Mo's Updates en-US Mon, 28 Apr 2025 18:32:01 -0700 60 Mo's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review2515712936 Mon, 28 Apr 2025 18:32:01 -0700 <![CDATA[Mo added 'The Day of the Storm']]> /review/show/2515712936 The Day of the Storm by Rosamunde Pilcher Mo gave 3 stars to The Day of the Storm (Mass Market Paperback) by Rosamunde Pilcher
bookshelves: 0-dl, brit-lit, 2025
2 1/2 stars

Not one of her best. ]]> Rating851601979 Sun, 27 Apr 2025 05:49:37 -0700 <![CDATA[Mo liked a review]]> /
Mo liked Sarah's review of Telling Tales (Vera Stanhope, #2):
Telling Tales by Ann Cleeves
]]> Review7429106891 Tue, 22 Apr 2025 15:05:48 -0700 <![CDATA[Mo added 'Listen for the Lie']]> /review/show/7429106891 Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera Mo gave 3 stars to Listen for the Lie (Hardcover) by Amy Tintera
bookshelves: 0-dl, 2024-publication, on-hold-at-library, contemporary, 2025, psychological-thriller, w-audiobook, w-brk
3 1/2 stars

Interestingly enough, I have never listened to a podcast. Are they supposed to sound like someone reading off a script?

I've never been a huge fan of "amnesia" stories, because (of course) the mystery will be solved when POOF the main character gets his/her memory back. That does not impress me. Had I known that before starting this book, I may never have picked it up.

For all that, the story was engaging. Both read and listened to, and each was equally enjoyable.

Audiobook BRK
January LaVoy - Narrator
Will Damron - Narrator
Duration: 09:18:34 ]]> Review7163534717 Sat, 19 Apr 2025 19:59:42 -0700 <![CDATA[Mo added 'Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love']]> /review/show/7163534717 Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin Mo gave 5 stars to Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love (Paperback) by Marianne Cronin
bookshelves: 0-dl, senior, 2024-publication, audiobook, brit-lit, charming, lg, 2025, w-audiobook, w-brk, dual-timeline
I listened to the audiobook for just over an hour, and was bored to tears. Everything washed right over me, and I could not get interested in the story. I kept waiting and waiting and WAITING for it to get better, and it never did. Since the average rating on GoodReads was 4.32 based on over 7500 ratings, I decided to give it one last shot by reading a hard copy and seeing if it got any better. BINGO!

Some books are just not meant to be listened to� this is one of them. There are frequent formatting changes, and the story bounces around too much to be successful as an audiobook. You are never quite sure where you are in time, what is happening or to whom Eddie is speaking (sometimes it is to the hamster!). But it all makes perfect sense when reading the pages.

And I agree with the high praise for this novel. I think the story is completely charming.

Audiobook BRK
Kim Durham - Narrator
Clare Corbett - Narrator
Natalie Nightingale - Narrator
Duration: 07:52:00 ]]> Review3359186299 Fri, 18 Apr 2025 11:03:21 -0700 <![CDATA[Mo added 'We Were the Lucky Ones']]> /review/show/3359186299 We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter Mo gave 3 stars to We Were the Lucky Ones (Hardcover) by Georgia Hunter
bookshelves: 0-dl, historical, brit-lit, 2025, cccc-bookclub-read-by-me, cccc-history, w-audiobook, w-owl
From a humane point of view, this story was amazing � all the more so after you learn that it was based on the truth. How could it fail to touch your heart? The horrors of this war are still unimaginable, even all these years later. This novel personalizes those horrors for one Jewish family during WWII.

From a literary point of view, I did not think the story succeeded quite as well as it could have.

Several dramatic occurrences got swept right past (for example Bella’s solitary journey to bypass the German front line. We are told that she started the journey alone, with almost no food and no shelter... and POOF!... the next thing we know she somehow managed to cross the German line and is standing in front of her boyfriend's apartment door, his camera in hand and completely unharmed.)

The characters were pretty indistinguishable to me for most of the story, and there were quite a few of them. This could have been my fault, as I listened to this on tape, and the narrator used the same Jewish accent for all of the characters. I should have read a hard copy.

Read with CCCC Book Club

Audiobook OWWL
Narrator - Kathleen Gati
Narrator - Robert Fass
Duration: 15:36:46 ]]> Review7466747846 Fri, 18 Apr 2025 10:51:52 -0700 <![CDATA[Mo added 'Foul Play']]> /review/show/7466747846 Foul Play by Helena Marchmont Mo gave 3 stars to Foul Play (Bunburry #15) by Helena Marchmont
bookshelves: series, w-brk, brit-lit, mystery, 2025, w-audiobook
A nice way to while away 3 hours as I was doing some Spring gardening.

