Tag / Mary Kubica

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Book 13 (of 52) – The Other Mrs.

The Other Mrs. – Mary Kubica

Dr. Sadie Foust has seen her world turned upside down.  She’s moved across the country from Chicago to Maine after her husband’s sister commits suicide.  She suspects her husband has been cheating.  Her niece and children act strangely around her.  And when a neighbor is killed in the middle of the night, she finds that she is the chief suspect, despite having never met the woman.  Or has she?

The Other Mrs., the sixth entry from Mary Kubica, moves the action outside of Chicago and heads to the east coast, to a tiny island off the coast of Maine, where claustrophobia may as well have been another main character.  There are two big twists, which turns out to be a good thing because the first you could see coming from a mile away.  The second was probably just as predictable if you weren’t so focused on the first.

Netflix is said to be making a movie based on the book, but there’s been no word on casting, let alone a release date.  In the meanwhile, Kubica has another new book due out next month.  Like her previous outings, I’ll be sure to enjoy it once it shows up on sale for the Kindle.

by jim

The Decade In Books

The 2010s have drawn to a close and its time to take a look back at the previous decade. Today, we move on to books, specifically the 229 books I read between 2010 and 2019. This decade coincides completely with my starting the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge, which I have never really come close to completing.

2015 was my best year, with 31 books completed.  2010 was by far the worst year in terms of finished books, with only 7.  Over the course of 10 years, those 229 books totaled over 77,000 pages.


152 different authors contributed to the books I’ve read this decade, 35 of which I’ve read multiple times.  The ghost writer for Richard Castle leads the way and is the only author I read more than 10 offerings from over the last 10 years.  The most surprising entry is Erle Stanley Gardner, who passed away in 1970. Continue reading →

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Prolific Authors 2019

Way back in December of 2011 (and again in the Decembers of 2013, 2015, and 2017), we took a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 48 books from 50 different authors. There shouldn’t be much movement over the past 2 years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span. Once again, we will be limiting ourselves to the now 70 authors from whom I have read more than one book.

 

Author Name Current Total 2017 Total Difference
Nancy Holder 16 15 1

Nancy Holder adds 1 new book over the past 2 years to maintain her lead.

Richard Castle 15 14 1

The writer (or writers) using the nom de plume of the main character from the television show Castle sees a slight increase, despite the show being off the air for well over 3 years now.

Stephen King 13 12 1
Greg Rucka 13 13 0
Christopher Golden 12 12 0
Brad Meltzer 12 11 1

Very little movement in the next tier the past 2 years.

Jeffery Deaver 11 8 3

We round out the double digits with Deaver, who will be going up again soon, as I’m currently reading one of his books. Continue reading →

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Book 5 (of 52) – When The Lights Go Out

When The Lights Go Out – Mary Kubica

When The Lights Go Out, the latest thriller from Chicago-based author Many Kubica, tells the tale of a young woman dealing (poorly) with the death of her mother. While trying to move on in the days following the death, she finds that her entire identity may be a lie. Or is it?

Kubica has been more hit than miss with me, but when she does miss, she misses big. I was enjoying his tale of a woman dealing with grief and slowly losing her mind and identity, until the “shocking twist”, which pulled the rug out from underneath the whole mystery. At the end of the day, this turned out to be the story of a woman whose mom died. Not exactly what I had signed up for.

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Book 6 (of 52) – Every Last Lie

Every Last Lie – Mary Kubica

In her fourth outing, Mary Kubica brings us a tale of a widow who questions her late husband’s death, which has been ruled an accident, while making wild assumptions about the unknown details she finds out about his life.  As she digs in to the mystery, her life starts to unravel as she believes the best, and the worst about her husband.

From my experiences to date, Kubica is like the anti-Star Trek, where the odd numbered efforts I enjoy while the even numbered ones leave me a little cold.  This one was no exception, as I enjoyed the mystery but had issues with the main character.  Specifically her insistence on hiding the death of her husband from their young daughter, for what seemed to be weeks.  Had I paid any attention to the title of the book, that might have made more sense, but, as I didn’t, it rang false.

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Prolific Authors 2017

Way back in December of 2011 (and again in the Decembers of 2013 and 2015), we took a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 60 books from 47 different authors. There shouldn’t be much movement over the past 2 years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span. Once again, we will be limiting ourselves to the now 54 authors from whom I have read more than one book.

Author Name Current Total 2015 Total Difference
Nancy Holder 15 13 2

A new leader in the clubhouse, as Nancy Holder adds 2 new additions over the past 2 years to put her out front.

