My November Book Reads

My reading month found a couple of good crime novels and a couple of good non-mysteries. I also read a sports autobiography by Reggie Jackson since baseball season is barely over and I'm ready for spring training to start. I hope your month was a rewarding one with reading the written word.

MYSTERIES

The Black Box by Michael Connelly. I breezed through this almost 400-page Harry Bosch cop novel. Great storyline that has Harry working on a 20-year old cold case. There is a warm-hearted sub-plot with his family life including his teenaged daughter Maddie and girlfriend Hannah. I'm not a big fan of long books, but I'm a big Michael Connelly fan, so I took the plunge. The narrative carried me right along, and I'm glad I took the time to read The Black Box.

Merciless by Lori G. Armstrong. Gritty story of ex-Black Ops army sniper Mercy Gunderson now with the FBI solving grisly murders on the Eagle River Reservation. Complex character, stark landscape, and compelling mystery are the strong points I liked while reading this crime novel.

Hammett Unwritten by Ownen Fitzstephen. I've always why Hammett stopped writing books after his early fiction successes. This short novel tries to address the reason in a clever and intriguing way. I won't play the spoiler and go into the plot. I learned some interesting personal things about "Dash" although I don't know how accurate they are since this is a novel. He does a lot of drinking and reflecting back on his youthful days as a Pinkerton detective. Hammett Unwritten is a fast read.

NON-MYSTERIES

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. For some odd reason, I missed reading Charlotte's Web in my youth. My wife re-read it and suggested I try it. Marvelous story of a talking spider named Charlotte befriending a talking pig named Wilbur. The setting is a farm which I peg somewhere in the American Midwest. I liked the details of nature and agriculture since I grew up in the countryside. I also got a crash course on spiders which don't freak me out. There are old cars like Studebakers. It's great fun and a lesson on life taught, as well.

Flora by Gail Godwin. This nicely told coming of age novel is about a almost twelve-year-old girl living in North Carolina who is put under the guardianship of her older cousin for part of one summer (1945). I've read Ms. Godwin's fiction and heard her give a reading and talk. Her Southern characters and settings appeal to me since I'm also from the region. There is a historic subplot of the Manhattan Project and Oak Ridge, TN. The narrator is the snarky type of young girl who still has a lot of things to learn about life. Her lessons begin that summer. It's an easy read and worked just fine for me on this cold wintry day.

Becoming Mr. October by Reggie Jackson. This was a fun read for me, a baseball fan from the late 1960s. I liked the great Oakland Athletics teams Reggie played on before he went on to the larger stage with the Yankees. Reading lots of familiar baseball names helps to tide me over until spring training begins again.