Jackie's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 04 Mar 2025 16:55:17 -0800 60 Jackie's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)]]> 35519109
Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?

And what will become of it when it’s caught?]]> 163 Martha Wells Jackie 4 4.38 2018 Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)
author: Martha Wells
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1)]]> 17910048 A lush tale of deadly court intrigue and a modern classic of fantasy by Locus award winner and Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award finalist Katherine Addison

The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three half brothers in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.

Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.

Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend . . . and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne–or his life.]]> 446 Katherine Addison 076532699X Jackie 3 4.04 2014 The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1)
author: Katherine Addison
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)]]> 35519101
And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

]]> 158 Martha Wells 1250191785 Jackie 3 4.21 2018 Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)
author: Martha Wells
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves:
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]]> Hip-Hop Is History 195790908 352 Questlove 0374614075 Jackie 3 3.93 2024 Hip-Hop Is History
author: Questlove
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:
Very, very dense with references to musicians and music. I need a curated playlist synced to the text. Actually what I really need is a 10 episode documentary version of the book.
]]> <![CDATA[Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)]]> 36223860 alternate cover for ISBN 9781250186928

It has a dark past � one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A� stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.]]> 158 Martha Wells Jackie 4 4.23 2018 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
author: Martha Wells
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves:
review:

]]> Beach Read 52867387 A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.]]> 371 Emily Henry 1984806734 Jackie 2 3.99 2020 Beach Read
author: Emily Henry
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura, #1)]]> 9461562 ]]> 278 Martha Wells 1597802166 Jackie 3 3.94 2011 The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line (Veronica Mars, #1)]]> 18209454 From Rob Thomas, the creator of groundbreaking television series and movie Veronica Mars, comes the first book in a thrilling new mystery series.

Ten years after graduating from high school in Neptune, California, Veronica Mars is back in the land of sun, sand, crime, and corruption. She's traded in her law degree for her old private investigating license, struggling to keep Mars Investigations afloat on the scant cash earned by catching cheating spouses until she can score her first big case.

Now it's spring break, and college students descend on Neptune, transforming the beaches and boardwalks into a frenzied, week-long rave. When a girl disappears from a party, Veronica is called in to investigate. But this is not a simple missing person's case. The house the girl vanished from belongs to a man with serious criminal ties, and soon Veronica is plunged into a dangerous underworld of drugs and organized crime. And when a major break in the investigation has a shocking connection to Veronica's past, the case hits closer to home than she ever imagined.]]> 324 Rob Thomas 0804170703 Jackie 2 3.97 2014 The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line (Veronica Mars, #1)
author: Rob Thomas
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves:
review:
Read a tie-in novel to the Veronica Mars movie that came out more than 10 years ago? Why not? It translates the vibe of Veronica Mars to page pretty well with a good amount of banter. But it can’t capture the panache and snap of how much the characters in that universe, whether friends, allies, competitors, or enemies, get a kick out giving each other shit. You’d think that in compensation, the authors would give the reader more; characters that are portrayed on tv by actors that are hard to schedule or big set pieces that would break the budget. But they seem determined to restrict themselves to what could plausibly be a tv episode � requisite cameo from Dick Casablancas, spring break rager in an anonymous, dimly-lit mansion.
]]> <![CDATA[An Unfinished Murder (Campbell and Carter Mystery #6)]]> 40793092 Josh and Dilys find a body in the woods on the outskirts of their small Cotswold village, they are too terrified to report it. But when, as adults, Josh discovers that his sister has kept a memento � the victim’s charm bracelet � he feels compelled to share the secret.

When Josh unburdens himself to retired superintendent Alan Markby, his instincts tell him that this is linked to a missing person, a case long grown cold. The missing girl was last seen in the region currently under the jurisdiction of Superintendent Ian Carter and Inspector Jess Campbell. Joining forces, Markby and wife Meredith come out of retirement to hunt down the killer with Campbell and Carter, a murderer who by now must be safe in the knowledge that they’ve got away with it�

An Unfinished Murder is the sixth instalment of The Campbell and Carter Mysteries, a charming and accomplished novel perfect for fans of M. C. Beaton and Midsomer Murders.

Praise for Ann Granger'Set in the familiar mode of traditional country crime novels, there is nothing old-fashioned about the characters� Granger is bang up to date' Oxford Times'Characterisation, as ever with Granger, is sharp and astringent' The Times'Entertaining and lifelike characters� a satisfying and unexpected twist' Mystery People]]> 271 Ann Granger Jackie 2 3.76 An Unfinished Murder (Campbell and Carter Mystery #6)
author: Ann Granger
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Rooted in Evil (Campbell and Carter Mystery, #5)]]> 30814537 Rooted in Evil by Ann Granger is set in the Cotswold village of Weston Saint Ambrose and features Inspector Jess Campbell and Superintendent Ian Carter in their fifth murder mystery.

When the body of a man, with his brains blown out, is found in a Cotswold wood it looks like suicide. But looks can be deceptive and it doesn't take long for the police to identify that there's more to the case than meets the eye.

People's stories don't add up and when Superintendent Ian Carter and Inspector Jess Campbell start probing it becomes clear that the dead man had ruffled more than a few feathers in this close-knit community. His stepsister had been bailing him out of his financial troubles - much against her husband's wishes - but, with his money worries still mounting, the victim had become a desperate man...

As Jess and Ian dig deeper and deeper into the case, a cover-up is exposed and bitter resentment rises to the surface to reveal a killer.]]> 320 Ann Granger 147220459X Jackie 2 3.55 Rooted in Evil (Campbell and Carter Mystery, #5)
author: Ann Granger
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.55
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Dead in the Water (Campbell and Carter Mystery #4)]]> 25906257 As Christmas approaches in the sleepy English village of Weston Saint Ambrose, the rains bring the wettest winter on record and the farmer’s fields are left under several feet of water. The water washes up all manner of things, including a dead body, dredged up from its watery grave.

Snagging on the jetty of Isolde Evans, the reclusive writer is shocked to recognise the victim. And she’s not the only one. When Inspector Jess Campbell investigates, she recognises the body of Courtney Higson, a local barmaid with a doting, ex-con father. Terry is set on finding his daughter’s killer, and Jess must get to the bottom of this quickly, before he takes the law into his own hands...

Dead in the Water is perfect for fans of T E Kinsey, Ann Cleeves and the Midsomer Murders.

Praise for Ann Granger:

'Set in the familiar mode of traditional country crime novels, there is nothing old-fashioned about the characters...Granger is bang up to date' Oxford Times

'Characterisation, as ever with Granger, is sharp and astringent' The Times

'Entertaining and lifelike characters...a satisfying and unexpected twist' Mystery People

'Lovely characterisation and a neat plot' Yorkshire Post


]]> Ann Granger Jackie 2 3.63 2015 Dead in the Water (Campbell and Carter Mystery #4)
author: Ann Granger
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Bricks and Mortality (Campbell and Carter Mystery, #3)]]> 18052514
The owner, Gervase Crown, must return from abroad but he is not made welcome. Memories are long in the countryside and his return sparks recall of an old tragedy. But Gervase's own memories of his family home are not happy ones. Unhappy enough to make him want to destroy it? So, is he the arsonist or was he, perhaps, the intended to be the victim?

If he was meant to be the victim, will the killer try again? If not, who is the dead man in the burnt out ruins?]]> 352 Ann Granger 0755349148 Jackie 2 3.56 Bricks and Mortality (Campbell and Carter Mystery, #3)
author: Ann Granger
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.56
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)]]> 62226126
An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.

With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?]]> 421 Richard Osman 0241512441 Jackie 3 4.44 2023 The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)
author: Richard Osman
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bullet That Missed (Thursday Murder Club, #3)]]> 58957615
Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill or be killed. Suddenly the cold case has become red hot.

While Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim chase down the clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?

From an upmarket spa to a prison cell complete with espresso machine to a luxury penthouse high in the sky, this third adventure of the Thursday Murder Club is full of the cleverness, intrigue, and irresistible charm that readers have come to expect from Richard Osman's bestselling series.]]> 413 Richard Osman 0241512425 Jackie 3 4.32 2022 The Bullet That Missed (Thursday Murder Club, #3)
author: Richard Osman
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2)]]> 55457493
Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He's made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life.

As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn't that be a bonus?

But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?]]> 422 Richard Osman Jackie 3 4.36 2021 The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2)
author: Richard Osman
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:

]]> The Waltham Murders 58167725
In September 2011, Erik Weissman and two friends were murdered in a brutal triple homicide in Waltham, Massachusetts. The case went unsolved for months and then years, with no discernible leads. Erik’s friend Susan Zalkind, an investigative journalist, needed closure and knew that finding it would be up to her. As Susan began digging, and as the Boston Marathon bombing exposed startling new leads, the case led her down a tangled and sometimes dangerous path to the truth.

With every person Susan interviewed came a new thread. She followed each one through a web of conspiracy theories, corruption, and crime until she eventually arrived at a decade-defining act of domestic terrorism.

A true-crime memoir and the culmination of more than ten years of reporting, The Waltham Murders is an in-depth probe into a dark American underworld by a journalist coming to grips with both personal grief and the collective anguish of a nation in her tireless pursuit of the truth.]]> 343 Susan Zalkind 1503958701 Jackie 3 3.08 2024 The Waltham Murders
author: Susan Zalkind
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
Interesting. The writing is rough in parts, and it could use better organization. Despite the subject matter, I’m not sure that national/international readers will connect with the book � some of the most interesting stuff are the local angles.
]]> <![CDATA[Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism]]> 205478787
From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, Paris and its people were forced into surrender by Germans and imperiled as rebel republicans established a breakaway Commune, ultimately crushed by the French army after the burning of central Paris. As Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic Sebastian Smee shows, it was against the backdrop of these tumultuous times that the Impressionist movement was born—a reaction to violence, civil war, and political intrigue. Smee tells the story of Paris’s “Terrible Year� through the eyes of the Impressionists, with a focus on the relationship between Edouard Manet, the father of the movement, and Berthe Morisot, the group’s preeminent woman. With narrative sweep and vivid detail, Paris in Ruins captures the shifting passions and politics of the art world, revealing how the pressures of the Siege and the chaos of the Commune had a monumental effect on the development of modern art.]]> 384 Sebastian Smee 1324006951 Jackie 4 The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art, but it’s not. If anything, it’s a little strange that Degas seems to disappear from the narrative even though he was also in the besieged city.]]> 4.07 Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
author: Sebastian Smee
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.07
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:
I’m really glad I got the chance to pick this one up. I knew so little about the subject, and the book provides a broader view of what was going on in Paris than you might expect from just reading the blurb. I was worried that it’d be a significant retread of the Degas-Manet portion of The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art, but it’s not. If anything, it’s a little strange that Degas seems to disappear from the narrative even though he was also in the besieged city.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Murder a Millionaire (Blackbird Sisters Mystery, #1)]]> 813740
"MY parents blew the country for a sunny resort that catered to American tax evaders, leaving the family art collection to my sister Emma, the furniture to my sister Libby. They gave me the land--and a property tax bill for two million dollars. Which is why I, Nora Blackbird, a former socialite who never really held a job in all of my thirty-one years, found myself in dire need of a paycheck. . ."

