Dec 31, 2016

Best Books I read in 2016:

I read 74 books this year.  These are the best from the list (in the order I read the books).

  1. The Martian by Andy Weir (2011) Crown 
    All the ways Mars wants to kill you - Themes: fate (Mars is trying to kill him through no fault of it's own), hope (the indomitable human spirit) and humanity (people want him to live and go to extraordinary lengths to help him survive)

  2. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (2014) Viking
    Sarah Grimke, living in pre-Civil War Charleston, is given Handful, a slave, to be her handmaiden.  Sarah doesn’t want a slave, but she is given no choice.  Over the next thirty-five years as the girls get closer and Handful looks for a way to freedom, Sarah and her younger sister, Angelina, go north to help with abolition and women’s rights.

  3. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) Ballentine Books 
    The book was so good, I hated it.  Ms. Flynn can pull your emotions every which way.  On Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary, with the celebration planned and ready to get underway, Amy disappears.  The police jump to the regular conclusion that the husband killed the wife.  And Nick does himself no favors, caught in lie after lie.  The ending will make you jump.

  4. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1998) Harper
    Nathaniel Price, an evangelical Baptist, takes his family to the Congo on a mission.  Everything they planned is turned on its head.  Their garden refuses to grown, their attempt to convert the local populous only works to enrage their enemies.  Told over three decades from the point of view of one of the daughters, the family is torn apart and reconstructed.

  5. The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks (2005) Doubleday 
    There are people who want to control the world by forcing it to follow orders.  There are Travelers who bring change to the world.  The Tabula see Travelers as dangerous to world order.  And there are Harlequins who protect Travelers.  This is a story of a Harlequin who is called to serve and protect a set of brothers who may be Travelers against the Tabula agents sent to kill them.

  6. Mrs. Peregrine's Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs (2011) Quirk Books
    Teenage Jacob goes to an island off the coast of Wales with his birding father who is immersed in writing a new book.  Jacob, bored and wandering the island, finds the ruins of an abandoned house.  Only it’s not exactly abandoned, it’s trapped in a time loop from World War II.  And its occupants are peculiar indeed.
    A wonderful and well thought out adventure.  You'll fall in love with the children.

  7. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah (2015) St. Martin’s Press 
    Two sisters in German occupied France during World War II find their separate ways of surviving and finding a way to resist Nazism.  One joins the resistance, the other leads children and wounded fighters over the Pyrenees into Spain and freedom. 

  8. Raven Girl - Audrey Niffenegger (2013) Harry N. Abrams 
    A raven and a postman have a daughter who wants nothing but to be able to fly.  Like her mother, she is a raven, but she has a human body like her father.

  9. The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker (2013) Harper 
    A man who loses his business desires to go to America, but with a wife.  When no woman will have him, he purchases the ability of a local Jewish Kabbalist to create a Golem for him. On the way across the ocean, his utters the words to wake her and then dies.  In New York, a Syrian woman takes an old oil flask of her mothers and asks a local tinsmith if he can repair it.  But when the tinsmith removes some of the scroll work, out comes a Jinni in the form of a man, but with an iron band on his wrist.  Thus starts a winding story that brings everyone's lives together with an unexpected and well-deserved twist.

  10. And Sometimes I Wonder About You - Walter Mosley (2015) Little Brown 
    Leonid McGill is still trying to find a way to care for his wife, Katrina, love his girlfriend Aura and escape the magnetism of a new woman, Marilla, while keeping himself, his secretary, his children and acquaintances from being killed by people who think they want more than is possible.  This is the best craftsmanship to be found in writing.  

Dec 26, 2016

The Spy Who Loved Me - Ian Fleming (1962) Jonathan Cape 

A very different James Bond story, this time from the woman's point of view.  She's independent, had her heart broken, twice, does not trust men as a result, but she's off on an adventure, riding her Vesta from Canada down to Florida.  Caught a little low on cash, she stops at a motel in the Adirondacks and is offered a job as a receptionist.  The couple running the summer business for an absentee owner, ask her to stay an extra day after they leave for the owner to arrive for the winter shutdown.  Only the two guys who show up have less than honorable intentions.  Bond shows up during a storm with a flat and stays the night, rescuing her from her fears about the men she thought were going to rape her.  Only their intentions were much worse.

