Tag: mysteries

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What I’m Reading – August 2024

What I’m Reading Now

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes DuMez – I am just a few chapters in and I am totally engrossed in this book.

Pack Up the Moon by Kristan Higgins – I just got this one on my Libby app; haven’t started it yet.

What I Recently Finished:

The Sister Effect by Susan Mallery – I gave this one five stars. It was so well-done.

The Excellent Lombards by Jane Hamilton – I gave this one two stars, which is pretty rare for me. I did finish it, but it just wasn’t my favorite style of writing.

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center – This was an enjoyable book about two writers writing and falling in love. Very good.

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle – Another five star book. I loved the premise and I didn’t guess the twist, which doesn’t happen very often.

The Summer Book Club by Susan Mallery – This was a good read.

Toxic Prey by John Sandford – Yet another five star rating – I have hardly given any this year and now I have three in one month! This is listed as #34 in the Lucas Davenport series. Goodreads also has it filed as #3 in the Letty Davenport series since it includes her as well (she is Lucas’s daughter.) I flew through this one.

What I’ve Added to my TBR List:

Miss Amelia’s List by Mercedes Lackey – This is #17 in the Elemental Masters series

Nashville Dreams by Pamela M. Kelley

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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What I’m Reading – June 2024

What I’m Reading Now:

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center – I’m about a quarter of the way through this one. It’s a cute story about a woman who loses the ability to see faces after a surgery.

The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go From Here by Kaitlyn Schiess – I just downloaded the audiobook from the library for this one, so I haven’t started it yet.

Revelation for the Rest of Us: A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus as a Dissident Disciple by Scot McKnight – I have made a little progress on this one since last month. It’s a bit esoteric for me, but I plan to finish it still.

What I Recently Finished:

Random Death by J.D. Robb

Let’s Pretend This Will Work by Maddie Dawson

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg

The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth by Beth Allison Barr

What I’ve Added to my TBR list:

I haven’t added anything new to my TBR in May. I currently have 90 books on my list.

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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What I’m Reading – April 2024

What I’m Reading Now:

What Is Love? by Jen Comfort – I think this was a free book from Amazon First Reads. I just started it and it looks like it will be cute, if formulaic.

Revelation for the Rest of Us: A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus as a Dissident Disciple by Scot McKnight with Cody Matchett – I just started this one but I like it so far.

What I Recently Finished:

Sunshine of Your Love by Kirsty McManus – I got this book for free from Stuff Your Kindle Day. The premise was a bit odd – two people have to job share for three months to compete for a job. It’s a typical enemies to lovers story.

The Irish Cottage: Finding Elizabeth by Juliet Gauvin – Another free book. This is about a woman trying to find herself after losing a mother figure in her life. I really enjoyed it.

Airborne Hearts by Maggie Louzella – Another free book. A cute romance.

She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up by Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky – 5 stars to this one. It is written to mothers and daughters specifically. I don’t have a daughter, but I was raised with a lot of harmful teachings in this area, and this book was very helpful in recognizing and addressing those issues.

Return to Serendipity by Liza Lanter – Another free book. A standard story of a woman who both gets a divorce and inherits property from a deceased relative. Not bad.

Cottage at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth – Another free book. Another divorced woman who inherits property, this one also includes three friends who all move to the location where she inherits property over the course of the next few books. I enjoyed this one enough that I kept reading the series.

Bakery at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth – Book 2 in the Bella Beach series

Bookshop at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth – Book 3 in the Bella Beach series

Lighthouse at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth – Book 4 in the Bella Beach series

Payback in Death by J.D. Robb – This is book 57 in the In Death series. I love these books, and this one did not disappoint. The series centers around Eve Dallas, who is a homicide detective in futuristic New York City. So good!

Where We Meet: A Lenten Study of Systems, Stories, and Hope by Rachel Gilmore, Candace Lewis, Tyler Sit, and Matt Temple – I read this Lenten devotional in conjunction with a virtual Bible study led by my pastor. It was very good. It dealt with a lot of topics that are new for me to consider and showed me areas that I need to learn more about.