Now Nora has a job as a society page columnist for a Philadelphia paper. This down—and almost,—out former debutante is happy to reclaim her place within the city's elite. Until her first party assignment, when she stumbles upon the murdered body of the host—a millionaire art collector and old family friend. Her sisters—sexy, hard-edged Emma and flaky earth mother Libby, who has her hands full with husband number two and four kids—only complicate matters as Nora investigates. And meanwhile the son of a rumored New Jersey crime boss is pursuing her with bone-melting come-ons she can barely resist. Priorities, Nora, think priorities...]]> 266 Nancy Martin 0451207246 Jackie 2 3.83 2002 How to Murder a Millionaire (Blackbird Sisters Mystery, #1)
author: Nancy Martin
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)]]> 46000520
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

Alternate cover edition can be found here .]]> 382 Richard Osman Jackie 3 3.86 2020 The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)
author: Richard Osman
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied â€droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.â€� Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells Jackie 4 4.10 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> The Keeper's Six 60784304 Kate Elliott's action-packed The Keeper's Six features a world-hopping, bad-ass, spell-slinging mother who sets out to rescue her kidnapped son from a dragon lord with everything to lose.

There are terrors that dwell in the space between worlds.

It’s been a year since Esther set foot in the Beyond, the alien landscape stretching between worlds, crossing boundaries of space and time. She and her magical travelling party, her Hex, haven’t spoken since the Concilium banned them from the Beyond. But when she wakes in the middle of the night to her son’s cry for help, the members of her Hex are the only ones she can trust to help her bring him back from wherever he has been taken.

Esther will have to risk everything to find him. Undercover and hidden from the Concilium, she and her Hex will be tested by dragon lords, a darkness so dense it can suffocate, and the bones of an old crime come back to haunt her.]]> 197 Kate Elliott 1250769078 Jackie 3 3.54 2023 The Keeper's Six
author: Kate Elliott
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Witch King (The Rising World, #1)]]> 61885085 "You idiot. I'm the demon."
Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' Witch King...

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.

But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?

Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.

He’s not going to like the answers.]]> 415 Martha Wells 1250826799 Jackie 3 3.60 2023 Witch King (The Rising World, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:
A cool fantasy world, an intriguing start, and lots of fun. But as the story goes on, it starts to feel very â€when are we going to get to the fireworks factoryâ€� â€� if you know what I mean â€� and left me very suspicious that this is just set up for yet to be written sequels.
]]> A Door Through Space 5508273 Fangs of the Wolf World

Across half a Galaxy, the Terran Empire maintains its sovereignty with the consent of the governed. It is a peaceful reign, held by compact and not by conquest. Again and again, when rebellion threatens the Terran Peace, the natives of the rebellious world have turned against their own people and sided with the men of Terra; not from fear, but from a sense of dedication.

There has never been open war. The battle for these worlds is fought in the minds of a few men who stand between worlds; bound to one world by interest, loyalties and allegiance; bound to the other by love.

Such a world is Wolf. Such a man was Race Cargill of the Terran Secret Service�

At one time Race Cargill had been the best Terran Intelligence agent on the complex and mysterious planet of Wolf. He had repeatedly imperiled his life amongst the half-human and non-human creatures of the sullen world. And he had repeatedly accomplished the fantastic missions until his name was emblazoned with glory.

But that had all seemingly ended. For six long years he'd sat behind a boring desk inside the fenced-in Terran Headquarters, cut off there ever since he and a rival had scarred and ripped each other in blood-feud.

But when The Door Through Space swung suddenly open, the feud was on again—and with it a plot designed to check and destroy the Terran Empire.]]> 402 Marion Zimmer Bradley Jackie 2 2.00 1961 A Door Through Space
author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
name: Jackie
average rating: 2.00
book published: 1961
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves:
review:
There’s some good classic sci-fi stuff in it and it’s a very readable, quick read, but it’s very unevenly paced.
]]> <![CDATA[Rack, Ruin and Murder (Campbell and Carter Mystery #2)]]> 10809345
When old Monty Bickerstaffe finds a dead body in his drawing room it comes as a nasty surprise - the first of many. Monty lives alone in a crumbling Cotswold manor house and the last thing he wants is the police sniffing around his property. Not that he has anything to hide...

The identity of the corpse and how and why it was left in Monty's home remain a mystery. The locals swear they've seen nothing unusual and Monty's relatives claim they've never set eyes on the stiff before. But Inspector Jess Campbell is convinced that someone's lying and, with the help of Superintendent Ian Carter, she must dig deep into Monty's family history to reveal the shocking truth...]]> 346 Ann Granger 0755349113 Jackie 3 3.62 2011 Rack, Ruin and Murder (Campbell and Carter Mystery #2)
author: Ann Granger
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mud, Muck and Dead Things (Campbell and Carter Mystery, #1)]]> 6305077
Lucas Burton hates the countryside. To him it's nothing but mud, muck and dead things. And he's right. When he turns up at a deserted farm in the middle of nowhere hoping to conduct a business deal he stumbles across the body of a girl. And that's just the start of his bad luck: Penny Gower from the local stables has spotted his silver Mercedes leaving the scene of the crime. Suddenly, for Lucas, things are looking very bleak indeed...

Inspector Jess Campbell is on the case, but with few leads and a new superintendent, Ian Carter, breathing down her neck, she's beginning to feel the pressure. Then another dead body is found...]]> 346 Ann Granger 0755320514 Jackie 2 3.51 2009 Mud, Muck and Dead Things (Campbell and Carter Mystery, #1)
author: Ann Granger
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves:
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]]> The Thin Man 80616 The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.]]> 201 Dashiell Hammett 0679722637 Jackie 3 3.92 1934 The Thin Man
author: Dashiell Hammett
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1934
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Murders in Great Diddling (Berit Gardner #1)]]> 200174240
The small, rundown village of Great Diddling is full of stories—author Berit Gardner can feel it. The way the villagers avoid outsiders, the furtive stares and whispers in the presence of newcomers� Berit can sense the edge of a story waiting to be unraveled, and she's just the person to do it. In fact, with a book deadline looming over her and no manuscript (not even the idea for a manuscript, truth be told), Berit doesn't just want this story. She needs it.

Then, while attending a village tea party, Berit becomes part of the action herself. An explosion in the library of the village's grand manor kills a local man, and the resulting investigation and influx of outsiders sends the quiet, rundown community into chaos. The residents of Great Diddling, each one more eccentric and interesting than any character Berit could have invented, rewrite their own narrative and transform the death of one of their own from a tragedy into a new beginning. Taking advantage of Great Diddling's new notoriety, the villagers band together to start a book and murder festival designed to bring desperately-needed tourists to their town. What they couldn't have predicted is how the new story they've begun to tell will change all their lives forever.]]> 392 Katarina Bivald 1728295769 Jackie 3 3.60 2024 The Murders in Great Diddling (Berit Gardner #1)
author: Katarina Bivald
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night (The Grantchester Mysteries #2)]]> 16034225
Here are six interlocking adventures that combine mystery with morality, and criminality with charm.]]> 368 James Runcie 1608199517 Jackie 2 3.68 2013 Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night (The Grantchester Mysteries #2)
author: James Runcie
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil (The Grantchester Mysteries #3)]]> 18594557
In the meantime, Sidney wrestles with the problem of evil, attempts to fulfill the demands of his faithful Labrador, Dickens, and contemplates, as always, the nature of love.]]> 287 James Runcie 1608199525 Jackie 2 3.71 2014 Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil (The Grantchester Mysteries #3)
author: James Runcie
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (The Grantchester Mysteries #1)]]> 23451464
Together with his roguish friend, inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney inquires into the suspect suicide of a Cambridge solicitor, a scandalous jewelry theft at a New Year's Eve dinner party, the unexplained death of a jazz promoter's daughter, and a shocking art forgery that puts a close friend in danger. Sidney discovers that being a detective, like being a clergyman, means that you are never off duty, but he nonetheless manages to find time for a keen interest in cricket, warm beer, and hot jazz - as well as a curious fondness for a German widow three years his junior.

With a whiff of Agatha Christie and a touch of G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown, The Grantchester Mysteries introduces a wonderful new hero into the world of detective fiction.]]> 400 James Runcie 1632862891 Jackie 3 3.63 2012 Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (The Grantchester Mysteries #1)
author: James Runcie
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2024/12/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Death Knocks Twice (Death in Paradise, #3)]]> 32489929
Just as he is feeling as fed up as can be, a mysterious vagrant is found dead on the grounds of the historic Beaumont coffee plantation. It's immediately assumed to be a suicide, but D.I. Poole is not so convinced. He's determined to prove otherwise. Never mind that the only fingerprints on the murder weapon belong to the victim. Or that the room was locked from the inside.

Before long, death knocks twice and a second body turns up. The hunt is on to solve the case � despite the best efforts of the enigmatic Beaumont family�

It's #3 in the popular 'Death in Paradise' series!]]> 400 Robert Thorogood 1848455062 Jackie 3 4.02 2017 Death Knocks Twice (Death in Paradise, #3)
author: Robert Thorogood
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Killing of Polly Carter (Death in Paradise, #2)]]> 25882387
Supermodel Polly Carter was famed for her looks and party-girl lifestyle. Now she's dead, apparently having thrown herself from the clifftop near her home on the island of Saint-Marie. Those who knew her say Polly would never have killed herself…and when he is called in to investigate, DI Poole is inclined to agree there is more to Polly’s death than meets the eye.

Already fighting a losing battle against the intense summer heat of the Caribbean, Richard now faces fresh adversaries: a stream of alibis, a host of conflicting motives, and worst of all, a visit from his mother. It's a frenzy which would surely allow a murderer to slip away unnoticed…yet Richard is certain that the guilty party is still on the island.

As his team closes in on Polly’s household, Richard becomes convinced that the model’s death was an inside job. He's determined to ascertain if he is correct. Who did kill Polly Carter and why?]]> 333 Robert Thorogood 1848454155 Jackie 3 4.00 2015 The Killing of Polly Carter (Death in Paradise, #2)
author: Robert Thorogood
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
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]]> <![CDATA[A Meditation on Murder (Death in Paradise, #1)]]> 23282781
Aslan Kennedy has an idyllic life as leader of a spiritual retreat for wealthy holidaymakers on one of the Caribbean's most unspoiled islands, Saint Marie. Until he's murdered, that is. The case seems open and shut. Aslan was killed inside a locked room with only five other people, one of whom has already confessed.

Detective Inspector Richard Poole is hot, bothered, and fed up with talking to witnesses who'd rather discuss his 'aura' than their whereabouts at the time of the murder. But he also knows that the facts of the case don't quite stack up. In fact, he's convinced that the person who's just confessed to the murder is the one person who couldn’t have done it.