Dec 21, 2016

The Black Echo - Michael Connelly (1992) Little Brown 

Twists upon twists in the first Bosch novel.  Bosch is a celebrated and demoted detective in the LAPD.  A dead vet is found in a pipe at the reservoir in Hollywood Hills.  Bosch is able to identify the body as someone he served with in Viet Nam. Bosch sees what others don't and realizes it is not an OD, but a murder - he goes to the man's apartment and finds it has been ransacked, but he comes across a pawn ticket for a piece of jewelry.  He visits the pawnshop and discovers it was robbed the night before, taking the item from the ticket, but there is a picture of the item.  It turns out that both the dead guy and Bosch were looked at by the FBI for a bank robbery that happened while Bosch was on a forced vacation.  The IAD want Bosch so bad they can barely restrain themselves.  This looks to them like a tie-in that they can use against Bosch.  When he braces the FBI for info on the robbery, they call his boss and get him taken off the case, then call back and ask to have him put back on as a liaison to them.  He figures-out that there was a high-up Vietnamese police chief that had a box with no declared value in the first robbery, but as he digs further, there is reason to believe that the man had a fortune in diamonds in his box.  There is another Vietnamese who had diamonds in different bank and he suspects the other man is a target.  

Dec 16, 2016

Charcoal Joe - Walter Mosley (2016) Little Brown 

Mouse brings a job to Easy Rawlins; Joe needs his son, who has been framed by the cops, cleared of murder charges.  Easy is planning on proposing to his love, but that turns out to not be possible.  The boy in question turns out to be a Phd in Physics and likely an innocent bystander in un-innocent murder, theft and triple-crosses.  Fearless Jones covers Easy's rear. Lots of bad guys get their final ticket punched, and one gets a angelic gift when Easy returns her unconscious body to her home.  

Dec 11, 2016

And Sometimes I Wonder About You - Walter Mosley (2015) Little Brown 

Leonid McGill is still trying to find a way to care for his wife, Katrina, love his girlfriend Aura and escape the magnetism of a new woman, Marilla, while keeping himself, his secretary, his children and acquaintances from being killed by people who think they want more than is possible.  This is the best craftsmanship to be found in writing.  

Dec 6, 2016

The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker (2013) Harper

A man who loses his business desires to go to America, but with a wife.  When no woman will have him, he purchases the ability of a local Jewish Kabbalist to create a Golem for him. On the way across the ocean, his utters the words to wake her and then dies.  In New York, a Syrian woman takes an old oil flask of her mothers and asks a local tinsmith if he can repair it.  But when the tinsmith removes some of the scroll work, out comes a Jinni in the form of a man, but with an iron band on his wrist.  Thus starts a winding story that brings everyone's lives together with an unexpected and well-deserved twist.

Dec 1, 2016

The Space Between - Brenna Yovanoff (2011) Razorbill 

Lilith's daughter searches for her brother on Earth, seeking the help of a boy who attempted suicide, but was sent back.  He's the only courage she finds to start her search.  To her, Earth is terribly cold, but it has unexpected discoveries, like humanity and love.

Nov 26, 2016

White Night - Jim Butcher (2007) Roc

Wizard Harry Dresden, now a Warden, has a personal puzzle to work out; his first love has surfaced and is trying to guard a club of minor witches, with no luck. Surveillance video shows his brothe, Thomas, an emotion sucking vampire, abducting the missing women. All this and more is going on during a lull in a war between the wizards and the vampires.  And there may be a third party in the background.

Nov 16, 2016

61 Hours - Lee Child (2010) Delacorte Press

A Jack Reacher novel - the hours are used as a suspense device counting down.  A small town in South Dakota - in the end we don't even know if Reacher survives.

Nov 11, 2016

Naked in Death - J.D. Robb (2004) Putnam 

A mix of Sci Fi, murder mystery and bodice ripper with an anachronistic killer using 20th century guns as the weapon of choice in a 22nd century world.

Raven Girl - Audrey Niffenegger (2013) Harry N. Abrams 

A raven and a postman have a daughter who wants nothing but to be able to fly.  Like her mother, she is a raven, but she has a human body like her father.

