Skinner   Charlie Huston
Wonderful thriller filled with high intelligence, current events, and surprises, all written in perfect, invisible prose. Loved Skinner, and especially Jae, and Dharavi. Even though we got nicely to the end of the configuration, wished it wouldn’t end.

Duino Elegies   Rainer Maria Rilke
Stunningly beautiful poems in Stephen Mitchell’s beautiful translation. Can’t remember how many times I’ve read them, but they never disappoint. Too many angels, but that’s OK. The Ninth Elegy is still my favorite:
                      “ Ah, but what can we take along
into that other realm? Not the art of looking,
which is learned so slowly, and nothing that happened here. Nothing.
The sufferings, then. And, above all, the heaviness,
and the long experience of love...”

Never Go Back   Lee Child
Excellent, latest Reacher novel. He finally got back to Virginia, but he’s stumbled into a conspiracy to destroy the woman he came to see. Bad guys are right there in the army. Once again, Reacher is much too smart and violent for them, he and the woman get along great, the prose itself is worth the read, and the good guys win. Loads of fun.

A Wanted Man   Lee Child
Penultimate Reacher novel. He’s in Nebraska, still trying to get back to Virginia. This time he gets mixed up with domestic terrorists and FBI counter-terrorism agents. Interesting until the last couple of sections which read like a single-shooter video game. But Reacher’s mind is so intelligent, and the prose is so clean and crisp, I still really enjoyed it.

Suspect   Robert Crais
Disappointing, latest book by Crais. No Elvis Cole or Joe Pike. This time it’s a wounded cop working to become a K-9 officer and his dog. The sections from the dog’s perspective were cheesy to the point of being embarrassing. Too bad. Lucky it still had Crais’ prose and was a quick read.