The Innocence of Father Brown By: G.K. Chesterton

As a fan of the TV series, I figured I should read the source material.  I'm glad I did!  While I'm a fan of the TV series, I really am becoming a huge fan of the original stories.  The Blue Cross is the first Father Brown story and he's not even mentioned or named until 2/3 of the way through-sheer brilliance of story telling!  I found The Sign of the Broken Sword a wee bit convoluted-I may have to reread this one.  A lot of great stories in this first collection-I highly recommend!

Book By: Whoopi Goldberg

Revisiting this book after it was first published 23 years ago, I was astonished to read that not much has changed. Whoopi's musing on life, using everything that was happening at the time, are still relevant today.  If some of the names were changed, this could have been written yesterday!  It's easy to hear Whoopi's voice as you read this hilarious book of her musings.  At times sad, at times thought provoking, it still reads as if you were sitting and chatting with Whoopi.  Her smarts, wit, and humor shine through.

Louisiana Longshot By: Jana Deleon

A rip roaring good time on the bayou!  Join Fortune and the Sinful Geritol Mafia for mystery, mayhem and laugh out loud humor!

Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen By: H.C. Andersen

I have to say it was probably a mistake to read all of these stories at once; I may have enjoyed some of them if read in smaller parcels.  But as a whole there was far too much of the "suffer, suffer, suffer, die horribly but be happy because it was god's plan for you to die" in the majority of these stories.  Not my cup of tea of tea at all.  While undeniably well written, the subject matter held no appeal to me and angered more than entertained.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry By: Gabrielle Zevin

A book lovers dream of a book!  Charming, heartwarming, a little odd and just delightful!

Grimm's Fairy Stories By: Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm

What a cool set of stories!  Having grown up on the watered down version of a lot of the Grimm's tales, is was really exciting to read the originals. Since I did know the more popular stories, it was really fun to read the ones I'd not heard of before.  These are very dark, but also oddly sweet stories.  Great fun!

Serial Killers: Six Bloody Fantasies Vol. 1 By: Ryan Becker

There is something refreshing to be said for a book that just lays it all out there.  While I'd read/heard about all 6 of these cases previously, it was kind of cool to have all the "artifice" stripped away and the facts laid bare.  No psychobabble, no in depth look into things we already know.  Becker calls it like it is: fucked up childhood, horrific abuse, lead these people to repeat the pattern on a grander scale-no let's have sympathy for the hand they were dealt.  They had horrific childhoods, they did horrific things and they are being punished for it!  Now of course, I may have been particularly in need of a no bs kind of read after the awful book I just finished plodding through, but I really enjoyed this one!

Timebends: A Life By: Arthur Miller

I have to say I was pretty mortified by how much I disliked this book.  I was excited to read it because I knew nothing about Arthur Miller except of the fact that he wrote my favorite pay and was married to Marilyn Monroe.  I figured an autobiography from such a great writer would be endlessly fascinating.  Instead, I found this book plodding, and incredibly boring.  I still no nothing about Arthur Miller!  I bounces around with no discernible pattern, there is little to know information about the author, but several mini-biographies about the people he came in contact with-most of whom I know about because I've read their autobiographies or biographies.  Very disappointing.

Use of Force By: Brad Thor

Picking up a Brad Thor thriller is like visiting old friends.  It may have been a while, but it's like no time has passed!  Use of Force is a pulse pounding story that moves around the globe and manages to keep multiple story lines clearly defined and easy to follow, and the ending is oh so satisfying!

To Brew or Not to Brew By: Joyce Tremel

While I really loved the brewing processes and the characters, I did figure out who did it, how and why.  I also figured out the heartfelt ending.