Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid #AudiobookReview #FictionSagas

Goodreads Choice Award – Winner for Readers’ Favorite Historiacal Fiction (2025), Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Audiobook (2025)

Book Blurb:

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK From the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, Good Housekeeping, Them, Marie Claire, Book Riot, Library Journal, Chicago Public Library, She Reads

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.

My Review:

Well, phooey. Not what I expected. But it says right up top that it’s a love story. Obviously, not one of my favorite genres.

I really enjoyed Daisy Jones and The Six, and somehow expected that same level of realism in the space industry turned fiction for the consumption of the masses.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid — Atmosphere – US cover

Joan Goodwin has always been fascinated with the stars and space, and though she is a successful professor at Rice University is immediately consumed with the desire to become an astronaut when she reads an advertisement looking for women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program.

Despite all the odds, she and a select few other women complete the training and are now vying for the upcoming scheduled missions with the few men also selected. These are the elite of the elite: scientists, engineers, and military combat pilots.

The storyline, which is told in a split timeline, details Joan’s story, her family, and her academic achievements. She is singularly devoted to her little niece, Frances, with whom she’s at times at odds with her sister, Barbara. Lots of support characters, mostly lightly developed, who run the gamut from the light-hearted to the back-stabbing Lydia.

I enjoyed some of the discussions regarding the stars, their positions, and history. Somewhere in the middle, however, the storyline veered away from the original mission and strongly into the love story. Once started as an ode to the stars, now drowning in emotional philosophical discussions.

I felt like I was promised an explosive, cutting-edge women in space piece with a double-edged sword. Also, the ending was too predictable. Too much personal development; too little in the aerospace industry. (I think it’s a 3-star effort, but I’m adding a half-star for the subplot with her sister. A well-written antagonist—kept me listening.)

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Fiction Sagas, Family Saga Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0DKZMG16C
Listening Length: 9 hrs 52 mins
Narrators: Kristen DiMercurio, Julia Whelan, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Taylor Jenkins Reid is the New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, as well as One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do, and Forever, Interrupted. Her newest novel, Malibu Rising, is out now. She lives in Los Angeles.

You can follow her on Instagram @tjenkinsreid.

Tis the Season!

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

#1 Best Seller in East South Central US Travel books in Kindle

Book Blurb:

The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America – majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaing guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way – and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).

My Review:

Well, phooey. Yes, I’m aware the Appalachian Trail, known affectionately by those who really, seriously hike, “the AT” is over 2,100 miles long and stretches from Georgia to Maine. I used to love hiking. And camping. The first time we got stuck at the top of a Sierra mountain in a driving rain storm that dropped the temperature ten degrees and started gravel sliding down the side of the mountain though, we scrambled down to the hot springs below and gratefully shivered into the warm, toasty water. So, no, I’m more of a short trail hiker, more level than climbing, please. Well, more of a trail walker and home when the weather turns nasty.

But I have researched the AT, thinking there must be a drop in, drop off site that we could take advantage of. Those are as few and far between as services. When you’re out on this trail, it’s you against the elements, some of which can be brutal. “The Appalachian Trail is the longest hiking only footpath in the world.” Started in 1921, it wasn’t completed until 1937. Makes it sound like a real trail, huh. According to Bryson, it’s not.

Still, I was attracted to this book, thought if I couldn’t hike it, perhaps enjoy some of it vicariously.

Or maybe not.

I really enjoyed the first part of the book, perhaps as far as the loss of hiking buddy Katz, with whom he’d had a fleeting experience before but was that desperate to have someone to hike with, and accepted his invitation. For some reason, the whole timbre of the book changed after Katz left. In the meantime, they’d hiked through downpours, freezing temps, snow, wind, and even the loss of the trail itself…discovering it again as they stumbled along.

While Bryson spent major bucks on equipment, thoughtful food additions, and appropriate clothing, it would seem that Katz thought he’d live on jerky and chips, at one point even tossing his water bottle. Usually, they roughed it, pitching their tents on a flat portion of land to sleep.

Bryson speaks with contempt his efforts to drag Katz along and at one point even loses him and wonders if he’d be able to complete the journey by himself to the next possible town or trail shelter.

Yes, their initial confrontations with the actual hike were humorous, pocked with sardonic comments re his hiking partner and the distance covered per day or the sights and conditions encountered. Two comically unprepared for the actual conditions of the trail.

