Entry tags:
Book Logging
Greenwood, Kerry. Cooking the Books - This is the last of the Corinna Chapman books that I can get from the public library. I have no idea if there are others. I suppose I should check Amazon. This one relied heavily on coincidence for one of the mysteries. I still liked all the characters and had a lot of fun. If Greenwood writes more of these, I'll definitely read them.
Greenwood, Kerry. Trick or Treat - If the books in this series weren't so charming, if I were reading for the mystery, I'd have put this book aside in disgust. It relies on coincidences and ties everything up without revealing most of the clues to the reader (probably because the whole thing doesn't make sense). Fortunately, I'm reading for the characters and their interactions. Those are a lot of fun. I can forgive a poor mystery much more easily than I can characters and situations that I don't enjoy.
McCall Smith, Alexander. The Great Cake Mystery - This was a really fast read and is intended for very young readers. I think it took me all of fifteen minutes. This book is an incident from the childhood of McCall Smith's detective, Precious Ramotswe. Someone is stealing treats that children have been bringing to school, and suspicion falls on a boy who Precious does not believe is guilty. The mystery is very slight. The solution literally drops at Precious' feet. The main suspense is how she's going to prove what she knows to be true.
Peck, Richard. A Year Down Yonder - I didn't expect to finish this one, just based on what it looked like and my own tendencies. I've decided to cull my lists of library books that interest me and get the things I think I'll start and not finish. It seems like a quick way to cut the lists down to a more manageable size. Of course, I may find, as with this book, that I'm hooked. I enjoyed the main character and her grandmother. The story moved along briskly, but there were enough details to give me a feel for the time and place.
Turner, Megan Whalen. The Thief - This was my first audiobook. I listened to it a chapter at a time while I was walking the treadmill in the mornings. I own the book in paper but bounced off it two or three times. This time, I made it through. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. I've seen a lot of people talk about this book as something amazing, so I had kind of high expectations. This story follows Gen, an expert thief, as he participates in a quest to find and steal a mystic artifact. Saying more than that would spoil things.
Zahler, Diane. A True Princess - This book uses The Princess and the Pea as a supporting plot, but it's not really central. When she overhears that her foster parents are going to sell her to a cruel man as a servant, the heroine runs away. She's joined by her foster brother and foster sister, and they all travel north. Along the way, there's a forest that's known as the home of the Elf King. Naturally, the kids run afoul of the Elf King. The two girls have two weeks to find a specific object and bring it to the Elf King in order to free the boy. The object is hidden somewhere in a castle.
Books not finished:
Connolly, Sheila. Bitter Harvest - I only made it about a chapter into this mystery, not even far enough to discover the mystery. The style simply didn't work for me. This is why I get mysteries from the library and almost never buy them. This is one Amazon recommended for me.
Davis, Krista. The Diva Haunts the House - This is a mystery Amazon recommended to me. (Every now and then, Amazon recommends mysteries for me for a while based on my liking one or two mysteries. Then it stops again for some reason.) The library had it, so I thought I'd try it. I don't like most mysteries, but I'm willing to try new authors because there have been some mysteries I liked quite a lot. This one was okay, but it didn't hook me. I didn't really care about any of the characters or about the mystery. I shan't be reading more of this series.
Paver, Michelle. Wolf Brother - I barely started this one. I suspected, before I checked it out, that it wouldn't be for me. I don't remember where I saw it recommended or why I put it on my list. I think I read about three chapters. I just wasn't in the mood for a young man in the wilderness, trying to stop a demonically possessed bear.
Ransome, Arthur. Swallows and Amazons - GoodReads recommended this one. I have nothing concrete to say about why I didn't finish it. I think I simply wasn't in the right mood for kids playing games and having adventures that are larger than they really are because of the kids' imagination. Does that make sense? I think I might have loved the books when I was the same age as the kids because I'd have been carried away by their games. I don't have that any more.
Soup, Cuthbert. Another Whole Nother Story - I could have renewed this, but I suspect that I wouldn't finish it even with another four weeks. I have eight new books waiting for me to pick up today. I liked the first book in this series reasonably well, but I wasn't in the mood for this one. I kept picking it up and putting it down again almost immediately. I felt irritated by the characters and wanted to spend time with someone else.
