December was a stellar reading month and ended the year on a very positive note. As I end the month I'm in the middle of a long  book that is also wonderful. It will be my first review of the new year.

​As I look through the 6 books that I read this month, there are no duds! I really can't even pick a favorite.

I read 84 books in 2024. That's down from previous years due to my diversions in Youtube and Podcasts but I'm quite happy with 84. I decided to look over my list and identify my favorites.
The book that really stuck with me the most was The Women by Kristen Hannah. It is a perfect historical fiction book that tells the story of the women who served in Vietnam. 

In no particular order, these are the other books that I rated the highest for 2024:

The Wedding People by Allison Espatch
Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
Vanished Arizona by Martha Summerhayes (paperback)
Listen For the Lie by Amy Tintera
A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales
The Friar and the Cipher by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (hardback)
The Falcon Thief by Joshua Hammer
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
Starter Villian by John Scalizi
West With Giraffes by  Lynda Rutledge
The Mysterious Case of Rudplf Diesel by Douglas Brunt
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr

This is a list of books by my favorite mystery authors:
Spirit Crossing by William Kent Krueger (part of the Cork O'Connor Series)
Resurrection Walk by  Michael Connelly (Mickey Haller series)
Three-Inch Teeth by C.J. Box (Joe Pickett series)
The Price You Pay by Nick Petrie (Peter Ash series)
Last Words by Michael Koryta
A Place To Bury Strangers by Mark Dawson

What have you read lately that you would recommend and what was your favorite book of 2024?

The Wedding People
By Alison Espach, Read By Helen laser

TLDR: Clever and funny story about very human events.

Phoebe Stone's life has fallen apart. She is unable to get pregnant, her husband left her for a woman with a baby and she can't finish the book she'd been writing for years. She's ready to give up and travels to a resort hotel in Rhode Island to kill herself. Except that she's the only guest at the hotel who isn't there for a 6-day luxury wedding celebration. In the elevator she tells the bride the purpose of her trip and the bride is determined not to let this crazy woman ruin her wedding.

It deals with some very serious subjects but in a funny, sad, thoughtful and heartwarming way. It's not sappy at all. I loved that the ending was more of a beginning for many of the characters. I really enjoyed this one.

We Begin at the End
By Chris Whitaker, Read By George Newbern

TLDR: A really good story about finding family through tragedy. Told a little disjointed but worth it.

Duchess Radley is the protector for ner little brother. She has a very unstable life with a mother, Star, who can barely care for herself. 

Star grew up with Walk, now the sheriff and Vincent. Vincent is about to get out of jail after 30 years and there's going to be some trouble when he returns to town. It's a book about finding family. 

I read his book, All the Colors of the Dark, in August and enjoyed it too. I think his stories are really fresh but the telling can be a bit disjointed. I almost gave up on this one because I had trouble keeping track of the characters but I'm glad I stuck with it.

The God of the Woods
By Liz Moore, Read By Saskia Maarlevard

TLDR: Imagine your summer camp's horror stories were real. Good story with a few too many characters.

This book is on a LOT of "best of" lists for 2024. It is set in 1961 and 1975 at a camp in the Adirondacks in Upstate New York. Camp Emerson is owned by the very wealthy, and unlikable, Van Laar family. 

In 1961, the prodigal son, Bear, disappeared from camp and he's never been found. The investigation was run by the family and closed quickly. A person was identified as the culprit and sent to prison but the boy's body was never found. 

Fourteen years later, Barbara, Bear's sister asks to attend the summer camp. Every night she disappears from her cabin. Her cabin-mate thinks she is meeting up with a boy since everyone knows that she is seeing a town boy. The camp counselors don't know she's leaving every night. One night she doesn't return and the counselors find an empty bed in the morning. This time the investigation is run by local detectives.

There are layers and layers of mystery in this book. The plot and the ending are creative and interesting. My two complaints are that there are too many characters and the time changes (1961 to 1975 and back) aren't easily transitioned in the audio version. The first couple of hours brought me a lot of confusion but I'm glad I stuck with it. 

This Motherless Land
By Nikki May
Read By Weruche Opia and Florence Howard

TLDR: A wonderful and creative retelling of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.

Funke has a very happy life in Nigeria. Her mother is an art teacher and her father is a professor and she has a younger brother. Her mother is English and her father is Nigerian and they've made a very happy life together. But when her mother dies in an accident she is sent to England to live with her maternal Aunt. She's never been there and only knows it through her mother's stories.

In England she finds an unreceptive Aunt but a loving cousin, Liv. Liv takes on the role of protector for her little cousin and they grow into young adults as the best of friends. Then a second tragedy happens and their friendship is damaged forever. Funke moves back to Nigeria to try to rebuild her life but both women miss the connection that they had.

While it does deal with race a little, it's mostly about friendship, family and betrayal. The characters are rich and the narration is outstanding.

The Book on the Bookshelf
By Henry Petroski

TLDR: Nerdiest book ever about the storage and display of books.

I picked up this book at a thrift store and it's been my bedtime reading for a few weeks. If you are into books and libraries you will have a total geekfest reading this book.

It started with the development of the written word on papyrus and how rolls were stored. Once books were bound they were exceedingly valuable and chained to tables with iron chains. There are illustrations throughout the book that help to visualize what's being described.

The book also covers the design of libraries from the time of no artificial light  to today, when libraries struggle with too many books for the space available. It's a total geekfest that will likely bore most people but I thought it was a very interesting read.

City of Flickering Light
By Juliette Fay, Read By Lisa Flanagan

TLDR: A nice historical fiction about the silent film industry

This book was from the free Audible library and was a nice book to read during the holidays. It's set in 1921 during the birth of Hollywood when they started making the "flickers". Irene Van Beck, Millie Martin and Henry Weiss leave the seedy Burlesque industry to head to Hollywood to try to make it in the new silent film industry.

They are young people searching for fame, fortune, love and family. The characters are very likable and while it portrays the challenges and dark sides of Hollywood, it does it in a gentle way. It is based on some real people and seems to be very well researched in the portrayal of Hollywood of the time. I enjoyed it and got attached to the characters.

Well, this is a first! I only finished 3 books this month. There are 2 main reasons. First, I wasted a week trying to force myself to finish Martyr!  Then I spent a week being a political junkie. I like politics as a spectator sport so I tend to spent a lot of time watching how all sides react after an election and this year provided much entertainment for me. I don't let politics affect me emotionally so I can watch it in the same way I watched the Dallas Giants game Thursday.....except that the game was pretty bad.

Anyway, that's my excuse for only finishing 3 books. But all three books are ones that I'd recommend. I especially enjoyed Hester. 

What good books have you read? I'm expecting December to be a better book month. I'll have a lot of free time for listening as I work on all the projects I want finished by the end of the year.

DNF
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar - I wasn't sure I'd like this but it was on a LOT of recommended reading lists. It was like wandering around with an alcoholic looking for the meaning of life. I couldn't take it.

I Hope You Find Tins Well
By Natalie Sue, Read By Nasim Pedrad

TLDR: Everyone in the office is hiding something.

