Category: Books, TV & Music

I’m always on the look-out for new crime fiction – books, movies or TV – and thought I’d share a couple of good novels, as well as a TV series with lots of potential.

Although he has been writing for years, I just discovered Michael Koryta. How did I find him? I’m a big fan of Harry Bosch, the character created by Michael Connelly. A lot of writers have blogs, and Connelly’s included a list of current reading. He had high praise for Koryta, so I gave it a whirl.

I just read Koryta’s most recent novel, If She Wakes. It’s about a college student injured in an accident. They think she’s in a vegetative state, but she’s actually got it all going on inside. However, she can’t speak or move. Bad guys are worried she will wake for real and talk about what happened during that accident. There’s a great female detective with some bad-ass driving skills trying to put it all together.

Loved it! Now I’m going through his catalog.

Another writer I enjoy is Attica Locke. I just finished Heaven, My Home. This is the second novel featuring Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger. Bluebird, Bluebird was the first in the series, and it won the 2018 Edgar award for best novel. The writer confronts racism head-on, and sometimes it’s hard to read, but she’s a great story teller, and Darren is a complex and flawed man – which always sucks me in.

About TV. I’ve set my DVD to record USA Network’s new series, Dare Me. It starts tonight, so you’d better get cracking if you want to see it from the beginning. I have no idea if it will be any good, but the series is based on a book by Megan Abbott, who I’ve been reading for years. Among my favorites are Die a Little and Bury Me Deep. But Dare Me is by far the best.

Dare Me is about cheerleaders. Snarky ones. Oh, and a murder, along with a suspicious cheerleading coach who is seemingly perfect, but alas, things are not as they seem.

If someone had told me I’d enjoy a book about cheerleaders, I would have said they were nuts. But this is great stuff. I’m hopeful the TV series will capture the dark weirdness of Megan Abbott’s writing.

Next on the docket is Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin. I found this one listed among the best debut novels of 2018 on CrimeReads. I haven’t started it yet, but it’s set in the mountains of Virginia, where a dude with a secret past goes to hide from bad guys. However, he runs into poachers, and everything changes.

As you know, I’m not much on planning, but since I retired, I started keeping a spreadsheet of books I want to read, and then I reserve them at the library. A series will always bring out my OCD tendencies, so I list them in order on my spreadsheet and go about it methodically.

Binge reading is a fine way to enjoy your retirement. I’m antsy and have a hard time relaxing enough to just slump down and read for hours, but once I do, it’s bliss.

I have two library cards from two different systems and get most of my books from the library. If one doesn’t have it, the other one might. Sometimes I pluck from the shelves at home, although we drastically reduced our book inventory when we moved to our retirement home.

The local library branch is a short walk from our house. I slap on a backpack and feel like a kid again, off to wander the stacks and dream big. We were avid readers and joined every summer reading club that ever was. How did I miss A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle?

The book was published in 1962. I was seven. Probably too young then, but it seems like it would have turned up on a reading list at some point. Yet, I never heard of it. I found the book on a display at the library that includes employee favorites. It’s a young adult novel about children who travel through space and time to save their father … and the world. I loved it.

Next on the binge list was Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump by Rick Reilly. Although I’ve resisted all previous Trump books, golf is the siren call, the crack cocaine of temptation for me. Rick Reilly is a very funny golf writer.

The book was entertaining, but I couldn’t read it at night. Left me in a bad mood right before bed. It’s kind of like watching a train wreck, and you can’t look away. In full disclosure, I loathe Trump, and this book further documents what a truly vile person he is.

Cheating at golf is one thing, and lying about how many club championships he has won is another, but I was particularly horrified by the stories of cheating the workers who build his golf courses. Bullying contractors to accept less than 50 percent of what they were owed because Trump was tired of spending money.

Dang depressing. I am done reading about the man and hope I can get him out of my consciousness by 2020.

The last book I binged on was Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. It seems like half the world has read it, so I’m not telling you anything new, but what an absolutely wonderful book! The novel is part coming-of-age and part murder mystery about a girl, Kya, who is forced to raise herself in the marsh.

Kya is accused of murdering her former lover, and the story flips back and forth between the murder and growing up so lonely and under such tragic conditions yet becoming an expert on the marsh habitat.

I plopped on the comfy reading couch and didn’t budge until I finished the book and wiped the last tear from my eye. By the way, the writer is a scientist who has written non-fiction books, but this is her first novel – at age 70!

The next book I’m tackling is from the family stacks. Although I adore the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, my fandom is based on the movies. I’ve never read the books. Dale had a boxed paperback set, so I’ve started The Fellowship of the Ring. It’s a slow start.

What’s the best thing you’ve read lately?

I’ve been down with another nasty bout of vertigo, but since I was already horizontal, I finished a book that was close to overdue, and it reminded me how much I love the library.

Although my parents were not well-educated, they strongly encouraged us to read – anything and everything. Dad was a big reader, and he kept a little shelf of salacious material in the bathroom, where he spent much of his time. But that’s another story.

My sister and I were always in the summer book clubs and walked to the library on warm summer days. Sometimes we cheated and took a shortcut over the railroad tracks. I’m sorry, Mom.

Dad once told us we were related to the Raja of Tahumbaktu. We spent hours researching and even got the librarian to help. We came up with nothing. I believe we used a pay phone to call him and ask how to spell Tahumbaktu, and all I can remember is the sound of him laughing his ass off. He made it up as a way to get us out of the house.

In high school, I won awards for my speech on legalizing prostitution, and my mother had to come with me to the library so I could access books needed for my research. She was happy to do it, although she was not much of a reader, other than true crime magazines. We were never allowed to go to Tom Sawyer’s Island at Disneyland, because according to Mom, a girl got raped there.

In retirement, I’ve become more frugal, and the library is a great way to save money and avoid the stockpiling of books. It’s an easy walk to my local branch! I take a small backpack for my books, and I feel sort of like Tom Sawyer embarking on an adventure. Or maybe Becky Thatcher? Although I read the books, I’ve imagined a lot of it, because sadly, I couldn’t get to the island.

We live in El Dorado County, so I immediately signed up for a library card at the branch down the street. Later, I discovered Sacramento County has a bigger system and Folsom, the next town over, has a separate system completely. By signing up for a Folsom library card, I now have access to everything in my county of residence, as well as Folsom and most everything in Sacramento County.

Although I sometimes show up and get lucky, I usually do my browsing online. I keep several tabs open. One for Amazon and one for each library. I’ve also bookmarked a couple of sites that review books in my favorite genre, and that’s a great way to find lesser known writers. For ideas, I like Left Coast Crime and Edgar award winners. Usually I go to Amazon for the full write-up.

When I find something I’m interested in reading, I place a hold on it through one of my online library accounts. If one library doesn’t have it, the other one usually does. I’m currently #23 for the new Michael Connelly mystery featuring my all-time favorite detective, Harry Bosch.

I’ll read just about anything, including cereal boxes, but I favor hard-boiled mysteries and historical fiction about the Old West. Some of the authors I like are not widely read, so I will often have to jostle back and forth between the libraries to find it in the system. Occasionally I will break down a buy a book, usually for my Kindle, and usually for travel. Sometimes a hard copy cookbook.

Finally, I keep a little journal with books I want to read. Mine is messy and includes other lists, because I am a demonic list maker. If it’s a series, I list all the books of the series in order and try to read them in order. Not because I am crazy but because I like to see how the characters evolve over time.

Any other good frugal reading tips out there?