Bookish Nostalgia - June 2015

And here we are at the beginning of June and the summer of 2015.  I had a good time looking back and seeing what I was reading at the beginning of the past summers - 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010.  Here's the books that I found were the most memorable for each of those months - June...

June 1995 - Tunnel Vision by Sara Paretsky - We were living in Portland, Oregon in 1995 and I recall that June saw us coming home to Austin for the first time in several months.  I remember this because we were staying with my in-laws, and I was totally involved in reading several of Sara Paretsky's books - you know, her V.I. Warshawski series.  I recall disappearing and hiding to get a few pages in, while my husband's family wondered where I'd gotten off to.  Told you guys that I'm an anomaly in the fam - at least I was at that time.  Our daughter, who was 12, ran interference for me.  I am way behind on reading this series now.  However, June of 1995 saw me reading 5 or 6 books in it and Tunnel Vision was my favorite.  It had a storyline that took V.I. to the tunnels under the city of Chicago, to a women's shelter, and a case that involved a homeless woman and her children.

June 2000 - Darkest Fear by Harlan Coben - This is the 7th Myron Bolitar mystery written by Harlan Coben.  I loved this series and think I read all of it.  Darkest Fear was written right before Coben started writing standalones and then transitioned almost entirely to those.  Myron was a former pro basketball player and a sports agent and, because of that, I was always surprised that I liked this series as much as I did.  Not that I don't like basketball, but it's not something I'm obsessed with.  He had a good friend and quasi-enforcer by the name of Win Lockwood, preppy and pretty much an anti-hero.  I loved Win.  This story was sad in that Myron is contacted by a former girlfriend who has a 13-year-old son needing a bone transplant.  And the donor has disappeared.  Lots of secrets here.

June 2005 - 16 Lighthouse Road by Debbie Macomber - This book is Macomber's first book in her Cedar Cove, Washington series.  It has been filmed for TV in the last couple of years, with Andie MacDowell playing Olivia, one of the main characters.  I loved this book and have loved many of this author's books and series over the years.  Yes, they are a little sweet, but sometimes sweet is exactly what you need.  And I love characters that go on and on.  The Cedar Cove series is a good one.  I also have really enjoyed Macomber's Blossom Street books, set in Seattle.  June of 2005 saw me reading the first 4 books set in Cedar Cove.  They tell the story of the town and various residents and some will appear as a minor character in one book and then become more central in the next.  I have not watched the TV series.

June 2010 - So Cold The River by Michael Koryta - This was a book that my mystery group read and discussed.  It's really very different and had a mixed reaction as I recall among the group.  It starts with a woman approaching a filmmaker and asking him to do a documentary about her dying father-in-law, a very wealthy man.  This involves the filmmaker going to the resort town of West Baden, Indiana and doing some research about the father-in-law's early life.  It also involves a bottle of mineral water - Pluto Water.  Based on a real hotel, this author took the story into supernatural territory and I think that this is either a story that you'll really get into or you won't like at all.  It is unique and quite odd.  I liked it a lot and hope to one day reread it.  I think it was Michael Koryta's first venture away from 'normal' mysteries and into the 'unknown'.  He's kind of made a name for himself in that area - the quasi-horror/mystery crossover books.


Have you read any of these books or series?  I'd love to know your thoughts.  Do you know what you were reading 20 years ago?  Do tell!