Reading for Me

The Books I Have Read…..Just for Me

Oct 28

What a Whirlwind (October 28, 2024)

by kennithfreeman

I should have learned by now. I really should be able to see the signs. As soon as I return from a brief vacation, I should know that the next week promises to be INSANE! Last week held up to that standard. I felt as though I was running from the second I got back to Texas and never got caught up. I’m the proverbial dog chasing my own tail at the moment.

No surprise then that my reading pace slowed once I got back to reality. It’s during this time of year that I find myself too tired at the end of the day to think about doing much reading. If I’m reading at the start of the day, it’s a sure sign that I woke earlier than planned and I’m hoping that the meditative action will help me grab a few more fleeting minutes of rest. Despite the hectic pace, I did manage to finish a book this week and (barely) started another one.

What I Finished This Week

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty. My latest novel told the story of a flight where everyone on board received disturbing predictions of their death — both the manner of their death and their age — from the strange Death Lady who may or may not be psychic. Dark premise, huh? I found that I enjoyed the exploration of the difference between fate and coincidence and man’s ability to determine his own destiny. While it is not my favorite book that I have read this year — that honor is still held by Kristin Hannah’s The Women — I did enjoy this read very much.

What I’m Currently Reading

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes (p. 24 of 369). I am participating in the Booklist Queen’s 2024 Reading Challenge (even though I will not complete all 52 prompts this year) and needed to read a book published in 2014. While perusing the selections made by other members of the group, I stumbled across this read by Moyes and thought this would be a good escape read for this final week before the Presidential election. I have enjoyed Moyes’ other novels and it sounds like a good way to escape reality for a little while.

As you can see, I am not very far into the novel at all. Here’s what I know at this point. Jess is a single mother who works for a cleaning service to make ends meet. Her daughter, Tanzie, has recently been recognized as extremely gifted in math. As a result, Tanzie has been offered a scholarship to attend a prestigious private school that has an exceptional math department. However, the scholarship only covers 90% of the tuition; if Tanzie’s dream is to become a reality, Jess will have to figure out how to cover the remaining tuition as well as registration fees, costs for uniforms and transportation and all of the other “incidental” expenses that might arise. Just two chapters into the book and I am already invested in the challenges of this family. Hopefully, I’ll have much more to tell you about this one next week.

Until next Monday evening….

Happy reading, y’all!

~Kennith

Book of the Month fiction thriller

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Oct 21

Fall Break is Over (October 21, 2024)

by kennithfreeman

Traveling is always good for my reading progress — well, at least the flights are good for reading. Once I get to my destination, I generally manage to just read the minimum each day to maintain my daily goal. That was definitely the situation when I got home for Fall Break. Here’s what I can tell you about my current read.

What I’m Currently Reading

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty (p. 313 of 495). An airline flight might not have been the best place to really dive into this novel. Here’s the basic premise. While on a very full flight, a woman gets up from the front row of the main cabin. She stops at each row, points at each person and morbidly predicts the year of their death and the cause. While some are relieved as they learn that they will live to old age to die of a heart attack, others are alarmed at the woman’s predictions. A thirty-something man celebrating his birthday is told he will die this year in a work place accident. A toddler’s mother is told the child will drown in his seventh year. A new bride traveling to her honeymoon in her wedding dress learns that she will die due to “intimate partner homicide.” The novel proceeds to follow the passengers who have been warned of their death and the mysterious woman who made the predictions. This novel is terrifying, troubling, and captivating at the same time. I can’t wait to keep reading to see what is going to happen next!

What’s Next on My TBR?

I think my next read will be Every Secret Thing by Rebecca Harrt. This is the second volume in the “Acts of Valor” series. I really enjoyed the first of these Christian thrillers and wanted to go back in for a second trip. It will be a fairly easy read after working through the Moriarty brick. Also, I’m looking forward to picking up my Kindle this time around.

So there you have it! Until next week, happy reading y’all!

~Kennith

fiction thriller

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Oct 14

Recruitment Season (October 14, 2024)

by kennithfreeman

Fresh back from my trip to Malibu, I hit the ground running with a lot of recruitment activities to begin finding a new class of incoming freshmen for next fall. Monday saw two college fairs that were quite good. Then my attention turned to recruiting current students to play in the Pep Band that will return in the Spring term. Needless to say, I’ve been a little busy and not getting to do as much practicing or reading as I would have hoped. Somehow, in the midst of all of that, I did manage to finish one novel and begin another.

