Look at this, another month. How'd that happen? (Also I started writing this over a week ago and then...forgot about it. My bad.)
This month is pretty neat cos it's both my and Tom's birthday month, so good times at both end. Did we do anything special for our respective days? Well Tom had to work (may be his birthday month but it's also the busy season). But I took the day off work, got coffee and spent the day watching Lord of the Rings movies (or at least Fellowship and Two Towers) alone and lemme tell you. New birthday tradition? I think so! I just need to figure out a way to fit all 3 movies into the day.
In other news, reading this month was apparently all about murder. I didn't mean for it to work out that way, but ya get what ya get when most of your library holds are just not coming in so you see whatever is available now in the mysteries section. Also, I'm thinking I need to get the small one's library card set up in my Libby account along with my own because I am often running up against my hold limit because of all of his stuff (he now listens to audiobooks while going to sleep).
Let's take a look at those stats, shall we?
Number of books read
5
Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood
Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson & Jay Cooper
The Busybody Book Club by Freya Sampson
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
This Is Not A Game by Kelly Mullen
Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood
Judith, Becks and Suzie are back in a fourth murder mystery. The people of Marlow know who to turn to and so when Verity's husband Oliver goes missing, she shows up on Judith's doorstep. Oliver and other members of the amateur dramatic society (including former member turned Hollywood star) went on a private cruise but no one has seen Oliver since. It's another cozy mystery with a locked room and clues that all come together in a dramatic reveal. Is it the best of the series? Eh, not really, but it was still a good time.
Rating: 3.75 stars
Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson & Jay Cooper
I didn't even remember putting this on my library hold but hey, it showed up one day, and that's fun. A cute informative guide to staying safe if you ever decide to visit a quiet English village (watch out for...everyone and everything basically). It's silly and it's quick and the drawings are funny and the illustrator recently came to the goblin's school and that was a fun lil coincidence.
Rating: 4 stars
The Busybody Book Club by Freya Sampson
There's a book club at the local community center and sure, it's not the most popular activity going on but there are a few folks who show up. One of the members is acting a bit...off. Then money goes missing from the community center roof repair fund during the book club and now Nova's job is in jeopardy (I mean, it's her book club after all and is she sure she locked up the office?) Then a dead body shows up and the book club member can't be found anywhere, well, Nova and the other book club members don't really have a choice but to investigate. (There is very much a choice, but Agatha Christie fan Phyllis decides they need to look into it and she is a force.) A fun cozy mystery with a ragtag group that come together and see if they can get to the bottom of everything going on and save the community center, of course.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
It's hard to say much about Agatha Christie's stuff in general and even moreso when it's something as popular as this classic. This was my first time reading it but I have seen the Branagh movie and listen, say what you will about them, I'll prob watch any of his Poirot movies that come out. All that is to say, I already knew the ending, which sure, ruins the mystery a bit but the book is still fun for all of the things that make Christie so iconic (the characters! the secrets! the big reveal!) and the casual racism of a book from the 1930s to my present-day mind was a little silly ("The passion shown in this crime could only have been done by one of Latin blood. Arrest the Italian!")
Rating: 4 stars
This Is Not A Game by Kelly Mullen
Mimi lives on Mackinac Island, Michigan and is happy living on her own and avoiding the locals. But when she gets an invite from her socialite neighbor that is...persuasive, she finds she has to attend this party/auction. This does give Mimi an excuse to try to patch things up with her granddaughter, Addie, who is having her own problems given the recent break-off of her engagement to business partner Brian who is ALSO cutting her out of the business. Of course, genres being what they are, the pair are trapped at the party when a storm snows them all in and then when a body shows up, well, why not do some snooping? Mimi and Addie both like puzzles after all. All the makings of a cozy mystery but things fell flat for me. I don't know if it was the writing or the narrator (both?) but it was difficult to tell the 2 main characters apart and there is a lot of not-at-all-subtle investigating going on that made it hard to suspend disbelief with what people would put up with. But locked room mystery, family secrets, amateur sleuthing, it isn't all bad.
Rating: 2.75 stars
Number of pages read
1,391
Fiction
100%
Female authors
80%
US authors
40%
BIPOC authors
0%
Format
audiobook: 80%
ebook: 20%
Where'd I get the book
library: 100%
Decade published
1930s: 20%
2020s: 80%
Resolution
60%
Murder on the Marlow Belle and A Busybody Book Club are both by UK authors
Murder on the Orient Express is by a UK authors and published a bit before 2000
