May 2020 Reads

Another great month for reading.

May	34	Crazy Rich Asians	Kevin Kwan
	35	The Summer Book	Tove Jansson
	36	An American Spy	Olen Steinhauer
	37	Paris Never Leaves You	Ellen Feldman
	38	The Last Tourist	Olen Steinhauer
	39	Odd Partners	Anne Perry, editor
	40	Sun and Shadow	Ake Edwardson
	41	Never End	Ake Edwardson

Alright!  This month is different, I'm not going to do mini-reviews, I'm just going to tell you all these books were wonderful, except Crazy Rich Asians.  Read them all, with that one exception!

What are you reading?

April 2020 Reads

April	25	The Dreamers	Karen Thompson Walker
	26	Stateway's Garden	Jasmon Drain
	27	The Yellow Bird Sings	Jennifer Rosner
	28	The Tourist	Olen Steinhauer
	29	Poems To See By	Julian Peters
	30	Frying Plantain	Zalika Reid-Denta
	31	Nearest Exit	Olen Steinhauer
	32	Sing to It	Amy Hemple
	33	Savage Son	Jack Carr

The quarantine and "stay-at-home" orders didn't really affect me.  My reading didn't increase because I read at night and sew/quilt during the day.

Stateway's Garden by Jasmon Drain is brilliant.  It reads like a memoir; it's a series of stories telling about life for children in the projects in Chicago.  They deal with crushing poverty, violence, and crime.  This is their world and Drain is a great writer.

The Yellow Bird Sings is a fabulous debut novel about the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter.  They are hiding from the Nazis during WWII.  Read it!

This month I started a spy series.  The Tourist is the first of the Milo Weaver novels.  It was great and I'm going to read them all.  Olen Steinhauer has some stand-alone novels, and that's how I became hooked on his writing.  All the Old Knives was a favorite, and The Tourist is just as good.

Poetry isn't high on my list, but I did enjoy Poems To See By. Peters has illustrated classic poems, manga-style.  It's like reading a poem in the Sunday Funnies!

It's no secret that I really enjoy a good spy/thriller, and Savage Son fits the bill.  It's the 3rd in the Terminal List series.

What are you reading?

September 2019 Reads

Sep	54	Someone Knows	Lisa Scottoline
	55	The World That We Knew	Alice Hoffman
	56	The Terminal List	Jack Carr
	57	A Good Neighborhood	Therese Anne Fowler
	58	Out Of Bounds	Val McDermid
	59	Travel Light, Move Fast	`Alexandra Fuller
	60	Dominicana	Angie Cruz
	61	The Rules of Magic	Alice Hoffman
	62	Such A Fun Age	Kiley Reid

September was a great month for reading, not a stinker in the bunch!

Someone Knows is a thriller and an emotional rollercoaster.  It's about family, marriage, justice, and the emotional wounds that just won't heal. It's a stunner and I loved it.

The World That We Knew is a wonderful read about the courage of 3 women during WWII. Read it and you'll never forget it.

The Terminal List is an explosive, riveting; it has vivid characters and a relentless pace. My head is spinning and I loved this debut thriller. It has lots of bad guys and a few good ones. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

A Good Neighborhood is not my normal read, but I enjoyed it for the wonderfully drawn characters and sense of place. It's compelling, heartbreaking and the conclusion seems inevitable. I think this would be a great book club read,

Great series, and great writing. Out of Bounds is a police procedural, it moves fast and covers lots of intricate ground. Scottish law is very different. Out of Bounds encompasses mystery after mystery, all interconnected, of course

Travel Light is a moving tribute to her father and a memoir of growing up in Africa. This is a great read and the only memoir this month

Dominicana is another great debut novel, it's a story of how the American dream works. This would also be a wonderful book club read, I'd love to sit in on the discussion!

After reading The World That We Knew, earlier this month, I wanted to read more by Hoffman. The Rules of Magic is another great read and I'll be looking for more of her work.

Such A Fun Age is another debut novel. It's a big-hearted story about race and privilege. It was a good read.  I love being able to recommend debut novels.

What are you reading?

BEA, Book Expo America 2014

I had a wonderful time at Book Expo this year.  To be fair, I always have a wonderful time, otherwise I wouldn't attend.  I go on my own dime, so to be fair, I need to have a good time.

The highlight for me is the books.  Sure, I like meeting authors, afterall they write books, one of my favorite things, but books really do it for me.

I shipped home 107 pounds of books; three boxes stuffed full.  That translates to 116 books.  These photos don't show all of them, some flew to new homes before I could get the rest organized for photos.  Here's a collage of the books that stayed here.

Ten hardcovers, but the rest were ARC's, Yay!  The kids books on the left and left center of the bottom row, will be donated to Bob's old station, where they have a Free Library for they children who end up at the police station.

What are you reading?

Incoming

In the past two weeks, I've received seven ARC's from publishers, and a book bag!

The books are:
A Dangerous Fiction by Barbara Rogan
Close my Eyes by Sophie McKenzie
Fin & Lady by Cathleen Schine
Man Alive by Mary Kay Zuravleff
Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford
Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes and
Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

I've already read Someone Else's Love Story and loved it.  Right now, I'm reading Silver Star by Jeannette Walls, loving it, too; and I think I'll tackle Songs of Willow Frost, next.  If you could choose one of these titles, which would you read next?

BTW, I don't love all the books I pick up to read.  This week I started two, that I just couldn't even finish.  I gave them each a good 70 to 80 pages before calling it quits.  Unusual, for me, but I don't like wasting my time.

What are you reading?

Incoming books

I returned home from NYC and the BEA on the 2nd of June.  My ARCs arrived at the end of the week.  You can see them on this post, if you're interested.  You would think I really don't need any more books; you would be incorrect.

This week I've already gotten 8 books in the mail, four ARCs from publishers,

four I ordered from BN.com, using a discount coupon or two, and free shipping.

Yep, eight new books.  I'm really excited about the purchased book and two of the ARCs.

What are you reading?