Book: Curtain

 Book: Curtain

Author: Agatha Christie

Pages: 240

This is my 222nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

The crime-fighting careers of Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings have come full circle - they are back once again in the rambling country house in which they solved their first muder togehter.  Both Hercule Poirot and Great Styles have seen better days - but, despite being crippled with arthritis, there is nothing wrong with the great detective and his "little gray cells"  However, when Poirot brands one of the seemingly harmless guest a 5 time murderer, some people have their doubts.  But Porot alone knows he must prevent a 6th murder before the curtain falls.

Stars: 4 

Book: You Died

 Book: You Died

Author: Several

Pages: 253

This is my 221st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Death - the one aspect of life we all have in common - is waiting for everyone, yet our practices, beliefs, myths, and stories about it are as diverse as we are.  YOU DIED celebrates these vibrant cultural expressions of the great equalizer in a thrilling, life-affirming whilwind of a book, an inspriational volume to be treaured through times of both loss and abundance. 

Stars: 3.5

Book: Squeeze me

 Book: Squeeze Me

Author: Carl Hiaasen

Pages: 352

This is my 220th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

It's the height of the Palm Beach charity ball season: for every disease or cause, there's a reason for the local luminaries to eat (minimally), drink maximally, and be seen.  But when a prominent high-society dowager suddenly vanishes during a swank gala, and is later found dead in a concrete grave, panic nd chaos erupt.  Kiki Pew was notable not just for her wealth and her jewels - she was an ardent fan of the Winter White House resident just down the road, and a founding member of the POTUSSIES, a group of women dedicated to supporting their President.  Never one to miss an opportunity to play to his base, the President immediately declares that Kiki was the victim of rampaging immigrant hordes.  This it turns out, is far from the truth.  The truth might just lie in the middle of the highway, where a bazarre discovery brings the First Lady's motorcade to a grinding halt (followed by some grinding between the First Lady and a love-struck Secret Sevice agent).  Enter Angie Armstrong, wildlife wrangler extraordinaire, who arrives at her own conclusions after she is summoned to the posh island to deal with a mysterious and impolite influx of huge, hungry pythons.  

Stars: 4

Book: The Lost Story

 Book: The Lost Story

Author: Meg Shaffer

Pages: 352

This is my 219th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they'd gone or how they'd survived.  15 years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months.  Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons' investigator.  With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Eilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.  Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beautyf and terrible danger.  He believes it is there that they will find Emilie's sister.  However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons.  But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie's sister begins.  The former lost boys much confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.  Alonside the headstonr Emilies, Rafe and JEremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for 6 months - for only then can they get back everything and everyohne they've lost.

Stars: 3

Book: Abscond

 Book: Abscond

Author: Abraham Verghese

Pages: 38

This is my 218th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

It's a New Jersey summer in 1967, and 13 year old Ravi Ramanathan has the makings of a tennis prodigy.  His surgeon father encourages his ambition, while his mother dreams of their only child following his father's path.  Surrounded by his parents' love, RAvi chafes a bit at their daily routines and little traditions.  Then one unexpected day, everything changes.  Realizing how much he took for granted, RAvi must grow up overnight and find a new rold in the life of his family.

Stars: 4.5

Book: Hamnet

 Book: Hamnet

Author: Maggie O'Farrell

Pages: 320

This is my 217th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, and ever-present threat, infection the healthy, the sick, the old and the young alike.  The end of days is near, but life always goes on.  A young Latin ttor - penniless and bullied by a violent father - falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman.  Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family's land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and poitons better than she does people.  Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is just taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to a sudden fever.

Stars: 4

Book: Ink and Shadows

 Book: Ink and Shadows

Author: Ellery Adams

Pages: 304

This is my 216th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Known for her window displays, Nora Pennington decides to showcase fictional heroines like Roald Dahl's Matilda and Madeline Miller's Circe for Halloween.  But a family-values group disapproves of the magical themes and wastes no time launching a modern-day witch hunt.  Suddenly, former friends and customers are targeting not only Nora and Miracle Books, but a new shopkeeper, Celeste, who's been selling CBD oil products.  Noral and her friends in the Secret, Book, and Scone Society are doing their best to put an end to the strife - but then someone puts and end to a life.  Declared an accident, the ruling can't explain the old book page covered with strange symbols and disturbing drawings left under Nora's doormat.  It's up to Nora and the Secret, Book, and Scone society to sort out the clues before more bodies turn up and the secrets from Celeste's past come back to haunt them all.

Stars: 3.5