March 2019 Reads

Mar	16	The Trespasser	Tana French
	17	Stay with Me	Alison Gaylin
	18	Mission Critical	Mark Greaney
	19	The Border	Don Winslow
	20	The River	Peter Heller
	21	Daisy Jones and the Six	Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Trespasser is an Irish police procedural and a rip-roaring page-turner. French is a poet of mood and a master builder of plots. This is #6 of her Dublin Murder Squad series, I read the first one, and the characters are different in this one. A great read.

Mission Critical:  I think this Gray Man tale would be a fabulous movie.  I've read all of the series and they just keep getting better; usually by the 8th book in a series, I'm done, not this series. If I ever need help I'm calling Court Gentry!

The Border is the last installment of a trilogy. Winslow wrote the series over a 20 year period and I've read them as soon as they're released. He's a great writer. If you're going to read it, start with Power of The Dog. The subject is drugs, power, and government.

Heller is a great writer and The River is a great read.  If you cross Into the Wild with Deliverance; you get The River.

Daisy Jones and the Six is about Rock 'n Roll. The entire novel is written as interviews of the fictional characters. It's a fast read and very engaging.  It's on all the Bestseller lists for a reason.

What are you reading?

January and February 2019 Reads

2019

Jan	1	Heaven's Prisoners	James Lee Burke
	2	One Good Turn	Kate Atkinson
	3	Becoming	Michelle Obama
	4	A Darker Domain	Val McDermid
	6	An Anonymous Girl	Greer Hendricks
	7	An American Summer	Alex Kotlowitz
Feb	8	This Story Is A Lie	Tom Pollock
	9	Every Note Played	Lisa Genova
	10	Hooligan	Philipp Winkler
	11	The Line	Marin Limon
	12	Beautiful Bad	Annie Ward
	13	The Smiling Man	Joseph Knox
	14	And She Was	Alison Gaylin
	15	Into the Dark	Alison Gaylin

I'm seriously behind in posting my recommendations for 2019, I've decided to post for 2 months this time.  I hope it won't become a habit.

In these 15 books, there are some authors that you can never go wrong with.  Instead of recommending them separately, I'm going to list them, and you can consider them recommended!

1. James Lee Burke
2. Kate Atkinson
3. Lisa Genova
4. Val McDermid

Read any of there books and you won't be disappointed.

Becoming by Michelle Obama is my favorite from this list, it's outstanding.  It's been on the NYT's bestseller list for 23 weeks for good reason.

An American Summer by Alex Kotlowitz is an eyeopener!  The subtitle is Love and Death in Chicago.  It's well written and well researched, I'm rooting for Chicago to turn the corner and become safer.

If I could only use one word to describe Hooligan, a debut novel, it would be "gripping". The characters brawl, love, hate, and booze like nobody's business. Written in German and translated.

This Story is a Lie is listed as YA, but I think it's for everyone. It's a roller coaster novel about family and memory, it really captivated me.

What are you reading?

December 2018 Reads

90 Saving Meghan D J Palmer
91 The Wolf and the Watchman Niklas Natt Och Dag
92 Trouble No Man Brian Hart
93 Newcomer Keigo Higashino
94 The Suspect Fiona Barton
95 The Falconer Dana Czapnik
96 Sadie Courtney Summers
97 The Girl He Used to Know Tracey Garvis Graves
98 The List Mick Herron

In 2018 I challenged myself to read 100 books; I almost made it!  I've been tracking the books I read since 2004, in that time I've read 1687 books, for an average of 112 books a read.  My high was 150 books and the low was 78!  Since I didn't meet my goal, I'm challenging myself to 100 books again this year!

Now, for the books I recommend.  Life is too short to read bad books, and I read great books this month!

Saving Meghan is one wild ride. The plot has many twists that kept me guessing. It's a medical mystery and so much more.  It'll be published in April.

The Wolf and The Watchman is a great debut novel and I'm looking forward to more from this author. His writing is thrilling, beautiful and unnerving.  It'll be released in March.

Trouble No Man is well written and reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, but the noir is lighter. This is my first time reading Hart; he's really good.  Pub date is January 29th.

Newcomer is intriguing and complex, plus a look at current Japanese life. I really enjoyed this mystery and highly recommend it.

The Suspect by Fiona Barton ~ Talk about twisting psychological suspense! Two 18-year-old girls go missing in Thailand, the novel follows their British families as they try to find them or what happened to them. Hard to put down, it'll be published 1/22/19. Put it on your list.

The Falconer is an NYC coming of age story. The writing is poetic and there's basketball. I loved every page of this debut novel. Pub. date is 1/29/19.

Sadie is YA and not my usual read, but I received as a Christmas gift from a quilter friend, so I knew I had to read it.  It's a gut-wrenching mystery and the writing is riveting.

The Girl He Used to Know ~ This was a good read. It's a love story with characters you wish you knew, you'll lose your heart to them. It'll be published in April, put it on your list

The List is a short novel packs a punch. It's full of sharp British wit and a unique take on the spy novel.

What are you reading?