The Associate by John Grisham. I purposely didn’t review this one. What’s happened to John Grisham? Or is it me? I used to find his books fun and absorbing. I was reading furiously to see what would happen next. The characters were funny, sarcastic, and idiosyncratic. However, The Associate is The Firm, redux, but not nearly as interesting the second time around. In fact, it’s as if someone rewrote a Grisham novel and tried to make it more predictable and dull. Either Grisham’s gotten old and stale, or I’m old and cranky.
Dying to Meet You (43 Old Cemetery Road) by Kate Klise. Illustrated by M. Sarah Klise. Fun. The author and the illustrator are sisters, by the way. The book is cute, and it’s the beginning of a series. It sort of reminded me of last year’s The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry.
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. Semicolon review here.
The Roar by Emma Clayton. Semicolon review here.
Cold Springs by Rick Riordan. I read it, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea. If you like gritty thrillers with a touch of philosophical/psychological musing thrown in for good measure, you might enjoy it more than I did.
The Log of a Cowboy by Andy Adams.
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. Semicolon review here.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. A zombie book about a girl caught in a dying world. So-so, if you like zombies.
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. I didn’t review this one since everyone else has already done so. Here’s my review of The Hunger Games, and you just need to know that Catching Fire is more of the same and, I thought, just as good.
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker. Semicolon review here.
Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor. Semicolon review here.
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George. I like Ms. George’s books, the two I’ve read anyway. This one is a re-telling of the Norwegian fairy tale, East of the Sun West of the Moon.
Daisy Chain by Mary DeMuth. I liked this novel, BUT it’s a whodunnit without an answer to that question. There’s a promised sequel, but I still felt cheated.
The Log of a Cowboy by Andy Adams. Semicolon Texas Tuesday review here.
The Texan Scouts by Joseph Altsheler. Look for the review on Texas Tuesday this week.
A Murder for Her Majesty by Beth Hilgartner. Semicolon discussion here.
I reviewed these and a couple of others here for Texas Tuesday:
Comanche Song by Janice Shefelman.
Spirit of Iron by Janice Shefelman.
The Wolf’s Tooth by G. Clifton Wisler.
Best book read in September:
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.
A Slow Burn, the second book in Mary DeMuth’s Defiance Texas trilogy and the sequel to Daisy Chain, is out now. It’s a very good book told from the perspective of Daisy’s mother, Emory. The final book will focus on Jed’s mother Ouisie’s point of view, and we won’t know whodunnit until the last book.
I love the Hunger Games and Catching Fire
I’m sorry you felt cheated by Daisy Chain. The way I envisioned it was a three-book mystery/tragedy told from three perspectives. The final answer comes in the third book. It’s the way I saw it unfold. The third book will be told from a battered wife’s perspective, and all the loose ends will be tied up.
Mary,
Thanks for coming by, and I hope I didn’t ruffle any feathers by what I said. I’m sure the books will be delightful once the full trilogy is available. In facr, as I said, I enjoyed certain aspects of Daisy Chain very much, just didn’t like not really understanding what happened when I finished the book. I’ll be looking for A Slow Burn to continue to the story.
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