The Neighborhood by Matthew Betley

Started: 9/5/2022

Finished: 9/8/2022

Year: 2002

Pages: 285

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B+

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "What happens when your neighborhood harbors a secret so destructive that dangerous men are willing to kill for it?

Welcome to Hidden Refuge, a normal American subdivision full of normal American suburbanites. At least that's what the citizens thought before men impersonating police officers show up on their doorsteps in the middle of the night. Once the entire community is under siege, so begins a long, dark night that will prove to be anything but ordinary.

But Zack Chambers, suburban family man and programmer by trade, has his own secret. One he had dearly hoped that he’d never need to use again. The deadly ex–CIA agent and trained operative plots to take back the night, doing whatever it takes to protect his neighborhood.

In the face of a small army of trained killers, he's got his wits, his babysitter, his equally lethal brother, and a ragtag group of neighbors willing to help.

Action-packed and relentless with twists and turns and old scores to be settled, this propulsive and brilliantly plotted can't-miss thriller brings a shocking end you won't see coming. Fans of Matthew Betley’s trademark blend of gritty realism and edge-of-your-seat action will be delighted."

Opinion: I'm not usually a reader of military suspense novels but this one was good-plus it helped that Zack was a former agent. Lots of action and an interesting twist.

My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni

Started: 8/31/2022

Finished: 9/4/2022

Year: 2014

Pages: 402

Genre: Mystery

Grade: B+

Reason for reading: library book

Type: Paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the facts surrounding her sister Sarah’s disappearance and the murder trial that followed. She doesn’t believe that Edmund House―a convicted rapist and the man condemned for Sarah’s murder―is the guilty party. Motivated by the opportunity to obtain real justice, Tracy became a homicide detective with the Seattle PD and dedicated her life to tracking down killers.

"When Sarah’s remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she’s been seeking. As she searches for the real killer, she unearths dark, long-kept secrets that will forever change her relationship to her past―and open the door to deadly danger."

Opinion: A new to me mystery series...and I will be getting the next ones in the series. Tracy is a great character and I want to see what's next for her. Overall a suspenseful mystery with a great twist.

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

Started: 8/24/2022

Finished: 8/30/2022

Year: 1991

Pages: 402

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Grade: B

Reason for reading: booklender.com book, reading series from start

Blurb (from Amazon): "For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal . . . because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit. Pitted against enemies inside his own department and forced to make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, Bosch goes on the hunt for a killer whose true face will shock him."

Opinion: I've read parts of this series out of order. Figured I should start at the beginning. A good plot with enough twists and turns.

Truth and Other Lies by Maggie Smith

Started: 8/17/2022

Finished: 8/22/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 346

Genre: Fiction-political

Grade: B

Reason for reading: review for Readerviews.com

Type: Trade Paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Megan Barnes' life is in free fall. After losing both her job as a reporter and her boyfriend in the same day, she retreats to Chicago and moves in with Helen, her over-protective mother. Before long, the two are clashing over everything from pro-choice to #MeToo, not to mention Helen's run for U.S. Congress, which puts Megan's career on hold until after the election.

Desperate to reboot her life, Megan gets her chance when an altercation at a campus rally brings her face-to-face with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jocelyn Jones, who offers her a job on her PR team. Before long, Megan is pulled into the heady world of fame and glamour her charismatic new mentor represents.

Until an anonymous tweet brings it all crashing down. To salvage Jocelyn's reputation, Megan must locate the online troll and expose the lies. But when the trail leads to blackmail, and circles back to her own mother, Megan realizes if she pulls any harder on this thread, what should have been the scoop of her career could unravel into a tabloid nightmare.

Readers who love Jodi Picoult's topical plot twists and Liane Moriarty's character-driven novels will devour this fast-paced tale of three women whose lives converge as one fights a devastating accusation, another campaigns for a contested seat in Congress, and one, the young reporter with ties to both, navigates the tricky line between secrets and lies."

Opinion: a thorough review is posted on readerviews.com

Science and Cooking by Michael Brenner, Pia Sorensen, and David Weitz

Started: 8/22/2022

Finished: 8/24/2022

Year: 2020

Pages: 274

Genre: Science, Cooking

Grade: B

Reason for reading: Goodreads.com giveaway

Type: Hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "The spectacular culinary creations of modern cuisine are the stuff of countless articles and social media feeds. But to a scientist they are also perfect pedagogical explorations into the basic scientific principles of cooking. In Science and Cooking, Harvard professors Michael Brenner, Pia Sörensen, and David Weitz bring the classroom to your kitchen to teach the physics and chemistry underlying every recipe.

