July 2026 Reads

Just finished The Last Place God Made by Jack Higgins. It's a gritty adventure story set in the Amazon jungle in the days leading up to World War II, and the hero of the story might well be an old World War I Bristol Fighter. A very good read.

Rescued some long-unloved library discards from a giveaway shelf, one of which was a 1950-ish biography of Thomas a'Becket; My Life for My Sheep. Moves a little slow (reading tastes were indeed different back then), but the history is interesting, as I believe it overlaps the era of my favorite medieval sleuth, Brother Cadfael.

Still working on Circe by Madeline Miller, which I started last month, but in the meantime started and finished three other books - Legends & Lattes, Bookshops & Bonedust, and Brigands & Breadknives, all by Travis Baldree. They were fantasies in the tradition of The Lord of the Rings, but shorter(!), warm and (mostly) comforting, almost cozy. Ultimately, they were about finding family, friends, and oneself amidst the travails of life.

A cozy mystery Hazardous Duty by Christy Barritt

Avenger by Frederick Forsyth. I recently watched the 2006 film on YouTube and it was interesting, so assuming that a book is always better than the film I got a copy. My assumption was right! It's a thriller, of course, with the action moving between continents, wars and times.

I finished The Unicorn Hunters, which I picked up because I really liked Arden's Winternight books. Now I'm reading Shannon Sharpe's A Day of Fallen Night, which is l-o-n-g. She shifts frequently among a few story lines, which provides lots of opportunities to put the book down, which I've done. I'm enjoying several of the characters, so I'm continuing; I only have about one ordinary novel's page count left to go.

Reading I’M NOT THE ONLY MURDERER IN MY RETIREMENT HOME. Amusing!

The Land God Gave to Cain by Hammond Innes. A first class post-war thriller set in Labrador, Canada. A very enjoyable read.