The Worst Christmas Ever? by Rebecca Paulinyi – Another free book. Woman gets cheated on and runs away to find herself. Ends up starting a new business and a new relationship within a few weeks.

What I’ve Added to my TBR list:

The Last List of Muriel Beaumont by Laura Pearson

Secrets of Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth

Return to Bella Beach by Kate Wentwortj

Christmas at Bella Beach: A Novella by Kate Wentworth

Random in Death by J.D. Robb

Passions in Death by J.D. Robb

Lawyers and Lattes by Rebecca Paulinyi

The London Flat: Second Chances by Juliet Gauvin

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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What I’m Reading – June 23rd

What I’m Reading Now:

To See the Moon Again by Jamie Langston Turner – This is her eighth book and the last one she has published so far.

What I Recently Finished:

When We Were Young by Karen Kingsbury – One of the Baxter Family books that I missed somehow. It was cute – sort of Fireproof meets A Christmas Carol. A quick read.

Masked Prey by John Sandford – This is book 30 in his Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport.

Sometimes a Light Surprises by Jamie Langston Turner – I’m rereading her books in the order they were published, and this is the seventh one.

The Lending Library by Aliza Fogelson – Light hearted novel about a woman who opens a small library in her home when her local library closes for repairs. Kind of cute, but there’s something about it that’s a little too cheesy.

What I’ve Added to my TBR list:

Shadows in Death by J.D. Robb – Book #51 in the In Death series, this is due out in September.

The Christmas Swap by Melody Carlson – Also due out in September, this should be a cute holiday read.

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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4 Detective Novels To Check Out

I have read several mystery/detective novels in the last couple of months. They are definitely a pleasant diversion, so I wanted to share them with you.

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde – Having enjoyed several of Fforde’s Thursday Next books, I was eager to get into this new series about Inspector Jack Spratt, head detective in the Nursery Crimes Division.  This book centers on the investigation into the death of Humpty Dumpty, who has fallen off his favorite place to sit and reflect, the wall in his garden.  But was it an accident, or were more nefarious forces at work?

I will leave that question unanswered so you can discover it on your own.  Suffice it to say, I appreciated the writing style and all of the nursery rhyme references.  However, I’m not sure I will be reading any of the others because, as my friend Melissa and I agreed, once you’ve gotten the joke, you’ve pretty much gotten it.  3 stars.

X by Sue Grafton – This is book #24 in the Kinsey Millhone/Alphabet series; the first one is A is for Alibi, so you can start there if you’re like me and want to read things in order.  Kinsey Millhone is a private investigator in Santa Teresa, California, and a no-nonsense, independent woman who values her few friends highly.  The books, which started coming out in 1982, continue one after the other without any jumps in time between them, so this story takes place in 1989.

I like Kinsey, so I liked this book, although it would have been nice to have something new happen in her personal life.  I won’t get into the plot other than to say it wasn’t the most exciting of her novels.  I’m still looking forward to the final two in the series, though.  3 stars.

Rough Country by John Sandford – This is #3 in the Virgil Flowers series – there are actually 9 out so far, so I still have some catching up to do.  The first book was Dark of the Moon, although Virgil Flowers was actually introduced in Sandford’s Prey series, featuring the character of Lucas Davenport.

In this story, Virgil is called away from his vacation by Lucas to investigate the murder of a woman at a women-only resort in northern Minnesota.  As he delves into the various angles of the case, he uncovers another murder that may be related and begins to think this is a much bigger case than it started out to be.  It was a good story, and I enjoyed the characters as well.  4 stars.

Devoted in Death by J.D. Robb –  This is #41 in one of my favorite series in any genre, the In Death series.  I love Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her charming, good-looking husband Roarke, along with the rest of their friends and associates, and I really enjoy the futuristic setting of mid 21st century New York as well.  Again, if you want to start from the beginning, the first book is Naked in Death.

Devoted begins with the introduction of the villains, who have come from Alabama, and flips between the investigation and their activities as the book continues.  By the time they hit New York, they have left a string of bodies behind them, and it’s only getting worse now that they have settled in to the big city.  But no matter how good they are at concealing themselves and not leaving a trail, they are still no match for Lieutenant Dallas and her gang.  5 stars.