Determined to track down the real killer, Poole is soon on the trail and he won't leave any stone unturned.]]> 358 Robert Thorogood 1848453566 Jackie 3 3.90 2015 A Meditation on Murder (Death in Paradise, #1)
author: Robert Thorogood
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1)]]> 338691
But Gamache knows that evil is lurking somewhere behind the white picket fences and that, if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will start to give up its dark secrets...]]> 293 Louise Penny 0312948557 Jackie 2 3.86 2005 Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1)
author: Louise Penny
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
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]]> <![CDATA[In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin]]> 9938498
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the New Germany, she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Goring and the expectedly charming—yet wholly sinister—Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.]]> 448 Erik Larson 0307408841 Jackie 3 3.87 2011 In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
author: Erik Larson
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
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]]> Bellwether 24985
Sandra Foster studies fads - from Barbie dolls to the grunge look - how they start and what they mean. Bennett O'Reilly is a chaos theorist studying monkey group behavior. They both work for the HiTek corporation, strangers until a misdelivered package brings them together. It's a moment of synchronicity - if not serendipity - which leads them into a chaotic system of their own, complete with a million-dollar research grant, caffé latte, tattoos, and a series of unlucky coincidences that leaves Bennett monkeyless, fundless, and nearly jobless.

Sandra intercedes with a flock of sheep and an idea for a joint project. (After all, what better animal to study both chaos theory and the herd mentality that so often characterizes human behavior?)

But scientific discovery is rarely straightforward and never simple, and Sandra and Bennett have to endure a series of setbacks, heartbreaks, dead ends, and disasters before they find their ultimate answer...]]> 248 Connie Willis 0553562967 Jackie 4 3.92 1996 Bellwether
author: Connie Willis
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves:
review:
For much of the book, I was just befuddled � when would the plot start, does this book even have a plot? Then, when the pace of events picks up halfway through, I was impressed. The dramatic arc of the story isn’t dependent upon events. Of course not. If you write a book about the inability to ascribe events to simple causal factors, the dramatic heft too must lie elsewhere, somewhere more ephemeral.
]]> <![CDATA[Murder Under a Red Moon (Bangalore Detectives Club, #2)]]> 60760944 The latest novel in the acclaimed Bangalore Detectives Club series finds amateur sleuth Kaveri Murthy uncovering a new murder during the blood moon eclipse.

When new bride Kaveri Murthy reluctantly agrees to investigate a minor crime to please her domineering mother-in-law—during the blood moon eclipse, no less—she doesn't expect, once again, to stumble upon a murder.

With anti-British sentiment on the rise, a charismatic religious leader growing in influence, and the fight for women's suffrage gaining steam, Bangalore is turning out to be a far more dangerous and treacherous place than Kaveri ever imagined—and everyone's motives are suspect.

Together with the Bangalore Detectives Club—a mixed bag of street urchins, nosy neighbours, an ex-prostitute, and a policeman's wife� Kaveri once again sleuths in her sari and hunts for clues in her beloved 1920s Ford.

But when her life is suddenly put in danger, Kaveri realizes that she might be getting uncomfortably close to the truth. So she must now draw on her wits and find the killer . . . before they find her.]]> 416 Harini Nagendra 1408715236 Jackie 3 3.77 2023 Murder Under a Red Moon (Bangalore Detectives Club, #2)
author: Harini Nagendra
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/11/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts]]> 42478640
Tuesday Mooney is a loner. She keeps to herself, begrudgingly socializes, and spends much of her time watching old Twin Peaks and X-Files DVDs. But when Vincent Pryce, Boston’s most eccentric billionaire, dies—leaving behind an epic treasure hunt through the city, with clues inspired by his hero, Edgar Allan Poe—Tuesday’s adventure finally begins.

Puzzle-loving Tuesday searches for clue after clue, joined by a ragtag crew: a wisecracking friend, an adoring teen neighbor, and a handsome, cagey young heir. The hunt tests their mettle, and with other teams from around the city also vying for the promised prize—a share of Pryce’s immense wealth—they must move quickly. Pryce’s clues can't be cracked with sharp wit alone; the searchers must summon the courage to face painful ghosts from their pasts (some more vivid than others) and discover their most guarded desires and dreams.

A deliciously funny ode to imagination, overflowing with love letters to art, from The Westing Game to Madonna to the Knights of the Round Table, Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts is the perfect read for thrill seekers, wanderers, word lovers, and anyone looking for an escape to the extraordinary.]]> 359 Kate Racculia 0358023939 Jackie 2 3.84 2019 Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts
author: Kate Racculia
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves:
review:
I really thought I was going to quit reading this book midway through. It was so try-hard to appeal to people who were nerdy teenagers in the mid-1990s. That’s 100% me � but it grated. But it picked up with a few good twists, enough to power me through to the end.
]]> Bad Summer People 61884844 A whip-smart, propulsive debut about infidelity, backstabbing, and murderous intrigue, set against an exclusive summer haven on Fire Island
None of them would claim to be a particularly good person. But who among them is actually capable of murder?
Jen Weinstein and Lauren Parker rule the town of Salcombe, Fire Island every summer. They hold sway on the beach and the tennis court, and are adept at manipulating people to get what they want. Their husbands, Sam and Jason, have summered together on the island since childhood, despite lifelong grudges and numerous secrets. Their one single friend, Rachel Woolf, is looking to meet her match, whether he's the tennis pro-or someone else's husband. But even with plenty to gossip about, this season starts out as quietly as any other.
Until a body is discovered, face down off the side of the boardwalk.
Stylish, subversive and darkly comedic, this is a story of what's lurking under the surface of picture-perfect lives in a place where everyone has something to hide.]]> 272 Emma Rosenblum 1250887003 Jackie 1 3.32 2023 Bad Summer People
author: Emma Rosenblum
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/11/23
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]]> The Party Crasher 57996835 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Your Life comes a humorous and heartwarming novel about family, set against the backdrop of the most fabulous party you've ever snuck into.

It's been over two years since Effie's beloved parents got divorced, destroying the image of the happy, loving childhood she thought she had. Since then, she's become estranged from her father and embarked on a feud with his hot (and much younger) girlfriend, Krista. And now, more earth-shattering news: Greenoaks, the rambling Victorian country house Effie called home her whole life, has been sold.

When Krista decides to throw a grand "house cooling" party, Effie is originally left off the guest list--and then receives a last-minute "anti-invitation" (maybe it's because she called Krista a gold-digger, but Krista totally deserved it, and it was mostly a joke anyway). Effie declines, but then remembers a beloved childhood treasure is still hidden in the house. Her only chance to retrieve it is to break into Greenoaks while everyone is busy celebrating. As Effie sneaks around the house, hiding under tables and peeping through trapdoors, she realizes the secrets Greenoaks holds aren't just in the dusty passageways and hidden attics she grew up exploring. Watching how her sister, brother, and dad behave when they think no one is looking, Effie overhears conversations, makes discoveries, and begins to see her family in a new light. Then she runs into Joe--the love of her life, who long ago broke her heart, and who's still as handsome and funny as ever--and even more truths emerge.

But will Effie act on these revelations? Will she stay hidden or step out into the party and take her place with her family? And truthfully, what did she really come back to Greenoaks for? Over the course of one blowout party, Effie realizes that she must be honest with herself and confront her past before she'll ever be able to face her future.]]> 349 Sophie Kinsella 0593449177 Jackie 2 3.69 2021 The Party Crasher
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/22
date added: 2024/11/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Killings at Badger's Drift (Chief Inspector Barnaby, #1)]]> 256936 261 Caroline Graham 1933397047 Jackie 2 3.91 1987 The Killings at Badger's Drift (Chief Inspector Barnaby, #1)
author: Caroline Graham
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1987
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/21
date added: 2024/11/21
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]]> Plays Well with Others 199531664 People

"Heavenly hilarity for readers."�Good Housekeeping

A whip-smart, satirical romp through the minefield of modern motherhood, in the vein of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Fleishman Is in Trouble

It takes a village...just not this one.

Annie Lewin is at the end of her rope. She’s a mother of three young children, her workaholic husband is never around, and the vicious competition for spots in New York City’s kindergartens is heating up. An advice-columnist for a parenting website, Annie can’t help but judge the insanity of it all—even as she finds herself going to impossible lengths to secure the best spot for her own son.

As Annie comes to terms with the infinitesimal odds of success, she is pushed to the brink. Of course, this newly raw and unhinged version of Annie is great for her advice column: the more she spins out, the more clicks and comments she gets.

But when she commits a ghastly social faux pas that goes viral, she’s forced to confront the question: is she really any better than the cutthroat parents she always judged?]]> 320 Sophie Brickman 0063371200 Jackie 2 2.98 Plays Well with Others
author: Sophie Brickman
name: Jackie
average rating: 2.98
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
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]]> Bellweather Rhapsody 18222740 340 Kate Racculia 0544129911 Jackie 3 3.77 2014 Bellweather Rhapsody
author: Kate Racculia
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/18
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art]]> 27876332 Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic Sebastian Smee tells the fascinating story of four pairs of artists—Manet and Degas, Picasso and Matisse, Pollock and de Kooning, Freud and Bacon—whose fraught, competitive friendships spurred them to new creative heights. Rivalry is at the heart of some of the most famous and fruitful relationships in history. The Art of Rivalry follows eight celebrated artists, each linked to a counterpart by friendship, admiration, envy, and ambition. All eight are household names today. But to achieve what they did, each needed the influence of a contemporary—one who was equally ambitious but possessed sharply contrasting strengths and weaknesses. Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas were close associates whose personal bond frayed after Degas painted a portrait of Manet and his wife. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso swapped paintings, ideas, and influences as they jostled for the support of collectors like Leo and Gertrude Stein and vied for the leadership of a new avant-garde. Jackson Pollock’s uninhibited style of “action painting� triggered a breakthrough in the work of his older rival, Willem de Kooning. After Pollock’s sudden death in a car crash, de Kooning assumed Pollock's mantle and became romantically involved with his late friend’s mistress. Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon met in the early 1950s, when Bacon was being hailed as Britain’s most exciting new painter and Freud was working in relative obscurity. Their intense but asymmetrical friendship came to a head when Freud painted a portrait of Bacon, which was later stolen. Each of these relationships culminated in an early flashpoint, a rupture in a budding intimacy that was both a betrayal and a trigger for great innovation. Writing with the same exuberant wit and psychological insight that earned him a Pulitzer Prize for art criticism, Sebastian Smee explores here the way that coming into one’s own as an artist—finding one’s voice—almost always involves willfully breaking away from some intimate’s expectations of who you are or ought to be.Praise for The Art of Rivalry“Gripping . . . Mr. Smee’s skills as a critic are evident throughout. He is persuasive and vivid. . . . You leave this book both nourished and hungry for more about the art, its creators and patrons, and the relationships that seed the ground for moments spent at the canvas.�—The New York Times“With novella-like detail and incisiveness [Sebastian Smee] opens up the worlds of four pairs of renowned artists. . . . Each of his portraits is a biographical gem. . . . The Art of Rivalry is a pure, informative delight, written with canny authority.�—The Boston Globe]]> 385 Sebastian Smee 0812994817 Jackie 3 3.91 2016 The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art
author: Sebastian Smee
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
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]]> Little Fires Everywhere 34273236
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned � from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren � an enigmatic artist and single mother � who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town � and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .]]> 338 Celeste Ng 0735224293 Jackie 3 4.05 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Queen of Poisons (The Marlow Murder Club, #3)]]> 197036052
The police bring Judith, Suzie, and Becks in to investigate the murder as civilian advisors right from the start, so they have free rein to interview suspects and follow the evidence to their heart's content� which is perfect because Judith has no time for rules and standard procedure. But this case has the Marlow Murder Club stumped. Who would want to kill the affable mayor of Marlow? How did they even get the poison into his coffee? And is anyone else in danger? The Marlow Murder Club is about to face their most difficult case yet...]]> 272 Robert Thorogood 1728284473 Jackie 3 3.78 2024 The Queen of Poisons (The Marlow Murder Club, #3)
author: Robert Thorogood
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/13
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Death Comes to Marlow (Marlow Murder Club, #2)]]> 57366942
But during the soiree, there’s a crash from inside the house, and when the Marlow Murder Club rush to investigate, they are shocked to find the groom-to-be crushed to death in his study.

