I like big books and I cannot lie This short story hater can’t deny That when a book comes in At 500+ pages My heartbeat starts to fly This week marked the release of Fool’s Quest, the second book in Robin Hobb’s Fitz and the Fool trilogy. In preparation I re-read Fool’s Assassin, the first book, and I wasn’t just info gathering knowing that Hobb will jump right in without making the reader slog through clunky backstory. I was deliciously swept away by the story,…
I greatly enjoyed Brian Lehrer’s interview segment with Jon Ronson called “When Social Media Gets Mad,” and was even more delighted with his thoughtful, creative, and meticulously researched book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. He does so much more than just remind us of dumb tweets and stupid truth-stretching. Ronson is after understanding the nature of shame and how it operates. I especially loved the section on disgraced Jersey governor Jim McGreevey’s second life as a pioneer in prison reform. I am also very interested…
Synopsis: An analysis of four notable cases by famed forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht. Review: While the cases in Final Exams aren’t as twisty and turny or psychologically intricate as the cases that Ann Rule chooses for her books, but that doesn’t mean they’re not interesting on their own terms. As a forensic pathologist, Cyril Wecht sees things in the human body that others don’t think to look for. In the first case in the book, he uses the particulars of some knife wounds to put…
Synopsis: When a man is found murdered in a secluded neighborhood on an island, the investigation lasts decades and uncovers a treasure trove of family secrets and craziness. Review: I am a bit of an Ann Rule junkie, but Practice to Deceive just didn’t do it for me–so much so that when I was interrupted with only 15 pages to go, not only did I set the book aside but I forgot to come back to it. That’s how little suspense was created in the…
Synopsis: Pat Taylor Allanson was a southern belle whose dream of owning an elite horse stable was on the verge of coming true, until her husband was arrested for murdering his own parents, and Pat’s penchant for drama had people wondering if there was more to the story than what it appeared–and what about that arsenic? Review: I admit it, I have a thing for true crime, particularly Ann Rule, and this is not the first time I’ve read Everything She Ever Wanted. It’s not…
Synopsis: The true crime account of the murder of a brilliant attorney by her sociopathically narcissistic husband. Review: I was looking for a quick and easy read and decided to return to an old favorite. Dead by Sunset is one of Ann Rule’s best books, offering an exquisitely detailed portrait of a narcissist and the destruction he created in the lives of his wives (5 of them), girlfriends (too numerous to count), kids (sadly he was a bad father to 6 kids), and business associates.…
Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do?? And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and…
Synopsis: An account of the murder of stay-at-home mom Jenn Corbin, and the subsequent investigation that she was not the first woman in her husband’s life to die of a gunshot wound.