Bad Blood by John Sandford

Another F*ckin' Flowers book. He might be topping Davenport as my favorite character...might.

Spoilers ahead:


We start this one off with a young adult murdering another adult. It's all very vague, there's no background or particular reason why this young man, Tripp, committed the murder. While Tripp is in jail, he is murdered. His death is made to look like a suicide by Crocker, one of the cops in charge of the station that night. Then Crocker is murdered, made to look like a suicide.

This trail of deaths prompts Lee Coakley, the lady sheriff, to bring in Virgil Flowers. The little area that Coakley is in charge of usually has maybe 1 murder every 5 years, so 3 in a week is more than they can handle. Flowers comes in and does his thing that leads him to another murder years earlier.

After a lot of digging, something even more heinous than the murders turn up. A church, called the World of Spirit, has a large congregation among the farmers but rumors of child abuse keep surfacing. Emmett Einstadt is the head of the church and pretty despicable.

It's a long haul to get the church taken down but well worth it. Full of frightening concepts that actually make the murders the tamest part of the book.

The Barefoot Book by Daniel Howell

I got this book as an early review from Librarything. It called out to me from the list of books because, as much as I like buying and looking at shoes, I don't like wearing them very often. I'm in my ever-present flip flops until the first snow arrives and then back in them once the snow is gone.

This book gives you 50 reasons to go barefoot, a no-brainer for someone like me, but pretty compelling for people who think wearing shoes is the best thing to do for their feet. If you think about it, your feet are not fragile little things that need protecting. They withstand our weight, absorb the shock of our walking and running, help us keep our balance, etc. Wearing shoes immobilizes the feet, not letting them absorb impact or expand the way they need to in order to help us move.

Women's shoes are particularly bad, and it doesn't take a PhD to note that. Just look at those things!! Of which I have many many pairs. Men's shoes are just as bad and running/athletic shoes are pretty bad too. You get an education with this book on how shoes are made and how they purposefully alter how your foot moves (twisted ankles, anyone?).

An interesting note, children's feet stop developing around age 8, so they really shouldn't be in shoes up until then. I've always always wondered by people put shoes on babies and children who can't walk yet. Just for looks, obviously, but let those feet run free! Baby shoes are pretty silly.

Even if you don't like being barefoot, read this book, it may change your mind about ditching your shoes. Even if it's for a little while.