Old Black Magic by Ace Atkins
Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: starts with O I have heard from many living old school mystery writers that the modern PI mystery tales in the States can be traced back to Spenser. Having gone out of vogue with the deaths of Chandler and Hammett — and with only Ross Macdonald elevating the genre — the hardboiled PI tale had taken a back seat by the time Robert B. Parker began building his prodigious catalog in the early-70s. Which is why I’ve given more […]
Infamous by Ace Atkins
The true although fictionalized account of the story of Machine Gun Kelly (the OG one) and his wife/stage manager, Kathryn Kelly, which reads like the best of hard-bitten film noir. Want snappy dialogue? Ya got it. “An exciting life for a farmer,” Mrs. Quigley said, raising her eyebrows.” “You can bet on it, sister,” Kathryn said, turning for the door. “See you in the funny papers.” The FBI was a new thing, and this was a test. Gus T. Jones had been assigned to crack […]
Mandarin Plaid by SJ Rozan
Lady Killer, Volume 1 by Joëlle Jones
Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend by Alys Arden
Batman, Vol. 6: Graveyard Shift by Scott Snyder
The Confession by Domenic Stansberry
A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself by William Boyle
Joe Dogs: The Life and Crimes of a Mobster by Joseph Iannuzzi
Robert B. Parker's Cheap Shot by Ace Atkins
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
Merry Christmas. We may need to dispense with the cold/snow songs. They’re about as realistic as Santa at this point. Mandarin Plaid **** SJ Rozan continues to improve with each book in this series. This one has layers and moves well to its conclusion. I’m not gonna be totally sold on a white person writing from the perspective of an AAPI one but I think Rozan does a better job with it than she did in the first one. May have to go long with […]
There Will Be Fire: Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and Two Minutes That Changed History by Rory Carroll
City of Dreams by Don Winslow
Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist by Jennifer Wright
Under Color of Law by Aaron Philip Clark
The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson
The Last Quarry by Max Allan Collins
Tripwire by Jack Reacher
Baby Moll by John Farris
Only the Dead Know Brooklyn by Thomas Boyle
The Laundromat: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite by Jake Bernstein
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball's Brightest Minds Created Sports' Biggest Mess by Evan Drellich
X by Davey Davis
Our Last Season: A Writer, A Fan, A Friendship by Harvey Araton
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen
The Boys From Biloxi by John Grisham
Ex Machina Book Four by Brian K. Vaughan
Jacket Weather by Mike DeCapite
Straight Cut by Madison Smartt Bell
The Crust on Its Uppers by Derek Raymond
That Kind of Danger by Donna Masini
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
Spenser Confidential by Ace Atkins
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
Weyward by Emilia Hart
The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon, I Mean Noel by Ellen Raskin
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
I usually do these at the end of the month but then I went through a big reading slump March-May. And then I roared back but realized I was behind. So apologies for this being so long. There Will Be Fire **** A good, readable text on a moment in history I knew little about. Even after reading Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing, I still had a lot of problem keeping track of all the socio-political dynamics so it’s good that Rory Carroll makes it accessible […]
The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion by Eliot Brown, Maureen Farrell
The Terra-Cotta Dog by Andrea Cammalleri
Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
Tina, Mafia Soldier by Maria Rosa Cutrufelli
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President's Murder by Susan Wels
Every Man a King by Walter Mosley
The Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates
Robert B. Parker's Lullaby by Ace Atkins
The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker
Play the Fool by Lina Chern
Man, that month went fast The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion**** I might have a lot more to say about this one had I finished it weeks ago but I’ll be honest, I’m starting to hit my limit on books about tech geniuses that the public discovers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be only after they’re handed billions of dollars. Theranos, Uber and now WeWork all run by self-glorifying con artists. This book is as well done as the […]
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipies from Tha Boss Dogg's Kitchen by Snoop Dogg
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Plunder of the Sun by David Dodge
Stunt: A Mythical Reimagining of Nellie Jackson, Madame of Natchez by Saida Agostini
The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, A Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation by Rich Cohen
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
Defender of the Innocent: The Casebook Files of Martin Ehrengraf by Lawrence Block
Voluntary Madness by Vicki Hendricks
Two Gentlemen of Lebowski: A Most Excellent Comedie and Tragic Romance by Adam Bertocci
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel García Márquez
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir by Daniel Barban Levin
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
My Summer Darlings by May Cobb
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa
Firestarter by Stephen King
The Editor by Steven Rowley
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
Crossroad Blues by Ace Atkins
Lucky by Jackie Collins
Here are reviews for the books I read in July that I didn’t have time or energy to do a full review on. Note: I was out of work in July so I read a lot. The Woman in Cabin 10 *** Read this while on a cruise ship and it definitely gave me some interesting feelings! A relatively entertaining thriller. I’d read another Ruth Ware book but wouldn’t rush out to do so From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes From Tha Boss Dogg’s Kitchen**** […]