During that initial portion of the book, there were interesting tidbits about the trail, different stories, people and animals they encountered, and trail communities that provided anecdotes and history.

Then, the “story” settles into a travelogue and the storyline fails to revive the initial excitement as well as much of the sense of humor.

It’s a fun and informative book describing the trail a little rougher than I’d expected a real trail to be that took sixteen years to complete. The switch in the tone of the book also changed a great book to a good one and I still love the idea of the trail, whether or not I’ll ever get to that drop in point or not.

The World’s Funniest Travel Writer Takes a Hike (Bryson Book 8) (UK)

The Appalachian Trail covers 14 states and over 2,000 miles, snaking through some of the most spectacular landscapes in America. Reluctant adventurer Bryson recounts his gruelling hike along the longest continuous footpath in the world.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Travel Writing & Commentary, Travelogues & Travel Essays, North America Travel & Tourism
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B009GBVCAG
Listening Length: 9 hrs 44 mins
Narrator: Rob McQuay
Publication Date: September 25, 2012
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links: Amazon-US – Amazon-UK

The Author: Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. Settled in England for many years, he moved to America with his wife and four children for a few years ,but has since returned to live in the UK. His bestselling travel books include The Lost Continent, Notes From a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods and Down Under. His acclaimed work of popular science, A Short History of Nearly Everything, won the Aventis Prize and the Descartes Prize, and was the biggest selling non-fiction book of the decade in the UK.

Open Season: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman #AudiobookReview #PoliceProceduralMysteries

Book Blurb:

The most beloved and enduring duo in American crime fiction is back.

People come to Los Angeles to chase their dreams. Sometimes they find themselves cast into a nightmare. And sometimes, the most ardent dreamers turn out to be the most vicious monsters.

The body of an aspiring actress is found dumped near a hospital emergency room. She’s been drugged and murdered and the motive for the callous crime remains maddeningly out of reach. Until, a prime suspect materializes. Another Hollywood hopeful. Only to be shot dead by a sniper using a weapon that turns out to have been catalogued in a previous murder. And another, before that. It’s not long before more bodies begin piling up.

What makes the murderous spree baffling is the apparent lack of connection among the victims. Is this the work of a random thrill killer, the toughest of all cases to unravel?

But as Alex and Milo dig deeper they’re faced with an even knottier scenario: a highly complex killer with deep-seated motivation that will require all of their highly honed skills to decipher.

The latest thriller from #1 New York Times bestseller Jonathan Kellerman, is a tale of psychological complexity, dark suspense, and shocking surprises. A wild ride through L.A.’s surreal underbelly climaxed by an edge-of-the chair conclusion.

My Review:

It’s been a couple years since my last Alex Delaware book, The Ghost Orchid, as my last two reads by this author have included his son Jesse as co-author in the Clay Edison series. I was a little disappointed in the last Clay Edison, A Measure of Darkness, while I loved my last Alex Delaware book.

The Alex Delaware series always has three main characters: Alex, Milo, and the City of Los Angeles. Goodness, if anyone can make LA sound exciting, adventurous, and exotic, Kellerman can. His descriptions of the people and environs are atmospheric and always create a setting full of anticipation.

In this installment, they are involved in the murder and dumping of a young, aspiring actress. But of course that would only be the tip of the iceberg and soon there will be more bodies, both victim and perp.

Alex, as a main character, has been grandfathered in as a “volunteer” in the department (the series is that old), a partner to Milo, an official LA detective.

I don’t know if it was the narrator or the writing, but there has always been the sense that Alex is the intelligent one, though then the question would be how Milo made it this far. But he did seem more a ding-a-ling this time. Still, he is the one with the resources of the department while Alex provides cerebral input. Together, they are effective.

I’m still not sure where it went wrong for me this time. Yes, an audiobook; yes, I’m multi-tasking while listening; yes, there’s been another 90-degree flip in the storyline and now where am I? New characters, new case. Related? I guess so. Somehow, it became a bit of a blur for me, and there were short spaces of time I tuned out. Not good for an audiobook!

So, yeah, a little disappointed in Book 40 but looking forward to Book 41.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Police Procedural Mysteries, Crime Thrillers
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0D5Z2L5B6
Listening Length: 9 hrs 10 mins
Narrator: John Rubinstein
Publication Date: February 4, 2025
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links:

Amazon-US

Amazon-UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

The Author: Jonathan Kellerman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than three dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer’s Daughter. With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. With his son, bestselling novelist Jesse Kellerman, he co-authored The Golem of Hollywood and The Golem of Paris. He is also the author of two children’s books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California, New Mexico, and New York.