Nov 6, 2016

The Chosen - Alex Archer (2007) Gold Eagle 

The third in the Rogue Angel series - Anja Creed has become the bearer of Joan of Arc's sword and it stays in a dimension within her reach at all times.  In this episode, odd sightings of a holy child and of horrific animals threaten small towns in New Mexico while a former mercenary, turned Jesuit priest and hitman for high ranking church officials threaten to eradicate Anja while she tries to halt the violence of innocents.

Nov 1, 2016

 Poison Fruit - Jacqueline Carey (2014) Ace

The third, and perhaps final installment of the Agent of Hel series.  Daisy Johannssen has to navigate not only her love life, trying to decide between a werewolf and a 600 year old Ghoul who used to be a Bohemian Knight, but try to outwit another Hellspawn and prevent Persephone from taking Little Niflheim from Hel.  In the end, she makes everyone proud, even her demon father, by bargaining with God for the good of everyone.

Oct 27, 2016

Thunderball - Ian Fleming (1961)

SPECTRE is trying to steal two British nuclear bombs to extort the government.  Bond recruits Domino Vitali, whose brother is a pilot in the pay of SPECTRE who plans to highjack a bomber carrying the bombs.  She is discovered trying to use a Geiger counter disguised as a camera.  She is tortured but refuses to give up any information.  The bomber is highjacked and ditched in the ocean where SPECTRE hops to recover the bombs.  Bond dives to the bomber and gets targeted by the enemy, but Domino, who escaped, shoots the bad guy, saving Bond. 

Perhaps the template for every Bond movie that followed.  The tough girl who falls for Bond, but is a force to be reckoned with on her own.

Oct 22, 2016

Day of the Dead – J.A. Jance

The Walker Saga continues.  After surviving attacks by serial killers, their daughter Lani becomes a target.  Former sheriff Walker joins the Last Chance Club, a group of former policemen who look into cold cases.  One case is of girls being sent for adoption from Mexico to Arizona, then disappear.  When he mentions it to his family, his daughter becomes involved and threatened.

Oct 18, 2016

Kiss of the Bees – J.A. Jance (2000) William Morrow

The second book in the series about the Walkers.  In this one Davy has grown-up and his adopted sister has been kidnapped.  The main story is still choppy, but the Indian stories are better.  The final part of the book is much better written, the timing and the climax work-out with a lot of action.  The return is well done also, showing the sister growing into a strong medicine woman.  At first, I was not interested in reading any more of the series, but the ending provides encouragement.

Oct 13, 2016

Unterzakhn (Underwear) - Leela Corman (2012) Schoken 

A graphic novel about the lives of two girls growing up in the early part of the 20th century in New York.  The story follows them through learning life's lessons along different paths.  One becomes a women's rights advocate, discreetly helping women who do not want to be pregnant (providing 'sheaths' was illegal), the other becomes a prostitute and then a stage star.  The ending is tragic, with the death of the advocate in child birth, leaving her childless sister to raise the girl.

Oct 8, 2016

Hour of the Hunter - J.A. Jance (1991) William Morrow 

A thriller with the requisite elements.  You know who the bad guy is from the beginning, you just don't know how they will stop him, each time you see how the good guys will save the day, they are diverted.  In the end it is the bad guy's target victim who defeats him.  The author weaves the local native culture into the story.  The scenes are brief.  Yet the story is so strong that it became a bestseller.

Oct 3, 2016

The Wolves of Midwinter - Anne Rice (2013) Knopf

There are more than just shapeshifters in the world.  Reuben, a wolf-man finds other spirits haunting the halls of his mansion.  And they have magic of their own.

Sep 28, 2016

The Wolf Gift - Ann Rice (2012) Knopf 

A reporter visits a mansion up for sale by a family whose fortunes have dwindled.  He is attacked and bitten in the night.  He begins to change and is afraid he is becoming a monster.  But he discovers that his feelings are not of a ravening beast, but of a duality that has the power of the wolf, with the heart of a man.

Sep 23, 2016

The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah (2015) St. Martin’s Press

Two sisters in German occupied France during World War II find their separate ways of surviving and finding a way to resist Nazism.  One joins the resistance, the other leads children and wounded fighters over the Pyrenees into Spain and freedom.

Sep 18, 2016

The Atlantis World - A.G. Riddle (2014) Legion Books

Dr. Kate Warner discovered the cure for a global pandemic, but she can’t cure herself.  Now it becomes apparent that the structure found in Antarctica is an alien ship and to save humanity, she must use the ship to call for help from somewhere else in the galaxy.

