• blog,  The Shelf

    Top Four Beach Reads To Keep The Heat On This Summer

    Goodbye Spring and a marvelous hello to Summer aka my favorite season. If I could spend my entire life hunkered down on a beach somewhere far far away and all I had was copious amounts of books, I won’t complain. But since that’s not an option, I go for Plan B — a family getaway to Florida. The sunshine state has been a favorite vacation spot for us since I can remember. Every year, around the same time, we pack our suitcases and fly off to Florida. This year was no exception for us. While most fret over how many swim suits to pack, I spent my time carefully selecting…

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    March Wrap Up

    March — you leaving us? So soon? I can’t believe it. Time flies by especially when you’re reading good books. And this month, every book was a winner. I focused on reading one book a week and I hit my goal. Yay me! But don’t celebrate me, celebrate the great selection of books below. Have you read any of them yet or all? What were your thoughts? Make sure to leave a comment in the comment section.

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    The Beekeeper of Aleppo is This Summer Most Brilliant Book 

    The Beekeeper of Aleppo is the type of book that will stay with you forever. I understand that my statement is bold, but this book deserves it. It’s daunting and beautiful. I fell in love with the characters and their pain was mine. Their suffering was mine. Their story was too. What Christi Lefteri has done – is write a story that will beat the passage of time. Where other books would fade in my memory, the Beekeeper of Aleppo will remain fresh.  I cried with Nuri, a beekeeper from Aleppo and his wife Afra when they lost their bees, their home, their only son in the Syrian war. I traveled with…

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    The Russian by Ben Coes is Brutally Intense 

    New York Time Bestselling author Ben Coes’ latest book ‘The Russian’ is explosive, noir and a heart attack on a page. He writes the type of books that speak to my heart – espionage with plots that drop me in the middle of the action in a foreign country. I can’t resist. ‘The Russian’ is Coes’ new series featuring Rob Tacoma, an ex-Navy Seal and a recruit by the CIA to take on American’s worst enemy. Members of the Russian mob have infiltrated America and are controlling the criminal underworld. Blocking every attempt by law enforcement to curb their illegal activities, the Russian mob has grown into a powerful enterprise that…

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    Best Selling Author Caz Frear is Back with Stone Cold Heart

    The brilliant Caz Frear, Sweet Little Lies, is back with Stone Cold Heart on sale since July 2nd. Cat Kinsella whom we met in Sweet Little Lies, is back too working on a new case still balancing her complicated professional and personal life. Cat is investigating the murder of an Australian woman Naomi Lockhart, whose murder is full of gaps and inconsistencies. And while Cat and her team are scrambling to build a case against a suspect, they discover that nothing adds up. To make things worse, Cat’s boyfriend, Aiden Doyle, whom she’s keeping a secret from her friends, is not too pleased. Cat, off course, has her reasons. And…

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    June Wrap Up 

    Holy Smokes! Looking over the list of wonderful books I read in June, a theme is jumping out, screaming military combat and spy chasing, all of which are in my wheelhouse. If you are searching for your next thrilling read, then the books below won’t disappoint you.

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    Recursion is A Mind-Bending Trip 

    I still can’t figure out what happened? I’m not a sci-fi fan. I checked and then double checked my library and I’m the proud owner of none sci-fi books in my collection…till now, of course. Recursion by Blake Crouch, published on June 7th, is taking the publishing world by a storm, rightfully so, may I gallantly add. I’m not sure what drew me first to the book, the bright yellow book cover, screaming for my attention or the bold synopsis. Perhaps a combination of both.

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    Extra! Extra! Extra! Anthony Horowitz’s New Book ‘Sentence Is Death’ Is A Knockout

    May is quickly slipping away quicker than quick sand and I’m plowing through my May tbr list. With only a hand full of days left before we officially enter June, I had the pleasure of reading some outstanding nonfictions and just as many fiction novels in May. If you are looking for a scandalous murder mystery ala Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but modern and with brilliant characters, look no further than ‘The Sentence Is Death‘ by Anthony Horowitz.

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    “Moscow Rules” The Best Nonfiction of The Year? Quite Possibly

    ‘Moscow Rules‘ by Tony Mendez and Jonna Mendez is out today and I have to say I couldn’t be happier. The book is a thrill ride for spy nerds such as myself who simply wish to read and learn about everything spy related. The book offers an intimate look of how the CIA ran agents and collected information behind the lines of one of the most secretive cities in the world – Moscow. Every page of this book spills secrets.

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    The Never Game By Jeffery Deaver Brings To Readers A Twisted Plot

    The Never Game, by Jeffery Deaver, hit the store on May 14th and I finished reading it, breathlessly, in the span of a few days. I hung on every word, devouring the pages. Colter Shaw is that character I want to read about. He’s a private eye (don’t you dare call him that), who lives in an RV, going from state to state, helping find missing people. Recently, he has returned to the Bay Area, searching for Sophie, a missing college student, whose father is offering $10,000 for the return of his daughter. Shaw could use that money. The private eye business is never a steady gig, even for a PI of…

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    New May Releases

    May is a day away, which means a new batch of thrillers and true crime books is about to drop. I think this month is shaping up to be exciting for book lovers. The below books are the ones I am currently reading or on my to read list. Which book in May you can’t wait to read?

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    The Lazarus Files: A Riveting Account of Sherri Rasmussen’s Cold Case Murder Investigation

    I haven’t slept well the past few nights because I stayed up pass my bedtime to read and finish The Lazarus Files, by the non-fiction writer, Mathew McGough, out on April 30th. I simply couldn’t bring myself to put the book down. Occasionally I would let out ‘Oh My Gosh – did they really,’ or ‘the poor thing,’ most often I rumbled along the lines ‘do your job LAPD.’ My husband would throw me a cautionary look ‘what’s wrong?’ but it would be left unanswered. I was knee deep in a murder investigation.

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    Girl Most Likely is Whodunnit Murder Mystery Done Right

    When I found out that Max Allan Collins is coming out with a new book, ‘Girl Most Likely,’ pub date April 1, 2019 I rushed to check it out. As most of you know by now I devour crime books, espionage, mystery and suspense. And when I got my hands on a copy of Collins’ hotly anticipated Girl Most Likely I parked myself on my favorite reading chair and ignored the dishes in the sink calling out to me, the laundry politely asking if I was getting it done and my family wondering if I will be providing a cooked meal for them that night. How could I? I was…