The World's Common Tater

I have read 6 books so far this month. It helps when you are home alone for a week.

1. The Boys From Biloxi by John Grisham

Grisham tells the story of the intertwining lives of the Malco and the Rudy families in Biloxi. Hugh Malco and Keith Rudy play little league baseball together and are the stars of the team. Hugh’s dad owns clubs where illegal gambling, drinking, and prostitution take place. Keith’s dad becomes the DA on the promise of shutting these clubs down. Eventually, Keith and Hugh drift apart. Hugh joins the family business. Keith goes to law school and moves back to Biloxi to follow in his dad’s footsteps. 

It took me a while to get into this one. There is a lot of setup as we see Malco’s rise and Rudy’s decision to go to law school. It picks up when Jesse Rudy starts targeting the clubs as DA. It gets even better when Keith is the DA and Hugh is in charge of the family business. I do feel like it could have been shorter and a lot of the details of the cases and other things could have been trimmed down. I would recommend it to people who like Grisham with a mix of historical fiction.

2. Happy Go Lucky by David Sedaris

A collection of personal essays on a variety of topics.

I listened to the audio of this for the book club. It was the first I have read by Sedaris and I didn’t know what to expect. I loved it. I was laughing out loud in the car while listening. I could relate to some of his experiences, but even when I couldn’t he still made me laugh. I might look for more audio from him for my drive to Kentucky.

3. Racing the Light by Robert Crais

This the latest in the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series. This one is more focused on Elvis. He is hired to find the missing person: podcaster Josh Shoe. His mom gives Elvis an envelope of cash and theories of government conspiracies. Elvis soon discovers that other people are looking for Josh and it becomes a race to find and protect him before they do.

I like Elvis and Joe. I enjoyed being back in their world. I didn’t like the story as much this time. I like it better when the cases are simpler and not full of criminals from other countries, hired killers, and government scandals. Crais still makes it an enjoyable ride with great main characters.

4. Triple Cross by James Patterson

According to Goodreads, this is the 30th book in the Alex Cross series. It is the only Patterson I still read. In this one, Cross is investigating a series of murders of families in DC while Bree works on a case involving sex trafficking in New York. The mysterious M is still sending Cross messages and a true crime author is trying to get involved in the case.

This is typical Cross. Short chapters. Cross solves the case. Everyone in the family is special. Not great literature, but a quick, decent read.

5. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

My second Sedaris book this month after never reading him before. This was the perfect audiobook for my long trip. I finished it in one drive, laughed a lot, and still had music time as well. I loved the essays where he talks about the odd things he said to people in France due to his poor grasp of the language. I’m sure I will be reading more and watching for an appearance in the DC area.

6. The Epic Story of Every Living Thing by Deb Caletti

Harper Proulx is a teenager with an overprotective single mother and a sperm donor dad. Harper has spent her life wondering about her father and eventually tracks down half-siblings. They travel to Hawaii to find the father where Harper finds herself and the truth about her mom and dad.

It took me a while to get into this one. Once the group heads to Hawaii it takes off. It goes from a story of kids looking for their biological dad to a story of them working with him to save an area of Hawaii from the detonation of old underwater bombs. I have mostly hated books that include the pandemic, but this one does a good job of showing how someone with anxiety brought on by a parent emphasizing worst-case scenarios might deal with a post-pandemic world.