Just like the first one: A free download, the first paragraph is addicting, a few hours later I'm done (this time on a plane flight). Light reading, vJust like the first one: A free download, the first paragraph is addicting, a few hours later I'm done (this time on a plane flight). Light reading, various twists and turns, engaging characters. But you leave feeling like you've eaten a bowl of too many sweets....more
Completely trashy, completely unbelievable, completely one dimensional, completely derivative but also completely addictive. I had seen the book arounCompletely trashy, completely unbelievable, completely one dimensional, completely derivative but also completely addictive. I had seen the book around a lot and decided to read the first few pages. A dead body, then three months earlier... The first half of the book is told from the perspective of a housemaid who is hired as a live in with a rich family who seem ideal and perfect at first but then that changes. Many of the classic gothic tropes--the hushed warnings from the gardener who does not speak English, the room that locks from the outside but not the inside, the scratches on the door, etc.
The twists and turns are fun and almost sort of plausible ex post.
Will probably read the second one at some point, likely after I read the first few pages but then cannot put it down again....more
I listened to this audiobook, it is easy enough on the ears to get through. But too much of it was overly sappy and the rest was overly hackneyed hardI listened to this audiobook, it is easy enough on the ears to get through. But too much of it was overly sappy and the rest was overly hackneyed hard boiled tough guys and dames. I'll still try some more in this series but did not like this one much....more
This was a mediocre crime novel whose best aspect was the setting, a battle between Irish and Italian gangs in 1980s Rhode Island, moving between a chThis was a mediocre crime novel whose best aspect was the setting, a battle between Irish and Italian gangs in 1980s Rhode Island, moving between a cheap town on the shore to Providence. While the plot kept me going it was all clichés about mobsters, loyalty, reprisals, earners, etc., strung together in a plot that could have come out of Chat GPT.
The one novel element actually made it worse--it is a reworking of the Iliad (give or take). It began with a beautiful woman who is eventually stolen from her Italian mobster boyfriend by an Irish mobster (in the role of Paris) who was the son of the head of the Irish mob (in the role of Priam). I only realized this about a third of the way through but instead of adding to the novel it detracted. In part you knew what was going to happen (e.g., the Paris character's brother is the Hector character, he dies, gets dragged behind a car, and then his father has to go to his killer to retrieve the body). But even worse there was no depth or profundity to the echoes, like when the Priam character goes to the Achilles character to retrieve his son's body it feels perfunctory and unemotional.
Don't get me wrong, I mostly enjoyed reading this. But it was my first Don Winslow and I was hoping it would be better....more
This Nordic noir police procedural started out good (a damaged detective deep sixed into a one man investigative unit with a hopeless mission), draggeThis Nordic noir police procedural started out good (a damaged detective deep sixed into a one man investigative unit with a hopeless mission), dragged in the middle in the way procedurals do (as one lead after the next was checked out), and ended up with the most absurd torture porn carried out by a cartoon villain that it made me partially regret the entire book....more
Brilliant from beginning to end, even the notorious extended flashback to the adventure story set in the American West. The first Sherlock Holmes bookBrilliant from beginning to end, even the notorious extended flashback to the adventure story set in the American West. The first Sherlock Holmes book introduces Watson, depicts his first meeting with Holmes, and sets them off on a classic puzzle mystery....more
My daughter and l listened to this very short novella on a 3 hour drive, was the perfect accompaniment--easy to follow, vivid and gripping in parts, tMy daughter and l listened to this very short novella on a 3 hour drive, was the perfect accompaniment--easy to follow, vivid and gripping in parts, the structure of a Greek tragedy--with a certain amount of complex ambiguity with a big helping of obvious cliché as well. I had seen the movie but glad I listened to the audiobook too....more
It was a long day after little sleep. I had a long flight with a connection. I started a short story collection and read and loved several of the storIt was a long day after little sleep. I had a long flight with a connection. I started a short story collection and read and loved several of the stories (Machado de Assis's The Looking-Glass: Essential Stories). But you never want to read too many stories in a row and I was a bit too unfocused for 19th century Brazilian literary fiction. So I turned to Verity--partly based on my daughter's recommendation, partly based on seeing Colleen Hoover everywhere and being curious about what it was all about, but mostly because I read the first two (short) chapters in the Kindle sample and was completely hooked. The 20 seconds it took to buy the full Kindle book was probably the longest pause I took in my breathless and fully absorbed reading of the entire book, finishing just before my flight landed at 1:30am.
Is Verity great? No. Some of the writing is weak. The characters and situations are a bit cliched. A bunch of it is over-the-top absurd (although some of that turns out to be a clever aspect of the artifice). BUT, as snobby as I would like to be, I can't escape the fact that I could not turn my eyes away from it. I've read a few domestic thrillers (e.g., The Girl on the Train)and liked them but always found myself disappointed because their entire raison d'être was being thrilling and they somehow fell short. This one, however, did not and delivered exactly what it promised--thus rating it five stars when evaluated on its own terms....more
This was disappointing albeit a page turner. The combination of a novel set on the eve of busing in Boston in 1974 and its intersection with the IrishThis was disappointing albeit a page turner. The combination of a novel set on the eve of busing in Boston in 1974 and its intersection with the Irish mob in Southie was an irresistible for me. But every character was taken from central casting--the saintly Black people, the rough Irish youth, the mobsters who pretended to be family but were really brutal, the upper middle-class girl who wants to save people, etc. And much of the plot felt like a mish-mash of something I've read many, many times before with very little in the way of twists and turns.
