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?
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.

February was a very good reading month. There weren't any books that were disappointing. My favorite was Demon Copperhead. It lived up to all of the great press that it's received since publication. For something lighter, I really enjoyed Factory Girls.

What books do you have to recommend this month?
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The Nix
By Nathan Hill, Read By Ari Fliakos

I'm not sure I know how to describe this book except that it's long and rambling and I really liked the ending. It's kind of about a mother and son relationship but it's also about decisions of the grandfather that ultimately affected the mother and son. But it's a lot more than that. It's incredibly detailed and goes off onto a lot of other tangents with other characters.

I know I'm rambling but I seriously don't know how to describe it. There's a lot of detail about many of the supporting characters that, frankly, could have been edited out. It's 22 hours long and should have been about 15 max but I enjoyed it and I'm glad I read it.

The Librarianist
By Patrick deWitt, Read by Jim Meskimen

Bob Comet is a retired librarian who has lived a very quiet and solitary life with his book. One day he helps a lost woman find her way home to the senior center where she lives. After the visit he decided to volunteer there and eventually discovers he had history with one of the residents.

The book is a walk through his life to show how he got to this solitary place. The book is a little slow to start off but it was worth the wait. He's a very likable character. It reminds me a little of Mike Gayle's All The Lonely People but it's not quite that good, but still a good read.

Demon Copperhead
By Barbara Kingsolver, Read By Charlie Thurston

I loved this book.

This book has been showing up on a lot of recommendation lists and I understand why. It's a masterpiece. Kingsolver took Charles Dickens' David Copperfield as her inspiration to tell the story of an orphan in Appalachia in the middle of the opioid crisis. 

Demon is Damon and was born to a single mother in a single-wide trailer in Virginia Appalachia. He inherited his bright red hair from his deceased father so his nickname was easy for his schoolmates. When his mother dies he finds himself in the foster system that is sometimes just a child labor system. It's a hard life and it's just the beginning. It's a wonderful book with some difficult scenes. If you read via audiobooks I think you will also love the narration. Being from SW Virginia, I can say that it was spot on.
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Factory Girls
By Michelle Gallen, Read By Amy Molloy

It's 1994 in a small Northern Ireland town. Maeve Murray has just finished school and is awaiting her exam results to see where she will be able to go to University. She's taken a summer job at a shirt factory with her 2 best friends. These Catholic girls will be working alongside Protestants which will bring it's own challenges.

The book brilliantly mixes the vibes and challenges of the time with a good dash of humor as we follow Maeve's adventures and challenges in the last summer of her youth. It's perfectly narrated by Amy Molloy.
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The Engineer's Wife
By Tracey Enerson Wood, Read By Libby McKnight

Emily Warren Roebling was the wife of the Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge. She was one of the most important women of her time. It's well documented that during the building of the bridge her husband developed health issues from " the bends" and was eventually mostly bedridden. Emily educated herself in engineering and handled on-site management with her husband's guidance from home. At a time when women were starting the suffrage movement, Emily was a quite powerful and influential woman. You can read a wonderful book about the building of the bridge called The Great Bridge by David McCullough.

Enter this book. This is a historical fiction account of Emily's life and it's mostly fiction. As a piece of women's literature, it's a perfectly fine and entertaining book. For Emily, though, I was a little offended to have her life reduced to a fictional love interest.

If you decide to read it, be warned that the narrator has a number of jarring mispronunciations in the narration. 

What a weird book month to end 2023! Thanks to The Running Grave it wasn't a total disaster. I only finished 4 books and that's for two reasons. First, The Running Grave is over 30 hours long so it almost counts as 3 books. Secondly, I've spent way too much time in the YouTube rabbit hole the past couple of months. That happens when I am reading books that I don't love so I avoid the books with other distractions. I"m sure that January will be better.

​Let me know the good books that you have read. I may need to revisit my wish list!

DNF
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochiti Gonzales - I thought it was going to be an interesting book about Puerto Rico history and culture. Instead it's a litany of social justice and feminist grievances by people who have had great opportunities and successes.
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The Running Grave
By Robert Galbraith, Read By Robert Glenister

This is #7 in the Cormoran Strike series and, IMHO, it's a huge improvement over the 6th book that had a lot of online chat room conversations. In The Running Grave, Cormoran Strike and his partner, Robin Ellacott, are hired to try to get a man's son out of a cult. This required Robin to go undercover in the cult. There are several side stories with parallel investigations, the agency being stalked and the romantic tension between Strike and Robin,

I really enjoy this series but you have to love a long book to get into these. This book clocked in at 34 hours and I didn't mind a minute of it. Let's face it, JK Rowling can write!

A Stranger at the Door
By Jason Pinter, Read by Angela Dawe

This is #2 in the Rachel Marin series. I read the first book, Hide Away, in January. I liked the first book. Usually the second book is a series is even better. This one, however, was a let down.

