When Christmas Comes by Andrew Klavan

 A pretty good short novel of suspense. It introduces Cameron Winter, an ex-Army operative with a melancholy nature. Good enough I'll try the next in the series.

While the Clock Ticked by Franklin W. Dixon

 #11 in the Hardy Boys series. This is a good one, featuring thieves stealing from ships in Barmet Bay and a mysterious old house with secret rooms. Chet Morton has a prominent role and is critical to the Hardys solving the case.

So far the best two Hardy Boys books are The Mystery of Cabin Island followed by this one.

The Leper of St. Giles by Ellis Peters (again)

 Re-read of an excellent Cadfael medieval mystery. This one is not just a good mystery, but has good spiritual insight concerning love and sacrifice. Maybe my favorite Cadfael.

Hunting for Hidden Gold by Franklin W. Dixon

 #5 in the Hardy Boys series. I had forgotten how violent they can be. In this entry, the Hardys are chased and shot at by criminals multiple time, nearly drown in an icy river, barely escape being crushed in a mine collapse, fight against a criminal with a gun with shovels, and nearly get devoured by a pack of hungry wolves.

Of course the violence is cartoonish in the sense that no one ever really gets hurt. The bullets never find their mark. When Joe or Frank get cold cocked, they wake up with a bit of headache but never any lasting injury. What's remarkable is how blasé their father Fenton is at his sons getting shot at.

The story is pretty good, standard Hardy.

The Mystery of Cabin Island by Franklin W. Dixon

 #8 in the Hardy Boys series. This was a surprisingly good mystery, actually a page turner.

The Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

 Long and involved autobiography by the very influential French Enlightenment figure. Paul Johnson's evaluation of the man is on target in his book Intellectuals: How could anyone have ever taken him seriously? He certainly could write well, and had some original and unorthodox ideas, but they really don't ultimately make sense and the man himself was vain, paranoid and childish.

It's a testament to the gullibility of modern man that this man had the influence he did.

The Block Party by Jamie Day

 A neighborhood thriller along the lines of Big Little Lies. Pretty good.

The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom (again)

 Re-read of an all-time classic, and one of those books that is a companion book with which you dialog over a lifetime. Every time I read it, I come away with new insights, and also perhaps new places where I would disagree or at least qualify the ideas of Bloom.

The Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe

 Tom Wolfe takes on the Theory of Evolution and specifically the evolution of language with his usual engaging style and human insight. I quick and excellent read.

Curing Mad Truths by Remi Brague (again)

 I read this back in 2023 and just reread it. It's an excellent, short book about the philosophical roots of our current "madness." This is a book I will reread every few years.

Bitter Frost by Bryan Gruley

 I've been hoping Gruley would write some more fiction. I enjoyed his Starvation Lake series that I read more than 10 years ago.  This novel is a good story about a former hockey player accused of murder.

Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea

 Another good "popcorn" book by Donlea. Donlea loves the time-shift plot, where events in the past interact with contemporary events to drive the plot. In this one, a woman who was under indictment for murder dies (supposedly) in the twin towers on 9/11. Twenty years later, her story becomes enmeshed with that of a TV true crime reporter whose father also happens to be a much wanted white collar criminal. An easy and fun read.

A Map of Life by Frank Sheed

 Excellent short primer on the Catholic Church and its place in our lives.

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly

 Another novel in the Harry Bosch series, this one primarily featuring Renee Ballard, an LAPD cop who works with Bosch in his retirement. It's another good entry by Connelly.

The book was written in 2021 at the height of the COVID hysteria, and it seems Connelly bought into the nonsense while writing the book. It's implied that anyone not fully on board with mask and vaccine mandates is a science denier. That attitude hasn't aged well looking back four years later.

There are also some takes on the Jan 6 "insurrection" which look silly in retrospect, like this one:

"The late-night cable news was all a rehash of the day's staggering events in Washington. There was now word that a police officer had succumbed to injuries sustained while defending the Capitol. All cops go to work each day, thinking it could their last. But Ballard doubted that officer ever imagined that he would give his life in the line of duty in the way he did. She went to sleep with dark thoughts about the country, her city, and the future."

This, of course, is a reference to Brian Sicknick, who the media tried to turn into a Jan. 6 martyr at the hands of those violent MAGA insurrectionists, claiming he was injured by a thrown fire extinguisher.  In fact, he died of a stroke a few days after Jan. 6, and the medical examiner determined he died of natural causes.

The only Jan. 6 death definitively caused by the days events was that of Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed woman shot by a Capitol Hill guard while she was climbing through a window. 

Retrieving Realism by Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Taylor

 Excellent book defending realist philosophy by critiquing the "mediational" presupposition in modern philosophy.

Long Time Gone by Charlie Donlea

 A thriller about an adopted woman who investigates the disappearance of her biological parents. Pretty good.

Footprints Under the Window by Franklin W. Dixon

 #12 in the Hardy Boys series.

The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

 Not bad. Another quick read.

What Have We Done by Alex Finlay

 Another thriller from Finlay, a quick read. Not as good as If Something Happens To Me, but not bad.

If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay

 Pretty good thriller. I'll try more of his books.

Turned Around by Peter Kwasniewski

 A defense of the Catholic Latin Mass against objections, especially as compared to the New Mass. Excellent.

Three Inch Teeth by C.J. Box

 Latest in the Joe Pickett series. Pretty formulaic by now but I still enjoy the series.