Reviews

Calculated in Death is J.D. Robb’s 36th addition to her popular In Death series. In a Manhattan stairwell, a woman is found murdered. It could be a case of mugging gone wrong, but Lieutenant Eve Dallas has her doubts. So begins another trip through New York high finance, high society and murder.

I have been reading the Harry Bosch series for 20 years and I have enjoyed every book. His first books in the series were called Black Echo and then Black Ice.  They are well written police procedurals/thrillers/mysteries. The main character is Harry Bosch, a Vietnam War vet who spends as much time battling police bureaucracies as he does criminals. The novels are set in L.A. and Southern California. There is a level of complexity and detail that is enjoyable, but mainly Connelly is a good storyteller.

Kelly Corrigan opens her memoir, The Middle Place, with "The thing you need to know about me is that I am George Corrigan's daughter, his only daughter." But as you read through Corrigan’s stories and antidotes, you learn that she is so much more than just her father’s daughter.

Christopher John Francis Boone, age fifteen, lives in England and has autism. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is the story of how his neighbor’s dog died and what happened to Christopher’s parent’s relationship.

Never growing beyond two feet and eight inches, Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Bump spent much of her life hidden by her parents. However, when she impressed legendary showman P.T. Barnum, she suddenly became the world's most unlikely celebrity. In this fictional autobiography, Vinnie recounts her life, her travels with Barnum, and her wedding to co-worker and fellow tiny superstar, General Tom Thumb, and much, much more. This tiny woman lived a huge life.

Plain Wisdom tells a heartfelt, true story of two women, one Old Order Amish and one Englischer.  Although culturally worlds apart, they immediately discover a shared bond—love, laughter, and tears.

In a dystopian society where people are born into a numbered caste system, America Singer, a young musician, has fallen deeply, painfully, and irreversibly in love with a boy of a lower caste than herself. America’s and Aspen’s love consisted of stolen moments in the camouflage of night for over two years.

In the city of Kesh, everyone is a murderer. The only way to live in relative safety and comfort is to compete in a deadly game where only one survives. The catch? You have to kill your genetic “Alt”, which is essientially your twin—a person with the exact same DNA who lives somewhere else in the city.

Train Dreams is a weird little book.