Category Archives: books

I definitely got lucky with this nicely humorous book which has a more serious plot line and a heart-warming theme, too.   Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutano 2023 / Read by Eunice Wong  10h 41mRating: B+ / cozy … Continue reading →

Well this book was a disappointment except for the wee bits of action or suspense up until the last 75 pages or so. Then it got quite good. The quality, or what I consider quality, of Banville/Black’s books is, to … Continue reading →

Good book again!  But, and I emphasize this, although it’s the same guy Benjamin Black is quite a different writer from John Banville. Sometimes I think Black gets back into the groove of writing literary novels even though as Black … Continue reading →

Okay – here we go … it’s time for Six Degrees of Separation hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best and followed by many.  🙂   I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (1948)  is Kate’s starter … Continue reading →

For awhile during the middle of this book, the 6th in the Quirke series by Benjamin Black (aka John Banville of Booker Prize fame) I thought that Black had disappeared, replaced by the old John Banville and his long-winded, highly … Continue reading →

This is not Michael Lewis’ usual clear and excellent reporting on something a bit complex. And he’s generally such a good explainer.  Unfortunately, if you’re listening to this there are a couple of PDFs mentioned which don’t seem to be … Continue reading →

The first chapter is kind of like a Prologue, but it’s not really because the tale alternates between 2 time frames- “2 years prior” and “now.”  And then it goes back to some old spy tales of the Cold War, … Continue reading →

 “To everything turn, turn, turnThere is a season turn, turn, turnAnd a time to every purpose under Heaven.” That’s from a song with music and lyrics by Pete Seeger and based closely on  Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in the Old Testament. … Continue reading →

On December 27, 2011 Russ Ferria of Troy, Missouri, was arrested for brutally killing his wife, Betsy.  He had found her body, called 911,  and ended up in jail with very manipulative police officers. He got an attorney and.was released … Continue reading →

Again!  I get to Chapter 4 or something in a book from the library and I’m not at all happy with the narrator, but plugging away and getting very sleepy. The next morning I started in again and after a … Continue reading →

Now how could I resist this??? The New York Times headline for their review of this book reads “A Novel That’s Equal Parts Murder Mystery, Courtroom Drama and Immigration Tale.”   Okay – gotta do this. I’ve loved mysteries since … Continue reading →

This is one of the very best true crime books I’ve read in years.  I should probably have gotten the Kindle version to go with it but it seemed strong on its own, the reviews didn’t talk about pictures and … Continue reading →

This is the second book and first memoir of John Douglas, one of the most famous FBI agents ever (except J Edgar of course) tells the story of how he grew up as basically middle class middle American boy. He … Continue reading →

This was fun without being as silly as I half-expected. Mother-Daughter Murder Night was released this week and I decided on the spur of the moment that I just needed another mystery now.  It seemed to have gotten good customer … Continue reading →

I had this in my wish list when it went on sale. And there I was in need of a break from nonfiction with crime fiction or true crime. I caved and it turned out longer than I expected.   … Continue reading →

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month, so here we are, a week later instead. I grabbed it from Lisa, but saw the meme earlier elsewhere and I’ve … Continue reading →

I’m going to get this series up to date this year.  I started it back in 2014 or so, and dropped it because having read about 8 of them I was used to John Bancroft’s beautifully rendered novels.  So I … Continue reading →