Rachel is sort of a detective. She's not officially a detective but she sure thinks that she's smarter and better than all of the other detective in her town, including her boyfriend. She's also an over-protective and annoying Mom, an unlicensed "doctor" who can assess every medical crisis, heals from concussions overnight, has superhuman strength and throws tantrums when she doesn't get her way. She is massively unlikable.

The story opens when one of her son's teachers is brutally murdered. Soon the 14-year-old son starts coming home late and sneaking out at night. She's uber-security conscious and has the whole house wired with cameras and trackers so she figures out where he is going. She seems to think it's a good idea to confront the man who has recruited him for something that is never really explained.

I should have DNFed this book but I held out to finish it and it never got better. The character is too annoying to read any more if there ever is another in the series. 
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Independence
By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Read By Sneha Mathan

This is the second book that I've read by Divakaruni and she tells another good story about the history of India. This one centers on 3 daughters growing into adulthood around the time of India's independence from Great Britain and the partitioning of Pakistan.

Priya helps her father in his medical clinic and she dreams of being a doctor herself one day. Deepa is beautiful and has fallen in love with a Muslim and Jamini is a quiltmaker with her mother and is the sister often left out. When India and Pakistan are partitioned the sisters find themselves separated and fear that the separation might be permanent.

I didn't love this one as much as I loved The Last Queen but it was still a very good book with richly developed characters that seem real for the time. I would definitely read more by this author.

Hope on the Inside
By Marie Bostwick, Read By Hillary Huber

I'll be honest, I didn't enjoy this book. I'm not even sure why I bought it. It's definitely not my genre. I must have picked it because there's a quilt theme.

Hope and her husband, Rick are empty nesters and Rick has suddenly lost the job that he's loved. This sends them into a bit of an emotional and financial tailspin. Hope eventually gets a part time job teaching crafts at a women's prison to help make ends meet. Through a quilting project she starts to bond with some of the inmates.

It's a fine book if you like a good easy read where dramas aren't too bad and everything works out in the end.  But the characters are kind of flat and totally predictable.

I "only" read 5 books in November but that's because there was a holiday and The Follett book was over 21 hours. Also the last book I started is over 30 hours so that one won't be done for a few more days. The best part about reading this month is that none were duds. I enjoyed all of them. 

What good books do you have to recommend this month!
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Florence Adler Swims Forever
By Rachel Beanland, Read by a cast

I read another book by this author a few months ago. This House is on Fire was about a 1811 theater fire in Richmond Va. I really enjoyed that book and I'm sure that's what sparked me to get this one.

This book was promoted as a "perfect summer read" and that was clearly by people who had never read it. The cover makes it look like a good, light-hearted summer read. It's a good book but it's not what I'd put on a light summer reading list. It's covers several serious topics including death, grieving, anti-Semitism and Nazi Germany.

It's 1934 in Atlantic City, NJ and Esther and Joseph Adler run a bakery in the seaside resort. They are hosting a young woman who is trying to escape Hitler's Germany.  Their older daughter, Fannie is married and is in hospital on permanent bed rest due to a high-risk pregnancy. Their younger, 19 year old daughter, Florence, is training to swim the English Channel. During one of her training sessions in the ocean she dies. Ester makes the decision to keep the information from Fannie until the baby is born.

It's a serious novel covering a lot of serious topics and the consequences of decisions made. I didn't enjoy it as much as This House Is On Fire but it was a good read. My biggest complaint is that it's long in the middle and the ending wraps up a little too quickly and conveniently.

The Survivors
By Jane Harper, Read By Stephen Shanahan

This is the 5th Harper book that I've read. Some I love (The Dry) and some are just OK. This one is in the OK category.

Kieran Elliott has returned home to his quiet seaside hometown in Australia with his girlfriend and new baby. His parents are preparing to move as his father has dementia. He avoids coming home since his brother, Finn, died trying to save Kiernan from drowning during a storm.

He's reconnecting with old friends when, one night, the body of a woman is found on the beach. She was in the town for the summer doing research for her art degree. As the investigation into the death gears up, many wounds are reopened from the summer when Finn and 2 others died.

The premise is interesting but I found the telling to be slow and the characters not all that interesting. I kept reading just to get to the end. I'd recommend a couple of her other books (The Dry, Exiles and The Lost Men) over this one.

The Armor of Light
By Ken Follett, Read By John Lee

This is the 5th book in the Kingsbridge series. If you like Follett and the Kingsbridge series I don't need to sell you on book 5. The Pillars of the Earth was one of the earliest historical fiction books I read and I've enjoyed ever book in the series. Actually I've enjoyed all of Follett's books.

Kingsbridge is a town with an economy based on weaving and textiles. The story opens in 1770 when the spinning jenny was invented and it threatens to put a lot of wool and cotton spinners out of work. The story follows the fortunes and tragedies of people in the town through the period of the Napoleonic wars.

If you've not read Follett before, start with The Pillars of the Earth. The narration was perfect, as always with John Lee.

Bright Young Dead
By Jessica Fellows, Read By Rachel Atkins

Last month I read the first book in this series, Mitford Murders. I enjoyed it enough to try another installment and I enjoyed this one even more.

