Category / 52/52

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Book 39 (of 52) – The Mayor Of Maxwell Street

The Mayor Of Maxwell Street – Avery Cunningham

Nelly Sawyer, daughter of the supposed richest black man in the country, comes to 1920s Chicago for her brother’s funeral and finds that her parents have committed her to becoming a debutante.  While balancing her newly found social requirements with her desire to become a reporter, she goes after her first, and most dangerous, story: who is the so-called Mayor of Maxwell Street.  She teams with the mysterious Jay Shorey, working to uncover the mayor’s identity while keeping herself out of trouble.  When tragedy strikes during and after the cotillion, Nelly stumbles upon the surprising identity of the mayor, but can she still protect herself and her family?

The Mayor of Maxwell Street, the debut novel from Avery Cunningham, is an intriguing look at the upper crust of black society during the Prohibition era in Chicago.  As a local, it was interesting to see descriptions of areas I know from a century ago, but I don’t know how vivid those descriptions play to someone not familiar with the area.  I’ll keep an eye out to see what Cunningham has coming out next.

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Book 38 (of 52) – A Faint Cold Fear

A Faint Cold Fear – Karin Slaughter

An apparent suicide becomes suspicious when Sara Linton’s sister, Tessa, is brutally attacked while the police investigate the scene nearby.  A second murder the next day at the local college, also staged as a suicide, puts police chief Jeffrey Tolliver on edge, believing there is a link between the three crimes.  When the investigation starts to lead to Lena Adams, Jeffrey’s former protege, it complicates things for all involved, making it unlikely they will be able to stop the killer before another body turns up.

A Faint Cold Fear is the third entry in Karin Slaughter’s older Grant County series.  Because I read the first two out of order, I couldn’t really remember where things left off with all of the characters.  With three more books to go in this series and a new Will Trent entry just released, there will be plenty of Slaughter to go around for the foreseeable future.

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Book 37 (of 52) – Nineteen Steps

Nineteen Steps – Millie Bobby Brown

A young woman coming of age in war-torn London during World War II deals with both love and loss.  She loses an aunt and uncle in a bombing raid by the Germans before losing her father and baby sister in a tragic accident.  Eventually, she is reunited with her beloved, an American airman, and heads off for a life in America.

Nineteen Steps is attributed to Millie Bobby Brown but was ghostwritten by Kathleen McGurl.  The story is based on Brown’s family history and includes many true events, including the stampede that killed over a thousand people at the tube station used as a shelter during the air raids.  I ordinarily wouldn’t have read this type of novel, but a book signing with Brown at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up.

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Book 36 (of 52) – Natural Selection

Natural Selection – Elin Hilderbrand

Stuck on a trip to the Galápagos Islands by herself after her boyfriend suddenly left at the airport, a real estate agent from New York tries to rationalize her relationship while learning to let go and enjoy the solo trip.  When she learns the truth about her boyfriend, she leans into the theories of Charles Darwin, that the species most likely to survive is that which adapts to the world around it.

Natural Selection is a short story from Elin Hilderbrand, one which takes place far away from her usual locale of Nantucket.  Given the short length of the work, there isn’t a whole lot of world building or deep characterizations, but it does tell a complete story, one which maybe could have been blown out to a full-length novel.

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Book 35 (of 52) – Open Book

Open Book – Jessica Simpson

Open Book, Jessica Simpson’s memoir of her life as a teenage pop star, reality television goof, and fashion industry titan, is truly an open book.  She talks of her molestation at the hands of a family friend as a child, her failed attempts to break out with the Mickey Mouse Club, the pressures of being a teenager and trying to become a pop star, and, of course, her intention to remain a virgin until marriage.  Her fame exploded thanks to Newlyweds on MTV, but the show that truly made her a household name also contributed to the end of her marriage.  After years of drinking and John Mayer, she finally found her way, starting a family with a new husband and hoping to restart her music career.

I certainly did not know much about Jessica Simpson prior to reading this book.  I don’t know any of her music and haven’t seen any of her shows.  The only things I actually do know her from are her role as Daisy Duke in the Dukes of Hazzard movie and tabloid accounts of either her being shown as stupid on her show or gaffes from her social life.  She seems to finally have her personal life figured out, so I hope she can continue to be happy going forward.

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Book 34 (of 52) – The Broken Window

The Broken Window – Jeffery Deaver

When Lincoln Rhyme’s cousin is arrested for murder, the criminologist is able to link it to a number of crimes where the evidence appears airtight.  The investigation brings Rhyme, Sachs, and crew into the world of data mining, where they learn of the data collection companies that know almost everything about us, and their unsub who is using that data to commit his crimes and nearly perfectly frame someone else.  When computer manipulation starts putting the team and their loved ones in jeopardy, they need to find and stop the man they call 522, but can they do it in time?

In 2000, I read The Bone Collector, the first entry in Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme saga.  With The Broken Window, the eighth entry out of sixteen, I have now completed the entire collection.  I assume there will be books coming, as the latest entry set up a new nemesis for Rhyme, but since that just came out less than a year ago, so I may have some time to wait.

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Book 33 (of 52) – Mr. Mercedes

Mr. Mercedes – Stephen King

A retired cop finds a new purpose when he is contacted by the perpetrator of one of his unsolved cases.  As his off-the-books investigation gets closer to finding its target, he finds himself, and those closest to him, in the crosshairs.  Can the cop and his collection of civilian helpers stop the perp before he turns a popular concert into a bloodbath?

Mr. Mercedes is the first entry in Stephen King’s Bill Hodges Trilogy and introduces readers to the Holly Gibney character that also popped up here and here.  This was more of a thriller than the horror King is usually known for, but it was still a thrilling ride.  I’ll be getting to the remaining two entries sooner rather than later.

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Book 32 (of 52) – The Shift

The Shift: The Business of Baseball at The Youth-High School and Professional Level – Walter Beede

Former college baseball coach Walter Beede takes a look at how youth travel baseball has upended baseball, from Little League all the way up to college ball, and how travel baseball has transformed from a way to let elite talent compete against each other to a free-for-all built to extract as much money from as many parents as possible.  Clocking in at about 100 pages, The Shift is really only for parents navigating the world of youth baseball for something other than a recreational activity.

 

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Book 31 (of 52) – Scorched Grace

Scorched Grace – Margot Douaihy

A heavily tattooed nun investigates when a fire breaks out at her school, killing a janitor and injuring two students.  As more fires break out, she finds multiple clues that point towards someone trying to frame her for the crimes.  A chance sighting during a court hearing for one of her students leads her to the surprising culprit.

Scorched Grace, by Margot Douaihy, is the first release from Gillian Flynn’s new imprint.  It is a tight mystery with a somewhat over-the-top protagonist.  A sequel has already been released, and I’m interested to see where the story goes, as there does not seem to be more to credulously occur in the halls of a Catholic school.

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Book 30 (of 52) – Making It Home

Making It Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League – Teresa Strasser

Ten years after reading about how she fought her fears to have a baby at age 39, Teresa Strasser returns with Making it Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League, a memoir of making peace with her father through a season on little league for said baby after losing both her brother and mother within four months.  The ups and downs of the season mirror their relationship, strained since childhood when Strasser was separated from her brother and sent to live alone with her mother.  By the end of the season, they learn how to deal with each other and with the loss they have suffered.