Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Five Favorite Reads of 2016

Last year, I managed to reach my goal of reading 50 books, which I kept track of via the Savvy Reader 50 Book Pledge. (Actually, it was more than 50, but I didn't list books I helped judge for a contest.)

While I enjoyed many of the books, I decided to focus on five in particular. In alphabetical order, they are:

The Cover-Up (Dana Griffin) is a well-crafted aviation thriller involving an airline crash and the ensuing investigation. The author, a commercial pilot, reveals his expertise in aviation while writing a story that's accessible to readers not familiar with the industry.

The Flower Master (Sujata Massey) involves a young woman from California, now living in Japan, who becomes embroiled in the murder of an ikebana teacher. The crime, along with her struggles to fit in culturally, keep the reader engaged in a satisfying mystery.

Incident at Badamya (Dorothy Gilman) is set in Burma in the 1950s and involves a 16 year old orphan who finds herself captured, along with six others, by members of the Red Flag Army. But there is more to one of the prisoners than she realizes, and her magical Burmese puppet may be the key to her kan (destiny).

Lucifer Rising (Gavin Baddeley) is an examination of how the Devil has been depicted throughout history, including the "satanic panic" of the 1980s, in heavy metal, even in films. This book is written with a balanced point of view that cuts through the hype.

The Princes in the Tower (Alison Weir) explores the mysterious deaths of Prince Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, nephews of King Richard III, long thought to have been responsible for their deaths. One wanting to learn more couldn't go wrong with this book as a reference.

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