Audiobook BRK
Nathaniel Parker - Narrator
Duration: 02:57:17 ]]> Review7493815197 Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:32:31 -0700 <![CDATA[Mo added 'The Bread Machine Book: 75 Unforgettable, Unfussy Recipes for Every Baker [A Baking Cookbook]']]> /review/show/7493815197 The Bread Machine Book by Lukas Volger Mo gave 1 star to The Bread Machine Book: 75 Unforgettable, Unfussy Recipes for Every Baker [A Baking Cookbook] (Hardcover) by Lukas Volger
bookshelves: 2025-publication, 2025, non-fiction, w-mcl, 0-hard-copy
"Everything you need to know..." except what size loaf you are making. My machine (and most) make 1 lb, 1 1/2 lb and 2 lb loaves of bread. It would have been nice if a book dedicated to making bread in a machine would have given you that information in the recipes, so you would know what setting to use. ]]> Review7208840736 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 06:36:25 -0700 <![CDATA[Mo added 'When Night falls']]> /review/show/7208840736 When Night falls by Helena Marchmont Mo gave 3 stars to When Night falls (Bunburry #14) by Helena Marchmont
bookshelves: 0-dl, brit-lit, mystery, series, short-stories-novellas-essays, 2025, w-audiobook, w-brk
I was supposed to be reading an intense novel for my book club, but was not in the mood for it. I was driving around all day, and this fit the bill. Lighthearted and undemanding.

Audiobook
Narrator - Nathaniel Parker
Duration: 03:08:17 ]]> Review7435263163 Mon, 31 Mar 2025 13:27:39 -0700 <![CDATA[Mo added 'Kills Well with Others']]> /review/show/7435263163 Kills Well with Others by Deanna Raybourn Mo gave 2 stars to Kills Well with Others (Killers of a Certain Age, #2) by Deanna Raybourn
bookshelves: 0-dl, mystery, 2025-publication, 2025, series, w-audiobook, w-brk, dual-timeline, senior
Too many deaths, too many plot points, too much jumping back and forth in time, and much-too-much sangfroid. (Think 4 female James Bonds all popping out one liners one right after the other.) My head was spinning, and not in a good way.

I did not find it believable that these women were in their sixties. Maybe because the story kept switching back to when they were younger, so that was the picture that was imprinted in my mind? Or maybe because despite a few gray hairs they were still being portrayed as being as highly athletic as James Bond in his prime? Dunno.

All of the women seemed pretty indistinguishable to me in this one. Was I supposed to remember all of the character development from the first book in the series? I did not. It got to the point where I didn't care either.

Audiobook BRK
Narrated by Jane Oppenheimer & Christina Delaine
Duration: 10:19:59 ]]> Review7419578003 Tue, 25 Mar 2025 17:59:14 -0700 <![CDATA[Mo added 'The Busy Body']]> /review/show/7419578003 The Busy Body by Kemper Donovan Mo gave 3 stars to The Busy Body (Ghostwriter Mystery, #1) by Kemper Donovan
bookshelves: w-nypl, series-1st-book, series, mystery, 0-dl, contemporary, 2025, w-audiobook
2 1/2 stars

I ended up questioning several things about this story:

� Why did Dorothy feel the need to take it upon herself to solve the mystery?
� Why was everyone perfectly OK with being interrogated by Dorothy?
� Why was the Ghostwriter presented as the main character who loved to solve mysteries, and that this story was “her own�, when she played such a minor part in all of it?
� Why was the story told from her point of view when Dorothy Gibson drove most of the story?
� Why did Dorothy tell SI Locust that she would not tell anyone who the murderer was, and would let him take all the credit for solving the murder, and then proceeded to tell everyone exactly who the murderer was, and didn’t give him any credit at all?
� Why was the Ghostwriter not open to a relationship with Denny when she had been fantasizing about him for days?
� What was the secret of what happened to the Ghostwriter’s sister years ago when she was 17? (I smell a sequel!)
� Why does the bodyguard tell the Ghostwriter that he knows all about her sister, says he understands that she does not want to talk about it, and then proceeds to talk about it?
� Why did she and Dorothy spend all of their time doing anything else other than writing the book?
� Why did the Ghostwriter end up leaving and NOT writing Dorothy’s memoir, as she had been hired to do?

The Ghostwriter character (interestingly, she was never named!) was very sarcastic, and the narrator used a wry, snippy tone to convey that. I imagine it was done to convey how “tough� the Ghostwriter was, but I felt it was a bit overdone. There was a certain snarky bite to most of her conversations, and a little of that went a long way with me.

Audiobook NYPL
Narrated by Eva Kaminsky
Duration: 10:06:19 ]]>