Tag / Laura Lippman

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Book 21 (of 52) – Another Thing To Fall

Another Thing To Fall – Laura Lippman

When Tess literally rows into a television production, she finds herself with a new job: protecting/babysitting the show’s starlet.  As the production continually runs into increasingly elaborate pranks that threaten to derail the show’s future, Tess starts investigating, starting with her charge.  When those mishaps escalate to murder, she starts to make some headway, she needs to track down the clues that will lead her to the culprit before the whole production is shut down and Hollywood leaves Baltimore behind.

In Another Thing to Fall, the tenth entry in Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series, the action gets a little meta, as Lippman was married at the time to David Simon, the man behind the Baltimore-set HBO hit The Wire.  With only two more entries to go in the series, we are nearing the end and I should wrap things up later this year.

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2025: The Year In Books

As 2025 comes to a close, my fifth full year of remote working, I managed to once again surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 66 books, five books more than my previous high set last year and my fifth consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I completed the challenge in mid-October and surpassed last year’s total in early-December.  I read 25,279 pages, by far my highest total of all time and just the third time I’ve managed to surpass 20.000 pages.

Of those books, only two were non-fiction and, of the remaining 64 novels, only six were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with two hard covers, three paperbacks, 61 e-books and no audiobooks.  I was forced to switch my library card from the Chicago Public Library to my local library, which slowed me down a little but still led to 55 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

Over 71% of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 21 authors that I read for the first time this year were:

Coco Mellors Aisling Rawle Stephen Graham Jones
Liz Moore Natalie Sue Kaliane Bradley
Max Brooks Mary Shelley Paul Tremblay
Nathaniel Hawthorne Kelly Bishop Tanya Pearson
Liane Moriarty Benjamin Stevenson Ashley Winstead
Ashley Elston Alison Espach Alice Feeney
Ali Land Lindsay Jamieson Jeneva Rose

Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman, Kathy Reichs, Lee Goldberg, Stephen King, Emily Henry, Elin Hilderbrand, and Rebecca Forster were the authors that I read multiple titles from during 2025, accounting for nearly 35% of my total.

22 of the books I read were released this year, while none were released during the 20th century.  Two came from the 19th century, with the oldest first published in 1818.

Finally, the breakdown by month, which was fairly consistent across the entire year. Continue reading →

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Prolific Authors Wrap Up

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school. This year, I’ve far surpassed my previous record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into all of 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.  Today, we wrap things up with a look back at the 109 authors I’ve read more than once.

Largest Increase (since 2023)

Pieces of Her – Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter – 7
Stephen King – 6
Laura Lippman – 6
Jeffery Deaver – 4
Lee Goldberg – 4
Elin Hilderbrand – 4
Kathy Reichs – 4

Largest Increase (since 2011)

Solitude Creek – Jefferu Deaver

Karin Slaughter – 19
Jeffery Deaver – 18
Erle Stanley Gardner – 14
Richard Castle – 13
Stephen King – 12

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Book 59 (of 52) – No Good Deeds

No Good Deeds – Laura Lippman

When Crow brings home a young hooligan tangentially related to the murder of an assistant US Attorney, he sets in motion a series of events that put Tess’s freedom, and his own life, at risk.  While the Feds go after Tess, Crow goes on the run, hoping to keep his new project alive.  Can the two of them manage to figure out what is going on before the net closes on them completely?

In No Good Deeds, the ninth entry in Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series, the action focuses more on Crow, who has gone on the lam to try and make up for the sins of his ancestors.  With only three more entries to go in the series, we are heading towards the end and should wrap things up next year.

 

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Prolific Authors – Eight 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 four authors I’ve read eight times, one fewer than two years ago.

Peter David

The prolific comic book writer, who passed away earlier this year, shows up mostly with Star Trek: The Next Generation novels that I read in high school, with only two of his total coming from this century.

Sunburn – Laura Lippman

Laura Lippman

After a five year wait for Lippman’s second back to cross my eyes, she has jumped up considerably these past two years.

Jennifer McMahon

After feeling unimpressed after finishing my first of her works, Dismantled, in 2010, I eventually gave her another try, and she has been a consistent presence ever since.

Riley Sager

One of my newer favorites, I’ve read all of his novels as they’ve been released annually since 2017’s Final Girls through this year’s With a Vengeance, which will count towards the next list.

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Book 42 (of 52) – By A Spider’s Thread

By A Spider’s Thread – Laura Lippman

When a man’s wife and children go missing, he hires Tess Monaghan to find them and bring them home.  As she digs into his, and her, background, she finds that the wife he claims to know may not be who he thinks she is.  Can Tess track down the missing family, and the mysterious man accompanying them, before any more blood is shed?