The one possible exception to all of this criticism was the main character, Mary Pat, a mother who is so driven by trying to find out what happened to her missing daughter that she almost literally bulldozes everything in her way. But even she was one-dimensional, just in a slightly more novel manner than the other one-dimensional characters.
A short Audible-only novella by Ben Winters (author of the excellent The Last Policeman trilogy). It tells what seems like a fantastic story about a fA short Audible-only novella by Ben Winters (author of the excellent The Last Policeman trilogy). It tells what seems like a fantastic story about a failed actor making a living as a deliveryman who downloads an app with a motivational book by a second-rate has been action star. The book starts to give him advice on how to take control of his own life and become more assertive, all of which spins wildly out of control. Eventually it is all tied together in a non-fantastical and reasonably satisfying conclusion. Well worth what I paid for it (free on Audible) and the short amount of time....more
This is a nicely bound collection of Edgar Allen Poe’s three mysteries solved by detective Auguste Dupin, the stories that helped invent the mystery gThis is a nicely bound collection of Edgar Allen Poe’s three mysteries solved by detective Auguste Dupin, the stories that helped invent the mystery genre and the conventions of an eccentric detective who uses reasoning to puzzle out the solutions to crimes—announcing the solution and then explaining how they came to it.
I had read two of these before (“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter”), both of which are excellent. The former has a nice framing around analysis, calculation and different types of thinking—and then a somewhat silly puzzle solution. The later is especially well crafted and has a solution that has a universality to it that goes beyond a clever solution to a particular crime.
I had not read “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” before and I found it tedious, long-winded, lacking in any psychological depth or surprise, like the long notes of someone working out a speculative theory—in some cases taking much more space to do it than is remotely necessary. I thought I was being unfair or not appreciating the story but after a quick search this seems to be the nearly universal view on this story—which took roughly half the pages in the collection (thus the 4 stars, which is really an average of two 5+ star stories and a 2 star story)....more
Earlier this year I read the Penguin collection that included about half of the stories in the Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin (the first colEarlier this year I read the Penguin collection that included about half of the stories in the Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin (the first collection) and another set of stories drawn from the other collections. My children were interested in Lupin after watching the first episode of the Netflix series so we ended up listening to the stories in the first collection over a period of several months excellently narrated by BJ Harrison. Several of them were repeats but I enjoyed listening again and several others were new. I'll definitely put his second collection on my audiobook list.
(Note, although the Penguin one and this have different stories they are categorized in the same way by Goodreads.)...more
Three badass women work together to steal a painting from the Louvre, as the plan goes sideways two of them end up in a motorcycle chase inside the muThree badass women work together to steal a painting from the Louvre, as the plan goes sideways two of them end up in a motorcycle chase inside the museum as the third one escapes on a hang glider. All of this is after the killed a Mexican drug kingpin to free a man they barely knew. Which was after they stole a painting from the Musée D'Orsay. Well drawn, stylish, and lots of superficial fun....more
I confess I hadn't heard of Arsène Lupin until the Netflix series (which BTW went from cool to absurd pretty quickly and I won't be watching the seconI confess I hadn't heard of Arsène Lupin until the Netflix series (which BTW went from cool to absurd pretty quickly and I won't be watching the second season). I got this Penguin collection of some of the stories and loved it. What I like is they are all told differently: narrated by others or himself, might or might not include a crime, or a solution to a crime, or in many of them both--he solves the crime but helps himself to a generous reward. Some of the twists are easy to see but more because of the conventions of storytelling than anything else. Others seem impossible even in retrospect, unlike Sherlock Holmes where all the clues are there. I particularly liked the three stories drawn from the collection The Eight Strokes of the Clock which featured Prince Rénine and Hortense.
Will definitely be reading more stories or novels, recommendations for prioritization most welcome....more
Reasonably entertaining, reasonably imaginative and suspenseful, but fell short of a lot of other John Scalzi for me and the writing seemed to be weakReasonably entertaining, reasonably imaginative and suspenseful, but fell short of a lot of other John Scalzi for me and the writing seemed to be weaker than some of his other books. It is a police procedural set in the near future the world has a new disease “Haden’s Disease” that locks people into their bodies paralyzed. They can use neural networks to control mechanical avatars or in a few rare cases other people who can receive their signals. What starts as a murder or suicide turns into a larger political story in which the villain (of course) derives from corporate greed.
I listened to the audible recording by Will Wheaton (who does a lot of Scalzi books), was also reasonably good but the notorious Scalzi delimiting all speaking with “said” got increasingly painful as the book went along....more
I would read (or listen to) anything John Scalzi writes. My children and I listened to this short audiobook, the second in the series that began with I would read (or listen to) anything John Scalzi writes. My children and I listened to this short audiobook, the second in the series that began with The Dispatcher (although it could be read as a standalone). It has all the noir/hard-boiled tropes of morally compromised heroes who rise to the occasion, villainous lawyers, honorable gangsters, multiple levels deep, all told in an enjoyable and suspenseful way in a world where it is impossible to murder anyone. Yes, impossible because if you murder someone they come back, naked, in a safe place for them. Scalzi takes this premise, never explains it, and turns it into a great plot that is funny and even a bit tender in the right ways....more
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