These arrived yesterday, @TheAromaofBooks. I spent the evening going through Celine and enjoying everyone's comments. 💛 What fun!
@Jerdencon @robinb
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Celine: A novel | 
These arrived yesterday, @TheAromaofBooks. I spent the evening going through Celine and enjoying everyone's comments. 💛 What fun!
@Jerdencon @robinb
pickI had some trouble rating this book because the book itself can't quite seem to decide what it wants to be. It‘s also not exactly a novel, but somewhere in between. A novel with some thriller aspects. A slow-paced suspense with a lot of backstory. A spy story not about the spy at all. A missing person case with a long explanation as to why the detective takes on missing person cases. Something like that. The point is, I really enjoyed it. But⬇
Just finished up my December #LMPBC. My first Heller book, and I enjoyed it. Won‘t go into detail as I want to preserve surprises for my group. 😉
I‘ll be getting this out in the mail after Christmas.
pickYears of searching for missing persons Celine has a great track record. Now, as her health is failing, she may have the energy for one more case. She and her partner head out to Yellowstone to search for a father/photographer on a long, cold case. I love Peter Heller and his writing. So descriptive.
Door dashing Hawaiian Bros Chicken and tucking into some more Celine due to doc orders to keep elevating my leg. I get a pass for not putting my laundry away, right? But 70 year old Celine puts me to shame with her clue hunting despite emphysema. Bister absolutely would not look at the camera. Stubbornness as a theme also playing out in my book and my home.
A road trip frees the mind, revitalizes the spirit, and infuses the body with Dr. Pepper and teriyaki jerky.
pickThis is one of my book club picks and my first time reading this author. I must say the way he brought Northern California to life (I'm from there) and then brought Yellowstone to life with his words was amazing. Add the mystery and suspense and I was swept up. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 read for me for sure!
panPretty meh. I loved Celine, but the story has no suspense and I figured it out really early. Peter Hellers later books are way way better!
pickA good mystery that takes place around Yellowstone- which leads to good imagery. Not as good as The River or The Dog Stars but still entertaining. I also loved the lead character, she was unique and tough.
While I didn‘t love this quite as much as the red of the book club did (the opposite of last month‘s selection!), I did find it very interesting. And this sundae sounds AMAZING.
https://www.smellingsaltsjournal.com/dusty-miller-peter-hellers-celine/
It‘s time for a mid-month readathon! Here are my goals.
1. Finish reread of LOTR Book V
2. Finish November book club selections Celine and H Is for Hawk
3. Listen to The Fire Next Time
Plus the usual lagniappe 😎
#NovelNovember
pickPeter Heller has reached "auto buy" status for me. Every. Book. Is just amazing. The premises are wildly different: there's the dystopian The Dog Stars, outdoor adventure novel The River, suspenseful The Painter. And now the mystery novel that is the absolutely delicious Celine. Celine is a near-70-year-old private detective, raised in the upper echelon of European/New England society. With her long time companion Pete, ⬇️
⭐️ DECEMBER WRAP-UP ⭐️⠀⠀
⠀
Happy New Year! Looking back, I read a little more slowly in December. I attribute that to (1) the busy holidays and (2) taking on some worthwhile but challenging reads. I really relished some of these reading experiences, though, as I had the chance to revisit some old favorites and to have some lovely, deep discussions about books that challenged my perspective. ⬇️
I love the author, Peter Heller but am having trouble with his newest book. It flips around narrators and their memories too much to follow easily.
Apparently in November I was in the mood for detective stories. In addition to these two favorites, I read a Kinsey Millhone book, my first Easy Rawlins mystery, Celine, and I started an Inspector Gamache novel. Four detectives in one month!
pickCeline is different from any mystery I have ever read. I would very much like to spend time with the MC and her husband. They are amazing people who love and respect each other deeply. They go on a meandering RV trip to solve this mystery and attempt to do what Celine always does - reunite families.
pickI just discovered Heller this year with “The River”. When it‘s completely different, but still great. He has such a skill for writing about nature. We meet Celine, a private detective, who has a fascinating past. She‘s older and has a supportive wonderful husband, which is unique PI books. She particularly loves reuniting families in her work and this case is a doozy. A famous photographer goes missing in a national park & a bear attack is blamed.
pickI will start by just saying WOW, I was out expecting what I just read. I remember this book coming out and I am so mad for skipping over it. I have to thank the Modern Mrs. Book Club for selecting this for the November pick or I might have never read this amazing book.
