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Update: January-February 2024 Reads

Update: January-February 2024 Reads

Midnight Creed - Alex Kava
Midnight Creed (Ryder Creed #8) –

Midnight Creed  is the 8th book in Alex Kava’s Ryder Creed series  The series was a spin-off of Kava’s Maggie O’Dell series. Since Maggie and her FBI colleagues are an intricate part of the Ryder Creed series, I’m going to call this book book 19 in the Maggie O’Dell has targeted homeless people up and down the east coast. While Ryder  and his dogs are searching for a missing boy. Additionally, Ryder and his staff are awaiting a shipment of K9s that were left behind when our troops left Afghanistan. Read More Read More

Starter Villain – John Scalzi – AnotherWinner for Scalzi

 

So on Friday January 12 I finished reading my second book for 2024, John Scalzi’s Starter Villain. It is the ninth book by Scalzi on my Goodreads shelves. I began reading Scalzi’s books in 2008. The first book I read was Old Man’s War.  that book among the others in the Old Man’s War series may still be my favorites written by Scalzi.

The hero of the book, well maybe not a hero, let’s just say main character of the book is Charlie Fister. Charlie is  a divorced ex-newspaper  journalist. Who is now a substitute teacher living with his cat. A house his siblings want to sell.  All Charlie wants is to buy and run  a pub downtown. But the cost is astronomical  and his only collateral for a bank loan is the house he lives in, which his estranged siblings want to sell!

Then his estranged Uncle Jake dies and leaves Charlie his business. Charlie realizes he may be in trouble, when he’s asked to represent the family at his uncle’s memorial service. At the service, first it was the message sent on a vase of flowers. The message See You in Hell” During the visitation, one guest checks Jake’s pulse another tries to stab him! It seems his uncle was not too popular. “

When Charlie is whisked away to his uncle’s island (I won’t  tell you why) he learns Uncle is a “villain”. Additionally, the people who were out to get Jake are out to get his heir, i.e. Charlie. Can Charlie survive??

Thoughts on Starter Villain

Starter Villain is the ninth book written by John Scalzi I have read. While I enjoy his hard science a little more I also enjoy his other books.I thought The Kaiju Preservation Society was a great read.  The book was nominated for a Goodreads Award as Best Science Fiction book of the year so others liked it, too. It finished as the 8th most popular book.

Starter Villain reminds me a lot of The Kaiju Preservation, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps until she becomes involved with the Society.  Cuarlie on the other hand is an ex-journalist stuck working as a substitute teacher. Both are characters that you can root for as they both face formidable opponents.

John Scalzi’s sense of humor always comes out in his characters and it certainly does in Charlie Fister. It certainly is one of the aspects of Scalzi’s books I love.

Even though I keep waiting for something big to happen in Starter Villain, overall i was satisfied with the surprising final twist at the end. Actually, the more I think about the book the more I realize that I really liked the book.

In 2023 Starter Villain was also nominated for the best science fiction book at Goodreads. This time Scalzi’s book finished fourth in the voting. So check it out.

Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of John Scalzi Read More

New Folk Music from Old Friends

So over the last few years, I’ve drifted away from my musical roots. Between the 1975 and 2014 I listened to primarily music that falls broadly under the umbrella of Americana. I listened to Folk, Blues, bluegrass and Texas music. After about 2014, my musical listening shifted and I found myself listening to more Jazz and New Age with some Prog Rock thrown in the mix. It seemed every time I looked at the Roots Music Report Chart or New Releases Now, I never saw music from the Americana artists I listened to. The only Americana I continued to listen to regularly was Blues.
However, today’s Roots Music Folk Chart contained new albums from some of my favorites! So let’s what new Americana music I can put into my music rotation. Read More

Life is Hard – Mike Zito

Life is Hard - Mike Zito

So the other day I wrote a out one of the two songs that have been in my music rotation this month, Albert Cummings‘ latest album Strong. The other album is Mike Zito‘s new album Life is Hard. Like Cummings Zito has been a favorite of mine for many years a now. I started listening to his music back around 2010 in when I heard his album Pearl. I think that his last two albums, 2021 Blues for the Southside Live and Life is Hard have been the best of his career. Read More