The study was locked from the inside, so the police don’t consider the death suspicious. But Judith disagrees. As far as she's concerned, Peter was murdered! And it’s up to the Marlow Murder Club to find the killer before he or she strikes again…]]> 366 Robert Thorogood 0008238316 Jackie 3 3.89 2023 Death Comes to Marlow (Marlow Murder Club, #2)
author: Robert Thorogood
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Marlow Murder Club (Marlow Murder Club, #1)]]> 50576230
Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper.

One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar.

Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club.

When another body turns up, they realise they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape…]]> 340 Robert Thorogood 0008238243 Jackie 3 3.73 2021 The Marlow Murder Club (Marlow Murder Club, #1)
author: Robert Thorogood
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Word is Murder (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #1)]]> 36204075 SHE PLANNED HER OWN FUNERAL. BUT DID SHE ARRANGE HER OWN MURDER?

New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty, Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes.

One bright spring morning in London, Diana Cowper � the wealthy mother of a famous actor - enters a funeral parlor. She is there to plan her own service.

Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home.

Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator who’s as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life; a Watson to his Holmes. He chooses Anthony Horowitz.

Drawn in against his will, Horowitz soon finds himself a the center of a story he cannot control. Hawthorne is brusque, temperamental and annoying but even so his latest case with its many twists and turns proves irresistible. The writer and the detective form an unusual partnership. At the same time, it soon becomes clear that Hawthorne is hiding some dark secrets of his own.

A masterful and tricky mystery that springs many surprises, The Word is Murder is Anthony Horowitz at his very best.]]> 400 Anthony Horowitz 0062676784 Jackie 2 3.89 2017 The Word is Murder (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #1)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Starter Villain 61885029
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389223 Jackie 3 4.09 2023 Starter Villain
author: John Scalzi
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:
There’s something deeply annoying about this book, like I can feel the author peering over my shoulder as I read and chortling at his own cleverness. But the cats got me and I’m not a cat person; they’re delightful. So take your 3 stars and scram, Scalzi.
]]> I'm Glad My Mom Died 59364173
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy Jackie 3 4.45 2022 I'm Glad My Mom Died
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:

]]> How Lucky 54870216 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Nothing to See Here, a first novel as suspenseful and funny as it is moving, the unforgettable story of a fiercely resilient young man living with a physical disability, and his efforts to solve a mystery unfolding right outside his door.

Daniel leads a rich life in the university town of Athens, Georgia. He's got a couple close friends, a steady paycheck working for a regional airline, and of course, for a few glorious days each Fall, college football tailgates. He considers himself to be a mostly lucky guy--despite the fact that he's suffered from a debilitating disease since he was a small child, one that has left him unable to speak or to move without a wheelchair.

Largely confined to his home, Daniel spends the hours he's not online communicating with irate air travelers observing his neighborhood from his front porch. One young woman passes by so frequently that spotting her out the window has almost become part of his daily routine. Until the day he's almost sure he sees her being kidnapped...]]> 290 Will Leitch 0063073099 Jackie 3 3.71 2021 How Lucky
author: Will Leitch
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Where'd You Go, Bernadette 13526165
When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces--which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Where'd You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are and the power of a daughter's love for her mother.]]> 330 Maria Semple 0316204277 Jackie 4 3.87 2012 Where'd You Go, Bernadette
author: Maria Semple
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rich People Problems (Crazy Rich Asians, #3)]]> 29864343 Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend, is back with an uproarious new novel featuring a family driven by fortune, an ex-wife driven psychotic with jealousy, a battle royal fought through couture-gown sabotage, and the heir to one of Asia's greatest fortunes locked out of his inheritance.

When Nicholas Young hears that his grandmother, Su Yi, is on her deathbed, he rushes to be by her bedside—but he's not alone. The entire Shang-Young clan has convened from all corners of the globe to stake claim to their matriarch's massive fortune. With each family member vying to inherit Tyersall Park—a trophy estate on sixty-four prime acres in the heart of Singapore—Nicholas' childhood home turns into a hotbed of backbiting and intrigue. As Su Yi's relatives fight over heirlooms, Astrid Leong is at the center of her own storm, desperately in love with her old sweetheart Charlie Wu but tormented by her ex-husband—a man hell-bent on destroying Astrid's reputation and relationship. Meanwhile, Kitty Pong, married to China's second richest man, Jack Bing, still feels upstaged by her new stepdaughter, famous fashionista Colette Bing.

In this sweeping tale that takes us from the elegantly appointed mansions of Manila to the secluded private islands in the Sulu Sea, from a kidnapping at Hong Kong's most elite private school to a surprise marriage proposal at an Indian palace that is caught on camera by the telephoto lenses of paparazzi, Kevin Kwan hilariously reveals the long-buried secrets of Asia's most privileged families and their rich people problems.]]> 398 Kevin Kwan 0385542232 Jackie 2 3.91 2017 Rich People Problems (Crazy Rich Asians, #3)
author: Kevin Kwan
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[China Rich Girlfriend (Crazy Rich Asians, #2)]]> 22674105 Kevin Kwan, bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians, is back with a wickedly funny new novel of social climbing, secret e-mails, art-world scandal, lovesick billionaires, and the outrageous story of what happens when Rachel Chu, engaged to marry Asia's most eligible bachelor, discovers her birthfather.

On the eve of her wedding to Nicholas Young, heir to one of the greatest fortunes in Asia, Rachel should be over the moon. She has a flawless Asscher-cut diamond from JAR, a wedding dress she loves more than anything found in the salons of Paris, and a fiance willing to sacrifice his entire inheritance in order to marry her. But Rachel still mourns the fact that her birthfather, a man she never knew, won't be able to walk her down the aisle. Until: a shocking revelation draws Rachel into a world of Shanghai splendor beyond anything she has ever imagined. Here we meet Carlton, a Ferrari-crashing bad boy known for Prince Harry-like antics; Colette, a celebrity girlfriend chased by fevered paparazzi; and the man Rachel has spent her entire life waiting to meet: her father. Meanwhile, Singapore's It Girl, Astrid Leong, is shocked to discover that there is a downside to having a newly minted tech billionaire husband. A romp through Asia's most exclusive clubs, auction houses, and estates, China Rich Girlfriend brings us into the elite circles of Mainland China, introducing a captivating cast of characters, and offering an inside glimpse at what it's like to be gloriously, crazily, China-rich.]]> 378 Kevin Kwan 0385539088 Jackie 2 3.80 2015 China Rich Girlfriend (Crazy Rich Asians, #2)
author: Kevin Kwan
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1)]]> 16085481
When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn't know is that Nick's family home happens to look like a palace, that she'll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia's most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back.

Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Astrid, the It Girl of Singapore society; Eddie, whose family practically lives in the pages of the Hong Kong socialite magazines; and Eleanor, Nick's formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should—and should not—marry.

Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider's look at the Asian JetSet; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; between Overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich.]]> 403 Kevin Kwan 0385536976 Jackie 2 3.91 2013 Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1)
author: Kevin Kwan
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
review:

]]> The Factory Witches of Lowell 51835692 C. S. Malerich's The Factory Witches of Lowell is a riveting historical fantasy about witches going on strike in the historical mill-town of Lowell, Massachusetts.

Faced with abominable working conditions, unsympathetic owners, and hard-hearted managers, the mill girls of Lowell have had enough. They're going on strike, and they have a secret weapon on their side: a little witchcraft to ensure that no one leaves the picket line.

For the young women of Lowell, Massachusetts, freedom means fair wages for fair work, decent room and board, and a chance to escape the cotton mills before lint stops up their lungs. When the Boston owners decide to raise the workers� rent, the girls go on strike. Their ringleader is Judith Whittier, a newcomer to Lowell but not to class warfare. Judith has already seen one strike fold and she doesn’t intend to see it again. Fortunately Hannah, her best friend in the boardinghouse—and maybe first love?—has a gift for the dying art of witchcraft.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 3 C.S. Malerich Jackie 4 3.28 2020 The Factory Witches of Lowell
author: C.S. Malerich
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/14
date added: 2023/07/14
shelves:
review:
Very short, cute little ditty where Labor prevails over Capital via magic.
]]> Sea of Tranquility 58446227 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads

"One of [Mandel's] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet." --The New York Times

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 259 Emily St. John Mandel 0593321448 Jackie 3 4.04 2022 Sea of Tranquility
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/13
date added: 2023/07/13
shelves:
review:
It’s actually quite good (probably better than my rating) but has a pervasive underdone quality. It has the kind of glib denouement, wrapping up everything with a bow, that belongs in a classic sci-fi short story. But it’s not a short story, it’s a novel. If it had another 200 pages to fill out, it’d be amazing.
]]> <![CDATA[The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections]]> 56969667
Liesl Weiss has been (mostly) happy working in the rare books department of a large university, managing details and working behind the scenes to make the head of the department look good. But when her boss has a stroke and she's left to run things, she discovers that the library's most prized manuscript is missing.

Liesl tries to sound the alarm and inform the police about the missing priceless book but is told repeatedly to keep quiet to keep the doors open and the donors happy. But then a librarian goes missing as well. Liesl must investigate both disappearances, unspooling her colleagues' pasts like the threads of a rare book binding as it becomes clear that someone in the department must be responsible for the theft. What Liesl discovers about the dusty manuscripts she has worked among for so long—and about the people who preserve and revere them—shakes the very foundation on which she has built her life.]]> 336 Eva Jurczyk 1728238595 Jackie 2 3.16 2022 The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections
author: Eva Jurczyk
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2023/07/13
date added: 2023/07/13
shelves:
review:
It’s fine but soap-ier and less mysterious than I was expecting. I’m also a little surprised by how often I see â€likes drinkingâ€� used as a shorthand for character development for women in novels.
]]> <![CDATA[The Bangalore Detectives Club (Bangalore Detectives Club, #1)]]> 59435984
When clever, headstrong Kaveri moves to Bangalore to marry handsome young doctor Ramu, she's resigned herself to a quiet life.

But that all changes the night of the party at the Century Club, where she escapes to the garden for some peace and quiet—and instead spots an uninvited guest in the shadows. Half an hour later, the party turns into a murder scene.

When a vulnerable woman is connected to the crime, Kaveri becomes determined to save her and launches a private investigation to find the killer, tracing his steps from an illustrious brothel to an Englishman's mansion. She soon finds that sleuthing in a sari isn't as hard as it seems when you have a talent for mathematics, a head for logic, and a doctor for a husband . . .