Why do we knead bread? What determines the temperature at which we cook a steak, or the amount of time our chocolate chip cookies spend in the oven? Science and Cooking answers these questions and more through hands-on experiments and recipes from renowned chefs such as Christina Tosi, Joanne Chang, and Wylie Dufresne, all beautifully illustrated in full color. With engaging introductions from revolutionary chefs and collaborators Ferran Adria and José Andrés, Science and Cooking will change the way you approach both subjects―in your kitchen and beyond."

Opinion: Took me back to my high school chemistry classes. If you ever wondered how/why something cooks, you should check this out. I thought that it was textbooky but not in the boring way like it was back in high school

K is for Killer by Sue Grafton

Started: 8/13/2022

Finished: 8/17/2022

Year: 1994

Pages: 364

Genre: mystery

Grade:  B

Reason for reading: bookcrossing.com

Type: mass market paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Lorna Kepler was beautiful and willful, a loner who couldn't resist flirting with danger. Maybe that's what killed her.

"Her death had raised a host of tough questions. The cops suspected homicide, but they could find neither motive nor suspect. Even the means were mysterious: Lorna's body was so badly decomposed when it was discovered that they couldn't be certain she hadn't died of natural causes. In the way of overworked cops everywhere, the case was gradually shifted to the back burner and became another unsolved file.

"Only Lorna's mother kept it alive, consumed by the certainty that somebody out there had gotten away with murder.

"In the ten months since her daughter's death, Janice Kepler had joined a support group, trying to come to terms with her loss and her anger. It wasn't helping. And so, leaving a session one evening and noticing a light on in the offices of Millhone Investigations, she knocked on the door.

"In answering that knock, Kinsey Millhone is pulled into the netherworld of unavenged murder, where only a pact with the devil will satisfy the restless ghosts of the victims and give release to the living they have left behind."

Opinion: Ending seemed abrupt. Different type of case for Kinsey. Interesting mystery

Book of Extraordinary Tragedies by Joe Meno

Started: 8/8/2022

Finished: 8/13/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 346

Genre: Literature

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: librarything.com giveaway-early reviewers program

Type: ARC paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions.

Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of ordinary life. Doomed by fate, a family history of failure, an odd mother, an absent father, and a younger brother with a peculiar fondness for catastrophes, the two siblings have all but given up.

But when an illness forces Isobel and her three-year-old daughter to move back into the family home, Aleks becomes deeply involved in the endless challenges that surround his relatives. Once Isobel begins playing cello again, Aleks comes to see a world of possibility and wonder in the lives of his extraordinarily complicated family.

Told in Aleks’s exuberant voice, and full of as much comedy as tragedy, this entertaining novel asks, Is it ever truly possible to separate our fates from those we’ve come to love?"

Opinion: The characters are sad and I didn't really care what happened to them but they were well developed. Each was chaotic in their own sense. 

The Ultimate Betrayal by Kat Martin

Started: 8/3/2022

Finished: 8/8/2022

Year: 2020

Pages: 346

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Grade: C

Reason for reading: Goodreads.com giveaway

Blurb (from Amazon): "To prove her father’s innocence, she’ll have to turn a killer’s sights on herself

When journalist Jessie Kegan’s father is accused of espionage and treason, Jessie has no doubt the man she looked up to her entire life is innocent. Worse yet, before Colonel Kegan can stand trial, he’s found dead of a heart attack…but Jessie knows it was murder. Forcing down her grief, she’s determined to use her investigative skills and resources to clear her father’s name. But going after the truth means Jessie soon finds herself in the crosshairs of a killer who wants that truth to stay buried with her father.

Protecting Jessie Kegan is a job bodyguard Brandon Garrett can’t refuse. Jessie isn’t just a client at Maximum Security—she’s the sister of his best friend, Danny, killed in Afghanistan. With dangerous forces gunning for Jessie from every angle, keeping her safe will mean keeping her close and Bran finds their mutual attraction growing, though being Danny’s sister puts Jessie out of bounds.

With their backs against the wall, Jessie and Bran will have to risk everything to expose her father’s killer—before his legacy dies with his daughter."

Opinion: The sexual relationship was kicked off way too soon for it to be a realistic long lasting loving relationship. Other than that, this was a fun read

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

Started: 8/1/2022

Finished: 8/3/2022

Year: 2010

Pages: 326

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: booklender.com book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Trenton, New Jersey, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has inherited a "lucky" bottle from her Uncle Pip. Problem is, Uncle Pip didn't specify if the bottle brought good luck or bad luck. . . .

