Chris
Enjoyed most of these (in particular: 20th Century Ghosts, The Black Phone) - and a couple I'm still thinking of several days later (Voluntary Committal, My Father's Mask, Better Than Home).
Charming! This has been on my ‘to read' list for ages. I'll be reading it again at some point. Really enjoyed it. Thankful for the hourly borrowing option at Archive.org, as I'd given up finding it in an ebook or audio book.
Excellent! Loved the story and the setting. I picked this one up because of the high ratings and rave reviews - and was not super excited: expecting a ‘Nell' (movie) redo - but it's so very much not ‘Nell'. Kya is her own unique character and the lovingly described marshland setting she lives in is also an important character in the book. The book is part coming of age, part romance, part murder mystery - and does all three quite well. Highly recommended.
Loved the movie. Listened to this one in the car, and really enjoyed it. It differs slightly because the point of view changes - which gives some nice additional detail to the story. There is also an additional storyline for Strickland's wife - which I enjoyed. Now I need to go rewatch the movie again.
Epistolary tale about a Danish museum curator and a British farm wife. Good character development. Liked this one.
Another great installment in the Maisie Dobbs series. The historical event the story pivots around is Dunkirk. Thought the storyline was plausible for Maisie (more than making up for the faults I found in #12). The only bit that had me scratching my head was the plot twist towards the end - which really has nothing to do with the main threads of the book - but it didn't detract from an otherwise strong addition to the series.
This is a series - not a group of stand alone books with the same main character - you really need to read them in order since each book builds on what came before it.
Ok - For a second, I wasn't sure WTH happened with Prince Swashbuckle...but it works out.
Listened to this one in the car and really enjoyed it. Reader was excellent. Story is looooooong. I agree with the other reviewers that some of the premise laid out for ‘why we're all gathered here today' was a tad contrived, but the story telling is excellent. So if you can suspend some of the disbelief in the beginning, plow through some of the bits that don't really do anything to move the story forward (all very well written - so it's fine), and stop eyerolling towards the end when you want to beat Cassandra over the head with the book because she's so dense and can't seem to get the ‘mystery' figured out.
And I'm firmly in the camp that Linus is a ‘funny uncle' as they say - and I'll happily take the book's allusion to that fact rather than have the gory details spelled out word for word. If you go with that premise: Georgiana and Eliza's strong desire to leave Blackhurst makes a little more sense - as well as Eliza's very strong desire to remove Ivory from the estate.
Delightful fairytale of starters (sourdough) and startups. Listened to this one and enjoyed it thoroughly.
Well researched biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter. No punches are pulled on this one - it's a warts and all tale - but found the background on the story that inspired the books I enjoyed as a child really interesting. Am now interested in rereading the Little House series.
9th in the series... I love this series, btw - but this one is the weakest. 2 1/2 stars - it was somewhere between ‘it was ok' and ‘I liked it'. When I reread the series I may just skip over this one.
I enjoyed how Flavia's relationship with her sisters transitions into something more like an alliance - all three girls bring something different to the table in regards to skillsets. I look forward to seeing where this goes in the next books.
I always love the dabbling with chemistry. And the characters were fun.
But WTH was the chapter where she has this psychic vision of what may have happened to the church ladies. Sweet jebus. This is where the book completely lost me. And I found it difficult from this point on to follow how she was getting to her conclusions.
Found this one too be a bit draggy in the middle, but once it started to roll in the final third it was hard to put down. It's been so long since I read Sabriel I'd like to go back and re-read now.
This one is a deep dive into the culture of “The Fleet” and follows several characters around in their day to day lives. It's a character study - not much plot to move the story along. Did not enjoy this one as much as the two prior books. I appreciated the extended world building.
Excellent. An interesting fictional tale of a young resident of Moloka'i. This is a piece of history I only knew a bit about. I'm eager to read more. Characters are well-developed. I see there is a sequel that follows another character's storyline - I look forward to reading it!
Listened to this one in the car. It's funny, and a good story. Am diving right into the next one in the series.
Excellent account of the first manned mission to leave earth orbit to orbit the moon.
I listened to the audiobook - and highly recommend it. At the end of the book there is an interview between the author and Frank Borman that I highly recommend: the interview humanizes Borman considerably and puts some of the book's characterizations of Borman into a better context.