Tag: Top 5 Tuesday

Amari and the Despicable Wonders by BB Alston

War has come to the supernatural world, and Amari's two worst enemies are leading the charge.

Elaine Harlowe has manipulated her way into becoming prime minister, using her mind control ability to force the Bureau to take up her vicious grudge against magiciankind. Meanwhile, Dylan Van Helsing, the newly crowned leader of the League of Magicians--and Amari's former partner--is after a destructive new power that would not only ensure the magicians' victory . . . it would make him invincible.

With neither the Bureau nor the League safe for Amari, and her newly returned brother, Quinton, determined to keep her out of the fray, she and her friends decide to find a way to end the war on their own.

So when they learn that the only way to stop Dylan is to find powerful magical inventions known as Wonders, they go after them. But wielding these items comes at a terrible cost, and Amari will have to decide just how much she's willing to sacrifice . . . because the Despicable Wonders will demand everything.

What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, read by Hanako Footman, Susan Momoko Hingley, Kenichiro Thomson, Winson Ting, and Shiro Kawai

What are you looking for? So asks Tokyo's most enigmatic librarian. For Sayuri Komachi is able to sense exactly what each visitor to her library is searching for and provide just the book recommendation to help them find it.

A restless retail assistant looks to gain new skills, a mother tries to overcome demotion at work after maternity leave, a conscientious accountant yearns to open an antique store, a recently retired salaryman searches for newfound purpose.

In Komachi's unique book recommendations they will find just what they need to achieve their dreams. What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is about the magic of libraries and the discovery of connection. This inspirational tale shows how, by listening to our hearts, seizing opportunity and reaching out, we too can fulfill our lifelong dreams. Which book will you recommend? 

Don’t Let the Devil Ride by Ace Atkins

Hell is empty...and Addison McKellar's husband is missing.

Addison McKellar isn't clueless--she knows she and her husband Dean don't have the perfect marriage--but she's still shocked when he completely vanishes from her life. At first Addison is annoyed, but as days stretch into a week and she's repeatedly stonewalled by Dean's friends and associates, her frustration turns into genuine alarm. When even the police seem dismissive of her concerns, Addison turns to her father's old friend, legendary Memphis PI Porter Hayes.

Porter and Addison begin to dig deeper into Dean's affairs and quickly discover that he was never the hardworking business owner and family man he pretended to be. As they piece together the connections between a hook-handed mercenary, one of Elvis's former leading ladies, and a man posing as an FBI agent, it becomes clear that Dean was deeply enmeshed in a high-stakes web of international intrigue, and Porter and Addison aren't the only ones looking for him.

Dean angered some very dangerous people before he disappeared--people who have already killed to get what they want--and they won't hesitate to come after his family to even the score.

Don't Let the Devil Ride is a thrilling adventure about what can happen when you pull back the curtain on your life. Ace Atkins, long known for gritty Southern noir with a witty edge, has crafted an ambitious, globe-hopping story that comes home to Memphis in explosive fashion.

An Honorable Assassin by Steve Hamilton

He was released from federal prison to a second life as an unwilling assassin, serving a major Chicago crime lord until the day he finally won his freedom.

But that freedom was a lie.

Now Mason finds himself on a plane to Jakarta, promoted to lead assassin for a vast shadow organization that reaches every corner of the globe. This time, there's only one name on his list: Hashim Baya--otherwise known as the Crocodile--international fugitive and #1 most wanted on Interpol's "Red Notice" list. Baya is the most dangerous and elusive criminal Mason has ever faced.

And for the first time in his career ... Mason fails his mission. Baya gets away alive.

There's only one thing he can do now: to save himself, his ex-wife, and his daughter, he must make this mission his life, hunting down the target on his own. But Mason isn't alone in his search, because for Interpol agent Martin Sauvage, apprehending Baya has become a personal vendetta. Sauvage is a man just as haunted as Mason. And just as determined.

Never have the stakes been so high, the forces surrounding him so great. Sauvage wants Baya in prison. Mason needs him in a body bag. Assassin and cop are on a five-thousand-mile collision course, leading to a brutal final showdown--and the one man in the world who can finally show Nick Mason the way to freedom.

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

Back in high school, everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together . . . everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh's porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha--Shiloh would go to go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed.

Now Shiloh's thirty-three, and it's been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She's been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she's back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When she's invited to an old friend's wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there--and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything?

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.

It's the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.

The Annotated Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

I love The Big Sleep–it was my first Chandler novel, it’s the one I’ve read the most often. And the idea of learning more about it, getting background, digging into to some of the scholarship, etc. sounds great (which is why I ordered it months before it came out in 2018). But I haven’t been able to bring myself to read it–there’s part of me that doesn’t want to know that much about it (and I almost never say that kind of thing). I’m also a little afraid that it’s going to flip a switch and I’m going to spend months digging into Chandler scholarship in general.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

I don’t know that intimidated is the best word, but I needed a fifth book. I’m more apprehensive about dipping back into that world. Also, apathetic. But sure…let’s go with intimidated.

The Will in Its Theological Relations by John L. Girardeau

550 pages of a critique of Jonathan Edwards and a restatement of the classic Reformed position on the freedom and bondage of the will in dense 19th Century language. Yeah, that’s easy to see why I’m intimidated.

Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley

The Rook is such a good novel, but after seeing some not-as-good reviews, I’ve been putting it off since it was published. I just don’t want anything to tarnish The Rook in my mind.