What I Finished This Week

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors. The jury is still out on whether or not I enjoyed this book. I just finished it last night and I’m still trying to figure out my response. The final chapters and epilogue were actually pretty good and rather rewarding. The fact that I had to plow through so much bad storytelling to get to the fulfillment of the ending was frustrating. I was tempted several times to shelf the novel and invest my time in something more worthwhile. But I was consistently drawn back in by the hope that these characters would ultimately become redeemable. I finally decided it was okay to have hated the book. Don’t ask me what it was really about — I can’t really tell you in a single statement. Its dark themes and the family drama would normally be a really good fit for me. This novel was not…..

What I’m Currently Reading

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty (p. 32 of 495). Although I just started reading the book this afternoon over a turkey sandwich and a side of tomato basil soup, I can already tell that this is going to be a breath of fresh air after my horrible experience with Mellors’ nightmare. The writing is much more enjoyable and I am completely drawn in to the story. Here’s the opening concept — on a flight that has been delayed for several hours, now that the aircraft is finally in the air, a woman begins walking the aisle. As she goes along each row of seats, she points at passengers and declares how old they will be when they die and gives the cause of death. Is she a lunatic or a psychic? Should the knowledge of the manner and time of your death change the way you live? I’m fascinated to see how this story is going to progress and cannot wait to put my nose back in the pages of my book! It’s a bit of a brick, but with some more travel ahead this week and a real thirst for a good read, I think it will be a good fit for my reading life at the moment.

There you have it, folks! I’m going to dive back into Moriarty’s world for a bit longer before calling it a night. Happy reading until next week, y’all!

~Kennith

Book of the Month family saga thriller

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Oct 7

Back to Reality (October 7, 2024)

by kennithfreeman

As should be expected, I left a piece of my heart in Malibu. I didn’t want to come back to West Texas, but responsibility beckons.

Last weekend, I attended Waves Weekend at Pepperdine University. This year was targeting 1990s alumni (that’s me!) and there were lots of special faces that returned to the ‘Bu to reminisce and celebrate with us. Additionally, I was asked to coordinate an alumni coffeehouse to close out the weekend on Saturday evening. While most of the music wasn’t my typical rep, it was exactly how I stretched my wings as a collaborative pianist and music director while I was at Pepperdine, so it felt very natural to agree.

Were there challenges? Absolutely! Just lining up performers and rehearsals from Texas was a challenge in and of itself. But if I hadn’t had the responsibility of performing, I probably wouldn’t have made the trip back to California. There never seems to be a convenient time to leave work if I’m not performing or recruiting students. So I had to steal away from the reunions for a few hours to grade a few submissions, but nothing too daunting.

Am I glad I went? Absolutely! There is really nothing quite like spending time with cherished people who poured into my life during some formative years. Hugs with Hung, Bob, Stuart, LaJuana, Scott, and Kim lingered as I soaked in their love. Spending time with men and women who did life with me on campus for six years as friends, musicians, and fraternity brothers cannot be given a price. (Oh how I treasure the time I got to spend with Jessica, Andy, Amy, Jen, Alan, Ben, Tim, Natalie, Gina, and Brian Lee….as well as lots of others!) Sometimes I think I forget just how much I need to be in a safe space with people who know me best and love me most. These people are my family…and it felt as though we just picked up as though we were still roaming the halls of Pepperdine as we did 30 years ago. My heart is so full!

Besides traveling and seeing friends, I also managed to get some significant reading done. And that’s what we are here to talk about, right?

What I Finished This Week

Returning to Eden by Rebecca Hartt. For the flight, I decided that I wanted an ebook to read on my Kindle that I could easily come in and out of as the weekend went by. Hartt’s novel is the first in the Acts of Valor series and was listed as a Christian thriller. I was intrigued and pleasantly surprised. The story centers around Jonah, a navy SEAL who was taken captive when a mission went south. After a year of being gone, he is presumed dead and his wife and step-daughter have begun to move on with their lives. Then the call comes that changes everything — Jonah is alive, but he has no memory of his wife, his capture, or his imprisonment. Being treated for PTSD, Jonah has a very real sense that his life is still in danger. This gripping novel is a lovely story of transformation through Christ while keeping us on the edge of our seats as we follow the mystery to its chilling conclusion. If you like John Grisham and would like to have something with a Christian worldview, this might be the perfect novel to check out.

