A new author for me - William Kent Krueger

Note - a number of these books (photo below) were free for me on Audible. Most of this collection, I listened thru Hoopla via my local library. 

Youngest read Ordinary Grace in her book group. The club members all really liked it. Youngest called to say this might be a new author idea for me. She was reading more of his books and liked them. 

(I looked up his books while we chatted. I have listed them all below.)

I started with the first stand alone book, Devil’s Bed, at Youngest’s suggestion. It was one of the free ones on Audible. 

Like a recent John Grisham book, The Boys from Biloxy, I was confused when I started Devil’s Bed. 

I thought maybe it was my age. I wondered if I needed a character chart/list. 

I called youngest, she said it was just as confusing for her. And she said it did not matter, those characters all fade into the background and the story emerges. 

I really liked all three of the stand-alone books. I devoured them, one right after the other. They were all very different topics/stories. Excellent writing, in my opinion. 

Then I read a recent publication - The Levee 2023 - which was excellent.

I started on the main series (below). I was very happy to have a new author with a nice long list. 

“Order of Cork O’Connor books. The story of Corcoran O’Connor started in Iron Lake, and it is a series of nineteen novels.”

• Iron Lake (1998)

• Boundary Waters (1999)

• Purgatory Ridge (2001)

• Blood Hollow (2004)

• Mercy Falls (2005)

• Copper River (2006)

• Thunder Bay (2007)

• Red Knife (2008)

• Heaven’s Keep (2009)

• Vermilion Drift (2010)

• Northwest Angle (2011)

• Trickster’s Point (2012)

• Tamarack County (2013)

• Windigo Island (2014)

• The World of Cork O’Connor (2016)

• Manitou Canyon (2016)

• Sulfur Springs (2017)

• Desolation Mountain (2018)

• Lightning Strike (2021)***

• Fox Creek (2022)

***information from online - “It is worth mentioning that Lightning Strike is a prequel story, and it is set before the events of the first book. This means that you can start with Lightning Strike and continue in chronological order, but it’s always better to read books as they were published.”

The second quilt, made with the leftovers from the first quilt, also a 9-patch

There is an earlier post with a quilt I made for my DIL this summer. 

I made a second quilt, mostly from the leftovers, for one of my husband’s brothers this fall. 

I made the blocks very slowly over three weeks in August. 

My daughter organized the blocks for me. She likes to lay out the colors. 

My long arm quilter quilted it for me. 

Grisham

I have been working on a book project, future post, which has inadvertently caused me to look back through book lists of authors I have read for years. 

Looking at John Grisham’ list, I realized I had missed short story collections. 

I started listening to the first story in this collection,  August 2023 - 

And realized the first story was a continuation of an earlier short story from another book. 

So I stopped and found the original story.

Next, I went back to Sparing Partners and listened to the rest of the story titled Homecoming. 

Then I listened to all the rest of the stories in both books. These were all good, I like collections of short stories. (One of these books is read by John Grisham himself.)

I also listened to The Boys from Biloxi, August 2023. 

Oh my goodness, it took a little time to settle into this book. The first section is necessary background, but made me feel detached from the story for just a bit. Again, I thought I might need a character chart. When it moved into the main characters, it was captivating. Super well written, interesting/very good. 

Note - John has a new book, The Exchange, October 2023.  It is the second book in a series. The first book, The Firm, was published in 1991. I am rereading The Firm prior to reading the new one. 

I have included a list of all Grisham books below, I have read almost all of them, there is a note below listing the ones I skipped. 

If you like legal type stories and somehow have not read this author, it is a nice long list. Here is another author that when I run out of other ideas, I could go back thru all of them. I think they are all on my Audible account.

Yes, many of the earlier books were made into movies. 

Note -

I skipped Sooley/coming of age/basketball, Bleachers/football coach, and Playing for Pizza/football.

Standalone Novels

● The Pelican Brief - 1992

● The Client - 1993

● The Chamber - 1994

● The Rainmaker - 1995

● The Runaway Jury - 1996

● The Partner - 1997

● The Street Lawyer - 1998

● The Testament - 1999

● The Brethren - 2000

● A Painted House - 2000

● Skipping Christmas - 2001

● The Summons - 2002

● The King Of Torts - 2002

● Bleachers - 2003

● The Last Juror - 2003

● The Broker - 2004

● Playing For Pizza - 2007

● The Appeal - 2007

● The Associate - 2009

● The Confession - 2010

● The Litigators - 2011

● Calico Joe - 2012

● The Racketeer - 2012

● Gray Mountain - 2014

● Rogue Lawyer - 2015

● The Rooster Bar - 2017

● The Reckoning - 2018

● The Guardians - 2019

● Sooley - 2021

● The Boys From Biloxi - 2022

Pie crust protectors

I make quiche at least once a month. It is a very simple recipe. I use frozen pie crusts (regular, not deep). 

These is a great make ahead dinner or brunch. Everyone in my family can eat it happily. 

Middle took a quarter home for her dinner (below). 

That side was broccoli and cheese (and 4 eggs and 1/2 cup skim milk). 

The other one was cheese, mushrooms/onion/sautéed with Pam sprayed pan (and 4 eggs and 1/2 cup skim milk). 

The crusts are baked for 8 minutes empty, first. And then 50 minutes full, both at 375 degrees.

Pie crust edges can burn easily without protection. Aluminum foil is very hard to use on pie crust edges for me, my hands. 

I bought 9” reusable protectors from Amazon. I have seen 10” at my local hardware store. 

This might be a great gift idea, but absolutely have to get the right size protector based on the pan size they use.