Tag / Rebecca Forster

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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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Book 57 (of 52) – Lost Witness

Lost Witness – Rebecca Forster

Returning to Hermosa Beach after three years, Billy Zuni shows up on Josie’s doorstop with an exceptional story: a murder has occurred on a ship unloading at the Port of Los Angeles and there’s an injured girl who needs to be rescued.  When the Port Authority and the LAPD don’t take the story seriously, Billy looks for other ways to get back to that ship and rescue his friend.

In 2013, I came across a free eBook in the Kindle store, the first entry in Rebecca Forster’s Josie Bates series.  At some point, I got a good deal on the full series and have been slowly working through them since 2021.  Lost Witness, the eighth entry in the series, is the final one in my collection.  At some point, exciting local law cases gave way to over-the-top national and international incidents that just so happened to involve our local heroes.  This was probably my least favorite outing, with Josie and Archer pushed mostly to the side in favor of Billy and his new boat friends.  There is one more novel in the series, released after my bulk collection was released, but I don’t know that I’ll bother at this point, unless I can find it at the library.

 

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Prolific Authors – Seven 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 three authors I’ve read seven times, a decrease of two from two years ago.

Airframe – Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton

The prolific author, who died in 2008, first entered my bookshelf in 1989, when I was assigned to read The Andromeda Strain as part of my high school Biology class.  He continued to be a big part of my 90s reading, but has only added a single title, Airframe, in this century.

Rebecca Forster

One of my first Kindle finds, I’ve read the first seven entries in her Witness series.

J.K. Rowling

All seven entries in the Harry Potter series, which I read in 2016, make up Rowling’s total.  She continues to write under a pen name, but her horrific political views make it unlikely that she would end up on this list twice.

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Book 22 (of 52) – Dark Witness

Dark Witness – Rebecca Forster

On the run in Alaska, Hannah and Billy are hurt while hitching a ride in the back of a semi and are rescued by a cult.  Billy looks for ways to escape while Hannah heals, but when the leader claims God has told him to take Hannah as his bride, they decide the time for healing is finished.  Meanwhile, Josie and Archer are able to track them down to Alaska and the wrecked truck and, with the help of some local law enforcement, manage to find their way to the religious encampment to rescue Hannah.

The seventh entry of Rebecca Forster’s Josie Bates saga, Dark Witness picks up the story of the Albanian blood feud from Eyewitness and finally brings Josie, Archer, and Hannah back together again.  Where do we go from here?  And have we seen the last of Billy?  Only two entries left in the series to find out.

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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.

Continue reading →

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Book 56 (of 52) – Forgotten Witness

Forgotten Witness – Rebecca Forster

While testifying in Congress about the brutal attacks that caused Hannah to go on the run, Josie is accosted by a man who claims to know where “she” is.  As Josie tries to unravel his story and the clues he has left behind, she ends up in Hawaii where she quickly learns that the “she” in question is not Hannah, but Josie’s mother, who had disappeared when Josie was a teenager.  A botched job at covering up what was going on in Hawaii led to a government conspiracy and the truth of what happened to Josie’s parents when she was young.

The sixth entry of Rebecca Forster’s Josie Bates saga, Forgotten Witness, again takes things in a new, though not necessarily better, direction.  Josie is on her own for most of the book, battling against conspiracies and government agencies that seem bigger in scope than what we have read about in the past.  With the normal supporting cast sidelined, a whole new group of characters were introduced, and I wonder which, if any, will turn up again in the remaining entries of the series.

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Book 20 (of 52) – Eyewitness

Eyewitness – Rebecca Forster

When a brutal attack in Hermosa Beach leaves two dead and a young woman on life support, a local kid, and friend of Hannah, finds himself the prime suspect.  While Josie tries to work through the courts to keep him safe, Hannah keeps trying to take matters into her own hands and runs into issues with Josie, the school district, and the police.  Meanwhile, a tie to the local Albanian community becomes more involved than anyone could have considered.

Eyewitness, the fifth entry of Rebecca Forster’s Josie Bates saga, takes things in a new direction, upping the stakes for the characters which will ultimately move them out of their community and on to a bigger stage.  Adding international politics is an odd choice, though one apparently made due to the author’s own experiences with Albania, so we will eventually see where it goes.

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Prolific Authors – 4 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 years, 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 ten authors I’ve read four times, an increase of four over the past two years.

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.

The Big Nowhere – James Ellroy

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 in to one of my favorite authors, though she hasn’t written a new full length work since 2012’s Gone Girl.

Rebecca Forster

One of my first Kindle finds, I’ve read the first four entries in her Witness series.

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.

You Are Not Alone – Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

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.

Grady Hendrix

Winner of a 2018 Bram Stoker Award, the horror novelist debuts thanks to the four novels I’ve read over the past three years, starting with The Final Girl Support Group in 2021.

Kimberly McCreight – Reconstructing Amelia

Kimberly McCreight

A New York Times bestselling author thanks to her debut novel, Reconstructing Amelia, she has been a steady presence since 2013.

Sarah Pekkanen

She has teamed up with Greer Hendricks for four novels, one of which I’ve read one annually since 2020.

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 37 (of 52) – Expert Witness

Expert Witness – Rebecca Forster

In the fourth entry of Rebecca Forster’s Josie Bates saga, an old case comes back to haunt Josie, as she and a local reporter are kidnapped.  Archer works with the local police to find out what happened while also taking legal responsibility for Hannah until Josie can be found.  When an accident with their main suspect and Archer taken out by a train accident, it’s up to the police to figure out who is truly responsible and find Josie before time runs out.

Expert Witness took a different track of sidelining the main character for the entire tale, focusing instead on Archer, Hannah, and local cop Liz Driscoll as they work to find out what happened to Josie.  While this was a bit of a bounce back from the last outing, it was also completely outside the established genre of the series.  Considering I still have three books left in the “complete” set plus one additional released more recently, I truly have no idea what to expect next from this series.  Maybe that’s a good thing?

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Book 22 (of 52) – Privileged Witness

Privileged Witness – Rebecca Forster

In the third entry of Rebecca Forster’s Josie Bates saga, an old lover returns from the past, in the form of his long-lost sister who needs Josie’s help.  Unfortunately, the further involved Josie gets, the more entangled she gets in her client’s lies and her ex’s political campaign.  On the home front, the defendant in a previous case, an abusive husband, decides to take out his frustrations on Josie, Hannah, and the family dog.

Privileged Witness was my least favorite entry of the series so far.  Hopefully it is a temporary lull and not a sign of decline, since I still have four books left in the “complete” set plus one additional released more recently.  The big twist at the end (spoiler alert: incest) could be seen from a mile away and, truth be told, I had little to no sympathy for any of the characters.  Here’s hoping things improve with the next one.  Which I’ll get to someday.