Sep 13, 2016

The Atlantis Plague - A.G. Riddle (2013) Legion Books 

The Atlantis Gene has become a pandemic.  It either causes a person to evolve or devolve.  A drug is developed for those who devolved, only it treats just the symptoms, not the disease.  Another group wants to simply wait for the complete results of the pandemic so the new race can rule the planet.  This becomes open warfare.  One researcher finds that looking into the past, at the events occurring at the same time as sudden changes in human DNA might be the only answer.

Sep 8, 2016

The Atlantis Gene - A.G. Riddle (2014) Legion Books

Researchers discover a structure in the ice in Antarctica.  A researcher in Jakarta discovers a treatment that could change the lives of autistic people.  Things are not as they seem and not everyone wants these discoveries to be revealed.

Sep 3, 2016

LaRose - Louise Erdrich (2016) Harper

Landreaux Irons accidentally kills the five-year-old son of his neighbor, Peter Ravich.  The boy was best friends and first cousin with his own son, LaRose.  Following a tradition of the Ojibwe, Landreaux gives LaRose to Peter’s family to be their son.  His new mother, Nola dotes on the boy, but has dark thoughts and only LaRose and his new sister keep the family stable.  Then a man with a grudge against Landreaux threatens the fragile peace of the families.

Aug 29, 2016

Library of Souls - Ransom Riggs (2015) Quirk Books

In this third volume of Mrs. Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, Jacob and his companions go to Devil’s Acre, a Victorian slum where the final showdown with monsters trying t5o destroy all peculiar children must decide their fates.

Aug 24, 2016

Hollow City - Ransom Riggs (2015) Quirk Books 

Mrs. Peregrine is trapped in the body of a bird and monsters are after the children.  Jacob takes his friends from their time-looped home to London.  But it’s the London of World War II.  But teenage love gets in the way and in order to save the children, Jacob must confront his feelings.

Aug 19, 2016

Mrs. Peregrine's Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs (2011) Quirk Books (8/19)

Teenage Jacob goes to an island off the coast of Wales with his birding father who is immersed in writing a new book.  Jacob, bored and wandering the island, finds the ruins of an abandoned house.  Only it’s not exactly abandoned, it’s trapped in a time loop from World War II.  And its occupants are peculiar indeed.

A wonderful and well thought out adventure.  You'll fall in love with the children.

Aug 14, 2016

Miracleman - Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Mark Buckingham (2016) Marvel 

In a world where London was destroyed, Miracleman presides over the new world.  There is no war, no famine, no poverty.  The dead return as androids.  An age of miracles, but not everyone is happy.

Aug 9, 2016

Sandman Overture - Neil Gaiman (2015) Vertigo 

This origin story of the Sandman covers the creation of the galaxy to the capture of Morpheus.  It features The Corinthian, Lucien the librarian, and of course, the Endless, the Sandman’s siblings; Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny.

Aug 5, 2016

Proven Guilty - Jim Butcher (2007) Roc

War with the vampires has cost a lot of wizards.  Harry gets drafted by the White Council to be a warden.  Then Michael, a guardian angel, asks Harry to intercede with his daughter, who is rebelling and may be in trouble.  As usual, Butcher delivers a tense, action filled story with surprises and feeling.

Jul 31, 2016

Dead Beat by Jim Butcher (2005) Roc Books 

Harry Dresden has to save his city, Chicago, when threatened by black magic and necromancy.

Jul 26, 2016

Blood Rites by Jim Butcher (2010) Roc 

Harry Dresden is asked to go undercover on the set of an adult film.  The director thinks he’s the target of a curse.  But it’s the actresses who are dying.

Jul 21, 2016

The Third Gate by Lincoln Child (2012) Doubleday 

Porter Stone, archeologist and explorer, thinks he has fount the tomb on King Narmer, who united upper and lower Egypt and that his double-crown of the two Egupts is in his crypt.

Jul 16, 2016

The Golden City by John Twelve Hawks (2009) Doubleday 

In the conclusion of the Traveler epic, the brothers are now firmly set in two different camps.  Michael is part of the brethren and is trying to become their leader.  Maya, the harlequin, has to make a life-changing decision.  Gabriel must protect the legacy of their father.