Richard Castle 14 9 5

The second largest increase (or largest for someone I had read before) goes to the writer (or writers) using the nom de plume of the main character from the television show Castle.  I’m guessing this total will stay pretty static, with the show off the air for over a year now.

Greg Rucka 13 13 0
Christopher Golden 12 12 0
Stephen King 12 12 0

These three round out the top 5 with absolutely no movement over the past 2 years.

Brad Meltzer 11 9 2
Jeffery Deaver 8 5 3

Slight increases for both of these authors, with more to come.  Meltzer’s next book is already pre-ordered, while there are a few unread Deaver works on my Kindle. Continue reading →

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Book 4 (of 52) – Don’t You Cry

Don’t You Cry – Mary Kubica

I was a little hesitant in going back to the Mary Kubica well after being somewhat disappointed in her previous effort, but I had already spent the money on the next one so I figured I would go ahead and hope for the best.  Thankfully, this was more of a return to form, living up to the expectations coming out of her first novel.

Don’t You Cry centers around a Chicago woman whose roommate has gone missing and a Michigan teen who falls for a new girl in town.  While the big twist was close to, though not exactly, what I thought it would be, it still kept my attention and made me interested in the characters.

Based on this outing, I am once again looking forward to future efforts from this author.  Her next novel is due this summer.  If I catch a good deal, I just may pick it up.

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Book 27 (of 52) – Pretty Baby

Pretty Baby – Mary Kubica

Last December, I read the debut novel from Chicago-based novelist Mary Kubica.  Based on the strength of that work, I purchased her next two offerings over the past year and finally decided it was time to break in to one.  Sadly, it was a bit of a let down.

Pretty Baby tells the tale, slowly, of a Chicago family, a runaway with a baby, and the slow descent into madness that comes from their intersection.  The only plot point that comes as something of a surprise is the parentage of the baby, but the twist wasn’t all that interesting.  Also, and I don’t know if this was an issue with the print version as well as the eBook, but the name of Halsted St. was consistently misspelled.  I’m sure this bothered nobody outside of the Chicagoland area, but bother me it did.

I still have Kubica’s latest waiting on the Kindle, though I’m not particularly looking forward to it at this point.  I can only hope that she returns to the promise of her previous work and that this isn’t an indicator of what is to come.

by jim

2015: The Year In Books

2015booksWith another year coming to an end, it is time to take a look back at the 31 books I read over the past year, an increase of 8 from last year and my highest total ever, surpassing the 27 books I read back in 1992.  Of those 31, 11 were non-fiction and, of the 20 novels, only 3 were TV show tie-ins.  Only 4 of the books came from the “to-read” drawer, and 11 were e-books.  I read a nearly 9200 pages, the most in 1 year since 1992 and my second straight year reaching the 9000 mark.

Once again, a majority of the books I read this year were by authors I’ve never read before. The 19 authors that I read for the first this year were:
Kurt Vonnegut
Jim Bouton
Melissa Joan Hart
Patton Oswalt
Erle Stanley Gardner
Doug Sohn
Kate DeVivo
Paula Hawkins
Jayson Stark
Scott Reifert
Oscar Wilde
Jeff Katz
Felicia Day
George Carlin
Max Allan Collins
Ann Brashares
David Lagercrantz
Graham Greene
Mary Kubica
Martin Short

The ghost writer for Richard Castle was the only author I read multiple titles from during 2015.

Ten books I read were released this year, while 3 of them were released prior to 1980, with one, The Picture of Dorian Gray, dating back to 1890.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  Vacations in March, November, and December certainly helped pad their totals a tad bit. Continue reading →

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Book 29 (of 52) – The Good Girl

The Good Girl - Mary Kubica

The Good Girl – Mary Kubica

Another in a seemingly long line of books christened as the next Gone Girl, The Good Girl, Chicago-based author Mary Kubica’s debut novel, tells the tale of a kidnapped girl, the man who took her, the family left behind, and the cop assigned to find her.  As each chapter switches viewpoints, we slowly learn how and why Mia was kidnapped and why she had taken on a fake activity once she was rescued.

Going in to this, I didn’t know this was Mary Kubica’s first novel and nothing about it would lead you to that distinction.  I was engrossed from the get go and, though I guessed the surprise twist about 100 pages before the end, I was entertained.  This, along with its follow-up, were both on sale in the Kindle bookstore and I’m glad I picked up both.  I’m looking forward to diving in to the next one early next year.