June 2020 Reads

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June	42	Olive The Lionhearted	Brad Ricca
	43	Frozen Tracks	Ake Edwardson
	44	Bear Necessity	James Gould-Bourn
	45	Wanderers	Chuck Wendig
	46	Death Angels	Ake Edwardson
	47	Pretty Things	Janell Brown
	48	Even the Dogs	Jon McGregor
	49	Bikeman	Thomas F. Flynn

 

There are two books on this list that I don't recommend, Pretty Things and Even the Dogs.  The rest were great. 

Olive the Lionhearted is a great biography.   It reads like a novel, which makes it an easy read.

Two more Inspector Winter novels by Edwardson.  I've been sparsing them out because I don't want the series to end.  I think there's two or three more.

Bear Necessity is a delightful debut will be published in August, keep your eyes open for it. It's filled with delightful characters and it's heartwarming and uplifting - what we all need.

Wanderers is a humdinger of a book! Not my usual read, it's sci-fi, and at almost 800 pages, it was very long, plus there was a pandemic! The writing was sharp and the storytelling was tight. It was hard to put down

Bikeman ~ I read this epic poem in 2008, when it was first published. Then, I thought it was the best thing written about 9/11, and I still agree.  I intend to re-read it more often, even if my heart breaks every time. 

What are you reading?

June 2019 Reads

June 35 Stars of Alabama Sean Dietrich 36 The Secrets We Kept Lara Prescott 37 This Tender Land William Kent Krueger 38 Joe Country Mick Herron 39 The Stranger Inside Lisa Unger 40 Today We Go Home Kelli Estes

I really loved Stars of Alabama.  Dietrich has woven together a rich tapestry of characters—some charming, some heartbreaking, all of them inspiring.  I'm looking forward to more from this author.

The Secrets We Kept is well worth reading. Prescott’s triumphant debut offers a fresh perspective on women employed by the CIA during the 1950s and their role in disseminating into the Soviet Union copies of Dr. Zhivago.  Fiction at it's best.

I love Mick Herron's writing and stories.  Slough House isn't where you want to end up, and you won't if you're good at your job, which is being a spy!  Joe Country doesn't disappoint.

The Stranger Inside by Lisa Unger is a very highly recommended psychological thriller featuring survivors, murder, kidnapping, and vigilante justice.  It has a bit of something for every mystery/thriller reader.



What are you reading?

May 2019 Reads

May 27 The Department of Sensitive Crimes Alexander McCall Smith 28 Warlight Michael Ondaatje 29 Tin Man Sarah Winman 30 Belview Square Michael Redhill 31 Gravity is the Thing Jaclyn Moriarty 32 Those People Louise Candlish 33 The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell Robert Dugoni 34 The Female of the Species Mindy McGinnis This is the first time I've real McCall Smith.  What a delightful tale, he dives right into some bizarre cases in the Swedish Criminal Justice System.  Great read and I'm a convert. Warlight is "An elegiac thriller [with] the immediate allure of a dark fairy tale.” —The Washington Post.  I can't say it better, so I'll leave it at that.  Read this book! I'm not recommending many of these books.  If you want something different, try the YA, The Female of the Species, it's a good solid read. What are you reading?

April 2019 Reads

Apr	22	Dig	A. S. King
	23	The Skeleton Road	Val McDermid
	24	From Red Earth	Denise Uwimana
	25	The Good Sister	Gillian McAllister
	26	When God was a Rabbit	Sarah Winman

Not many books for April,  I highly recommend The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid.  She always writes first-class mysteries.

The Good Sister by McAlister is a suspenseful courtroom drama, lots of twist and turns and worth reading.

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 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?

World Book Night

I had so much fun being a giver during the 2012 World Book Night.  I gave away The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.  They've just announced the books that will be available for giving this year.  There are so many great books on this list, I'm going to have a hard time decided which book to "bid" on.

The 30 World Book Night U.S. titles for 2013, alphabetical by author, are:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Anchor)
City of Thieves by David Benioff (Plume)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (S&S)
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (Plume)
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (Vintage)--also in Spanish
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (HarperOne)--also in Spanish
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Ballantine)
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (Mariner)
Bossypants by Tina Fey (Reagan Arthur)
Still Alice by Lisa Genova (Gallery Books)
Looking for Alaska by John Green (Speak/Penguin)
Playing for Pizza by John Grisham (Dell)
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (Algonquin)
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (Yearling)
Moneyball by Michael Lewis (Norton)
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer (Hyperion)
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (Washington Square Press)
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Population: 485 by Michael Perry (HarperPerennial)
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (HarperTorch)
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (Disney)
Montana Sky by Nora Roberts (Jove/Penguin)
Look Again by Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin's)
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (Back Bay)
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor)
Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith (Tin House)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury)
Favorite American Poems, large print edition (Dover)

Do you think you'll sign up to be a giver, in 2013?

What are you reading?

Jonathan Lethem: Bookselling Was 'My University'

This is what's it's really like to be a bookseller.  To heck with what "everyone's reading"!  Most likely it's not as good as 100 other new books.

Jonathan Lethem: Bookselling Was 'My University'

"I think of bookstore jobs as my university. The physical trade of books was a hallowed way to become a writer in the pre-MFA era. It was the only work I wanted to do, and the only work I was qualified to do.... With bookstores, you go in and you find the things you weren't looking for. The clerk is doing that 24/7--my reading was shaped by what was left behind. And you develop a loathing for the false canon--the two books each year that everybody is supposed to read.... You can't hang onto those sacred quarantines when you see the mad diversity around you."

--Jonathan Lethem, recalling his time as a bookseller for a Salon article on the vanishing bricks-and-mortar shop clerk

What are you reading?

What a loss for book people

From todays' Shelf Awarness:

Obituary Note: Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey, author of nearly 100 books, co-author of more than 30 and best known for the Dragonriders of Pern series, died on Monday at her home in Ireland. She was 85.

McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo Award (in 1968) and the first woman to win a Nebula (in 1969). She was the daughter of an army colonel, was born in Cambridge, Mass., and grew up in Montclair, N.J. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2006.

I'm not a huge Fantasy fan, but I read all of the Dragon Riders of Pern series.  When I first became a bookseller, almost eleven years ago, I asked one of the booksellers who lived and breathed Fantasy, to recommend something for me to read.  I think booksellers should be widely read and this series is really good.  I since have read a few more fantasy series, thanks to this positive experience.

What are you reading?

Quote of the Day

The Book, Greatest Weapon in War Against Stupidity




"The book is second only to the wheel as the best piece of technology human beings have ever invented. A book symbolises the whole intellectual history of mankind; it's the greatest weapon ever devised in the war against stupidity."

--Author Philip Pullman in a speech at the Library Campaign's conference, printed in the Bookseller

I couldn't agree more.

What are you reading?

a good deal

One of my daughters just listed 109 books on Ebay, for 99 cents each, you can check them out, here.

What are you reading?