Fellows weaves a fictional event into a real household, Mitford. Each book features one of the Mitford sisters. This one features Pamela. The main characters are a nursery maid in the house, Louise Cannon, and a young police sergeant, Guy Sullivan.  The Bright Young People were a group of young aristocrats and socialites that were the free-spirited partiers of the 1920's in London. They attended Jazz clubs, had treasure hunts and basically drank and did a lot of drugs.

At Pamela's 18th birthday party, one of the guests is pushed to his death from the top of a nearby church. A visiting ladies maid, Dulce, is immediate arrested for the murder. Dulce had also stolen some jewelry from one of the guests. Louise believe Dulce is innocent of the murder and that she was somehow forced into the theft.

Meanwhile, Guy, is investigating a shoplifting gang lead by the infamous Alice Diamond and the cases might be related.

I really didn't expect to like these books but now I'm hooked. There are six books in the series, one featuring each sister and I expect that I'll work my way through all of them.

The Water Keeper
By Charles Martin, Read By Jonathan K. Riggs

Someone must have recommended this book to me because it's not one that I would have found on my own. 

Murphy Shepherd lives alone on an island in Florida and caretakes a church that has no parishioners. One day he pulls  a woman named Summer out of the Intercoastal Waterway and he's suddenly off on a mission to help find her daughter. The daughter, Angel, has been abducted by sex trafficers. Murphy has a lot of experience with the sex trade in Florida and knows where to start looking. Along the way he picks up a really cool labrador retriever and an ex-con named Clay. I liked the characters, I liked the pace of the story and it held my interest.

The funny thing is that I didn't realize until I sat down to write this review that this book is categorized as Christian fiction. Yes, there are characters that are Christian but that wasn't the focus of the book. Probably the most overt nod to the genre is that there aren't any hot sex scenes, Otherwise, there are fights, gun shots and lots of blood. The book reminded me of the Operation Underground Railroad organization founded by Tim Ballard. There's a movie based on Tim's life and I thought about that a lot while reading that book.

This is the first in a series of 3 books. They all deal with abduction themes so I'm not sure I'll read the others but I give this writer a thumbs up.

This was not my best reading month. There was a lot of mediocre this month. It started off great, I enjoyed the first 3 books, especially The Dictionary of Lost Words. The two book we chose for our drive to Maine were fun reads. The last 2 book are ones that I cannot recommend, although they have great ratings on Audible.

What book recommendations do you have for us this month?
​

DNF Books:
​Got the Look by James Grippando - it would be OK if you had nothing else to read
​

Just Another Missing Person
By Jillian McAllister, Read by a cast

Julia is a detective investigating the one day disappearance of a missing 22 year old. Olivia was last seen on CCTV entering a dead-end alley but she was never seen coming out. As she's going to the crime scene she's confronted by the perpetrator who knows her deepest secret. She either does what he says or she puts her own daughter in jeopardy. She has to frame someone else for the crime.

Very suspenseful, fast paced and makes you wonder what you would do in a similar situation.

The Mitford Murders
By Jessica Fellowes, Read by Rachel Atkins

This is the first book in a 6 book series set in the Golden Age of London. Think of it as Murder at Downton Abbey. That's not a coincidence as the author is the niece to Julian Fellowes and wrote the companion books to the series.

The series takes place at the Asthall Manor, the home of the Mitford family. Louisa Cannon is trying to escape her life of poverty in London and the opportunity to be a nursery maid is too good to pass up. She forms a friendship with the oldest daughter, Nancy.

When a nurse, Florence Nightingale Shaw is murdered on a train, Nancy leads Louisa into some amateur sleuthing. The book is actually based on the unsolved murder of the real Florence Nightingale Shaw. You can read the real story here. The book stays relatively true to the story, as much as it can.

It was a good, entertaining read. It's not edge-of-your-seat suspenseful and it's not quite cosy. It's a book for the day you just want to be entertained and don't want to work too hard to keep up with too many characters and crazy sub-plots.

The Dictionary of Lost Words
By Pip Williams, Read By Pippa Bennett-Warner

Among people who track such things (not me), it's famously known that the one word accidently left out of the first draft of the Oxford English Dictionary is "bondmaid". That is the fact that this story is based on.

Esme's mother died before she knew her so she spent her life with her father. Much of that time was in the Scriptorium where her father worked as a lexicographer editing words for the OED. She grew up there and developed a habit of collecting the slips of paper with rejected words. The first was "bondmaid". 

Esme's life is in the middle of the Suffrage movement and WWI so she also collects words from the "common" people of those times. Most of the words are "women's words" and spoken words from tradespeople and illiterates. Her story unfolds with the words that she finds.

This book was recommended to me by 2 people last month and it happened to be available at my library so I jumped on it. It's one of those books that you read and feel like it was perfectly crafted. Great characters, prose, history and dialogue; it's all there.

An Honest Man
By Michael Koryta, Read By Robert Petkoff

This was the book we picked for our ride up to Maine and it was perfect. It's fast paced and kept us interested for the whole drive.

