Category Archives: 2023 Fiction

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is the best cookbook I’ve read since The James Beard Cookbook by the eponymous author (1959) and I read that in 1970, back when I was a new bride.  Beard’s cookbook was, to me, a gigantic compendium … Continue reading →

I’ve read a lot of legal crime, both courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, but I’ve never come across a novel in which the main character defends himself on a murder charge. This was fascinating.  Mickey Haller, an LA-based defense attorney, … Continue reading →

Four septuagenarians in a retirement village get together to solve cold case crimes for fun.  Elizabeth is the leader and she has police connections. Joyce acts as scribe, Ibrahim is a retired psychologist and Ron is politically oriented.  Now a body has … Continue reading →

Ho hum – again – good thing I got this one from the library. I enjoyed one of Rosenfelt’s books but no more. Maybe I’m getting bored with legal crime. Open and Shutby David Rosenfelt2008 – read by Grover Gardner … Continue reading →

Ho hum.  I loved Cleeves’ Shetland Island series with Jimmy Perez and I read every book.  But this Vera Stanhope thing just did not do it for me.  I don’t know why not. Perhaps it’s just the lack of focus … Continue reading →

I’m kinda bummed with this last reading.  I was loving the heck out of it – the feeling like Robert Bolaño – but then somewhere in the middle it started taking long breaks from action – any action – and … Continue reading →

My first thought upon reading the opening pages of this incredible book: Huh?  It won the Pulitzer Prize because of the increased attention given Blacks  since the death of George Floyd in May.  WRONG-O.  The Pulitzers were awarded and announced … Continue reading →

Garrett Goodlove is a lawyer who lives and runs a small office in a fictional city in Humboldt County California (home of a lot of redwoods and marijuana agriculture).   He and Jen his lawyer-wife, Nicole his lawyer-daughter, and Carly … Continue reading →

This was a second read because it was a reading group selection.  My first review is here: My opinion: I really don’t think this book should have tied for the Booker Prize this year.  It’s not THAT good but it’s … Continue reading →

This is the third in Grisham’s old Jake Brigance series.  It was preceded by “A Time to Kill” (2011)  and “A Time for Justice” (2013).   Now comes “A Time for Mercy.”  Jake is a lawyer in the small, fictional Mississippi town Grisham … Continue reading →

This is a very strange book, but it comes up on the lists of All-time Best Mystery Novels and it’s closing in on Halloween.  I suppose the book comes up a lot more on literary type lists than on thriller … Continue reading →

*****The Searcherby Tana French2020 / Audibleread by Roger Clarkrating – B+ / crime******* Cal Hooper has moved to a piece of land he bought near a small Irish town to find peace and quiet after years in law enforcement in … Continue reading →

This is the 4th in the series of books following Robinson’s award-winning novel Gilead.  These books are definitely connected but it’s not necessarily to read them in order.  I did read them in order of publication and I recommend that … Continue reading →

I’ve certainly tried to enjoy Louise Penny but after 6 books (!)  spread apart by years, I now officially give up, convinced that this author is just not for me.  So many of my friend adore what are known as … Continue reading →

I loved Wilkerson’s first book, The Warmth of Other Sons but by the time I got around to reading this book, her second, I was kind of tired of all the depressing news for the last 9 months or so. … Continue reading →

Oh yes!   I did jump at the release of another Cormoran Strike crime novel.  To get this out of the way right now, I had read rumors of the book (and therefore Galbraith) being anti-trans people, but in this … Continue reading →

HumanKIND: A Hopeful History  By Rutger Bregman2020  – 463 pagesRead by Thomas Judd 11h 37mRating – 8 / behavioral science(read and listened) I was thinking this would be a good book to stave off depression in this disastrous year of … Continue reading →