What I’m Currently Reading

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (p. 205 of 342). I started reading this novel last week and didn’t get very far. As I kept reading, I found myself struggling through the first 150 pages of the novel. Everything was so depressing as the remaining Blue sisters dealt with the death of Nicky. I am normally fine with dark themes, but these characters seemed irredeemable. I just didn’t like any of them. FINALLY, it appears that the three are going to come together to help each other with their various demons. It seems that the tone and tempo of the book has improved with everyone’s arrival in New York. The chapters are very long in order to maintain a single point of view, but I think the same thing could have been accomplished simply by providing big headings and breaking the chapters into smaller, digestible chunks. I’m ready to see how this one is going to end and hope that I will keep up the progress that I’ve made this weekend.

There you have it! Happy reading, y’all.

~Kennith

Book of the Month Christian ebook family saga fiction romance thriller

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Feb 21

#4: A Darkness More Than Night (Michael Connelly)

by kennithfreeman

It seems that I am constantly playing catch up in my blogging. February has not been a nice month. There was simply no time to read….much less write about my reading! I finished reading the 7th of the Harry Bosch novels back in the middle of January and I’m just getting to blogging about it over a month later. As you can see, I wasn’t terribly excited to write about this book.

A Darkness More Than Night is a bit of a departure from what we have come to expect from Connelly’s plots. Harry is testifying in a murder trial against a Hollywood powerhouse while he is also being investigated as a suspect in another case. The new police detectives introduced in this story are not as fully developed as the cast of characters we have grown to love in the series, making the novel feel shallow and ill conceived.

I have shared my feelings about this novel with others who have read the series and they shared my sentiments about the abruptness of the changes in the structure. However, they did encourage me to continue reading the series as they think that I will continue to enjoy the books. I don’t know that I will finish the series though. I began reading the books as part of the My Library Shelf project and Darkness was the last of Connelly’s books on my shelf. I have a good feel for his writing and his voice. I have enjoyed the books, but I think there are many other authors that I would rather explore rather than devoting so much time and energy to this single storyteller.

2023 Reading Challenge fiction My Library Shelf Series thriller

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Nov 29

#27: Angels Flight (Michael Connelly)

by kennithfreeman

November was not a kind month for my blogging, but I actually managed to get some reading done during the month. What was the problem on my end? There were a few things. I’ve fought a cold for most of the month that finally turned the corner and became a mild case of bronchitis. It’s also the season of voice competitions and various auditions that require video recordings for my singers. There have been job applications to complete. (Yes, I’m looking for a new place to land. Have a lead for an open position for a collaborative pianist and teacher? I’m all ears!) Just to add to the fun, my portable keyboard decided that the keys now need to stick which makes typing at home much more challenging than it should be. I could use the iMac, but I’ve gotten spoiled by writing from the comfort of my recliner and sharing my thoughts with you, dear readers. Alas, this blog is not designed to tell you about the challenges in my personal life…..so let’s get back to the books.

Early in November, I read Michael Connelly’s Angels Flight, another of the Harry Bosch novels that I have been reading as part of My Library Shelf challenge. In this book, Harry finds himself called to investigate a mysterious hit outside of his normal jurisdiction. Why? Because the victim was a prominent lawyer who was in the process of bringing a case against the LAPD for corruption and racial bias. This novel finds Harry facing off with some old foes while trying to maintain relationships that he has built. Of all of the Harry Bosch novels that I have read thus far, this was by far the most enjoyable. Angels Flight captivated me not only with its intense plot, but Connelly’s excellent character development as well. While I wouldn’t recommend reading this one as a stand alone because the relationships that have been built in previous novels are all important to the story, this definitely suggests that Connelly has found his best voice and that the following installments in the Bosch series will continue to benefit as a result.

fiction My Library Shelf Series thriller

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Nov 19

#26: 22 Seconds (James Patterson)

by kennithfreeman

Once again, I have failed to keep up with my blogging on this site. Part of the problem is that I am more interested in reading than writing at the moment. The other issue is that my keyboard has become sticky and typing is very slow. I end up getting frustrated instead of feeling productive and just skip the writing process. Hopefully, the keyboard situation will correct itself in the weeks ahead.

22 Seconds is the latest installment in Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series. The story is predictable, yet entertaining. Lindsey finds herself in danger when she and Joe are on the trail of gun runners. The book was a quick read and just what I needed during a really stressful time at work.

fiction Series thriller

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Oct 28

#25: The Innocent (David Baldacci)

by kennithfreeman

As things got more hectic in the office, I realized that my reading needed to become more relaxing and less intellectual. So I looked for thrillers and beach reads. I realized that I had picked up this Baldacci paperback in the bookstore earlier this year, but had never gotten around to reading it.