Greenwood, Kerry. Trick or Treat - If the books in this series weren't so charming, if I were reading for the mystery, I'd have put this book aside in disgust. It relies on coincidences and ties everything up without revealing most of the clues to the reader (probably because the whole thing doesn't make sense). Fortunately, I'm reading for the characters and their interactions. Those are a lot of fun. I can forgive a poor mystery much more easily than I can characters and situations that I don't enjoy.
McCall Smith, Alexander. The Great Cake Mystery - This was a really fast read and is intended for very young readers. I think it took me all of fifteen minutes. This book is an incident from the childhood of McCall Smith's detective, Precious Ramotswe. Someone is stealing treats that children have been bringing to school, and suspicion falls on a boy who Precious does not believe is guilty. The mystery is very slight. The solution literally drops at Precious' feet. The main suspense is how she's going to prove what she knows to be true.
Peck, Richard. A Year Down Yonder - I didn't expect to finish this one, just based on what it looked like and my own tendencies. I've decided to cull my lists of library books that interest me and get the things I think I'll start and not finish. It seems like a quick way to cut the lists down to a more manageable size. Of course, I may find, as with this book, that I'm hooked. I enjoyed the main character and her grandmother. The story moved along briskly, but there were enough details to give me a feel for the time and place.
Turner, Megan Whalen. The Thief - This was my first audiobook. I listened to it a chapter at a time while I was walking the treadmill in the mornings. I own the book in paper but bounced off it two or three times. This time, I made it through. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. I've seen a lot of people talk about this book as something amazing, so I had kind of high expectations. This story follows Gen, an expert thief, as he participates in a quest to find and steal a mystic artifact. Saying more than that would spoil things.
Zahler, Diane. A True Princess - This book uses The Princess and the Pea as a supporting plot, but it's not really central. When she overhears that her foster parents are going to sell her to a cruel man as a servant, the heroine runs away. She's joined by her foster brother and foster sister, and they all travel north. Along the way, there's a forest that's known as the home of the Elf King. Naturally, the kids run afoul of the Elf King. The two girls have two weeks to find a specific object and bring it to the Elf King in order to free the boy. The object is hidden somewhere in a castle.
Books not finished:
Connolly, Sheila. Bitter Harvest - I only made it about a chapter into this mystery, not even far enough to discover the mystery. The style simply didn't work for me. This is why I get mysteries from the library and almost never buy them. This is one Amazon recommended for me.
Davis, Krista. The Diva Haunts the House - This is a mystery Amazon recommended to me. (Every now and then, Amazon recommends mysteries for me for a while based on my liking one or two mysteries. Then it stops again for some reason.) The library had it, so I thought I'd try it. I don't like most mysteries, but I'm willing to try new authors because there have been some mysteries I liked quite a lot. This one was okay, but it didn't hook me. I didn't really care about any of the characters or about the mystery. I shan't be reading more of this series.
Paver, Michelle. Wolf Brother - I barely started this one. I suspected, before I checked it out, that it wouldn't be for me. I don't remember where I saw it recommended or why I put it on my list. I think I read about three chapters. I just wasn't in the mood for a young man in the wilderness, trying to stop a demonically possessed bear.
Ransome, Arthur. Swallows and Amazons - GoodReads recommended this one. I have nothing concrete to say about why I didn't finish it. I think I simply wasn't in the right mood for kids playing games and having adventures that are larger than they really are because of the kids' imagination. Does that make sense? I think I might have loved the books when I was the same age as the kids because I'd have been carried away by their games. I don't have that any more.
Soup, Cuthbert. Another Whole Nother Story - I could have renewed this, but I suspect that I wouldn't finish it even with another four weeks. I have eight new books waiting for me to pick up today. I liked the first book in this series reasonably well, but I wasn't in the mood for this one. I kept picking it up and putting it down again almost immediately. I felt irritated by the characters and wanted to spend time with someone else.
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It is hard for me to evaluate the twist ending because I knew it going in. I read spoilers for most everything.