Boundary Waters #2 Cork O'Connor Series by William Kent Krueger

 My Rating: 4.7

Shiloh -- a country-western singer at the height of her fame -- has disappeared. Her father arrives in Aurora, Minnesota, to hire Cork O'Connor to find his daughter, and Cork joins a search party that includes an ex-con, two FBI agents, and a ten-year-old boy. Others are on her trail as well -- men hired not just to find her, but to kill her.

I continue to love this series and Krueger's writing. Cork is a lovable character with such a good heart that, despite murders and violence, this book feels wholesome.

Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss

 My Rating: 4.8

Life is a series of negotiations you should be prepared for: buying a car, negotiating a salary, buying a home, renegotiating rent, deliberating with your partner. Taking emotional intelligence and intuition to the next level, Never Split the Difference gives you the competitive edge in any discussion.

This was a business book but the audio version has a great narrator. We read it in 'chunks' which made it easier but it was somewhat dry. That being said, we have implemented some of the techniques and I can tell you that THEY WORK!

The Absolute Value of Mike by Katherine Erskine

 My Rating: 4.7

Ever since 14 yo Mike's mother died, he has been responsible for the care of his father, a brilliant math & engineering professor, who's fantastic with numbers, and terrible at managing life. Mike's own dyscalculia (a math disability) is a sticking point between he and his father. To help solve this, Mike's father announces that while he will be teaching overseas for the summer, Mike will go to stay with relatives in rural Pennsylvania, to help build an artesian screw. This project, in the eyes of Mike's father, will help Mike build the necessary skills to enter a prestigious math/science high school. Upon arrival in the town, though, Mike discovers that Moo and Poppy (his relatives) are in their 80s, grieving the death of their adult son, and that the "artesian screw" Moo described to his father is really an "artisan's crew," working to raise the funds necessary for the town's minister to adopt a Romanian orphan. Mike quickly gets involved in the plan, despite his ongoing protests that he's too young to help, and the town's unusual residents all pitch in to make the adoption work

    

This was a delightful quirky story with so many fun characters. Sometimes it felt a bit 'much' but if you get in the spirit of it, it really was so cute.

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

My Rating: 4.7

Malcolm owns a bookstore and is a mystery aficionado. As part of promoting the bookstore when it first opened, he blogs a post titled "Eight Perfect Murders" from the best mystery books (Agatha Christie, Death Trap, etc.) Fast forward to current day and no one is more surprised than Malcolm when the FBI come knocking on his door looking to solve murders that seem to match the books on Malcom's list. Malcolm starts looking into the murders to understand the connection and soon believes that the killer is watching him - and aware of his every movement. As the murders continue, it seems that Malcolm may be the one who is accused.

This psychological thriller was fast paced and typical Swanson where I didn't know who did it and it kept me entertained all the way through.