Tag / Lucy Foley

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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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Book 59 (of 52) – The Midnight Feast

The Midnight Feast – Lucy Foley

Fifteen years ago, a summer ended with a murder, covered up by a rich family that summers in the otherwise poor town.  Now, the grounds have been turned into The Manor, a luxury retreat catering to the rich and famous, and many of the players from that fateful summer have been drawn back for the grand opening.  When a body is found the morning after the resort’s midsummer celebration, the police work to figure out who is who and what actually happened.

The latest offering from Lucy Foley, The Midnight Feast, was inspired by her trips to southwest England and the local folklore.  She once again tells the tale through the use of multiple narrators, following the story through multiple points in time.  I look forward to what comes next from Foley.

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Prolific Authors – 3 Books

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.  Since I’ve far surpassed my “normal” reading output the last three yeas, I thought it would be nice to once again take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through the start of October. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 118 books, so there could be some movement over the past two years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  We continue today with the 20 authors I’ve read thrice, an increase of eight over the past two years.

Kevin J. Anderson

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

A Man Called Ove – Fredrik Backman

Fredrik Backman

This Swedish author has become a recent favorite, showing up once a year over the past three years, with more to come, I’m sure.

Adam Carolla

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

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.

Executive Order – Max Allan Collins

Max Allan Collins

Author of all entries of the Reeder and Rogers trilogy.

Suzanne Collins

The woman behind a little trilogy about a young woman named Katniss who upends her entire world.

Keith R.A. DeCandido

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

Alex Finlay

A DC lawyer writing under a penname, Finlay has placed three books in my hands over the past two years.

The Guest List – Lucy Foley

Lucy Foley

Another recent fave, Foley, a New York Times best seller, has shown up annually since 2021.

Megan Goldin

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

Paula Hawkins

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Book 3 (of 52) – The Paris Apartment

The Paris Apartment – Lucy Foley

When Jess arrives at her brother’s apartment in Paris to find him missing, she starts looking for him, contacting the people in his building and in his life hoping to track him down.  When she digs deeper, she finds that nothing, and no one, is what it seems in the apartment complex.  Can she find out what happened to her brother before the same happens to her?

The Paris Apartment, the latest offering from Lucy Foley, was written during the COVID pandemic and shutdown.  Some of that claustrophobia seeps into the book, as you can feel the walls closing in on Jess, especially as she learns more about the residents of the building.  Of the three novels of hers that I’ve read, this was probably my least favorite, but it was still a good enough time.

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Book 50 (of 52) – The Book Of Lost And Found

The Book of Lost and Found – Lucy Foley

When her adoptive grandmother lets slip a family secret just prior to her death, a young photographer goes off in search for her mother’s birth mother.  The search takes her to Corsica, where she meets a famous artist who knew her grandmother in her youth, and, ultimately, to New York to meet her grandmother.  Along the way, she learns her family’s history and the struggles each side went through.

Early last year, I had my first exposure to Lucy Foley’s work.  I expected more of the same from The Book of Lost and Found, her debut novel.  Instead, I found a different kind of mystery, one which delved into family dynamics and the impact World War II had on both the French and the English.  The ending could be seen from a mile away, so if that is your judgement criteria, this one might not be for you.  But the journey to get to that ending made this one a worthwhile endeavor.

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2021: The Year In Books

As we wrap up 2021, my first full year remote working, I managed to read a whopping 54 books, an increase of 31 books over last year and my first year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I surpassed last year’s total in mid-June, passed my best years, 2015 and 2016, in late August, and completed book 52 with two weeks left in the year.  I read (or listened) to 18,670 pages, by far my highest total of all time and only the second time I’ve passed 10,000.

Of those books, 16 were non-fiction and, of the 36 novels, 10 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 43 e-books and 4 audiobooks.  For the first time since I was a kid, I got myself a library card, which helped me procure 14 of the books.

Just less than half of the books I read this year were by authors I have read before. The 31 authors that I read for the first this year were:

  • Tegan Quin
  • Sara Quin
  • Lucy Foley
  • Jenna Fischer
  • Matt Haig
  • Eric Nusbaum
  • Jon Taffer
  • Charlotte Douglas
  • Susan Kearney
  • Fredrik Backman
  • Jeff Pearlman
  • Minka Kent
  • Alan Cumming
  • Megan Goldin
  • Molly Bloom
  • Barack Obama
  • Ali Wong
  • Timothy Ferriss
  • Issa Rae
  • Walter Tevis
  • Tess Gerritson
  • Gary Braver
  • Andy Weir
  • Matthew Walker
  • James Clear
  • Grady Hendrix
  • Simon Sinek
  • Jason Fung
  • Julia Spiro
  • Jon Pessah
  • Ruth Ware

Erle Stanley Gardner, Mary Kubica, Jeffery Deaver, Andy Weir and Karin Slaughter were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2021.

6 of the books I read were released this year, while 5 of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1933.

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

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Book 5 (of 52) – The Guest List

The Guest List – Lucy Foley

In The Guest List, a group of people gather on an island off the coast of Ireland for the wedding of a successful blog owner and an upcoming television star.  However, secrets and ghosts from the past threaten to overtake them all.

I first became aware of Lucy Foley’s latest when it won as 2020’s Best Mystery & Thriller in the Goodreads Choice Awards.  When it went on sale for the Kindle a few weeks later, I picked it up and dug right in.  If I have any complaints, it would be about the coincidences of many of the main characters having unknown ties to each other, which leads to the “mystery” of who the killer is.  And I say “mystery” because there is probably about 10 pages between finding out who the victim is and who the killer is.  Overall, I enjoyed the effort and I’ll probably keep a look our for more work from Foley in the future.