Oh this was good. So very, very good.

There were times when I wanted to reach through the page and shake Andy for some of the decisions he made.

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own—between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.

This is my latest book-club read and when I went to add it to my Booklikes shelf, I was surprised to see it was already on there, marked as 'Planning to Read'. Further investigation shows a 'Booklikers Recommendations' tag. I have no idea who recommended it but I'm looking forward to reading it particularly because the town where it is set is the one I lived in for twelve years before moving to North Carolina.

A week or so ago, I watched a South Korean horror/thriller movie called Office. It started off with one of the office workers going home, killing his whole family, and then running off somewhere. The police, looking for leads, talked to his coworkers, who all felt that he wasn't the type of man to do such a thing. The movie then focused on one of the office interns, a young woman who'd been working her butt off for 5 months, desperately hoping to be hired on as a full-time employee. The only person in the office who'd ever been nice to her was the guy who murdered his whole family. As the movie progressed, viewers got to gradually watch all the cracks appear - the abusive boss, upper-management that only cared about what news of the murders would do to the company's image, employees who were expected to devote all their time to their jobs, etc. The ending was a bit weird, and I'm still not sure if there were supposed to be supernatural aspects or not.

At any rate, I'd like recommendations of books like this: thrillers or horror in workplace settings, preferably office jobs. I'd prefer a tense/suspenseful tone over something more comedic. I've been looking for recommendation lists that might work and here's what I have so far. Feel free to say you'd second one of the recommendations on the list. I haven't read any of these books.

- The Firm by John Grisham

- The Intern's Handbook by Shane Kuhn

- My Work is Not Yet Done: Three Tales of Corporate Horror by Thomas Ligotti

- The Subsidiary by Matias Celedon

- The Consultant by Bentley Little

As far as stuff I've actually read goes, the closest things I can think of are:

- Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix - Not quite what I was thinking of, but it's horror in a workplace, so it fits in a way.

- Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothumb - Neither horror nor a thriller. I recall it being a bit of a black comedy, but it's been years since I read it, so I could be remembering wrong.

Can anyone recommend some "Creature Feature" books along the lines of Jaws, the Meg series, Jurassic Park, Congo, The Hatching, Skitter...etc.

By creature, I mean animal, bug, alien, mythical, killer plant, you name it. Creature verses humans sort of thing. Cheesy B movie types welcome. All age ranges welcome (children to adult) Short story, novella or full length novels all welcome.

Feel free to promo your own book, but please include a couple other recommendations, too! I do do read and reviews, but I'm honestly nobody here (hah) and bookstagram. Lol Though my Instagram is leighas_life and I have over 100 followers, though lets be honest, half are probably spam. :/

You'd have to be living under a rock buried somewhere halfway down to the center of the earth in order not to be aware that in recent years our beautiful world has been shaken up by a number of crises the likes of which I, at least, have not experienced in my entire lifetime -- I can't remember any other time when I have so consistently felt the urge to put on blinders and wrap myself in a giant comfort blanket approximately 10 seconds after opening a newspaper (or its online edition), or 10 seconds into listening to the news.  Obviously playing ostrich has never done anybody any good, but God knows, it's getting hard not to succumb to the temptation. 

So what does a book lover do in order to keep her sanity, equip herself to separate fact from fiction (in news reporting, politics, and plenty of other places) and deal with rat catchers and fire mongers?  She turns to books, of course.

I've decided to build a "Freedom and Future" personal library, which will contain books which (1) have either deeply impacted my personal thinking or that I expect will come to do so in the future, or which (2) provide valuable food for thought in today's social and political debate, both nationally and internationally; be it based on a profound analysis of the issues at stake (as a matter of principle or long term), or because even though they may not be of lasting significance, they contain a thought-provoking contribution to the current debate (even if they were not written with that express purpose in mind -- e.g., books about historic persons or events or books by long-dead authors).  I'm not expecting to binge-read the books added to this library, but I'm looking to add them to the mix with a bit more focus than I've been doing of late.

In the past couple of days, I've trawled my own bookshelves for books to add to the library, but this is one area where, even more than anywhere else, I'm looking for suggestions -- I can already see that I'm at risk of falling back on my old standbys, and that's the last thing I want to do here.

So, tell me: What books have recently made you sit up -- or which are the books that you've come to turn to and trust for guidance and inspiration?

These can be fiction or nonfiction, and books from any or all types of genres (I only draw the line at splatter punk).  As the first part of my new library's title indicates, liberty and freedom rights are a focus, but I'm really looking for food for thought on all the issues that I think are going to determine the path human society will be taking (hence the "future" part); including, in no particular order:

* Liberty and freedom(s) (of opinion and press, movement, association, worship, the arts, etc.),

* Equal access to justice and judicial independence and impartiality,

* Equality and empowerment (gender / sexuality, race, etc.), and the plurality of society;

* Poverty / the increasing gap in the distribution of wealth,

* Education (general, political, etc.);

* Funding and freedom of research and science,

* Protection of the environment,

* Democratic institutions and processes and how to safeguard them,

* Xenophobia, war(mongering) and the preservation / restoration of peace,

* Persecution, migration, and internal displacement,

* Free trade and globalization,

* Technological advances,

* Ethics -- in all of the above areas.

I'm adding a few books to this post to give you a rough idea of what sort of things I've so far added to this library -- please take them as very approximate guidance only, though.  It can be something totally different ... really anything that's jogged your brain or made you reevaluate your perspective on any of the above issues.

Thanks in advance!