We Were Never Here

 Fiction by Andrea Bartz

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Emily and Kristen are best friends who take exciting and exotic summer trips together. It's a great way for them to reconnect, since Kristen moved to Australia eighteen moths ago and Emily stayed behind in Milwaukee. But something terrible happened on their trip to Cambodia last year, and Emily is having trouble forgetting it. 

This was an exciting story that pushed itself a little past believable sometimes.

Sick Puppy

 Fiction by Carl Hiaasen.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Twilly is a nature-loving, quick-tempered Floridian who inherited a small fortune and therefore has plenty of time to find people who mess up the environment and "teach them a lesson." But when he follows a littering lobbyist home he gets in a bit over his head.

Carl Hiaasen writes funny heist/caper type stories with an environmental twist. Sometimes they are exciting enough and/or humorous enough to outweigh the stereotypical bad guys and preachy environmentalism. This one was too heavy-handed for me, but I did want to find out what happened at the end...

I also read by this author: Tourist Season, Lucky You, Skink No Surrender

In an Instant

Fiction by Suzanne Redfearn

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning if this story there are the Millers and the Golds, a pair of families whose mothers are longtime best friends. Finn Miller and her siblings even call Mr. and Mrs. Gold “Uncle Bob” and “Aunt Karen.” And there is also Maureen Kaminski, Finn’s best friend who is just like a sister to her.  All of these people who feel like a family go on a weekend ski trip together, and something happens that shows them who is really part of the family and who is an outsider. 

This was an exciting thriller but it was also very thought-provoking. I very much recommend it. 

Star Wars: Join the Resistance

Fiction by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker

https://www.audible.com/

I'm not really a "Star Wars" person. I'm not saying I'm not a nerd, but I'm not the kind of nerd who has memorized entire comic book/science fiction universes, or the kind who knows how to speak Klingon. I go to these kinds of movies, but I have to ask my husband what they are talking about sometimes.

Funny story: When the original "X-Men" movie came out (2000), comic book movies were much less mainstream than they are today. My husband and I went to see it in the theater and I swear I was the only girl in there. The surrounding pack of male nerds were side-eyeing us and wondering if maybe one of THEM could get a girlfriend too someday. Now when we go to the new films in the franchise, it's full of couples. I like to think we gave those dudes the confidence they needed.

But I digress. 

What I was saying was, even though I'm not a "Star Wars" person, these were super fun stories to listen to. I really enjoyed all of them (it's a trilogy), and they can be for kids or adults.

I also read by these authors: Cut and Run

On Wings of Eagles

Nonfiction by Ken Follett.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

What do you know about Ross Perot? All I personally knew before reading this book was about his failed election campaign of 1992. I was in college at that time, and mostly I remember my Republican relatives blaming Perot for the fact that Bill Clinton had been elected. (I don't think this is completely unfair, either; the fact is that he split the conservative vote by running against the party nominee, and he should have known it was impossible to win without a major party nomination.) At the time Perot was a bit of a comic figure, a billionaire who thought he could be president, and failed to win.

Well, this book is all about something I DIDN'T know about Perot. He was a bit of a bad-ass, apparently. In 1978, Perot's company was working with the Shah of Iran on a government computerization project when a couple of his employees got caught in the political crossfire of a revolution and ended up in Iranian jail with an exorbitant bail/ransom price-tag on their heads. Perot was determined to get them out, and this book is the story of how that happened.

I also read recently by this author: Triple

Warning! Long parenthetical aside about classification: (I couldn't decide whether to categorize this book as fiction or nonfiction. I've read most of Ken Follet's books, and most of them are fiction, although many are based on true historical events. This one, however, is about rather recent history, and the author explicitly states in the beginning that everything written in it is true to the best of his knowledge, and not a novelization. Still, I was unsure. I had listened to the story on audiobook, and so I did not have a paper copy to refer to, and the barnesandnoble.com record referenced above did not classify one way or the other. I decided to try to settle the question by checking to see if the library categorized the book as fiction and filed by author's name, or if they had assigned it a Dewey Decimal number and marked it as nonfiction. Interestingly, my local library system had a record of several copies of this book, and about half of them were filed under fiction, and half under nonfiction. So the library didn't know what to do either!)

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World

Fiction by C.A. Fletcher

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I chose this book solely for the title. I just liked the sound of it.

Fortunately it was a really good story. It's about exactly what the title says: In the dystopian future, there are very few humans left in the world, but there is Griz, and his dog. And when someone steals Griz's dog, what can he do but chase down the thief and get that dog back?

Congo

Fiction by Michael Crichton.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this story, an expedition looking for diamonds in the African Congo disappears into the jungle, leaving behind satellite video images of the entire party inexplicably killed by some mysterious force.  Another expedition is sent to find out what happened to them, and to find the diamonds, but will the second party survive?

This was a good thriller, but not quite up to the standard of Jurrassic Park.

I also read recently by this author: The Great Train Robbery

The Lies We Told

Fiction by Diane Chamberlain

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story centers on a pair of sisters who are both doctors, but they have very different personalities. When Maya was 14 and Rebecca 18, both their parents were killed in front of them, and although this tragic event shapes them both, they never discuss it directly.