I should add that I haven’t seen bad reviews for Stiletto, just people who didn’t like it as much as I’d hoped. Which makes it different than the other books by O’Malley.

Flynn’s World by Gregory Mcdonald

Similarly, I just don’t know if I can muster up the courage to read this one. The Fletch novels that Mcdonald wrote in his later years were good enough, but they were missing something. I’m afraid that this would be the same way–that it came so many years after the Fletch books, makes me even more intimidated by it. The initial Flynn books are probably in my all-time favorite stack. I just don’t want to see it be tarnished.

But there’s a chance I’m missing out on something really good.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

This Fantasy-Mystery hybrid (with a decent amount of other-worldly science thrown in) was my first five-star read of the year, and it’s one I’m still thinking about. The world was great, the characters were complex and well-executed, the story and atmosphere were stunning. I could go on and on about this one, but am going to force myself to be pithy here.

My full take on the book can be found here.

The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher

Yes, part of the appeal of this novel was that we finally got something new in this series after years of silence. But I’d have had a blast with this no matter when it was released. Butcher very carefully gave his fans more of just about everything they enjoyed in the first book without duplicating it in any sense. He also deepened and expanded our knowledge and understanding of this world, its magic and politics, and all of the major characters (white hats, gray hats, and black hats). At least two of the new characters had better be back. There’s a character death that I’ll eventually forgive Butcher for, but I’m not there yet. This one just ticked every box for me.

The Mercy Chair by M.W. Craven

This is the darkest M.W. Craven novel–well, I haven’t read his second book yet, so I should qualify this as the darkest Poe and Tilly novel. And that’s no mean feat. The two are called in to help investigate the death of a cult leader and end up discovering much more–murders that no one realized had happened, torture sessions disguised as education/treatment, some twisted emotional and spiritual abuse–and more. Both Poe and Tilly are at there best here–and the rest of regular characters are as well. This will stick with readers for a while.

Smoke Kings by Jahmal Mayfield

Speaking of dark…Smoke Kings tells the story of a group of friends who decide to take social justice into their own hands and become vigilantes acting out against those who’ve benefited from lynchings or other racially-motivated crimes their families participated in decades ago. Internal and external pressures start to overwhelm the group and then things get deadly. There’s a whole lot of evil done in the name of righteousness here (by people that others would deny were anything but righteous). The number of heroes–or at least people who were actually accomplishing good things–are far outweighed by those using others. If you’re not disturbed as you’re gripped by this, you’ve missed something.

Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman

The first 87 pages of this book might have been my favorite 87 pages this year. The rest of them were pretty good, too. The central premise was a little out there, but Waxman pulled it off–and the rest of the book was so good you didn’t mind anyway. I laughed, I was moved, my heart was warmed—all the typical reactions to Abbi Waxman. I loved being in this world, surrounded by Waxman’s words and I cannot wait for the next excuse I have to do it again.

My full take on the book can be found here.

Robert B. Parker’s Bye Bye Baby by Ace Atkins

The fiftieth Spenser novel is also the last one in Ace Atkins’ run. It’s hard for me to separate my thoughts and feelings about this book from my thoughts and feelings about that run. This wasn’t his best Spenser novel, but it was better than his worst (which really wasn’t that bad). In this book Spenser acts as a bodyguard for a libral minority congressperson and investigates the threats behind her. It’s an entertaining time with some characters I’ve spent decades with.

My full take on the book can be found here.

Don’t Know Tough by Elic Cranor

This was a hard, grim read. In brief, an idealistic, young High School Football coach brings a troubled, angry, and violent player into his home to help him escape home and get back on the right track. And well, you know what they say about the road paved with good intentions. As difficult as the material was, Cranor’s skill with writing, rich characterization, and dynamite prose made this a sheer pleasure to read—while putting you through the emotional wringer.

My full take on the book can be found here.

Reconstruction by Mick Herron

An MI6 accountant is brought in to negotiate with a young man who has taken some hostages in a nursery school (2 children and 3 adults). But how did all of these characters get to this point? Why are they here? What’s going to happen after they get out of the school? This novel examines all these things—putting the pieces of the puzzle together so that by the end (and I’m talking the end), the reader is able to put all the pieces together and can construct a pretty clear understanding. This is one of the best structured and written novels I’ve read in a long time.

My full take on the book can be found here.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

The previous two books on this list were pretty heavy and intense reads. This is anything but. This popcorn movie in a handy book form. It’s about a food delivery app driver who joins up with a group who travels to a parallel dimension to study and protect Kaiju. There are tense and action-filled moments, but given the premise—how heavy can it be? It’s filled with a catchy, irreverent narrative; snappy dialogue; and a first-person narrator you click with almost instantly (or not at all)—it just took me a few pages to know that I was going to find nothing but joy in these pages.

My full take on the book can be found here.

Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman

If the last three years have taught me anything (and it’s likely that it hasn’t, but for the sake of argument, let’s say it did), it’s that Abbi Waxman will make me laugh, warm my heart, maybe even get me misty—while telling a story full of great and quirky characters, with dialogue as good as you’ll find anywhere. That’s what you get here in this story about a young woman who came to LA to get a fresh start on life. But before that start, things have to get a little worse for her—thankfully, she finds herself among a great group of (mostly) women who decide to become her friends.

My full take on the book can be found here.