The Shadows by Alex North
I read this book a month and a half ago, and it seems like a lot has happened since then… I cannot remember all the things I thought while reading this book, but I gave it 4 stars, so I must have liked it. This books follows a man named Paul who has returned to his hometown to care for his ailing mother. Being back home brings back memories of his friendship with some local boys – James, Charlie, and Billy. The latter two are […]
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
This was cruising to a 4-star rating and probably the title of my favorite Gamache read. And instead, it lands at 3. Why? A variety of reasons. I liked that most of the action, specifically Gamache’s action, took place outside of Three Pines. I don’t find Three Pines as fascinating as the writer does. Ideally, this series would just take Gamache to different parts of Quebec. Such is life. I also liked that Penny gave Jean-Guy some run. Occasionally, she writes him as too much […]
Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Winter’s Orbit came on to my radar through Cannonballers and then I noticed my independent bookstore featuring it as a staff pick for Pride month. It went on my book wish list and I got it for my birthday! In the far distant future there are multiple galactic civilizations and they are all connected through ‘the link network’ governed by the Resolution. Trade happens through the link and having the Resolution in place means that no invading force can use the link to attack another […]
Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life As A Weapon by Matt Fraction
Death Comes As The End by Agatha Christie
Country Dark by Chris Offutt
Heaven's A Lie by Wallace Stroby
Over the weekend and into the early part of this week, I read four books. Each one merited four stars and all were good in their own unique way… Hawkeye, Vol 1: My Life as a Weapon It’s good. I guess. No really, it’s good. All good. It’s fine. Just…it’s kind of why I don’t read a lot of comics: simplistic hero narratives with twee dialogue. I know this is what everyone wants thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’m not sure it’s what […]
The Pledge by Kathleen Kent
This one followed the same pattern as the Hunger Games trilogy: interesting first book followed by an excellent second and a concluding one that basically made me say “Eh, ok, I guess that’s an ending.” Part of why I loved (indeed loved) The Burn, the second book in the Betty Rhyzyk trilogy, is because I thought Kathleen Kent did an excellent job covering Betty’s PTSD from the end of the events of the first book. Too often, series writers put their characters through hell only to have them […]
The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2) by Richard Osman
I don’t even want to talk about it. I kind of want to read both books in the series again right now. They’re just the perfect mix of humor, pathos, mystery, cleverness, impishness, and intrigue. I continue to be so, so impressed by the way that Osman mixes these various elements together so well, so that one moment you’re laughing, one minute you’re puzzling out the mystery elements, and another you’re extremely sad because these character so perfectly represent the tragedy of being human, which […]
