June 2012 Reads

Igor Shin Moromisato, "A girl reading a book by the Rive Reine" pin

48   Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James
49   What It Was by George Pelecanos
50   Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James
51   Live By Night by Dennis Lehane
52   A Wanted Man by Lee Child
53   The Devil in Silver by Victor La Valle
54   212 by Alafair Burke
55   The Inside Ring by Mike Lawson
56   Sutton by J. R. Moehringer

In my previous post, I already told what I thought of the Fifty Shades trilogy.  In short, read them.  This month I was lucky enough to read three of my favorite authors, George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane and Lee Child.  I've devoured everything they've written.  If you haven't read them, you should.  Pelecanos' books are all stand alone fiction, set in Washington DC.  Lehane, has a five book series, but everything else is stand alone, all set in Boston.  Child's novels are all about one character and they're set all over the US.

I read two ARC's that I received at the BEA.  Sutton, is Moehringers' first fiction.  He's a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaperman and his writing is tight and easy to read.  I loved his memoir, The Tender Bar.  Read it, too.  Sutton is the fictionalized account of the life of Willie Sutton, the famous bank robber.  Willie Sutton wrote two memoirs, that disagreed with each other, they were fiction, too.  Moehringer did his research and wrote a very interesting novel.

The Devil in Silver by Victor La Valle, is a very unusual story.  The main character, Pepper, is admitted to a psych ward for a 72 hour evaluation, because the arresting officers are too lazy to do their paperwork.  The story deals with Peppers' trials and tribulations while there,  they were eye-opening, to me.  His stay is 20 times longer than planned.  This is from the publisher, Random House,  "The Devil in Silver brilliantly brings together the compelling themes that spark all of Victor LaValle’s radiant fiction: faith, race, class, madness, and our relationship with the unseen and the uncanny. More than that, it’s a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror about friendship, love, and the courage to slay our own demons."

One of the ways I discover new to me authors, is taking advantage of Free Fridays from Nook.  Each Friday they offer a free book to download.  If it looks interesting, I download it.  Two of the authors from this month were Free Friday discoveries.  Make Larson and Alafair Burke.  Larson writes good political fiction and Burke writes good police procedurals.  Both worth reading.

What are you reading?