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Tag Archives: book group
Discussion of Shannon Baker’s “Dark Signal” (July 2018)
When the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group met on July 26th, 2018, 21 group members discussed the second volume in Shannon Baker’s new Kate Fox series, set in the Nebraska Sandhills, Dark Signal. Whether or not you attended the actual meeting, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions about Shannon Baker and Dark Signal, in a reply comment to this blog post, below.
For additional reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings and/or other announcements of interest to mystery fans, don’t forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, if you’re logged into your account on Facebook, you can visit the Events page for the Lincoln City Libraries, and mark whether or not you plan to attend upcoming sessions of Just Desserts – this is a great way for you to help us promote this engaging discussion group! Our selections for future meetings are usually posted there months in advance — currently through October 2018.
So…What do you think of Shannon Baker, her Kate Fox series of novels (a third is due in September 2018), and 2017’s Dark Signal in specific?
Join us next month for a discussion of James Grippando’s thriller, Most Dangerous Place, at South Branch on August 30th, 2018.
Reading Recommendations from Just Desserts members – June 2018
At the June 28th, 2018 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, following the discussion of the assigned topic of the month (James Lee Burke’s Robicheaux), we held our monthly round robin in which all 18 attendees were able to share a few recommendations of what other books they’ve been reading recently, both mystery and non-mystery.
Here are the mystery titles recommended by Just Desserts members in June 2018:
- The Harlan Coben short-run TV series “Safe” on Netflix (see info about series on Wikipedia)
- A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
- The Fallen by David Baldacci – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson – Patterson was past author selection for Just Desserts
- Wolf by Mo Hayder
- Bitter Sweets by G.A. McKevitt
- The Titanic Murders by Max Allan Collins (not in libraries’ collection)
- Night School, Tripwire, and Running Blind (all on CD) by Lee Child – past author selection for Just Desserts
- City of Darkness and Light by Rhys Bowen
- The Knowledge by Martha Grimes
- The Disappeared by C.J. Box – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Cutting Edge by Jeffrey Deaver – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Bind Her, Right Behind You, and Look For Me by Lisa Gardner – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Dry and Force of Nature by Jane Harper – upcoming author selection for Just Desserts
- early volumes in the Virgil Flowers series by John Sandford – past author selection for Just Desserts
- A Murder of Crows by Anthony Horowitz
- Good Blood by Aaron Elkins – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Dark Angel TV-movie on PBS (see PBS website for the series)
- Mary Ann Cotton: Dark Angel by Martin Connelly
- To Die But Once by Jacqueline Winspear – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Run-Out Groove and Victory Disc by Andrew Cartmel
Here are the non-mystery titles recommended by Just Desserts members in June 2018:
- Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
- Beartown by Fredrik Backman [a 2018 One Book – One Lincoln finalist]
- The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng [a 2018 One Book – One Lincoln finalist]
- Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann [a 2018 One Book – One Lincoln finalist]
- Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward
- Wild Escape by Chelsia Rose Marcius
- Folsom Prison by Jim Brown
- Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness That Ended the Sixties by Dianne Lake
- Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
- The Martin by Andy Weir
- My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
- Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City’s Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation by Brad Ricca
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?
Discussion of James Lee Burke’s “Robicheaux” – June 2018
When the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group met on June 28th, 2018, 18 group members discussed the latest entry in James Lee Burke’s long-running “Dave Robicheaux” New Orleans mystery/thriller series, simply titled Robicheaux. Whether or not you attended the actual meeting, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions about James Lee Burke and Robicheaux, in a reply comment to this blog post, below.
For additional reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings and/or other announcements of interest to mystery fans, don’t forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, if you’re logged into your account on Facebook, you can visit the Events page for the Lincoln City Libraries, and mark whether or not you plan to attend upcoming sessions of Just Desserts – this is a great way for you to help us promote this engaging discussion group! Our selections for future meetings are usually posted there months in advance — currently through October 2018.
So…What do you think of James Lee Burke, his Dave Robicheaux series of novels (now 20 volumes), and 2018’s Robicheaux in specific?
Join us next month for a discussion of the Nebraska-set Dark Signal by Shannon Baker, at South Branch on July 26th, 2018.
Discussion of the Works of Ruth Rendell
When the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group met on April 26th, 2018, group members discussed the entire body of works by British author Ruth Rendell, often dubbed “the Queen of mysteries”. Whether or not you attended the actual meeting, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions about Ruth Rendell and here fiction, in a reply comment to this blog post, below. This meeting of Just Desserts was recorded for eventual release as part of the libraries’ audio podcast series!
For additional reminders about upcoming Just Desserts meetings and/or other announcements of interest to mystery fans, don’t forget to sign up for the Just Desserts e-mail list. Or, if you’re logged into your account on Facebook, you can visit the Events page for the Lincoln City Libraries, and mark whether or not you plan to attend upcoming sessions of Just Desserts – this is a great way for you to help us promote this engaging discussion group! Our selections for future meetings are usually posted there months in advance — currently through October 2018.
What do you think of Ruth Rendell, her Inspector Wexford series of novels, her psychological suspense novels, or the novels she wrote under the Barbara Vine pseudonym?
Join us next month for our annual “Series Share” meeting, where everyone will share a new mystery fiction series they’ve recently discovered, at South Branch on May 31st, 2018.
Click here to check out the audio podcast recording of this meeting!
Reading Recommendations in March 2018 from Just Desserts members
At the March 29th, 2018 meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, following the discussion of the assigned topic of the month (Felix Francis’ Triple Crown), we held our monthly round robin in which all the attendees were able to share a few recommendations of what other books they’ve been reading recently.
Here’s the list of mystery books recommended by Just Desserts members in February 2018:
- Bibliomysteries anthology edited by Otto Penzler
- Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan
- Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
- A Death in Live Oak by James Grippando – upcoming author selection for Just Desserts
- The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
- Force of Nature by Jane Harper – upcoming author selection for Just Desserts
- Various volumes, including Absent and The Marco Effect by Jussi Adler-Olsen
- Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear – past title selection for Just Desserts
- Mississippi Blood by Greg Iles
- Origin by Dan Brown
- The Rooster Bar by John Grisham (several readers)
- A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn
- The Truth of Time by Sue Henry
- Deep Freeze by John Sandford
- Four volumes in the Cork O’Connor series by William Kent Krueger – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Various volumes by Tess Gerritsen – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Various volumes in the Sigma Force series by James Rollins
- Various volumes, including The Ninth Girl by Tami Hoag
- Various volumes in the Mike Bowditch series by Paul Doiron – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Hangman by Chris Bohjalian
- Spider’s Web and The Storyteller by Margaret Coel – past author selection for Just Desserts
- Love Lies Bleeding by Susan Wittig Albert – past author selection for Just Desserts
- The Mirror Crack’d (1980 Movie on DVD, starring Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple) based on the novel by Agatha Christie – past author selection for Just Desserts
And here were some non-mystery titles some group members also recommended in February 2018:
- Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
- Educated by Tara Westover
- Various older Star Trek paperbacks, including My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane, The Vulcan Academy Murders and The IDIC Epidemic by Jean Lorrah and others by Margaret Wander Bonanno
- The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
- Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter
What mysteries have you been reading lately that you’d recommend?