Reading Update and a Quick Look at 2019

It's a miserable, cold, windy, rainy day here today. The house is a little quieter as Bonnie is at the vets, getting her foot checked. I'll be picking her up at 3ish. Clyde is a bit needier than usual as he misses his big sister.

In my last two posts I've been taking a look at my favorite mysteries and overall books of 2019. I was going to do my final stats summary today but I've finished one more book and started one more. So I'll do that one closer to 2019. Today, I'll update my just finished reading and currently reading plus let you know my first two books of 2019.

Just Finished

1. Eighteen Acres by Nicolle Wallace.












"I've been interested in checking out Nicolle Wallace's writing ever since I started watching her on MSNBC's Deadline Washington. My wife bought me the first book in her White House series, Eighteen Acres, for Xmas this year. Eighteen Acres stands for the plot of land that the White House occupies in Washington, DC

Eighteen Acres focuses on three women; the first woman President of the US, Charlotte Kramer, her Chief of Staff, Melanie Kingston and a reporter who is having an affair with Charlotte's husband, Dale Smith. Each chapter focuses alternatively on one of these characters.

We travel from events at the White House, to a trip by Charlotte and her Secretary of Defense Roger Taylor, as well as Dale Smith, along with the Press pool, to Afghanistan where elections are taking place and then for the last half of the book, on the campaign trail as Charlotte. is running for a second term in office along with her new Vice Presidential nominee, Tara Meyers.

It's a fascinating, well-crafted, concise story that Nicolle Wallace has presented. The story definitely focuses on the 3 main women, with subsidiary characters added to the mix to enrich the story. Melanie is an intelligent, hard-working, well-respected Chief of Staff who has worked for 3 different presidents in different roles. She has let her personal life slide as she focuses on serving the President and the country. Charlotte has also let her personal life be affected by her time in government, from Governor to President. Her husband, Peter, has become distant and now spends as much time as possible with Dale Smith. Dale, herself, is an ambitious reporter who is working to become one of the main network anchors.

While this might seem like just a normal romance story with many entanglements, actually, it offers an interesting insight into the running of the White House and the President's life. Oh to have a sensible, dedicated President like Charlotte Kramer! We have press intrigue; is the Pres having an affair? We have a trip to Afghanistan that turns tragic and has the potential to crash the Presidential ambitions of Charlotte. And the campaign is presented in a fascinating way, with friction between Melanie and the upcoming Vice President and many more things. All in all, it was an engrossing read and I'm looking forward to checking out the 2nd book, It's Classified. (4 stars)"

Currently Reading

1. The Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette.












"Martin Terrier is a hired killer who wants out of the game, so he can settle down and marry his childhood sweetheart. But the Organization won't let him go: they have other plans for him. In a violent tale that shatters as many illusions as bodies, Jean-Patrick Manchette subjects his characters and the reader alike to a fierce exercise in style. This tightly plotted, corrosive parody of "the success story" is widely considered to be Manchette's masterpiece, and was named a New York Times "Notable Book" in 2002. The Gunman is a classic of modern noir."

2019 Reading Challenges

I'll go into more detail about my 2019 Challenges in a future post. As an initial look, here are the first two books I'll be reading in 2019.

1. The Black Dudley Murder by Margery Allingham (Albert Campion #1).









"You are cordially invited to a weekend house party at Black Dudley Manor. While there, you will participate in a gruesome ritual, your host will be brutally murdered, you will be held hostage, and someone will interrogate you in a most unpleasant manner. But never fear! Albert Campion is a fellow guest . . . and you just might survive to tell the tale."

2. Undone by Karin Slaughter (Will Trent #3).












"When a tortured young woman enters the trauma center of an Atlanta hospital, Dr. Sara Linton is thrust into a desperate police investigation with Special Agent Will Trent and his partner, Faith Mitchell. Though guarding their own wounds and their own secrets, Sara, Will, and Faith find that they are all that stand between a madman and his next victim."

I'll go into my 2019 Reading Challenges next post. Have a great weekend!