We are approaching the start of daylight savings time and thoughts of spring, so time to update Books Read February 2018 and other activities.

February saw the first four chapters of Pestilence: Journey Through The Woods live on the website. Travis Makepeace, with the help of a very excitable Cooper Gatley, understands the severity of their situation. Over the next several weeks, you can follow their plight as they head for the safety of a ranger’s station.

Our January weather mirrored the cold, snowy opening of Pestilence, but our February turned warm and spring-like. Typical mountain weather, though, because now we have snow flurries in the forecast for the next several days. Spring will come soon enough and that presents great photography opportunities. I expect to have some more photography posts over the next few weeks.

Regardless of the weather, each evening is spent curled up with a good book – or at least an e-book. Dogs snoring, fire in the fireplace, and a good tale to follow. So on to . . .

Books Read February 2018

In February, I read 8 books bringing my annual total to 18 books, right on target to achieve my target of 100 books for the year.

Full disclosure – the links in this post are all Amazon affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of those links, I receive a small commission from Amazon. I have no other connection to the authors or their books.

Harlan Coben – Home – Last month, I read Deal Breaker, the first of Coben’s series featuring Myron Bolitar and his sidekick, Win Lockwood. I found the constant sarcasm between the two characters annoying but enjoyed the story. On purpose, I jumped much later in the series to Home and liked it better. I have a stand alone novel by Coben on my desk to read this month.

Lisa Gardner – Catch Me and Touch & Go – Gardner can create creepy, despicable serial killers that can make your skin crawl – and I love it. Like Coben, I wasn’t a big fan after reading her first book, but Gardner has quickly become one of my favorite authors and both of these books are excellent. If you like some really sick bad guys, Gardner is great.

Lee Child – Personal, Make Me, and Night School – Jack Reacher. Big, tall, physically overwhelming hero (i.e., not Tom Cruise). Child’s writing style of short, clipped sentences gives the novels a quick-paced rhythm emphasizing the racing action in these stories. (If you like the movies but haven’t read the books – read the books. You will understand why so many of us may like Cruise in a lot in other roles, but he isn’t Jack Reacher.)

Michael Connelly – The Drop – Harry Bosch. As much as I enjoy Jack Reacher’s action, I love Harry Bosch’s thought processes. He analyzes crime scenes with incredible detail, insists on paper files for the Murder Book (the notes from all detectives on a case), and is relentless in his pursuit of the criminal.

Nevada Barr – Hard Truth – Anna Pigeon continues her travels to National Parks with a stint at Rocky Mountain National Park. Shortly after her arrival, two little girls come walking out of the woods weeks after disappearing with a still missing third child. What happened to the girls? Does it have to do with the unusual religious group just outside the park boundaries? Are the other rangers complicit? Be aware that this is probably the darkest of the Anna Pigeon stories.

I failed my commitment to read new authors this month. I had two new authors to read in February, but they are now on my March list.

So what are you reading?

Today’s featured image includes a photo by Roman Kraft which has been used with permission from Unsplash