Graphic - It's so hard to choose!

Audition: A Memoir by Barbara Walters #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Young people starting out in television sometimes say to me:
“I want to be you.” My stock reply is always: “Then you have to take the whole package.”

Book Blurb:

And now, at last, the most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us that “whole package,” in her inspiring and riveting memoir. After more than forty years of interviewing heads of state, world leaders, movie stars, criminals, murderers, inspirational figures, and celebrities of all kinds, Barbara Walters has turned her gift for examination onto herself to reveal the forces that shaped her extraordinary life.

Barbara Walters’s perception of the world was formed at a very early age. Her father, Lou Walters, was the owner and creative mind behind the legendary Latin Quarter nightclub, and it was his risk-taking lifestyle that made Barbara aware of the ups and downs that can occur when someone is willing to take great risks.

The financial responsibility for her family, the fear, the love all played a large part in the choices she made as she grew up: the friendships she developed, the relationships she had, the marriages she tried to make work. Ultimately, thanks to her drive, combined with a decent amount of luck, she began a career in television. And what a career it has been! Against great odds, Barbara has made it to the top of a male-dominated industry.

She has spent a lifetime auditioning, and this book, in some ways, is her final audition, as she fully opens up both her private and public lives. In doing so, she has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating.

My Review:

It’s always fun to get the down low on our celebrities. I always wonder how they got their start. Born with a silver spoon or gagging on mush for the twentieth day? In this case, she appears to have experienced a bit of both.

First, I marveled that as a girl of her generation, she was given the opportunity for college when most women were not expected to have more than a high school education if that. That generation would not waste an education on someone whose role was expected to be a wife and mother.

There certainly was a drive in her, however, in that her father worked heavily in the entertainment business. Lou Walters, who managed during tough financial times in the US, created the sensational Latin Quarter Nightclub in New York. Originally from London, his nightclub was a sensational hit. And then it wasn’t. Feast or famine. And insecurity.

But, yes, as with any who finally makes it to the top, there was a combination of luck, timing, and hard, hard work—willing to take on anything. And back then, a woman in that industry was expected to do little more than fetch coffee.

In her sixty-five years in the industry, as a journalist, she interviewed anyone and everyone. The famous and infamous. Newsworthy. News reporter, co-anchor, and anchor. Television personality, appearing and/or creating topical talk shows. I must admit that I didn’t watch The View, but did enjoy 20/20 and her interviews.

At almost twenty-seven hours of an audiobook, translating to more than 628 Kindle or print pages, you can imagine she didn’t leave anyone out of her book. Less you believe I didn’t pound through all that, I’ll admit there were more than a few dry areas, then jerking back into someone of interest. Enough that there would be someone of interest to a wide range audience.

Her love life, affairs, and marriages? Gees, Barbara, TMI.

Still, there were a number of quotables and I found it fascinating that she vacillated so much over decisions. Indeed, one of my favorites:

“On my gravestone I want inscribed maybe, on the other hand, I should have lived.”

Obviously, something may have made the decision for her. She passed away in 2022.

She may possibly have reduced this book by half if she had not expanded on the story of most everyone she cited. Granted, they were all notable, maybe some more than others. Somehow, though, this reader hung in there for every new celebrity by speeding up the audiobook pace or I’d still be listening to it.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Biographies of Journalists, Editors & Publishers, Journalist Biographies, Biographies of Women
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B001M5G75Y
Listening Length: 26 hrs 46 mins
Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
Publication Date: November 24, 2008
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK

Barbara Walters - author - photo by Lynn Gilbert — Barbara Walters, photo by Lynn Gilbert, courtesy Wikipedia

The Author: Barbara Walters of American television reported news from 1961 for the National Broadcasting Company, and afterward in 1976 joined as the first woman to anchor the nightly network to 1979.

Barbara Jill Walters wrote as a journalist and media personality as a regular fixture on morning shows like The View. People knew Walters for more than a decade in the morning on Today, where she with Hugh Downs later hosted Frank McGee and Jim Hartz. Walters later spent a quarter-century as co-host of 20/20, an evening magazine. She stood with Harry Reasoner on The American Broadcasting Company Evening News. [Wikipedia]

[Wikipedia has an extensive bio on Ms Walters from personal to professional life, well worth checking out. She accomplished more in her ninety-three years than most can imagine and is truly inspirational in breaking records and opening doors for women.]