Jolene is the quiet and antisocial person in the office and she knows that everyone hates her. She can barely get through a day with memories from her past always haunting her. One day IT makes a mistake working on her computer and she now has access to everyone's email boxes and phone logs. She knows that layoffs are coming and she thinks this access may help to save her job.

Overall, it's a good story. It's not as comedic as the publisher's summary proposes but it's a good story to remind you that everyone is carrying around some sort of baggage. I'm glad I've been away from the office environment for a while!

Next Year in Havana
By Chanel Cleeton, Read By Kyla Garcia and Frankie Maria Corzo

TLDR: Good chick lit with a little Cuba history lesson.
​
This is book #1 in the Cuba series. 

Marisol's beloved grandmother has died and her grandmother left instructions for Marisol to take her ashes back to Cuba for burial. Marisol  makes the trip and learns the whole story about her grandmother's family;s escape from Cuba in 1958. 

The story is told between Elisa's story in 1958 and Marisol's story in 2017. Elise's story unfolds as Marisol uncovers her secrets during the 2017 visit. As a chick lit love story it was good enough. It's the rich Cuban history that makes it a very interesting read. 

Hester
By Laurie Lico Albanese, Read By Saskia Maarleveld

TLDR: Great imagining of the inspiration for The Scarlet Letter

I loved this book! It showed up on several recommended lists and I'm glad I bit on it.
This story imagines the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Isobel Gambel is a very talented seamstress with a hidden "talent". She has synesthesia, a condition where senses have crossover. Words or sounds might have colors, sounds might be felt or feeling something happening to someone else. Isobel sees color in letters and sounds. She and her new husband leave Scotland for Salem, MA and, during the journey, she learns that her apothecary husband is using a little too much of his own medicine. 

While her husband is out to sea searching out medicines to open his own apothecary shop. While away, she uses her extraordinary needlework skills to try to support herself. Eventually she meets Nathaniel Hawthorne and you can guess what happens next. 

I spend entirely too much time on YouTube watching chateau renovations, crochet videos and such. That has taken some of my reading time but I still managed to finish 6 books this month and made it part way through 2 more. This month I've added a TLDR feature. Every time I write a review I seem to have a one sentence review in my head. Now I"m writing them down.

By far, my favorite book of the month was Listen For The Lie. Aside from the DNF books, none of them were bad.

What book recommendations do you have from your reading this month?

DNF:
Guardians of the Valley by Dean King - It's the story of John Muir and after 2 hours I was kind of bored, unfortunately. It might be a narrator problem. I'll probably look for this in paper.
​
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon - This is a very popular book but, 3 hours in, and I realized I wasn't paying attention​

The Glassmaker
By Tracy Chevalier, Read By Lisa Flannigan

TLDR: Started strong but lost steam as centuries passed.

The story opens in Murano in 1486. Orsolo Rosso is the daughter in a family of glassmakers on the island of Murano. Her father dies in a studio accident and the family struggles to make ends meet. Her brother isn't quite mature enough to run the shop successfully. Orsolo is introduced to the skill of bead making as a way to bring in extra money for the family.

I love glass and I  love history, I was hooked after the first chapter. But then there's this "stone skipping" that happens between chapters. You, the reader are skipping a stone and time moves forward decades. The people of Murano age slower parallel to the universe so that Orsolo is still living during the 2019 pandemic. 

I suppose the purpose was to tell the story of Orsolo and her family, but also tell the whole history of Murano glass. It's was a clever plot tool but I'm no fan of time travel stories. I also felt it got a little slow in the last third. Living for 600 years could possibly become a drag.

Listen For The Lie
By Amy Tintera, Read By January LaVoy and Will Damron

TLDR: Perfect melding of crime podcast into a crime novel with great narration.

One night Lucy was found wandering the streets covered in her best friend's blood. Savvy was found bludgeoned to death in the woods. Lucy doesn't remember anything. 

Everyone thinks Lucy did it but there's not enough evidence to charge her. Lucy's wealthy husband divorces her and Lucy leave her small town in Texas for LA.

Several years later a popular podcast, Listen For The Lie, decides to take up this cold case. Part of the objective is to get Lucy's memory back.

There have been several books lately that integrate a podcast into the story but, in my opinion, none have done it as well as this book. If you decided to give it a try, consider the audiobook because the narration is outstanding. January LaVoy is masterful at doing Lucy and her inner demon that talks to her often.

The Midnight Feast
By Lucy Foley, read by a cast

TLDR: A good story but very much like her previous books

Lucy Foley has a template so if you like a previous book, you will like this one. They are all very similar in setting, storyline and character type. 

Francine grew up in The Manor and has now inherited it. She's reimagined it as a luxury hotel and the book opens at the opening. She has meticulously curated the experience for her guests and planned a Midnight Feast for the Solstice.

​There are secrets on this estate and in the town. Many of those secrets go back to when Francine (Frankie) was a teenager. Unknown to her, old friends and foes are among the guests and staff. 

It moves along quickly and, like all of her books, there's some mysticism, half-told stories, darkness, and a young, arrogant, unlikable protagonist.

First Lie Wins
By Ashley Elston, Read By Saskia Maarleveld

TLDR: One of Charlie's Angels goes rogue in an outrageously complex tale.

This one requires you to pay close attention because there are dozens of twists as the story goes back and forth in time.

Evie Porter has a mystery boss: Mr. Smith and she's just met her new mark, Ryan Sumner. The problem is that Evie actually likes her relationship with Ryan. But Evie's past is super complex, starting with her life of thievery as a teen trying to care for her dying Mom. 

After being caught, she was "saved" by Mr. Smith and started working for him on "special cases". 

This book is really different but also very complex. Every chapter has a twist as it goes between her various jobs and current day. If you are looking for a different kind of mystery, you might like this one.

Hello Beautiful
By Ann Napolitano, Read By Maura Tierney

TLDR: Family saga with a nod to Little Women. Great character development.

William Waters was born as his young sister was dying. His parents never recovered from their grief. He was greatly affected by their neglect. He found solace in basketball. 

When he went to college he met Julia Padavano and, through her family of 4 sisters, he found family. William has never really dealt with and recovered from his childhood neglect. Stresses of life after graduation cause a crisis in his life and in the lives of the Padavano family.

It's a story of family loyalty, love, betrayal and forgiveness. The characters were very well developed and sympathetic.
​

Vanished Arizona
By Martha Summerhayes

TLDR: Very interesting diary of an Army wife in post-Civil War Arizona.

I picked up this book when we were on Tucson last January and just got around to reading it this month. It was fascinating!

Martha Summerhayes was raised in new England and Germany. After the Civil War she returned to America and married an Army officer not having any idea of what her life would be like.

They were immediately stationed in rugged and undeveloped Arizona. The book was put together after they retired from the Army and it's based on the collections of letters that she sent home. It's really fascinating  and very readable. Chris enjoyed it too.