Almost twenty years later, the sisters are each at a personal crisis point in their lives, and both are forced to decide what is really important.

This story started off a little slow but became very exciting later on. It was very good!

I also read recently by this author: Necessary Lies

The Stormchasers

Fiction by Jenna Blum.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

I don't know anything much about stormchasing, except what I gleaned from watching the movie Twister twenty years ago. Generally I figured that stormchasers must be crazy people, to be honest. It was interesting to learn a bit about the subject in this story.

In this book, Charles and Karena are a pair of boy/girl twins in their thirties with a history of obsession with storms, although in different ways. He loves chasing them and she is terrified of them, and the two are estranged. Karena longs to find Charles and repair the rift between them, but it seems that Charles may not want to be found.

This was a great story about these characters and their complicated relationship. along with some excitement from the stormchasing. Good book!

I also read by this author: Those Who Save Us

Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist

Fiction by Dorothy Gilman.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Number thirteen in the Mrs. Pollifax series, this fun mystery takes the reader to Jordan on a secret mission.

I also read recently by this author: Mrs, Pollifax and the Lion Killer

Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer

Fiction by Dorothy Gilman.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the direct sequel to Mrs Pollifax, Pursued, and number twelve in the Mrs. Pollifax series.

Just like the other books in the series, this is a fun read with exciting things happened in exotic places: in this case, Africa.

Mrs. Pollifax Pursued

Fiction by Dorothy Gilman.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is book number eleven in the Mrs. Pollifax series; I just found it at the library book sale and remembered how I'd enjoyed the Mrs. Pollifax books in the past. I got the next couple of books in the series to read too.

These are fun mysteries about an old lady who goes to work for the CIA, with her only (seeming) advantage being that she is last type of person one would expect might be a spy. Start with book #1 if you are interested, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax.

I also read by this author: Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief

Night Over Water

Fiction by Ken Follett.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Did you know that, just before World War Two, they used to have flying boats? Apparently these were huge, luxurious, passenger seaplanes that could fly over the Atlantic, London to New York, in about thirty hours. This sounds like a fabulous way to travel.

This story is of a fictional flight of one of those actual planes, taking off right as England declared war on Germany. It carefully follows several passengers and one crewman in the events leading up to the journey and on the long flight itself.

As usual, Ken Follett's characters are a joy to read about, and the history seems to come alive. This story also had a large element of suspense. It's a really great book!

I also read recently by this author: A Dangerous Fortune.

A Skeleton in God's Closet

Fiction by Paul Maier.


https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

This was kind of like a Dan Brown novel, but not really as good.

I don't want to give anything away on this one, because the best part is the surprise, but there is an exciting archaeological find that could really mess with Christian tradition. The plot was good, but I could not get interested in the characters at all.

The Great Train Robbery

Fiction by Michael Crichton


https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This novel, written in 1975, is based on actual events in the 1850's. It was really fascinating to read, and particularly the audible.com edition I listened to (with the much nicer cover; see right) was enjoyable because of the accents.

The story is about, obviously, a train robbery, and makes much use of nineteenth-century British criminal slang that should be incomprehensible to modern ears, but somehow isn't.

This is really a good book.


I also read recently by this author: Eaters of the Dead

Before the Fall

Fiction by Noah Hawley


https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

In this book, eleven people go on a private plan ride from Martha's Vineyard, and it crashes into the ocean. But that's just the beginning of the story. Who are these people and why did they crash?

The novel blends a survival saga, a suspense story, and a social commentary with a bunch of compelling characters. It's very good.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Fiction by Stephen King.


https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is probably a novella by Stephen King's standards, clocking in at only 262 pages. It is the story of a little girl lost in the woods, but it is not a fairytale. It's a survival story, and a harsh one.

It reminded me of an extremely dark version of Hatchet, the Gary Paulson classic, except it of course is not for children.



I also read recently by this author: The Gunslinger

Relics

Fiction by Mary Anna Evans.


https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was an archeological mystery, which is not a genre I've encountered before. It centered around a fictional ethnic group in Alabama,(which shared some traits with existing ones) and was pretty interesting.

The Fifth Gospel

Fiction by Ian Caldwell.


http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Ian Caldwell coauthored the book Rule of Four, which I read years ago but still remember as a very good puzzle-type mystery. This book has a similar easy-reading voice but slower plotting and slightly less interesting characterizations, which tells me that Mr. Caldwell probably did most of the actual writing on that previous venture while his partner likely came up with more of the story. At least that's what I think. I could be wrong. Not that it makes any difference, of course; I'm just always interested in the mechanics of coauthor partnerships for some reason.

But I digress.

This book reminded me of The Da Vinci Code, which the book jacket instructs us specifically NOT to compare it to. It's a pretty good intellectual thriller, not action-packed but still with an intersting mystery. I didn't like the ending, though.

Submerged

Fiction by Dani Pettrey.


http://www.barnesandnoble.com

A thriller that begins the "Alaskan Courage" series, this book seemed to me a timely read, as I live in Alaska now. It was interesting, but I'm not sure I want to read the rest of the series.