Coni's bookshelf: all

Coni's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 06 Apr 2025 10:45:07 -0700 60 Coni's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Malice Aforethought 41843432 "Possibly the best shocker ever written." �� The English Review

Dr. Edmund Bickleigh married above his station. Although popular and well respected in his little Devonshire community, he seethes with resentment at the superior social status of his domineering wife, Julia. Bickleigh soothes his inferiority complex by seducing as many of the local women as he possibly can �� but with the collapse of his latest fling and a fresh dose of sneering contempt from Julia, the doctor resolves to silence his wife forever and begins plotting the perfect murder.
With Malice Aforethought, Francis��Iles produced not just a darkly comic narrative of psychological suspense but also a landmark in crime fiction: for the first time, the murderer's identity was revealed at the start of the tale. Hailed as a tour de force by the British press of its day, the book retains its shock value and stands at #16 in the Crime Writers' Association ranking of the Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.

]]> 289 Francis Iles 0486834611 Coni 0 currently-reading 4.03 1931 Malice Aforethought

author: Francis Iles
name: Coni
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1931
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)]]> 59336841
London, England: Slough House is where the washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what's left of their failed careers. The "slow horses," as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here. Maybe they messed up an op badly and can't be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they all have in common, though, is they all want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.

River Cartwright, one such “slow horse,�� is bitter about his failure and about his tedious assignment transcribing cell phone conversations. When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. But is the victim who he first appears to be? And what’s the kidnappers�� connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone has his own agenda.]]> 336 Mick Herron Coni 0 currently-reading 4.29 2010 Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)

author: Mick Herron
name: Coni
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> We Are All Guilty Here 221544394
Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.

For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.

But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.

Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?]]> 448 Karin Slaughter 0063336774 Coni 0 to-read 4.16 2025 We Are All Guilty Here

author: Karin Slaughter
name: Coni
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Thorns 217905294 In this hauntingly twisted tale, an author reconnects with an old boarding school friend, forcing her to reckon with their shared past and the imaginary creature she thought they left behind.

Touch a line, you break your spine.

Stacey is the dusty air, the cracked soil, the drought. To thirteen-year-old Bethany Sloane, she’s everything.

Abandoned by her mother at a remote African boarding school, Bethany will do anything to stay in Stacey’s good graces. And that means learning the rules of each twisted game.

Touch a crack, you break your back.

Years later, Bethany is a bestselling author. Disabled now, she can’t remember what happened back in the bush. But there’s no mistaking Stacey Preston’s name in her inbox.

Glassy, glassy, cut my arsey.

That email brings Bethany’s childhood rushing back. The Glass Man was just a story the Thorns invented, a game of wits. But every game has its rules—and consequences for breaking them. To stay alive this round, Bethany needs to play right into Stacey’s hands.

Dark and disturbing, The Thorns explores the horrifying world of adolescent abuse, controlling friendships, and blinding obsession.]]> 392 Dawn Kurtagich 1662526962 Coni 0 currently-reading 3.54 2025

author: Dawn Kurtagich
name: Coni
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> We Do Not Part 205436018 Han Kang’s most revelatory book since The Vegetarian, We Do Not Part tells the story of a friendship between two women while powerfully reckoning with a hidden chapter of Korean history.

One winter morning, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at a hospital in Seoul. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet—a white bird called Ama.

A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon’s house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal—or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn't yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into the darkness that awaits her at her friend's house.

Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully illuminates a forgotten chapter in Korean history, buried for decades—bringing to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering, it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable violence—and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be.]]> 272 Han Kang 0593595459 Coni 0 to-read 3.88 2021 We Do Not Part

author: Han Kang
name: Coni
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House of Eve 176443755
“A triumph of historical fiction�� ( The Washington Post ), an instant New York Times bestseller, and a Reese’s Book Club pick, set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.

1950s fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.

Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his parents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.

With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.]]> 384 Sadeqa Johnson 1982197374 Coni 0 to-read 4.24 2023 The House of Eve

author: Sadeqa Johnson
name: Coni
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Maid (Molly the Maid #1) 57777139 A dead body is one mess she can't clean up on her own.

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter--she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly's orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what's happening, Molly's unusual demeanour has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black. But will they be able to find the real killer before it's too late?

Both a Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different--and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.]]> 304 Nita Prose 0735241333 Coni 0 to-read 3.72 2022 The Maid (Molly the Maid #1)

author: Nita Prose
name: Coni
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Raven Black (Shetland Island, #1)]]> 2320878 The basis for the hit series "Shetland" now airing on PBS

Winner of Britain's coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, Ann Cleeves introduces a dazzling new suspense series to U.S. mystery readers.

Raven Black begins on New Year's Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion falls on Magnus. Inspector Jimmy Perez enters an investigative maze that leads deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.]]> 376 Ann Cleeves 0312359675 Coni 0 to-read 3.85 2006 Raven Black (Shetland Island, #1)

author: Ann Cleeves
name: Coni
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Very Bad Thing 202991908 From New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison comes a taut thriller about one author at the pinnacle of her career, whose past threatens to destroy everything she has—and everyone she knows.

A great writer knows when to deliver a juicy plot twist. But for one author, the biggest twist of all is her own murder.

With a number of hit titles and a highly anticipated movie tie-in, celebrated novelist Columbia Jones is at the top of her game. Fans around the world adore her. But on the final night of her latest book tour, one face in the crowd makes the author collapse. And by the next morning, she’s lying dead in a pool of blood.

Columbia’s death shocks the world and leaves Darian, her daughter and publicist, reeling. The police have nothing to go on—at first. But then details emerge, pointing to the author’s illicit past. Turns out many people had motive to kill Columbia. And with a hungry reporter and frustrated cop on the trail, her secrets won’t stay buried long. But how many lives will they shatter as the truth comes out?]]> 446 J.T. Ellison 1662520328 Coni 0 currently-reading 4.17 2024 A Very Bad Thing

author: J.T. Ellison
name: Coni
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[This Is Why We Lied (Will Trent, #12)]]> 213558169 The next thrilling suspense featuring Will Trent and Sara Linton from Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and After That Night!

Everyone here is a liar, but only one of us is a killer��

A secluded cabin retreat

For GBI investigator Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton, McAlpine Lodge seems like the ideal getaway to celebrate their honeymoon. Set on a gorgeous, off-the-grid mountaintop property, it’s the perfect place to unplug and reconnect. Until a bone-chilling scream cuts through the night.

A murderer in their midst

Mercy McAlpine, the manager of the Lodge, is dead. With a vicious storm raging and the one access road to the property washed out, the murderer must be someone on the mountain. But as Will and Sara investigate the McAlpine family and the other guests, they realize that everyone here is lying��.Lying about their past. Lying to their family. Lying to themselves.

Who killed Mercy McAlpine?

It soon becomes clear that normal rules don’t apply at McAlpine Lodge, and Will and Sara are going to have to watch their step at every turn. Trapped on the resort, they must untangle a decades-old web of secrets to discover what happened to Mercy. And with the killer poised to strike again, the trip of a lifetime becomes a race against the clock…]]> 464 Karin Slaughter 0063336731 Coni 0 to-read 4.14 2024 This Is Why We Lied (Will Trent, #12)

author: Karin Slaughter
name: Coni
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Gone-Away World 3007704 531 Nick Harkaway 0434018422 Coni 0 to-read 4.10 2008

author: Nick Harkaway
name: Coni
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Angelmaker 12266560 Joe Spork spends his days fixing antique clocks. The son of infamous London criminal Mathew “Tommy Gun�� Spork, he has turned his back on his family’s mobster history and aims to live a quiet life. That orderly existence is suddenly upended when Joe activates a particularly unusual clockwork mechanism. His client, Edie Banister, is more than the kindly old lady she appears to be—she’s a retired international secret agent. And the device? It’s a 1950s doomsday machine. Having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the British government and a diabolical South Asian dictator who is also Edie’s old arch-nemesis. On the upside, Joe’s got a girl: a bold receptionist named Polly whose smarts, savvy and sex appeal may be just what he needs. With Joe’s once-quiet world suddenly overrun by mad monks, psychopathic serial killers, scientific geniuses and threats to the future of conscious life in the universe, he realizes that the only way to survive is to muster the courage to fight, help Edie complete a mission she abandoned years ago and pick up his father’s old gun...]]> 478 Nick Harkaway 0307595951 Coni 0 to-read 3.90 2012 Angelmaker

author: Nick Harkaway
name: Coni
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Invisible Girl 56269832 AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

��I absolutely loved Invisible Girl�� Lisa Jewell has a way of combining furiously twisty, utterly gripping plots with wonderfully rich characterization—she has such compassion for her characters, and we feel we know them utterly�� A triumph!�� —Lucy Foley, New York Times bestselling author

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone returns with an intricate thriller about a young woman’s disappearance and a group of strangers whose lives intersect in its wake.

Young Saffyre Maddox spent three years under the care of renowned child psychologist Roan Fours. When Dr. Fours decides their sessions should end, Saffyre feels abandoned. She begins looking for ways to connect with him, from waiting outside his office to walking through his neighborhood late at night. She soon learns more than she ever wanted to about Roan and his deceptively perfect family life. On a chilly Valentine’s night, Saffyre will disappear, taking any secrets she has learned with her.

Owen Pick’s life is falling apart. In his thirties and living in his aunt’s spare bedroom, he has just been suspended from his job as a teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct—accusations he strongly denies. Searching for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark world of incel forums, where he meets a charismatic and mysterious figure.

Owen lives across the street from the Fours family. The Fours have a bad feeling about their neighbor; Owen is a bit creepy and suspect and their teenaged daughter swears he followed her home from the train station one night. Could Owen be responsible? What happened to the beautiful missing Saffyre, and does her disappearance truly connect them all?

Evocative, vivid, and unputdownable, Lisa Jewell’s latest thriller is another “haunting, atmospheric, stay-up-way-too-late read�� (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author).]]> 384 Lisa Jewell 1982137347 Coni 0 to-read 3.81 2020 Invisible Girl

author: Lisa Jewell
name: Coni
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast, #1)]]> 39320556 Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day.

New York Times bestseller *��4 starred reviews *��A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * A Kirkus Best Book of the Year * A Booklist Editors' Choice of 2017 * A Bustle Best YA Novel of 2017 * A Paste Magazine Best YA Book of 2017 * A Book Riot Best Queer Book of 2017 * A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of the Year * A BookPage Best YA Book of the Year

On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.

Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.

In the tradition of Before I Fall and If I Stay, They Both Die at the End is a tour de force from acclaimed author Adam Silvera, whose debut, More Happy Than Not, the New York Times called “profound.”]]> 389 Adam Silvera 0062457802 Coni 0 to-read 3.83 2017 They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast, #1)

They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast, #1)

author: Adam Silvera
name: Coni
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The God of the Woods 199700434 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide.

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 478 Liz Moore 0593418913 Coni 0 to-read 4.10 2024 The God of the Woods

author: Liz Moore
name: Coni
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wedding People 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Coni 0 to-read 4.12 2024 The Wedding People

author: Alison Espach
name: Coni
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mexican Gothic 52873094
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> 304 Silvia Moreno-Garcia Coni 0 currently-reading 3.76 2020 Mexican Gothic

author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Coni
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> First Lie Wins 164444179 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593492918.

Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge. . . .]]> 340 Ashley Elston Coni 0 currently-reading 3.97 2024 First Lie Wins

author: Ashley Elston
name: Coni
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Last One at the Wedding 203590129 From the bestselling author of Hidden Pictures comes a breathtaking work of suspense about a father trying to save his daughter from a life-altering decision that will put everything he loves on the line.

Frank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He was convinced that their estrangement would become permanent. He’s even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic, and determined to finally make things right.

He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate—very secluded, very luxurious, very much out of his league. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she’s marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But it’s difficult: Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn’t seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose Maggie forever.

An edge-of-your-seat thriller that delves deep into the heart of one family, The Last One at the Wedding is a work of brilliant suspense from a true modern master.]]> 352 Jason Rekulak 1250895790 Coni 0 3.76 2024

author: Jason Rekulak
name: Coni
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: currently-reading, audible, family-drama, mystery-thriller
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)]]> 23168277
The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.]]> 371 Viet Thanh Nguyen 0802123457 Coni 5 Catch-22 when I was reading and laughing at how screwed up everything was before, during, and after the Vietnam War.

Even with that humor, the first part of the book had the most intense action sequence when parts of the army, including the narrator, were fleeing Saigon as it was falling and trying to get aboard a plane while being shot at constantly. I've read a few books lately where the action writing was not ideal, but instead a jumbled mess where I had no idea what was going on. This was written in such a clear, concise way that led to the tension and drama that was unfolding.

After the narrator gets to America, it all shifts a bit. There is more humor but the longer he is in America and the more the book flashes back to his points where he is confessing what happened to him (the entire book is his confession), it becomes more and more serious. He is traumatized and does not realize it. The realization of something he blocked from his memory is jarring, but real. It was hard to read, but I know why it was there. It was hard for him to experience it and he wasn't an active participant. Oof!

I know there is a sequel to his, but I was really happy with the way this ended. I'm not sure if I want to continue reading, but I might be curious one day. In the meantime, I'm not sure I ever want to eat squid again.]]> 4.00 2015 The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)

author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
name: Coni
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves: bookclub-wgar, e-book, literary-fiction, non-white-voices, spy
review:
The first part of this book is very funny. It is funny in a cynical way about how war and the aftermath are so fucked up. It reminded me a lot of Catch-22 when I was reading and laughing at how screwed up everything was before, during, and after the Vietnam War.

Even with that humor, the first part of the book had the most intense action sequence when parts of the army, including the narrator, were fleeing Saigon as it was falling and trying to get aboard a plane while being shot at constantly. I've read a few books lately where the action writing was not ideal, but instead a jumbled mess where I had no idea what was going on. This was written in such a clear, concise way that led to the tension and drama that was unfolding.

After the narrator gets to America, it all shifts a bit. There is more humor but the longer he is in America and the more the book flashes back to his points where he is confessing what happened to him (the entire book is his confession), it becomes more and more serious. He is traumatized and does not realize it. The realization of something he blocked from his memory is jarring, but real. It was hard to read, but I know why it was there. It was hard for him to experience it and he wasn't an active participant. Oof!

I know there is a sequel to his, but I was really happy with the way this ended. I'm not sure if I want to continue reading, but I might be curious one day. In the meantime, I'm not sure I ever want to eat squid again.
]]> <![CDATA[The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty]]> 210454076 Power, privilege, and blood—this is the definitive and thrilling true story of Alex Murdaugh’s violent downfall, from a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter who has become an authority on the case.
��
Alex Murdaugh was a benevolent dictator—the president of the South Carolina trial lawyers�� association, a political boss, a part-time prosecutor, and a partner in his family’s law firm. He was always ready with a favor, a drink, and an invitation to Moselle, his family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate. The Murdaugh name ignited respect—and fear—for a hundred miles.

When he murdered his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at Moselle on a dark summer night, the fragile façade of Alex’s world could no longer hold. His forefathers had covered up a midnight suicide at a remote railroad crossing, a bootlegging ring run from a courthouse, and the attempted murder of a pregnant lover. Alex, too, almost walked away from his unspeakable crimes with his reputation intact, but his downfall was secured by a twist of fate, some stray mistakes, and a fateful decision by an old friend who’d finally seen enough.

Why would a man who had everything kill his wife and grown son? To unwind the roots of Alex’s ruin, award-winning journalist Valerie Bauerlein reported not just from the courthouse every day but also along the backroads and through the tidal marshes of South Carolina’s Lowcountry. When the jurors made their pilgrimage to the crime scene, trying to envision Maggie and Paul’s last moments, she walked right behind them, sensing the ghosts that haunt the Murdaughs�� now-shattered legacy.

Through masterful research and cinematic writing, The Devil at His Elbow is a transporting journey through Alex’s life, the night of the murders, and the investigation that culminated in a trial that held tens of millions spellbound. With her stunning insights and fearless instinct for the truth, Bauerlein uncovers layers of the Murdaugh murder case that have not been told.]]> 480 Valerie Bauerlein 059350058X Coni 5
This book puts everything in perspective. It really lays out everything that happened in this man's life, his immediate family's life, the people they interacted with, his family legacy, and how his family name held so much sway and power over the entire county. It goes in depth with his family history and how they amassed so much power in the community as lawyers and how everything would always go their way so after a while, they thought they were above the law. Isn't that how it always goes?

