterward first where she explains the genesis of the book. I think the whole story was very respectfully done.

​I'll say this. It was a nice escape from the craziness that's going on outside right now.

The Last Trial
By Scott Turow, Read By John Bedford Lloyd

I haven't read a Turow book in a bout 20 years. It was book 3 in the Kindle County series and featured the attorney Sandy Stern. This one is book 11 and it's Sandy's last trial before he retires.He's 85 and his last case will be the defense of his friend, Kiril Pafko. Pafko is a Nobel Prize winner and accused of fraud, insider trading and murder (from side effect of his new cancer drug). 

I haven't spent any time in courtrooms but I do expect that the tedious courtroom scenes in this book are true to form. The whole book is kind of pointless. There's not much personal conflict, no romance, no real character development or revelations. the whole thing wraps up making me believe that justice is completely pointless.

The Giver of Stars
By Jojo Moyes, Read by Julia Whalen

It was fun to be listening to this book while we were hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains, in the Southern region of the Appalachian Mountains. The book tells a story of the real packhorse libraries of Kentucky

Mythos
By Stephen Fry, Read By Stephen Fry

In this case the author narrating the book was perfect! Of course, he's an actor so he would make a great narrator.

I love the Greek myths and Fry's telling of them is the best presentation I've read so far. For some reason I was able to (finally) follow the stories and Gods from Chaos to the Premordials to the Titans and then the Olympians. He's a great storyteller and I look forward to reading Heroes, the second book that covers the Olympians and the mortal heroes. If you like the Greek myths you will enjoy this book. If you think you might want to learn about the Greek myths this is a great place to start.

Washington Black
By Esi Edugyan, Read By Dion Graham

This is the fictional story of George Washington Black (Wash). Wash was born a slave on a sugar plantation in Barbados. We meet him at the age of 10 when he is put in the path of the brother of the plantation manager, Christopher Wilde (Titch). The timeframe is 1840's - 1850's and it's not about American slavery. Titch takes Wash to be his manservant and assistant in building a hot air balloon. Titch teaches Wash to read and write and discovers that he has great artistic talent and capacity for learning.

Wash's life goes from Barbados to Virginia to the Artic to Nova Scotia to London to Morocco. It ends in an African dessert where he is reunited with his benefactor. 

While I love Din Graham I felt htat his voice was too mature and deep for a 10 year old boy growing into a young man. There were many times during the book that I had to remind myself of Wash's age because the narration made me think he was a mature man.

I'm not quite sure what to say about this book. It has universal rave reviews and I was really into it for the first half but I started losing interest near the end. His story, to me, was told as a series of stops on a train and in the end I was just in a hurry to get to the end.