Hey, it's me again.
Defending Jacob by William Landay is an older (2012) thriller, but it's had renewed interest with the announcement of a new adaptation. Y'all, you NEED to read this now. When you pick up a thriller, this is exactly how you hope it will go. The book is narrated by Andy Barber, an assistant district attorney. When a 14 year old boy is murdered, Andy is assigned to the case. He begins his investigation. Then, his own 14 year old son becomes the prime suspect. Andy's world is rocked, as he contemplates if his son is capable of such a heinous crime. The investigation rolls on with Andy on the sidelines as his colleagues now investigate his own family. While watching the process, Andy and his wife must grapple with difficult questions and decide how they are going to react/act. There were so many twists on this one, particularly in the last fourth of the book. It kept me guessing, and I read it in one day as I had to know what happened next. If you're a crime thriller fan, and you haven't yet found your way to this one, do that now. Seriously, read no other crime thriller until you read this one.
Read this book if - You love or even just kind of like crime thrillers. You want a book with twists that you won't see coming. You want a book that will make you grapple with the question of "How far would you go to protect those you love?"
Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount is easily the most beautiful book I've read this year. The cover is only the beginning of a beautiful visual tribute to books. Jane Mount is an illustrator who regularly draws stacks of people's favorite books. She is a master at translating covers and spines to the most perfect art. This book is pages on pages of this stunning work. In addition, it is full of all the books you want to read next. The pages are divided into genres, and each collection is full of recommendations of what you should check out. I finished this book with quite a few new books on my to-read list which the author shares as one of her hopes. This is a book I want to read and look at over and over again. In addition to books, it highlights a variety of libraries and bookstores that I also now want to visit. All around, this is just a book that reads like a love letter to book lovers. This won't be the last time I flip through these pages.
Read this book if - You love books. You want to visually fall in love with books on each and every page you see.
The Great American Read: The Book of Books: Explore America's 100 Best-Loved Novels is predictably a book about the recent PBS series. I had high aspirations of reading more of these since the show's premiere, but this just hasn't happened. This book gave me renewed interest in doing that . . . eventually. This book offers summaries of each of the reads. It includes information on the plot as well as the authors and how the books came to be. There's not much to review here, other than to say that I dug it as a book about other books, and it's a great resource to have in my home library.
Read this book if - You want a book about The Great American Read novels.
Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen by Serena Valentino is the story of the evil stepmother from Snow White. This is the first in a Disney series that looks at the origin story of well-known villains. Y'all, I love all things Snow White. It's my forever favorite Disney movie, and I still love when I can find my way to any and all Snow White kind of stuff. This was different than any other previous Snow White variations I'd read given the perspective. It was intriguing. The Queen wasn't always so wicked according to this tale, so this traced back how she got to be how she was. I liked it, especially how the Magic Mirror was integrated throughout the story. I will always love Snow White, and the unique, creative angle of this one was a different way to read my favorite fairy tale.
Read this book if - You enjoy fairy tales told differently. You like reading about the origin stories of different characters.
And onto the next one. . .
