What Should You Read Next?
My in-real-life book club recently voted on our favorite books for 2020, and the winners are:
Book Club
February Online Book Club: Deadly Recall by Donnell Ann Bell
Heart-pounding action mixed with a love story. When nine year old Eden Moran witnesses an unthinkable tragedy, her whole life turns upside down. We meet up with her seventeen years later when she’s a successful attorney living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and police detective Kevin Dancer unearths clues in a cold case that lead back to Eden’s family.
January Online Book Club: Cruel Candy by Mildred Abbott
A quick, fun read and a photogenic dog. A fitting beginning to a new year, Cruel Candy is about Winifred “Fred” Page who resets her life by moving home to scenic Estes Park, Colorado and opening a bookstore. Accompanied by her smart, chubby corgi, Watson, she discovers a dead body before the ink is dry on her new store lease.
December Online Book Club: Rebel Queen by Michelle Moran
This story has it all: tragedy, intrigue, conspiracies, murder, and brutality. Also love, kindness, friendship, and the Queen’s courage to fight for her people’s survival.
November Online Book Club: The Jade Tiger by E.W. Cooper
Historical mysteries are a special kind of reading escape. Not only do we get to solve the mystery puzzle, we’re transported to another time and place where the clothes, food, and smells bring the past to life. This year, since we’re barely leaving the neighborhood, historical fiction seems especially appealing.
October Online Book Club: Furthermore by James M. Jackson
Mix John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers and Robert Parker’s Spenser with a financial crimes investigator, and you’d get Seamus McCree.
September Online Book Club: A Deadly Inside Scoop by Abby Collette
Before we even talk murder and blizzards, know this: if you’re a simple vanilla or chocolate ice cream lover, this book will make you reconsider your ice cream repertoire. Collette’s creative use of fruit, cakes, and mix-ins made me hungrier with each new flavor.
August Book Club: Broken Heart Attack by James Cudney
At times you’ll laugh, but you’ll be angry, too. Mostly you’ll be entertained.
July Online Book Club: Moriarty Meets His Match by Anna Castle
Was Moriarty just misunderstood? I might lose some English major friends for admitting this, but I recall reading only one Sir Arthur Conan Doyle book starring Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of Baskervilles
June Online Book Club: The Semester of Our Discontent by Cynthia Kuhn
In the cutthroat world of faculty politics, publish or perish is real. The ink on her PhD barely dry, Lila Maclean has captured a coveted position at prestigious Stonedale University. As if teaching, grading papers, and publishing original research weren’t challenging enough, Lila’s colleague turns up dead. When the body count increases and danger lurks around every corner and tunnel, Lila teams up with her few friends to figure out whodunit before she becomes the next victim.