Jul 11, 2016

The Hildebrand Rarity by Ian Fleming (1960) Jonathan Cape

A wealthy man, Milton, gets Bond and another man, Krest, to help him in searching for a rare variety of squirrel fish.  On the way to where they want to search, Milton turns out to abuse, physically and verbally, everyone on board, especially his wife.  When the fish is found, Milton poisons the water to capture it.  That night, Krest is found to have been murdered by stuffing the rare fish down his throat.

Jul 6, 2016

A Shiver of Light by Laurell K Hamilton (2014) Berkley

Merry Gentry, former P.I. and now full-time princess of faerie, is pregnant with triplets.  Taranis, King of Light and Illusion (one of the faerie courts) is suing for visitation rights, claiming that he is the father.  Merry knows she was pregnant when Taranis raped her.  But she can’t prove it.  So she is calling on her guards, and real parents of her unborn children, to face down the high courts of faerie.  A war she does not want to get out of control.

Jul 1, 2016

Risoco by Ian Fleming (1960) Jonathan Cape

Bond is sent to investigate a drug smuggling operation in Italy.  His contact Kristatos tells Bond that a man named Colombo is behind the racket.  When Bond starts to check out Colombo, he is captured.  But Columbo claims Kristatos is the real smuggler.  Who is the real smuggler, and will Bond survive the operation?

Jun 26, 2016

The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks (2007) Doubleday 

The Brethren have set events in motion and the Harlequin must continue to protect the Travelers.  The brothers are in two different camps hoping to learn enough about their father to find him.

Jun 21, 2016

Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K Hamilton (2008) Ballantine Books 

Merry Gentry is pregnant with twins fathered by her royal guard.  But conspiracies in both faerie courts threaten her guards, herself and her unborn children.

Jun 16, 2016

The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks (2005) Doubleday 

There are people who want to control the world by forcing it to follow orders.  There are Travelers who bring change to the world.  The Tabula see Travelers as dangerous to world order.  And there are Harlequins who protect Travelers.  This is a story of a Harlequin who is called to serve and protect a set of brothers who may be Travelers against the Tabula agents sent to kill them.

Jun 11, 2016

A Lick of Frost by Laurell K Hamilton (2007) Ballantine Books 

Merry Gentry is trying to avoid the courts of faerie.  Both are seeking to kill her so they can put their own sinister candidates on the throne.  Then one of the courts accuses her royal guards and is trying to get the mortal authorities to extradite them to his court.  How will Merry keep that from happening?

Jun 6, 2016

Return to Sender by Dick Cluster (1988) Dutton 

Alex Glauberman is a cancer patient who takes on a high-paying mission to deliver a package.  Then he has to race against time to retrieve it before it reaches its destination.

Jun 1, 2016

A Stroke of Midnight by Laurell K Hamilton (2005) Ballentine Books 

Merry Gentry prefers to solve cases as a private investigator.  But she is constrained by sitting on the throne of faerie and fears becoming the dark magic that she has to wield to rule.

May 27, 2016

Quantum of Solace by Ian Fleming (1960) Jonathan Cape 

“When the Quantum of Solace drops to zero, humanity and consideration of one human for another is gone and the relationship is finished.  So says the Governor of the Bahamas to James Bond.  He tells the story of a man who fell in love with an air hostess, who was unfaithful and how that man punished her.

May 23, 2016

Seduced by Moonlight by Laurell K Hamilton (2004) Ballentine Books 

Merry Gentry, P.I., princess, heir to the throne of faerie.  She’s saved the realm and brought magic back.  She now has those who love her and those who fear her.  And she doesn’t know why.

May 18, 2016

Late Wife by Claudia Emerson (2005) Louisiana State University Press 

Emerson explores the life she shared with a husband until the marriage failed, then the freedom of solitude during her recovery from that set of emotions, then the unexpected joy found with a new husband who was a widower.

May 13, 2016

For Your Eyes Only by Ian Fleming (1960) Jonathan Cape 

Bond is sent to assassinate a man who directed the assassination of the Havelocks, where the M was the best man at their wedding.  When Bend gets there, he finds the Havelock’s daughter killing the gangster with a bow and arrow, and starting a firefight.  Bond must save the girl and avoid getting shot

May 8, 2016

Luna Park by Kevin Baker (2009) Vertigo

A tale of rescue and redemption.  A former Soviet soldier becomes an enforcer for a Russian gang, falls in love with a prostitute whose daughter is kept captive by her gang lord.  The enforcer comes-up with plan to save all three of them.

