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description= Books, book lists, and bookish thoughts from Rose City Reader.;
description= Books, book lists, and bookish thoughts from Rose City Reader.;
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Text of the page (random words):
ies there is overlap but both stand on their own just fine in the first the dead bell the protagonist is a hardboiled chicagoland cop named tom edison in my review of the dead bell i described edison as having an alcoholic wild man for a sidekick that wild man is larry welk sobered up but still wild in risk management edison makes a cameo but isn t part of the story both books are good entertainment so i hope winslow continues the series i m not wild about the cover i find the red color and sightless stone head disturbing but the image makes sense and ties in with the story reid winslow is a pen name for former attorney turned countryman author george mead i know george and we even worked together for a brief time a long time ago now he is living the life so many lawyers dream of good work from the publisher s description exiled from texas disbarred and white knuckling sobriety in the midwest criminal defense attorney larry welk has learned to manage risk the hard way by living inside it a carefully curated dating profile lands larry a date with birdie thurmond a brilliant state auditor who believes risk is just a math problem waiting to be solved birdie has a spreadsheet for everything and larry can t shake the feeling he s already been reduced to a set of variables the night ends awkwardly and they part ways then a late night call detonates larry s fragile new life his former lover darlene pepper has been shot eight times by police and is clinging to life in a chicago hospital before larry can even process the news darlene is dead and larry is the prime suspect the motive points to a fortune that vanished years ago millions stolen by darlene s ex husband larry s former client money that was never recovered now larry is trapped between the law he once practiced and the danger he can t outrun federal investigators closing in a killer who seems to know his every move and secrets that don t stay buried with nowhere left to turn larry makes one desperate play trust birdie the one woman convinced every problem has a solution if you run the numbers long enough but birdie s equations never accounted for a man like larry posted by gilion at rose city reader at 8 00 am 1 comments labels 2026 book review mystery review thriller thursday august 6 2026 state of the union by nick hornby book beginnings book beginnings on fridays state of the union by nick hornby thank you for joining me for book beginnings on fridays please share the opening sentence or so of the book you are reading this week you can also share from a book that caught your fancy even if you are not reading it right now my book beginning when louise arrives tom is already halfway through a pint and he s doing the guardian s cryptic crossword from state of the union by nick hornby state of the union is a 2019 novella about a couple examining their marriage in a series of ten conversations at a pub before their weekly counseling sessions it sounds like just the sort of story hornby tells best i found it on my tbr shelf and think it will make a good spacer between a couple of huge books i m reading this month your book beginnings please add the link to your book beginnings post in the box below if you share on social media please use the bookbeginnings hashtag mister linky s magical widgets thumb linky widget will appear right here this preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site if this widget does not appear click here to display it the friday 56 the friday 56 is a natural tie in with book beginnings the idea is to share a two sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book if you are reading an ebook or audiobook find your teaser from the 56 mark freda at freda s voice started and hosted the friday 56 for a long long time she is taking a break and anne at my head is full of books has taken on hosting duties in her absence please visit anne s blog and link to your friday 56 post my friday 56 from state of the union outside the pub louise is furious what the hell were you thinking of from the publisher s description tom and louise meet in a pub before their couple s therapy appointment married for years they thought they had a stable home life until a recent incident pushed them to the brink going to therapy seemed like the perfect solution but over drinks before their appointment they begin to wonder what if marriage is like a computer what if you take it apart to see what s in there but then you re left with a million pieces unfolding in the minutes before their weekly therapy sessions the ten chapter conversation that ensues is witty and moving forcing them to look at their marriage and for the first time in a long time at each other posted by gilion at rose city reader at 5 00 pm 2 comments labels book beginnings friday 56 nick hornby opening sentence wednesday august 5 2026 july 2026 monthly wrap up book thoughts book thoughts july 2026 monthly wrap up july was a good reading month for me how about you here s a list of the books i read in july in the order i read them not as shown in the photo those not in the photo were audiobooks i read with my ears the things they carried by tim o brien not a favorite but i m happy to get it off my shelf thanks to the tbr 26 in 26 challenge social justice fallacies by thomas sowell an economics book it was a little repetitive of other books i ve read by him but his ideas bear repeating so i didn t mind seeing calvin coolidge in a dream by john derbyshire i didn t know what to expect from this one and finally got to it because it was on my tbr 26 in 26 list i m so glad i finally read it because it is a delightful novel about chinese immigrants and marriage troubles by j g farrell one of the books in his empire trilogy the three books share common themes related to the end of the british empire but do not have to be read in order i read the siege of krishnapur indian uprising of 1857 a while back and the singapore grip also in july this one is about a group of english people living in a dilapidated seaside hotel in ireland at the beginning of the irish war of independence 1919 1921 it is funny sad short and excellent troubles was published in 1970 and awarded the lost booker prize in 2010 learning to heal one woman s journey through medicine by liz casper records her experiences in medical school practice and as a cancer patient she illustrates each step in her career with a story about a particular patient which makes her memoir feel immediate and human excellent here one moment by lianne moriarty her books always give full entertainment value i prefer the audiobooks because the australian accents give the stories a real sense of place doctor fischer of geneva or the bomb party by graham greene is a short book that will linger for a long time i read it with a group of bookstagrammers working our way through all his novels one every other month dunbar by edward st aubyn a retelling of king lear this was a highlight of the month every hogarth shakespeare i ve read had knocked my socks off interestingly dunbar reimagines king lear as the battle between an aging media mogul and his offspring over who will control his empire sound familiar the book came out only months before succession aired which told king lear through the same plot sometimes ideas get plucked from the universe at the same time harm done by ruth