Israel Pike discovers 7 men murdered on a floating yacht. He's one of the primary suspects by his detective uncle because Israel is an ex-con.

Lyman Rankin is a 12 year old boy who has to frequently escape from his violent father. He has a secret place where he hides but when he goes there he's confronted by a hatchet-wielding woman.

It's all connected and there's no one to trust.

The Night Agent
By Matthew Quirk, Read By Chris Andrew Ciulla

FBI Agent Peter Sutherland is assigned to work the night desk in the White House Situation Room. It's boring until one night when one young woman calls in and says "Osprey was right, it's happening..." That sets off the unfolding of a years long conspiracy where a foreign government has access at the highest levels of the US Government.

It's a very fast paced spy novel but also very forgettable. The premise is unbelievable and the characters are unbelievable. But if you love chase scenes, this is the book for you.

Burning Bright
By Nick Petrie, Read By Stephen Mendel

I've actually read this book before but we needed a good book for the drive home from vacation and this was perfect. This is the second book in the Peter Ash series and it's one of my favorite mystery series.

It's action stuff kind of like Dewey Andreas and Jason Bourne. Ash is a war veteran with severe PTSD. He's very claustrophobic and has spent much of his time in the California redwood forest . One day he becomes of too much interest to a Grizzly and, in looking for an escape, finds a rope and starts climbing. He ends up on a platform in the redwoods and finds a woman there who is trying to escape from dangerous men chasing her. He decides to help.

The 8th book in the series is set to come out in February.

The Women of Chateau Lafayette
By Stephanie Dray, Read by a cast

This is a historical fiction novel set around Chateau Lafayette, birthplace of the American independence hero, Marquis de Lafayette. It takes place during 3 wars. The first is Adrienne Lafayette during the American Revolution and French Revolution. The second is Beatrice Chanler, socialite Wife of William Astor Chanler, during the first and second World Wars. The third is a fictional girl named Marthe Simone, who was one of the young orphans raised at Chateau Lafayette and focuses on her work in the Resistance during WWII.

I have read 5 books authored or co-authored by Stephanie Dray and, honestly, the best ones are the ones she co-authored with Laura Kamoie: America's First Daughter and My Dear Hamilton. With all 3 solo books I've had trouble really connecting with the main characters. They are shallow, not well developed and there are too many frivolous scenes with the characters agonizing over decisions rather than actual action. I can't count the number of times that Beatrice worried about her hat....in the middle of a war! The novel moves back and forth between the eras but, because there's no real connection between the characters, it's just comes across as disorganized. It's a 24 hour book and, honestly, way too long. It took me a long time to finish it because I was often avoiding listening to it. But, I did hold out and finish it. 

Horse
By Geraldine Brooks, Read by a cast

​I did not like this book. It is supposed to be the story of one of the most famous racing horses of all time: Lexington.  He's most knows as being the most successful sire of all time. The book is supposed to be historical fiction but the only history is the horse. All the rest is pure fiction and is a story about slavery and racism, and not a very good one at that. 

I usually don't quote anyone else but I found this review on Audible that I felt best summed up this book perfectly. Credit to Heather who  posted this on 08/25/2022

"A little bit of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a touch of Black Beauty, a swing at Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and as if that wasn’t enough, we top it off with Black Lives Matter! I just rolled my eyes all the way through this predictable book. The only thing that kept my interest was that I’d never heard of Lexington."

Just a book full of flat characters, weak storylines and a lot of cliches. I have read 4 of Brooks' books and the only one that I really loved was Years of Wonder about Eyam England during the plague.

What a great book month! I only finished 7 books but that was because some were long and also, it's football season. It's the time of year when I take off the headphones to sit in front of the TV. 

Of the 7 books I finished I was only disappointed with one: The Sentence. I just didn't get the point of that one but I enjoyed all of the other books and my favorite is probably The Improbability of Love.

​What books did you love (or hate) this month?

Fingersmith
By Sarah Waters, Read By Juanita McMahon

If Charles Dickens wrote a psychological thriller, it would be this book.

In Victorian England, Susan Trinder was orphaned as a baby and raised by Mrs. Sucksby, who she views as a mother. Mrs. Sucksby along with a few other well-trained pickpockets and con artists. One day, fellow con, Gentleman, arrives with a grand plan to use Susan to swindle a young woman out of her inheritance.

Susan will become the Lady's personal maid and help convince her to marry Gentleman and will share in the riches. It's an elaborate scam that is in jeopardy when Susan forms a bond with the Lady.

This is one of the most unique and interesting books I've read in a while. It's a long one so if you are considering it, be prepared to devote over 23 hours to it.

The story is told alternating between Susan's story and the Lady's story. When it first started with Susan's story I really couldn't figure out what could make the book so long. Then part 2 is the same story told from the other perspective. Each one revealing a very surprising twist. 

There are a couple of pretty steamy scenes and there's a very interesting storyline involving Victorian pornography. So be aware of that if it offends you. It's definitely the seedy side of Victorian London. I enjoyed it. It was a fresh story, not just another rehash of so many common plots.

