I went nuts with reading in November. Just wait till you see those stats. What happened? Well, see, there was this election. And post said election I decided that perhaps I am spending too much on social media and for my mental health, perhaps I don't need to be doing that so much anymore. And I have, to a large extent, replaced random social media scrolling with reading some book I already have on my phone. Thus did I add 3 ebooks where normally I have, well, zero. That and I have decided, for the time being, to focus on comfort reads and the thing about comfort reads is they tend to go fast, so I get through more of them.
There is much to be thankful for, so for now, let's focus on that. And those stats
Total books read
9
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion by Tori Telfer
Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley
Murder Most Actual by Alexis Hall
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson
The Author's Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig & Karen White
The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
I love Rainbow Rowell but in general, I am not a huge fan of her Simon Snow stuff and I don't read much in the way of graphic novels so I haven't followed her She-Hulk stuff. I was interested to see she had a new adult fiction book coming out and while it's not my fav of hers (that will come later in these reviews) I still did enjoy it. The story itself is a bit of a slow dance, as the story is about two people, Shiloh and Cary, who have been best friends since high school and everyone assumed they'd get together. They seem meant for each other but things just didn't work out and they went their separate ways, until meeting up again at a mutual friend's wedding. the book is missing a lot of the humor of some of her other work but the relationship between the 2 main characters is sweet and their reason for not getting together feels real instead of manufactured. The good parts help make up for some of the less-than-stellar pieces
Rating: 3.75 stars
Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion by Tori Telfer
Who doesn't like a book about lady scammers? I mean, I suppose the people being scammed weren't crazy about it. But I've been relistening to podcasts like Scamanda so hearing about historical scammers seemed like fun. This book includes stories from the time of Marie Antoinette up through current day. In books like these I typically find myself drawn to the more modern stories but here those were far less interesting and instead I wanted more of the older cons. Maybe cos pissing off rich aristocracy seems less problematic than stealing from 9/11 charities. Who knows
Rating: 3 stars
Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley
Remember when I said I wanted some more comfort reads to replace some of that Twitter scrolling? Well look no further. This is such a feel good book about a bunch of strangers who get intwined in each others lives. Iona is a larger-than-life character and I love an older force-of-nature woman who begins to meddle in the lives of people around her. Unlikely friendships form, tragedies are averted, lives are changed. Overall it's a feel good story that gives you some hope for humanity. Something that is nice these days.
Rating: 5 stars
Murder Most Actual by Alexis Hall
Cozy mystery set in a remote Scottish castle. Liz, a true crime podcaster, is on the rocks with her wife Hanna but they're hoping this trip will help spark something. Except one of the other guests end up murdered and now Liz wants to solve the murder, Hanna seemingly wants to yell at everyone, and no one seems concerned enough that they are apparently trapped with a killer. The tone of the book was odd, with the focus shifting so often between the murder and the relationship between Liz and Hanna, never really nailing either. Elements were fine. But the description saying it's for fans of "Clue, Knives Out and Only Murders in the Building" (all things I love) do this book a disservice because this book does not have the humor or characters of any of those.
Rating: 3 stars
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Again, a comfort read. I love, love, love this book. The romance elements are fine but it's the relationship between Beth and Jennifer that Lincoln so falls in love with that drives the story. It's so wonderful and sweet and good. This was my 6th read and it won't be the last
Rating: 5 stars
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
Another comfort read! This one a bit slower going but I love the conceit of looking around the domestic sphere and how things got the way they are cos there is a lot of history in all of these little decisions.
Rating: 5 stars
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson
This is a fun lil Christmas special mystery from the guy that wrote Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone. It has 24 chapters, so you can read it as a murder mystery advent calendar and see if/how Ernest figures out why his ex-wife woke up covered in blood, her boyfriend dead on the kitchen floor, claiming she has no memory. Where I said Murder Most Actual prob shouldn't include comparisons to things like Knives Out, this one feels right. Maybe not as good as the other Ernest Cunningham books but I still considered relistening to this one once I finished it so that's saying something
Rating: 4.5 stars
The Author's Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig & Karen White
Another remote Scottish castle murder mystery, this one on an even-more-remote Scottish island. Literary darling Brett is found dead in his locked tower during a writers' retreat attended by three American authors. They say they're three friends working together on a book set in this historic castle. What do they know about the murder? Were they involved? And can they help solve the crime?
I read one of the reviews that said the characters are insufferable for the first 40% but it gets better after that. Which is true and I absolutely almost stopped reading a few times because of how annoying the characters are. This reviewer was right, at just before the halfway mark, the book did get better. Not good, though. Just better. I still did a lot of eye rolling and I keep reading how the book is described as "a pointed satire of the literary world" which if you say so, book blurb. If you want to read it, let me know so I can complain about specific plot points to you.
Rating: 2 stars
The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood
The third installment of the Marlow Murder Club mysteries, Judith, Becks and Suzie are back trying to figure out who killed Marlow's Mayor, a man who seemed to be loved all around, but his fellow members of the planning committee seem to have their own skeletons in the closet. I love a force-of-nature older woman (see Iona above) and Judith is happy to barrel through the usual way of doing things if it means she can put her keen mind to the test to figure out this murder. And along with her are good friends, the vicar's wife Becks who knows how to smooth things over with witnesses when Judith's methods might...ruffle some feathers. And Suzie, town dogwalker, radio host, spitfire in her own way who actually witnessed the murder happen, not that that made who did it any clearer. Fun time and I look forward to future installments.
Rating: 4 stars
Total pages read
3,135
Fiction
78%
Female authors
78%
BIPOC authors
0%
US authors
56%
Rereads
33%
Format
audiobook: 67%
ebook: 33%
Where'd I get the book?
Kindle/Audible: 33%
Library: 67%
Decade published
2010s: 22%
2020s: 78%
Resolution books
44%
Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting, Murder Most Actual and The Queen of Poisons are all by UK authors
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret is by an Australian author
