Two thriller/suspense novels set in The Great Outdoors. By two different authors. One’s set in the Cowboy State. The other, Big Sky Country. One is by an outdoor/Western author we know well. The author is by someone we’ve heard of before. Both pack a wallop. Here’s why:
Author Archives: Eowyn
Why This Book Left One of Us Speechless
Strangers in Time
By David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing, 2025)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Via: Library
Pages (Print): 431
Kimber here. Telling you to hold on to your kibble. Or whatevs. Cuz Her Momness and I? We just finished one of them thar “barn burner” thingies. It’s historical fiction. Set in an oft-overlooked epoch. By an author who’s not exactly known for historical fiction. But this fella? Even though David Baldacci’s an acclaimed, best-selling author of action/thriller tomes, he doggone outdogg-ies his-self with Strangers in Time.
I know. I’m adorable.
I’ll let Mom tell ya more:
‘You Have to Love a Nation That…’
“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.” ~Erma Bombeck
Happy Birthday, America!
And best wishes to all our dear readers for a safe and enjoyable holiday!
This post was originally published here in 2015.
We thought it was time for an encore.
For the 4th: Stand Up & Cheer With This AMAZING True Story of Courage & Hope
Back in the Game:
One Gunman, Countless Heroes, and the Fight For My Life
By Congressman Steve Scalise with Jeffrey E. Stern (Hatchette Book Group, 2018)
Genre: Non-Fiction
Via: Library
Pages (print): 281
That one small entry wound belied a massive, mostly internal hemorrhage that was about to kill me. I’d be dead in a matter of minutes, unless someone with some kind of x-ray vision happened to show up and was somehow able to see all the bleeding that couldn’t be seen. I needed a miracle.
In gripping You Are There fashion, Back in the Game tells what happened when one man opened fire at a baseball practice for Republican members of Congress on the morning of June 14, 2014, wounding five and nearly killing one: Louisiana congressman and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. And how Scalise fought his way back to the people’s House.
It’s Scalise’s moment by moment account of not only what happened to him, but of those who emerged in the seconds after the shooting began and worked to save his life and the lives of his colleagues and teammates when a lone gunman attempted the greatest political assassination in U.S. history.
The gunman came within a hair’s breadth of succeeding.
Kimber: Let me just say right out of the kennel that Back in the Game is a book about heroes. Like:
Surprised in Spades by ‘Legends of the North Cascades’
Legends of the North Cascades
By Jonathan Evison (Algonquin Books, 2021)
Genre: Fiction
Pages (print): 338
Via: Library
Ever grab a book that surprised the stuffin’ outta you? You thought it was about one thing. But it turned out to be something else entirely?
That happened to Her Royal Momness and I the other day. Swooping into The Book Place, Mom only had about five minutes to snatch some new-to-her titles off the shelves. So, cuz she loves the Northwest and the Cascades are like, Totally Pawesome, she took a chance on an unfamiliar title and an author we’ve never heard of.
When the cloak of night descended, and they were awash in the light of the stars, spattered cold and white across the bowl of night, the world seemed all at once larger and more mysterious.
Were we ever surprised. Like this:
Book Review: Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
By Anne Lamott
Riverhead Books, 2007.
We were going to write a review of Anne Lamott’s autobiographical collection of nearly two dozen essays and reflections, Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith. No, really. We were. We have four pages of notes to prove it- double-sided! Then we thought we’d just to the chase. So here it is:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBER the Bookish Dog
Kimber the Magnificent here. You probably noticed I nosed my way into Mom’s ‘bookish’ blog awhile back. Kind of like the way I nose into a New York steak. Top sirloin. Meatloaf. Whatever. Nobody’s perfect.
Anyway, Mom says a whole raft of new readers have recently joined us. I’m not sure what that means. But if Mom’s happy, I’m happy. See my tail wagging? We wanted to say Thank you and Welcome!
Also, for any of you looking for any last-minute gift ideas, today’s my birthday. I’m nine! Just sayin’.