And she's going to need them all as the case leads her deeper into a hotbed of danger, sedition, and intrigue in Bangalore's darkest alleyways.]]> 352 Harini Nagendra Jackie 3 Breezy, beach read. 3.62 2022 The Bangalore Detectives Club (Bangalore Detectives Club, #1)
author: Harini Nagendra
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/11
date added: 2023/07/11
shelves:
review:
Breezy, beach read.
]]> Girl in a Band 22693211 273 Kim Gordon 0062295896 Jackie 2
The second half, after the formation of the band, is not. There’s very little about the music, either the process or how the music sounds. It’s described mostly in opposition (not like this band or this other band) with brief mentions of the names of their artistic influences. Nor is there much about herself or other people or a straightforward narrative of how they went from A to Z or why. The text is mostly anecdotes about boldface names she ran with. I just got very little (information, insight, anything) from it on anything. 

And then, there’s this.  I’d heard a ton about how cool Kim Gordon is, but she comes across as more â€cool girlâ€� â€� you know, someone who â€isn’t like other girlsâ€�. She’s oddly invested in masculinity and preoccupied by the public performance of femininity by others. There’s a surprising amount about how her and other women artists look even as she denies that how she looks and presents herself makes any statement at all.  She can be astute about the forces of sexism that are operating but she’s still judgy about women in a way she is not to men in the book. 

I don’t want to get overly judgy myself. I can name a number of truly embarrassing toxic things that I believed in the 90s, even though I was the only person in my large high school who identified as a feminist at a time when that was essentially a slur. Nothing inoculates you against the misogynistic stew we all lived in back then. ]]> 3.66 2015 Girl in a Band
author: Kim Gordon
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2023/04/26
date added: 2023/04/26
shelves:
review:
The first half is the book � describing her upbringing in Southern California and clearly inspired by the writing of Joan Didion � is pretty good.

The second half, after the formation of the band, is not. There’s very little about the music, either the process or how the music sounds. It’s described mostly in opposition (not like this band or this other band) with brief mentions of the names of their artistic influences. Nor is there much about herself or other people or a straightforward narrative of how they went from A to Z or why. The text is mostly anecdotes about boldface names she ran with. I just got very little (information, insight, anything) from it on anything. 

And then, there’s this.  I’d heard a ton about how cool Kim Gordon is, but she comes across as more â€cool girlâ€� â€� you know, someone who â€isn’t like other girlsâ€�. She’s oddly invested in masculinity and preoccupied by the public performance of femininity by others. There’s a surprising amount about how her and other women artists look even as she denies that how she looks and presents herself makes any statement at all.  She can be astute about the forces of sexism that are operating but she’s still judgy about women in a way she is not to men in the book. 

I don’t want to get overly judgy myself. I can name a number of truly embarrassing toxic things that I believed in the 90s, even though I was the only person in my large high school who identified as a feminist at a time when that was essentially a slur. Nothing inoculates you against the misogynistic stew we all lived in back then. 
]]> <![CDATA[Nine Princes in Amber (The Chronicles of Amber, #1)]]> 92121 175 Roger Zelazny 0380014300 Jackie 2
Anyway, after revisiting this world (if not the exact book), I’ll say it’s got a lot of cool worldbuilding elements, but it’s not well-written and is emotionally vapid. But it keeps moving forward and ends with essentially a â€to be continuedâ€�, so I haven’t ruled out reading more books in the series (even though i don’t really have the time to commit to 10 books). ]]> 4.07 1970 Nine Princes in Amber (The Chronicles of Amber, #1)
author: Roger Zelazny
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1970
rating: 2
read at: 2022/09/24
date added: 2022/09/24
shelves:
review:
When I was a kid, my local library had one book in the Chronicles of Amber series. I remember reading it, and something about it definitely captured my interest for me to want to revisit it so many years later. I’m not 100% sure that this is the book I read. Some of it seems familiar (the amnesia plotline, for example), but I’m not sure.

Anyway, after revisiting this world (if not the exact book), I’ll say it’s got a lot of cool worldbuilding elements, but it’s not well-written and is emotionally vapid. But it keeps moving forward and ends with essentially a â€to be continuedâ€�, so I haven’t ruled out reading more books in the series (even though i don’t really have the time to commit to 10 books).
]]> <![CDATA[Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding (Her Royal Spyness, #12)]]> 36583047 In the days leading up to her wedding to Darcy O’Mara, Lady Georgiana Rannoch takes on the responsibilities of a grand estate, but proving she can run a household just may be the death of her in the new Royal Spyness Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of On Her Majesty’s Frightfully Secret Service.

If only Darcy and I had eloped! What I thought would be a simple wedding has been transformed into a grand affair, thanks to the attendance of the queen, who has offered up the princesses as bridesmaids. Silly me! I thought that withdrawing from the royal line of succession would simplify my life. But before Darcy and I tie the knot in front of queen and country, we have to find a place to live as man and wife...

House hunting turns out to be a pretty grim affair. Just as we start to lose hope, my globetrotting godfather offers us his fully staffed country estate. Mistress of Eynsleigh I shall be! With Darcy off in parts unknown, I head to Eynsleigh alone, only to have my hopes dashed. The grounds are in disarray and the small staff is suspiciously incompetent. Not to mention the gas tap leak in my bedroom, which I can only imagine was an attempt on my life. Something rotten is afoot—and bringing the place up to snuff may put me six feet under before I even get a chance to walk down the aisle...

]]> 299 Rhys Bowen 0698410262 Jackie 1 Crowned and Dangerous. Like the previous book, it's a mystery novel that certainly takes it time getting a mystery that it doesn't seem all that invested in. However, Crowned and Dangerous was 'acceptably diverting' and decently 'cozy' in its winter setting, and this one (set in the summer) seemingly wants the reader to root for the protagonist to find her inner authoritarian as the mistress of a manor in 1930s England. How dare these lazy servants not put their all into providing for her when she's totally earned all that money that funds the household ... by being totally broke but of the correct class and having rich friends who give her things. I don't think that I'm missing some subversive reading of the text. It reads to me more of a sincere nostalgia (and published in 2018!).]]> 4.18 2018 Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding (Her Royal Spyness, #12)
author: Rhys Bowen
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2021/12/30
date added: 2021/12/30
shelves:
review:
I googled 'cozy reads' and came up with the Her Royal Spyness series, of which I was only able to check out from the library this book and Crowned and Dangerous. Like the previous book, it's a mystery novel that certainly takes it time getting a mystery that it doesn't seem all that invested in. However, Crowned and Dangerous was 'acceptably diverting' and decently 'cozy' in its winter setting, and this one (set in the summer) seemingly wants the reader to root for the protagonist to find her inner authoritarian as the mistress of a manor in 1930s England. How dare these lazy servants not put their all into providing for her when she's totally earned all that money that funds the household ... by being totally broke but of the correct class and having rich friends who give her things. I don't think that I'm missing some subversive reading of the text. It reads to me more of a sincere nostalgia (and published in 2018!).
]]> <![CDATA[Crowned and Dangerous (Her Royal Spyness, #10)]]> 27774658 Nothing is simple when you’re thirty-fifth in line for the British crown, least of all marriage. But with love on their side, and plans to elope, Lady Georgiana Rannoch and her beau Darcy O’Mara hope to bypass a few royal rules...

With Darcy driving me out of London in a borrowed motor car, I soon discover that he isn’t planning to introduce me to the pleasures of sinning in secret—as I had hoped—but to make me his wife!

Of course, there are some quibbles to be dealt with, such as my needing special permission from the King to marry a Roman Catholic and the question of where we might live after the honeymoon. Though he will inherit a title, Darcy is as broke as I am. Even his family’s Irish castle has been sold to a rich American who now employes Darcy’s father as a hired hand.

Throwing these cares to the wind, nothing could deter us from our mission—except perhaps the news that my future father-in-law has just been arrested. It seems the rich American was murdered and Darcy’s father had more than enough motive to do the deed. With the elopement postponed, we head for Ireland where he insists he’s innocent, and it’s up to us to prove it—for better or worse.]]> 307 Rhys Bowen 0425283488 Jackie 2 Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding. It's a mystery novel that certainly takes it time getting a mystery that it doesn't seem all that invested in. It was acceptably diverting (2 stars) and decently cozy (3 stars) in its winter setting. If you saw my complaints about the next book in the series, some of those issues also appear in this book. However, it's much less apparent without the 'upstairs-downstairs' plot and much more forgivable in the context of the plot of this book (a man's life hangs in the balance!).]]> 4.01 2016 Crowned and Dangerous (Her Royal Spyness, #10)
author: Rhys Bowen
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2021/12/30
date added: 2021/12/30
shelves:
review:
I googled 'cozy reads' and came up with the Her Royal Spyness series, of which I was only able to check out from the library this book and Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding. It's a mystery novel that certainly takes it time getting a mystery that it doesn't seem all that invested in. It was acceptably diverting (2 stars) and decently cozy (3 stars) in its winter setting. If you saw my complaints about the next book in the series, some of those issues also appear in this book. However, it's much less apparent without the 'upstairs-downstairs' plot and much more forgivable in the context of the plot of this book (a man's life hangs in the balance!).
]]> <![CDATA[Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice]]> 25852870
Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won't discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane's fortieth birthday fast approaches.

Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip's friend, neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy, reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . . And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.]]> 492 Curtis Sittenfeld 1400068320 Jackie 3 3.58 2016 Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/16
date added: 2021/08/16
shelves:
review:
Fun and well-suited to reading on your phone intermittently (while the kids are distracted). I guess I had expected it to be more 'inspired by the original,' but it's a straightforward retelling of the story ---- which gives it more of the pleasures of watching a film adaptation of a book you've read than of reading a new book.
]]> Hawkeye, Volume 4: Rio Bravo 22237290
Collecting: Hawkeye #12-13, 15, 17, 19, 21-22]]> 160 Matt Fraction 0785185313 Jackie 4 4.32 2015 Hawkeye, Volume 4: Rio Bravo
author: Matt Fraction
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2020/12/16
date added: 2020/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Hawkeye, Volume 3: L.A. Woman 17899544
Collecting: Hawkeye 14, 16, 18, 20, Annual 1]]> 120 Matt Fraction 0785183906 Jackie 3 4.15 2014 Hawkeye, Volume 3: L.A. Woman
author: Matt Fraction
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/14
date added: 2020/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hawkeye, Volume 2: Little Hits]]> 17277800
Collects Hawkeye (2012) #6�11.]]> 136 Matt Fraction 0785165630 Jackie 3 4.23 2013 Hawkeye, Volume 2: Little Hits
author: Matt Fraction
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/12
date added: 2020/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon]]> 16002136
Collecting: Hawkeye 1-5, Young Avengers Presents 6]]> 136 Matt Fraction 0785165622 Jackie 3 4.15 2013 Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon
author: Matt Fraction
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/09
date added: 2020/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel, #2)]]> 77773 From Connie Willis, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, comes a comedic romp through an unpredictable world of mystery, love, and time travel.

Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He’s been shuttling between the twenty-first century and the 1940s in search of a hideous Victorian vase called “the bishop’s bird stump� as part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid.

But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right—not only to save the project but also to prevent altering history itself.]]> 493 Connie Willis 0553575384 Jackie 4 4.11 1997 To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel, #2)
author: Connie Willis
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2016/08/01
date added: 2017/08/08
shelves:
review:
Delightful -- the only disappointment occurs at the end when you wish that you could spend even more time with the characters.
]]> <![CDATA[In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)]]> 237209
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.]]> 429 Tana French 0670038601 Jackie 3 3.75 2007 In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)
author: Tana French
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2016/08/01
date added: 2017/08/08
shelves:
review:
Absorbing, but the book is not content to just be an exciting read; it has aspirations to be and say more. And it doesn't really succeed at that.
]]> Saga, Volume 1 15704307
Collects: Saga #1-6.]]> 160 Brian K. Vaughan 1607066017 Jackie 3 4.16 2012 Saga, Volume 1
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2016/08/01
date added: 2017/08/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)]]> 8935689
Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.]]> 467 Iain M. Banks 1857231384 Jackie 0 3.86 1987 Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at: 2014/12/26
date added: 2014/12/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Wolf in White Van 20575425
Brilliantly constructed, Wolf in White Van unfolds in reverse until we arrive at both the beginning and the climax: the event that has shaped so much of Sean’s life. Beautifully written and unexpectedly moving, John Darnielle’s audacious and gripping debut novel is a marvel of storytelling brio and genuine literary delicacy.]]> 211 John Darnielle 0374292086 Jackie 4
So I'm primed to love Wolf in White Van. On the other hand, I was often taken out of the story with the thought 'the Mountain Goats guy totally wrote that line!'

Like John Darnielle's music, the book is beautiful and concise (the books clocks in at just over 200 pages) and totally immersive in the experience of being this person. Yet there is something unknowable about the main character and while I feel like that's a purposeful choice, the sum total of the book ends up frustratingly vague. ]]> 3.72 2014 Wolf in White Van
author: John Darnielle
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2014/10/15
date added: 2014/12/26
shelves:
review:
Most cultural stuff -- even things that I love -- is essentially fungible. If I never had A, then it's okay because I'd still have B. But this is not true of the music of the Mountain Goats. I say this in all sincerity, even though it makes me feel like a chump, the music of the Mountain Goats has made my life better.

So I'm primed to love Wolf in White Van. On the other hand, I was often taken out of the story with the thought 'the Mountain Goats guy totally wrote that line!'

Like John Darnielle's music, the book is beautiful and concise (the books clocks in at just over 200 pages) and totally immersive in the experience of being this person. Yet there is something unknowable about the main character and while I feel like that's a purposeful choice, the sum total of the book ends up frustratingly vague.
]]> Coraline 17061
In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.

The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.

Only it's different.

At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

Critically acclaimed and award-winning author Neil Gaiman will delight readers with his first novel for all ages.]]> 176 Neil Gaiman 0061139378 Jackie 3 Coraline the way it deserves.]]> 4.13 2002 Coraline
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2013/01/18
date added: 2013/01/22
shelves:
review:
I'm too old and curmudgeonly to enjoy Coraline the way it deserves.
]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #3)]]> 3590 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the series of short stories that made the fortunes of the Strand magazine, in which they were first published, and won immense popularity for Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The detective is at the height of his powers and the volume is full of famous cases, including 'The Red-Headed League', 'The Blue Carbuncle', and 'The Speckled Band'.
The editor of this volume, Richard Lancelyn Green is editor of The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes and The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. With John Michael Gibson, he compiled the Soho Series Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle.
1. A Scandal In Bohemia
2. The Red-Headed League
3. A Case Of Identity
4. The Boscombe Valley Mystery
5. The Five Orange Pips
6. The Man With The Twisted Lip
7. The Adventure Of The Blue Carbuncle
8. The Adventure Of The Speckled Band
9. The Adventure Of The Engineer's Thumb
10. The Adventure Of The Noble Bachelor
11. The Adventure Of The Beryl Coronet
12. The Adventure Of The Copper Beaches]]> 389 Arthur Conan Doyle Jackie 3 4.32 1892 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #3)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1892
rating: 3
read at: 2013/01/03
date added: 2013/01/03
shelves:
review:

]]> The Blind Side 7526
What changes? He takes up football, and school, after a rich, Evangelical, Republican family plucks him from the mean streets. Their love is the first great force that alters the world's perception of the boy, whom they adopt. The second force is the evolution of professional football itself into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist turns out to be the priceless combination of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability: his blind side.]]> 304 Michael Lewis 039306123X Jackie 3 4.09 2006 The Blind Side
author: Michael Lewis
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2012/10/09
date added: 2012/10/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1)]]> 16343
A refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village.

All of them have secrets they are desperate to keep, but none can outwit Poirot as he navigates the ingenious red herrings and plot twists that contribute to Agatha Christie's well-deserved reputation as the queen of mystery.

Librarian's note: the first fifteen novels in the Hercule Poirot series are 1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920; 2) The Murder on the Links, 1923; 3) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926; 4) The Big Four, 1927; 5) The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928; 6) Peril at End House, 1932; 7) Lord Edgware Dies, 1933; 8) Murder on the Orient Express, 1934; 9) Three Act Tragedy, 1935; 10) Death in the Clouds, 1935; 11) The A.B.C. Murders, 1936; 12) Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936; 13) Cards on the Table, 1936; 14) Dumb Witness, 1937; and 15) Death on the Nile, 1937. Poirot also appears, in this period, in a play, Black Coffee, 1930, and two collections of short stories, Poirot Investigates, 1924, and Murder in the Mews, 1937. Each novel and short story has its own entry on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ.]]> 121 Agatha Christie 0646418432 Jackie 3 3.99 1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1920
rating: 3
read at: 2012/09/20
date added: 2012/09/20
shelves:
review:
I don't think I've read an Agatha Christie book since high school. I read this one on my phone over many days during my commute. And it's good! Entertaining and engaging and few enough characters to make it easy to pick up and put down again. I picked up enough clues in the beginning to make me feel smart, but not enough to spoil the ending. The only thing is that it may have one too many twists in the tale.
]]> Pulphead 10851868 Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan takes us on an exhilarating tour of our popular, unpopular, and at times completely forgotten culture. Simultaneously channeling the gonzo energy of Hunter S. Thompson and the wit and insight of Joan Didion, Sullivan shows us—with a laidback, erudite Southern charm that’s all his own—how we really (no, really) live now.

In his native Kentucky, Sullivan introduces us to Constantine Rafinesque, a nineteenth-century polymath genius who concocted a dense, fantastical prehistory of the New World. Back in modern times, Sullivan takes us to the Ozarks for a Christian rock festival; to Florida to meet the alumni and straggling refugees of MTV’s Real World, who’ve generated their own self-perpetuating economy of minor celebrity; and all across the South on the trail of the blues. He takes us to Indiana to investigate the formative years of Michael Jackson and Axl Rose and then to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina—and back again as its residents confront the BP oil spill.

Gradually, a unifying narrative emerges, a story about this country that we’ve never heard told this way. It’s like a fun-house hall-of-mirrors tour: Sullivan shows us who we are in ways we’ve never imagined to be true. Of course we don’t know whether to laugh or cry when faced with this reflection—it’s our inevitable sob-guffaws that attest to the power of Sullivan’s work.]]> 365 John Jeremiah Sullivan 0374532907 Jackie 3 4.01 2011 Pulphead
author: John Jeremiah Sullivan
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/06/02
date added: 2012/06/08
shelves:
review:
A collection of essays generally about Southern culture -- high, low, pop, forgotten. The best are revelatory -- introducing me to corners of American history I had no idea about or finding fresh insights into things I thought I knew -- and the author has quite a way with describing in words the experience of consuming audio or visual arts. Some of the essays are forgettable filler. My favorite essays are probably "Michael" about the voice of Michael Jackson; "La-hwi-ne-ski" about Rafinesque, the 19th century naturalist (who I'd never heard of); and "Unknown Bards" on prewar (WWII) 'country blues.'
]]> <![CDATA[A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail]]> 9791 A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).]]> 397 Bill Bryson 0307279464 Jackie 3 4.07 1998 A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
author: Bill Bryson
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2012/02/18
date added: 2012/02/18
shelves:
review:
Sufficiently amusing tale of attempting to walk the Appalachian Trail.
]]> <![CDATA[Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close]]> 4588
The key belonged to his father, he's sure of that. But which of New York's 162 million locks does it open?

So begins a quest that takes Oskar - inventor, letter-writer and amateur detective - across New York's five boroughs and into the jumbled lives of friends, relatives, and complete strangers. He gets heavy boots, he gives himself little bruises and he inches ever nearer to the heart of a family mystery that stretches back fifty years. But will it take him any closer to, or further from, his lost father?]]> 326 Jonathan Safran Foer 0618711651 Jackie 2 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a bit of finding first love in wartime Germany that I last read (although it was published after this work) in The Book Thief, a dash of eccentric and precocious characters from the movies of Wes Anderson, a bit of the odd compromises and reinventions of themselves which people undertake while moving from the old country to America from Middlesex, held together with a bit dollop of 9/11. This is a book in which in order to show that a character has so much to express and to write has the actual printed words typeset closer and closer together until they're so overlaid each other to be unreadable and then publishes two pages of that. If you can handle that, then you may read this book. ]]> 3.98 2005 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
author: Jonathan Safran Foer
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2011/08/29
date added: 2011/08/30
shelves:
review:
The kind of book the word "mannered" was invented for. A bit of the quixotic quest undertaken by a child from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a bit of finding first love in wartime Germany that I last read (although it was published after this work) in The Book Thief, a dash of eccentric and precocious characters from the movies of Wes Anderson, a bit of the odd compromises and reinventions of themselves which people undertake while moving from the old country to America from Middlesex, held together with a bit dollop of 9/11. This is a book in which in order to show that a character has so much to express and to write has the actual printed words typeset closer and closer together until they're so overlaid each other to be unreadable and then publishes two pages of that. If you can handle that, then you may read this book.
]]> <![CDATA[Istanbul: Memories and the City]]> 11690
Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy–or–hĂĽłúĂĽ˛Ôâ€�that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.

With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters–both Turkish and foreign–who would shape his consciousness of his city.

Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges� Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.]]> 356 Orhan Pamuk 1400033888 Jackie 2 Istanbul: Memories and the City meanderingly explores the melancholy spirit of Istanbul and its effects on some of the writers that shaped the author's own writing. On the plus side, the chapters are very short and the book reproduces many illustrations and photos of Istanbul and of the author's own family which are fascinating to look at. On the other hand, it's very self-indulgent and its charms quickly wear thin.]]> 3.82 2003 Istanbul: Memories and the City
author: Orhan Pamuk
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 2
read at: 2011/08/27
date added: 2011/08/30
shelves:
review:
Charming and amusing, Istanbul: Memories and the City meanderingly explores the melancholy spirit of Istanbul and its effects on some of the writers that shaped the author's own writing. On the plus side, the chapters are very short and the book reproduces many illustrations and photos of Istanbul and of the author's own family which are fascinating to look at. On the other hand, it's very self-indulgent and its charms quickly wear thin.
]]> <![CDATA[All Souls: A Family Story from Southie]]> 105687
In All Souls, MacDonald takes us deep into the secret heart of Southie. With radiant insight, he opens up a contradictory world, where residents are besieged by gangs and crime but refuse to admit any problems, remaining fiercely loyal to their community. MacDonald also introduces us to the unforgettable people who inhabit this proud neighborhood.