©V Williams

#ThrowbackThursday

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From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough #AudiobookReview #GriefandLoss

in Grief & Loss

Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Audiobook-2024 Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Memoir-2024

Book Blurb:

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough.

A PEOPLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir.

A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and now grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran toward his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.

My Review:

Once again, confirmation that fame and fortune can be tragic. I do appreciate that we had Riley’s voice of calm reason and reflection to add to the tale and, of course, Julia Roberts (yes, Julia Roberts) narrates Lisa Marie’s portion of the audiobook. There were intermittent bursts of taped narrative by Lisa Marie as she attempted to recall and write her memoir. Unfortunately, for the most part, I was unable to understand them.

Of course Lisa Marie was Priscilla’s daughter and the only Elvis offspring. I greatly enjoyed the memories of her early childhood, stories of Graceland. But Lisa Marie had little adult supervision and is allowed free rein and she uses it in her teens to begin experimentation with booze and drugs.

As an adult, Lisa Marie finds love; Danny Keough (Riley’s father), compulsiveness, and a wide range of men from Michael Jackson to Nicholas Cage. (Riley, btw, is now the sole trustee of Graceland. Riley played a credible Daisy Jones in Daisy Jones and the Six in 2023.)

Yes, there is a lot of name dropping, they certainly ran in the inner circles which only confounded Lisa Marie’s place in life even more—was she merely a shadow of her father carrying his name? Her memories of him were loving and impactful, his early death a blow from which she only gradually lived with, but not well.

Priscilla Presley is painted as a stern, hands-off mother and figures in the book probably about the same way she did in Lisa Marie’s life—almost as a footnote. Riley does a good job using her mother’s tapes and memories to fill in the blanks and does so with a loving perspective. While her mother became deeply flawed and she lost her brother largely as a result, she struggles to tell their stories truthfully. She believes this is the way it was. A fine tribute to her mother as she completed the memoir her mother left upon her death in January of 2023.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts. It’s sad, tragic, and a grim epitaph.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Grief & Loss, Grief & Bereavement, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0CRSDK1Q8
Listening Length: 5 hrs 42 mins
Narrator: Riley Keough, Julia Roberts
Publication Date: October 8, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Authors:

Lisa-Marie Presley

Lisa Marie Presley was a singer and songwriter who was born in Memphis and raised at Graceland as the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She released three studio albums throughout her music career—To Whom It May Concern, Now What, and Storm & Grace, the first of which was certified gold. Lisa Marie passed away in January 2023.

Riley Keough

Riley Keough is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award–nominated actress. She is known for her work in Daisy Jones & the Six, Zola, and more. She also co-directed War Pony (2022), which won the Caméra d’Or for best first feature at Cannes, and cofounded the production company Felix Culpa with Gina Gammell. She is the eldest daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and sole trustee of Graceland.

The Narrator:

Julia Roberts

“I was so moved by Lisa Marie’s incredible memoir,” Roberts tells PEOPLE, in an exclusive statement. “It was a real privilege to give voice to her wild and beautiful life and I deeply appreciate Riley entrusting me with her mother’s story.”

Dogs reading cell phone

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Half Moon Bay: A Novel by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Clay Edison #3

Book Blurb:

Clay Edison has his hands full. He’s got a new baby who won’t sleep. He’s working the graveyard shift. And he’s trying, for once, to mind his own business. Then comes the first call. Workers demolishing a local park have made a haunting discovery: the decades-old skeleton of a child. But whose? And how did it get there?

No sooner has Clay begun to investigate than he receives a second call – this one from a local businessman, wondering if the body could belong to his sister. She went missing 50 years ago, the man says. Or at least I think she did. It’s a little complicated.

And things only get stranger from there. Clay’s relentless search for answers will unearth a history of violence and secrets, revolution and betrayal. Because in this town, the past isn’t dead. It’s very much alive. And it can be murderous.

My Review:

I really like the way the authors suffuse the professional with the personal. So many times, we see a technician going about their business and wonder what their home life looks like: six kids, a spouse equally harried, and a mortgage whose interest rates keep climbing?

In this case, Clay Edison is a new papa. The baby, as most, doesn’t sleep. Clay is working the graveyard shift so his wife can be home and she works days. It should work—doesn’t always.