rendell book 18 in her inspector wexford series this one involves domestic violence and the victims seeking protection at the local women s shelter a spool of blue thread by anne tyler i m an anne tyler completist so am reading all of them they all involve families but this one didn t have much plot beyond following a particular family in baltimore of course through several generations in one house risk management by reid winslow a dual storyline thriller that built to an exciting ending read my review here the singapore grip by j g farrell also in his empire trilogy which i read out of order but it didn t matter this is the story of the british community in singapore when the japanese invade in 1941 it is a long shaggy story highlighting the disparities between the british and asian inhabitants it is definitely one of the top books of my reading year a history of the world in 10½ chapters by julian barnes linked short stories the opening story retold noah s ark from the perspective of a bug stowaway and was hilarious the rest of the stories had a link strong or weak to noah s ark all in all a mixed bag but i think that of all story collections discovering main street travel adventures in small towns of the pacific northwest by foster church the third tbr 26 in 26 for me in july while a lot of the specific information was outdated my fault for waiting so long to read this 2010 book there was still plenty here to inspire a long list of road trip ideas the summons by peter lovesey his 3d peter diamond mystery i was happy to find that this one brought diamond back to bath the setting of the first book posted by gilion at rose city reader at 8 00 am 0 comments labels 2026 challenge anne tyler book thoughts historical fiction hogarth shakepeare memoir monthly wrap up mystery nonfiction peter lovesey ruth rendell tbr 26 in 26 thursday july 30 2026 the windsor knot by s j bennett book beginnings book beginnings on fridays the windsor knot by s j bennett thank you for joining me this week for book beginnings on fridays where participants share the opening sentence or two from the book they are reading you can also share from a book you want to feature even if you are not reading it at the moment my book beginning it was an almost perfect spring day from the windsor knot by s j bennett not a particularly gripping opening sentence but i expect things will pick up i ve been organizing my tbr shelves and came across the windsor knot a cozy ish mystery set in 2016 in which the queen of england is the sleuth what an adorable idea i m going to read it with my ears because my library has the audiobook your book beginning please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below if you participate or share on social media please use the hashtag bookbeginnings so other people can find your post mister linky s magical widgets thumb linky widget will appear right here this preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site if this widget does not appear click here to display it the friday 56 the friday 56 asks participants to share a two sentence teaser from their book of the week if your book is an ebook or audiobook pick a teaser from the 56 point anna at my head is full of books hosts the friday 56 a natural tie in with book beginnings on fridays please visit my head is full of books to leave the link to your post my friday 56 from the windsor knot when i mentioned it to the queen she asked me to pass on her sincere condolences and when i did lady hepburn invited her to tea and her majesty said yes was this even possible from the publisher s description it is the early spring of 2016 and queen elizabeth is at windsor castle in advance of her 90th birthday celebrations but the preparations are interrupted by the shocking and untimely death of a guest in one of the castle bedrooms the scene leads some to think the young russian pianist strangled himself yet a badly tied knot leads mi5 to suspect foul play when they begin to question the household s most loyal servants her majesty knows they re looking in the wrong place for the queen has been living an extraordinary double life ever since her teenage years as lilibet away from the public eye and unbeknownst to her closest friends and advisers she has the most brilliant skill for solving crimes with help from her assistant private secretary rozie oshodi a british nigerian officer recently appointed to the royal horse artillery the queen discreetly begins making inquiries as she carries out her royal duties with her usual aplomb no one in the royal household the government or the public knows that the resolute elizabeth won t hesitate to use her keen eye quick mind and steady nerve to bring a murderer to justice posted by gilion at rose city reader at 5 00 pm 1 comments labels book beginnings friday 56 mystery opening sentence wednesday july 29 2026 june 2026 monthly wrap up book thoughts book thoughts june 2026 monthly wrap up what book surprised you in june for me the answer is the calamity club which completely pulled me in from the get go see my earlier review post here s the list of the book i read in june see any favorites murder on the links by agatha christie i love ac but often forget to read her books i d like to read at least one a month but need to concentrate to make that work this was an overly complicated but still fun hercule poirot case set in france stalky co by rudyard kipling schoolboy stories are not my usual cup of tea these are as good as they get and i appreciate them as a classic but didn t really engage with them the calamity club by kathryn stockett i got a review copy of this one from the librarything early reviewer program i was determined to get it read and reviewed but was daunted by the page count it s a doorstop so i switched to the audiobook from my library and was so happy i did the two readers did an amazing job and really made the characters come alive the bible of british taste stories of home people and place by ruth guilding this coffee table book was fascinating i expected glossy layouts of fancy houses but it is more about how real people live in architecturally significant houses in whatever state those houses may be in it is about preserving not necessarily restoring or renovating i was unfamiliar with guilding s former blog of the same name so this world was all new to me simisola by ruth rendell is the 16th book in her inspector wexford series and explores issues of immigration racism and exploitation it was a good one curriculum vitae autobiography by muriel spark spark is one of my favorite authors her autobiography covers her childhood in edinburgh disastrous first marriage to a mentally unstable man she followed to rhodesia now zimbabwe work for the british secret service during wwii and early success as an author it s fascinating to read her story in her own words the merry heart reflections on reading writing and the world of books by robertson davies this was a delight from beginning to end davies is another favorite fiction writer of mine this is a collection of speeches he gave later in life mostly about reading and writing i loved every page diamond solitaire by peter lovesey is the second mystery in his peter diamond series i have most of the book in cool soho crime editions and am excited dive in diamond is the kind of schleppy overweight own worse enemy sort of crime solver i love sort of an english version of ian mcewan s john rebus slightly foxed no 87 summer 2025 this literary quarterly is so interesting it is worth the risk of overloading my tbr shelves not 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