I added two more books to my total for the year recently, pushing the number to 18. I gravitated to very fun novels by authors I have enjoyed before. I knew they would not take a lot of time to read partially because that’s how they’re written and partly because I really enjoyed them.

Old Boys by Nick Spalding: I have now read eight of his novels, even of them since the pandemic started. He has written a ton of books and publishes exclusively through Amazon. No one will ever mistake them for groundbreaking literature, but most of the time I have really enjoyed them. This one hit the spot, which I appreciated because the last couple did not rank as high on my list. I found the fish out of water tale between a guy filled with anxiety about getting older and his rock star father who feared nothing to contain many surprises. Some of Spalding’s books are very cookie-cutter, but this one took more chances which really satisfied me. The books are pretty much always fun, but this one just had a stronger message and deeper plot to go along with the hijinks.

You Spin Me by Karen Grey: This completes my journey through her Boston classics trilogy. I read the first two in the summer of 2022. I don’t know why it took me so long to dive into this one. She brings together an actress and DJ, both dealing with their own histories. As I have said before, I will devour these because they take place in the ’80s when I was going through college. The references hit me right where I live. But the journey these two characters on really ended up satisfying me more than I expected. There are complexities to personalities that make this a very engrossing read. There is a bonus book in this series that I think I will have to get now.