Unfortunately, his call out is to the discovery of a very old skeleton—that of a small child. Whose? And how did it come to be buried in a park?

Clay might be the personification of a new dad, his baby girl Charlotte has a lot to teach him. The stark difference between his anxious self and his professional self is often laid bare by his self-talk, his first person POV.

The development of the characters in this series has been fun, and each new installment has brought growth and get-to-know-you sessions. I like Clay. He’s smart, dominating, and a strong personage around his peers, though he can be soft and sympathetic with the loved ones he must deal with in his professional capacity.

It doesn’t help that the park and the site of the skeleton is located in Berkeley, always a hotbed of political turmoil and protests. He may have a major development in the phone call from a man claiming that it may be his sister…but he can only supply a minimal amount of background to interest Clay further into the investigation.

The storyline wavers a bit with a couple of small branches off the main plot, but then I wouldn’t expect this would be Clay’s only case. It might create a slight lull in the pacing of the main plot, but there is always another tiny clue.

I’m not sure it would be classified as a slow-burn story as there is usually a lot going on and the characters, including Clay’s wife, Amy, supply a lot of lively dialogue. (I still haven’t warmed up to Amy though.) Of course, the flashbacks to the 60’s and 70’s drew me in. There are twists, divulged secrets, and evil doers as these things are never just simple straight forward…who is the skeleton.

Personally, I really enjoyed the novel and this series, one to go (Book 2), and just got it. I’ll recommend again. If you haven’t checked out this series yet and you found Alex Delaware a bit stodgy at times, you might find the collaboration between this father and son might be just what you were looking for.

I received a copy of this audiobook from my local library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Thrillers, Suspense, Mysteries
Publisher: Random House Audio
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
ASIN: B0863359SD
Listening Length: 9 hrs 35 mins
Publication Date: July 21, 2020
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Authors:

Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than three dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer’s Daughter. With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. With his son, bestselling novelist Jesse Kellerman, he co-authored The Golem of Hollywood and The Golem of Paris. He is also the author of two children’s books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California, New Mexico, and New York.

Read more at:
http://www.jonathankellerman.com/

Jesse Kellerman

Jesse Kellerman has written dozens of plays and published seven novels, two of them cowritten with his father, Jonathan Kellerman. He has won numerous awards, including the Princess Grace Award for Playwriting (“Things Beyond Our Control”) and the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle (“The Genius”/”Les Visages”). His novel “Potboiler” was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. An essay, “Let My People Go to the Buffet,” was included in Penguin’s Best American Spiritual Writing (2011). His next book, Crime Scene, was also cowritten with Jonathan Kellerman and will be published in fall 2017. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and children.

The Narrator:

Dennis Boutsikaris

Dennis Boutsikaris was born December 21, 1952 in Newark, New Jersey, to a Greek American father and Jewish mother,^[1] and grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.^[2] He took up acting while a student at Governor Livingston High School, because he felt he was too small to succeed in athletics.^[3] A graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Boutsikaris toured the country with John Houseman’s The Acting Company doing classical theatre. Boutsikaris was married to actress Deborah Hedwall; they divorced in 2002.

He can be heard in over 160 audiobooks and has received eight Audie Awards and two Best Voices of the Year Awards from AudioFile Magazine.^[14] He was voted Best Narrator of the Year by Amazon for The Gene.

Find him at:
http://www.dennisboutsikaris.com *

*Thanks to Wikipedia for this info.

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The Burning and The Lost Coast by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Clay Edison – Books 4 and 5

The Burning

Book Blurb:

Things get personal for Deputy Coroner Clay Edison when a murder hits close to home in this riveting, emotional thriller from the best-selling father-son team that writes “brilliant, page-turning fiction” (Stephen King).

A raging wildfire. A massive blackout. A wealthy man shot to death in his palatial hilltop home.

For Clay Edison, it’s all in a day’s work. As a deputy coroner, caring for the dead, he speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. He prides himself on an unflinching commitment to the truth. Even when it gets him into trouble.

Then, while working the murder scene, Clay is horrified to discover a link to his brother, Luke. Horrified. But not surprised. Luke is fresh out of prison and struggling to stay on the straight and narrow.

And now he’s gone AWOL.

