Another Brad Meltzer novel and it was good. This one showed a little behind the scenes of a presidential aide. Wow! That would be a tough job. It also got into a secret code that Thomas Jefferson created and some myths around the Freemasons.

On a trip to New York City, we were looking for a vegetarian restaurant. Eleven Madison Park came up in my search. $750 for lunch? No way! At the time, I had not read this book and knew nothing about this restaurant. But after reading this book, maybe someday I will splurge and try out the actual experience. I am now very interested is seeing what this kind of dedication to hospitality is really like!

What started as a race to use up an expiring Audible credit has turned into a full-on Brad Meltzer binge! Without giving anything away, Book of Fate dives in to the origins of Superman. Just a heads-up: unlike his earlier books, this one features recurring characters—something to keep in mind if you're new to the series.

As I catch up on Meltzer’s novels, they get better and better. In other books I found myself thinking, “Don’t go down in the dark basement alone. That is where the killer is.” With The Zero Game, there was very little of this. In other words, the main characters did not make as many dumb decisions.

This was a great piece of non fiction. Molly Stillman’s story of blowing through a $250K inheritance and digging out of debt is unique yet strangely relatable. Her connection to Lynda Van Devanter—her mom and one of the Vietnam nurses who inspired The Women—adds even more depth. It’s a mix of laughter, heartbreak, and hope.

The second two books in the Fourth Wing series were just as good as the first. I went through them way too fast. I have not plowed through this many books reading ONLY this fast in decades. Yarrow for sure had my attention.

I have heard that “when the student is ready, the master will appear.” This book comes at a perfect time. I am in the middle of building a plan to keep ODL privately held for generations to come. Dave’s book gives me an outline to build our own “why”. I for sure recommend.

Much of what makes Zingerman’s special is documented in this book. The author, Ari Weinzweig spells out all the “secrets” in essays that can be read in any order. I highly recommend the food, the book, and most of all the experience.

Dr Gregger’s book How Not to Die was recommend to me about 3 months into my cancer journey. I have followed and read Dr Gregger ever since. When I found out late last year that he did a 100 page booklet on Ozempic I picked it up. Knowing nothing about GLP1 but hearing a lot about it almost every day in the news, I thought it would be a good way to get educated with “just the facts”.

This book was awesome! I finished it in about 10 days. AND I have not picked up a paper book and read in the middle of the day in decades. I literally had to set a timer to go back to what I needed to do during the day. Wow!

King Rat is an autobiography of author James Clavell’s life in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during WWII. It took me a while to get through even though it is a fraction of the length of Shogun. A tough story, but I’m glad I read it.

I decided to expand my reading for entertainment into new genres. Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee is the first in the series, and if the picture doesn’t tell you, it’s definitely sci-fi. It took me a little bit to get into, but after the first 10%, I was hooked.

I was recently introduced to Brad Meltzer for his U of M graduation speech. It was excellent. I looked him up and saw that he had published 10+ books. The Millionaires is his third book; learned a little bit about big time banking and Disney. AND I was entertained. I recommend!

I have thought all the other Jack Reacher novels were fantastic. This one was just ok. I cannot quite figure out what it is missing. If you are just starting with Lee Child, don’t read this one first. But if you’ve read all the rest, I would probably plow through!

I needed this one. I read some good books in the last quarter of 2024, but they were all deep. I purposefully chose the next Clive Cussler novel on my list because I needed a break. It was perfect way to start the year.

Another great book by Kristin Hannah. She made it so easy to put myself into the different characters and situations. I easily got sucked into being the good guy and the bad guy at the same time. read a lot of good books in 2024. This one was clearly the best.

This is a fantastic book! I am a fan of Kate Quinn and was a little skeptical when I realized what this story is about - very different from her other novels. But within 20 pages I was hooked!

This was a long one, but despite that, I still recommend this book. Especially, if you are interested in Japanese history and the animosity that culminated in WWII.

Fortunately my personal priorities line up pretty well with the recommendations in this book. For Perkins, it is all about the balance of memorable experiences and risk. Memorable experiences pay a dividend over time. On the other hand, if we spend it all now and have nothing for a rainy day, the memory dividend will not put food on the table. Has this peaked your interest?

This was a good and tough book. It is about a black man accused of murdering an affluent older white couple in the 1960 in Virginia.