"BAD LUCK:

"Vinnie, of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, has run up a gambling debt of $786,000 with mobster Bobby Sunflower and is being held until the cash can be produced. Nobody else will pay to get Vinnie back, leaving it up to Stephanie, office manager Connie, and file clerk Lula to raise the money if they want to save their jobs.

"GOOD LUCK:

"Being in the business of tracking down people, Stephanie, Lula, and Connie have an advantage in finding Vinnie. If they can rescue him, it will buy them some time to raise the cash.

"BAD LUCK:

"Finding a safe place to hide Vinnie turns out to be harder than raising $786,000. Vinnie's messing up Mooner's vibe, running up pay-per-view porn charges in Ranger's apartment, and making Stephanie question genetics.

"GOOD LUCK:

Between a bonds office yard sale that has the entire Burg turning out, Mooner's Hobbit-Con charity event, and Uncle Pip's lucky bottle, they just might raise enough money to save the business, and Vinnie, from ruin.

"BAD LUCK:

"Saving Vincent Plum Bail Bonds means Stephanie can keep being a bounty hunter. In Trenton, this involves hunting down a man wanted for polygamy, a turnpike toilet paper bandit, and a drug dealer with a pet alligator named Mr. Jingles.

"GOOD LUCK:

"The job of bounty hunter comes with perks in the guise of Trenton's hottest cop, Joe Morelli, and the dark and dangerous security expert, Ranger. With any luck at all, Uncle Pip's lucky bottle will have Stephanie getting lucky---the only question is . . . with whom?"

Opinion: Next one if the series is going to be interesting since the bail bonds office kinda burned down. More silly antics. A fun read.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Started: 7/28/2022

Finished: 7/31/2022

Year: 2003

Pages: 196

Genre: Literature

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: off the TBR pile

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him, as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: 'Why was I here?'"

Opinion: It's a decent way to remind people that sometimes the small things really do matter and that one should always forgive themselves, especially for things that they can't control.

Miranda Writes by Gail Ward Olmsted

Started: 7/8/2022

Finished: 7/13/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 236

Genre: fiction

Grade: C-

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "A disgraced attorney seeking redemption. A single mother desperate to regain custody of her son. Two women willing to risk it all to put a sexual predator behind bars.

"Former Assistant District Attorney Miranda Quinn is on the brink of a career comeback when she gets a phone call. It's a witness who disappeared three years earlier, resulting in a violent criminal going free. Miranda got fired as a result, but the witness has re-surfaced with a shocking story to tell; one that implicates Miranda and her ex, defense attorney Adam Baxter. And now, there's a new victim.

"Miranda's legal advice blog-turned-podcast Miranda Writes is about to become a daytime TV show, but the negative press could destroy her credibility. Will the network stand behind her?

"When it comes to the law, Miranda has all the answers, but the questions are getting harder and the stakes are getting higher. The dangerous web of lies and cover-ups she exposes leaves her questioning just how much she is willing to risk. She has the right to remain silent, but needs to speak up... doesn't she?

"Miranda Writes is a story of how far we'll go to protect those we love and the power of second chances."

Opinion: a thorough review is on Reader Views

Emotional Magnetism by Sandy Gerber

Started: 7/13/2022

Finished: 7/16/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 184

Genre: Self Help/relationships

Grade: B

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Have you ever felt unheard or misunderstood? Maybe your partner just doesn’t seem to get why some things are important to you. Or perhaps your boss is seemingly oblivious to half the things you’ve pointed out in the past week. You’re not alone.

In this life-changing book, communications expert Sandy Gerber reveals how, by understanding the Four Emotional Magnets that motivate people to listen and act, she transformed her relationships—and how you can do the same.

Gerber’s highly relatable stories, sage advice, easy exercises, and Emotional Magnets quiz, helps you to:

• Identify what blocks your communication NOW.

• Discover what you emotionally NEED to be happy.

• Learn HOW to create greater engagement with your words.

• Understand WHY the people in your life make the choices they do.
• 
  

As you’ll quickly discover, when you know how to communicate what you need to be happy and respond to the Emotional Magnets of the people around you, you’ll magnetize your relationships. Not only will you be heard and understood, but you’ll understand what people want—and how to deliver it."