I listened to the audio book, which might make it seem difficult to keep it all straight, especially when there are so many Murdaugh men named Randolph Murdaugh and a few of the Randolphs went by Buster, but not just one! The author did a great job of giving background, but also not being so confusing about who she was talking about and what they did. Fantastic job.]]> 4.46 2024 The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty

The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty

author: Valerie Bauerlein
name: Coni
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: audible, true-crime, non-fiction, bookclub-tco
review:
I had watched a Dateline or 20/20 (or maybe both) on Alex Murdaugh and what happened with his family. It was a quick summary of all the insanity that surrounded the case of his wife and son getting murdered. It would talk about him getting shot in the head on the side of the road, but was that real or fake? It would go into a boat crash his teenage son had caused that led to the death of a teenage girl. There were millions of dollars that were stolen from families that thought their lawyer had their best interests' at heart, but instead he was stealing their money while they lost their houses, cars, and even their own hospital care. On top of all of that, there was an opioid addiction. There was a lot! I remember being a bit confused at one of the episodes about everything that was circling this man.

This book puts everything in perspective. It really lays out everything that happened in this man's life, his immediate family's life, the people they interacted with, his family legacy, and how his family name held so much sway and power over the entire county. It goes in depth with his family history and how they amassed so much power in the community as lawyers and how everything would always go their way so after a while, they thought they were above the law. Isn't that how it always goes?

I listened to the audio book, which might make it seem difficult to keep it all straight, especially when there are so many Murdaugh men named Randolph Murdaugh and a few of the Randolphs went by Buster, but not just one! The author did a great job of giving background, but also not being so confusing about who she was talking about and what they did. Fantastic job.
]]> <![CDATA[Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)]]> 47212 HARRY DRESDEN �� WIZARD

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a—well, whatever. There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks.

So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get interesting.

Magic - it can get a guy killed.]]> 372 Jim Butcher 0451457811 Coni 4
I found this book to be a lot of fun and funny. It is a pretty light read, even though it did have some dark subjects. It didn't delve into any dark subjects too seriously or have any major character development come from it, which would be nice if that happens in the future. If everything is kept surface level, I think that would work for this series too.

I'm going to try to continue on since I had a good time reading it. I started it on a plane and it is a perfect plane book. I would rate it 3.5 stars but I'm rounding it up to 4.]]> 3.99 2000 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)

author: Jim Butcher
name: Coni
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: fantasy, mystery-thriller, physical-book, recommended-to-me, series
review:
A very decent intro to a series about a down-on-his-luck wizard that is also a private investigator, so he has all the usual P.I. vices with drinking and never seeming to have enough money and a shitty car. He also has Bob that is like an assistant and I don't want to go into anymore about him because it would ruin the surprise. I did love Bob.

I found this book to be a lot of fun and funny. It is a pretty light read, even though it did have some dark subjects. It didn't delve into any dark subjects too seriously or have any major character development come from it, which would be nice if that happens in the future. If everything is kept surface level, I think that would work for this series too.

I'm going to try to continue on since I had a good time reading it. I started it on a plane and it is a perfect plane book. I would rate it 3.5 stars but I'm rounding it up to 4.
]]> The Chateau 62919401
Welcome to picturesque Provence, where the Lady of the Chateau, Séraphine Demargelasse, has opened its elegant doors to her granddaughter Darcy and three friends. Twenty years earlier, the four girlfriends studied abroad together in France and visited the old woman on the weekends, creating the group’s deep bond. But why this sudden invitation?

Amid winery tours, market visits, and fancy dinners overlooking olive groves and lavender fields, it becomes clear that each woman has a hidden reason for accepting the invitation. Then, after a wild evening’s celebration, Séraphine is found brutally murdered.

As the women search for answers to this shocking crime, fingers begin pointing and a sinister Instagram account pops up, exposing snapshots from the friends�� intimate moments at the chateau, while threatening to reveal more.

As they race to uncover who murdered Séraphine and is now stalking them, they learn the chateau houses many secrets…several worth killing for.]]> 336 Jaclyn Goldis 1668013010 Coni 4
I did read something in the book just before I got to France that stuck with me, which was the French expect you to say "Bonjour!" before any interaction, which I found to be true! Once, when I was flustered, I started talking to someone about a problem I was having without saying hello first, and they kept saying hello to me over and over again, until I remembered that bit and said "Bonjour!" and then we got down to business. My mistake!

Beyond that though, this was a mystery where I was truly guessing on who had done it until it was revealed. I was enjoying to get to know each of the characters when it would switch between them, including the person that ended up getting killed! There was a lot of mystery and a crazy backstory between a lot of people, and so many secrets.

Did some things get a little wacky at the very end? Yes. There might have been a bit too much wrap up that wasn't really necessary and would have probably have made for a stronger ending without having the killer becoming ultra villain, but I'll shrug that off as a minor thing. The rest of the book was a blast to read and I'll need to check out more from this author.]]> 3.47 2023 The Chateau

author: Jaclyn Goldis
name: Coni
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: multiple-pov, mystery-thriller, physical-book, unreliable-narrator
review:
What a fun book! I was reading about this chateau in France right before I went to Paris for my birthday. I took it with me to finish and did one night while chilling at a bar after a day of adventures.

I did read something in the book just before I got to France that stuck with me, which was the French expect you to say "Bonjour!" before any interaction, which I found to be true! Once, when I was flustered, I started talking to someone about a problem I was having without saying hello first, and they kept saying hello to me over and over again, until I remembered that bit and said "Bonjour!" and then we got down to business. My mistake!

Beyond that though, this was a mystery where I was truly guessing on who had done it until it was revealed. I was enjoying to get to know each of the characters when it would switch between them, including the person that ended up getting killed! There was a lot of mystery and a crazy backstory between a lot of people, and so many secrets.

Did some things get a little wacky at the very end? Yes. There might have been a bit too much wrap up that wasn't really necessary and would have probably have made for a stronger ending without having the killer becoming ultra villain, but I'll shrug that off as a minor thing. The rest of the book was a blast to read and I'll need to check out more from this author.
]]> <![CDATA[August Moon (Murder by Month Mystery, #4)]]> 204119206 Maybe it's time for me to leave this crazy town, hightail it back to Minneapolis, and become a cat-collecting, fist-shaking, asexual English professor...

Furious after being stood up by local hottie Johnny Leeson, Mira decides to abandon Battle Lake, Minnesota, where the women are churchgoers, the men like to hunt, and the body count is above average. But when a cheerleader bites the dust, Mira loiters long enough to snoop.

Mira is highly suspicious of the New Millennium Bible Camp, a disturbing place with a Stepford Wives meets Hee Haw vibe. Before ditching Battle Lake, Mira is hell-bent on confronting her own demons and catching a killer.]]> 250 Jess Lourey 166251929X Coni 4
My main issues was being angry at the main character. It was set up that she was going to leave and go back to a big city, which I knew wouldn't happen since this is a series and I didn't see her moving to the big city being part of her adventures. This whole series is set up for her to live in this small town. I felt like I had to waste my time reading about her getting ready to leave, finding a replacement at the library, and someone else to live in her friend's house she had been watching, while I waited for her to make the obvious realization that she didn't want to leave. Also by the end of this book (and spoiler for the beginning of the next book), there is no mention about what happened to the people she had arranged to stay at her friend's house. Did she just kick some people out to the curb? Let's just ignore that little detail.

She had based her decision on her not-even-a-romance with Johnny. The will they/won't they is very annoying to read about, the same way it is on tv shows. When there is some sexual tension starting to brew between two people is one thing, but when they know they like each other, have no other attachments, and are not getting together for no particular reason even though they want to, it makes me angry. Make a decision! Not fun to read that stuff, so I hope that storyline moves forward in future installments.

I also meant to finish up this book in August and finally be on track for reading these in the correct month, but then look at me pausing on this book for a month and finishing it in October. Dear lord, I need to get my shit together!]]> 4.22 2008 August Moon (Murder by Month Mystery, #4)

August Moon (Murder by Month Mystery, #4)

author: Jess Lourey
name: Coni
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: audible, e-book, mystery-thriller, romance
review:
The main mystery of this book was pretty dark. It involved a zealot religious organization and a dead teenage girl. I actually liked that the series was pretty dark and how she had some serious conversations with various town people. The climatic ending was quite exciting and there were some surprises that I didn't see coming.

My main issues was being angry at the main character. It was set up that she was going to leave and go back to a big city, which I knew wouldn't happen since this is a series and I didn't see her moving to the big city being part of her adventures. This whole series is set up for her to live in this small town. I felt like I had to waste my time reading about her getting ready to leave, finding a replacement at the library, and someone else to live in her friend's house she had been watching, while I waited for her to make the obvious realization that she didn't want to leave. Also by the end of this book (and spoiler for the beginning of the next book), there is no mention about what happened to the people she had arranged to stay at her friend's house. Did she just kick some people out to the curb? Let's just ignore that little detail.

She had based her decision on her not-even-a-romance with Johnny. The will they/won't they is very annoying to read about, the same way it is on tv shows. When there is some sexual tension starting to brew between two people is one thing, but when they know they like each other, have no other attachments, and are not getting together for no particular reason even though they want to, it makes me angry. Make a decision! Not fun to read that stuff, so I hope that storyline moves forward in future installments.

I also meant to finish up this book in August and finally be on track for reading these in the correct month, but then look at me pausing on this book for a month and finishing it in October. Dear lord, I need to get my shit together!
]]> <![CDATA[Knee High by the Fourth of July (Murder by Month Mystery, #3)]]> 204118669 Independence Day comes with fireworks, a budding romance, and hometown murder in this sharp and witty mystery by Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.

When Fourth of July weekend coincides with Wenonga Days—the annual celebration of a locally famous Ojibwe leader—the town of Battle Lake double-dips on the tourist trade. This year the hullabaloo hasn’t even started and there’s already a story for reporter Mira James.

The Chief Wenonga statue has disappeared, leaving behind drops of human blood and a big question for How and why would anyone steal a twenty-three-foot monument? Things go from curious to worse when a local man is kidnapped. And from worse to downright gruesome when a corpse is found in the lakeside cabin of a horticultural hottie Mira’s been crushing on from afar.

Mira has no choice but to trail a statue thief, find a missing person, and clear an earthy dreamboat’s name from a murder charge. Not to mention risk her own life to unmask a cold-blooded killer.

Revised This edition of Knee High by the Fourth of July includes editorial revisions.]]> 220 Jess Lourey 1662519265 Coni 3
Even though the mysteries themselves are silly and the people that are dead are either minor characters or people visiting in town, it is breezy enough to quickly read. I do really like all the small town people, even the annoying ones. I've come to like some of them with their weird quirks.

There is also a romance subplot, but it is so minor that sometimes I forget it is even part of the book. It almost feels like the author was told to add some romance to it so it is crammed in there a bit, but not too much. It ends on a bit of a romance cliffhanger so off to the next one to find out what happens. ]]> 4.07 2007 Knee High by the Fourth of July (Murder by Month Mystery, #3)

Knee High by the Fourth of July (Murder by Month Mystery, #3)

author: Jess Lourey
name: Coni
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: audible, mystery-thriller, series, e-book
review:
The third book in this series was pretty similar to the last one in terms of a cozy mystery. Sure, someone might have gotten hurt or maybe died, but also where is the big, missing town statue? That's what everyone is wondering about. Mira will find out since she is the new Jessica Fletcher in this town.

Even though the mysteries themselves are silly and the people that are dead are either minor characters or people visiting in town, it is breezy enough to quickly read. I do really like all the small town people, even the annoying ones. I've come to like some of them with their weird quirks.

There is also a romance subplot, but it is so minor that sometimes I forget it is even part of the book. It almost feels like the author was told to add some romance to it so it is crammed in there a bit, but not too much. It ends on a bit of a romance cliffhanger so off to the next one to find out what happens.
]]> <![CDATA[Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland]]> 49731704 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780307279286.

Patrick Radden Keefe writes an intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.

In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress--with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.

Patrick Radden Keefe's mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders.]]> 542 Patrick Radden Keefe Coni 0 to-read 4.52 2018 Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

author: Patrick Radden Keefe
name: Coni
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Absolution (Southern Reach, #4)]]> 210367505 TOP SECRET: A clear and present threat exists. Open-ended. Existential. Confirmation via uncanny op. Nature of same: Unknown. Initiating entity: Unknown. Priority: High.

Ten years after the publication of Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance �� award winners and international bestsellers all, the first the basis for a now-classic film �� Jeff VanderMeer brings us back for a surprise fourth and final foray into Area X.

Absolution opens decades before Area X forms, with a science expedition whose mysterious end suggests terrifying consequences for the future �� and marks the Forgotten Coast as a high-priority area of interest for Central, the shadowy government agency responsible for monitoring extraordinary threats.

Many years later, the Forgotten Coast files wind up in the hands of a washed-up Central operative known as Old Jim. He starts pulling a thread that reveals a long and troubling record of government agents meddling with forces they clearly cannot comprehend. Soon, Old Jim is back out in the field, grappling with personal demons and now partnered with an unproven young agent, the two of them tasked with solving what may be an unsolvable mystery. With every turn, the stakes get higher: Central agents are being liquidated by an unknown rogue entity and Old Jim’s life is on the line.

Old Jim’s investigation culminates in the first Central expedition into what has now been labeled Area X. A border has come down, and a full team �� well trained but eccentric �� has been assembled to find Area X’s “off switch�� somewhere in the volatile, dangerous terrain that has mysteriously defied all attempts to be explored, mapped, or controlled. A landscape that, one way or another, seems to consume all who enter it.

Sweeping in scope and rich with ideas, iconic characters, and unpredictable adventure, Absolution converges the past, present, and future in terrifying, ecstatic, and mind-bending ways. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.]]> 441 Jeff VanderMeer 0374616590 Coni 0 to-read 3.61 2024 Absolution (Southern Reach, #4)

author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: Coni
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Ex Boyfriend 54834023
When Becca’s first love shows up on her social media feed, she can’t help but smile fondly. Once upon a time, Connor was the love of her life, and though it was over ten years ago, he’s always held a place in her heart.

Then he sends her a message. He sounds happy �� still kind and funny, still living across the world in Australia. But he wants to know everything about her life now. How can Becca tell him the truth? About her workaholic husband, her stressful job, and the challenges of caring for her elderly father and her longed-for, adorable but exhausting three-year-old daughter Mia?

Becca hesitates, knowing she shouldn’t even reply. But Connor lives on the other side of the world. Just how dangerous can becoming friends again be?

It feels harmless. Until Mia gets sick �� in a way that no one can explain. And it starts to become clear �� someone will do absolutely anything to make sure Becca never escapes her past…]]> 297 Rona Halsall 1838888152 Coni 0 to-read 4.03 2020 The Ex Boyfriend

author: Rona Halsall
name: Coni
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Holly 65916335 Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.�� �� BILL HODGES

Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.]]> 480 Stephen King 1668014947 Coni 0 to-read 4.00 2023 Holly

author: Stephen King
name: Coni
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Haunting on the Hill 207567842 From three-time Shirley Jackson, World Fantasy, and Nebula Award-winning author Elizabeth Hand comes the first-ever authorized novel set in the world of Shirley Jackson's��The Haunting of Hill House.
��
Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, which is nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s enormous, old, and ever-so eerie—the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.

Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join her in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and time itself seems to shift. All too soon Holly and her friends are at odds not just with one another but with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it no longer intends to walk alone.]]> 336 Elizabeth Hand 0316527475 Coni 0 to-read 3.47 2023 A Haunting on the Hill

author: Elizabeth Hand
name: Coni
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> To Die For (The 6:20 Man, #3) 209456075 From #1 New York Times bestselling author, David Baldacci, the 6:20 Man returns, this time sent to the Pacific Northwest to aid the FBI in a case that gets more complicated with the more questions Devine asks—and he’s about to come face-to-face with his nemesis, the girl on the train.

Travis Devine has become a pro at adapting to any situation to accomplish the mission set in front of him. Whether it’s a high-powered corporate setting or small-town community, Devine will become the man for the job. His time as an Army Ranger and on the financial battlefields of Wall Street gave him the skills he needed, and he’s put them to good use. But this time it’s not his skills that send him to Seattle to aid the FBI in escorting orphaned, twelve-year-old Betsy Odom to a meeting with her uncle, who’s under investigation for RICO charges. Instead, he’s hoping to lie low and keep off the radar of an enemy that he evaded on a train in Switzerland and who has been after him ever since—the girl on the train.

But as Devine gets to know Betsy, questions begin to arise around the death of her parents. Betsy is adamant that they had never used drugs, but the police in the small rural town where they died insist the Odoms died of an overdose. Devine starts digging for answers, and what he finds points to a conspiracy bigger than he could’ve ever imagined. The question is, how do Betsy, her uncle, and various government agencies all fit into it.

