It's September and is it fall? Maybe fall-ish at some point and some reading...

Hello book friends!  I don't have a nice picture to share here this time.  Forgot to take one, but never fear.  I'll have one the next time.  Ha!  Actually, I tried to take a couple of the full moon early this morning, but they didn't please me.  So, it's September of this year of 2020.  Sometimes it feels that time is passing quickly, but mostly it just feel like a 'never-ending' year to me.  Ah well.  No complaining.  My new motto, along with 'avoid most of the news'.  Let's talk about what I've been reading.

First I'll share a little about our mystery book group's discussion of Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key.  We met last night virtually and the opinions were about 50% (or maybe a little less) liked it well enough.  Probably 50% didn't care for it.  I will say that this book is creepy with the 'smart house' theme.  Also, not too many likable characters or maybe no likable characters.  And the ending is a more than a little ambiguous.  This group had read Ware's first book, In a Dark Dark Wood, a few years ago and that book remains my favorite of hers.  It seemed that she did take inspiration from Henry James and his The Turn of the Screw, but diverged from that story some.  Not sure too many in the group will seek out Ruth Ware's next book (to be published this next week), One By One, but because the inspiration seems to be Agatha Christie, I'll be checking it out.

As to other reading, I've read 4 more Memory Man books by David Baldacci.  Really liked all of them and will be watching for the next entry into that series.  The newest, #6, was published this spring, Walk the Wire.  I like Amos Decker, the main protagonist, and also his partner, Alex Jamison.  Walk the Wire takes place in North Dakota in a fracking town.  That's not all that is there and another Baldacci character makes an appearance.  I won't say which one it is because that might be too big of a spoiler.  I will say that I'm looking forward to his new Atlee Pine book, Daylight, which will be out in November.  I've noticed that since I've not read many books by this author, I have several series to sample if I so choose.  I love that! 

After I was caught up with the Memory Man, I decided to follow one of my usual summer reading 'rules' - read cold books in summer.  I had read Kelley Armstrong's first Rockton book, City of the Lost, a while back and enjoyed it.  I decided to reread that one and then continue with the books currently out in that series.  I'm now on #2, A Darkness Absolute, and loving the cold and the characters and the remote Canadian wilderness location.  In case you don't know about this series, Rockton is a small town where people who need to disappear apply to come.  Casey Duncan is a homicide detective who has that need and she arrives to become part of Rockton's very small law enforcement group.  Some of the people in Rockton are nice and some are not.  And then there is the wilderness location and the off-the-grid theme.  I'm finding these books hold my interest quite well.

I also attended a virtual event yesterday that featured Louise Penny talking about her new book, All the Devils Are Here.  The event was hosted by Murder By the Book, an independent mystery bookstore in Houston.  Store owner, McKenna Jordan, did a great job chatting with Louise and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about her writing process for this book and also how her life has been in the last few months.  Louise herself was in London and, having just arrived a few days ago, quaratined for now.  It was great that we could all 'attend' the event virtually.  One nice thing to come from this whole year - lots of author events that we can watch.  My copy of All the Devils Are Here is on my way from Murder By the Book and I will be reading it before long.  

That's about all I have.  Our weather here has been mega-humid and, though the rain chances are welcome, a promised cool front can't get here soon enough.  Maybe next week I'll be able to say that I've walked outside and not sweated a bucket - I hope so.  Take care and talk to you guys soon!