Opinion: Thorough review is posted on Reader Views

Natchez Burning by Greg Iles

Started: 11/6/2021

Finished: 7/28/2022

Year: 2014

Pages: 862

Genre: Mystery/thriller

Grade: B+

Reason for reading: TBR pile

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Raised in the southern splendor of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn Cage learned all he knows of duty from his father, Dr. Tom Cage. But now the beloved family doctor has been accused of murdering the African American nurse with whom he worked in the dark days of the 1960s. Once a crusading prosecutor, Penn is determined to save his father, but Tom, stubbornly invoking doctor-patient privilege, refuses even to speak in his own defense.

Penn's quest for the truth sends him deep into his father's past, where a sexually charged secret lies. More chilling, this long-buried sin is only one thread in a conspiracy of greed and murder involving the vicious Double Eagles, an offshoot of the KKK controlled by some of the most powerful men in the state. Aided by a dedicated reporter privy to Natchez's oldest secrets and by his fiancée, Caitlin Masters, Penn uncovers a trail of corruption and brutality that places his family squarely in the Double Eagles' crosshairs.

With every step costing blood and faith, Penn is forced to confront the most wrenching dilemma of his life: Does a man of honor choose his father or the truth?"

Opinion: Definitely suspenseful, especially if you have a good imagination. The ending definitely leaves you wanting more and I'll be reading the second in this trilogy soon.

Plus Size by Mekdela

Started: 7/8/2022

Finished: 7/8/2022

Year: 2021

Pages: 88

Genre: Memoir

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: goodreads.com giveaway/review for Reader Views

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "'Plus-Size: A Memoir of Pop Culture, Fatphobia, and Social Change' chronicles the rise of the body positive movement and body positivity through pop culture reviews and personal reflections. This essay collection illustrates the insidiousness of fatphobia through analyses of film, television, books, and how they affect our perceptions and treatment of others. Altogether, the essays paint a big picture of fatphobia, misogyny, misogynoir, ableism, and capitalism in American society. Furthermore, this essay collection emphasizes the potential for social change. Featuring media from the 1990s, early 2000s, 2010s, and up until today, this memoir tells a story of America's uneasy and ever-changing relationship with fat.

Opinion: thorough review is posted on Reader Views

Nein, Nein, Nein! by Jerry Stahl

Started: 7/16/2022

Finished: DNF

Year: 2022

Pages: 262

Genre: Memoir

Grade: F

Reason for reading: LibraryThing.com giveaway

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "In September 2016, Jerry Stahl was feeling nervous on the eve of a two-week trip across Poland and Germany. But it was not just the stops at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau that gave him anxiety. It was the fact that he would be traveling with two dozen strangers, by bus. In a tour group. And he was not a tour-group kind of guy.

The decision to visit Holocaust-world did not come easy. Stahl’s lifelong depression at an all-time high, his career and personal life at an all-time low, he had the idea to go on a trip where the despair he was feeling—out-of- control sadness, regret, and fear, not just for himself, but for the entire United States—would be appropriate. And where was despair more appropriate than the land of the Six Million?

Seamlessly weaving global and personal history, through the lens of Stahl’s own bent perspective, Nein, Nein, Nein! stands out as a triumph of strange-o reporting, a tale that takes us from gang polkas to tour-rash to the truly disturbing snack bar at Auschwitz. Strap in for a raw, surreal, and redemptively hilarious trip. Get on the bus."

Opinion: I could not finish this one-I gave it my standard 100 pages. It was very jumpy-between subjects and stories. Felt like I either needed to have ADHD or be high (not that I have had any experience with this) in order to comprehend Stahl's writing. 

Chicago by David Mamet

Started: 7/6/2022

Finished: DNF

Year: 2018

Pages: 338

Genre: Historical thriller

Grade: F

Reason for reading: goodreads.com giveaway

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "Mike Hodge―veteran of the Great War, big shot of the Chicago Tribune, medium fry―probably shouldn’t have fallen in love with Annie Walsh. Then, again, maybe the man who killed Annie Walsh have known better than to trifle with Mike Hodge."

Opinion: So I made it about halfway through before I decided to not finish it. It took that long before Annie was even killed. Not sure if it was the writing style, the subject, or what it was that could not keep my attention but with having over 500 books waiting for me to read, I'm saying good-bye to this one.