When we visited Biltmore last week, one of the most beautiful rooms was the library. We were told that George Vanderbilt was an avid reader and kept a journal (from the age of 12) of all the books he read and that the total was over 3000. I can't imagine how he read that many books because he didn't have audiobooks! I've kept a log of books I've read since 1996 and the total is 2055. Since I retired in 2010, I average about 110 books a year. I can't imagine how George read that many books in his life because he died at the age of 52.

There's never enough time for all the books!

This month I finished 9 books, which is pretty good given that I had about 10 vacation days in September. I had a record 3 DNF (did not finish) books but I didn't waste too much time with any of them before I called it quits.  Of the books I finished I'd say that Gods and Kings and Spirit Crossing were my favorites. A History of Private Life will be a tough read for 99% of people but I really enjoyed it.

​What good books have you read this month?

DNF 
Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips - I think this is probably a good story but I didn't enjoy the telling of it. I gave it a couple of hours and then gave up.

River Horse by William Least heat-Moon - We met a really interesting guy in a pub in Maine and got to talking about books. He recommended this one so we thought it would be a good car listen for the ride home. It wasn't. It's about a cross country trip by river and it's really dull. 

​All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy - I think this is considered classic western and it received rave reviews. I just didn't hold my attention.
​

The Plinko Bounce 
By Martin Clark, Read by David Aaron Baker and Morgan Hallett

Andy Hughes has been a public defender for 16 years and the job is pretty boring and routine representing the poor souls of his small county. But then in 2020 he's assigned the case of Damien Bullins. Bullins has been charged with the murder of Alicia Benson, the wife of a wealthy businessman. Damien even admitted to the murder.

But a couple of mistakes by the investigators send the case on a different trajectory and Bullins might escape punishment.

I read my first Martin Clark book, The Legal Limit, because it's set in the area where I grew up, Henry and Patrick Counties in Virginia. Both books are legal thrillers and good stories. I'd take a star off of this one only because it has the pandemic theme running through it (social distancing and mask wearing) and, frankly, it doesn't age well. If I were an author that wrote all that into a book, I'd go back and edit it to remove those elements. In this book it's not a burdensome element but it's totally unnecessary to the story. If you happen to be an Audible member and want to try out this author many of his books are free for downloading.

A History of Private Life, Vol I: From pagan Rome to Byzantium, Edited by Philippe Aries and Georges Duby

OK, stick with me for a moment.  I like shopping in second hand bookshops and I tend to buy mostly non-fiction books. I prefer reading history and non-fiction in paper mode.

I picked up this book and another in the series for $2 each at a bookstore a few month ago. I had low expectations but thought I'd give it a try. At the time I didn't realize that this is one of a 5 book series. I bought books 1 and 2. A friend has book 3.

It's a surprisingly interesting book! It's about exactly what the title says: the private lives of citizens. It covers relationships, family structures, housing, spirituality and other aspects of the lives of individuals. I'm looking forward to starting volume II

Spirit Crossing
By William Kent Krueger, Read by David Chandler

This is #20 in the Cork O'Connor series and I think this series benefits from being read in order.

We started our drive home from Maine with the DNFed book mentioned above, River Horse. We quickly switched to this and it carried us until about 15 minutes before we pulled in the driveway.

Young Waaboo, Cork's grandson, stumbles upon a shallow grave while blueberry picking with the family. While there Waaboo speaks with the spirit of the girl. It's thought that she is a missing young Ojibwe woman but the state authorities are only interested in the missing daughter of a prominent politician. Cork works with the Tribal police to investigate the case and they discover that there might be a link to the missing white girl.

Meanwhile, Cork's daughter Annie has returned for her brother Stephen's wedding and has a secret of her own. Stephen and his fiance are involved in a pipeline protest on supposed sacred land. 

It's fast paced and contains a lot of native mysticism.

When We Were Enemies
By Emily Bleeker, Read By Carlotta Brentan and Eva Kaminsky

Had I looked at my reading history spreadsheet I would have seen that I read another Bleeker book and I didn't like it. This one was better but was still a struggle for me to get through. 

The basic storyline is interesting. In modern day, Elise Branson runs a successful PR firm (and should be smarter than her actions will prove). She is engaged and her wedding coincides with a documentary about her celebrity grandmother, Viviam Snow. Elise's wedding preparations, thanks to her narcissistic mothers' meddling, are now part of the documentary and Elise will be married in the chapel on the base where Vivan worked during WII.

The story goes back and forth in time to tell Vivian and Elise's stories with one particularly unbelievable parallel involving priests. 

This book is a lot better than When I'm Gone, which I hated. But I found both Elise and Vivian to be unbelievably naive given their life histories. It was too close to a romance novel for my tastes.

Gods and Kings
By Lynn Austin, Read By Suzanne Toren

​I can't remember where I heard about this book but I know it's been in my library for many months. This is the first book in a 5-book series, Chronicles of the Kings. The series is a retelling of Bible stories about the Kings following the death of King Soloman in 931 BC.

I'll be honest, I don't know the Bible but the reviews say that the stories are true to the writing. Austen has the luxury of making some rather bare bones stories in a rich novel with complex and interesting characters. In this novel, King Azah of Judah has aligned with eh Assyrians and instituted polytheism. His son, Hezekiah, is still a believer in monotheism.  

It's not "religious" in the way you would think. It just a re-telling of a Bible story. It read more like Follet's historical fiction novels. The characters are really well developed and the story kept me interested. At the beginning it was a little challenging to keep track of the unfamiliar names but it didn't take too long to settle in and know all the characters.

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
By Naida Hashimi, Read By Read By Gin Hammond

TLDR: If you are a woman born in the West, be very grateful.

Kabul 2007: Rahaima and her sisters cannot go to school and there are no boy in the house. Their father is addicted to opium so Rahima must follow the custom of bacha posh that allows her to dress and be treated as a boy until she is mature. 

100 years earlier, her Great-Grandmother Shekiba followed the same custom when she was orphaned.

It's an interesting book but it moves at a bit of a slow pace. The crux of it is that nothing much has changed in Afghanistan in 100 years. It still really sucks to be born a woman there.

You'll Never Find Me
By Allison Brennan, Read By Hillary Huber

This is the first (and, so far, only) book in the Angelhart Investigations series. Margot Angelhart is a private investigator who is estranged from her family PI firm since her father went to jail. She's working a cheating husband case when things take a twist and her brother shows up on one of her scenes. Her case seems to be connected to a case of corporate espionage.

It's an easy listen but has one annoying feature. Almost ever scene includes some sort of background. It might be a story from childhood, a broken love affair, bits about the family rift, or some mundane memory about a house. 

I've looked back in my reading log and I've read Brennan twice before and, it seems, that I'm not really a fan of her work. It definitely has a audience and I'd say it's people who like their mystery books one step beyond a cozy mystery. If you like easy mysteries where nothing is too brutal, this is for you.

The Man in the Brown Suit
By Agatha Christie, Read By Gabrielle deCuir, John Lee

For out trip to Asheville we decided to listen to an Agatha Christie mystery during our ride. It got us to Asheville and within an hour home. It was perfect. You really can't beat Agatha Christie for a good mystery. I've only read one other Christie novel but I really should read more.

