Tag / Simone St. James

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Book 36 (of 52) – A Box Full Of Darkness

A Box Full of Darkness – Simone St. James

Three siblings return to their childhood home to finally find out what happened to their younger brother, who mysteriously disappeared at age six and was never found.  As they encounter strange things in the long-abandoned house, they each realize that the secrets they kept as kids had been happening to all of them.  The more they learn about the past, the odder things seem, until only the most outrageous explanation remains: their brother was a ghost who had been killed years earlier in their home.

Simone St. James returns after a two-year absence with A Box Full of Darkness.  This time, she fully leans into the supernatural, with ghosts playing a central role in the plot.  One of these days, I will have to dive into her back catalog, as she’s quickly becoming a favorite and has yet to disappoint.

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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.

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Book 18 (of 52) – Murder Road

Murder Road – Simone St. James

In July of 1995, a young couple gets lost on the way to their honeymoon vacation spot and come across a woman walking alone on an abandoned road.  When they try to give her a ride, they quickly realize she has been stabbed, so they rush her to the hospital.  Unfortunately, they quickly become the chief suspects once she dies, both for her murder and many that have come before on the same stretch of road.  With the police unwilling to dig deeper to find the actual culprit, the couple starts their own investigation, leading them to an unknown woman killed 20 years earlier and her links to what is happening today.

After a two-year absence. Simone St. James returns with her latest, Murder Road.  Once again, she weaves the supernatural into an otherwise normal suspense plot, with some characters more accepting of it than others.  One of these days, I will have to dive into her back catalog, as she’s quickly becoming a favorite.

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Prolific Authors – 2 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.  This year, since I’ve far surpassed my reading output of any year on record, I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through 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.  Today, we start things off with the now 41 authors I’ve read twice, an increase of six over two years ago.

Max Barry

An Australian author, I’ve enjoyed the two novels of his I’ve read, Jennifer Government and Company.

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.

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.

Fate Of The Union – Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens

Matthew V. Clemens

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

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.

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.

Diane Duane

Living in Ireland, she is responsible for a Star Trek: The Next Generation book and a Spider-Man novel, of all things.

Warren Ellis

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

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2022: The Year In Books

As we wrap up 2022, my second full year of remote working, I managed to surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 55 books, an increase of one book over last year and my second consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I surpassed last year’s total with a mere three days remaining in 2022.  I read (or listened) to 19,328 pages, by far my highest total of all time and only the third time I’ve passed 10,000.

Of those books, fifteen were non-fiction and, of the remaining 40 novels, only two 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 44 e-books and three audiobooks.  I continued to take advantage of my library card, which helped me procure 37 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

A little more than half of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 31 authors that I read for the first this year were:

Adam Nedeff Kelsey McKinney Simone St. James Laura Dave
Jeff Warren Carlye Adler Matt Paxton Jordan Michael Smith
Alyssa Milano Alex Finlay Taylor Jenkins Reid Emily Ratajkowski
Samantha Downing Dave Grohl Mary Lynn Rajskub Stephanie Perkins
Michael Schur Joseph Henrich V.E. Schwab Brianna Madia
Jimmy Piersall Richard Whittingham Richard Osman Colleen Hoover
Jenette McCurdy Sally Rooney Josh Malerman Alice Sebold
Katie Mack Penn Jillette Elin Hilderbrand Nita Prose

Alex Finlay, Simone St. James, Karin Slaughter, Megan Goldin, Jeffery Deaver, and Richard Osman were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2022.

16 of the books I read were released this year, while only two of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1953.

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Book 26 (of 52) – The Book Of Cold Cases

The Book of Cold Cases – Simone St. James

In The Book of Cold Cases, the latest from Simone St. James, a true crime blogger hits paydirt when an accused serial killer agrees to an interview.  While digging into the old case, she encounters some troubling discoveries about the true killer and her own past.  Sometimes the ghosts from our past come back to haunt us.

Prior to this year, I had no previous experience with Simone St. James.  Now I’ve tackled her two most recent novels in less than half a year.  The supernatural plays a much larger part in this outing, quickly reminding me that her works fall more in the horror genre than straight up suspense.  I will continue to keep a look out for her stuff, as she’s quickly becoming a favorite.

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Book 9 (of 52) – The Sun Down Motel

The Sun Down Motel – Simone St. James

Catching up on the books I read while in Hawaii while on vacation.

In The Sun Down Motel, Simone St. James tells two stories of the Sun Down Motel, one involving Viv Delaney, who was the night clerk in 1982 before disappearing, and the other about her niece, Carly Kirk, who comes to town in 2017 to find out what happened to her aunt.  When Carly accepts the same job in order to get more information about her aunt, she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that caught Viv’s attention in 1982.

I had no previous experience with Simone St. James prior to this, but I had been intrigued by this book since its nomination for a Goodreads Choice Award in 2020.  I’m glad I finally got the chance to dive into it, as St. James tells an intriguing story across generations of one family, tied together by this mysterious motel in upstate New York and the trail of dead girls surrounding it.  I just may need to dig into what other offerings St. James has available.