All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Titus is the new sheriff, the first black one, in a backwater Virginia town that is still steeped in Southern racism. What started as the shooting of a beloved white teacher by a young black man turned into something much different, something more heinous. A serial killer is on the loose and Titus and his small department must tackle the case.

I read this author’s earlier work Blacktop Wasteland and rated it low. I found the thick southern black dialogue clumsy and hard to follow in print, and the characters not likeable, so I was reluctant to try another of his but this had good ratings and reviews. I listened to the audiobook this time and and found the excellent reader to sound natural and understandable with similar dialog. I was also impressed with both the literary nature of the writing and the author’s knowledge of police procedure and terminology. I’m a former FBI agent as is Titus. It’s nice to read a police procedural where the FBI is not depicted as case-stealing suits with no street smarts. There’s a good mystery here, and I wish the author had stuck more with that and spent fewer pages harping on white racism. I know it’s real but I’m looking for entertainment not social commentary in a police thriller. In any event, I got both in this one. I recommend it, at least in audiobook form.

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The Wedding People by Alison Espach
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I only made it about halfway through. The writing was witty at times, but Phoebe was an unattractive character – suicidal, self-doubting, intellectually lazy, drank too much, smoked, was too forward toward Gary, rude to Lila, etc. The rest of the wedding people were pretty unappealing, too, but the main problem was the lack of a discernible plot. I just couldn’t stay interested after 50 pages or so.

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I have continued to seek out new music to add to my playlists. I have been looking primarily at stuff from the early 20th century. You’ll see some ragtime, blues, and gospel in these latest additions. Here’s the list of additions:

I also removed some songs I got tired of, or at least I removed them from some playlists to reduce the frequency I hear them. Here below are few of these (not a complete list).

I actually reduced my lists quite a bit, especially reducing the piano solo stuff, mostly boogie woogie and blues, while adding a couple of new ones. I didn’t reduce the classical pieces I have in there, and I think I’ll try to add a few more short pieces the next time around.

Out of Your Mind: The Biggest Mysteries of the Human Brain by Jorge Cham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This exploration of our brains by two scientists turned out to be more entertaining than I expected. I expected it to be informative, but not as much fun. The chapter titles tell you the gist of the contents: “Where is the Mind?”; “Why Do We Love?”; “Will AI Take My Job?”; “What Is Addiction?” etc. One of the scientists is also a cartoonist and the book is illustrated with his cartoons throughout. At first I almost rolled my eyes at that, but I came to enjoy the cartoons. They always made the point in the text well and usually with a touch of humor. The book is clearly intended for a lay audience, but there is some interesting science in every chapter. The book is a quick read.

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