May 3, 2016

From a View to a Kill by Ian Fleming (1960) Jonathan Cape 

An assassin is killing NATO couriers, stealing their messages and selling them to the Soviets.  Bond is sent to investigate and is picked-up by Mary Russell, from the local MI6 station.  NATO is uninterested in cooperating but turns over what they have as evidence.  One thing sticks-out to Bond and it makes the difference.

Apr 28, 2016

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child (200() Delacorte Press

People are watching Reacher.  They intend to kill him.  But they don’t know Jack Reacher, and that’s their problem.

Apr 23, 2016

E by Kate Wrath (2014) CreateSpace 

First offence, erasure.  Second offense, death.  A nameless girl is dropped into an outpost where the most basic needs are almost impossible to come by.  Robots enforce the law without recourse.  How can people escape, let alone survive in such a world?

This is the first best-selling book (according to Amazon) from a self-publisher to become popular with the general public.  It will be interesting to see how the platform/publisher fares with regards to promoting their authors to the New York Times best selling list.

Apr 18, 2016

Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War - Ari Kelman & Jonathan Fetter-Vorm (2015) Hill and Wang 

A beautiful rendition of ordinary scenes mixed with battles that represent the darkest period of our history.

Apr 13, 2016

Death: The Time of Your Life by Neil Gaiman (1997) Verigo 

A successful singer-songwriter loses her child from her only heterosexual encounter.  When death arrives, she promises to take her son’s place, the next time death returns in trade for letting her son live a while longer.

Apr 8, 2016

Julio's Day by Gilbert Hernandez (2013) Fantagraphics 

The story of a man born in 1900 who lives for 100 years.  One century told from a single life.  At his birth, the family thinks he will become an opera singer or a politician.  What he becomes is a surprise to himself and everyone else.

Apr 3, 2016

Glacial Period by Nicolas De Crecy (2007) Nbm Publishing Co.

An artist imagines a future ice-age where a team has discovered the ruins of the Louvre, buried in the snow.  They try to interpret the artifacts they see from their future perspective.  Accompanied by their pig-like talking dogs, the presentation is amusing and wonderfully drawn.

Mar 29, 2016

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1998) 

Nathaniel Price, an evangelical Baptist, takes his family to the Congo on a mission.  Everything they planned is turned on its head.  Their garden refuses to grown, their attempt to convert the local populous only works to enrage their enemies.  Told over three decades from the point of view of one of the daughters, the family is torn apart and reconstructed.

Mar 24, 2016

Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi (2006) Pantheon

What do women in Iran do when they get together?  They talk about love, sex and men.  The discussions cover faking virginity, escaping arranged marriages, and the benefits of being a mistress.  The women range in age and the subject is presented with humor and dignity, or something that seems to be the same.

Mar 19, 2016

Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi (2006) Pantheon

The author of Persepolis brings her sense of humor and insight with a man who is the pre-eminent player of the stringed tar. He instrument is broken beyond repair and he cannot find another one that speaks to him the same way.  So, he decided to lay down and die.  His family and friends try to change his mind but cannot. 

Mar 14, 2016

O Jerusalem by Laurie R King (1999) Bantam 

Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, visit Palestine under the auspices of Holmes’ brother Mycroft.  They work with two Arabs, Ali and Mahmoud, and track a murderer to Jerusalem, a man who wants to destroy the most sacred place in the city to ignite more war.

Mar 10, 2016

The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar (2005) Pantheon 

A rabbi’s cat eats a parrot and gains the ability to speak.  He argues with the rabbi about Talmudic vs Kabbala teachings and wants a Bar Mitzvah.  The rabbi’s daughter loves the cat and he accompanies the rabbi and his daughter to France to meet her prospective husband’s family.

Mar 5, 2016

Jack and Jill by James Patterson (1996) Little Brown & Co.

Alex cross tracks the killer of a little girl.  But this was only a trial run for the killer’s real target.

