While I’ve reported on my favorite books of the year, I thought it appropriate that I let you know of a few other good titles I’ve read over the past five months.

Note: For most titles, I have attached a link to either my GoodReads review or the general GoodReads entry. 

Fiction

A couple of years ago I read Iain Reid’s dark and twisted novel, I’m Thinking of Ending Things and if you want to see if the book is for you, check out my review here. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked up his follow-up novel, Foe, and while it wasn’t quite as dark as his previous book, it was still a good mind-bender. I can definitely see this made into a fabulous Twilight Zone episode.

I’ve been a fan of Elin Hilderbrand’s Nantucket books for years even though she tends to run hot and tepid. Winter in Paradise is the first in a trilogy set on the island of St. John and it is a frothy escape from the grind of everyday life. If you’ve never read her books, try The Blue Bistro or for a good binge-read, get the “Winter” series which starts with Winter Street.

The first Liane Moriarty book I read was The Husband’s Secret and I was blown away [a side note: the “exploding flowers” on the book jackets started a cover trend] and her follow-up, Big Little Lies, if not equally as good, was compelling and turned into a blockbuster HBO series. Even though her latest book Nine Perfect Strangers got off to a slow start, I ended up enjoying it. Some have said the plot twists were implausible but I found them very timely.

I am a huge fan of Stephen King (The Shining remains one of my favorite books of all time) but I have strayed a bit from reading his latest books. I saw Elevation at the library and decided to pick it up because it was short. It’s not scary, just an odd story about a man who suffers from every woman’s nightmare, losing weight but still staying the same size–OK, maybe that does classify it as horror.

Thrillers/Mystery/Suspense

Even though Claire Fuller’s Bitter Orange is set during a hot summer, the tone is dark (gothic noir?) as you know from the beginning it isn’t going to end well. It wasn’t the best gothic suspense novel I’ve read but it held my interest and the setting based on the Grange Hall estate in Hampstead sent me down a rabbit hole of googling images of the estate.

The Au Pair by Emma Rous is still on my “to-be-read” list but I included it for those who want more titles with a gothic feel. Reports have been mixed with some saying it’s rather slow and plodding but others have loved it.

While You Sleep (March publication) could also be titled “Fifty Shades of a Grey Ghost” because hoo-boy! it had some pretty steamy scenes involving a spirit. If you’re still interested, it’s set on a Scottish isle and is rife with lots of scary grabs, and while a twist or two may be guessed, the ending will have you thinking “What just happened?” It will also have you checking the VRBO or AirBnB reviews a little more carefully before booking a vacation rental.

Last year I enjoyed The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen so I was looking forward to their second collaboration, An Anonymous Girl, and I was not disappointed. The authors took their psychology research and applied it towards this very in-depth look at ethics and morals along with some good plot turns.

Even though I’d grown disenchanted with Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, I decided to try the 25th title, Look Alive Twenty-Five and it roped me back into the series. Stephanie’s life is still messy but some of her new exploits had me chuckling and even laughing out loud a few times. I maintain these are still best in audio as the narrator is excellent.

I adore the Bakeshop Mysteries series by Ellie Alexander featuring appealing characters who live and work at Torte bakery in the charming setting of Ashland, Oregon. The 9th book in the series, Live and Let Pie, starts with the crew moving into their remodeled digs and even introduces a couple of new characters. The food descriptions are yummy and recipes are tempting. And as usual, I recommend these be read from the beginning; a complete list of titles can be found here. Readers who enjoyed the Goldy Bear series by Diane Mott Davidson may want to give these a whirl.

Nonfiction

Forty years ago, I read Peter Jenkins’ A Walk Across America and it instantly ignited my passion for reading books by anyone who performed some type of death-defying endeavor. I was excited to see his son, Jedidiah Jenkins had written To Shake the Sleeping Self, the chronicle of his bicycle trip from the Oregon coast to the southern-most tip of South America, but turned out that while the adventure was amazing, his storytelling lacked a certain panache. You can read more of my thoughts here.

So as I’m writing the above paragraph, I wondered if the phrase “southern-most tip of South America” is correct or if it has a redundant word or two. A few weeks ago I wouldn’t have given it a thought but after reading Benjamin Dreyer’s excellent book on language style and usage, Dreyer’s English, I find myself looking at my writing with a more careful eye. I’m not sure it’s changing for the better but at least I’m thinking about it! Anyway, if you do any kind of writing (and don’t we all?), buy a copy to keep on your shelf.

Tina Turner’s My Love Story details her amazing and many times harrowing journey from meeting Ike Turner and getting out of his clutches to meeting the love of her life and then surviving a stroke, cancer, and a kidney transplant.

In Pieces by Sally Field is interesting but not as compelling as I had hoped. She divulges some of the harrowing incidents that marked her life and talks about her complicated relationship with her mother, and her dishing on Burt Reynolds was revealing.

And then there’s the “memoir” This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Phillipps, the latest in a series of young female celebrities writing candid essays about their lives. I wasn’t as impressed as others have been but then maybe I’m a little too old to appreciate the whole “Insta-celebrity” phenomenon.

For sheer fun, get Sarah Andersen’s group of comics for adults called Sarah’s Scribbles. They are all a quick and realistic yet humorous look at a millennial’s life as an introvert who also loves books and cats. The titles are Adulthood is a Myth, Big Mushy Happy Lump, and Herding Cats.

That’s it for this post. I’ll be back to catch up on Library Reads and then my plan is to write about the life-simplifying trend, something I did 25 years ago after I read Elaine St. James’ Simplify Your Life.