It might finally be time for Devine and the girl on the train to come face-to-face, and when that happens, Devine is going to find himself unsure of who are his allies and who are his enemies. And in some cases, they might well be both.]]> 432 David Baldacci 1538757907 Coni 0 to-read 4.21 2024 To Die For (The 6:20 Man, #3)

author: David Baldacci
name: Coni
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Everything We Never Had 202775014 A novel about four generations of Filipino American boys grappling with identity, masculinity, and their fraught father-son relationships.

Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California. As he spends what little money he earns at dance halls and faces increasing violence from white men in town, Francisco wonders if he should’ve never left the Philippines.

Stockton, 1965. Between school days full of prejudice from white students and teachers and night shifts working at his aunt’s restaurant, Emil refuses to follow in the footsteps of his labor organizer father, Francisco. He’s going to make it in this country no matter what or who he has to leave behind.

Denver, 1983. Chris is determined to prove that his overbearing father, Emil, can’t control him. However, when a missed assignment on “ancestral history�� sends Chris off the football team and into the library, he discovers a desire to know more about Filipino history―even if his father dismisses his interest as unamerican and unimportant.

Philadelphia, 2020. Enzo struggles to keep his anxiety in check as a global pandemic breaks out and his abrasive grandfather moves in. While tensions are high between his dad and his lolo, Enzo’s daily walks with Lolo Emil have him wondering if maybe he can help bridge their decades-long rift.]]> 288 Randy Ribay 059346141X Coni 0 to-read 4.18 2024 Everything We Never Had

author: Randy Ribay
name: Coni
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Roadwork 1252583
That’s how George Bart Dawes saw it when a conglomerate bought the company he worked for and made him feel like a number��

When the government told him to move out of the home he had put a lifetime of living into to make way for a highway project��

When his wife left him because he wouldn’t adjust to “progress”��

It seemed to George that his whole world had been invaded by acquisitive demons who expected him to surrender to their will. Calmly. Politely. Step aside. No waves please.

But some very incorruptible voice in George’s mind kept reassuring him that, sooner or later, the Irresistible Force of progress would come face to face with an Immovable Object �� the will of George Bart Dawes. The impact, he suspected, would be shattering…]]> 264 Richard Bachman 0451096681 Coni 2 stephen-king-project, audible
The main character isn't really likable but I had no issue with that. I tried to understand his motivation even though other characters in the book were constantly asking him why he was making all the poor choices he was making and he never had a reason for it. It was like he never wanted to admit the real reason to himself so he gave himself one way out, which was a pretty stupid one. I even thought it at one point right before another character voiced the same thought to him. At least we were all on the same page!

I think the parts of the book I enjoyed the most was when it veered off into really weird territory with a hitchhiker and a mescaline trip at a party. They really didn't have much to do with the overall story, but they were highly entertaining to read.

On a side note, I would not recommend listening to the audio version of this since the voice actor did a horrible job with women's voices. It's the worst I have heard. Every woman sounded shrill, whiny, and naggy. Ugh!]]> 3.16 1981 Roadwork

author: Richard Bachman
name: Coni
average rating: 3.16
book published: 1981
rating: 2
read at: 2016/10/12
date added: 2024/08/02
shelves: stephen-king-project, audible
review:
I wasn't looking forward to reading this one. It sounded boring to me. It started out that way, but then it pulled me in. It's essentially about a man who gets really fed up about things that he can't control going wrong for him in his life and his inability to deal with it in a rational way.

The main character isn't really likable but I had no issue with that. I tried to understand his motivation even though other characters in the book were constantly asking him why he was making all the poor choices he was making and he never had a reason for it. It was like he never wanted to admit the real reason to himself so he gave himself one way out, which was a pretty stupid one. I even thought it at one point right before another character voiced the same thought to him. At least we were all on the same page!

I think the parts of the book I enjoyed the most was when it veered off into really weird territory with a hitchhiker and a mescaline trip at a party. They really didn't have much to do with the overall story, but they were highly entertaining to read.

On a side note, I would not recommend listening to the audio version of this since the voice actor did a horrible job with women's voices. It's the worst I have heard. Every woman sounded shrill, whiny, and naggy. Ugh!
]]> <![CDATA[The Talented Mr. Ripley (Ripley, #1)]]> 2247142
It’s here, in the first volume of Patricia Highsmith’s five-book Ripley series, that we are introduced to the suave Tom Ripley, a young striver seeking to leave behind his past as an orphan bullied for being a “sissy.�� Newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan, Ripley meets a wealthy industrialist who hires him to bring his playboy son, Dickie Greenleaf, back from gallivanting in Italy. Soon Ripley’s fascination with Dickie’s debonair lifestyle turns obsessive as he finds himself enraged by Dickie’s ambivalent affections for Marge, a charming American dilettante, and Ripley begins a deadly game.

“Sinister and strangely alluring,�� (Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly) The Talented Mr. Ripley serves as an unforgettable introduction to this smooth confidence man, whose talent for self-invention is as unnerving—and unnervingly revealing of the American psyche—as ever.]]> 271 Patricia Highsmith Coni 4
I did enjoy this book. It was at times very unbelievable what Tom was getting away with but he wasn't very good at it so people did have their suspicions. He didn't appear to be super charming, at least as Tom, so he must have faked it really well with certain people. Even though he appears to be a sociopath, at times I still had empathy for Tom, which I credit to Highsmith. I shouldn't like this murdering person, but I felt bad that he couldn't be his true self or when he was, he hated it because society told him that he shouldn't be loved.

I don't want excuse his behavior but I found myself wanting him to get away with what he had done while at the same time, not wanting him to continue to do it. He made so many bad choices!

I also felt sad for Marge and her gourd-shaped body that repulsed him so. ]]> 3.96 1955 The Talented Mr. Ripley (Ripley, #1)

author: Patricia Highsmith
name: Coni
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1955
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/07/28
shelves: bookclub-wgar, mystery-thriller, crime-fiction, e-book, series
review:
I've seen the movie. I only remember parts of it, so it was a great time to read the book because I could not remember how it ended or most of what happened. I'll be revisiting the movie to see what changed between the two.

I did enjoy this book. It was at times very unbelievable what Tom was getting away with but he wasn't very good at it so people did have their suspicions. He didn't appear to be super charming, at least as Tom, so he must have faked it really well with certain people. Even though he appears to be a sociopath, at times I still had empathy for Tom, which I credit to Highsmith. I shouldn't like this murdering person, but I felt bad that he couldn't be his true self or when he was, he hated it because society told him that he shouldn't be loved.

I don't want excuse his behavior but I found myself wanting him to get away with what he had done while at the same time, not wanting him to continue to do it. He made so many bad choices!

I also felt sad for Marge and her gourd-shaped body that repulsed him so.
]]> <![CDATA[June Bug (Murder by Month Mystery, #2)]]> 204119007 Revised This edition of June Bug includes editorial revisions.]]> 218 Jess Lourey 1662519249 Coni 3
I was hoping this book would build a bit more on the whole mystery angle, but this also seems to be a story that is doing a lot of groundwork to set up where Mira lives now and who she is surrounded by. I just wanted a bit more from it. It is short though and I'm already reading the next one.

It was also a stretch to call it June Bug since june bugs don't really play into the story at all (one mention of one but it isn't related to the plot), but that's a minor quibble.]]> 4.09 2007 June Bug (Murder by Month Mystery, #2)

author: Jess Lourey
name: Coni
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/28
shelves: audible, e-book, mystery-thriller
review:
I would rate this one a 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars. I gave the first book in this series three stars as well, but that one I did like more. This one felt even more slight, but I did enjoy getting to know a bit more about Mira and the people of the town. It makes me feel like I'm watching a cozy television series where wacky things keep happening to Mira!

I was hoping this book would build a bit more on the whole mystery angle, but this also seems to be a story that is doing a lot of groundwork to set up where Mira lives now and who she is surrounded by. I just wanted a bit more from it. It is short though and I'm already reading the next one.

It was also a stretch to call it June Bug since june bugs don't really play into the story at all (one mention of one but it isn't related to the plot), but that's a minor quibble.
]]> <![CDATA[Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide]]> 55077707 The instant #1 New York Times and USA Today best seller by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, the voices behind the hit podcast My Favorite Murder now available in paperback. Includes special bonus material!

Sharing never-before-heard stories ranging from their struggles with depression, eating disorders, and addiction, Karen and Georgia irreverently recount their biggest mistakes and deepest fears, reflecting on the formative life events that shaped them into two of the most followed voices in the nation.

In Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered, Karen and Georgia focus on the importance of self-advocating and valuing personal safety over being ‘nice�� or ‘helpful.�� They delve into their own pasts, true crime stories, and beyond to discuss meaningful cultural and societal issues with fierce empathy and unapologetic frankness.

“In many respects, Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered distills the My Favorite Murder podcast into its most essential elements: Georgia and Karen. They lay themselves bare on the page, in all of their neuroses, triumphs, failures, and struggles. From eating disorders to substance abuse and kleptomania to the wonders of therapy, Kilgariff and Hardstark recount their lives with honesty, humor, and compassion, offering their best unqualified life-advice along the way.�� Entertainment Weekly

“Like the podcast, the book offers funny, feminist advice for survival—both in the sense of not getting killed and just, like, getting a job and working through your personal shit so you can pay your bills and have friends.�� Rolling Stone]]> 300 Karen Kilgariff 1250759226 Coni 4 3.98 2019 Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide

Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide

author: Karen Kilgariff
name: Coni
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: audible, physical-book, memoir
review:
Listened to the audiobook of this one, which was a lot of fun, but really made it feel like an extension of the podcast. They told a little bit more of their stories than they usually share, but sometimes they have gotten close to that in their various episodes so it wasn't too far off. While I enjoyed the stories, it did go by pretty quickly and then the book was over. It felt a little slight. I did laugh when Paul Giamatti showed up as one the voice actors.
]]> <![CDATA[May Day (Murder by Month Mysteries, #1)]]> 204118214 A waitress turned librarian just wants a new life. What she ends up with is a killer change of pace in a funny, snappy, and suspenseful mystery by Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.

With a cheating boyfriend, a thankless career in waitressing, and her BA in English going to waste, Mira James jumps at the chance for a fresh start in rural Battle Lake, Minnesota.

Right away she lands a job as a librarian, snags another as an on-call reporter for the weekly newspaper, and is swept off her feet by Jeff Wilson, a handsome archaeologist unearthing the town’s storied history. Moving here might be the best decision Mira’s ever made. Until she finds Jeff’s body between the library’s reference stacks. It seems Mira didn’t really know her drop-dead gorgeous new lover at all. But someone in Otter Tail County surely did.

Behind this quirky town’s polite exterior are decades-old grudges still unsettled, and murderous secrets best kept hidden. Whatever dangers are buried in Battle Lake’s past, now it’s Mira’s turn to start digging.

Revised This edition of May Day includes editorial revisions.]]> 232 Jess Lourey 1662519230 Coni 3 I’d watched the original Indiana Jones movie. I knew the basics of archaeology. This should be a piece of cake.

I was intrigued by the Murder-by-Month mystery concept so I thought I would give this book a shot. I'm not usually into cozy mysteries or romances, and more into darker thrillers, but I was in the mood for something a bit light. I'm glad I took a shot with this.

Mira tried to move away from her small town to the big city, mostly to escape all the talk about her dead father that kept following her around. She wasn't really getting what she needed out of city life, so she decided to take her friend who lived in Battle Lake, Minnesota (a different small town than the one she grew up in) up on her offer to house sit while she went off to Alaska for the summer with the latest love of her life. Mira finds a great guy who is visiting Battle Lake almost immediately but then he turns of dead. oops!

This book was funnier than I was expecting. The Indiana Jones quote up above was an example of things that made me smile while reading it. Mira knows she is in over her head while she is snooping around, but if she wasn't doing it, we wouldn't have a book. I did like that she didn't want to drink as much as she used to due to her father but did slip back into it and then out of it. I did like that when she thought she was being clever, it was sometimes thrown back into her face. Things did not always go perfectly for Mira.

On the other hand, there were a lot of very convenient things happening to Mira to help her get an idea of what was going on in the town. Someone would give her some cryptic clue, but would also give her a lead on who to talk to next. This happened so many times that I decided to just go with it. I kept thinking of Murder, She Wrote and how there were a lot of convenient things that happened to Jessica Fletcher too when she solved her cozy murder mysteries. I was also put off a bit by shameful thoughts of a young woman worrying about if anyone would think she was a slut because she slept with a guy she had started to date. I had to check the year the book was written. Such antiquated thinking, but that was a minor quibble since it was mostly passing thoughts here and there.

I didn't realize this was the first book the author wrote and I think that helps explain some of the issues I had with it. I think there were enough good things in this that I would like to read more of the series to see what else happens with Mira and if the storylines improve. ]]> 3.71 2006 May Day (Murder by Month Mysteries, #1)

author: Jess Lourey
name: Coni
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: audible, e-book, mystery-thriller, romance
review:
I’d watched the original Indiana Jones movie. I knew the basics of archaeology. This should be a piece of cake.

I was intrigued by the Murder-by-Month mystery concept so I thought I would give this book a shot. I'm not usually into cozy mysteries or romances, and more into darker thrillers, but I was in the mood for something a bit light. I'm glad I took a shot with this.

Mira tried to move away from her small town to the big city, mostly to escape all the talk about her dead father that kept following her around. She wasn't really getting what she needed out of city life, so she decided to take her friend who lived in Battle Lake, Minnesota (a different small town than the one she grew up in) up on her offer to house sit while she went off to Alaska for the summer with the latest love of her life. Mira finds a great guy who is visiting Battle Lake almost immediately but then he turns of dead. oops!

This book was funnier than I was expecting. The Indiana Jones quote up above was an example of things that made me smile while reading it. Mira knows she is in over her head while she is snooping around, but if she wasn't doing it, we wouldn't have a book. I did like that she didn't want to drink as much as she used to due to her father but did slip back into it and then out of it. I did like that when she thought she was being clever, it was sometimes thrown back into her face. Things did not always go perfectly for Mira.

On the other hand, there were a lot of very convenient things happening to Mira to help her get an idea of what was going on in the town. Someone would give her some cryptic clue, but would also give her a lead on who to talk to next. This happened so many times that I decided to just go with it. I kept thinking of Murder, She Wrote and how there were a lot of convenient things that happened to Jessica Fletcher too when she solved her cozy murder mysteries. I was also put off a bit by shameful thoughts of a young woman worrying about if anyone would think she was a slut because she slept with a guy she had started to date. I had to check the year the book was written. Such antiquated thinking, but that was a minor quibble since it was mostly passing thoughts here and there.

I didn't realize this was the first book the author wrote and I think that helps explain some of the issues I had with it. I think there were enough good things in this that I would like to read more of the series to see what else happens with Mira and if the storylines improve.
]]> <![CDATA[No Reservations: A Novel of Friendship]]> 123266585 336 Sheryl Lister 1400245796 Coni 4
Overall, it was a lovely book covering the friendship between four adult women and how it intersects with their romantic and professional lives. It really dives into the drama almost immediately, even while I was trying to keep the characters straight due to the shifting points of view. Even when it lagged a bit, I pushed through and then found the ending very heartfelt.

I did love the friendship between the women in the story. I loved how they made time for each other and would drop everything to support one another. It becomes harder to do that with your friends as you get older, get married, have kids and careers, but they made it work. The problems and life experiences all the women had were very well written and realistic.

While I did love these women, I felt that times that they were almost too perfect. Any self-doubt they had was really their self-esteem affecting them, which could be true, but I think I wanted to see them lash out a little bit more in anger before getting their emotions under control. It would make them more human. At one point, I thought it was hinted at enough that someone might have a shopping problem, and I was expecting it to turn into an actual issue, but it was just a funny quirk for that character.

I do think the author did a great job with the men. Some were frustrating, some were wonderful, and others had some growing and maturing to do. The struggles experienced by all the women were very realistic, but I did find the wrap up to the Diane adoption storyline to be rushed. I thought there would be more to it, but I guess the book was over so it was time to clean up the loose ends.

Overall, this was a perfect summer read. It didn't go too deep under the surface, but there was enough drama to keep me reading and wanting the best for these women. It also makes me want to reach out to my friends to make sure we stay in touch like we should be doing.
]]> 3.84 No Reservations: A Novel of Friendship

author: Sheryl Lister
name: Coni
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: contemporary, family-drama, grieving, multiple-pov, physical-book, romance
review:
I give this a 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Overall, it was a lovely book covering the friendship between four adult women and how it intersects with their romantic and professional lives. It really dives into the drama almost immediately, even while I was trying to keep the characters straight due to the shifting points of view. Even when it lagged a bit, I pushed through and then found the ending very heartfelt.