In this one, Anne Beddington is recently orphaned  and move to London to live with her late father's solicitor. While waiting for the Tube she witnesses a man fall off the platform onto the rails and dies. A man in a brown suit pretends to be a doctor and declares him dead. The police declare it as an accidental death.

Anne isn't so sure and starts investigating on her own and finds herself involved in a risky situation involving stolen diamonds.

Vacation slowed my reading a little but I still got through some good books. I enjoyed all of the books although we were a bit disappointed in Beyond Measure, a book that let us down a bit as our road-trip book.

I had one DNF book, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. It seems a good book but it's really long and was moving slowly. Then someone noticed that the house we are renting had the DVD of the movie. I watched that instead and gave up on the book. The movie was a little slow too.

Birds in Flight
By Anni Taylor, Read By Harriet Gordon-Anderson

In 1998 Elsa Jorgensen took her two daughters, Iris and Lily, on a trip to Australia. They set off on a long road trip taking along two other girls. One rainy night Elsa and the youngest girl disappear and there isn't a trace of them left behind. After a long search, Iris and Lily return home to Philadelphia. Some years later Iris returns to Australia to live permanently and the two sisters don't talk again.

Twenty-four years after disappearing, Elsa's backpack is discovered and the case is reopened. Lily goes to Australia intending to reunite with her sister and, together, to figure out what happened to their mother.

I enjoyed this mystery book. I liked the character development and there were enough twists to keep me engrossed. 

Beyond Measure
By James Vincent, Read By James Vincent

This is the book Chris and I selected for our road trip to Maine. Sometimes we listen to mysteries but we also like some nerdy topics and this fit that bill. It's mostly about the history of measurement and there's a lot of interesting information in it.

However, it went a bit off the rails with his need to describe how every new type of measurement brought along oppression is some way. Of course, everything has good and bad but methods of measurement truly moved cultures forward and focusing only on the bad effect is tremendously biased. By the end of the book we were tired of it. 

​Good information burdened by personal political views.

Whiskey When We're Dry
By John Larison, Read by Sophie Amoss

This is a clever coming of age Western novel. Jessilyn Harney's mother died in childbirth and she was raised by her father and brother on a struggling homestead. By the time she's 17 in 1885, her father is dead and her brother has left home. She's alone and unable to keep the farm going herself. She disguises herself as a boy and sets off to find her brother, now a well known outlaw.

This is a true old-fashioned Western as Jess transforms herself into a sharp-shooter and in security detail for a governor, all while pretending to be a man. A lot of the reviews share much excitement over the exploration of gender roles but that's not what resonated with me. I think the gender identity storyline was probably true to the era and not, as we usually see in modern writing, an overlay of today's morals on a historical period. Jess did what she did out of necessity and it had a predictable effect on her. That's all. 

The storytelling reminded me of Larry McMurtry. It's not totally of that caliber but it's really good and the narration is perfect for the story.

All The Colors of the Dark
By Chris Whitaker, Read By Edoardo Ballerini

​This book is on a lot of recommended lists and I understand why. It's a very interesting plot approach to several themes: mystery, serial killer, love story. It's got a little of everything.

It opens in 1975 in a small town in Missouri. Girls are going missing. One day the daughter of a wealth family is targeted and a surprising hero emerges. Patch, a young petty thief, thwarts the attack but becomes a victim himself.  

What follows is the story of people affected by the series of missing girls. It follows the characters  through 2010. It's a really unique book in the way that the story is told. The main characters are Patch, his best friend from school, the girl who was rescued and, of course, the killer. Many people are obsessed with solving the murders.

I think that the character development is outstanding and the story jumps forward in time and is told against news headlines of each time. There were some awkward transitions where a scene suddenly ends but isn't explained until a few chapters later. But, aside from that small complaint, it was a good book.
​

A Most Agreeable Murder
By Julia Seales, Read By Fiona Hampton

If Jane Austen wrote a murder mystery it would be this book. After ready the book I looked up the author and found out that she is a Jane Austen fan so that makes sense.

Beatrice Steele will not be the daughter to marry properly and save the family's financial situation. She's not good at following the etiquette of Swampshire and she has an inappropriate fascination with true crime.

On the night of the local ball, Beatrice is pressed to good behavior so that her beautiful sister might make a match with the eligible bachelor, Edward Crookshank. In the middle of the ball, Crookshank drops dead and Beatrice can't help but insert herself in the middle of the investigation.

If you like Jane Austen, you will enjoy this book. It was a quick read for me and I can easily see sequels in the future.

The House of Eve
By Sadeqa Johnson, Read by a cast

This book is set in 1950's Philadelphia and Washington, DC. This book is a really interesting take on racial and economic prejudices of the time. The twist is that, in this case, much of the discrimination takes place WITHIN the African-American community.

Ruby Pearsall is 15 and is the daughter of a single mother who isn't particularly interested in raising her. She's been raised by her grandmother and aunt. She's very smart and has gotten into a great program that will help her get in to college to be the first college graduate in her family. 

Eleanor Quarles arrived in Washington, DC to attend Howard University. Her parents have had hard working lives and scraped and saved to help her get to college. There she meets William Pride and they fall in love. William is almost white and is from one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Washington, DC. His family is not welcoming to Eleanor.

The book centers on relationships (acceptable and unacceptable) and babies (wanted and unwanted). To me, the story was very fresh and I enjoyed it. I loved Eleanor and Ruby as characters and really felt for the trials that they faced.

This wasn't the best month for reading. I spent way too much time on YouTube and I some of my books were just slow to get going. But as I look through my list of 5 books that I finished this month, I can say that I really enjoyed 4 of them.

What good books have you read  this month? I'm looking forward to some good ready for August while we are on vacation. 

DNF - Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo - This is a very interesting story told in an uninteresting way. I know this is one of THE hot books right now but I found my mind wandering throughout the whole thing. I finally gave up.
​

Just For The Summer
By Abby Jimenez, Read by a cast

I picked this up to listen to at the beach knowing it was chick lit. I didn't get to it at the beach so I  listened to it while quilting instead. I was pleasantly surprised by this one! I expected something like Emily Henry but it was much better. It's a cute love story but isn't silly and it deals with some serious issues for the characters.

Emma is a travel nurse. After a life in foster care between short stints with her mother, she find her comfort in living out of 2 suitcases. Her dating life is also transient.

Justin has just posted to a AITA Reddit thread about his most recent breakup. It seems that every girl he dates finds her true love after she breaks up with him. Most recently his latest girlfriend found her true love with his best friend. As revenge he adopted the ugliest dog he could find and named it after his best friend, Brad.

Emma and Justin start chatting through the Reddit thread and eventually agree to date for 6 weeks to break the curse. Of course you know how it ends but there are some really surprising twists along the way. I find Emily Herny books to be kind of silly. This one was much better.

The Wager
By David Grann, Read By Dion Graham

In 1741, a battered English ship washed up on a barren island near Patagonia. The Wager had left England in 1740 on a secret mission related to The War For Jenkin's Ear with Spain. In January of 1742 a ramshackle raft arrived on the coast of Brazil. These were some of the survivors of The Wager. Everyone else was presumed dead. But 6 months after that another pile of floating sticks arrived in Chile with 3 more survivors. The stories of their adventures are wild. How anyone survived is a miracle. 