The race is on for Clay to find him before anyone else can. Confronted with Luke’s legacy of violence, Clay is forced to reckon with his own suspicions, resentments, and loyalties. Is his brother a killer? Or could he be the victim in all of this, too?

This is Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman at their most affecting and pause-resisting – a harrowing collision of family, revenge, and murder.

My Review:

It’s a story that hits too close to home for Clay Edison, Deputy of the County Coroner’s Office. He is sent to the home of a dead man but is jolted when he spots his brother’s car in the garage. It’s not like he can point that out without severe repercussions for his brother as he is not that long out of prison. With his brother’s track record, he is torn between wanting to believe he had nothing to do with the deceased, but…

In the meantime, he needs to talk to Luke and that’s the rub. Luke is not answering his phone and his wife is not exactly coming forth with the why or how of him going missing.

I like the character of Clay and we get to learn about him in this installment, as well as peek into his fatherhood role. He continues to push the boundaries of his job description and in this installment is well over propriety. There are also some strong, well developed support characters, but I’m not a huge fan of his wife, Amy.

I actually started this series with Book 1, Crime Scene. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, how very unusual! True. I was a solid fan of Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels, so I did have some experience with Jonathan and Book 1 definitely hooked me, not only with the premise of the protagonist coming from a different angle into the investigation, but also totally loved the narrator, Dennis Boutsikaris. His delivery is extremely dynamic providing realistic dialogue between characters. So yeah, as mentioned in my review of Crime Scene, I got on the wait list for Books 2, 3, 4, and 5. Well, these popped up first. (At this point, don’t you know I’m compelled to complete the entire series.)

There are some twists and I do enjoy the authors writing style. Their collaboration produces an interesting plot, if not entirely unique, lively and well paced.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Thrillers, Suspense, Mysteries
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0977QL7GY
Listening Length: 7 hrs 30 mins
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
Publication Date: September 21, 2021
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Burning – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Lost Coast

Book Blurb:

Cut loose from his former life at the coroner’s office, Clay Edison has set up shop as a private investigator. It’s steady, safe work. Until it isn’t.

The trouble begins when a young man, tasked with managing his grandmother’s estate, hires Clay to examine some minor financial discrepancies. What starts off as a case of simple fraud rapidly explodes into a web of deception, an elaborate con game stretching back decades and involving countless victims.

All the evidence points to a tiny town on California’s rugged, remote Lost Coast. Good luck getting there, though. And Clay’s reward for surviving the journey is a trigger-happy welcoming committee, ready to guard their secrets with lethal force.

Navigating this landscape of savage waves and savage lies brings Clay into collision with a host of other players: a grieving mother, an enigmatic teenager, a reclusive military veteran, a foul-mouthed PI pursuing her own agenda. And the price of truth will turn out to be higher—and deadlier—than Clay could have imagined.

From the minds of Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman comes a heart-stopping tale of deception and redemption—bursting with action, suspense, and unforgettable characters.

My Review:

Ugh! I hate it when the main character totally changes everything, well, almost, as somewhere between Books 4 and 5, Clay Edison goes from being a County Coroner to a PI. Wha??? I signed up because I thought he was going to do forensics stuff. Nope, now he is the guy with a license (not badges). And as if he ever did, no longer worries about rules or laws.

Eager to take on new cases, he is looking into what might be a real estate fraud for a client. There are some intriguing unanswered questions, and failing to get enough info online or research decides he must drive to Swan’s Landing. The little town is remotely located on the Lost Coast of California, barely accessible on the roughest of roads and goat trails or by boat. Few inhabitants or services are available and the simple real estate fraud case begins to split into a suspenseful sub-plot.

The Kellermans take their time building the plot amid a masterfully painted description of the desolation and wild mountains on the rugged northern coast of California. (And I might add—as wild and beautiful as it is remote.) Equally well developed are the local inhabitants, unique, each viewing Edison as an outsider.

The storyline is finely paced, allowing the reader to savor the building tension with the discovery of each new piece of information. While my heart sank just a bit in the denouement, all loose threads were creatively woven into place.

It’s the fifth in the series, not sure there’ll be a sixth, although if there is, I’ll be there to sign up. In the meantime, look for future reviews of Books 2 and 3 when I get them. Book 5 might well be read as a standalone—he switched jobs—but not personality and there is a few backstories filling in blanks. Still, you might wish to read Clay Edison the coroner as well as Edison the PI just to get a flavor of the change in depth of the storyline.