The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green

Started: 6/30/2022

Finished: 7/6/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 278

Genre: Fiction

Grade: C

Reason for reading: review for Celadon books

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep’s, one of the town’s favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be “disappeared.” An unlikely detective, Morgana Musgrove, doyenne of Savannah society, is called upon to unravel the mystery of these crimes. Morgana is an imperious, demanding, and conniving woman, whose four grown children are weary of her schemes. But one by one she inveigles them into helping with her investigation, and soon the family uncovers some terrifying truths―truths that will rock Savannah’s power structure to its core.

Moving from the homeless encampments that ring the city to the stately homes of Savannah’s elite, Green’s novel brilliantly depicts the underbelly of a city with a dark history and the strangely mesmerizing dysfunction of a complex family."

Opinion: It dragged in the beginning, almost to the point of where I didn't continue with it. The historical features made this interesting enough to read through and finally get to some suspenseful mystery. Definitely not something that I would search out to read but am okay that I read it.

In the Closet by Geri Gale

Started: 6/26/2022

Finished: 6/29/2022

Year: 2021

Pages: 350

Genre: literature

Grade: C

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "S. lives with her grandparents in their house in Ossining, New York, where she has been abandoned by her mother, and S. is in the closet. The closet is a safe place to hide, to think, to ruminate. In the Closet is a triptych and each third has two parts.

"In part one, S. is ten. Her grandfather is a piano-tuner in love with Thelonious Monk and his story is interwoven with that of Monk.

"In part two, S. is twenty. Her grandmother is a librarian and a poet in love with Emily Dickinson and her story is interwoven with that of Dickinson.

"In part three, S. is thirty. S.'s mother is a famous photographer, who lives in Brooklyn and is obsessed with Diane Arbus. The story of S.'s mother and Arbus weave together, and in the end, like Arbus, S.'s mother commits suicide.

"S. longs for her mother. But she has the great love of her Russian-Jewish refugee grandparents and ends up accepting the lesbian love of her best friend, Sophie, who has been a rock through it all.

"In the Closet: a triad is a story about love's wreckage, about growing up amid intimacy and abandonment, about redemption and sacrifice and art."

Opinion: A thorough review is posted on Reader Views

Real Texas Roadhouses by Priscilla Audette

Started: 6/12/2022

Finished: 6/16/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 258

Genre: literature

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: Paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "This stranger-in-a-strange-land story will appeal to the human heart. The reader will come to know Justine who, like most of us, is a work in progress. Her journey to the heart of Texas is actually a journey to the center of her soul. The Texas she discovers is a place where she meets the divine and becomes anchored once again in life, it is a place where she wrestles with her ghosts from the past, where she discovers her inner grit, and where she transforms from victim into a warrior as she begins to build a future. Justine’s odyssey is more than meditation in motion. Her richly-textured journey into Texas becomes a tool of her self-understanding."

Opinion: My thorough review is on Reader Views

Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes

Started: 6/16/2022

Finished: 6/21/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 270

Genre: Memoir/True Crime

Grade: B+

Reason for reading: review for Celadon Books

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "I order another bourbon, neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, to this point. Something is happening to me lately. I’m drinking too much. My sheets are soaking wet when I wake up from nightmares of decaying corpses. I order another drink and swig it, trying to forget about the latest case I can’t shake.

Crime solving for me is more complex than the challenge of the hunt, or the process of piecing together a scientific puzzle. The thought of good people suffering drives me, for better or worse, to the point of obsession. People always ask how I am able to detach from the horrors of my work. Part of it is an innate capacity to compartmentalize; the rest is experience and exposure, and I’ve had plenty of both. But I have always taken pride in the fact that I can keep my feelings locked up to get the job done. It’s only been recently that it feels like all that suppressed darkness is beginning to seep out.

When I look back at my long career, there is a lot I am proud of. I have caught some of the most notorious killers of the twenty-first century and brought justice and closure for their victims and families. I want to tell you about a lifetime solving these cold cases, from Laci Peterson to Jaycee Dugard to the Pittsburg homicides to, yes, my twenty-year-long hunt for the Golden State Killer.

But a deeper question eats at me as I ask myself, at what cost? I have sacrificed relationships, joy―even fatherhood―because the pursuit of evil always came first. Did I make the right choice? It’s something I grapple with every day. Yet as I stand in the spot where a young girl took her last breath, as I look into the eyes of her family, I know that, for me, there has never been a choice. “I don’t know if I can solve your case,” I whisper. “But I promise I will do my best.”

It is a promise I know I can keep."

Opinion: I've seen Paul on some of true crime shows out there and admired his tenacity in solving or even just investigating crimes. This added a whole other in depth level to who Paul is. I enjoyed it and would recommend this for anyone who likes memoirs or true crime as this truly is a book of both.