This book isn't going to appeal to everyone. It's history. It's Naval history. That's a niche. But this is an amazing story that reads like a novel. How anyone survived is a miracle. This book had gotten a lot of press and awards and it's all deserved. I also recommend the audio version because the narrator's voice is perfect.

The Authenticity Project
By Clare Pooley, Read By Anna Cordell

Clare pooley writes charming stories about finding community wherever you are. She creates interesting and sympathetic characters and you root for each one.

Julian is 79 and a mostly retired artist. He believes that people aren't honest with themselves so he starts The Authenticity Project. He writes his own story in a green notebook and leaves it on a local cafe. There it's picked up by the cafe owner, Monica, who adds her own story. Over time the book finds it's way into many hands and the people who share their stories find their way to Monica's Cafe and into each other's lives.

​Very enjoyable.

The Friar and the Cipher
By Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

This was one of my sit-outside-and-read books, meaning that I read this one in paper. It's an older book and isn't available in audio. I picked it up from Thriftbooks for a few dollars and I'm glad I did.

The book is supposedly about a particular medieval manuscript, today knows as the Voynich manuscript. It's named for the man who rediscovered it in 1912 after hundreds of years hidden in a library. The manuscript is over 200 pages long and it full of drawings of plants, astrological diagrams and naked women doing tasks. It's completely indecipherable  and has been the focus of cryptologists ever since it's discovery. It is generally attributed to Roger Bacon, an astronomer and friar of the 13th Century. Roger Bacon is not related to Sir Francis Bacon, although the book explores parallels in their writings.

Roger Bacon was a contemporary of Thomas Aquinas and much of the book focuses on their contradicting philosophies of scientific enquiry. Amazon reviewer Clay Garner has a much better summary than I can writer:
"most of the writing is covering the contrast between two versions of scientific enquiry. One, drawn from Robert Grosseteste, (who believed the Bible is inspired from God and should be treated with more respect than even Aristotle) the bishop of Lincoln, through Roger Bacon is explained as a mathematical, inductive, empirical, experimental method. The second, drawn from Aristotle through Albert Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, is a deductive, verbal, logical, mental construct."

If you read The Woman Who Smashed Codes about Elizabeth Friedman and her husband, you be interested to know that they made a cameo in this book. They are among the countless people who have worked for decades unsuccessfully to try to decode the manuscript.

​It was an interesting book on a number of levels. For me, it was the explanation of the foundational philosophies and actions that created our modern educational and research systems.

The Book of Lost Names
By Kristin Harmel, Read By Madeline Maby

Eva Adams is an 85-year-old librarian in Florida and sees a photo of a book in a news article that brings back memories of her experiences in WWII. The photo is of The Book of Lost Names.

The book is a ancient religious text that was confiscated by the Nazis during the occupation of France. The book is particularly interesting because it seems to contain a code that no one has been able to break.

Eva has never told her family about her involvement in the resistance during the war and the actions she took to make identity documents to protect Jewish children. This all happened after her father was taken to Auschwitz. She and her mother avoided being picked up and escaped to Southern France where her artistic talents were put to great use.

After seeing the book, she feels she must go to Germany to see the book and explain what it is.

This book is compared to The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. They are both about women in WWII and, as far as I'm concerned, that's where the similarity ends. This story is a love story told during WWII and out heroine is really crappy at keeping secrets. Also her mother is supremely annoying. Her behavior is unfathomable.  I finished the book but I didn't love it.

June was a month of variety for my book selections. I don't read sci-fi or fantasy but I still covered several genres. I did accidentally read something with a little magic, which annoyed me. Even that book was a good story, I just didn't like the genre. My absolutely favorite book of the month was The Women by Kristen Hannah. My favorite non-fiction was The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel. It's an older book but worth searching for at used book stores. Chris liked it too.

What books do you have to recommend this month?
​

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
By Tia Williams, Read By Mela Lee and Preston Butler

I should have never read this book. It showed up on a couple of recommended lists so I picked it up without really looking into what it was about. It's really not my genre. First, it's a romance novel and second, it contains magic. That wasn't really clear in the description. It was billed as Historical Fiction, contemporary, African American and heartfelt.

Ricki Wilde is the youngest of 4 daughters in a powerful Atlanta family. She's the artistic free-spirit that doesn't fit into the family. She decides to move to NYC to open a flower shop. She meets a woman named Ms. Della who invites her to live and open her shop in the bottom floor of her brownstone. 

One late night she's walking in a local garden to clear her mind and she meets mysterious stranger who turns her life upside-down. It's basically a modern fairytale.

I actually liked the characters, especially Ms. Della and I liked the historical references to Harlem, especially the music scene. I think if you like books like Outlander you might like this one.​

The Nature Fix
By Florence Williams

This is a paperback book that I read a little on vacation and finished while sunbathing at home.

This was an interesting book that does exactly what the cover says. It explains why and how nature makes us healthier, smarter and happier.

Some of the current research into the impact of nature is really fascinating. There's even benefit from looking at nature on screens. 

​I looked back at my records and I tried listening to this book a couple of years ago and I didn't finish it. Now that's I've read the paper version I can see why this wouldn't translate to audio.

Code Red
By Kyle Mills for Vince Flynn, Read By Steven Weber

This is #22 in the Mitch Rapp series. In this one Mitch owes Damien Losa a favor. Unfortunately Losa is a powerful crime boss who is not to be trusted.

The Syrian government has developed a new, permanently addictable drug and plans to distribute it throughout Europe, in Losa's territory. He sends Rapp to investigate because Rapp is easily expendable.

It turns out that Syria didn't develop the drugs, Russia did.

​It's another fast paced Mitch Rapp novel and, apparently, the last that Kyle Mills will write. I think he did a great job of continuing the Mitch Rapp series after the death of Vince Flynn but I'm glad he's going back to his own books. I'm glad to hear that because I found Mills through his first books and I loved them.

Don Bentley is picking up the Mitch Rapp series next and book #23, Capture or Kill, will be out in September.

The Women
By Kristen Hannah, Read by Julia Whelan

This book is probably going to be on my top 10 for 2024. I read it in 2 days because I couldn't put it down. In brief, it's the telling of the lives of nurses in Vietnam and the trials of their levies after service. We need more books about the perspective of service people in the Vietnam War.

Francis (Frankie) McGrath comes from a family of war heroes. Her father has installed a "heroes wall" in their home. She's 20 years old and her brother has recently graduated from the Naval Academy and is deploying to Vietnam. When one of his friends tells her that "women can be heroes too" she decides to use er nursing degree to join the Army Nursing Corps and follows her brother to the war. She is not prepared for the devastation and chaos but, with her nursing friends, she becomes an amazing nurse.

After 2 years in country she is surprised to come home to an unwelcoming country and she had trouble getting support from the VA because "women didn't serve in Vietnam". Her adjustment back home is long and difficult.