The Ice Princess
​By Camilla Lackberg, Read By David Thorn

This book was translated from Swedish so the names are all Swedish and sometimes hard to follow, but it's a fun mystery read.

Erica Falk has returned home after the deaths of her parents to clean out the house. While visiting, her childhood friend Alex is murdered. She and Alex haven't been in contact in years but Alex's parents as Erica to write a biography of Alex.  Information about why Alex disappeared from her life is starting to come out.

Meanwhile, detective Patrick Hedstrom thinks his boss has the case all wrong and is investigating separate leads on his own. He and Erica also have a connection from their youth.

​It was a good general mystery read.

The Sentence
By Louise Erdrich, Read By Louise Erdrich

I loved Erdrich's book, The Roundhouse, and was really looking forward to this one. Boy, was I disappointed.

Let me start my comments by saying that this book gets rave reviews so take my opinion as just that: opinion.

The premise of the book is that Tookie has just finished serving a long prison term which she survived by voracious reading. Now that she's out, she has gotten a job at a Minneapolis bookstore that specializes in indigenous authors. One of their most frequent customers dies on All Souls Day in 2019 and begins haunting Tookie at the store. What follows is just a weird rambling through the events of the next 12 months including a very large dose of pandemic, George Floyd, riots and BLM. By the end, I didn't even care about the point of the ghost. I just wanted it over. If the summary had mentioned anything about the pandemic storyline I would have never picked it up. Maybe in 20 years I could read about that but, at the moment, I'm not interested.

The author narrates it and, frankly, it's lethargic. I have never had to speed up a book to 1.25x to make it tolerable but I did with this one. There are also lots of lists of books. I think this book was a vehicle for the author to share her favorite reading lists. I kept listening to see if there ever was a point. I think it's intended to have some deep meaning and to make the reader have some deep reflections on something but I didn't get it.

The Girl on the Bridge
By James Hayman, Read By Stephen Mendel

​This is #5 in the McCabe and Savage series.  I needed a fast paced mystery after The Sentence and I got exactly what I wanted. 

12 years ago Hannah Reindel was drugged and raped at a college fraternity party. When she reported it, 4 months later, she was not believed. She has dealt with the trauma ever since and on a December night she reaches a breaking point and jumps off a bridge into a freezing river.

A month after Hannah's death, Joshua Thorne, one of the alleged rapists is reported missing in Portland, Maine. During the investigation, McCabe and Savage discover that another of the rapists has recently died in New Hampshire. That one was reportedly an accidental death. The local investigator isn't so sure.

This story moves fast, has a couple of nice twists and the characters are interesting and, mostly, likable. I like all of the books in this series and this is the last one.

The Improbability of Love
By Hannah Rothschild, Read By Adam James and Kirsten Atherton

I loved this book! 
Annie McDee is trying to get over a failed relationship, living in a crummy London flat, dreams of being a chef but is just barely getting by as a film maker's assistant.

She's in a new relationship now and is planning a nice birthday dinner for the man. She stops in a thrift store and finds a painting that she thinks he might like and blows her last $75 on it. Sadly, he's a no show and she's left to pick up the pieces of another failed relationship.

Now this painting is hers and her alcoholic mother is trying to convince her that the painting might actually be valuable. Unfortunately, the painting seems to bring her nothing but bad luck and it gets worse as people start to realize what it is and everyone wants it.

If you like art and history, you will love this book. It has one feature that is usually a big turnoff for me but it works in this book. The painting, called The Improbability of Love, narrates part of the story. The painting is so witty that I don't mind it and it was a great way to introduce the history of the painting into the story. 

​I got hooked for the start and couldn't put it down.

None of This is True
By Lisa Jewell, Read by a cast

Lisa Jewell is one heck of a writer and she's produced another winner with this new book. 
Alix Summer is celebrating her 45th birthday at a local pup when she meets Josie Fair. They discover that they were both born on the same day at the same hospital. They are birthday twins.

Alix is a podcaster and just finished a series and is looking for another idea. After meeting Josie listens to all of Alix's podcasts and, when they meet a few days later, convinces Alix that she would be a good subject for her series. Josie says that she is going through big changes in her life.

The next thing she knows, Josie has entwined herself into Alix's life. 

Some people in the reviews commented that they felt the ending was unfinished. I thought that the ending was perfect for the character. I couldn't put it down and stayed up very late one night to finish it.

The Fires of Vesuvius
By Mary Beard, Read By Phyllida Nash

If you are into Roman history then this is the book for you. If you are British then you are probably very familiar with the author, Mary Beard, and will know that this book is going to be thorough and accurate.

Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE and destroyed Pompeii. Most of what we know about early Roman life is information gathered from unearthing Pompeii. In this book, Beard makes sense of all of that information separating fact from speculation. 

I thought it was organized really well and was very informative. 

My August reading was totally focused on finding good vacation books so the list might seem a little different than usual. The result is a mixed bag. My favorites are Those Who Wish Me Dead and The Rachel Project. My least favorite was Life On The Edge because it was way over my head.