Now then. Since it’s my birthday today and some of you may be new readers, Mom thinks some “introductions” may be in order. So here goes:
My name is Kimber. I’m a “rescue dog.” Part Golden Retriever. Part black Lab. A lot Border Collie. That accounts for my smarts and my speed. Mom says both are Off The Charts. Whatever that means.
By way of background, I joined my forever family in August 2016. I was about ten weeks old. (Not that I’m keeping track. But Mom is. You know how moms are.)
One of my baby pictures. I know. I’m adorable.
Mom calls me “Kimber the Magnifcent.” I don’t know why. She just does. But you can call me Kimmi. All my friends do.
A “Bite-Sized’ Summer?
Revisited from last year because it just seems to fit:
‘It’s summer time, summer time. Sum-sum, summer time!’
School’s out. Finally says Mom. Summer sure took her time getting here, eh? She gimped onto the calendar with the alacrity of a crippled snail. Even so, as every cell of our beings opens to the long-lost sun, drinking in a taste of summer, we’re celebrating. Sort of.
Why? Well, have you noticed? Summer is a con artist.
After the ninety-miles-an-hour-with-your-hair/fur-on-fire frenetic pace of the school year, summer cons us into thinking we’re in for a “break.” “Slow down,” she coos, “kick back. Rest up. Wind down. After all, it’s summer!”
Warm weather whirlwind?
Well, maybe in an alternate universe,sniffs Her Momness. Then how come summer is often as jam-packed and crazy as the rest of the year? It’s just a different kind of crazy. Calendar still fill. Planners book up. The only difference seems to be the weather and venue – at home or on the beach, desert, mountain peak, park, library, baseball diamonds or pool – other than the school campus. For a lot of people, particularly families, summer is just another word for “warm weather whirlwind.”
Mom used to lean into summer with the noblest of intentions: Dive into multiple Summer Reading programs. Polish a coupla dozen blog posts. Read nine million books. Draft a zillion book reviews.
That lasts for maybe a week or two, until summer hits full-throttle and that “have so much time now” illusion evaporates into a moist mirage.
Manageable and bite-sized
Someone suggested a summer goal of setting aside two hours a day to write. Realizing that summer is a charmer, a warm-weather chimera, Mom just laughed. And poked along at my own pace: devoting twenty minutes a day to write uninterrupted. It’s not as impressive as two hours, but it’s manageable. Realistic. Bite-sized.
Know what? asketh Her Momness. She found that if she focuses on a bite-sized goal and keep at it, she gets it. Know what else? Twenty minutes can easily tumble into 40 or 60 or 90 or more.
What bite-sized writing goals have you set for this summer?
How I Was Struck By a Random Act of Kindness
The day before… Some very sketchy looking bales of hay.
Her Mom-ness says kindness can be hard to find these days. Elusive. Rare. So when you find it – or it finds you – be thankful. And reciprocate.
I’m not sure what that means. But it makes Mom smile. So it must be good. Like the other day.
We were out for a looong walk. Miles from home, her Mom-ness and I met up with another dog in a school playground. We played chase the ball for a while. Then the other dog went home with her Mom.
After the last ball toss, I came back limping. Mom noticed. We were a long way from my nice, soft doggie bed. Our water was almost gone. I could barely walk. How were we going to get home?
New MG Sci Fi a Kick in the Pants
Rieden Reece and the Dark Shadow
By Matt Guzman (Mindfast Publishing, July 2025)
Genre: Middle Grade/YA Fantasy
Pages (Kindle): 257
Via: Author Request
“We’ve got a million things to do and ten seconds to do them.”
Rieden Reece is busy. He must save his big bro. His Mom. Himself. And rescue humanity from AI “integration” (think The Borg). As in, the fate of the world hangs in the balance. So no pressure, broseph in this delightful and uber absorbing sci fi adventure for middle grade readers and up.
Here’s the 4-1-1:
Pages & Paws 