I think this book will really speak to anyone who knew someone who served in Vietnam and it is a book that was long overdue. Kristen hannah did an amazing job of keeping the story in the period and not overlaying modern mores on the story. If you read it, you will cry.

The Stranger in the Woods
By Michael Finkel

I'm not sure how I hears about this book. Maybe a recommendation from one of you. Regardless, it was a good one! I picked up a hard copy from Thrift Books and read it on my daily vitamin D sessions outside.

This is the story of Christopher Knight. In 1986 he was 20 years old and had been working a couple of years out of high school. One day he left without telling anyone. He drove to Florida and then back to Maine, near Moosehead Lake. He was running out of gas and money so he ditched the car and set out on foot. He eventually arrived to a wooded area west of Albion on one of the thousands of lakes (ponds) in the state. He stayed there for 27 years.

He lived in a tent, never lit a fire and broke into nearby cottages for food, fuel, clothing and reading material. He took only what he needed and was dubbed the North Pond Hermit. People knew he existed but no one had seen him. 

The author became interested in him after the new of his capture and was eventually able to make contact and build some sort of relationship with him. This is the story of why he left and how he lived. It's really fascinating.

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers
By Samuel Burr, Read By Penelope Keith and Russell Tovey

Clayton Stumper is a young man with an old soul. As a baby he was abandoned on the steps of The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers where he was raised by an eclectic group of puzzle and game makers. They make crossword puzzles, word puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, mazes and any other type of puzzle you can think of. 

Pippa Allsbrook was a master crossword maker and the mother in Clayton's life. When she dies, she leaves him a puzzle trail to help him find his birth mother and also to help him find himself. 

I'd call this a charming story. It's set in modern times with flashbacks to the past 20 years around the time of Clayton's birth and the founding of the Fellowship. It's a nice easy and entertaining read.

Miss Benson's Beetle
By Rachel Joyce. Read By Juliet Stevenson

It's 1950 in post-war London and Margery Benson lives drudgery life with a teaching job she hates. She's had enough and she impulsively quits her job and place to go halfway around the world to search for a rare beetle, the golden beetle of New Caledonia, that may not exist at all.

She advertises for an assistant and has to settle on the 1950's version of Elle Woods but more of a prostitute than lawyer. Enid Pretty shows up wearing a pink suit and pompom sandals.  It turns out that Enid is incredible resourceful and they make a great team. Their friendship and resourcefulness gets them through some trying and dangerous times on their trip. 

This was a great read. It's a good mix of serious story and humor. I really enjoyed it.

The Vacancy in Room 10
By Seraphina Nova Glass, Read By Brittany Pressley and Stacey Glemboski

Anna Hartley's husband has an artist retreat studio in a dilapidated hotel-turned-apartment complex. He calls her one day in a panic saying that he's murdered someone.  Something she knows he's incapable of. Later his body is found on the banks of the Rio Grande and everyone assumes it's suicide.

Anna decides to move into his hotel room while their house is being prepared for selling. She thinks it will allow her to get closer to Henry and understand what he was going through. She starts to learn that there's more going on at The Sycamore's than she thought.

The motel/apartment manager, Cass, seems to have her own secrets. She used to live in luxury and wear designer dresses until her partner traded her in for someone younger. She's always had maintenance and building skills so she was able to secure a job at The Sycamores as the handyman and manager. 

It's a unique mystery concept and there are good characters but these 2 women make some of the dumbest girl-like decisions. They annoyed me and I eventually sped up the narration speed so I could get to the end. It's definitely chick-lit focused on "girl-power" so if you like that type of book, you will love this. I just felt that they made some really stupid decisions.  It had nothing but rave reviews on Audible.

My Planet
By Mary Roach

A friend gave me a couple of Mary Roach books last year. Mary Roach is a science writer  and humor essayist. All of her books, as far as I know, are collections of essays. This one is a collection of observations about everyday life. These were from her Reader's Digest column. It's quite witty and entertaining.

Essays usually aren't what I like to read but these books are great for when I'm sitting in the sun. I can time myself with a certain number of essays on each side. It's also great for passing time in waiting rooms. I don't think I'd enjoy this in audio format.

I got back into reading pretty heavily in May and finished 9 books. I liked all of the except for the first one, The Light Pirate. Spoiler alert, that trend will continue for June as I'm close to finishing another book that I really don't like. I read 3 "real" books this month and enjoyed all of them. Probably my favorite were the Mark Dawson books. These are #2 and #3 in the Atticus Priest series.

​What good books have you read this month?
​

The Light Pirate
By Lily Brooks-Dalton, Read By Rosemary Benson

The best thing about this book is the narrator. Everything else about it is awful. It ranks right up there with Where the Crawdad Sings on my top 10 most hated books ever. I knew after the first 2 hours that I wasn't going to like the book and I should have shelved it at that point but I decided to ride it out just to see how it ended.

This is a poorly conceived story centered around climate change effects on Florida specifically. It starts in current time where Florida is already flooding and having multiple severe hurricanes every year. Of course, that's not really happening but I can go with the fiction. Within 10 years Miami and all of South Florida has been evacuated but at that point the climate change effects seem to stop because there's no more change for the next 40 years. What's up with that?

The story is centered around Wanda. She was born during hurricane Wanda, the most devastating hurricane to hit Florida. Over the next decade most people leave the state except for Wanda, her father and a few other oddballs who decided to stay and eek out a living much like pre-civilization. They all could (and would) have left in normal circumstances. There's no power, water or communication services and all of the buildings are flooded. But they stay anyway because Wanda has never known any other place. There also don't seem to be any issues with alligators or snakes or other critters that dwell in permanent swamps. That's convenient. The whole premise, is stupid. I could go on and on.

Supposedly the books is told in 4 parts: power, water, light and time but I didn't get that at all and didn't realize that was the premise until I re-read the summary. Much of the last half is hard to follow because there were jumps back and forth in time and between character perspectives.

​Now, If you read the reviews, this one (like Crawdad) gets rave reviews across the board so you might want to ignore my lone dissenting voice and give it a try.

The Words We Whisper
By Mary Ellen Taylor, Read By a cast

Set in Nazi-occupied Italy during WWII and modern day Richmond, VA. Zara Mitchell is a hospice nurse and has just finished a case and adopted a third dog left behind by it's owner. She received a call from her sister in Richmond telling her that their Grandmother Nonna is dying and has asked specifically for Zara to come home. Nonna is obsessed with finding a box that's hidden somewhere in the overstuffed attic and that becomes Zara's job.

With the box comes stories from Nonna's past during the War in Italy. She had been a seamstress for a couture dressmaker and witnessed the transition to Nazi occupation and the eventual arrival of the Americans.

It was a good story with excellent character development. 

Resurrection Walk
By Michael Connelly, Read By a cast

This is #7 in the Lincoln Lawyer series and it's a huge improvement over the #6 book. In the last book, Mickey Haller got a wrongfully convicted man out of prison. The walk out of prison is called the "resurrection walk". 

