Three- Inch Teeth is the 24th book in the Joe Pickett series from C.J.Box, It is also the 23rd book I have read in the series. The only book in the series I haven’t read is Cold Wind. (Note to self read Cold Wind this year!). As a long-time fan of the series, while Three- Inch Teeth is one of his best books, it is for me one of the most disturbing.
Ok so after having read only two books in all of March, I finished my second book for April yesterday! The two books I’ve finished are Goodbye Girl by James Grippando and Innercise: The New Science to Unlock Your Brain’s Hidden Potential by John Assaraf. Goodbye Girl is the 18th book in Grippando’s Jack Swyteck series. While Innercise is a self-help book.
The Last Ranger is the second book I’ve written by Peter Heller. The River was the first of Heller’s books I read back in 2020. In a year where I read 56 books (thanks to the pandemic,) it was one of the best books I read. So I was looking forward to reading The Last Ranger. I must admit that I found it a little slow going in the beginning and and actually set it aside and started reading James Grippando’s latest Goodbye Girl. However, I went back to it as the library due date for the book approached, uh it’s today! Anyway, I’m glad I returned.
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??
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
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!
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!
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
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??
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
So I know us avid readers all have favorite authors. Those authors who you go right out and find and read their latest novel as soon as it is released, For me those authors include; James Lee Burke, C.J.Box and Karin Slaughter. You can see a complete list on this post – . You also have a set of authors whose books you really, really like but you may not get around to reading their books until after you’ve finished the new books from that top list. I myself have many authors that fall into that group. One of those authors is Charlie Donlea.
Ok so here we go again, you don’t know it but I have made several attempts to get back to writing this blog. All of them are still in the draft stages!
A myriad of reasons have colluded to keep me from posting. First, I’ve had an eye problem that has resulted in visits to several doctors. A visit to an ophthalmologist which led to a visit to a retina specialist. From there I went back to a cardiologist, as well as, my family doctor for various tests. None of the testing has revealed a cause for the problem. I do know now though that my heart is good with no blockages anywhere. The next step is a visit to a neuro-ophthalmologist.
The second impact on my blogging is more pleasant, however, it’s been more life changing. In February my daughter had a baby girl. Subsequently my wife, who was ready for retirement, took the plunge and did it. The result is that we are now babysitting four to five days a week from 7:00 am to 4:45. And even though there are two of us, it’s still tiring! With that said, we wouldn’t change it for the world! Emma is just a marvelous baby!
After three months, I am just getting settled into a schedule so i can re-start full workouts and running. Additionally,I am starting to read more! After reading only 3 books in September and 2 in October, I have read four books in November Whoo-hoo! After finishing Girl Gone Missing yesterday I have read 41 books in 2023. However, that leaves me 9 books behind the pace I need to be at to reach my goal of 55 for the year. Hopefully, I can read four or five books before the end of the year.
My Last Read – Girl Gone Missing (Cash Blackbear #2) – Marcie Rendon
