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Prolific Authors – Four Books

It is time once again to take a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, I’m once again on pace to set a new record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 114 books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  We continue today with the fourteen authors I’ve read two times, up four from two years ago.

Scott Adams

The now-cancelled creator of Dilbert, who can’t seem to help himself from spouting racist takes on Twitter, Adams used his famous character to write a number of humorous business books, the most recent of which I read in 2012.

Suzanne Collins

A return to the world of the Hunger Games brought Collins back to my reading list in 2024.

James Ellroy

The author of the L.A. Quartet, which I finished off with The Big Nowhere in 2014.

Gillian Flynn

The former Entertainment Weekly writer turned into one of my favorite authors, though she still hasn’t written a new full-length work since 2012’s Gone Girl.

The Book of Lost and Found – Lucy Foley

Lucy Foley

A recent favorite, Foley, a New York Times best seller, has shown up annually since 2021 until this year, although there are still five months to go.

Diana G. Gallagher

The author, who passed away in 2021, can credit the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for all four of her entries, the most recent of which I read in 2011.

Lee Goldberg

A writer for the Monk television series who went on to pen a series of tie-in novels about the show.

Megan Goldin

The former Reuters correspondent first appeared on my radar in 2021 with her debut, The Escape Room.

The Blue Hour – Paula Hawkins

Paula Hawkins

The best-selling author of The Girl on the Train, her latest novel was released last year and read in early 2025.

Greer Hendricks

After spending two decades as an editor at Simon & Schuster, she has teamed up with Sarah Pekkanen for four novels, which I’ve read one annually starting in 2020 until this year.

Grady Hendrix

Winner of a 2018 Bram Stoker Award, the horror novelist debuted on my reading list with The Final Girl Support Group in 2021.

Carrie Soto Is Back – Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Jenkins-Reid

I first came her work thanks to her smash Daisy Jones & The Six.  Her latest is currently on my waitlist at the library, so she will continue to move up this list.

Minka Kent

Two new reads in 2024, The Stillwater Girls and Unmissing, push her up this list.

John Vornholt

Three fourths of his works that I’ve read come from the world of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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It’s More Than Playoffs, It’s Playoffs Plus

Sitting six games behind the Brewers for the NL Central crown but holding a five and a half game lead for the first Wild Card slot, the Cubs sent out post-season invoices to their season ticket holders yesterday for the first time since 2023.  Thanks to a randomly selected combination assignment, I would end up with tickets to two games in each potential round.  I would maintain my normal seats through the NLCS but would end up relocated to the right field side should the team advance to the World Series.

Mixing things up a bit, the Cubs are also offering a three-year renewal which will guarantee some access to All-Star week activities in 2027.  For my package, that would include the Futures Game on Saturday and either the Home Run Derby or the All-Star Game itself.  Going the annual renewal route will give you the opportunity to purchase tickets to those events should any remain.

Barring a complete collapse over the next five weeks, the Cubs seem to be a lock to make the postseason.  Getting out of that Wild Card round, where they would face the Padres if the season ended today, might be more difficult.

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Book 41 (of 52) – Sunrise On The Reaping

Sunrise on the Reaping – Suzanne Collins

The second Quarter Quell, celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Hunger Games, is doubling the number of tributes sent from each district. Haymitch Abernathy, celebrating his sixteenth birthday, thinks he is safe from the reaping until he tries to save his girlfriend from the Peacekeepers after they killed the second boy tribute.  Brought into a conspiracy amongst some of the tributes and conspirators from the Capital, Haymitch tries to destroy the arena, but instead marks himself as trouble.  When he is unexpectedly crowned victor, he returns to District 12 to find his family dead in a fire and his girlfriend poisoned, leading him to isolate himself from his remaining friends and drowning his sorrows in drink.

Nearly 20 years since the initial publication of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins returns with her latest, and I assume last, entry in the series, Sunrise on the Reaping.  Taking place 25 years prior to the events of the original book and 40 years after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Collins ties together characters from both and puts them into position to be where we find them in the future.  This suffers from repetition and the table-setting being done to show how we get from here to the events of the original trilogy.  I can’t see a third trip back to the well, unless she introduces a whole new set of characters who don’t tie in to the originals, so I’m guessing this is the end of the line.

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Fitbit XI – Week 30

My 30,000-step week streak reaches fourteen weeks, despite looking a little sketchy around mid-week.  Things got off to a nice start on Sunday, scoring 5100 steps as I traveled to Rate Field for an Ozzie Guillen bobblehead.  Things came down on Monday, finishing with 4100 steps.  Another small decrease on Tuesday left me 31 steps shy of 3900.  Wednesday saw a healthy increase, jumping up to 4600 steps.  A big drop-off on Thursday left me with 3000 steps.  A last-minute invite to the Savannah Bananas “baseball game” on Friday pushed me well over my daily goal, ending with 8700 steps.  A quiet Saturday finished up the week with 3400 steps.

Total steps: 32,921

Daily average: 4703

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Prolific Authors – Three Books

It is time once again to take a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, I’m once again on pace to set a new record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 114 books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  We continue today with the 21 authors I’ve read three times, one more than two years ago.

Kevin J. Anderson

Last read in the 20th century, he’s responsible for three of the X-Files books on my shelf.

Fredrik Backman

This Swedish author has become a recent favorite, showing up once a year prior to last year, with more to come, I’m sure.

The 22 Murders of Madison May – Max Barry

Max Barry

After a 17-year break, Barry returned to my attention in 2024 with The 22 Murders of Madison May.

Adam Carolla

The former comedian and current right-wing nutjob managed to get me to read three of his podcast regurgitations before being driven away.