He has now hired is half-brother, retired detective Harry Bosch, to help him assess potential other cases of wrongfully imprisoned people. Harry identifies one potential case of a woman convicted of killing her sherriff husband. It's a high risk case in federal court.

​Like all of Connelly's books, it's fast paced and it's fun to have Mickey and Harry together in this one.

The Amber Room: The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure
By Catherine Scott Clark and Adrian Levy

​I picked up this book in hardback at a library sale. Honestly, I had never heard of the Amber Room. It was a very opulent room that was started in 1701 and was eventually installed in the Catherine Palace in Russia. It disappeared during WWII and has never been seen since. 

Clark and Levy spent years digging through research but mostly being stonewalled by various agencies and people in Russia and Germany. It all sounds eerily like our government today. 

It was an interesting book but a little tedious. I expect that it would appeal to about 1% of people. But I liked it.

A Place to Bury Strangers
By Mark Dawson, Read By Simon Vance

This is #2 in the Atticus Priest series. I've only read this one series of Dawson's but I expect that all of his series are very dependent on reading the books in order and that's the case with this one. It picks up with some unfinished business from the first book, The House In The Woods. This series is set in Salisbury in the UK.

A human bone is found is the middle of a field. DCI Mackenzie Jones is called to investigate and she's struggling to figure out where the bone came from. She calls in Atticus Priest to help. They trace the bone to an abandoned church graveyard in a nearby town. That leads to the discovery of a deeper mystery.

It's such a good series that I immediately downloaded the 3rd book in the series.

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

In the summer I like to sit outside in the sun a bit and like to have a book to read. I usually pick them up at thrift stores and from Thrift Books. This was a Thrift Books find. It was published in 2011 but the story and message are still relevant today.

There were two Wes Moores born within a year of each other in close neighborhoods in Baltimore. Both were fatherless and led difficult lives. One grew up to be a decorated veteran and Rhodes scholar. The other is in jail with a life sentence. 

Why is that? The author sent a letter to the other Wes Moore one day and he wrote back. That led to many letter and meetings and this book tells the stories of both men. I found it fascinating and thought provoking.
​

The Red Room
By Mark Dawson, Read By Simon Vance

This is the 3rd, and I think last, in the Atticus Priest series. The crimes in all 3 books are related and this one wraps up the series.

A man falls from a cathedral spire. Authorities are sure it's suicide but his family says no. Then a video is delivered to a local newspaper and it seems the family is right. The victim may have been blackmailed. That's quickly followed by two more victims and two more videos. The videos are all set in a red room and the victims in the videos are all children. Someone seems to be on a revenge tour.

I enjoyed this series and will probably checkout some of his other series. I was particularly grateful that, although much of the story takes place during pandemic times, he left out all references to anything pandemic related. I think that will give these books a much longer shelf life.

The Falcon Thief
By Joshua Hammer

This is the book that I took for my beach read. It became my ER read when Chris was injured. It's a very interesting story and reminds me a lot of The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson. Both books are about people stealing things that you would never imagine. In this case it's rare and protected falcon eggs.

Jeffrey Lendrum was traveling from Birmingham in May 2003. A janitor, and former security guard, felt that he was acting suspiciously in an airline club restroom. He alerted the authorities and they discovered Lundrum with 14 live peregrine falcon eggs. 

This book is the story of Lundrum's life but also the background of falcon racing and breeding along with profiles of people involved in the crimes and investigations.

It's a really interesting book if you like these kinds of books.

Starter Villian
By John Scalzi, Read By Wil Wheaton

We picked this book for our drive time to and from our vacation and it was perfect in length and entertainment value. If you like Carl Hiaasen, I think you will like this book. Wil Wheaton was an excellent choice for narrator!

Charlie is a divorced substitute teach who is just barely getting by. His dream is to buy a local pub but the bank doesn't seem interested in extending him the loan.

Then his uncle Jake dies. He hasn't seen Jake since his mother's death when he was a young boy. Jake has left him his business....a supervillain business. Jake had a lot of enemies and Charlie has inherited those too. With the help of unionized dolphins and intelligent spy cats, he has to fight his new enemies.

We really enjoyed it and I will read more by Scalzi. It was a perfect road trip book.

April was such a good reading month! Several of you have recommended West With Giraffes and you were right on target. It's a fun read. Then I had 3 mysteries by 3 of my favorite authors and Rules for Commuting was just a great light read.

My one non-fiction was a bit of a letdown but I have some new ones in line for May that might be better.  What have you read this month that you would recommend to me? I can already tell you that my first May read is not going to be on my 2024 top 25 list.

DNF
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford. This is the 4th Ford book I've read. I loved Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Love and Other Consolation Prizes. This one was just awful and I gave up 4 hours in. It's about epigenetics, the generational inheritance of trauma. It's a hot topic now and interesting. But I struggle with the insistence on focusing on trauma and not beneficial things, if this theory is real.  This book has a period set in 2045 and there isn't 1 tiny technological advance to go along with the devastation of climate change. I found that incredibly lazy and banal writing.  Add in a lot of dull and unlikable characters and I just gave up.

Rise the Dark
by Michael Koryta, Read by Robert Petkoff

Last month I read the first book in this series, Last Words. I decided to go on to the second book while it was still fresh in my mind. The books can be read separately but there is the continuing theme of the murder of Novak's wife. This book is more directly connected to the murder than the first one.

Lauren Novak's killer has been released from jail and Marcus is determined to track him down. At the same time, in Montana, Sabrina and Jay Baldwin experience a power outage. Jay works for the power company and must go out to work to repair the line. 

Sabrina is abducted by Garland Webb, the man who murdered Lauren Novak. As Marcus chases Garland Webb he becomes involved in a much bigger conspiracy centered in Montana.

​Another great read from Michael Koryta.

West With Giraffes
By Lynda Rutledge, Read By Danny Campbell

This book has been on so many reading lists and several of you have recommended it in the comments of my previous audiobook posts. I've had it downloaded on my phone a few month and I finally got around to reading it.

The story is told by 105 year old Woodrow Wilson Nickel. He escaped a horrible life in West Texas during the Dust Bowl and found himself in New York when a hurricane hits. Also caught up in the hurricane is a ship carrying two giraffes that are meant for the San Diego Zoo. Woody knows that he is near the end of his life and he sets out to write this story that he now realizes is an important story to tell.

Young Woody is fascinated by the giraffes and finds a way to attach himself to them. What follows is a story of the 12-day trip across the country. Most characters are fictional but there's a lot of truth to the story too. 

It's a delightful story about the challenges of life during that time, the grace that animals bring to our lives and the kindness of strangers.

Three-Inch Teeth
By C. J. Box, Read By David Chandler

This is #24 in the Joe Pickett series and they are still great reads to me. I plowed through this one in 2 days.

A grizzly bear seems to be on a rampage throughout Wyoming, even in areas not known to have grizzlies. Or there are now several grizzlies randomly targeting humans across the state. Or is it something else.

Meanwhile,  Dallas Cates has been released from prison and prison staff forgot to alert Joe Pickett and his family. Dallas has a list of revenge targets that he's quickly checking off.

It's fast paced and I couldn't put it down.