I did love the friendship between the women in the story. I loved how they made time for each other and would drop everything to support one another. It becomes harder to do that with your friends as you get older, get married, have kids and careers, but they made it work. The problems and life experiences all the women had were very well written and realistic.

While I did love these women, I felt that times that they were almost too perfect. Any self-doubt they had was really their self-esteem affecting them, which could be true, but I think I wanted to see them lash out a little bit more in anger before getting their emotions under control. It would make them more human. At one point, I thought it was hinted at enough that someone might have a shopping problem, and I was expecting it to turn into an actual issue, but it was just a funny quirk for that character.

I do think the author did a great job with the men. Some were frustrating, some were wonderful, and others had some growing and maturing to do. The struggles experienced by all the women were very realistic, but I did find the wrap up to the Diane adoption storyline to be rushed. I thought there would be more to it, but I guess the book was over so it was time to clean up the loose ends.

Overall, this was a perfect summer read. It didn't go too deep under the surface, but there was enough drama to keep me reading and wanting the best for these women. It also makes me want to reach out to my friends to make sure we stay in touch like we should be doing.

]]> <![CDATA[Hell Screen (Little Clothbound Classics)]]> 60758176
'One never tires of reading and re-reading his best works. The elegantly spare style has a truly spine-tingling brilliance' - Haruki Murakami]]> 224 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 0241573696 Coni 4 3.94 1918 Hell Screen (Little Clothbound Classics)

Hell Screen (Little Clothbound Classics)

author: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
name: Coni
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1918
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/29
date added: 2024/06/26
shelves: bookclub-wgar, horror, short-story
review:
Extremely creepy and disturbing, but I really liked it. It was really unexpected.
]]> The Bat (Harry Hole, #1) 19792871 The electrifying first appearance of Jo Nesbø’s detective, Harry Hole.
��
Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case.�� Harry is free to offer assistance, but he has firm instructions to stay out of trouble. The victim is a twenty-three year old Norwegian woman who is a minor celebrity back home. Never one to sit on the sidelines, Harry befriends one of the lead detectives, and one of the witnesses, as he is drawn deeper into the case.�� Together, they discover that this is only the latest in a string of unsolved murders, and the pattern points toward a psychopath working his way across the country. As they circle closer and closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the case.

BONUS MATERIAL:��This ebook edition includes an excerpt from Jo��Nesbø's��Police.]]> 331 Jo Nesbø 0345807103 Coni 4 crime-fiction, series The Snowman last year when I was trying to understand that movie. I can see how he has improved upon this character and writing style for this series over time, but The Snowman was the seventh book in the series and this is the first one.

We get the full backstory of Harry and all his dirty little secrets. We learn his regrets and a bit of what makes him tick. Then we get to deal with his blackout drunkness that people get annoyed with but constantly excuse away. I am curious how much longer that will last if it happens in future novels, which I am guessing it will.

I thought it was a good mystery where there were clues of who the killer would be so when it was finally revealed, I was surprised but it also made sense, which is good for me. I did enjoy getting to know Harry Hole and the mess of a human he was.

I wish I could have differentiated the other police officers he worked with in the Sydney police force. Besides Andrew, I couldn't tell their personalities apart. I think Nesbø does a better job with side characters in later books, so that was good to know it happens. He just wasn't quite there in this first one. ]]> 3.67 1997 The Bat (Harry Hole, #1)

author: Jo Nesbø
name: Coni
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: crime-fiction, series
review:
This is the introduction to Harry Hole, but this is the second Harry Hole story I have read. I read The Snowman last year when I was trying to understand that movie. I can see how he has improved upon this character and writing style for this series over time, but The Snowman was the seventh book in the series and this is the first one.

We get the full backstory of Harry and all his dirty little secrets. We learn his regrets and a bit of what makes him tick. Then we get to deal with his blackout drunkness that people get annoyed with but constantly excuse away. I am curious how much longer that will last if it happens in future novels, which I am guessing it will.

I thought it was a good mystery where there were clues of who the killer would be so when it was finally revealed, I was surprised but it also made sense, which is good for me. I did enjoy getting to know Harry Hole and the mess of a human he was.

I wish I could have differentiated the other police officers he worked with in the Sydney police force. Besides Andrew, I couldn't tell their personalities apart. I think Nesbø does a better job with side characters in later books, so that was good to know it happens. He just wasn't quite there in this first one.
]]> <![CDATA[The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)]]> 60556912
Every day I clean the Winchesters�� beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out�� and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of��

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!]]> 329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Coni 2 e-book, mystery-thriller
While it was fun to keep reading to find out the entire story, when it all came out, the full backstory didn't seem very well thought out and also written by someone that had only read about similar experiences, but didn't really understand what was happening in a way to convey it to the reader in a very believable way.

It appears that it is a book series now with more improbable things that will happen with the protagonist, which others will have a blast with and good on them. I'm going to bail on it at this point. It was a fun, but dumb distraction for a few days.]]> 4.31 2022 The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)

author: Freida McFadden
name: Coni
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/25
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: e-book, mystery-thriller
review:
Wow. I seem to be in the minority, but I thought this story was dumb. I really wanted to like the protagonist, but nothing she did seemed realistic. As someone who spent 10 years in prison, she was very shocked at her boss being manipulative and not knowing how to keep to herself or hide what she is thinking, which I think would all be valuable traits in prison.

While it was fun to keep reading to find out the entire story, when it all came out, the full backstory didn't seem very well thought out and also written by someone that had only read about similar experiences, but didn't really understand what was happening in a way to convey it to the reader in a very believable way.

It appears that it is a book series now with more improbable things that will happen with the protagonist, which others will have a blast with and good on them. I'm going to bail on it at this point. It was a fun, but dumb distraction for a few days.
]]> The Last Story of Mina Lee 51030675
Interwoven with Margot's present-day search is Mina's story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she's barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love. But that love story sets in motion a series of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.]]> 352 Nancy Jooyoun Kim Coni 4
I did enjoy learning some of it from Margot's point of view of being frustrated with her non-English speaking mother and how she was so much poorer than her friends at school. I could empathize with her frustrations with her mother and their living situation, and not knowing anything about her father, but it was also great to read a flashback to what was actually going on and how much Mina kept from her daughter, thinking she was protecting her.

It was a sad, but very realistic slice-of-life story for Margot that she learned about her mother, after she had passed.]]> 3.77 2020 The Last Story of Mina Lee

author: Nancy Jooyoun Kim
name: Coni
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/18
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: family-drama, e-book, literary-fiction
review:
I was pulled in immediately when this book switched from the younger daughter, Margot dealing with the death of her mother in Los Angeles to flashing back to when her mother, Mina, first came to the United States as a Korean immigrant and struggled to live her life, not knowing the language and then finding herself pregnant and alone. I thought Kim did a great job sharing how lonely and isolating it can be when you don't speak English and are trying to get by without knowing anyone. Mina does make some friends and finds love, but things do not always go as planned so she has a lot of disappointment.

I did enjoy learning some of it from Margot's point of view of being frustrated with her non-English speaking mother and how she was so much poorer than her friends at school. I could empathize with her frustrations with her mother and their living situation, and not knowing anything about her father, but it was also great to read a flashback to what was actually going on and how much Mina kept from her daughter, thinking she was protecting her.

It was a sad, but very realistic slice-of-life story for Margot that she learned about her mother, after she had passed.
]]> Nightbitch 57123268
At home full-time with her two-year-old son, an artist finds she is struggling. She is lonely and exhausted. She had imagined - what was it she had imagined? Her husband, always travelling for his work, calls her from faraway hotel rooms. One more toddler bedtime, and she fears she might lose her mind.

Instead, quite suddenly, she starts gaining things, surprising things that happen one night when her child will not sleep. Sharper canines. Strange new patches of hair. New appetites, new instincts. And from deep within herself, a new voice...

With its clear eyes on contemporary womanhood and sharp take on structures of power, Nightbitch is an outrageously original, joyfully subversive read that will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. Addictive enough to be devoured in one sitting, this is an unforgettable novel from a blazing new talent.]]> 256 Rachel Yoder 0385546823 Coni 4
Then, the second part goes into more detail about what is going on, but I think the story was also a bit muddled. Some parts I enjoyed like wanting to know if there was an MLM cult going on with the stay-at-home mothers in the neighborhood and how the mother was acting towards her friends that had a nanny or put their kid into a daycare center.

I think it did mostly come together in the third part. Some areas with her husband, I did not expect and enjoyed it, even if I didn't completely buy all of it. Some areas with how she wanted to creatively express what she was experiencing also was interesting, even if I didn't completely buy all of it. I think it was the most satisfying ending this book could have had, even if it wasn't perfect.

That first part was a banger of a beginning though.]]> 3.55 2021 Nightbitch

author: Rachel Yoder
name: Coni
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/18
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: bookclub-wgar, e-book, family-drama, suburban-fiction
review:
I loved the first part of this book. I could feel the mother's frustration at her lack of support from her husband, her loss of identity as a person when she became a mother and gave up her career, and her conflicting feelings about spoiling her child versus raising a decent human being. The wacky stuff creeps in and then it goes all in by the end of the first part. It would have made a great short story.

Then, the second part goes into more detail about what is going on, but I think the story was also a bit muddled. Some parts I enjoyed like wanting to know if there was an MLM cult going on with the stay-at-home mothers in the neighborhood and how the mother was acting towards her friends that had a nanny or put their kid into a daycare center.

I think it did mostly come together in the third part. Some areas with her husband, I did not expect and enjoyed it, even if I didn't completely buy all of it. Some areas with how she wanted to creatively express what she was experiencing also was interesting, even if I didn't completely buy all of it. I think it was the most satisfying ending this book could have had, even if it wasn't perfect.

That first part was a banger of a beginning though.
]]> You Like It Darker 201242757 From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,�� writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,�� and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

“Two Talented Bastids�� explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,�� a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,�� a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached. In “The Dreamers,�� a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man�� asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.

King’s ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.]]> 512 Stephen King 1668037718 Coni 0 to-read 4.16 2024

author: Stephen King
name: Coni
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Homebodies 199534553 320 Tembe Denton-Hurst 0063379872 Coni 0 to-read 3.37 2023

author: Tembe Denton-Hurst
name: Coni
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Midnight Feast 199743738 Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin...

It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests�� healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule�� cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. Something’s not right with the guests. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered.

THE FOUNDER * THE HUSBAND * THE MYSTERY GUEST * THE KITCHEN HELP

It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at�� The Midnight Feast.]]> 354 Lucy Foley 0063003104 Coni 0 to-read 3.55 2024

author: Lucy Foley
name: Coni
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Matterhorn (Mac Dekker, #1) 193772031
Robbie Steinhardt lives a peaceful life. A fixture of his small alpine village, he tends cattle, minds his own business, and doesn’t dwell on his former life and the family and lover he left behind—back when he was Mac Dekker, CIA.

But when he learns his son Will died following in his footsteps, he needs answers. What mission took Will up into the alpine heights, and why is Ilya Ivashka on the same trail? Ilya—his close friend, his rival in love. Ilya, who framed Mac for treason and sent him into hiding.

Wiping away the years, Mac returns to the field to find the secrets Will hid and finds himself facing the Herculean task of stopping a terrorist plot that threatens thousands. But in a field of double agents, who can he trust?]]> 344 Christopher Reich Coni 4 Mission: Impossible movies and this would fit right into one of those. It was a ton of fun to read. Reich is really good at writing action scenes so I knew exactly what was going on and it made it all the more exciting.

Mac Dekker, former CIA, has been in hiding for over eight years while his friends and family all think he's dead because of his former friend and partner, Ilya Ivashka, defected to Russia and framed Dekker for all sorts of things on his way out. No one believed Ilya was that clever to pull it all off himself, so they believed Dekker knew and helped him. Dekker faked his own death and has been in hiding ever since. It isn't until the death of his son, who had followed him into the CIA, that brings him out of hiding and on the hunt to catch Ilya.

There were quite a few twists and turns that I didn't not expect or see coming. I was rooting for almost all of these characters and very worried about a lot of people's lives! The car chases and mountain climbs were so exciting to read. I loved that most of it took place in Switzerland. It was fun to read about it.

I look forward to more in this series.

]]> 4.24 2024 Matterhorn (Mac Dekker, #1)

author: Christopher Reich
name: Coni
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/30
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves: e-book, multiple-pov, spy, series
review:
I've been rewatching all the Mission: Impossible movies and this would fit right into one of those. It was a ton of fun to read. Reich is really good at writing action scenes so I knew exactly what was going on and it made it all the more exciting.

Mac Dekker, former CIA, has been in hiding for over eight years while his friends and family all think he's dead because of his former friend and partner, Ilya Ivashka, defected to Russia and framed Dekker for all sorts of things on his way out. No one believed Ilya was that clever to pull it all off himself, so they believed Dekker knew and helped him. Dekker faked his own death and has been in hiding ever since. It isn't until the death of his son, who had followed him into the CIA, that brings him out of hiding and on the hunt to catch Ilya.

There were quite a few twists and turns that I didn't not expect or see coming. I was rooting for almost all of these characters and very worried about a lot of people's lives! The car chases and mountain climbs were so exciting to read. I loved that most of it took place in Switzerland. It was fun to read about it.

I look forward to more in this series.

]]> A Friend in the Dark 181478452
Eden Miller’s world is crumbling. Her husband blindsided her with divorce, and her daughter barely speaks to her. In an impulsive decision to escape her present and revisit the past, she sends a friend request to her college crush, Justin Ward.

One night twenty-three years ago changed the course of her life. It closed the door on Justin and opened the door to her husband, Dave. But what if Eden could have a do-over?

Eden begins an online relationship with Justin that awakens her in ways she never thought possible, and his voice and words make her take bold risks. But something’s off. He knows too much about her and her family…he’s been following her.

Eden is forced to awaken from her fantasy and look for answers—who really is the man on the other line? The truth about Justin—and about what happened that fateful night two decades ago—puts her and her family in a fight for their lives.]]> 242 Samantha M. Bailey 1662513550 Coni 3
This was a very quick read that started off great, then took a turn, and I enjoyed the way it ended, but it was messy.

Eden Miller does everything she is supposed to her entire life, but everything is flipped on its head when her husband asks for a divorce on the day they dropped off their daughter at college. Eden is in a tailspin, and while looking at Facebook, decides to message a guy she had a crush on in college, Justin Ward. She is shocked when he messages her back and says she was the one that got away. She feels desired (she hasn't felt that in years from her husband) and it gives her confidence to start doing some things she never thought she would do because she has always played by the rules. Then, everything goes sideways.

I enjoyed the first part of this book a lot. I thought the way Eden was written was really well done. She was a well thought out character that was dealing with her uncommunicative husband and teenage daughter who blamed her for the marriage falling apart that she didn't know was even falling apart before he asked for a divorce.

When the viewpoint of the book switches to Olivia Ward, that's when it didn't seem to be written as well. I wanted to feel sympathy for her, but the choices she makes are not good ones or even believable ones. I have read unreliable narrators that I have rooted for even when they are making poor choices for themselves, but almost nothing Olivia did made any sense so I was at a loss.

Granted, even with not totally agree with the middle of this book, it did have an exciting conclusion, even if it felt far fetched in terms of Justin and Olivia. I still really liked what happened with Eden and her family. I can tell that Bailey is good at the characters that might be closer to herself or people she knows, but when she has to write about someone that is way outside of her wheelhouse, she needs something to make them believable so you can understand the choices being made, even if you don't agree with them.

I wouldn't mind reading something else by this author since I did read this one so quickly. Overall, it was pretty fun. ]]> 3.66 2024 A Friend in the Dark

author: Samantha M. Bailey
name: Coni
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves: family-drama, multiple-pov, mystery-thriller, e-book, fluff, suburban-fiction
review:
I would give this 3.5 stars, but I can't rate it 4.

This was a very quick read that started off great, then took a turn, and I enjoyed the way it ended, but it was messy.

Eden Miller does everything she is supposed to her entire life, but everything is flipped on its head when her husband asks for a divorce on the day they dropped off their daughter at college. Eden is in a tailspin, and while looking at Facebook, decides to message a guy she had a crush on in college, Justin Ward. She is shocked when he messages her back and says she was the one that got away. She feels desired (she hasn't felt that in years from her husband) and it gives her confidence to start doing some things she never thought she would do because she has always played by the rules. Then, everything goes sideways.

I enjoyed the first part of this book a lot. I thought the way Eden was written was really well done. She was a well thought out character that was dealing with her uncommunicative husband and teenage daughter who blamed her for the marriage falling apart that she didn't know was even falling apart before he asked for a divorce.