Bill Carter

The former media reporter for the New York Times delivered three behind the scenes looks at the television industry, including the transition from Johnny Carson to Jay Leno and from Jay Leno to Conan O’Brien and back again.

Supreme Justice – Max Allan Collins

Max Allan Collins

Author of all entries of the Reeder and Rogers trilogy.

Keith R.A. DeCandido

Two Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels and a Spider-Man novel make up his works.

Diane Duane

A 23-year absence was broken in 2023 thanks to Intellivore, an entry in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series.

The Fireman – Joe Hill

Joe Hill

The son of Stephen King crossed my path again following a seven-year break.

Luke Jennings

The basis of the television show Killing Eve, Jennings’ trilogy takes a wildly different path.

David Lagercrantz

Stieg Larsson

Stieg Larsson wrote the first three entries in the story of Lisbeth Salander.  Following his death, David Lagercrantz continued the series with three entries of his own.

Continue reading →

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Reunited And It Feels So Good

The Savannah Bananas came to Rate Field last night for their first ever Chicago appearance.  The barnstorming team, playing a “game” called Banana Ball, sang and danced their way through nine innings of mostly uninspired ball while defeating their foes, the Firefighters.  Overall, it was two hours of continuous music and tomfoolery that works better as short Tik Tok clips than as a longer presentation.  That said, they did bring some excitement for the baseball fans in the house.

Former White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski entered the game as a pinch hitter to lead off a mid-game inning.  He then came out to catch the following half inning and, after handling the Bananas pitcher, who managed to hit and hurt a batter in what appeared to be a real incident, he was joined in the game by former teammate and fellow 2005 World Series champion Mark Buehrle.  Buehrle faced two hitters, giving up a soft single to right before inducing a groundout to end the frame.

Seeing these two take the field together on the south side for the first time since 2011 and, one can only assume, for the final time made the whole night and covered over a lot of the warts inherent in the concept.  I can’t see myself attending another one of their shows (they never actually call it a game), but this one left me with warm and fuzzy feelings.

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Book 40 (of 52) – With A Vengeance

With A Vengeance – Riley Sager

In 1954, a young woman rents a train, once owned by her father, to gain retribution against those she blames for the downfall of her family.  Once onboard, however, she finds that there is someone else on board, someone who has their own agenda and is planning to pick off the passengers one by one.  As the train ride continues through the night on its way to Chicago, can she unmask the killer before everyone else is dead?

Riley Sager switches things up with his latest outing, With a Vengeance.  He ditches the possible supernatural elements he has toyed with for his last couple of novels and instead heads back in time, to the early days of World War II and its aftermath on his characters into the mid 1950s.  With nine books in as many years, Sager has certainly become a reliable and annual presence on my bookshelf.

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Fitbit XI – Week 29

Two days over goal helped push my 30,000-step week streak to thirteen weeks.  The week got off to a great start on Sunday, scoring 7500 steps as I traveled to Wrigley Field for a Greg Maddux bobblehead.  Things came crashing down on Monday, finishing with 4300 steps.  Another small decrease on Tuesday left me 5 steps shy of 4100.  Wednesday nearly matched that total, coming just 10 steps away from 4100.  A big improvement on Thursday pushed me up to 4700 steps.  Another baseball game on Friday left me only 2 steps shy of 7600.  A quiet Saturday finished up the week with only 2100 steps.

Total steps: 34,509

Daily average: 4929.9

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Prolific Authors – Two Books

It is time once again to take a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, I’m once again on pace to set a new record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 114 books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  We begin today with the 40 authors I’ve read two times, one fewer than two years ago.

Laura Caldwell

I have no idea how I came across the work of this local author, but I must have enjoyed it enough to go back for seconds.  Unfortunately, she passed away in 2020, leaving behind a back catalog of fourteen novels and two non-fiction books.

Michael Chabon

Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the most recent of the two works of his I’ve read.  I have another, Wonder Boys, waiting in the to read pile, so he rise up some day.

Matthew V. Clemens

The co-author, with Max Allan Collins, of the final two chapters of the Reeder and Rogers trilogy.

Ready Player Two – Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline

The man responsible for both Ready Player One and Ready Player Two.

Bill Clinton

The former president has co-written two novels with James Patterson.

Michael Connelly

The creator of Harry Bosch makes his first appearance thanks to his Renée Ballard spin-off series.

Laura Dave

I read my second novel from her, The Night We Lost Him, earlier this year.

Felicia Day

The first author here that I’ve happened to meet in person.

Cameron Dokey

She makes the list based on two entries in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.

Warren Ellis

The comic writer, currently in exile after being called out for abusing women, makes the list thanks to two prose novels.

David Fisher Continue reading →

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Book 39 (of 52) – Beyond Reach

Beyond Reach – Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series comes to an explosive end!  Detective Lena Adams is arrested for murder in her hometown when she is found next to burning car with a corpse in the back seat in the middle of the local high school football field.  Jeffrey Tolliver and Sara Linton, married once again, rush to uncover the truth behind Lena’s involvement while getting their bearings in a town seemingly run by meth-dealing white supremacists.

Beyond Reach wraps up the Grant Country series by killing off the Jeffrey Tolliver character.  At the time, Slaughter intended to continue the series with an entry called Genesis, the beginning of Lena and Sara’s life without Jeffrey, but, instead, turned that into Undone, which introduced Sara and Grant County into the Will Trent series and used the Genesis title overseas.  I would love to go back and re-read that with the context I have now.  Between her new North Falls series, which began earlier this year, and her standalone novels, I still have plenty of Karin Slaughter in my future.