December Books

 

The Other Guest by Helen Cooper -- A suspense type book about Leah who travels to visit her sister's family at their resort in Italy, and then Joanna back home who is dealing with the mystery bar guy who ends up living at her house while recuperating from car injuries. This book alternates between their perspectives with the addition of Amy, Leah's niece who died several months back.

The Codebreaker's Secret by Sara Ackerman -- Izzy is working in Washington, D.C., but longs to be transferred to Hawaii where her brother died when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. She wants to walk where he did, and find out more of what happened to him. When she solves some great code, she gets orders to transfer. This book wasn't my favorite from this author, but pretty good. The other storyline is about 20 years later when Lu is invited to Rockefeller's hotel's grand opening and there is a mystery or two to solve.

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller -- Such an odd book about two 51-year-old twins, Jeanie and Julius, who live with their mom, but when their mom dies suddenly and they lose their home, they can't figure out how to deal with life.

The Herd by Andrea Bartz -- Katie is excited at the prospect of becoming part of the Herd, an exclusive club run by a couple of good friends, Eleanor and Mikki, and represented by her sister Hana. When Eleanor disappears, the ladies look for clues to her whereabouts. Pretty good book.

Keep You Close by Karen Cleveland -- FBI agent Stephanie Maddox works to uncover who is after her family, particularly her son Zachary. Pretty interesting story.

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney -- Amelia and Adam are trying to save their marriage and are headed to a remote chapel converted into a house-turned vacation home (so they think) in the Scottish Highlands. When weird things start happening, they second guess their trip. Meanwhile Robin tells part of the story. Pretty good.

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines by Pamela Terry -- When her mom is found dead by her sister, Lila travels back to Georgia from her new home in Maine. There the family deals with the loss of their mother and the mystery of the buried tin in the muscadine arbor. Decent story.

Shiver by Allie Reynolds -- Milla accepts an invitation to join her snowboarding friends, Dale, Heather, Curtis and Brent from a decade ago, but soon realizes this reunion is majorly-weird because most everyone else says she invited them...and she didn't. The staff all seem to be missing at this ski place, and odd things happen.  Someone seems to think one of them is behind the disappearance of Curtis's sister Saskia, a champion snowboarder who was recently declared legally dead due to her not being found for ten years.

Proving Ground by Kathy Keiman -- This is "the untold story of the six women who programmed the world's first modern computer," called the ENIAC. The author was intrigued by photos she saw where women were in front of this huge computer, and she wanted to know more about them. Were they merely "refrigerator models" as someone told her? She decided to research the story and learned more about Kay, Betty, Fran, Jean, Ruth, and Marlyn. This is a book I chose for Andrew to read and once he was finished with it, I read it.

The Suspect by Fiona Barton -- Kate Waters is desperate to hear from her son who went on a gap year (two years ago!) to Thailand. Jake rarely checks in with his family, and barely gives any details of what he's doing. When a couple of British teenagers go missing in Bangkok, Kate covers the story for her newspaper. When she gets the opportunity to travel to Thailand, she makes plans to also look for her son. Pretty good story.

Good Husbands by Cate Ray -- Three women receive a letter from a dying young woman who claims that her mother was raped by their three husbands thirty years ago and she "fell pregnant" but none of the men would help her out. Three women had fairly good marriages (at least two of them did), but Jess wants to find out the truth so she contacts Priyanka and Stephanie to hear their thoughts on the matter. Different, but pretty good. 

 

 

I thought I might read more, but I'm only about halfway finished a book, and I'm having so much fun with Zach and Sophie being in town, that I've not read as much the last few days. I'll include it in my 2023 count.

 

Happy New Year!