Laura Lippman returns with By a Spider’s Thread, the eighth entry in her Tess Monaghan series.  Following the events of The Last Place, Tess once again finds herself single, though I assume that will be taken care of sooner rather than later.  She also finds herself facing her Jewish half more seriously than she has in the past, due to her Orthodox client.  I’ve got four more Tess novels to go, not to mention any other works in Lippman’s oeuvre, so there’s plenty for me to enjoy moving forward.

 

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Book 16 (of 52) – The Last Place

The Lasy Place – Laura Lippman

When Whitney hires Tess to investigate unsolved murders to see if police overlooked domestic abuse to help push lawmakers to consider new laws to protect women, she instead finds a serial killer, one who now has Tess in his sights.  Working with a former toll officer forced into retirement due to his obsession with one of the murders, she tracks down the killer’s true identity.  Can she stop him before he comes after her?

The seventh entry in Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series, The Last Place, finds Tess more comfortable and settled with her life.  This turned into an interesting mystery, one which moved outside of the city of Baltimore and into the surrounding county.  I’ve got five more Tess novels to go, not to mention any other works in Lippman’s oeuvre, so there’s plenty to still get to.

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Book 1 (of 52) – In A Strange City

In A Strange City – Laura Lippman

When an eccentric antiques dealer tries to hire Tess Monaghan to find out the identity of the Poe Toaster, a local Baltimore legend who visits Edgar Alllan Poe’s grave every year on the anniversary of his death, he starts in motion a bizarre series of events that puts Tess in the middle of another murder investigation.  With the Poe angle bringing in media attention from around the world and a possible tie-in to an earlier beating making the murder a potential hate crime, Tess has to dig through all of the players and the false leads to find the true motive, and culprit, for the crimes.

The sixth entry in Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series, In a Strange City, revolves around the mysteries surrounding one of Baltimore’s most famous residents.  The Poe Visitor was a real thing, an unknown man, or men, who visited Poe’s original grave annually in the early hours of January 19, leaving three roses and an unfinished bottle of liquor behind.  It certainly makes a good backdrop for a mystery, as it is a mystery in and of itself.  I’ve got six more Tess novels to go, not to mention any other works in Lippman’s oeuvre.

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52 Books in 52 Weeks – 2025 Edition

A new year is upon us, and it is time to once again set a goal of reading a book a week for the entire year, totaling 52 books in 52 weeks.

Last year, for the fourth straight year, I completed my goal, finishing the year with 61 books read.  Prior to that, I’d had a low point of 8 books back in 2010 and a high point of 59 books.

Since I have nothing but time again this year and am still a remote worker, I’m going to give it another go.  I’ve got plenty of new books stocked up, both in the Kindle app on my iPad and actual physical books, not to mention my handy dandy library card, so I’ve got a good pile to start with.  As a reminder, the rules I am using are:

  • You can count a book as read as long as you have completed the book in 2025 and at least 50% of that reading takes place in 2025.
  • Any book counts as long as you’re not embarrassed to count it.
  • Poetry collections do indeed count.
  • Re-reading a book is okay as long as it isn’t done this year. (Reading Twilight twice in 2025 only counts as 1 read).
  • Audiobooks also count.

My first book of the year looks like it will be In a Strange City by Laura Lippman, the sixth entry in her Tess Monaghan series.  Here’s hoping 2024 is another good year when it comes to books.

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2024: The Year In Books

As 2024 comes to a close, my fourth full year of remote working, I managed to once again surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 61 books, two books more than my previous high set last year and my fourth consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I completed the challenge in mid-November and surpassed last year’s total in mid-December.  I read 22,622 pages, by far my highest total of all time and just the second time I’ve managed to surpass 20.000 pages.

Of those books, only five were non-fiction and, of the remaining 56 novels, only five were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with two hard covers, two paperbacks, 53 e-books and no audiobooks.  I continued to take advantage of my library card, which helped me procure 46 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

Over 69% of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 19 authors that I read for the first this year were:

Jessica Knoll Isabella Maldonado Kathleen McGurl Lisa Taddeo
Lisa Jewell Millie Bobby Brown J.M. Dillard Lee Goldberg
Avery Cunningham Margot Douaihy R.F. Kuang Jessica Simpson
Jeffrey Lang Dayton Ward Holly Wilson Karin Smirnoff
Walter Beede Michael Connelly Rob Harvilla

Karin Slaughter, Jeffery Deaver, Laura Lippman, Elin Hilderbrand, Jessica Knoll, Michael Connelly, Minka Kent, Lee Goldberg, Rebecca Forster, Stephen King, and Sarah Pekkanen were the authors that I read multiple titles from during 2024.

17 of the books I read were released this year, while only three of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1997.

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