J is for Judgment by Sue Grafton

Started: 6/12/2022

Finished: 6/12/2022

Year: 1993

Pages: 360

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: reading the series in order, bookcrossing.com book

Type: mass market paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Wendell Jaffe looks great for a dead man! He's been six feet under for five years ago―until his former insurance agent spots him at a dusty resort bar in Mexico. Now California Fidelity wants its insurance money back. Can P.I. Kinsey Millhone get on the case?

"Just two months earlier, Jaffe's widow pocketed $500,000 in insurance benefits after Jaffe went overboard. Was his "pseudocide" a last-ditch effort to do right by his beloved wife? Perhaps. But how would that explain the new woman in Jaffe's second life?

"Kinsey is in for the long haul as she delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Jaffe's life and death…and discovers that, in family matters as in crime, sometimes it's better to reserve judgment…"

Opinion: An interesting mystery with Kinsey is sent to see if someone is actually dead. Lots of little twists and turns with some shady characters

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

Started: 6/9/2022

Finished: 6/12/2022

Year: 2010

Pages: 330 pages

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: booklender.com

Type: mass market paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Recipe for disaster: Celebrity chef Stanley Chipotle comes to Trenton to participate in a barbecue cook-off and loses his head – literally.

"Throw in some spice: Bail bonds office worker Lula is witness to the crime, and the only one she'll talk to is Trenton cop, Joe Morelli.

"Pump up the heat: Chipotle's sponsor is offering a million-dollar reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the capture of the killers.

"Stir the pot: Lula recruits bounty hunter Stephanie Plum to help her find the killers and collect the moolah.

"Add a secret ingredient: Stephanie's Grandma Mazur. Enough said.

"Bring to a boil: Can Stephanie hunt down two killers, a traitor, five skips, keep her grandmother out of the sauce, solve Ranger's problems and not jump his bones?"

Opinion: Oh the crazy antics that Stephanie gets into. The antics do sometimes take away from the mystery but the mystery is still there and enjoyable to see resolved

A Patchwork Murder by Jan Fields

Started: 6/6/2022

Finished: 6/8/2022

Year: 2013

Pages: 218

Genre: cozy mystery

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: TBR pile

Type: hard cover

Blurb (from book jacket): "Meet Emma Cotton, expert quilter, founding member of the Nimble Thimbles quilting group, and co-owner of Cotton & Grace designs in the seaside town of Mystic Harbor, Massachusetts. Emma is a warm and caring woman who expresses herself through her unique quilted creations. But behind her easygoing exterior lies a troubled heart that is haunted by the suspicious death of her childhood friend, Rose Peterson.

"When Rose mysteriously died fifteen years ago, Emma and her best friend and business partner, Kelly Grace, didn't believe it was an accident, but the police refused to listen.

"Now Emma has discovered a clue-a list of suspects-hidden inside an old quilt that could finally help bring her dear friend's killer to justice, and she is shocked by one of the names on the list: Allyson Vernon. Not only is Allyson a well-respected attorney at a top firm in Boston, she's also a current client of Cotton & Grace.

"As Emma and Kelly begin their unofficial investigation of Allyson, they quickly become ensnared in a web of deceit. They're stonewalled by the police, frightening things start happening at their show, and it's clear someone is warning them to leave the past buried...or suffer the consequences.

"Is Allyson as guilty as she seems, or is there someone else with blood on their hands lurking among the townsfolk, waiting for their opportunity to halt Emma and Kelly's investigation...permanently?

"Join Emma, Kelly, and the members of the Nimble Thimbles as they try to uncover the cause of the mysterious events happening in Mystic Harbor while they piece together new clues surrounding the untimely death of their beloved friend, Rose."

Opinion: The main mystery was not resolved. This is the first of a very long series of books. It's a cozy so I wasn't expected glorious writing. It did keep me entertained.

Officers Down by Eliot Sefrin

Started: 5/27/2022

Finished: 6/5/2022

Year: 2021

Pages: 422

Genre: Fiction

Grade: A

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: Trade Paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "A pair of highly regarded New York City police officers – one male, one female, both white – accidentally kill an innocent Black teen in a poverty-stricken, minority neighborhood and face the consequences of an enraged community, a racially divided city, and their own emotional unraveling.

This powerful and timely novel, based on a composite of real-life events, explores the sensitive and divisive issue of race relations in America within the context of a tragic police shooting that becomes a lightning rod for racial tension and the focus of a landmark civil rights case, while profoundly reshaping the lives of those most closely impacted by the incident.