I downloaded a copy of these audiobooks from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Private Investigator Mysteries, Crime Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0CN3RYNZ3
Listening Length: 8 hrs 19 mins
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
Publication Date: August 6, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Lost Coast – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Authors:

Jonathan Kellerman

Read more at:
http://www.jonathankellerman.com/

Jesse Kellerman

The Narrator:

Dennis Boutsikaris

Dennis Boutsikaris was born December 21, 1952 in Newark, New Jersey, to a Greek American father and Jewish mother,^[1] and grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.^[2] He took up acting while a student at Governor Livingston High School, because he felt he was too small to succeed in athletics.^[3] A graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Boutsikaris toured the country with John Houseman’s The Acting Company doing classical theatre. Boutsikaris was married to actress Deborah Hedwall; they divorced in 2002.

Find him at:
http://www.dennisboutsikaris.com *

*Thanks to Wikipedia for this info.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty #AudiobookReview #FamilyLifeFiction

Amazon Charts #1 this week

Book Blurb:

Life is full of twists and turns you never see coming. But what if you did?

The plane is jam-packed. Every seat is taken. So of course the flight is delayed! Flight attendant Allegra Patel likes her job—she’s generally happy with her life, even if she can’t figure out why she hooks up with a man she barely speaks to—but today is her twenty-eighth birthday. She can think of plenty of things she’d rather be doing than placating a bunch of grumpy passengers.

There’s the well-dressed man in seat 4C who is compulsively checking his watch, desperate not to miss his eleven-year-old daughter’s musical. Further back, a mother of two is frantically trying to keep her toddler entertained and her infant son quiet. How did she ever think being a stay-at-home mom would be easier than being a lawyer? Ethan is lost in thought; he’s flying back from his first funeral. A young couple has just gotten married; she’s still wearing her wedding dress. An emergency room nurse is looking forward to traveling the world once she retires in a few years, it’s going to be so much fun! If they ever get off the tarmac. . . .

Suddenly a woman none of them know stands up. She makes predictions about how and when everyone on board will die. Some dismiss her. Others will do everything they can to make sure her prophecies do not come to pass. All of them will be forever changed.

How would you live your life if you thought you knew how it would end? Would you love who you love or try to love someone else? Would you stay married? Would you stop drinking? Would you call up your ex-best friend you haven’t spoken to in years? Would you quit your job?

Intricately plotted, with the wonderful wit Liane Moriarty has become famous for, Here One Moment brilliantly looks at friends, lovers, and family and how we manage to hold onto them in our harried modern lives.

My Review:

Cherry is a fascinating character, no denying that. She has a history that is woven in and out of the story as we begin to know those deeply affected by her predictions on the plane and how they confront the information.

The rich character development engrains an investment in them and morbid curiosity in how they will confront and possibly work the knowledge advantageously. Can you change fate? Or is this fate written in stone by an old woman who then has no memory of her delivery of the edicts?

It comes down to: How seriously would you, in that situation, take the prediction? What if other predictions began manifesting true?

Well, you can’t say it isn’t thought-provoking, a psychological challenge to delve into that reverberates after the novel is finished—quite handily—I might add. It’s an oddly satisfying conclusion, albeit leaving a few unanswered questions, challenges.

There is a complex storyline, lots of characters. Moments of humor, emotions first jerked one way and then the other. The narrators were super.

This is one I’d recommend purely for the unique premise in a psychological thriller, one that grips quickly and doesn’t sag midway through. It is well-plotted and paced throughout to denouement. I read this author the first time in 2021 with Apples Never Fall, slow burn and thoughtful. Thinking I’ll watch for this author again.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Family Life Fiction, Women’s Domestic Life Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0CVSJJLW4
Listening Length: 15 hrs 53 mins
Narrator: Caroline Lee, Geraldine Hakewill
Publication Date: September 10, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Here One Moment – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of nine internationally best-selling novels: Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist’s Love Story, Nine Perfect Strangers and the number one New York Times bestsellers: The Husband’s Secret, Big Little Lies, Truly Madly Guilty and Apples Never Fall. Her books have been translated into over forty languages and sold more than 20 million copies.

Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers and Apples Never Fall were adapted into popular television series with the star-studded casts including Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Melissa McCarthy and Annette Bening.

Her new novel, Here One Moment will be released in 2024.

Liane lives in Sydney, Australia, together with her husband, son and daughter.

Happy Autumn Sunday!