And alternating between sitting with this foot elevated and lying on the couch with my foot elevated is not much better. Only about four weeks to go before I graduate from cast to crutches and walking boot.

Only four weeks!

However, I’m using my sitting/reclining time wisely–reading a lot, working on blog posts, preparing for the move from old website and blog to a new website/blog combo, and….yes….writing. We’ll talk more about the novels in progress later.

For this post, I want to talk about the stuff I’ve read lately.

Currently I’m enjoying Charlie’s Angle by John Paul McKinney. This novel is a good combination of family drama, high school principal/school board politics, and mystery. John Paul is a good writer and he successfully chose a challenging multiple point-of-view format that lets us get closer to each interesting character in the novel. I’m getting into the second half of the story now, and I think something bad is going to happen. I just feel it….and that’s what keeps me turning the pages.

Working backwards, I recently finished Never Too Late: Your Roadmap to Reinvention (without getting lost along the way) by Claire Cook. This is nonfiction intended to inspire and motivate those who want to change their lives, whether that change involves quitting a bad job to buy a food truck or finally taking steps to realize a long-held dream to become a writer. Reading all those stories about other women who’ve reinvented their lives is like a breath of fresh air. And for those of you who don’t recognize the author’s name, she’s the lady who wrote Must Love Dogs, which was turned into a very successful film. Learning how that all came about is alone worth the price of the book.

Let’s see, oh yes, before that I read The Poacher’s Daughter by Michael Zimmer. I haven’t read a western in a long time, but when I saw this book on my own publisher’s list and heard it had received an award, I decided to give it a try. Honestly, I could hardly put the book down. I loved the main character who’s a strong female, loved the things she did to survive in a tough man’s world, and loved the story. I’d give this one ten stars out of five if that were possible.

Other recent reads:

Without Warning (The Disappearance book 1) by John Birmingham. This is sort of an alternate history post-apocalyptic thriller and it has sequels. Another multiple-point-of-view novel that has a bunch of interesting characters, Without Warning introduces a huge disaster that wipes out most of the U.S. and then follows the resulting events across the world. I have the second book in the series on my TBR list.

Knower Girl by Maggie d’Amato Goins (one of our wonderful local authors),  is a YA thriller that is very well written, fast-paced, and could be a series if Maggie decides to write more novels about teen Bonnie Cannelli and her special skills. I enjoyed Maggie’s writing enough to immediately buy her second book, The Con Man of Sweet Orchard. It’s moving up in the TBR pile.

Nancy Reed’s memoir, Words Left Behind: tales from a life gladly lived, is a delightful read. Nan is another of our local authors who have revealed fascinating stories about their lives to those of us who thought we knew them well but discovered upon reading that there are many, many layers to a person’s life and rarely do we get to the heart unless they share in memoir.

If you prefer your mysteries be in the traditional style, you would like Who Buries the Dead by C. S. Harris. Any mystery that starts with young lovers discovering a body that’s missing its head is sure to hook you, especially when the sleuth is one Sebastian St. Cyr and the story revolves around historical figures (in 1813 London) whose body parts occasionally end up as trophies for bizarre collectors.

Finally, if you’re the sort of reader who samples all genres and occasionally goes for a shocker—like horror that does not pull punches–you might want to read Colorado author Kenneth Harmon’s The Amazing Mr. Howard. Mr. Howard is a vampire. He’s pure evil. There’s a cop in the novel who is, in my opinion, even more depraved than Mr. Howard. The novel is horror, and it’s mystery, and it’s thriller. There are scenes that are explicit. It’s well written and will please anyone who enjoys the genre as I do from time to time, but don’t read it unless you’re tough enough to take it. Seriously.

In case you wonder why I give everything I read these days four or five stars on Goodreads and online bookseller sites, it’s because I don’t finish books if the writing is bad or the characters and story don’t grab me…and I won’t slam an author who has worked hard to produce a book just because it’s not my cup of tea.

What about you? Read anything lately you’d like to recommend? I read in most genres, so all suggestions are appreciated.