Feb 29, 2016

A Caress of Twilight by Laurell K Hamilton (2002) Ballentine Books

Meredith Gentry is an L.A. private eye.  She’s also a fae princess.  To become queen, she must bear a child before her cousin can father one of his own.  So she proceeds to attempt the feat with the warriors of her royal guard.  And she has to stop an ancient evil that is trying to destroy the fabric of reality.

Feb 24, 2016

Goldfinger by Ian Fleming (1959) Penguin Books

Bond investigates the gold smuggling operation of Auric Goldfinger, a financier of SMERSH.  Goldfinger has a plan to steal the gold from Fort Knox.

Feb 19, 2016

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) Ballentine Books

The book was so good, I hated it.  Ms. Flynn can pull your emotions every which way.  

On Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary, with the celebration planned and ready to get underway, Amy disappears.  The police jump to the regular conclusion that the husband killed the wife.  And Nick does himself no favors, caught in lie after lie.  The ending will make you jump.

Feb 14, 2016

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (2014) Viking 

Sarah Grimke, living in pre-Civil War Charleston, is given Handful, a slave, to be her handmaiden.  Sarah doesn’t want a slave, but she is given no choice.  Over the next thirty-five years as the girls get closer and Handful looks for a way to freedom, Sarah and her younger sister, Angelina, go north to help with abolition and women’s rights.

Feb 9, 2016

Deadwood by Peter Dexter (1986) Random House

Deadwood, Dakota territories, 1876.  Wild Bill Hickock, his friend, Charlie Utter, and Calamity Jane come together in a real wild-west story.  There are Chinese immigrants, gamblers, whore masters, miscreants, and a man who is convinced that Hickock has bested him and ruined his reputation.  He also knows he could not beat the legendary gunman in a fair fight.  But what’s fair in real life?

Feb 4, 2016

Allegiant by Veronica Roth (2013) Katherine Tegen Books 

Told in a completely different way from the first two volumes, as a he-said, she-said approach to the tale.  It was difficult for me to stay in the story.  The movie did not attempt this viewpoint and as better for it. 

This time, the two main characters choose to trust each other and follow their choice of allegiance and love.

Jan 30, 2016

Insurgent - Veronica Roth (2012) Katherine Tegen Books

War surges between the factions of the city.  Can Tris save the people she loves?  Can she save herself?

Jan 25, 2016

Divergent by Veronica Roth (2011) Katherine Tegen Books 

Beatrice Prior lives in a future dystopian Chicago and chooses to diverge from the faction that her family is a part of.  She chooses to be Dauntless, those who are brave and sworn to protect the factions.  But can she rise in the ranks of her faction, or will she be pushed out of the city?

Jan 20, 2016

The Bad Beginning: A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (1999) Harper Trophy

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are orphans and are sent to live with Count Olaf, who wants to steal their inheritance.  He even goes so far as to stage a play with the real marriage vows and has Violet play the bride.  Will this be the act that will secure the Baudelaire fortune for Count Olaf?

Jan 15, 2016

Louisiana Hotshot by Julie Smith (2001) Forge Books 

Tabitha Wallis is a fledgling detective.  At night, she’s Baroness Pontalba, poet of the city’s smokey cafés. Her day job has her hunting a man who seduces black teen girls and then they disappear.  But she doesn’t expect the violence that comes with the job.

Jan 10, 2016

Harmony Black by Craig Schaefer (2016) 47North 

Harmony Black is an FBI special agent and a practicing witch.  She’s called in on a case to bring down an elusive occult figure who haunts her past.

Jan 5, 2016

The Martian by Andy Weir (2011) Crown 

All the ways Mars wants to kill you - Themes: fate (Mars is trying to kill him through no fault of it's own), hope (the indomitable human spirit) and humanity (people want him to live and go to extraordinary lengths to help him survive)

Any Weir may be this generation’s Ben Bova.  He’s a scientist at NASA where he has a rich trove of source material and insider knowledge of where science can lead us.

Jan 1, 2016

 The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (2000) Yearling

Book three of His Dark Material wherein Will and Lyra fight Mrs. Coulter, Asriel and Metatron until they fall into an abyss and are destroyed.  They free the Authority from his crystal litter, but he is so old and powerless that the wind causes his form to dissolve back into dust.  But the two young lovers cannot exist in the same world.  They promise to go to the same bench in Oxford in each of their worlds.