July 2017 Reads

Source

July	41	Alice and Oliver	Charles Bock
	42	I'm Thinking of Ending Things	Iain Reid
	43	Zero Sum	Barry Eisler
	44	Camino Island	John Grisham
	45	The Rat Catchers' Olympics	Colin Cotterill
	46	Before the Fall	Noah Hawley
	47	Sing, Unburied, Sing	Jesmyn Ward
	48	The Life We Bury	Allen Eskens
	49	The Guise of Another	Allen Eskens

Inspired by the author’s life, Alice and Oliver is a deeply affecting novel written with stunning reserves of compassion, humor, and wisdom. Alice Culvert is an extraordinary character—a woman of incredible heart and spirit—who will remain in memory long after the final page.  Instead of writing a memoir, Bock chooses to fictionalize his families ordeal.  This is a wonderful novel.

John Rain is my favorite assassin!  Zero Sum is the latest Rain novel by Barry Eisler.  The series is getting pretty deep but Eisler has held my attentions since 2002 when the series started with Rain Fall.

Grisham doesn't disappoint with Camino Island.  The story is fresh, intriguing and not predictable.  I stop reading authors who write the same story over and over, I still reading Grisham and look forward to many more stories from him.

Before the Fall is a taut and suspenseful page-turner.  You'll have a hard time putting it down.  Hawley is a "new to me" author and I predict I'll be reading his works as soon as they're published.

I'm resorting to a quote about Sing, Unburied, Sing, which is a fabulous read.  “Sing, Unburied, Sing is a road novel turned on its head and a family story with its feet to the fire. Lyric and devastating, Ward's unforgettable characters straddle past and present in this spellbinding return to the rural Mississippi of her first book. You'll never read anything like it.”
—Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

Eskens' debut novel, The Life We Bury, is a solid and thoughtful tale of a young man used to taking on burdens beyond his years--none more dangerous than championing a bitter old man convicted of a horrific crime.  His second novel, The Guise of Another is just as good, it's a taut, intelligent,heart-ripping story that explores the darkest places in the human psyche.  This guy can write and you should read him.

What are you reading?