I have long recommended Bill Browder’s “Red Notice’’ as a tutorial on Putin’s Russia. In the sequel, “Freezing Order,’’ we learn that Putin’s loyalists are still after Browder, who writes nonfiction in a harrowing way.
Browder has stones. He is taking on a corrupt madman.
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Just to keep my hand in on his career I add a John Grisham to the book pile now and then. I read “The Judge’s List.’’ How often is a judge removed from office? Not often. And why? You’ll see. There is a good reason Grisham is one of the highest paid authors in the world.
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My current favorite book of the last year or two? Has to be Fredrik Backman’s “The Winners.’’ I discovered Backman when he wrote “A Man Called Ove,’’ the story of a seemingly heartless Swedish grump. Seemingly.
“The Winners’’ is 670 pages long. The hockey teams in Beartown and Hed, two forest towns deep in northern Sweden, exhibit a rivalry that goes way beyond hockey. Backman’s “Beartown,’’ which I hadn’t read, but will now, sets up the new book, in which the inhabitants of Beartown and Hed are still trying to deal with the terrible ordeals readers discovered in “Beartown.’’
It’s not a hockey novel. It’s a life book of extraordinary depth, often delightful, often sad. After 670 pages I didn’t want it to end.
“Lessons in Chemistry’’ by Bonnie Garmus.
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“The Maze’’ by Nelson DeMille.
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“Lessons in Chemistry’’ by Bonnie Garmus.
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“Lucy by the Sea’’ by Elizabeth Strout. The first novel I’ve read with a covid theme.
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“Targeted’’ by Stephen Hunter.
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“Desert Star’’ by Michael Connelly. You can’t go wrong with Connelly’s books.”
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“The Lincoln Highway’’ by Amor Towles.