When the viewpoint of the book switches to Olivia Ward, that's when it didn't seem to be written as well. I wanted to feel sympathy for her, but the choices she makes are not good ones or even believable ones. I have read unreliable narrators that I have rooted for even when they are making poor choices for themselves, but almost nothing Olivia did made any sense so I was at a loss.

Granted, even with not totally agree with the middle of this book, it did have an exciting conclusion, even if it felt far fetched in terms of Justin and Olivia. I still really liked what happened with Eden and her family. I can tell that Bailey is good at the characters that might be closer to herself or people she knows, but when she has to write about someone that is way outside of her wheelhouse, she needs something to make them believable so you can understand the choices being made, even if you don't agree with them.

I wouldn't mind reading something else by this author since I did read this one so quickly. Overall, it was pretty fun.
]]> <![CDATA[Hannibal (Hannibal Lecter, #3)]]> 6667654 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •��“Is it as good as Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs? No . . . this one is better.”—Stephen King, The New York Times Book ReviewYou remember Hannibal gentleman, genius, cannibal. Seven years have passed since Dr. Lecter escaped from custody. And for seven years he’s been at large, free to savor the scents, the essences, of an unguarded world. But intruders have entered Dr. Lecter’s world, piercing his new identity, sensing the evil that surrounds him. For the multimillionaire Hannibal left maimed, for a corrupt Italian policeman, and for FBI agent Clarice Starling, who once stood before Lecter and who has never been the same, the final hunt for Hannibal Lecter has begun. All of them, in their separate ways, want to find Dr. Lecter. And all three will get their wish. But only one will live long enough to savor the reward. . . .��Praise for Hannibal“Interested in getting the hell scared out of you? Buy this book on a Friday . . . lock all doors and windows. And by Monday , you might just be able to sleep without a night-light.��—N��ɲ��岹��“Strap yourself in for one heck of a ride. . . . It’ll scare your socks off.��—Denver Post “A stunner . . . writing in language as bright and precise as a surgeon’s scalpel, Harris has created a world as mysterious as Hannibal’s memory palace and as disturbing as a Goya painting. This is one book you don’t want to read alone at night.��—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution“Relentless . . . endlessly terrifying . . . 486 fast-paced pages, in which every respite is but a prelude to further furious action . . . Hannibal begins with a murderous paroxysm that leaves the reader breathless. . . . Hannibal speaks to the imagination, to the feelings, to the passions, to exalted senses and to debased ones. Harris’s voice will be heard for a while.��—Los Angeles Times“A pleasurable sense of dread.��—The Wall Street Journal“Enormously satisfying . . . a smashing good time, turning the pages for thrills, chills, horror and finally, a bracing, deliciously wicked slap in the face . . . perhaps the very best the thriller/horror genre is capable of producing.��—San Diego Union-Tribune]]> 530 Thomas Harris Coni 2 horror, series, e-book
The Silence of the Lambs ended with what looked like a promising FBI career for Clarice Sterling, but then she keeps getting held back and assigned to bullshit assignments because she turned down the advances of Krendler. I did like that Harris continues to write about the uphill battle that women can face in a workplace that is made up primarily by men. They don't always play fair. The raid in the beginning was exciting to read about even though I felt uneasy with some racial stereotypes going on. When the raid doesn't go perfect, Clarice is once again the scapegoat for it, even though she got added to the team at the last minute.

Meanwhile, Hannibal is having the time of his life hanging out in Italy doing his thing. He is getting pursued by an Italian cop, Pazzi, who suspects he is Hannibal, but since there has been some plastic surgery going on, he isn't positive. He's trying to get his fingerprints so he can prove it. Finally, there is Mason Verger, because there is also a main bad guy in each of these stories that either Will Graham or Clarice Sterling hunt down while Hannibal flits around in the background. Mason wants revenge on Hannibal because while he was briefly his patient, Hannibal gave him some drugs and convinced him to cut off part of his face and feed it to his dogs.

I enjoyed the set up. I really enjoyed the Italy parts and I had wished that there had been a way for Clarice to go to Italy to chase Hannibal with the help of Pazzi, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. I enjoyed all the convoluted plotting Mason had on how he was going to exact his revenge. It was over the top and too complicated but it was amusing to read.

When Hannibal decides he needs to get back to the United States, that's when the book stalled for me. His wandering around bored me, his talking about his mind palace made me roll my eyes, and it was all very repetitive for such a long time. It wasn't only Hannibal that was getting repetitive, it was also Mason and his sister. Harris should not write another LGBTQIA character. He does not do well with it. It was cringe. It was bad. I could have done with less of this section of the book.

There is a time when all three main characters finally come together and you think that would be the end of the story with Hannibal, Clarice, and Mason, but it isn't. It probably should have been, but instead we get a whole bunch of psychological mumbo jumbo and the absolute dissolution to Clarice's character. This isn't the same person we read about in Silence of the Lambs. It isn't even the same person we read about at the beginning of this book. She is making decisions that make no sense and come out of nowhere. Harris tries to make it as some sort of breakthrough for Clarice, but I don't buy it. I was disgusted by the ending and it made me not want to read another thing by Harris. ]]> 4.11 1999 Hannibal (Hannibal Lecter, #3)

author: Thomas Harris
name: Coni
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/04
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves: horror, series, e-book
review:
I thought this book started off strong, but then lulls in the middle. By the time I reached the third act, I didn't know what I was even reading anymore or knowing who the characters were. It was like Harris fell so in love with his Hannibal creation that he wanted to do whatever he could to make him happy.

The Silence of the Lambs ended with what looked like a promising FBI career for Clarice Sterling, but then she keeps getting held back and assigned to bullshit assignments because she turned down the advances of Krendler. I did like that Harris continues to write about the uphill battle that women can face in a workplace that is made up primarily by men. They don't always play fair. The raid in the beginning was exciting to read about even though I felt uneasy with some racial stereotypes going on. When the raid doesn't go perfect, Clarice is once again the scapegoat for it, even though she got added to the team at the last minute.

Meanwhile, Hannibal is having the time of his life hanging out in Italy doing his thing. He is getting pursued by an Italian cop, Pazzi, who suspects he is Hannibal, but since there has been some plastic surgery going on, he isn't positive. He's trying to get his fingerprints so he can prove it. Finally, there is Mason Verger, because there is also a main bad guy in each of these stories that either Will Graham or Clarice Sterling hunt down while Hannibal flits around in the background. Mason wants revenge on Hannibal because while he was briefly his patient, Hannibal gave him some drugs and convinced him to cut off part of his face and feed it to his dogs.

I enjoyed the set up. I really enjoyed the Italy parts and I had wished that there had been a way for Clarice to go to Italy to chase Hannibal with the help of Pazzi, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. I enjoyed all the convoluted plotting Mason had on how he was going to exact his revenge. It was over the top and too complicated but it was amusing to read.

When Hannibal decides he needs to get back to the United States, that's when the book stalled for me. His wandering around bored me, his talking about his mind palace made me roll my eyes, and it was all very repetitive for such a long time. It wasn't only Hannibal that was getting repetitive, it was also Mason and his sister. Harris should not write another LGBTQIA character. He does not do well with it. It was cringe. It was bad. I could have done with less of this section of the book.

There is a time when all three main characters finally come together and you think that would be the end of the story with Hannibal, Clarice, and Mason, but it isn't. It probably should have been, but instead we get a whole bunch of psychological mumbo jumbo and the absolute dissolution to Clarice's character. This isn't the same person we read about in Silence of the Lambs. It isn't even the same person we read about at the beginning of this book. She is making decisions that make no sense and come out of nowhere. Harris tries to make it as some sort of breakthrough for Clarice, but I don't buy it. I was disgusted by the ending and it made me not want to read another thing by Harris.
]]> <![CDATA[This Is Why We Lied (Will Trent, #12)]]> 199793571 The next thrilling suspense featuring Will Trent and Sara Linton from Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and After That Night!

Everyone here is a liar, but only one of us is a killer��

A secluded cabin retreat

For GBI investigator Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton, McAlpine Lodge seems like the ideal getaway to celebrate their honeymoon. Set on a gorgeous, off-the-grid mountaintop property, it’s the perfect place to unplug and reconnect. Until a bone-chilling scream cuts through the night.

A murderer in their midst

Mercy McAlpine, the manager of the Lodge, is dead. With a vicious storm raging and the one access road to the property washed out, the murderer must be someone on the mountain. But as Will and Sara investigate the McAlpine family and the other guests, they realize that everyone here is lying��.Lying about their past. Lying to their family. Lying to themselves.

Who killed Mercy McAlpine?

It soon becomes clear that normal rules don’t apply at McAlpine Lodge, and Will and Sara are going to have to watch their step at every turn. Trapped on the resort, they must untangle a decades-old web of secrets to discover what happened to Mercy. And with the killer poised to strike again, the trip of a lifetime becomes a race against the clock…]]> 464 Karin Slaughter 0063336723 Coni 0 to-read 4.19 2024 This Is Why We Lied (Will Trent, #12)

author: Karin Slaughter
name: Coni
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fear Nothing (Moonlight Bay, #1)]]> 13154938 ��
Christopher Snow is different from all the other residents of Moonlight Bay, different from anyone you’ve ever met. For Christopher Snow has made his peace with a very rare genetic disorder that leaves him dangerously vulnerable to light. His life is filled with the fascinating rituals of one who must embrace the dark. He knows the night as no one else can—its mystery, its beauty, its terrors, and the eerie silken rhythms that seduce one into believing anything—even freedom—is possible.
��
Until the night Christopher Snow witnesses a series of disturbing incidents that sweep him into a violent mystery only he can solve, a mystery that will force him to rise above all fears and confront the many-layered secrets of Moonlight Bay and its strange inhabitants. A place, like all places, that looks a lot different after dark.]]> 448 Dean Koontz 0345533305 Coni 3
I did not see a lot of story elements and plot points coming. If I was a regular reader of Koontz, I might expect it, but it was out of nowhere for me. I really enjoyed reading it because I kept thinking, "This book is insane!"

One drawback was whenever Koontz would describe surf lingo or something similar it would take me out of the story. One of the main character's friends is a surfer so it would be fine for the friend to speak that way, but it was weird to have the surfer speak that way and then have the author explained what he was saying. I think we could have figured it out, if we didn't know. Also, I felt that everything that was explained was pretty common knowledge. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt thinking that it might not have been common knowledge when this book was written in 1998, but I feel like it was.

There really isn't an ending to this book. Some freaky stuff happens and then it calms down only slightly at the end. Between the government experiments, conspiracies, and non-ending, it really reminded me of an X-Files episode. I could also see this as a schlocky sci-fi movie that would be really fun to watch.
Have any of his books been made into movies? After a Google search, I see there has been and I've seen none of them. Maybe I will someday.]]> 3.83 1997 Fear Nothing (Moonlight Bay, #1)

author: Dean Koontz
name: Coni
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2018/07/25
date added: 2024/04/06
shelves: physical-book, bookclub-readbetweendean
review:
One of the people that I follow on Instagram wanted to read a marathon of Dean Koontz books from what is considered his best works and I decided to join along. This is my first Koontz read. I can see the appeal. It jumps right into the action almost immediately and doesn't slow down until the end.

I did not see a lot of story elements and plot points coming. If I was a regular reader of Koontz, I might expect it, but it was out of nowhere for me. I really enjoyed reading it because I kept thinking, "This book is insane!"

One drawback was whenever Koontz would describe surf lingo or something similar it would take me out of the story. One of the main character's friends is a surfer so it would be fine for the friend to speak that way, but it was weird to have the surfer speak that way and then have the author explained what he was saying. I think we could have figured it out, if we didn't know. Also, I felt that everything that was explained was pretty common knowledge. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt thinking that it might not have been common knowledge when this book was written in 1998, but I feel like it was.

There really isn't an ending to this book. Some freaky stuff happens and then it calms down only slightly at the end. Between the government experiments, conspiracies, and non-ending, it really reminded me of an X-Files episode. I could also see this as a schlocky sci-fi movie that would be really fun to watch.
Have any of his books been made into movies? After a Google search, I see there has been and I've seen none of them. Maybe I will someday.
]]> The Ferryman 205064676 New York Times bestselling author of The Passage comes a riveting standalone novel about a group of survivors on a hidden island utopia--where the truth isn't what it seems.

Founded by a mysterious genius, the archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world. In this island paradise, Prospera's lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms, meant to measure their physical health and psychological well-being, fall below 10 percent. Then they retire themselves, embarking on a ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are readied to restart life afresh.

Proctor Bennett, of the Department of Social Contracts, has a satisfying career as a ferryman, gently shepherding people through the retirement process--and, when necessary, enforcing it. But all is not well with Proctor. For one thing, he's been dreaming--which is supposed to be impossible in Prospera. For another, his monitor percentage has begun to drop alarmingly fast. And then comes the day he is summoned to retire his own father, who gives him a disturbing and cryptic message before being wrestled onto the ferry.

Meanwhile, something is stirring. The Support Staff, ordinary men and women who provide the labor to keep Prospera running, have begun to question their place in the social order. Unrest is building, and there are rumors spreading of a resistance group--known as "Arrivalists"--who may be fomenting revolution.

Soon Proctor finds himself questioning everything he once believed, entangled with a much bigger cause than he realized--and on a desperate mission to uncover the truth.]]> 560 Justin Cronin 0525619496 Coni 0 to-read 3.83 2023 The Ferryman

author: Justin Cronin
name: Coni
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Quiet Tenant 205546187
Aidan Thomas is a hard-working family man and a somewhat beloved figure in the small upstate New York town where he lives. He’s the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone. But Aidan has a dark secret he’s been keeping from everyone in town and those closest to him. He’s a kidnapper and serial killer. Aidan has murdered eight women and there’s a ninth he has earmarked for death: Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed, fearing for her life.

When Aidan’s wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter Cecilia are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a “family friend�� who needs a place to stay. Aidan is betting on Rachel, after five years of captivity, being too brainwashed and fearful to attempt to escape. But Rachel is a fighter and survivor, and recognizes Cecilia might just be the lifeline she has waited for all these years. As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia’s orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan’s secret.

Told through the perspectives of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily, The Quiet Tenant explores the psychological impact of Aidan’s crimes on the women in his life—and the bonds between those women that give them the strength to fight back. Both a searing thriller and an astute study of trauma, survival, and the dynamics of power, The Quiet Tenant is an electrifying debut thriller by a major talent.]]> 384 Clémence Michallon 0593467868 Coni 0 to-read 3.81 2023

author: Clémence Michallon
name: Coni
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)]]> 6481065
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is an enthralling mystery, a wonderfully told tale of deception—and a rich literary delight.]]> 373 Alan Bradley 0385343493 Coni 0 to-read 3.79 2009

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)

author: Alan Bradley
name: Coni
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Alice (The Chronicles of Alice, #1)]]> 24434446 A mind-bending new novel inspired by the twisted and wondrous works of Lewis Carroll...

In a warren of crumbling buildings and desperate people called the Old City, there stands a hospital with cinderblock walls which echo the screams of the poor souls inside.

In the hospital, there is a woman. Her hair, once blond, hangs in tangles down her back. She doesn’t remember why she’s in such a terrible place. Just a tea party long ago, and long ears, and blood��

Then, one night, a fire at the hospital gives the woman a chance to escape, tumbling out of the hole that imprisoned her, leaving her free to uncover the truth about what happened to her all those years ago.

Only something else has escaped with her. Something dark. Something powerful.

And to find the truth, she will have to track this beast to the very heart of the Old City, where the rabbit waits for his Alice.]]> 304 Christina Henry 1101618183 Coni 0 to-read 3.95 2015 Alice (The Chronicles of Alice, #1)

author: Christina Henry
name: Coni
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Celebrants 203663776
The night after one of their own is tragically taken away from them, a group of five college friends form a pact: a promise to reunite every few years to throw each other "living funerals," constant reminders that life is worth living, if not for them then for their late friend.

Now, twenty-eight years into the hard-worn lines of adulthood, their "funerals" only remind them of all the opportunities they missed. But when one member of the old gang receives an unexpected diagnosis, the pact takes on new meaning, and each friend is forced to confront old secrets, and weigh their now-middle-age lives against the idealistic dreams of their youth.

A deeply honest tribute to selfhood and the people who keep us going, The Celebrants, coupled with Steven Rowley's signature humor and heart, is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth, and all the beautiful ways in which friendship can transcend our deepest losses.]]> 352 Steven Rowley 0593540433 Coni 0 to-read 3.63 2023 The Celebrants

author: Steven Rowley
name: Coni
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Gentleman in Moscow 62329671 --back cover]]> 496 Amor Towles 0143110438 Coni 0 to-read 4.25 2016

author: Amor Towles
name: Coni
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Senator's Wife 201815785 A D.C. philanthropist suspects that her seemingly perfect employee is secretly plotting to steal her husband, her reputation—even her life—in this seductive novel of psychological suspense from the internationally bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish.