DNF books
Gideon's Sword by Preston and Child - I loved the Pendergast series until Cold Vengeance. They made that book a "half book" by continuing it to another book to be published a year later. It annoyed me so much that I haven't read anything else from them. I thought it might be time to try again and selected this series. It's flat out awful.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - I stuck with it for about 15 hours and just had to quilt. There's no way that Oprah read and liked this book. This is the second Verghese book that I've quilt on. I won't try a third. They are both just dull and a drudgery to read.

What are the best books that you read this month?

Homecoming
By Kate Morton, Read By Clare Foy

I saved this book specifically for my 2-day trip to Maine and it kept me good company for the drive.

It's 2018 and Jess is called home to Australia from London because her beloved Grandmother, Nora, is sick and in hospital. Jess was mostly raised by her Grandmother because her mother, Polly, was quite absent as she was growing up.

At Nora's home Jess discovers a decades old true crime book that tells the story of a murder-suicide on Christmas Eve 1959. The victims were Nora's sister-in-law, nieces and nephew. 

In typical Kate Morton style, the story moves back and forth in time revealing the crime, activities leading up to the crime and Nora's actions afterward as Jess is making discoveries of her own in current time. 

It's probably not the best Kate Morton book but the character development is good, the story is good and I enjoyed my drive much more because I had this to listen to.

The narrator gets a lot of criticism on the Audible app but I thought she did a fine job. I had no complaints.

Book Lovers
By Emily Henry, Read By Julia Whelan

If you like romance books that are like the Hallmark Channel but with spice then this is the book for you. It's not particularly my genre but this one has gotten a lot of press and I needed a palette cleanser after The Covenant of Water disappointment.

Books have defined Nora Stephen's life in every possible way from the most important memories of her late mother to her current job as a book agent. She's also dedicated her life to looking out for her younger sister who is now a mother of 2, soon to be 3. Before the baby is born, Libby wants Nora to take a month-long trip to Sunshine Fall, NC, the setting for Libby's favorite romance novel by one of Nora's authors.

Nora is surprised to run into one of her publishing rivals, Charlie Lastra, in this small town. Sparks fly as they are thrown together many times over the weeks ahead.

​You know the rest. It's a cute book and was fine entertainment for 2 days.

Yellowface
By R. F. Kuang, Read By Helen Laser

June Hayward and Athena Lui were classmates at Yale and both aspiring authors. At the opening of the story Athena has made it big and June is still struggling to get her writing career off the ground. One night, while having dinner, Athena chokes and dies. June steals her most recent manuscript and publishes it as her own work.

​It's not long before people are accusing her of stealing the work, at worst, and cultural appropriation, at the least.

It is not "chilling and hilariously cutting" as described by the publishers summary. It's a sad commentary on our current societal mores. June is not the only "thief" in this tale. As we see every day in the real world, anyone jealous of someone else's success can degrade others with accusations of cultural appropriation, racism, or any other aggression. What I found interesting in the reviews is the general complaint about June is that she's racist. I didn't see her as racist at all. What I saw was a lazy writer with moderate talent who became a thief as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Her stealing that manuscript had nothing to do with racism and everything to do with her general bad character and opportunity. But in today's society everything is racist which, I believe, makes nothing racist. We need to be less lazy in our own criticisms of people. Thieves are thieves, Liars are liars, and racists are racists. Everyone is not racists just because you are offended.

The other aspect of the story is commentary on the publishing world where a small group of people pick the winners and losers and decide what we will be allowed to read. I didn't find any of that surprising or insightful. It's no different from the news, entertainment and music industries. I found the storyline from this aspect to be kind of repetitive and dull.

I didn't particularly enjoy the book but I can see that it would create some very interesting discussions in a book club meeting.

Life on the Edge
By Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili

I like reading non-fiction on vacation for some reason but I may have stepped too far off the edge with this one. The basic premise of this book is to show how quantum mechanics applies to biology. I've read a few books on quantum mechanics and I understand it a little and I think I pick up a little more with each book. But I'll never be conversant in the topic.

This book started out interesting for me as they discussed how certain processes can be expressed in terms of quantum mechanics. These include the internal magnetic compasses of migrating birds, photosynthesis in plants, sense of smell and the enzyme processes of the body. I was pretty good through all of that.

The rest of the book heads off into wild speculations about quantum mechanics and the mutations in genetic code, origins of life, definition of consciousness. 

In the end, it got way too complex for me to follow.

Those Who Wish Me Dead 
By Michael Koryta

I didn't listen to this book, I actually read it and did it in 2 days. 

Jace Wilson is a teenager playing around in quarry and when he dives into the water he discovers a dead body. As he's getting out of the water 2 mens show up with another man, slice his throat and dump him in the quarry too. They see Jace's clothes and realize they have a witness. 

The killers will now do anything to get to Jace and prevent him from testifying against them. Jace and his family do not trust the cops so they agree to put Jace in a wilderness program in Montana. They are depending on Ethan and Allison Serbin to protect Jace.