As the riveting drama unfolds amidst controversy, false charges, racial bias, and political maneuverings that threaten to overwhelm the facts of the case, both the officers and the family of the slain teen become immersed in intense inner crises as they struggle to come to terms with the tragedy. In the process, they come to experience the stereotypes, antipathy, and misunderstanding that often divide our communities – as well as the wisdom and emotions that can ultimately bind them and help them heal."

Opinion: A thorough review will be on Reader Views

Keep Strong Together: 7 Habits of Great Couples by Dr. Patt Pickett

Started: 6/6/2022

Finished: 6/6/2022

Year: 2021

Pages: 67

Genre: self-help/relationships

Grade: D

Reason for reading: librarything.com giveaway

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Whether you have or seek a "keeper relationship" which grows in in love and closeness, Keep Strong Together provides practical tips and tools to help you increase strength as a couple. Like The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, this guide includes quizzes and homework developed by a professional, who is the author Dr. Patt Pickett, PhD, a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in practice for decades. As a bonus, the book is concise and written simply without jargon and with humor for the "reluctant" self-help reader and as quick pick-up reading for all."

Opinion: My review is on librarything.com 

Half In by Felice Cohen

Started: 5/25/2022

Finished: 5/27/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 238

Genre: Memoir

Grade: C+

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "What if your first love was a forbidden one?

 At twenty-three, Felice Cohen was, like other recent college grads, hesitant about entering the real world, with the added stress of coming out in the early nineties. Focused on how to land a full-time position as a writer, falling in love was the last thing on her mind.

 But fall in love she did. With her boss, a woman thirty-four years older.

 Felice and Sarah embarked on a high-stakes, year-long love affair. Addicted to the high of first love, Felice was enthralled by Sarah's attention and content to hide their love in the shadows. Sarah, meanwhile, threw caution to the wind, risking her comfortably established life that included a prestigious job and long-term girlfriend. Though not perfect, it was enough.

 That was until their secret was exposed, forcing Felice to publicly acknowledge their illicit love or start a new life for herself. Felice chose to walk away.

 In this candid coming-of-age memoir-as compelling as a novel-Felice chronicles the happiness and heartbreak of an age-gap love affair while struggling to figure out the direction of her future.Ultimately, this is a story about navigating life's unpredictable path while following one's heart, and finding acceptance."

Opinion: a thorough review is on Reader views.

My Famous Brain by Diane Wald

Started: 5/20/2022

Finished: 5/24/2022

Year: 2021

Pages: 310

Genre: Literature

Grade: C

Reason for reading: review for Reader Views

Type: trade paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "“My brain was famous, but I was not. Not every gifted child invents a pollutant-free fuel, paints a masterpiece, or finds the cure for cancer,” Jack MacLeod tells us. “Some of us just live out our lives.” Jack died in 1974; now, he’s ready to narrate his story from beyond the grave. Jack’s prodigious memory, which allows him to memorize books, and his penchant for psychic connections give him unusual insights into the events of his past life and make him fiercely curious about his current state of existence. Jack immerses us in interconnected tales of his childhood participation in a research study on the intellectually gifted, his dual career as a clinical psychologist and university professor, his participation in the unmasking of an unscrupulous colleague, his long-term health issues, his brief but life-changing love affair with a student, his deep friendship with another man, and his eventual acceptance and celebration of the circumstances of his fate. How Jack dies, and how he deals with the murder of someone close to him, mirrors how he has lived and grown, and marks the significance of everyone and everything that ultimately brings him to yet another level of brilliance."

Opinion: A thorough review is on readerviews.com

Fever by Janet Gilsdorf

Started: 5/18/2022

Finished: 5/20/2022

Year: 2022

Pages: 309

Genre: Scientific literature

Grade: C

Reason for reading: Librarything.com early reviewer giveaway

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "In 1984, in the small Brazilian village of Promissão, a young child begins to fuss, her eyes turning pink and her skin flushed with heat. Four days later, she’s dead. Sidonie Royal, an accomplished physician and scientist, arrives in the small Brazilian village of Promissão to investigate and hopefully cure this insidious new disease. With several young children already dead, and more getting sick by the day, the stakes cannot get any higher. But Sid’s personal life is also in flux, as she struggles to balance a complicated relationship with her boyfriend, Paul, pressure to start a family from her well-meaning mother, conflict with her surly but brilliant coworker named Eliot, and a budding romantic attraction to her doctoral student’s twin brother. As Sid relentlessly pursues an explanation for the disease, the village’s physician calls in the Global Health Agency, triggering a scientific race that spans two continents and becomes increasingly defined by personal stakes."