In this town, anyone is replaceable. . . .

After a tragic chain of events led to the deaths of their spouses two years ago, D.C. philanthropist Sloane Chase and Senator Whit Montgomery are finally starting to move on. The horrifying ordeal drew them together, and now they're ready to settle down again—with each other.

As Sloane returns to the world of White House dinners and political small talk, this time with her new husband, she's also preparing for an upcoming hip replacement—the latest reminder of the lupus diagnosis she's managed since her twenties. With both of their hectic schedules, they decide that hiring a home health aide will give Sloane the support and independence she needs post-surgery. And they find the perfect fit in Athena Karras.

Seemingly a godsend, Athena tends to Sloane, and even helps her run her charitable foundation. But Sloane slowly begins to deteriorate—a complication, Athena explains, of Sloane's lupus. As weeks go by, Sloane becomes sicker, and her uncertainty quickly turns to paranoia as she begins to suspect the worst. Why is Athena asking her so many probing questions about her foundation—about her past? And could Sloane be imagining the sultry looks between Athena and her new husband?

Riveting, fast-paced, and full of unbelievable twists, The Senator's Wife is a psychological thriller that upends the private homes of those who walk the halls of power. Because when you have it all, you have everything to lose.]]> 336 Liv Constantine 0593599918 Coni 0 to-read 3.85 2023 The Senator's Wife

author: Liv Constantine
name: Coni
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Behind the Scenes at the Museum]]> 28940 332 Kate Atkinson 0312150601 Coni 0 to-read 3.96 1995

author: Kate Atkinson
name: Coni
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> King Lear 10511662 150 William Shakespeare Coni 5 bookclub-wgar, classic
I loved all the insults. I loved how it wasn't until towards the end of the play that I realized Edmund was supposed to be some hot dude. I thought it wrapped everything up a little too quickly at the end. There were some off stage developments that I wish had happened on stage, so when I learned of some news, I just kept going "Oh!"over and over again. Still, I had a real fun time with a story that was new to me. ]]> 4.50 1605 King Lear

author: William Shakespeare
name: Coni
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1605
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/02
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: bookclub-wgar, classic
review:
It has been a while since I had read any Shakespeare so I was pleasantly surprised that it started off immediately with pettiness and scandal. Then I remembered that these plays were for entertainment purposes so they have comedy and tragedy and love triangles and people murdering each other left and right.

I loved all the insults. I loved how it wasn't until towards the end of the play that I realized Edmund was supposed to be some hot dude. I thought it wrapped everything up a little too quickly at the end. There were some off stage developments that I wish had happened on stage, so when I learned of some news, I just kept going "Oh!"over and over again. Still, I had a real fun time with a story that was new to me.
]]> Nightcrawling 58537371
One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.]]> 277 Leila Mottley 0593318935 Coni 0 to-read 3.95 2022 Nightcrawling

author: Leila Mottley
name: Coni
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Take My Hand 55650158 Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.

Montgomery, Alabama 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies.

But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn down one-room cabin, she’s shocked to learn that her new patients are children—just 11 and 13 years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica and their family into her heart. Until one day, she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.

Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten.That must not be forgotten.

Because history repeats what we don’t remember.]]> 359 Dolen Perkins-Valdez 0593337697 Coni 0 to-read 4.36 2022 Take My Hand

author: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
name: Coni
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House of Eve 61273858 From the award-winning author of Yellow Wife, a daring and redemptive novel set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.

1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.

Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his parents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.

With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.]]> 384 Sadeqa Johnson 1982197366 Coni 0 to-read 4.23 2023 The House of Eve

author: Sadeqa Johnson
name: Coni
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Alice (The Chronicles of Alice, #1)]]> 182484392 From the national bestselling author of Ghost Tree comes a mind-bending novel inspired by the twisted and wondrous works of Lewis Carroll...

In a warren of crumbling buildings and desperate people called the Old City, there stands a hospital with cinderblock walls which echo the screams of the poor souls inside.

In the hospital, there is a woman. Her hair, once blond, hangs in tangles down her back. She doesn’t remember why she’s in such a terrible place. Just a tea party long ago, and long ears, and blood...

Then, one night, a fire at the hospital gives the woman a chance to escape, tumbling out of the hole that imprisoned her, leaving her free to uncover the truth about what happened to her all those years ago.

Only something else has escaped with her. Something dark. Something powerful. And to find the truth, she will have to track this beast to the very heart of the Old City, where the rabbit waits for his Alice.]]> 304 Christina Henry 0593641663 Coni 0 to-read 3.74 2015 Alice (The Chronicles of Alice, #1)

author: Christina Henry
name: Coni
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[After That Night (Will Trent, #11)]]> 176742574 432 Karin Slaughter 0063157799 Coni 0 to-read 4.20 2023

author: Karin Slaughter
name: Coni
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Stranger Beside Me 44652653 New York Times Best Seller, Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me gives us a unique perspective into the hidden world of Ted Bundy. Rule gives a chilling and intimate description of her time at a crisis hotline alongside her co-worker, the then charming, sensitive and trustworthy Ted Bundy, and the devastating realization that he was a brutal killer hiding in plain sight. After multiple arrests and an escape from jail, Bundy would later confess to the murders of at least thirty-six women and soon after was executed for three cases. Rule, a certified instructor for police training seminars, prosecutors and forensic science organizations, delves into how this savage killer -- a man she thought she knew -- could have fooled so many, including a professional like herself.
]]> 759 Ann Rule 1938402782 Coni 5
He was doing this at a time where DNA wasn't a thing. Police departments weren't talking to each other across jurisdictions. There was no central database in the country yet. He got away with so much due to those reasons and because he looked normal. He was a pleasant, charming man so no one expected it from him. He wasn't the weirdo that makes you wary to be near him. People thought you could tell if someone was a monster, but he very much proved that you cannot tell. It could be anyone.

He even had women love him, even though he didn't really love them back. He might have loved his first girlfriend, Stephanie, that Rule seems to point out was the catalyst for this killing spree, except that it probably started even before he knew Stephanie. I don't know if he ever loved her or if he was obsessed with her accepting him since he was so damn insecure about being an illegitimate child.

He was lazy. He loved to talk a big game and was smart, but not a genius. He talked his way into so many law schools and college programs to either fail or almost fail out of them because he didn't put in the work. When he was on the run, he couldn't even be bothered to get a job. He wanted to skate by on his looks while also asking women for money constantly. It was always women. He had no male friends. He only had relationships with women since he wanted to control them and discard them when he was done.

But, I'm not reviewing Ted Bundy here. I'm reviewing the book about him. Ann Rule does a great job laying out the facts and also sharing how she had to grapple with the realization that her friend was the same serial killer that had been haunting so many states for so long. It was an interesting twist on a true crime book. I was worried about the length but it flew by. She has a way of making it all very readable and not dry, like some non-fiction can be.

I knew he was a bad guy before I read this book, but the details of what he did and the analysis of his friendship with Rule and how he was friends with her only when it was advantageous to him made me sick. I am not a fan of the death penalty, but I'm glad he got it. Good riddance.]]> 4.32 1980 The Stranger Beside Me

author: Ann Rule
name: Coni
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/16
date added: 2024/01/21
shelves: non-fiction, true-crime, audible
review:
I thought I knew about Bundy. I had heard the stories where he would fake having a broken arm or something and would ask some woman for help and that's how he would take them. I didn't realize the extent of what he did and how that was only a small way of him luring his victims. It was chilling to read how many women he killed and abandoned their bodies in various parts of five different states.

He was doing this at a time where DNA wasn't a thing. Police departments weren't talking to each other across jurisdictions. There was no central database in the country yet. He got away with so much due to those reasons and because he looked normal. He was a pleasant, charming man so no one expected it from him. He wasn't the weirdo that makes you wary to be near him. People thought you could tell if someone was a monster, but he very much proved that you cannot tell. It could be anyone.

He even had women love him, even though he didn't really love them back. He might have loved his first girlfriend, Stephanie, that Rule seems to point out was the catalyst for this killing spree, except that it probably started even before he knew Stephanie. I don't know if he ever loved her or if he was obsessed with her accepting him since he was so damn insecure about being an illegitimate child.

He was lazy. He loved to talk a big game and was smart, but not a genius. He talked his way into so many law schools and college programs to either fail or almost fail out of them because he didn't put in the work. When he was on the run, he couldn't even be bothered to get a job. He wanted to skate by on his looks while also asking women for money constantly. It was always women. He had no male friends. He only had relationships with women since he wanted to control them and discard them when he was done.

But, I'm not reviewing Ted Bundy here. I'm reviewing the book about him. Ann Rule does a great job laying out the facts and also sharing how she had to grapple with the realization that her friend was the same serial killer that had been haunting so many states for so long. It was an interesting twist on a true crime book. I was worried about the length but it flew by. She has a way of making it all very readable and not dry, like some non-fiction can be.

I knew he was a bad guy before I read this book, but the details of what he did and the analysis of his friendship with Rule and how he was friends with her only when it was advantageous to him made me sick. I am not a fan of the death penalty, but I'm glad he got it. Good riddance.
]]> <![CDATA[Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter, #1)]]> 59084783 422 Thomas Harris Coni 4
If you have seen Manhunter, a lot of it has made it into that movie, but there are huge chunks missing from it that are included in the book, including the whole Red Dragon subplot. Even though that's the name of the book, you would think it would be a big deal if it wasn't included in the movie, but it still works. Parts of the Red Dragon lore in the book is great and the backstory to Francis is very interesting, but other parts I didn't like[spoilers removed].

Even though I enjoyed the book and I do think Harris does a good job with character development, but lacks in the area of writing action. There were times that I had to go back and reread paragraphs a few times to figure out what was actually happening. This was especially confusing at the very end of the book. It wasn't completely clear to me what was even happening. I had guesses and then it was actually clarified at the beginning of Silence of the Lambs. I'm wondering if others had the same confusion as me.]]> 4.28 1981 Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter, #1)

author: Thomas Harris
name: Coni
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/12
date added: 2024/01/13
shelves: series, mystery-thriller, family-drama, e-book
review:
This was nasty and thorough and I loved it. It's a good character study into the mind of the murderer and also the FBI profiler chasing him. William Graham had quit the FBI after he was attacked by Hannibal Lecter but Jack Crawford pulls him back in to help catch a new guy. This leads to Graham needing to talk with Hannibal in jail and also deal with the sleazy tabloid reporter that has chased him since the Lecter days.

If you have seen Manhunter, a lot of it has made it into that movie, but there are huge chunks missing from it that are included in the book, including the whole Red Dragon subplot. Even though that's the name of the book, you would think it would be a big deal if it wasn't included in the movie, but it still works. Parts of the Red Dragon lore in the book is great and the backstory to Francis is very interesting, but other parts I didn't like[spoilers removed].

Even though I enjoyed the book and I do think Harris does a good job with character development, but lacks in the area of writing action. There were times that I had to go back and reread paragraphs a few times to figure out what was actually happening. This was especially confusing at the very end of the book. It wasn't completely clear to me what was even happening. I had guesses and then it was actually clarified at the beginning of Silence of the Lambs. I'm wondering if others had the same confusion as me.
]]> The Turn of the Screw 10882679 The Turn of the Screw, James's great masterpiece of haunting atmosphere and unbearable tension, tells of a young governess sent to a country house to take charge of two orphans, Miles and Flora. Unsettled by a dark foreboding of menace within the house, she soon comes to believe that something, or someone, malevolent is stalking the children in her care. Is the threat to her young charges really a malign and ghostly presence, or a manifestation of something else entirely?]]> 134 Henry James 0141441356 Coni 4
Even though this is not a long story there were still very-short chapters where nothing happened. Between the governess and Mrs. Grose not just saying what they mean immediately meant they needed to talk about the topic forever and then just hint at what they wanted to say. The governess also loved to guess at what other people's intentions were without really knowing.

I thought this was going to be a spooky kid story, which I love, but it wasn't that. It was spooky in different ways and I did feel that tension when the governess would walk around that big English country house at night. And then she would come across something she did not want to see! Eek!

Good stuff and now I want to go see and read all the various adaptations from this story. ]]> 3.19 1898 The Turn of the Screw

author: Henry James
name: Coni
average rating: 3.19
book published: 1898
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: bookclub-wgar, horror, classic
review:
Even though I know there are a ton of movies adapted from this story and a television series on Netflix, and even other books based on this concept, I had seen nor read any of them. I didn't even fully realize what this book was about so it was a delight to figure out what was going on.

Even though this is not a long story there were still very-short chapters where nothing happened. Between the governess and Mrs. Grose not just saying what they mean immediately meant they needed to talk about the topic forever and then just hint at what they wanted to say. The governess also loved to guess at what other people's intentions were without really knowing.

I thought this was going to be a spooky kid story, which I love, but it wasn't that. It was spooky in different ways and I did feel that tension when the governess would walk around that big English country house at night. And then she would come across something she did not want to see! Eek!

Good stuff and now I want to go see and read all the various adaptations from this story.
]]> <![CDATA[The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2)]]> 23286440 You can find an alternative cover edition for this ISBN here.

Thomas Harris will seize you with an emotion more profound than terror.

Of his previous novel, Stephen King wrote, "The book simply comes at you and comes at you, finally leaving you shaken and sober and afraid on a deeper level than simple 'thrills' alone furnish." Harris' new book is his most powerful and provocative, a novel with an impact unlike any other.

The time is now. A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname - Buffalo Bill - is stalking particular women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the F.B.I. Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, Chief of the Bureau's Behavioral Science section. Her assignment: to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and grisly killer now kept under close watch in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Lecter's insight into the minds of murders could help track and capture Buffalo Bill.

Smart and attractive, Starling is shaken to find herself in a strange, intense relationship with the acutely perceptive Lecter. His cryptic clues - about Buffalo Bill and about her - launch Clarice on a search that every reader will find starling, harrowing, and totally compelling.

The Silence of the Lambs is an ingenious, masterfully written novel that will be the most talked-about best-seller of the year.]]> 338 Thomas Harris 0312022824 Coni 5
Everything that I loved about Red Dragon was also in this book, along with the same issues where I was confused by the action he was writing. When Buffalo Bill was wandering around his basement, I could not envision the layout because it was confusing. When the big showdown was happening in that same place, I was also confused by what was happening, but I just kept reading because I could figure it out from context.

Harris isn't the clearest writer with action, but everything else he does more than makes up for it. Great characters. Great story. ]]> 4.44 1988 The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2)

The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2)

author: Thomas Harris
name: Coni
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/09
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: bookclub-wgar, mystery-thriller, physical-book, series
review:
I loved Clarice. I loved her roommate at Quantico. I loved that this book had so many misdirects that it truly had me guessing what was going on and I have seen the movie!

Everything that I loved about Red Dragon was also in this book, along with the same issues where I was confused by the action he was writing. When Buffalo Bill was wandering around his basement, I could not envision the layout because it was confusing. When the big showdown was happening in that same place, I was also confused by what was happening, but I just kept reading because I could figure it out from context.

Harris isn't the clearest writer with action, but everything else he does more than makes up for it. Great characters. Great story.
]]> Parable of the Sower 115559438
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions.

Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.
��]]> 347 Octavia E. Butler 153875939X Coni 4
There were parts that were questionable, but they were very much the reasoning of a child becoming a woman, so if that was Butler's intention with Lauren, it really worked. I know people say that women like to marry their dads, but I still don't get her attraction to the guy that was her father's age, especially when she was so very young.

The ending left a lot to be desired. It was the first book of a series, and I guess it did wrap up the story here, but it ended on such a weird note for me. I wanted maybe an extra chapter or two. It seemed both sudden and a natural ending at the same time. ]]> 4.16 1993 Parable of the Sower

author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Coni
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/19
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: bookclub-wgar, magical-realism, physical-book, dystopian
review:
This book was very eerie to read now when it takes place around 2023, but was written in the 1990s and how some things Butler was predicting of the future are either happening or very close to happening. It was spooky where there were some cities run by corporations that were trying to bring back indentured servitude under the guise of protecting its citizens. That's only a small part of this story.

There were parts that were questionable, but they were very much the reasoning of a child becoming a woman, so if that was Butler's intention with Lauren, it really worked. I know people say that women like to marry their dads, but I still don't get her attraction to the guy that was her father's age, especially when she was so very young.