We meet his mother, Ma MacDonald, an accordion-playing, spiked-heel-wearing, indomitable mother to all; Whitey Bulger, the lord of Southie, gangster and father figure, protector and punisher; and Michael's beloved siblings, nearly half of whom were lost forever to drugs, murder, or suicide.

MacDonald’s story is ultimately one of overcoming the racist, classist ideology he was born into. It's also a searing portrayal of life in a poor, white neighborhood plagued by violence and crime and deeply in denial about it.]]> 263 Michael Patrick MacDonald 034544177X Jackie 2 4.07 1999 All Souls: A Family Story from Southie
author: Michael Patrick MacDonald
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at: 2011/08/20
date added: 2011/08/30
shelves:
review:
Michael Patrick MacDonald has a hell of a story to tell about his family and growing up in the Boston neighborhood known as Southie. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the writing chops to actually tell it. It's functional enough to explain who, what, where and how but offers not a lick of insight or understanding. Mostly it seems like he put just enough effort into the book in order to sell it as a screenplay (which the back cover of the book tells me he's already finished).
]]> <![CDATA[The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium #2)]]> 5060378 Millenium publisher Mikael Blomkvist has made his reputation exposing corrupt establishment figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with an investigation into sex trafficking, Blomkvist cannot resist waging war on the powerful figures who control this lucrative industry.

The Murder
When a young couple is found dead in their Stockholm apartment, it's a straightforward job for Inspector Bublanski and his team. The killer left the weapon at the scene - and the fingerprints on the gun point in only one direction.

The Girl Who Played with Fire
Ex-security analyst Lisbeth Salander is wanted for murder. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society - but no-one can find her. The only way Salander can be reached is by computer. But she can break into almost any network she chooses...]]> 503 Stieg Larsson 0307269981 Jackie 2 The Girl Who Played with Fire would have the typical problem of sequels: the need to take what worked the first time and make it bigger and better (a problem that I most recently saw in the sequel to The Hunger Games). I was pleasantly surprised to realize that the book continues the story from the first book. On the down side, this means that the whodunit aspects of the story is jettisoned.]]> 4.25 2006 The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium #2)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2011/08/14
date added: 2011/08/30
shelves:
review:
I assumed that The Girl Who Played with Fire would have the typical problem of sequels: the need to take what worked the first time and make it bigger and better (a problem that I most recently saw in the sequel to The Hunger Games). I was pleasantly surprised to realize that the book continues the story from the first book. On the down side, this means that the whodunit aspects of the story is jettisoned.
]]> <![CDATA[Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]> 390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Jackie 3 4.10 2010 Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/11
date added: 2011/08/12
shelves:
review:
Now that I've read all three books in the series, it's time to re-address the issues I brought up in previous reviews. One, it's clear to me that a lot of my issues with the second book are growing pains as the author pivots what the series about from one thing in the first book (kids fighting to the death in an arena) to another thing in the last book (war and what it does to people). And, regarding my complaint that characters told the narrator too much about their evil plans, I finally just realized that, in this world the author has created, people are just really bad at politics in general (even evil villains seem to have no idea how to operate with a subtle touch). Finally, reviewing the first book, I complained about the whitewashing of moral dilemmas and suggested that it meant that the book wasn't serious about its adult themes. The moral dilemmas whitewashed previously never do get un-whitewashed, but new ones arise and no one could argue that the book's depiction of war and wartime is lacking in morally ambiguity, incredible violence, and unbearable sadness. I do find the final resolution of the love triangle, which was never super-exciting to begin with, to be unsatisfying. There is a distinct lack of agency on any of the characters part; no one actually chooses anything, they all just seem to slide into their appointed roles. Overall, there is a sense that the book could use more closure, but maybe it's for the best that some things remain unsaid, and the ending is powerfully bittersweet.
]]> <![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Jackie 3 too much. Characters flat out explain to her their political machinations that you would think they hide from her instead. Still, gripping reading, and the author is quite adept at introducing new characters which you quickly become invested in.]]> 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/10
date added: 2011/08/12
shelves:
review:
The first book in this series was a self-contained story. In this installment, the author broadens the scope of the plot and the world in which the characters inhabit. But the expanded plot starts to lose me. As the series is written in a first person narrative and lots of stuff seems to be happening beyond the ken of the narrator, at some point I have to wonder if I wouldn't rather be reading about that stuff or from some other viewpoint instead. At the same time, I feel like the narrator knows too much. Characters flat out explain to her their political machinations that you would think they hide from her instead. Still, gripping reading, and the author is quite adept at introducing new characters which you quickly become invested in.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins Jackie 3 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it's impossible to evaluate the book without comparison to the expectations I had about it. I had the idea that the book (books, really, since it's part of trilogy) were supposed to be groundbreaking in its presentation of dark, mature themes in 'young adult' fiction. It is very violent, but hardly groundbreaking in my opinion. The set up of the book is surprisingly morally grey -- characters who are participating in something that to the reader is clearly morally repugnant are the people who are actively helping and supporting the protagonist. But once the real action starts, the book is very careful to leave the protagonist and her love interest with the appearance of moral purity. The protagonist is one of a group of teenagers chosen to fight to the death until a single victor remains. The rest of the contestants are presented to the reader as either in the 'good' group or in the 'bad' group. The protagonist is responsible for the deaths of several kids in the 'bad' group but never of any in the 'good' group. Even her love interest is only accidentally involved in the death of a 'good' kid, and, although he may be responsible for other deaths, his possible actions are left undescribed and unaddressed. Then, the last fight ends with the last 'bad' kid falling from a height and being attacked by a pack of animals. That's how "The Lion King" ends, and that's a Disney movie!]]> 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2011/07/30
date added: 2011/07/30
shelves:
review:
Better than expected and very exciting. I can see why they're making a movie of it. Like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it's impossible to evaluate the book without comparison to the expectations I had about it. I had the idea that the book (books, really, since it's part of trilogy) were supposed to be groundbreaking in its presentation of dark, mature themes in 'young adult' fiction. It is very violent, but hardly groundbreaking in my opinion. The set up of the book is surprisingly morally grey -- characters who are participating in something that to the reader is clearly morally repugnant are the people who are actively helping and supporting the protagonist. But once the real action starts, the book is very careful to leave the protagonist and her love interest with the appearance of moral purity. The protagonist is one of a group of teenagers chosen to fight to the death until a single victor remains. The rest of the contestants are presented to the reader as either in the 'good' group or in the 'bad' group. The protagonist is responsible for the deaths of several kids in the 'bad' group but never of any in the 'good' group. Even her love interest is only accidentally involved in the death of a 'good' kid, and, although he may be responsible for other deaths, his possible actions are left undescribed and unaddressed. Then, the last fight ends with the last 'bad' kid falling from a height and being attacked by a pack of animals. That's how "The Lion King" ends, and that's a Disney movie!
]]> <![CDATA[The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)]]> 2429135
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.]]> 480 Stieg Larsson 0670069019 Jackie 2 4.17 2005 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2011/06/25
date added: 2011/07/02
shelves:
review:
Meh. The perfect book for 2.5 stars. Given the popularity of the series, I would have thought it would be better. It's a good read for a long airplane flight -- which is how I read it -- and I'll definitely try to read the other two books in the series. But I have four complaints. One, the mystery is not much more complex than the average episode of "Murder, She Wrote" although with more characters and a lot more rape-y. Two, when the book gets political (at the beginning and at the end), it is hilariously polemic-y. Three, with all the hubbub about the character of Lisbeth Salander, I just don't find her that compelling, either as a iconoclast or a badass. There are a lot of badass female characters in books, if you look. Hopefully, she grows on me. Four, given the nature of Lisbeth Salander as a character and the statistics about violence against women listed in the book, I feel like the author wants to make a feminist statement. He just doesn't succeed. The lesson the book actually sells is more like 'it is so incredibly easy to victimize women that you'd think everyone would do it (since it's not real likely that you'll run into a Lisbeth Salander ready to punish you).'
]]> Persuasion 2156 249 Jane Austen 0192802631 Jackie 3 4.15 1817 Persuasion
author: Jane Austen
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1817
rating: 3
read at: 2011/02/20
date added: 2011/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Pride and Prejudice 1885 Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268]]> 279 Jane Austen 1441341706 Jackie 3 4.28 1813 Pride and Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1813
rating: 3
read at: 2011/01/01
date added: 2011/01/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon]]> 3398625 The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.

After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the 20th century": What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett & his quest for the Lost City of Z?

In 1925, Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world's largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humans. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions inspired Conan Doyle's The Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions round the globe, Fawcett embarked with his 21-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilisation--which he dubbed Z--existed. Then his expedition vanished. Fawcett's fate, & the tantalizing clues he left behind about Z, became an obsession for hundreds who followed him into the uncharted wilderness.

For decades scientists & adventurers have searched for evidence of Fawcett's party & the lost City of Z. Countless have perished, been captured by tribes or gone mad. As Grann delved ever deeper into the mystery surrounding Fawcett's quest, & the greater mystery of what lies within the Amazon, he found himself, like the generations who preceded him, being irresistibly drawn into the jungle's green hell. His quest for the truth & discoveries about Fawcett's fate & Z form the heart of this complexly enthralling narrative.]]> 339 David Grann 0385513534 Jackie 3 3.87 2009 The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
author: David Grann
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2010/08/30
date added: 2010/08/31
shelves:
review:
A good airplane book: I read the whole thing on a SFO to BOS flight. The story is interesting, the book an easy read. In 1925, the explorer Percy Fawcett disappears in the Amazon looking for a lost city he dubs 'Z.' My only real complaint is the portions which relate to the author's retracing of Fawcett's steps. Will he out what exactly happened to Fawcett? Will he find the lost city of Z? Any moderately intelligent person could guess the answers to this question before cracking open the book. This part of the narrative is terribly, terribly contrived without a lick of sense or drama. And the final denouement (after the author travels from the US to England to a remote part of the Amazon) reveals things he probably could have learned sitting in his kitchen, Googling.
]]> The Book Thief 19063 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

(Note: this title was not published as YA fiction)]]> 592 Markus Zusak Jackie 2 4.38 2005 The Book Thief
author: Markus Zusak
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2010/05/09
date added: 2010/05/13
shelves:
review:
Little orphan girl comes of age in Nazi Germany. There's some good stuff in it (but not a lot) and there's only so many stars you can give a book whose main conceit -- the book is narrated by Death itself -- is so grating and lame.
]]> <![CDATA[Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)]]> 954674
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, his injured best friend Darryl does not come out. The city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: "M1k3y" will take down the DHS himself.]]> 382 Cory Doctorow 0765319853 Jackie 2 Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is available free online (distributed Creative Commons License) and so is the first book I've read on my iPhone. The experience of reading on my iPhone is surprisingly good. The experience of reading this book, on the other hand, is tedious. A polemic against the "war on terror," the book is an introduction to -- among other things -- progressive politics, grass-roots organizing, computer networks, crypto, live-action role-playing games, and even freeganism. Basically anything drama geeky, technological, and/or anti-authoritarian. All fine things, but given that it's a young-adult manual to fighting your government, I'd think it'd be at least a little controversial. Instead, it's been critically praised and fairly popular. None of that is relevant to the fact that it's fairly boring and pedantic. Maybe if I were 13 years old, it'd open my eyes, but I'd still be better off reading Snow Crash. We all would.

