Home Posts tagged "2018 Reads" (Page 2)

Tag: 2018 Reads

Victim Without a Face – Stefan Ahnhem is a Winner!

Victim Without a Face – Stefan Ahnhem

Victim Without a Face is the first book in the Fabian Risk series from Swedish writer Stefan Ahnhem. I stumbled across this series when I was in the library last week.I found it was, when I was looking through the new releases, and the book , The 9th Grave caught my eye.

Once I saw the book was a Swedish mystery novel I figured it would be something I would like. However,  I saw  it was the second book in the series. Since there are only book two in the series, I figured I should go back and start with book one. Checking  the library catalog I discovered book one , Victim Without a Face was checked  in at the branch of the library I was in. So I checked it out! read more

The Sinister Pig – Tony Hillerman – Another Visit with an Old Favorite

Another The Sinister Pig – Tony Hillerman 

So I have read almost all of the books in the Jim Chee – Joe Leaphorn series. However, the last Tony Hillerman  book I read was in 2000, when I read  Hunting  Badger (Book #14)!The Sinister Pig (Book #16) in the series has probably been on my bookshelves unread for about 5 years or more. Since one of my reading challenges for 2018 is to read 25 books that are on my TBR shelves and specifically books from series that I have not read for years, choosing The Sinister Pig was a no-brainer. read more

The Shadow District Begins a New Series from Arnaldur Indridason

The Shadow District – Reykjavik Wartime Mystery #1

The Shadow District by Arnaldur Indridason is book one in his new Reykjavik Wartime Mystery series.

Indridason is the author of the excellent Detective Erlender series. However, I must admit that while I have loved the series books I have read, I have fallen behind in the series. As a result, I often forget about the series. Can out say once again “too many books too little time”.

Anyway, when I saw The Shadow District in the library and discovered it was book one in a new series It was a no brainer to check it out. read more

Descent – Tim Johnston – A Parent’s Nightmare Visited!

Descent is the debut adult novel from author/teacher Tim Johnston and a decent debut it is. It is the story of the Courtland family. Father Grant, mother Angela, and children   Caitlin and Sean who are on vacation in the Colorado Rockies, when the unthinkable happens. Caitlin 18 a high school track star goes for a morning run in the mountains, with her brother Sean. There is an accident and only an injured Sean returns!

Caitlin was not found after Police and volunteers searched the area where Sean was found. As time passes each of the Courtland deal differently with the loss. Grant can’t leave the mountains  and waits patiently for any glimmer of hope that his daughter is alive. read more

Return to Promise Falls in Linwood Barclay’s Parting Shot

Parting Shot Continues Linwood Barclay’s Promise Falls Trilogy.

Parting Shot is the fourth book in the Promise Falls trilogy from Linwood Barclay. In this episode the story revolves around a case that Detective Barry Duckworth is working and a new job Private Investigator Cal Weaver has taken.

Duckworth is trying to figure out what happened to a young man who awoke in a Promise Falls alleyway injured and confused with his back married by a sinister tattoo. The question is who attacked him and why??

Meanwhile. Cal Weaver has been hired as a bodyguard for a teenager who has enraged the community. At a party the drunk teenager stole a car that ended with a crashed car and a dead young woman. The teenager eventually was not convicted his defense was that he didn’t know right from wrong because he had been babied his whole life. He became known as the “big baby” read more

Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America…

If You Want to Understand the Roots of Our Current Political Situation – Read this Book!

Over the last few weeks I am finding it more and more difficult to post. Again I haven’t stopped reading, listening or exercising just that when I sit down to write a post, I get distracted and pick up a book or good do something else. Anyway I just finished book 9 of 2017. The following read though is for book 7. Hopefully, if I can get myself focused and motivated reviews for book  8 Parting Shot by Linwood Barclay and book 9 Descent by Tim Johnston, will follow shortly.

Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean. 

This is the story of the Radical Rights campaign  to steal our democracy. The blueprint for the campaign was laid out but conservative economist James Buchanan.  Buchanan merged states rights thinking with free-market principles and laid the groundwork for the “makers”and “takers” philosophy of today’s Republican party. The campaign  has been funded by Charles Koch and is bearing fruit beyond his wildest dreams. The Radical Right has goals like establishing and assuring minority rule, the elimination of both the government safety nets i.e. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and programs and agencies that protect our health and safety. They seem like current GOP goals to me. And I am scared for my country!  Throughout the last year we have seen time after time the majority of Americans opposing what the GOP was trying to do. We watched them try to destroy The Affordable Care act. Then we watched them pass a Tax Bill designed to make the richer richer. Anyway if you want to read about how we got to where we are today read this book.  From author Greg Grandin author of Fordlandia a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

“How did we get to where we are today? How did corporations come to possess rights? How did democracy come to be defined as selfish individualism? Or money as free speech? Nancy Maclean’s Democracy in Chains provides the answers. It is essential reading in order to understand the ideas billionaires use to justify their control over our political institutions. I can’t imagine a more timely or urgent book.”  read more

Shadow of Death – Wiliam G Tapply – EKK Returns to an Old Favorite

Shadow of Death (Brady Coyne #21)  – William G Tapply

Ok so here we are in February and I still have not formalized my 2018 Reading Challenges. The only thing that I do know is my goal is to read 65 books in 2018. Additionally I want at least 25 of them to come from my “to be read bookshelves” I’m actually close to having everything worked out and should be able to post the formal challenges this week.

EKK and the Brady Coyne Series

Now while I haven’t formalized my Challenges yet I am off to a decent start. I finished book number six for the year on Saturday.  It was one that has been sitting on my shelves for a long time, Shadow of Death by William G Tapply. Published in 2004 it is book 21 in the Brady Coyne series from Mr Tapply.  Death at Charity Point published in 1984 was the first book in the series. Dead Winter book 8 was actually the first  book  in the series that I read. It was released in paperback 1990 and I read it in the summer. By the end of 1990 I had caught up on the series!! read more

The Long and Faraway Gone – Lou Berney – A Can’t Put Downer!

The Long and Faraway Gone – Lou Berney

A while ago I purchased  the Kindle edition of Lou Berney’s book The Long and Faraway Gone.. Like many of the books I have purchase through Bookbub, it has been in my Kindle unread. Well, something made me take a look at it the other day and I start reading it.

It didn’t take long for me to get swept up in the story.   So for the last few days I literally did not want to put the books down. Last night it was getting close to midnight, as I was finishing the book.  I could barely keep my eyes open , but I was determined to finish. And finish I did, just on the other side of midnight exhausted but satisfied and not ready to go to sleep! read more

The Demon Crown – Science, History and Action Collide!

The Demon Crown – James Rollins  Sigma Force #13

The Demon Crown is  Book # 13 in the Sigma Force series from James Rollins. I think  it just may be the best book in the series.  I have written before that I love books that not only are good stories, but also teach me something new. Well, James Rollins does that just about as well as anyone writing today.

I don’t believe that there are many authors ,who provide six plus pages of notes to their readers, explaining what aspects of the story are true and what was made up by the author. However, that is just what Rollins does with each book. In The Demon Crown there are both a variety of historical and  scientific facts that form the basis of the story. So I learn a lot during this Sigma Force adventure! read more