Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
He’s lived it in the nonfictional real world and now he is bringing it to us in a great fictional story.
The book Is Central Park West: A Crime Novel by James Comey. I thank both Netgalley https://www.netgalley.com and Mysterious Press for the chance to read this before publication. The book will be published on May 30.
Continue reading “Central Park West: A Crime Novel by James Comey”
Another good mystery by Jodie Lawrance. I had read and reviewed two by her a few years ago (https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/tag/jodie-lawrance/). So I was happy to see this available. I thank both Netgalley (https://www.netgalley.com) and Joffe books (https://joffebooks.com/) for the chance to read this before publication. The book is “The Missing Woman” by Jodie Lawrance.
Continue reading “The Missing Woman by Jodie Lawrance”
An enjoyable mystery. I thank both Netgalley https://www.netgalley.com and Joffe books https://joffebooks.com/ for the chance to read this before publication. The book is “The Norfolk Beach Murders” and it comes out on May 11.
First, we meet Mu and Roger, a homeless young woman and her dog. Next comes the murder that they witness. And then we meet Detective Sara Hirst, who had been with the Metropolitan Police in London but inherited and moved to her father’s cottage in a coastal village. More murders.
We slowly learn how these murders fit into the larger picture and along the way meet a number of other characters. The story is well-written and told via several points-of-view. I found this to be a wonderful mystery and crime thriller.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
I found this book fascinating. When I mentioned that, I was asked what I was reading. When I replied it was about ideas from evolutionary biology applied to investing, I was told I was probably one of 10 people who would find that interesting. I think it is more than that and I hope I am right.
The book is “What I learned about investing from Darwin” by Pulak Prasad and I thank Netgalley (“https://www.netgalley.com/) for allowing me to read it before publication. The book comes out on May 9.
Continue reading “What I learned about investing from Darwin by Pulak Prasad”
I picked this one for 2 reasons. One is that I was preapproved at Netgalley so I thank both Netgalley (https://www.netgalley.com) and Joffe books (https://joffebooks.com/) for the chance to read this before publication. The second is I was a fan of Colin Dexter’s novels which were also set in Oxford. As it turned out this was very different from Colin Dexter’s novels but it was a great read.
The book is “The Oxford Murders” by Peter Tickler. It will be published May 2.
Continue reading “The Oxford Murders by Peter Tickler”
It starts out very differently from many investment books (and I have read quite a few).
Continue reading “Uncertainty in investing”
Dr. Robinson starts us off with a murder in 1980 and then moves on to another mystery in 2019 involving the DCI Banks team and a skeleton found in an archaeological dig. It seems likely to anyone who has read a few mysteries than the 2 stories will come together but the author takes his time in getting us there.
Continue reading ““Standing in the Shadows“ by Peter Robinson”
A good book on making sure you don’t outlive your money and estate planning. I liked this book but had a few minor quibbles with it which I will mention at the end since I don’t think they influence the quality of advice at all. The full title is More Life Than Money: How Not to Outlive Your Savings .
Since this is a bit of a mix review, I’ll start with what I liked.
Continue reading “More Life Than Money”
It was an accident and later I thought it was a mistake. This is how I remember it. I had finished the book that I was reading on my Kindle. Since it was a Netgalley book, I figured I should review it. But I did not feel like it. I’d just put it off for a few days and look for a new book.
Truth is that I enjoy reading books more than writing reviews. So the next book I picked was The Great Money Reset. Title sounded good but when I started reading it seemed to be about stuff I was not very interested in. I thought I should write to Netgalley that this book was not what I thought and I would neither finish it nor review it. It was probably my mistake in not reading the book description completely.
Continue reading “I found a good book by accident”
I’ll start with 2 things I found surprising. BTW, the book is The Electric Detective by Peter Ward.
Surprise #1 was the book was available on Netgalley. I’d like to thank Netgalley and the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency for a chance to read and review it after publication. I normally get Advanced Readers there but for some reason this was still available several months after publication.
Continue reading “The Electric Detective by Peter Ward.”
Having read many books by Peter May over the years and reviewed several https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/tag/peter-may/, I was sure this book would definitely be worth reading. And I was not disappointed.
This is an optimistic book. And that will stay with me. It is also a realistic book and that will also stay with me. The full title is Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing by Benjamin Todd Jealous.
The title make sense but to explain takes a while. So I’ll just skip that part and hope you are curious enough to get the book.I thank Netgalley for allowing me to read it before publication. The book will be released January 10.
The full title is “The Case of the Disappearing Beaune: A Sherlock Holmes Christmas Story” by J. Lawrence Matthews. Beaune is a French wine (I had to look it up). It is pronounced like bone and that leads to a few jokes. I found this to be a good short story and one very suitable for Christmas.
Continue reading “Sherlock Holmes: a short Christmas story”
Do you like Nazis or allied groups such as White Supremacists? Do you think they are good for America? If you answer “yes” to both questions you probably won’t like this book. But it might open your eyes if you decide to read it anyway.
Personally, I don’t like Nazis. They were bad for Germany. We fought them in World War 2 at tremendous cost. These hate groups were fringe in the United States but are becoming more mainstream.
Continue reading “Nazis are not Nice”
Jon Meacham has provided us with a great biography of Abraham Lincoln. It is especially good and timely because of the many divisions in the United States. Our country is more divided than any time since the Civil War. And learning about Lincoln and the evolution of his beliefs could yield a few useful lessons that could help us through the current situation.
Continue reading “Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle”