Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

Book number 14 and I still have not tired of the people of Three Pines and want to take the tour - there is a tour.  Gamache is still fighting for all that is right in a world that keeps finding ways to be corrupt and full of evil choices.  I thought Penny might stop writing after the death of her husband who was the inspiration for Armand Gamache. There better be a number 15 because there are a lot of loose ends this time. Start with Still Life although it is not the best.  Go to Three Pines for the mystery. Stay for the characters.

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

I didn't realize until I started reading this (Kellen's Christmas read choice) that it was a "shuvunda" book - a book that was either actually or metaphorically "shoved under "the bed for future reference.  Written in 1939, it was immediately embraced by those who feared that we were headed for another war and spent much of its early years banned.  It is a profound insight into the futility of war as the reader is invited into the mind and imagination of Joe Bolton.  Severely injured in WWI, he cannot move hear, see or speak.  What or who are we if we are just our mind,  our memories, our insights but no way to communicate?  And what if what we have to say, nobody wants to hear.