Beach Wedding – Michael Ledwidge

Beach Wedding -Michael Ledwidge

 

So for whatever reason I have never read a book written by Janes Patterson. As a result, I  never discovered author Michael Ledwidge until I checked out Stop at Nothing book #1 in his Michael Gannon series from my library in July of 2021. It was great! I quickly quickly followed it up in August with book #2 in the series Run for Cover. Then I had to wait until January 2023 until book 3 Hard to Break was released. During that time Ledwidge had released a standalone novel Beach Wedding, which I put off reading until last month, when it became the seventh book I’ve read in 2024. Anyway, here   is what I’ve missed out on by not reading Ledwidge’s work until now! Read More

Albert Cummings’ – Strong – Starts March Strong!

Albert Cummings - Strong

Ok so since September of last year my wife and I have spent most of our days babysitting our 4th grandchild, Emma.  We’re at my daughter’s house from 7 am until roughly 5 pm. The result is I don;t have a lot of time to blog and/or listen to music. But I’ve been trying to listen when I am out and about on the weekends and at night. Lately, the two blues albums that have been in my music rotation are the latest releases from two of my favorites. First came Albert Cummings latest releases Strong.  Then came Mike Zito’s  Life is Hard .  Read More

Midnight Creed (Ryder Creed # 8) -Alex Kava (Book 8 of 2024)

Midnight Creed - Alex Kava one my my 2024 Reads

Midnight Creed (Ryder Creed (#8) (Maggie O’Dell World #19) Alex Kava


Midnight Creed  is the 8th book in Alex Kava’s Ryder Creed series  The series was a spin-off of Kava’s Maggie O’Dell series. Since Maggie and her FBI colleagues are an intricate part of the Ryder Creed series, I’m going to call this book book 19 in the Maggie O’Dell has targeted homeless people up and down the east coast. While Ryder  and his dogs are searching for a missing boy. Additionally, Ryder and his staff are awaiting a shipment of K9s that were left behind when our troops left Afghanistan. 

Soon another boy goes missing (one that Ryders’s coworker Jason knows well) and Ryder and his team sets off on a frantic search to find the boy.

Meanwhile the serial killer Maggie’s chasing is headed to Florida! Will the two cases collide!

My Thoughts on Midnight Creed

I have been reading books by Alex Kava since her first Maggie O’Dell book A Perfect Evil. I have enjoyed everyone of them.m Each case  Maggie faced through the first 11 books has been slightly different. Maggie has faced not only serial killers a, but serial arsonists, and a potential mall bomber. In addition to electrocuted teenagers and deadly pathogens.

Kava introduced Ryder Creed in her 2015 release Breaking Creed. Ryder an ex-marine turned K9 search-and-rescue dog trainer. Along with his partner they rescue dogs and trainer them to become search-and-rescue dogs. Through the first seven books in the series Maggie and Ryder’s relationship has developed. In book 7 they revealed their love for one another but they still live separately. Maggie cant’ leave Quantico and the FBI and Ryder can’t leave his dogs.

But back to Midnight Creed. Once again Kava provides a well-paced character driven treat. In addition to Maggie and Ryder the supporting characters Jason and Ryder’s sister Brodie have become key characters in the series.  Well, Brodie has been a key character in the series since the beginning of the series. However, readers just met her in the most recent books. Where was she?

Midnight Creed can be read without having read the whole series. However, I bet you’ll want to go back aand read the rest of the series after reading it!  So check it out!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of Alex Kava Read More

February 15, 1933 – FDR Assassination Attempt

FDR assassination attempt newspaper picture

Throughout your life there are things you learn about and forget. Then there are things you never learned about! I think the following falls into the later category. But on this date in 1933, there was an attempt made to assassinate Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Miami, Florida. Here’s what happened on that fateful day.

February 15, 1933 – FDR Assassination Attempt

  • FDR assassination attempt newspaper picture

    From:Historyonthenet.com

From ThougtCo.

On February 15, 1933, just over two weeks before Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as President of the United States, FDR arrived at the Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida around 9 p.m. to give a speech from the back seat of his light-blue Buick. Read More