It's not long before they realize where Jace is and the chase begins. 

Koryta writes good stories. Lots of action and there were a couple of twists in this one that I did not see coming. It was a fun read.

The Rachel Incident
By Caroline O'Donoghue, Read by Tara Flynn

Rachel is a university student and James is her new co-worker at the local bookstore. They decide to become roommates and, immediately, fast friends. 

Rachel has developed a crush for her married professor, Dr. Byrne. Byrne has written a new book and Rachel and James orchestrate a reading at the bookstore as a ruse to throws Rachel into his path. But Dr. Byrne has other desires.

That incident leads to a lot of secrets, compromises and long term effects that play out in the rest of the story. It's all about the inevitable messiness of living a life. It was a good story.

The Lucky Ones
By Mark Edwards, Read By Simon Mattacks

It's been a few years since I read a Mark Edwards book and I really need to have him in my rotation more often. He creates some really interesting characters!

Detective Imogen Evans is called to a murder. The victim, a recent heart transplant recipient and successful antiques dealer is killed just when she is at her happiest. She even dies with a smile on her face. Evans knows she has a serial killer on her hands.

Nearby, Ben Holland's life is finally straightening out. He and his son moved back to his home town to distance himself from his cheating wife and to be near his dying mother. It's been hard to get back on his feet but suddenly things are looking up. 

Fast paced, good character development and a couple of twists. Everything you need from a good murder mystery.

Everything I Learned From Falling
By Claire Nelson

I read this one in hardback as a vacation read. Claire Nelson was hiking in Joshua Tree National Park when she fell and shattered her pelvis. She was off the trail and she wasn't sure if anyone would realize she was missing. She spent 3 nights in the desert and this is her survival story.

It was pretty interesting. One thing we've noticed when hiking that almost all of the solo hikers are women. Honestly, it's just plain stupid to hike alone but even dumber to not tell people when/where you are going and not leave a note on your car about when you left and where you went.

The Lager Queen of Minnesota
By J. Ryan Stradal, Read By Judith Ivey

This is one quirky and fun story. I don't' know how I found it because it's not something I would usually read. But it was a fun light vacation read and the narrator nailed the Minnesota accent.

Two sisters are emotionally separated when their father leaves the proceeds from the family farm to the younger sister, Helen,  to help her start a brewery. The older sister, Edith is an award-winning baker but she and her husband struggle to make a living. When Edith's daughter and son-in-law die in a car crash, she takes in her Granddaughter, Diana. Diana eventually earns a shot at brewing an IPA. Will beer bring the family back together?

It's a fun story about family and beer. There's a lot of information about beer, which I didn't mind at all. The characters are likable and the story is told in a nice mid-western manner. It's a fun read.
​

I finished 8 books in July. That's kind of a slow month for me but when I have a lot going on I have trouble concentrating on books and listen to podcasts instead. Even with only 8 books, I'm happy to report that I was only disappointed with one, The Last Revival of Opal and Nev"

Two of the books I read this month are ones that were left as recommendations in last month's comments so be sure to read other's recommendations too! Also be sure to leave your own recommendations in the comments. I added a bunch of books from last month's comments to my various electronic wish lists. I'll get to them all eventually.

DNF Books:
Island Queen by Vanessa Riley - Couldn't keep track of the characters with the narration. 

The Museum of Ordinary People
By Mike Gayle, Read By Witney White

Another great book from one of my favorite writers. Mike Gayle writes wonderful books about relationships between people: family, friends and random strangers. 

Jess is dealing with the sudden loss of her mother. It's month's later and time to clean out the house to prepare it for selling. She can seem to make herself get rid of the encyclopedia set that her mother gave her as a child. Her boyfriend is pressuring her to get rid of them because he doesn't want them in their tiny apartment. Then a friend tells her about the Museum of Ordinary People housed in the back of a warehouse. She's intrigued and becomes the unofficial curator along with the warehouse's new owner. 

This book is all about the deep meaning in ordinary items but also about friendship, family and finding your right path. Gayle is a master of character development so you know these people and want to spend time with them.

The Indispensables
By Patrick K. O'Donnell, Read By Will Damron

Over July 4th weekend I felt it was only right to read some American history and chose this book....wisely.

Every state education system teaches American history with a little different spin. In Virginia, we have a lot of history and our education (at least on the 1960's) focused heavily on Virginia and Virginia's heroes. We did get a lot of Revolutionary War history but it was Virginia focused.

This book added a lot to my education because it about the Marblehead Regiment if Massachusetts. The book delves into the pre-war lead up in Massachusetts as it pertains to the soldiers and mariners of Marblehead. These are the people that rowed Washington across the Delaware and did so many more heroic acts during the war. 

Also, because Marblehead (the town) was highly integrated, the Regiments was also integrated with white, black, Hispanic and Native American troops.

It's very interesting book but I think I'd recommend that you read the book instead of listening to the audio. I like Will Damron as a narrator which makes me thing that something was off with the direction or editing.