Opinion: Scenes were choppy. Some subplots and characters were not necessary. The main story didn't seem to have a real ending but was interesting.

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? by Tod Benoit

Started: 5/11/2022

Finished: 5/17/2022

Year: 2003

Pages: 554

Genre: History

Grade: B

Reason for reading: TBR pile

Type: Hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "This enlightening and browsable guide features more than 500 profiles of the lives, deaths, and final resting places of our most influential figures from sports, music, film, television, literature, and politics.

This unparalleled compilation of profiles of the deceased--from Abbott & Costello to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, from Arthur Ashe to Andy Warhol--offers all of the pertinent details on their lives, deaths, and grave sites, providing a pop-cultural road map for anyone fascinated by celebrity, history, and travel. Listings include Mark Twain, Sonny Bono, Dr. Seuss, Salvador Dali, Mickey Mantle, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Ingrid Bergman, William Shakespeare, Andy Kaufman, Bob Crane, Louis Armstrong, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Al Capone, Ella Fitzgerald, Mae West, Gertude Stein, and hundreds more.

Fifty photos and a number of informative sidebars (on such topics as how to find the grave of anyone you choose) round out this entertaining look at the permanent addresses of our most significant late citizens. And each listing offers concise directions to both the cemetery and the grave itself, an added benefit for tombstone travelers."

Opinion: Interesting little tidbits about several famous people and where they are buried or ashes scattered. I appreciate the time and research that the author did for this book. Upon looking on Amazon, there is an updated version.

Mine by JL Butler

Started: 5/3/2022

Finished: 5/10/2022

Year: 2018

Pages: 423

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: goodreads.com giveaway

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "In this riveting tale of psychological suspense, a divorce lawyer risks her career, her sanity, and her life when she falls into an illicit, all-consuming affair with her client—who becomes the primary suspect in his estranged wife’s sudden disappearance.

Young divorce lawyer Francine Day has methodically built her career doing everything right. She’s one big case away from securing her place among London’s legal elite. But when she meets her new client, Martin Joy, the natural caution that has protected Francine and fueled her rise melts away. Powerless to fight the irresistible magnetism between them, client and counsel tumble into a blistering affair that breaks every rule.

Though Martin insists his marriage is over, Francine doesn’t believe him. Certain details he’s told her don’t quite add up. Consumed with a passion she cannot control and increasingly obsessed with Martin’s relationship with his wife, Donna, Francine follows the woman one night . . . and discovers her having dinner with her supposedly soon-to-be-ex-husband.

The next morning, Francine awakens in her neighbor’s apartment with blood on her clothes and no recollection of what transpired after she spied Donna and Martin together. Then Francine receives more devastating news: Martin’s wife has vanished. That dinner was the last place anyone has seen Donna Joy alive.

Suddenly, Francine finds herself caught in a dangerous labyrinth of deception, lies, and secrets, in which one false move could lead to her undoing. What happened that night and why can’t Francine remember? Where is Donna and who is responsible for her disappearance? The further Francine goes to find answers, the tighter the net seems to draw—around her lover, herself, and the life she’s meticulously built."

Opinion: The obsession in this book was ridiculous. Definitely a thriller but the obsession was too much and was over way too quickly for it to be a true obsession.

She Was the Quiet One by Michele Campbell

Started: 4/29/2022

Finished: 5/3/2022

Year: 2018

Pages: 360

Genre: suspense/mystery

Grade: B+

Reason for reading: goodreads.com giveaway

Type: ARC

Blurb (from Amazon): "For Rose Enright, enrolling in a prestigious New England boarding school is the opportunity of a lifetime. But for Rose’s vulnerable twin sister Bel, Odell Academy is a place of temptation and danger. When Bel falls in with a crowd of wild rich kids who pressure her into hazing Rose, the sisters’ relationship is shattered. Rose turns to her dorm mother, Sarah Donovan, for advice. But Bel turns to Sarah’s husband Heath, a charismatic and ambitious teacher. Is Heath trying to help Bel or take advantage of her? In a world of privilege, seduction, and manipulation, only one sister will live to tell the truth."

Opinion: If you can get over the teacher taking advantage of a student....this is a really good suspenseful novel. I like how it was told between what happened and police interviews