What I Read in January

Here's a summary of the books I read in January.  Click on the link to find the longer review.

All ratings are on a scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (great).

BABYLON CONFIDENTIAL: A MEMOIR OF LOVE, SEX, AND ADDICTION by Claudia Christian - 4 stars

One of the stars from the TV show Babylon 5 talks about her life and overcoming alcoholism.  While I would have loved more about Babylon 5 since it's my favorite TV show, I still found the book fascinating and had a hard time putting it down.

I FUNNY: A MIDDLE GRADE STORY by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein - 3 stars

Jamie Grimm is a middle schooler who has learned to deal with the sorrow in his life by telling jokes.  Then he hears about a contest for kid comedians.  Should he enter?  I enjoyed the books and the humor definitely made me laugh.  However, the plot introduced several potential conflicts only to drop them without any development at all.

MR. MONK GETS EVEN by Lee Goldberg - 5 Stars

There are several accidents in San Francisco that Monk decides are murders.  Meanwhile, Dale the Whale is out of prison for an operation.  Is he going to try to escape?  And will that distract Monk from the other case?  For those who have been following the books, this is a great pay off for the arcs that Lee has been building.  I loved seeing where the characters wound up and am interested to see how the next author will pick up from here.

THE NINTH DAUGHTER by Barbara Hamilton - 3 Stars

Abigail Adams is going to visit a friend, but her friends isn't home and there's a dead woman on her floor.  Who is this woman?  When John is accused of the crime, Abigail starts trying to clear her husband.  Meanwhile, some tea has just sailed into Boston harbor….  I love Revolutionary era history, so I wanted to like this book.  However, it let the detail of life during that time slow down the pace of the story.  And the plot that was here was highly predictable.

MR. CHURCHILL'S SECRETARY by Susan Elia MacNeal - 4 Stars

Maggie Hope gets a job as the new pool secretary to new Prime Minister Churchill in 1940 London.  But as bombs begin to fall on the city, she is about to find herself caught up in a plot she never would have imagined.  Again, this one was slow at times, although when the plot really got going, it was hard to put down.  But the characters were so wonderful I enjoyed it even in the slow parts.

ALL THAT IS NECESSARY by Jennie Coughlin - 5 Stars

20 years ago, the small Boston town of Exeter was rocked when it was learned the Boston mob was using the swamp to dump bodies.  Now, Rick, the son of one of the men convicted as a result, is moving back to town.  And his old friends don't know what to make of it.  I could not put this book down, literally reading most of it in one day.  While not a mystery, the tension is still very real, and the characters are so great you want to root for them.  NOTE: Jennie is a friend who sent me the book for free.  I honestly can't wait for the sequel to come out.