Seven books in September…

Here’s what I read this month.

I really liked this book.
It takes place in a small Ohio town with an Amish community.
34 Years ago an Amish family was murdered, the wife and mother kidnapped.
Now people are being murdered and there seems to be a connection.
I can’t say the ending was a surprise but getting there was a good read.

This is the first of Anthony Doerr books I have read but won’t be the last.
Tales place in France during WWII.
The lives of a blind French girl living with her agoraphobic uncle
and a young Nazi soldier are separate but come together because of
a hidden valuable artifact that the Nazi’s want for their museum and a radio.
It is a sad story wonderfully told.

The President makes a promise he can’t keep that could lead to nuclear war.
Two CIA agents are charged with preventing the worst case scenario and that leads
them to North Korean labor camps and a highly trained assassin
from one of those camps.
The book is fast paced and interesting in its characters and the moral issues they face.
The ending is not a surprise, that’s not a spoiler.
Of course the good guys, us, have to win.

This is a teenage young adult novel that I read as an ebook.
It’s a cute story of teenage turmoil and tension with a bit of magic thrown in.
Mina Grimes is a descendant of Wilhelm Grimm of fairy tale fame and is the
latest of the family to find that there is a curse that goes along with being a Grimm.
Her father died because of it and her mother has tried to protect her but the bad guys
have found her…along with a good guy who helps her out.
It’s not the best written book but it was a fun read.

Six years ago a love affair ends when the woman marries another man.
The jilted lover promises her to never try to contact her or bother them in any way.
He keeps his promise for six years then sees his lover’s husband’s obituary.
He goes to the funeral but the wife is not his lost love.
So begins the unraveling of a mystery that has more questions than answers.
This is the second of Harlan Coben books I have read and I will keep reading his books.

A dog, two cats, and a coyote help solve the mystery
of the skeleton found first on a mountain then in a driveway
while their humans try to solve the recent murder of two men
who were pillars of the community.
I have read a couple of Rita Mae Brown’s books that are
co-authored by her tabby cat Sneaky Pie Brown.
It’s an easy read with people, and animals, that are like those
you probably know and love.  Even the murderers seem normal.

This is another book that once I started I couldn’t put it down.
When I get into a book like this all else is forgotten and nothing gets done.
A woman is training for a marathon and is attacked on a remote mountain trail.
She is found unconscious by a man and taken to his cabin.
Then begins a story that is strange and not easily figured out.
I was totally off in my thinking about parts of the narrative and right on with others.
But I was surprised by the uncovering of the events of the back-story
and who did the nasty deed.  I liked the complexity of the characters and
how you have to search for clues to who and what they are.
The only thing I will say in the negative is that there is some somewhat graphic sex that
was, in my opinion, unnecessary.  I mean it’s an adult novel and adults know
what’s going on without the details.

So that was my reading for the month.
More than I usually read but a couple of the books I just couldn’t put down.
Made me a happy reader.
Click on the books to read more about them on Goodreads.