And then there's the ending. I won't discuss it in detail, but if you're sensitive to that sort of thing, you can stop reading this now. The book is rooted in the real world and correctly or at least plausibly describes American political life and culture and the workings of many technological concepts. And I get that it's a kids book and it wants to have a 'happy' ending. But when the 'good guys' are in serious trouble and 'all seems lost', the resolution to the plot is wildly implausible. Would never happen. Ever. If it did happen, it would result in a Constitutional crisis in the United States and not in a 'sanity vaguely prevails' ending the book presents. I threw my hands in the air (in hour 8 of a 12 hour flight) when I read it. ]]> 3.93 2008 Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)
author: Cory Doctorow
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2010/05/09
date added: 2010/05/13
shelves:
review:
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is available free online (distributed Creative Commons License) and so is the first book I've read on my iPhone. The experience of reading on my iPhone is surprisingly good. The experience of reading this book, on the other hand, is tedious. A polemic against the "war on terror," the book is an introduction to -- among other things -- progressive politics, grass-roots organizing, computer networks, crypto, live-action role-playing games, and even freeganism. Basically anything drama geeky, technological, and/or anti-authoritarian. All fine things, but given that it's a young-adult manual to fighting your government, I'd think it'd be at least a little controversial. Instead, it's been critically praised and fairly popular. None of that is relevant to the fact that it's fairly boring and pedantic. Maybe if I were 13 years old, it'd open my eyes, but I'd still be better off reading Snow Crash. We all would.

And then there's the ending. I won't discuss it in detail, but if you're sensitive to that sort of thing, you can stop reading this now. The book is rooted in the real world and correctly or at least plausibly describes American political life and culture and the workings of many technological concepts. And I get that it's a kids book and it wants to have a 'happy' ending. But when the 'good guys' are in serious trouble and 'all seems lost', the resolution to the plot is wildly implausible. Would never happen. Ever. If it did happen, it would result in a Constitutional crisis in the United States and not in a 'sanity vaguely prevails' ending the book presents. I threw my hands in the air (in hour 8 of a 12 hour flight) when I read it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time]]> 1618 226 Mark Haddon 1400032717 Jackie 4 3.89 2003 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
author: Mark Haddon
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2009/12/30
date added: 2009/12/30
shelves:
review:
I'm very glad I read this book, and it's very short and very quick, so there's no reason for you not to read it too. The book is written from the perspective of an autistic boy, and he narrates his attempts to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbor's dog. His inner life is both interesting and appealing. And while a few plot developments I guessed well in advance, by the end of the book I was deeply satisfied.
]]> <![CDATA[Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith]]> 10847
A multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. This is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.

Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this "divinely inspired" crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest-growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

Krakauer takes readers inside isolated communities in the American West, Canada, and Mexico, where some forty-thousand Mormon Fundamentalists believe the mainstream Mormon Church went unforgivably astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the leaders of these outlaw sects are zealots who answer only to God. Marrying prodigiously and with virtual impunity (the leader of the largest fundamentalist church took seventy-five "plural wives," several of whom were wed to him when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties), fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers, and preach that any day now the world will be swept clean in a hurricane of fire, sparing only their most obedient adherents.

Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonism’s violent past, Krakauer examines the underbelly of the most successful homegrown faith in the United States, and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism. The result is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.]]> 400 Jon Krakauer 0330419129 Jackie 3 Into the Wild.) I did find the jumps between stories often more annoying and disorienting than illuminating. ]]> 4.01 2003 Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2009/12/16
date added: 2009/12/17
shelves:
review:
Absorbing, and I was pleasantly surprised by the broad scope of the book. (Better than Into the Wild.) I did find the jumps between stories often more annoying and disorienting than illuminating.
]]> Into the Wild 1845 Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.]]> 207 Jon Krakauer 0385486804 Jackie 3 4.01 1996 Into the Wild
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2007/07/01
date added: 2009/12/17
shelves:
review:
Interesting and very thoroughly researched. I'm totally astonished by all the ways a man can die in the wilderness (often through his own bungling). But the author, Jon Krakauer, isn't content to merely chronicle one man's ill-fated journey, he wants to prove that his subject -- of all the men who've died far from civilization -- wasn't a reckless bumbler (mostly because the author over-identifies with his subject and is fearful that he too could have been a reckless bumbler). He's not totally successful. Mostly I feel sorry for all those other bumblers who don't have Jon Krakauer around to rehabilitate their image.
]]> Emma 437131 here.

In the Introduction, Ronald Blythe comments Emma was the climax of Jane Austen's genius and the Parthenon of fiction. Jane Austen would have, no doubt, demurred in her cool, ironic way at this verdict; she herself wrote that she was planning to take a heroine in Emma 'which no one but myself would like'. Vital, interesting, complex and predisposed to play a power game with other people's emotions, Emma is none the less one of Jane Austen's immortal creations. Dominating the novel as she dominates the small provincial world of Highbury, her forays into the matchmaking arena bring her up sharply against the follies of her egotism and selfishness. The consequent crisis, her bitter regrets and the novel's happy resolution are plotted with Jane Austen's incomparable art in this sharp and gloriously sparkling comedy of self-deceit and self-discovery.]]> 472 Jane Austen 0140430105 Jackie 3 4.01 1815 Emma
author: Jane Austen
name: Jackie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1815
rating: 3
read at: 2007/05/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
Jane Austen isn't really my thing.
]]> The Rule of Four 18434 544 Ian Caldwell 0099451956 Jackie 1
As trashy as you'd expect, with the unfortunate surprise of being almost completely uninteresting. Also, the end of the book thinks it is romanticizing academics, but it's really insulting them.

the long version (what I wrote about the book when I first read it):

Another Ivy League Education Gone to Waste

There's a small selection of English language books in the lounge at work, and I picked up The Rule of Four the other day. I recalled reading a -- mostly positive -- review of the book when it came out, describing it as a Da Vinci Code-ish novel (although I haven't read The Da Vinci Code), an academic mystery / suspense set at Princeton University, written by two Princeton grads as a way to keep in touch after graduation (which I thought totally dorky, but maybe a little cute).

You know those guys that you went to college with, who were maybe a little too articulate for their own good and who were super-excited to be at "X" institution and could enumerate the reasons why, but only in the most intellectually superficial way? (Yeah, douchebag, Schroedinger's cat is awesome.) Yeah, the book is written by those guys. I hate those guys. And while, clearly, people who I might not like if I knew them in person can write some really good stuff (for one, I'm pretty sure that Dave Eggers is the guy at the bar who won't shut up about 'how awesome would it be if we ...?'), these aren't those guys.

The book is clubby, pretentious, exceptionalist, shallow, and romantic about life and love in the self-absorbed way that must seem very profound and gratifying for a couple of Princeton guys with not many female friends, but that no one over the age of 24 should be. In short, everything I always assumed about Princeton students but never had proof of. Before. Also, the mystery isn't very interesting.
]]> 2.99 2004 The Rule of Four
author: Ian Caldwell
name: Jackie
average rating: 2.99
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
the short version:

As trashy as you'd expect, with the unfortunate surprise of being almost completely uninteresting. Also, the end of the book thinks it is romanticizing academics, but it's really insulting them.

the long version (what I wrote about the book when I first read it):

Another Ivy League Education Gone to Waste

There's a small selection of English language books in the lounge at work, and I picked up The Rule of Four the other day. I recalled reading a -- mostly positive -- review of the book when it came out, describing it as a Da Vinci Code-ish novel (although I haven't read The Da Vinci Code), an academic mystery / suspense set at Princeton University, written by two Princeton grads as a way to keep in touch after graduation (which I thought totally dorky, but maybe a little cute).

You know those guys that you went to college with, who were maybe a little too articulate for their own good and who were super-excited to be at "X" institution and could enumerate the reasons why, but only in the most intellectually superficial way? (Yeah, douchebag, Schroedinger's cat is awesome.) Yeah, the book is written by those guys. I hate those guys. And while, clearly, people who I might not like if I knew them in person can write some really good stuff (for one, I'm pretty sure that Dave Eggers is the guy at the bar who won't shut up about 'how awesome would it be if we ...?'), these aren't those guys.

The book is clubby, pretentious, exceptionalist, shallow, and romantic about life and love in the self-absorbed way that must seem very profound and gratifying for a couple of Princeton guys with not many female friends, but that no one over the age of 24 should be. In short, everything I always assumed about Princeton students but never had proof of. Before. Also, the mystery isn't very interesting.

]]> Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1) 22328 Alternate cover for ISBN: 9780441569595

Case was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he's ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.]]> 271 William Gibson Jackie 3 Snow Crash or seen the Matrix; Cowboy Bebop; (the hilariously terrible) Hackers; Ghost in the Shell (especially Ghost in the Shell); or any number of other books and movies I've never seen or forgotten, then you've already seen some or all of Neuromancer. ]]> 3.87 1984 Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1)
author: William Gibson
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at: 2008/04/06
date added: 2009/02/25
shelves:
review:
William Gibson's Neuromancer was published in 1984. Would it be possible to read it in 2008 and still find it brilliant and groundbreaking? Unfortunately, no. It's hard to read it fresh when you've read and seen it many times already. If you've read Snow Crash or seen the Matrix; Cowboy Bebop; (the hilariously terrible) Hackers; Ghost in the Shell (especially Ghost in the Shell); or any number of other books and movies I've never seen or forgotten, then you've already seen some or all of Neuromancer.
]]> Crystal Rain (Xenowealth, #1) 185117
Like his world, John deBrun has forgotten more than he remembers. Twenty-seven years ago, he washed up onto the shore of Nanagada with no memory of his past. Although he has made a new life for himself among the peaceful islanders, his soul remains haunted by unanswered questions about his own identity.

These mysteries take on new urgency when the fearsome Azteca storm over the Wicked High Mountains in search of fresh blood and hearts to feed their cruel, inhuman gods. Nanagada's only hope lies in a mythical artifact, the Ma Wi Jung, said to be hidden somewhere in the frozen north. And only John deBrun knows the device's secrets, even if he can't remember why or how!

Crystal Rain is the much-anticipated debut novel by one of science fiction's newest and most promising talents.]]> 352 Tobias S. Buckell 0765312271 Jackie 3 3.58 2006 Crystal Rain (Xenowealth, #1)
author: Tobias S. Buckell
name: Jackie
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2008/03/23
date added: 2008/03/24
shelves:
review:
I'm starting to burn out on sci-fi/fantasy books (damn you free e-books for showing up in my inbox every week). Fun but nothing special and not particularly original.
]]>