The ending left a lot to be desired. It was the first book of a series, and I guess it did wrap up the story here, but it ended on such a weird note for me. I wanted maybe an extra chapter or two. It seemed both sudden and a natural ending at the same time.
]]> <![CDATA[Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (Finlay Donovan, #1)]]> 54018267 Finlay Donovan is Killing It.

Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.

When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.

Fast-paced, deliciously witty, and wholeheartedly authentic in depicting the frustrations and triumphs of motherhood in all its messiness, hilarity, and heartfelt moment, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a brilliant new series from YA Edgar Award nominee Elle Cosimano.]]> 368 Elle Cosimano Coni 3
Finlay is a writer but her books haven't sold that well. It isn't enough to support her. While talking with her agent about her next book, she somehow gets confused for a professional killer and someone tries to hire her to kill their husband. Wacky times! This book is about as believable as that set up, but I didn't mind. I knew what I was getting into and went along with it.

The characters were all pretty well written. I really did not like her ex-husband or his fiancé, but at times I also sympathized with them. I loved her former nanny, Vero, who became a great sidekick. And then there were two different guys interested in Finlay even though it seemed like everyone usually ignored her in the romance department.

Some circumstances were completely convenient and not realistic, but it went with the story. It was really a nice and fluffy story. I know this was the start of the series, but when I was getting close to the end of it, I didn't think I needed to continue. But then it hinted at what the next book would be about and I want to know what happens! That's how they get ya. ]]> 4.07 2021 Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (Finlay Donovan, #1)

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (Finlay Donovan, #1)

author: Elle Cosimano
name: Coni
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/19
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: family-drama, e-book, mystery-thriller
review:
This is a very lighthearted book about murder if that is possible. I have heard of cozy mysteries but I haven't ever read them. I don't think they involve murder, but I might be wrong. This seems like it might in that vein.

Finlay is a writer but her books haven't sold that well. It isn't enough to support her. While talking with her agent about her next book, she somehow gets confused for a professional killer and someone tries to hire her to kill their husband. Wacky times! This book is about as believable as that set up, but I didn't mind. I knew what I was getting into and went along with it.

The characters were all pretty well written. I really did not like her ex-husband or his fiancé, but at times I also sympathized with them. I loved her former nanny, Vero, who became a great sidekick. And then there were two different guys interested in Finlay even though it seemed like everyone usually ignored her in the romance department.

Some circumstances were completely convenient and not realistic, but it went with the story. It was really a nice and fluffy story. I know this was the start of the series, but when I was getting close to the end of it, I didn't think I needed to continue. But then it hinted at what the next book would be about and I want to know what happens! That's how they get ya.
]]> Bear 196056205 A mesmerising novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor �� a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods, by the celebrated, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth.

They were sisters and they would last past the end of time.

Sam and her sister, Elena, dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works long days on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence.

Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the plan to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger.

A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us �� and within us �� Bear is a propulsive, mythical, rich novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.]]> 304 Julia Phillips 0525520430 Coni 0 to-read 3.22 2024 Bear

author: Julia Phillips
name: Coni
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Leave the World Behind 53867504
Amanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they've rented for the week. But with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken. Ruth and G. H., an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived there in a panic. These strangers say that a sudden power outage has swept the city, and - with nowhere else to turn - they have come to the country in search of shelter.

But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple - and vice versa? What has happened back in New York? Is the holiday home, isolated from civilisation, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?]]> 256 Rumaan Alam 0062667653 Coni 4
Leave the World Behind is an odd book. I loved the overall idea of the book. I really liked the character development with the adult characters. I was not a big fan of the couple renting out the house, but I thought Alam did a good job capturing the privileged white people vibe with them. I did like the couple that owned the house. The thoughts that they had about each other when they were forced to interact were my favorite parts. There wasn't much character development with the kids, which would have been nice, especially with the last few chapters. Since I didn't know them that well, I didn't know if the actions they were taking made any sense. They seemed a bit out of nowhere or their reactions to what was going on with them seemed odd.

The parts I had issue with was it would switch from one character's viewpoint to another so quickly that I wouldn’t realize it had switched perspectives. I had to stop and reread sections many times. It became distracting and would take me out of the story. I think if I didn't have that issue, I would have read this book a lot faster.]]> 3.27 2020 Leave the World Behind

author: Rumaan Alam
name: Coni
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/11
date added: 2023/12/28
shelves: dystopian, non-white-voices, e-book
review:
I'm rating this 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Leave the World Behind is an odd book. I loved the overall idea of the book. I really liked the character development with the adult characters. I was not a big fan of the couple renting out the house, but I thought Alam did a good job capturing the privileged white people vibe with them. I did like the couple that owned the house. The thoughts that they had about each other when they were forced to interact were my favorite parts. There wasn't much character development with the kids, which would have been nice, especially with the last few chapters. Since I didn't know them that well, I didn't know if the actions they were taking made any sense. They seemed a bit out of nowhere or their reactions to what was going on with them seemed odd.

The parts I had issue with was it would switch from one character's viewpoint to another so quickly that I wouldn’t realize it had switched perspectives. I had to stop and reread sections many times. It became distracting and would take me out of the story. I think if I didn't have that issue, I would have read this book a lot faster.
]]> The Book of Cold Cases 63139797
In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect—a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion.
��
Oregon, 2017 . Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases—a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea’s surprise, Beth says yes.
��
They meet regularly at Beth’s mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she’s not looking, and she could swear she’s seen a girl outside the window. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn’t right. Is she making friends with a manipulative murderer, or are there other dangers lurking in the darkness of the Greer house?]]> 368 Simone St. James 0440000238 Coni 0 to-read 3.79 2022 The Book of Cold Cases

author: Simone St. James
name: Coni
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Covenant of Water 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 724 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Coni 0 to-read 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water

author: Abraham Verghese
name: Coni
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Black Cake 147386673 Two estranged siblings delve into their mother’s hidden past—and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake—in this immersive family saga, “a character-driven, multigenerational story that’s meant to be savored�� (Time).

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking journey Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child, challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their family, and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor's true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right?�� Will their mother's revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?��

Charmaine Wilkerson's debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names, can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.]]> 416 Charmaine Wilkerson 0593726154 Coni 0 to-read 4.11 2022

author: Charmaine Wilkerson
name: Coni
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dead House (The Dead House, #1)]]> 22396591
Re-opened police records, psychiatric reports, transcripts of video footage and fragments of diary reveal a web of deceit and intrigue, violence and murder, raising a whole lot more questions than it answers.

Who was Kaitlyn and why did she only appear at night? Did she really exist or was she a figment of a disturbed mind? What were the illicit rituals taking place at the school? And just what did happen at Elmbridge in the events leading up to ‘the Johnson Incident��?]]> 440 Dawn Kurtagich 1780622341 Coni 0 to-read 3.68 2015 The Dead House (The Dead House, #1)

author: Dawn Kurtagich
name: Coni
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I Am Legend 20644705 Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood.

By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn.

How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?

I am legend --
Buried talents --
The near departed --
Prey --
Witch war --
Dance of the dead --
Dress of white silk --
Mad house --
The funeral --
From shadowed places --
Person to person.]]> 317 Richard Matheson Coni 0 to-read 3.99 1954 I Am Legend

author: Richard Matheson
name: Coni
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1954
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Come Closer 125974694
"A perfect horror novel."—Paul Tremblay, author of 'The Cabin at the End of the World'

A recurrent, unidentifiable noise in her apartment. A memo to her boss that's replaced by obscene insults. Amanda—a successful architect in a happy marriage—finds her life going off kilter by degrees. She starts smoking again, and one night for no reason, without even the knowledge that she's doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette. At night she dreams of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood-red sea.

The new voice in Amanda's head, the one that tells her to steal things and talk to strange men in bars, is strange and frightening, and Amanda struggles to wrest back control of her life. A book on demon possession suggests that the figure on the shore could be the demon Naamah, known to scholars of the Kabbalah as the second wife of Adam, who stole into his dreams and tricked him into fathering her child. Whatever the case, as the violence of her erratic behavior increases, Amanda knows that she must act to put her life right, or see it destroyed.

This new edition of the cult classic features a brand new post-script by the author and a "Are You Haunted?" questionnaire.]]> 168 Sara Gran 1641295244 Coni 0 to-read 3.81 2003 Come Closer

author: Sara Gran
name: Coni
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Out There Screaming 142392376 Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation.

A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele’s anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and—like his spine-chilling films—its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world . . . and redefine what it means to be afraid.

Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull.]]> 387 Jordan Peele 059324379X Coni 0 to-read 3.77 2023 Out There Screaming

author: Jordan Peele
name: Coni
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Haunting on the Hill 102188677 ��
Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play, The Witch of Edmonton, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a��weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the ornate, if crumbling, gothic mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s enormous, old, and ever-so eerie—the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.
��
Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house out for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, ��disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and��time itself seems to shift. ��All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but��with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it��no longer intends��to��walk alone . . .��
��]]> 326 Elizabeth Hand 0316527327 Coni 0 to-read 3.27 2023 A Haunting on the Hill

author: Elizabeth Hand
name: Coni
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Black Cake 154605152 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right��? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.]]> 416 Charmaine Wilkerson 059335835X Coni 0 to-read 4.11 2022

author: Charmaine Wilkerson
name: Coni
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Cloud Atlas 23388065
Alternative Cover of ISBN: 9780340822784]]> 544 David Mitchell Coni 5
Another book where I watched the movie first and was baffled by what was going on. Granted, I was not sober when I watched it so that only added to my confusion of so many storylines going on and figuring out how they tied together. In the movie, I was also disturbed by how much they were changing people's races to fit characters in the book instead of just hiring race-appropriate actors. I know they were trying to tie in the themes of the story about how all these people are connected, but it still felt icky to watch.

I'm glad it lead me to the book though. I loved the Russian-nesting doll aspect of it where there is half of a story at the beginning and you don't get the second half until the very end of the book. Unfortunately, that story about Adam Ewing making his way from Australia to San Francisco on a boy in the 1850s was the most boring one of the novel. If you can make it through it in the beginning, you'll be good since by the end, you know you only have around 30 pages to get through it all and finish it up. It also restates the general themes of the novel. It's just a shame that the story surrounding it is so boring!

The next story is slightly better about a young composer, Robert Frobisher, who is looking for work in Belgium with his favorite composer, Vyvyan Ayrs, in the early to mid 20th century. Together, they work on creating the Cloud Atlast Sextet, when Frobisher isn't bedding or trying to bed other members of the family while staying in the huge estate. He also writes letters to Sixsmith, his former lover back in London.

The third story takes place in the U.S. in the 1970s with Luisa Rey. This was fun to reach with the writing style being super short and snappy. The entire thing was written like an action thriller so it had momentum the entire time.

The fourth story about Timothy Cavendish might be my favorite of the book. He's a book publisher in current times and runs into some success but has some troubles due to his outstanding debts and then gangsters looking to him for money. He thinks he is going into hiding when he finds out that he's been tricked into checking into an old folks' home! Hijinks ensue!

The fifth story about Somni 451 takes place in a dystopian futures where she is a human replicant who realizes she can be so much more than just a tool to service humans. I was fascinated with this story as well.

The last story about Sloosha's Crossin' is even farther in the future after some kind of cataclysmic event has destroyed a good portion of the planet and humans are living in huts and villages again while also trying to survive barbarian attacks. This was not my favorite story, but it still had some interesting parts.

Not every story was my favorite, but all but one of them had portions of it that I enjoyed while I really liked all the parts of the Somni, Cavendish, and Luisa Rey.

Side note, I rewatched the movie after reading the book and it made a lot more sense the second time around.
]]> 3.92 2004 Cloud Atlas

author: David Mitchell
name: Coni
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/25
date added: 2023/09/16
shelves: bookclub-wgar, literary-fiction, magical-realism, multiple-pov, physical-book, scifi
review:
4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Another book where I watched the movie first and was baffled by what was going on. Granted, I was not sober when I watched it so that only added to my confusion of so many storylines going on and figuring out how they tied together. In the movie, I was also disturbed by how much they were changing people's races to fit characters in the book instead of just hiring race-appropriate actors. I know they were trying to tie in the themes of the story about how all these people are connected, but it still felt icky to watch.

I'm glad it lead me to the book though. I loved the Russian-nesting doll aspect of it where there is half of a story at the beginning and you don't get the second half until the very end of the book. Unfortunately, that story about Adam Ewing making his way from Australia to San Francisco on a boy in the 1850s was the most boring one of the novel. If you can make it through it in the beginning, you'll be good since by the end, you know you only have around 30 pages to get through it all and finish it up. It also restates the general themes of the novel. It's just a shame that the story surrounding it is so boring!

The next story is slightly better about a young composer, Robert Frobisher, who is looking for work in Belgium with his favorite composer, Vyvyan Ayrs, in the early to mid 20th century. Together, they work on creating the Cloud Atlast Sextet, when Frobisher isn't bedding or trying to bed other members of the family while staying in the huge estate. He also writes letters to Sixsmith, his former lover back in London.

The third story takes place in the U.S. in the 1970s with Luisa Rey. This was fun to reach with the writing style being super short and snappy. The entire thing was written like an action thriller so it had momentum the entire time.

The fourth story about Timothy Cavendish might be my favorite of the book. He's a book publisher in current times and runs into some success but has some troubles due to his outstanding debts and then gangsters looking to him for money. He thinks he is going into hiding when he finds out that he's been tricked into checking into an old folks' home! Hijinks ensue!

The fifth story about Somni 451 takes place in a dystopian futures where she is a human replicant who realizes she can be so much more than just a tool to service humans. I was fascinated with this story as well.

The last story about Sloosha's Crossin' is even farther in the future after some kind of cataclysmic event has destroyed a good portion of the planet and humans are living in huts and villages again while also trying to survive barbarian attacks. This was not my favorite story, but it still had some interesting parts.

Not every story was my favorite, but all but one of them had portions of it that I enjoyed while I really liked all the parts of the Somni, Cavendish, and Luisa Rey.

Side note, I rewatched the movie after reading the book and it made a lot more sense the second time around.

]]> The Snowman (Harry Hole, #7) 12612465
"Maddeningly addictive.�� Vanity Fair

One night, after the first snowfall of the year, a boy named Jonas wakes up and discovers that his mother has disappeared. Only one trace of her a pink scarf, his Christmas gift to her, now worn by the snowman that inexplicably appeared in their yard earlier that day. Inspector Harry Hole suspects a link between the missing woman and a suspicious letter he’s received. The case deepens when a pattern over the past decade, eleven women have vanished—all on the day of the first snow. But this is a killer who makes his own rules ... and he’ll break his pattern just to keep the game interesting, as he draws Harry ever closer into his twisted web. With brilliantly realized characters and hair-raising suspense, international bestselling author Jo Nesbø presents his most chilling case yet—one that will test Harry Hole to the very limits of his sanity.

Don't miss Jo Nesbo's latest Harry Hole thriller, Killing Moon !]]> 500 Jo Nesbø 0307742997 Coni 5
Enough about the movie though, let's talk about the book. Even though I jumped into this series in the seventh book, I did not feel lost. It gave me enough backstory in Harry Hole and would occasionally reference past cases, but it was easy enough to get into the current case and whatever else was going on with Harry's life without feeling like I needed to stop and go back to the beginning of the series.

As mentioned before, there are some major differences in the back half of the book compared to the movie. What is in the book is so much more interesting and how everything plays out at the end was fun to read and imagine. I wish they would have filmed it. Oh well! The entire plot with its dead ends, red herrings, and figuring out how it all tied together was fascinating. It even ends up on a bit of a cliffhanger so you can't wait to pick up the next book in the series. That will have to be a while for me, since I think I'm going back to the beginning and see how old Harry Hole reached the spot he was in The Snowman before continuing on with him and that cliffhanger.]]> 3.91 2007 The Snowman (Harry Hole, #7)

author: Jo Nesbø
name: Coni
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/14
date added: 2023/09/16
shelves: crime-fiction, mystery-thriller, physical-book, series
review:
I had watched the movie and it made no sense. I watched the movie a second time and it still made no sense. It led me to picking up this book to see what was missing from the movie that could possibly make it all make sense? There's so much missing! I had heard that they were not able to film the entire screenplay, which cut out some very important sections of the book. The movie also took a major detour with one huge plotline from the book. I have seen that happened between movies and books before and sometimes it is for the better, not in this case. Even if they had filmed the entire script of the movie, the changes they made in the last act were not good.

Enough about the movie though, let's talk about the book. Even though I jumped into this series in the seventh book, I did not feel lost. It gave me enough backstory in Harry Hole and would occasionally reference past cases, but it was easy enough to get into the current case and whatever else was going on with Harry's life without feeling like I needed to stop and go back to the beginning of the series.