The Innocent is an introduction to Will Robie, a hired gun with a conscience. When an assassination goes bad, Robie finds himself as an outcast in his own organization. In his attempt to get to safety, he becomes linked with a runaway foster child. The unlikely pair partner up when they learn that both of their lives are in danger. Is this a coincidence? Or is there a larger plan at work? Is this about Will or the young girl that dropped into his life? Will they find out in time?

In normal Baldacci fashion, The Innocent was a fast-paced read that kept me coming back for more. There were constant plot twists and plenty of excitement to keep the reader’s pulse pounding. While exciting, the story was not challenging to follow….and that was exactly what I needed at this point in my life.

What am I reading now? I’m sticking with the light reading and returning to James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series. 22 Seconds is not disappointing at all either!

fiction thriller

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May 4

#10: The Last Coyote (Michael Connelly)

by kennithfreeman

With the end of the semester, I found myself ready to dive back into some reading to kick the summer off in the right way. I decided that it was time to return to the world of Harry Bosch and see what was happening with my new favorite detective. Unfortunately, this installment in the Bosch series was challenging for me to read….but I’m not entirely certain why.

The story should have been enthralling to me. Bosch finds himself on administrative leave from the LAPD and takes a look at the archived murder book that contains the details of his mother’s unsolved murder many years ago. Clearly, Bosch is invested in seeing this case closed and is willing to go to any extreme necessary to find out the truth of what really happened. What I did not find as enjoyable was the exploration of Bosch’s inner struggle and the mandated visits to the psychologist to return to the police force. While those are typically themes that would be very interesting to me, in this case, I found them distracting from the case at hand.

The other BIG problem with this reading experience was hard to overlook. The Unger Library did not have a stand-alone copy of The Last Coyote. Instead, I read the novel from a large collection of the Bosch novels. It was impossible to find a way to hold the book at just the right angle without feeling as though I was putting undue pressure on my hands and wrists. Why do publishers think these massive volumes are good ideas for readers? My reading pace slowed significantly simply because I could not hold the book for long stretches of time. I think the physical discomfort put me in a bad mindset that carried over into my reading experience. Yes, I’m sure I could have found a copy of the e-book. I simply don’t enjoy reading on a digital device. Since I spend the majority of my work day with my iPad as an extension of my hand, I don’t find it relaxing to continue using it when I am trying to move into pleasure reading. I will occasionally read an e-book on the device, but it is typically something that I don’t want to admit that I’m reading or something that I don’t really care how long it takes me to work through.

Because of the extreme weight that accompanied The Last Coyote, I next reading adventures are in audio and paperback formats. I’m finding both of them enriching and a joy to read again. I may just have to pick up the digital version of the next Bosch novel to avoid spending any more time with this ENORMOUS book.

fiction My Library Shelf mystery thriller

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Apr 18

Reading Update: Books 7-9

by kennithfreeman

I have been very negligent in updating you on the books that I have been reading. The end of March and the first half of April was a busy time, but I managed to make my way through three novels. Here’s a quick update on what I’ve read and enjoyed.

#7: The Four Winds (Kristin Hannah)

I received this novel through the Book of the Month Club and it has been one of my favorite novels of the year so far. I cannot give it high enough praise! The story starts in rural west Texas (where I’m living these days) and progresses to the cotton fields of southern California in the height of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. In many ways, I think of it as a modern retelling of The Grapes of Wrath with female protagonists. Excellent novel that I did not want to put down!

#8: In Too Deep (Mary Connealy)

As the semester was winding down, I wanted to devote a few weeks of my reading to making more progress through My Library Shelf Project. This novel is the second volume of The Kincaid Brides series, a Christian romance series set in the wild west of Colorado. I found this volume much more entertaining than the first and did not feel as though it was quite as formulaic in its structure. I have one more book in the series on my shelf to read, so I’m hoping the writing continues to follow the upward trend. If you are looking for a quaint romance without the sultry sexiness on every page, this just might be the perfect book for you.

#9: The Concrete Blonde (Michael Connelly)

This is one of the hidden gems I have discovered on My Library Shelf. I am officially a fan of the Harry Bosch crime novels. This novel centers around the civil case resulting from Bosch’s killing of an unarmed suspect as he reached for his toupee hidden beneath his pillow. The event was alluded to in the earlier novels, so I was very happy to see the issue dealt with in greater detail and explained more fully in this novel. I began reading this novel just before bedtime and decided it was not a good nighttime choice. The story was too engaging and I simply did not want to wait to find out what happened next. I tore through this novel in just a few days and plan to pick up the next in the series tomorrow from the local library.

historical My Library Shelf romance thriller update

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