Ultra-Processed People
By Chris Van Tulleken, Read by Chris Van Tulleken

This was really interesting. It started off great with a deep dive into defining what is ultra-processed food (UPF), the history of the development and the profit motive behind it. I wouldn't say that I got a lot of new information. We all know that soda, Doritos and candy bars are not good for us. But he does delve into the actual ingredients and how they were developed. 

But the he takes a detour into social justice and climate change. How can you sincerely say that if everyone in the world made the same amount of money that our nutrition problems would be solved? We would all just be equally poor.  On the climate change front he's adamant that people stop eating the most nutrient dense item on the planet, meat. He contends that pasta is as effective at muscle building as protein meats. Also, selling chicken is racist. 

At the end he doesn't recommend anything. Do whatever you want. If you want to read this I suggest reading the first half and skipping the second half.

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting
By Clare Pooley, Read By Clare Corbett

Every day Iona and her dog travel the London Underground from Hampton Court to Waterloo. She sees the same people and has no idea who any of them are but she's given them all nicknames.

One day one of the riders chokes on a grape. If not for a nurse, Sanjay, Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader would have died. The event is the catalyst for the disparate group of people to get to know each other and ultimately, enrich their lives.

​It was just the feel good, light read that I needed after reading about how all of my food is poison.

The Price You Pay
By Nick Petrie, Read By Stephen Mendel

It's stellar reading month to have Cork O'Connor and Peter Ash books in the same month! 
This is #8 in the Peter Ash series but this one is focused on his friend Louis. I love the Lewis character and his past has come back to haunt him. His family is on grave danger as someone from his past is searching for retribution. Peter is the first person that Lewis asks for help.

These books are so fast paced and full of action ( and murder). The body could is quite high and I couldn't put it down. I read it in 2 days and stayed up late to finish it. I recommend reading this series in order.

What a great book month! Aside from one book that I DNFed early, I enjoyed all of them. I'm back to reading some good non-fiction this month with 2 entries. 

What good books have you read this month?

DNF:
​The Creative Act by Rick Rubin - I enjoy Rick Rubin's podcast but this book bored me quickly.

Last Words
By Michael Koryta, Read By Robert Petkoff

Marcus Novak works for a non-profit legal firm that defends death row inmates that they think are innocent. Marcus has had difficulties since his wife was murdered and it has not been solved. He's been resorting to some not-so-legal means to get at the killer. To get him out of sight for a while, his boss sends him to Indiana to assess a cold case that doesn't fit the organization's profile. He thinks it's a waste of time.

Ten years ago Sarah martin disappeared in a vast underground cave system among rural farmland in Indiana. Days later, an experienced caver emerged with her lifeless body. Ridley Barnes has no memory of finding her and he's not sure if he's the one who killed her. That's why he wrote to Novak's organization for help.
I enjoy all of Koryta's books and this was no exception. At one point there was a scene in the cave that actually made me feel claustrophobic. I had to stop the book for a bit and get my bearings before continuing. That's a sign of pretty good writing, in my opinion!
​

Daughter of Australia
By Harmony Verna, Read By Brigid Lohrey

This story unfolds in 1898 in Western Australia. A young girl is found in the desert by a miner and she's barely alive. She's given the name Lenora and is sent to an orphanage run by a kind priest. She's mute but eventually forms a bond with another orphan, James, and comes out of her shell. Eventually she is adopted by a very wealthy family from the United States.

Leonora never forgets Australia and she makes a painful "deal" to return one day and eventually reconnects with James.

This book is a mix between family saga and romance. I usually don't like romance novels but this one has more depth than a typical romance novel. It's a really beautiful story and the characters were believable and well developed. I enjoyed it.

The Paper Daughters of China
By Heather B. Moore, Read By Nancy Wu

This was a very interesting historical fiction account of Donaldine Cameron and her time running the Occidental Mission Home for Girls in San Francisco. Around the turn of the 20th century there was a active slave trade for young Chinese girls in California, especially San Francisco. Donaldine was a well known as a champion for these slave girls and was instrumental in ending the practice.

At the age of 27, in 1897, she became the superintendent of the Presbyterian-run home. She worked with Tien Fuh Wu who was rescued as a young girl and worked tireless her whole life at the home. It's a very interesting story and a very important one.
​

Half Broke Horses
By Jeannette Walls, Read By Jeannette Walls

​When working the primary election earlier this month we had a lot of down time and chatted quite a bit about books. This is one that was recommended by one of my co-workers. This author's most well-known book is The Glass Castle about her own life with her wandering parents. My coworker recommended both but suggested that I start with this one as it's about her grandmother.

It's a novel but it's based on the true story of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, who lived a touch but vibrant and very independent life. She was raised on a ranch where she had a talent for breaking horses but she left home at 15 to begin a teaching career. She goes from West Texas to Chicago to Arizona, unknowingly marries a man who already has a wife and kids, is a crack poker player, sells prohibition liquor and loves teaching. She's a fascinating woman and the author is the perfect narrator for this wonderful tale. I wish I could meet Lily.

The Return
By Michael Gruber, Read By Jonathan Davis

Richard Marder has received a medical death notice and he decides to leave is comfortable life and do something totally out of character. He's going to Mexico to avenge the murder of his long-dead wife's parents. Due to a very savvy investment, he has enough money to do anything. 

Along the way his Vietnam veterans friend, Patrick Skelly decides to join him. They served together along the Ho Chi Minh Trail doing some very unpleasant assignments that changed both men forever. 

Richard's daughter, an engineer, has figured out that her dad is up to something out of character and she sets out to find out where he is. What follows is an action packed roller coaster of a story as Marder tries to fight the local drug lords.

Clean
By James Hamblin, Read By Barrett Leddy

This is an interesting book. It was published in 2020 but I feel that the information in it is up to date. It covers the history of hygiene habits, skin cleansers and skin care products. The chapters on the ineffectiveness and toxicity of skin care products was worth it alone. The last chapters were about current research on the skin microbiome and was very interesting and we are already seeing some of the fruits of this research in the marketplace. It's not a long book and I learned a lot.

The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel
By Douglas Brunt, Read By Scott Brick

I always prefer my history lessons to come from reading biographies. For some reason, I absorb the timelines better. The book that got me hooked on biographies was The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Rise and Fall of New York. It is the history of the development of New York City in the life of one man.

This book had a similar impact on me. I learned more about World War I from this book than in any book or history class previous. 

On September 29, 1913, Rudolf Diesel was one of the most famous men in the world. His engines had become the standard engine for ships and trains. It was the eve of the start of the war and Diesel was on a steamship between Brussels and England when he disappeared from the ship. Eleven days later a body was found by fishermen and several items belonging to Diesel were recovered. The body was released into the water.

This book tells the story of Diesel's life, the development of his engine technology and the story of other developments that were happening concurrently, especially once the war effort was gearing up. One interesting part of the story is how the Diesel engine threatened the businesses of John D. Rockefeller. The ending of the book explores, in depth, the possible outcomes of Diesel's disappearance. 

​It was a good read to finish off the month.