Highly Recommended Reads for 2013

• Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay
• The Rules of Wolfe by James Carlos Blake
• The Highway by C.J. Box
• The Rise and Fall of North American Indians by William Brandon
• Surviving Vennie* by Howard Robert Charles
• The Sentry by Robert Crais
• Deadwood by Peter Dexter
• The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
• Red Man Down by Elizabeth Gunn
• Let it Burn by Steve Hamilton
• The Orphan Master's Son (Pulitzer Winner) by Adam Johnson
• A Serpent's Tooth by Craig Johnson
• Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
• Game of Thrones by Geroge R.R. Martin
• Clash of Kings by Geroge R.R. Martin
• Chasm by Susan Cummins Miller
• A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
• The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman
• 1491 by Charles C. Mann
• Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson

NOTE: Surviving Vennie is a rare jewel--a self-published memoir and story of the adventures and disasters of life with Vennie (the (author's mother). It's a fascinating tale of life in the twentieth century, from surviving the depression, being taken prisoner by the Japanese in World War II, and coping with a mother determined to marry a rich man to insure she and her family lived the good life. It didn't necessarily work out as she planned. I found the story particularly fascinating because some of it took place in and around Hutchinson, KS (where I was born) and nearby Partridge (where Charles and I went to school in the community that helped inspire my Mad Dog and Englishman series)--a very special place.