Favorite Books of the Year

 

Required Reading - Red Notice by Bill Browder

Well written page turner and one of the best books I've read about present day Russia.  Helps explain the Trump/Russia attraction.  I learned a lot and recommend you do too.

Incredible Novel - Highly Recommended

Thought provoking and a tearjerker!  What if we are all clones??

Must Read

Powell's Books midyear roundup "best books of 2017 so far" says it all!

Researcher/Writer Amy Stewart

Reading this book is fascinating, informative and culinary.  Great combination, great book.  Highly recommended!

How to Clean House

I just spent an hour cleaning out my bathroom sink drain.  Thank goodness I had Cheryl Mendelson's great book Home Comforts, with good advice on safe cleaners, so I could finish the job.

Want a Book That Will Keep You Up All Night?

Check it out on Amazon, buy it at your local independent bookstore.

I love Gillian Flynn's books and was delighted to stumble upon this similarly dark thriller.  It literally did keep me up most of the night until I finished it.  Now I'm sad I don't have it to look forward to.

There's Something About the Pacific Northwest I Love. Talent!

I'm loving this new book of short stories from Seattle-area based author David Guterson ("Snow Falling on Cedars").

David Benioff and Sara Gruen: Two great writers, More Than Two Great Books

Recently discovered two new novelists I love, thanks to my local library!  I'm now reading Sara's "Ape House," which I can't put down.  Highly recommended.

The Swerve

Though I rarely read non fiction, this book is well worth making an exception. Fabulous read!
More info at Amazon.com

Jo Nesbo "The Leopard"

One good thing about being sick is having more time to read, and there's nothing so fine as a great Scandinavian mystery.  Jo Nesbo's Inspector Harry Hole novel, set in Norway, is a great read!  Highly recommended!  The additional benefit of immersing oneself in a thrilling adventure that unfolds in the cold and snow, while sitting outside on a perfect, sunny California day, means the persistent cold germs no longer seem so bad.  More info on the author is on his official website HERE

Starting to Love History

It only took 60+ years for me to start to like history.  Since a middle grade teacher threw my history test in the "circular file," accusing me of cheating (which was not true), I began a nearly lifelong disinterest in the subject.  But, that is finally at an end!  I am happy now to discover there is a whole new fascinating world out there to immerse myself in.   I'm currently loving Hilary Mantel's latest book "Bring Up The Bodies," about Henry VIII and the English Tudors.  I am not alone.  The Telegraph gives the book a great review here.  Given my prior lack of interest in history, I was confused how England got from Henry VIII to the current Queen, Elizabeth, and found this official website of British Royalty a great help.

What's of most interest to me in this book, outside of the great writing, is how clearly history tends to repeat itself.  Here is Hilary's description of why Parliament, in the early 16th century, won't vote for laws that help the poor (page 204-205):  "In March, Parliament knocks back his (Cromwell's) new poor law.  It was too much for the Commons to digest, that rich men might have some duty to the poor, that if you get fat, as gentlemen of England do, on the wool trade, you have some responsibility to the men turned off the land, the labourers without labour, the sowers without a field.  England needs roads, forts, harbours, bridges.  Men need work.  It's a shame to see them begging their bread, when honest labour could keep the realm secure.  Can we not put them together, the hands and the task?  But Parliament cannot see how it is the state's job to create work.  Are not these matters in God's hands, and is not poverty and dereliction part of his eternal order?  To everything there is a season:  a time to starve and a time to thieve.  If rain falls for six months solid and rots the rain in the fields, there must be providence in it; for God knows his trade.   It is an outrage to the rich and enterprising, to suggest that they should pay an income tax, only to put bread in the mouths of the workshy.  And if Secretary Cromwell argues that famine provokes criminality:  well, are there not hangmen enough?"  Excellent stuff!!  I highly recommend the book.

Charles Burns - Fabulous Off-Kilter Cartoonist

I confess I love Charles Burns' weird comic art.  The piece above is a B&W version of the cover from "Black Hole" comic magazine No. 4 posted on the blog Accidental Mysteries.  I have most, if not all, of Burns' comics still (there aren't very many).  And, I loved the work he did in 1991 for the ballet "The Hard Nut," commissioned by choreographer Mark Morris (a funny take on Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker").  Burns has worked with some of my favorite comic book publishers:  Kitchen Sink Press and Fantagraphics Books.    I met Charles Burns once at one of San Diego's Comic Conventions.  He was nice and seemed much more normal than one would expect from his art.

Elizabeth Strout - Writer Extraordinaire

Just read Elizabeth Strout's 2008 novel Olive Kitteridge.  Highly recommended!  I'm always amazed and delighted when an author captures a fictional character's thoughts in such a way as to describe exactly what I might think.  Discovering another person plugged into the same wave length as I, and reflecting it back through color or word pictures, certainly makes the world a much less lonely place.

Here's a more complete review from Louisa Thomas at the The New York Times