The 24th novel in the Jack Reacher series is good as usual. But like the last book, I found it has too much action. I prefer the older smaller, simpler plots.

Reacher does gets the girl in this one.

Reacher is on a Greyhound bus, minding his own business, with no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there.

Then he steps off the bus to help an old man who is obviously just a victim waiting to happen. But you know what they say about good deeds. Now Reacher wants to make it right.

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This is one excellent book written by Charlie Fletcher.

Dystopian stories take many forms, but it’s a rare dystopian novel that prominently features man’s best friend. Author of the Oversight and Stoneheart trilogies, C.A. Fletcher doesn’t hide the importance of dogs in his latest novel. Aptly titled A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World, it follows a young boy named Griz as he goes on a journey to retrieve his stolen pet. …

An event known as The Gelding has devastated the world’s population so much so that only thousands—not billions—of humans survive. …

Despite the bleakness of his surroundings, Griz’s naive curiosity about the world comes off as optimistic and hopeful. …

Review: The indestructible humanity of A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World

Karin Slaughter is an American crime writer. The author of eighteen novels, Slaughter has sold more than 35 million copies of her books, which have been published in 37 languages …

I can’t recommend her 2015 book Pretty Girls unless you can tolerate horrific torture, rape, mutilation and murder.

I can’t.

After two books I’m giving up on Slaughter though she’s an excellent writer admired by Lee Childs, Kathy Reichs, Gillian Flynn and others in the crime genre.

At age-87, he’s still a master of the genre. One of our best living authors.

The audio version of Agent Running in the Field is read by le Carré. That makes it even more meaningful, for me.

The book is set in 2018. Le Carré obviously hates Brexit, Boris Johnson (whom he calls pig-ignorant) and Trump.

The plot is simpler than usual for le Carré. I can actually follow the story easily, … for once.

 

 

The Protector (2003)
The Naked Edge (2010)
The Attitude Adjuster (2014)

I’ve been on a David Morrell kick of late, one of my brother’s favourite authors.

But I was less impressed with the Cavanaugh series. The protagonist and his wife are high end body guards called protectors.

Too much action. Not enough plot.

Elizabeth Gilbert is a fantastic writer. One of the best working today.

This book is one crazy coming-of-age story.

It’s 1940 and good-time gal Vivian Morris has just been expelled from Vassar, but she doesn’t much mind.

Her parents, on the other hand, are less than thrilled, so they dispatch their dawdling daughter to New York to live with her aunt Peg—the charismatic proprietor of a past-its-prime theater that is home to a quirky, cobbled-together family of thespians and showgirls (whom you will genuinely miss when the last page is turned).

Here, Vivian sets out to become someone interesting, and in short order commits a colossal youthful indiscretion that makes her interesting for all the wrong reasons.

… she slyly imparts some hard-won wisdom into this bawdy but bighearted novel, written as an antidote to the grief Gilbert was experiencing after the loss of her partner, Rayya Elias:

“Life is dangerous and fleeting. And thus there is no point in denying yourself pleasure or adventure while you are here.”

To that end, don’t deny yourself the pleasure of reading City of Girls.

—Erin Kodicek, Amazon Book Review

Amazon

I want to read all her books:

Novels

• Stern Men (2000)
• The Signature of All Things (2013)
• City of Girls (2019)

Biographies

• The Last American Man (2002)

Memoirs

• • Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (2006)
  • Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage (2010)
  • Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (2015)

The Testaments is a 2019 novel by Margaret Atwood.

It is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale (1985).

The novel is set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale.

It is narrated by Aunt Lydia, a character from the previous novel; Agnes, a young woman living in Gilead; and Daisy, a young woman living in Canada.

Spoiler – Agnes and Daisy are the daughters of June Osborne / Offred / Ofjoseph (Elisabeth Moss in the TV series).

The highlight of the sequel is Aunt Lydia, for sure. Her backstory. Her rise to power as an Aunt overseeing the women of Gilead. Atwood said that Dowd’s performance as Aunt Lydia on the series helped inspire the new novel

Ann Dowd plays the Aunt Lydia role in the TV series. And she reads the part in the audio book.

My only quibble with the otherwise very good book is the plot. It’s absurd to think this was the only way to get Aunt Lydia’s Testaments to Canada. Absurd.