The Kitchen Front
By Jennifer Ryan, Read By Jasmine Blackborow

​I picked up this recommendation from Carole's blog and it was a good one! I usually don't remember where I got recommendations but this one was read within a week of raeding her blog post because the mibrary had it avaiable to check out right away.

It's the middle of WWII and everyone at home is suffering from fear, loss and a lack of access to good food. The BBC has a shows calle The Kitchen Front and is looking for a female co host. They decided to have a contest in the local area where the current host lives. Four women enter the 3 stage contest. One dish will be prepared each month: a starter, a main and a dessert. There's a war widow with 3 children who needs a better way to support her family, a kitchen maid wanting to escape life downstairs, a trained chef trying to break into the man's world of being a head chef and a manor lady wanting to escape her brutal husband.

The story follows the 4 women through the three months of the competition. The character development and story pacing is excellent and there are some very poignant moments. 
​

Code Name Blue Wren
By Jim Popkin, Read By Jim Popkin

I think that Kristen F. recommended this one to me. I'm not sure I'm glad I read it although, it was very interesting.  

It's the true story of Ana Montes, a high ranking official at the Defense Intelligence Agency. She used that position to spy for Fidel Castro's Cuba for 17 years. Her intelligence unmasked US spies in Cuba and led directly to the death of a Green Beret in El Salvador. 

The book is riveting and frankly, reveals the ineptitude of the FBI in finding spies within our government. No wonder they turned their focus to parents at school board meetings and Catholics attending Church. Those groups are easier to find and intimidate.

The reason that I'm not sure I'm glad that I read it is because Ana Montes is now free after 20 years in jail. How does that happen?

​In all seriousness, it is a very interesting and well written book.
​

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
By Dawnie Walton, Read By a cast

It's difficult for me to describe this book so I'm going to start by sharing the publisher's summary:

Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can’t imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job—despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records.
In early seventies New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially black women, who dare to speak their truth.
Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo’s most politicized chapter. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything.
Provocative and chilling, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev features a backup chorus of unforgettable voices, a heroine the likes of which we’ve not seen in storytelling, and a daring structure, and introduces a bold new voice in contemporary fiction.

This book has fantastic reviews but, from my perspective, it's kind of a hot mess. The narrative perspective is all over the place. That's the "daring structure" mentioned above. The cast is great but it's awkward when a character starts to speak and they introduces themselves first "Opal Jewel: blah blah blah". But it's not always like that. Sometime the Sunny character speaks for the other characters.

Opal is not particularly likable either. She behaves like a big star but the largest crowd she had ever performed for is 20,000. She so impetuous that she has her stage temper tantrums without consideration for the people who came to see her perform or he fellow performers.  She seems to feel that her principles come before all else. There are 2 major incidences of this in the book and we can understand why she is not popular with promoters. She's immature and unprofessional.

Opal and Nev, as performers, are set well into the actual music and cultural history of their time so that you feel they might be a real band that you have never heard of. I found the story tedious and couldn't wait for it to end. But, this book gets RAVE reviews so you might like it.

Careless Love
By Peter Robinson, Read By Simon Prebble

This is #25 in the Inspector Alan Banks series set in the UK. 

A young college student is found dead in an abandoned car but she didn't die there. It appears to be a suicide.

Near the same time the body of an unidentified man is found in gully. By his dress, he appears affluent and appears to have died from head trauma.

Inspector banks must decide if the cases are related and there's a side story that's related to a previous book. The side story was distracting to me and got a little confusing. I don't think I've read the book that carries that backstory but it does carry a lead up to a future story.

These books are entertaining. To me, they aren't as good as original John Sandford or Nick Petrie, but it's still a good series.

Exiles
By Jane Harper, Read By Stephen Shanahan

This is the 3rd installment in the Aaron Falk series. It's a series that I've enjoyed and I'll keep an eye out for future releases.

In Exiles, Aaron Falk is on vacation in a small town in wine country in Southern Australia. He's there for the christening  of his friend's daughter but it also marks the one year anniversary of the disappearance of Kim Gillespie. 

At the annual festival a year ago, Kim's baby was found tucked in a stroller, alone,  at the festival. People have been searching for her ever since. Falk can't avoid getting involved.

Good mystery, interesting characters and kept my focus during a week where I was completely distracted.
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Sparks Like Stars
By Nadia Hashimi, Read By Mozhan Marno

In Kabul in 1978, Sitara Zamani lived a very privileged life as her father was a senior aide to the president. But when she was 10 years old her entire family was killed during a coup and only she survived.

She was smuggled out of the palace and eventually out of the country and found home in the United States.

In 2008, her name is Arianna and she's an oncology surgeon in NYC and a surprising patient arrives in her office. It's the man who saved her from the massacre but also may be the man who murdered her family. It's finally time to return to Kabul and learn the truth.

This was a very interesting historical fiction novel. It's about Afghanistan, the effects of trauma on children and how trauma is often bottled up and carried into adulthood.  I'm glad I found this nw-to-me author.