As mentioned before, there are some major differences in the back half of the book compared to the movie. What is in the book is so much more interesting and how everything plays out at the end was fun to read and imagine. I wish they would have filmed it. Oh well! The entire plot with its dead ends, red herrings, and figuring out how it all tied together was fascinating. It even ends up on a bit of a cliffhanger so you can't wait to pick up the next book in the series. That will have to be a while for me, since I think I'm going back to the beginning and see how old Harry Hole reached the spot he was in The Snowman before continuing on with him and that cliffhanger.
]]> Station Eleven 20170404 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 Coni 4
There was a bit of a mystery in how some characters were tied together and it was fun to learn how they were as I was reading it. Some characters were more interesting than others, and I found myself surprised when I started to read what I thought was a minor, side character, ended up being who I found most interesting. It was nice to find those surprises.

I had read The Glass Hotel first, which I loved and I can see how she improved her writing from this book to The Glass Hotel which was her follow up to this one. This is a well done book and deserves all the praise that it gets, but I felt like there was something missing that I think she found in her next book.
]]> 4.05 2014 Station Eleven

author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Coni
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/21
date added: 2023/09/16
shelves: bookclub-wgar, physical-book, dystopian, literary-fiction
review:
I had avoided this book for years because I was tired of the same dystopian storyline that I had read so many other times. I am glad that I finally read it though because it isn't like other end-of-the-world stories. The book smartly only hints at what happens soon after effects change the world forever, but most of it is picked up years later and seeing how the world has changed. I was not interested in non-stop fighting between groups of people and that isn't what I got. There are some sketchy people out there, but it wasn't the main focus.

There was a bit of a mystery in how some characters were tied together and it was fun to learn how they were as I was reading it. Some characters were more interesting than others, and I found myself surprised when I started to read what I thought was a minor, side character, ended up being who I found most interesting. It was nice to find those surprises.

I had read The Glass Hotel first, which I loved and I can see how she improved her writing from this book to The Glass Hotel which was her follow up to this one. This is a well done book and deserves all the praise that it gets, but I felt like there was something missing that I think she found in her next book.

]]> <![CDATA[Mind of My Mind (Patternist, #2)]]> 116254 226 Octavia E. Butler 0446361887 Coni 0 to-read 4.17 1977

author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Coni
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Who Is Maud Dixon? 52320705 A "stylish and sharp" character-driven suspense novel, "with wicked hairpin turns," about a famous novelist and a small-town striver locked in a struggle for fortune and fame. (Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette?)

Florence Darrow is a low-level publishing employee who believes that she's destined to be a famous writer. When she stumbles into a job the assistant to the brilliant, enigmatic novelist known as Maud Dixon—whose true identity is a secret—it appears that the universe is finally providing Florence’s big chance.

The arrangement seems perfect. Maud Dixon (whose real name, Florence discovers, is Helen Wilcox) can be prickly, but she is full of pointed wisdom—not only on how to write, but also on how to live. Florence quickly falls under Helen’s spell and eagerly accompanies her to Morocco, where Helen’s new novel is set. Amidst the colorful streets of Marrakesh and the wind-swept beaches of the coast, Florence’s life at last feels interesting enough to inspire a novel of her own.

But when Florence wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car accident, with no memory of the previous night—and no sign of Helen—she’s tempted to take a shortcut. Instead of hiding in Helen’s shadow, why not upgrade into Helen's life? Not to mention her bestselling pseudonym . . .

Taut, twisty, and viciously entertaining, Who is Maud Dixon is a stylish psychological thriller about how far into the darkness you’re willing to go to claim the life you always wanted.]]> 324 Alexandra Andrews 0316500313 Coni 0 to-read 3.79 2021 Who Is Maud Dixon?

author: Alexandra Andrews
name: Coni
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Daughter 124029281 In Claudia Dey’s Daughter, a woman long caught in her father's web strives to make a life—and art—of her own.

To be loved by your father is to be loved by God.

So says Mona Dean—playwright, actress, and daughter to a man famous for one great novel, whose needs and insecurities exert an inescapable pull and exact an immeasurable toll on the women of his family: Mona, her sister, her half-sister, their mothers. His infidelity destroyed Mona’s childhood, setting her in opposition to a stepmother who, though equally damaged, disdains her for being broken. Then, just as Mona is settling into her life as an adult and a fledgling artist, he begins a new affair and takes her into his confidence. Mona delights—painfully, parasitically—in this attention. When he inevitably confesses to his wife, Mona is cast as the agent of disruption, punished for her father’s crimes and ejected from the family.

Mona’s tenuous stability is thrown into chaos. Only when she suffers an incalculable loss—one far deeper and more defining than family entanglements—can she begin supplanting absent love with real love. Pushed to the precipice, she must decide how she wants to live, what she most needs to say, and the risks she will take to say it.

Claudia Dey chronicles our most intimate lives with penetrating insight and devilish humor. Daughter is an obsessive, blazing examination of the forces that drive us to become, to create, and to break free.]]> 272 Claudia Dey 0374609705 Coni 0 to-read 3.93 2023

author: Claudia Dey
name: Coni
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bliss Montage 65215711
In Bliss Montage, Ling Ma brings us eight wildly different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective delusions: love and loneliness, connection and possession, friendship, motherhood, the idea of home. A woman lives in a house with all her ex-boyfriends. A toxic friendship grows up around a drug that makes you invisible. An ancient ritual might heal you of anything—if you bury yourself alive.

These and other scenarios investigate the ways that the outlandish and the ordinary are shockingly, deceptively, heart-breakingly alike.]]> 228 Ling Ma 1250893542 Coni 0 to-read 3.81 2022 Bliss Montage

author: Ling Ma
name: Coni
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The White People 7739321 48 Arthur Machen 1406574198 Coni 4
This was a very odd book, but had some spooky parts. I liked the witchy parts and some of it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland.]]> 3.64 1904 The White People

author: Arthur Machen
name: Coni
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1904
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/19
date added: 2023/08/16
shelves: bookclub-wgar, horror, short-story
review:
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

This was a very odd book, but had some spooky parts. I liked the witchy parts and some of it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland.
]]> Holly 65916344 Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.�� �� BILL HODGES

Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.]]> 449 Stephen King 1668016133 Coni 0 to-read 4.01 2023 Holly

author: Stephen King
name: Coni
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Shining (The Shining, #1) 762530
The Shining stands as a cultural icon of modern horror, a searing study of a family torn apart, and a nightmarish glimpse into the dark recesses of human weakness and dementia.]]> 447 Stephen King 0385121679 Coni 5
What I remembered was a guy with a former drinking problem gets a job as a winter caretaker at a resort hotel that will give him a chance to write his novel and spend some quality time with his wife and son. There are weird things in the hotel and it makes him crazy. Now that I have gone through the story again, I realized what I remembered was not completely accurate.

Jack Torrance has much more baggage than I remembered. He did have a drinking problem, but it did not stop there. Underneath that drinking problem was an anger problem. Even when he wasn’t drinking, he would get angry. Anything could set him off, including his students in his teaching job, himself at struggling while trying to write a play, his wife for suspecting that he’s drinking again due to his anger, or even his young son that adores him but sometimes can get underfoot when he is trying to work. Stephen King did a fantastic job making Jack Torrance into a monster, but not one that you don’t feel empathy for at times. The hotel feeds on what is already inside him and uses that to its advantage, along with what it senses in Jack’s five-year-old son, Danny.

Even though the book is filled with supernatural elements from lingering ghosts in the hotel to Danny Torrance being able to read people’s thoughts, feel their emotions, or see things that have happened in the past or may happen in the future, these elements would not get a foothold into the real world if it was not for Jack Torrance and his anger issues. That comes through in the line that is repeated a few times throughout the book, “This inhuman place makes human monsters.��

I got so much more out this book reading it later in life. At the time I first read it, I hadn’t encountered anyone in my life that had that much anger in them so I felt I skimmed over it and was scared by all the stuff going on in the hotel. The part I mentioned earlier that scared me so much involved a hedge maze with its supernatural elements that makes Jack think he’s going crazy. This time around, I thought Jack Torrance was the scariest part. Little by little his sanity is being eaten away and his anger becomes greater. His family is terrified of him since he becomes the real danger in that hotel.

I did not remember the ending of this book at all. I knew it was different from the movie, but could not remember what happened. I liked it so much better than Stanley Kubrick’s version. One thing I had noticed with Salem’s Lot and what I have heard from some critics of King’s work is he does not always know how to end a story. I felt that way with Salem’s Lot and maybe I will feel that way about some future books that I have not read yet, but The Shining is really solid from beginning to end. It is both supernaturally and realistically scary and filled with great characters and excellent storytelling. It has been one of my favorite books that I have ever read and so far, it is my favorite Stephen King book.]]> 4.31 1977 The Shining (The Shining, #1)

author: Stephen King
name: Coni
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1977
rating: 5
read at: 2015/12/30
date added: 2023/08/09
shelves: stephen-king-project, favorites, audible
review:
I only ended up reading a few books, mostly short stories by Stephen King before I quit reading his books back in high school. The Shining was one of them and it was my favorite. Parts of it scared me so much that when I was done reading one part, I had to put the book aside and go watch television with my brother so I would feel safer in my own house. Only bits of the book stayed with me, mostly because I have seen the Jack Nicholson movie version so much that it sticks in my head more. I knew there was more to the story than what was shown in the movie, but could not remember what exactly. I’m glad I was able to listen to the story again.

What I remembered was a guy with a former drinking problem gets a job as a winter caretaker at a resort hotel that will give him a chance to write his novel and spend some quality time with his wife and son. There are weird things in the hotel and it makes him crazy. Now that I have gone through the story again, I realized what I remembered was not completely accurate.

Jack Torrance has much more baggage than I remembered. He did have a drinking problem, but it did not stop there. Underneath that drinking problem was an anger problem. Even when he wasn’t drinking, he would get angry. Anything could set him off, including his students in his teaching job, himself at struggling while trying to write a play, his wife for suspecting that he’s drinking again due to his anger, or even his young son that adores him but sometimes can get underfoot when he is trying to work. Stephen King did a fantastic job making Jack Torrance into a monster, but not one that you don’t feel empathy for at times. The hotel feeds on what is already inside him and uses that to its advantage, along with what it senses in Jack’s five-year-old son, Danny.

Even though the book is filled with supernatural elements from lingering ghosts in the hotel to Danny Torrance being able to read people’s thoughts, feel their emotions, or see things that have happened in the past or may happen in the future, these elements would not get a foothold into the real world if it was not for Jack Torrance and his anger issues. That comes through in the line that is repeated a few times throughout the book, “This inhuman place makes human monsters.��

I got so much more out this book reading it later in life. At the time I first read it, I hadn’t encountered anyone in my life that had that much anger in them so I felt I skimmed over it and was scared by all the stuff going on in the hotel. The part I mentioned earlier that scared me so much involved a hedge maze with its supernatural elements that makes Jack think he’s going crazy. This time around, I thought Jack Torrance was the scariest part. Little by little his sanity is being eaten away and his anger becomes greater. His family is terrified of him since he becomes the real danger in that hotel.

I did not remember the ending of this book at all. I knew it was different from the movie, but could not remember what happened. I liked it so much better than Stanley Kubrick’s version. One thing I had noticed with Salem’s Lot and what I have heard from some critics of King’s work is he does not always know how to end a story. I felt that way with Salem’s Lot and maybe I will feel that way about some future books that I have not read yet, but The Shining is really solid from beginning to end. It is both supernaturally and realistically scary and filled with great characters and excellent storytelling. It has been one of my favorite books that I have ever read and so far, it is my favorite Stephen King book.
]]> The Quiet Tenant 61897971
When Aidan’s wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter Cecilia are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a “family friend�� who needs a place to stay. Aidan is betting on Rachel, after five years of captivity, being too brainwashed and fearful to attempt to escape. But Rachel is a fighter and survivor, and recognizes Cecilia might just be the lifeline she has waited for all these years. As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia’s orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan’s secret.

Told through the perspectives of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily, The Quiet Tenant explores the psychological impact of Aidan’s crimes on the women in his life—and the bonds between those women that give them the strength to fight back. Both a searing thriller and an astute study of trauma, survival, and the dynamics of power, The Quiet Tenant is an electrifying debut thriller by a major talent.]]> 303 Clémence Michallon 0593534646 Coni 0 to-read 3.80 2023

author: Clémence Michallon
name: Coni
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Policeman (The Last Policeman, #1)]]> 13330370
Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.

The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.�� What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?]]> 316 Ben H. Winters 1594745765 Coni 0 to-read 3.75 2012 The Last Policeman (The Last Policeman, #1)

The Last Policeman (The Last Policeman, #1)

author: Ben H. Winters
name: Coni
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hansel and Gretel: A TOON Graphic]]> 71389337
Bestselling author Neil Gaiman and fine artist Lorenzo Mattotti join forces to create Hansel and Gretel , a stunning book that's at once as familiar as a dream and as evocative as a nightmare. Mattotti's sweeping ink illustrations capture the terror and longing found in the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Gaiman crafts an original text filled with his signature wit and pathos that is sure to become a favorite of readers everywhere, young and old.]]> 52 Neil Gaiman 1662665040 Coni 0 to-read 3.68 2014 Hansel and Gretel: A TOON Graphic

author: Neil Gaiman
name: Coni
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Hacienda 123201424
During the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security that his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.
��
But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.

When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark the doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?

Beatriz only knows two things for Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will save her.

Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness.

Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.]]> 384 Isabel Cañas 0593436709 Coni 0 to-read 3.89 2022 The Hacienda

author: Isabel Cañas
name: Coni
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Skippy Dies 10640405
Could it have something to do with his friend Ruprecht Van Doren, an overweight genius who is determined to open a portal into a parallel universe using ten-dimensional string theory?

Could it involve Carl, the teenage drug dealer and borderline psychotic who is Skippy's rival in love?

Or could "the Automator"—the ruthless, smooth-talking headmaster intent on modernizing the school—have something to hide?

Why Skippy dies and what happens next is the subject of this dazzling and uproarious novel, unraveling a mystery that links the boys of Seabrook College to their parents and teachers in ways nobody could have imagined. With a cast of characters that ranges from hip-hop-loving fourteen-year-old Eoin "MC Sexecutioner" Flynn to basketball playing midget Philip Kilfether, packed with questions and answers on everything from Ritalin, to M-theory, to bungee jumping, to the hidden meaning of the poetry of Robert Frost, Skippy Dies is a heartfelt, hilarious portrait of the pain, joy, and occasional beauty of adolescence, and a tragic depiction of a world always happy to sacrifice its weakest members. As the twenty-first century enters its teenage years, this is a breathtaking novel from a young writer who will come to define his generation.]]> 661 Paul Murray 0865478619 Coni 0 to-read 3.84 2010 Skippy Dies

author: Paul Murray
name: Coni
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Night Swim (Rachel Krall, #1)]]> 54860368
The new season of Rachel's podcast has brought her to a small town being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. A local golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season 3 a success, Rachel throws herself into her investigation—but the mysterious letters keep coming. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insist she was murdered—and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody in town wants to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases—and a revelation that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.

Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened to Jenny?]]> 368 Megan Goldin 1250219698 Coni 0 to-read 4.07 2020 The Night Swim (Rachel Krall, #1)

author: Megan Goldin
name: Coni
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Family Game 134938634
Harry is a novelist on the brink of stardom; Edward, her husband-to-be, is seemingly perfect. In love and freshly engaged, their bliss is interrupted by the reemergence of the Holbecks, Edward's eminent family and the embodiment of American old money. For years, they've dominated headlines and pulled society’s strings, and Edward left them all behind to forge his own path. But there are eyes and ears everywhere. It was only a matter of time before they were pulled back in...

After all, even though he's long severed ties with his family, Edward is set to inherit it all. Harriet is drawn to the glamour and sophistication of the Holbecks, who seem to welcome her with open arms, but everything changes when she meets Robert, the inescapably magnetic head of the family. At their first meeting, Robert slips Harry a cassette tape, revealing a shocking confession which sets the inevitable game in motion.

What is it about Harry that made him give her that tape? A thing that has the power to destroy everything? As she ramps up her quest for the truth, she must endure the Holbecks�� savage Christmas traditions all the while knowing that losing this game could be deadly.]]> 336 Catherine Steadman 0593158083 Coni 0 to-read 3.77 2022 The Family Game

author: Catherine Steadman
name: Coni
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle]]> 40914164
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.

We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.

Understood? Then let's begin . . .

Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others . . .

The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.]]> 458 Stuart Turton 149267012X Coni 0 to-read 3.75 2018 The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

author: Stuart Turton
name: Coni
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>