Chris

Have had this one on the ‘to read' list for far too long. I love the Abby Cooper Psychic Eye books. The psychic thing features in this tale - but it's very different from her other books. It's YA and told from the point of view of two scrappy orphans who reside at Delphi Keep. It's the first book in a series. Very enjoyable. I look forward to reading the rest in the series.

Note: The movie is a mere skim off the top of this book, with a heaping tablespoon of whimsy, and a hefty dose of Hollywood glopped on towards the end. You'll recognize things from the movie in this book - but they're really not the same animal. I enjoyed both. I liked this book, I'm glad I read it, but I did not love it enough to relegate it to the shelf of things I cherish and reread over and over again. 3 1/2 stars.

Listened to this one in the car. It's funny, and a good story. Am diving right into the next one in the series.

It doesn't quite stick the landing at the end, but I still really enjoyed this one. The characters are amusing.

Creepy, melodramatic, and oddly funny. Listened to this one in the car on a road trip with my college-aged son - it was selected strictly for genre and length, and neither one of us knew anything about it. We both enjoyed it. It's “Grey Gardens” meets “The Beguiled”.

This is a great series of books - but as things develop, I find I like the bits about the characters more than the mystery. This one takes place at the start of WWII. As always, I enjoyed Maisie and Billy's investigation. Am hoping the next one focuses more on Maisie and Pricilla's new endeavor with a heavy dose of Billy (I love Billy) and a little mystery sprinkled in...(or several small ones).

This is a melodramatic portrayal of an emotionally damaged trial lawyer and his long-suffering array of fans. He's so beautiful, so talented, so rich, and so very very very very very very very very sad and insecure (but that doesn't interfere with his ability to be the best trial attorney out there!). His personal tragedies are more numerous than Job's. The book cover portrays a man weeping - I don't think he's weeping enough. The cover should be a picture of some martyred saint - Saint Sebastian with all the arrows would be perfect. The end plate could be a woodcut scene of a mob of Victorian men grieving and tearing their clothes.
I hung in there until the end - because after awhile the idea of finishing this thing was akin to summiting Everest. I did the same thing with the ridiculously bloated “And Ladies of the Club”. I can proudly say I finished both of these books - but sweet Jebus, I'm never getting the time it took to read them back.

I didn't pay much attention to the description - the cover caught my eye, and I noted it was a story that took place during the 40's - so I bit and opted for the audiobook.
That cover looks like it's going to be a story of three chummy girls during the 40's. Um...it's not.
I'll note that I'm not sure I'd have picked it up if I'd done more than just skim the description. This is a book about three separate women and the horrors of the Ravensbrook concentration camp. The women's paths do cross - but they cross as victim, tormentor, and savior. I still don't know why it's called “Lilac Girls” - maybe that bit passed me by and I didn't catch it.
All that aside - I really really enjoyed this one. The story is well told, and the audiobook is well performed. Two of the women are based on real people - the third is a hybrid of several of the survivors of Ravensbrook. I was most impressed that the ‘baddy' is a three-dimensional character - not just bad for the purpose of being bad.
This book is definitely a piece of historical fiction. But good historical fiction makes you want to learn more about what you just read about. And this is the case with this tale. I realized I didn't know much about the Ravensbrook Rabbits - and I'd like to read more.

WWII and a bracing cup of tea. story told via letters and diary entries of several women in a small English town during WWII. The shifting perspectives adds an interesting depth to the characters. Enjoyed this one. It's Maeve Binchy meets Flavia DeLuce without the mystery.

Really enjoyed this one. Tale of two orphans and how they cope with what life has thrown at them.

Listened to this one in the car. Fairly gripping tale of the lives of the passengers on a doomed flight.

I really enjoyed this one. The story is told through entries in the bright young heroine's diary. Joan is smart, but young and gets herself into awkward situations as she works as a hired girl in a wealthy Jewish home in 1911 Baltimore. Joan is Catholic by birth, and is learning about her faith, and learning about the faith of the family she works for (as it infuses the day to day routines of the home). The family she works for recognizes she is bright and encourages her reading. Even though religion is a backdrop to the story, this is not a religious book. The comparisons to Ann Shirley in the other reviews are correct: This is Ann Shirley cleans house and widens her horizons.

Six stories that thinly link together. I started this one in 2014, got about 30% into it and put it down for almost 3 years - as I thought it was fine, but really wasn't hooked. Picked it back up recently as it still simmered on my ‘currently reading' shelf and figured I'd best get on with it. I ended up listening to the last 70% via Audible (the recording is well done, btw). Parts of it I thought were fine, other parts I really liked. I would not have been able to get through Zachry's tale but for the fact that I was listening to the thing. Favorite bit was Timothy C tale - very funny once it gets rolling. I also really enjoyed the clone saga. Each segment is told in a very different voice. The linkage is thin - but interesting to see how each bit ties to the next and each story wraps up.

I love this series, but this is my least favorite of the three. Loved the world building of the first book...all of which play into the story moving forward. In this one there is a great deal of time is devoted to world building in the troll village and the sithi community...far too much time. I loathed the troll people by the time we were done with them and on our way. Happy to have this re-read behind me and am ready for the third and final installment.

Easy breezy read. I just love Flavia.

Fascinating review of the events surrounding the sinking of the Lusetania. I started this one and for some unknown reason back-burnered it. So glad I picked it back up and finished it.
My father was always fascinated with ship travel and ship wrecks and I grew up with many books about both peppering the big coffee table in our living room. The Lusetania was featured in amongst those familiar books. Dead Wake humanizes the disaster by delving into the stories of many of the passengers, the captain, and key political players. Well researched and well written. (And Dad would have LOVED it!)

A happy read. I do enjoy D.E. Stevenson books. It's called the Four Graces, but it's really about 3 sisters as the 4th is out of town during much of the book. The story takes place in an idyllic English village during WWII - but the focus is on the Grace family, not the war. The story picks up where the last of the Buncle books left off. As with the 3rd book - you don't need to have read the others to read this one. You may want to hop back to the 3rd after reading this, however, as the story is alluded to briefly.

A novella - and a quick light read. Typical of most of Connie Willis' writings - you're tossed into the middle of something and half the fun is figuring out who, what, and where. By the time you've got your feet back under you, you're hooked. Love the banter between characters.

Enjoyable short read. The language is slangy enough that you can't let your focus wander, or you'll lose the thread of the story.

Enjoyable array of short stories. Some SciFi from this era is rather dated, not so in this case: I was surprised at how timely many of these were.

I'd never read any Kipling before. This was an enjoyable ‘toe in the water' - and I look forward to reading more. This would be a fun one to read aloud to kids - lots of opportunities for different voices.

Short but delightful!

Loved it. Story picks up where #7 ended...and I'll say no more because spoilers. This one's a fast read - very fast. It's a script with stage directions - and well done. Didn't think I'd like that about the story, but it was fine. I enjoyed trying to wrap my head around how they'd produce the scene on a stage. Now I'd love to see it live!

I remember reading this one back in High School - loved it then, and found on this re-read that I still love it. The movie ‘Paper Moon' is based on the first third of this book - and if you liked the movie - rejoice that there is a whole lot more that happens after the bootlegging incident. If you haven't seen the movie - do: it's a charmer.

This one is a fast read. It's an unusual world of angels, vampires, and humans. That bit I liked. Kat Kennedy's review amusingly sums up the bigger issues I have with this one. The relationship between the two main characters is...erm...distractingly unhealthy. But there's some witty banter, and the characters intrigued me, and I'm hopeful book 1 is long setup for what happens in book 2 (like the weak pilot in a strong series).