For my full review, please visit my blog at: http://obsessedbookaholic.com/2019/11/07/celine-book-review/
pickModernMrsDarcy.com #MMD pick for November 2019
Celine is a 65-ish, sophisticated, “Upper crust“ woman who is retired from a lifetime of covert government operations. Now, she finds missing persons as a hobby. She is quite a character and I love the interaction between Celine and her husband. This is only my second Peter Heller book and I enjoyed it immensely.
I really love Peter Heller‘s books. He has such beautiful descriptions of nature. He is still my fave. (There is also a little Biscuit action in the background)
An entertaining character driven mystery featuring a clever 68-year-old private investigator. Céline is intuitive, smart as a whip, skilled with firearms, and has a better track record than the CIA when it comes solving cases. A fun quick read.
I enjoyed The Dog Stars and people are raving about The River, so I thought I'd give this one a go. Celine is a feisty old PI from the upper crust.
"The cases she took were for the Lost Causes, the ones who could never afford a PI. They were never about leverage or retribution or even justice, and they were often performed pro bono."
panHeller‘s prose had serious potential but the never ending storylines and rambling tangents all seem to have #nothingincommon with one another or the major plot line. Add in a disastrously constructed mystery, a female MC very poorly written by a man, and some far-fetched situations (an old lady with emphysema scaring off a drunk, rowdy biker gang 🙄), and you have yourself this failure of a novel.
#septemberdanes
pickCeline is a 60 something PI who was inspired to be a PI after suffering a familial loss as a teenager. She had some Lillian Boxfish vibes going on—spunky, classy, and stylish. She is investigating a situation where a man was presumed dead by a bear attack decades ago. Is he really dead or did he abandon his daughter?
The mystery is not the only focus of the novel. There is a lot of meandering. #holeinyoursoul #abbainaugust
panWell, I can honestly say, this author and his writing style are not for me. And I‘m guessing @Cinfhen , #knowingmeknowingyou, you would not be a fan either? There was so much superfluous verbosity, that I skimmed half the book and I only finished it because it was a book club choice. The mystery part was halfway interesting but the rest - ugh. #abbainaugust
Who doesn't love an unexpected Sunday Amazon book delivery 🤗 Starting this one tonight for our next book club!
Ps. I've always wanted to own this book bc the color would look great on my bookshelves 😍 so I'm happy to have an excuse to buy it!!
pickElegant, spare story of a 60ish private investigator who tracks down a young woman‘s long thought dead father. But is he? #booksandtea #reading #peterheller #privateinvestigator #weekendread
pickA nice palate cleanser after a more difficult read. I enjoyed revisiting Yellowstone and other parts West, although Heller took some liberties there. I do have to agree with other readers that sometimes the exposition made me feel like this was part of a series I had missed. But it‘s the kind of book you finish in two days and then get on with your life, so it didn‘t bother me that much.
“You will never ever be truly happy if you wear those shorts,” she sai. “You are telling your manhood that you wish he were an internal organ.” 😂
Dinner and a new book to start. What better way to start the weekend. 😀
I LOVED The Dog Stars ✨ by Peter Heller, so when I came across this book in the library I RAN to the checkout desk🏃🏻♀️..I have NO idea what this book is about, but I already 💗it!
Picked this one up for this evening‘s couch session with Gatsby. #schnauzersoflitsy
so-soThere were parts that felt overwritten. I loved the references to some favorite places in WY & MT. 🏔🏕🎣
so-soReally liked parts of this book, and got really frustrated with other parts. The pacing is slow going especially for a mystery PI novel. Loved all the characters though.
Had to take a ridiculous picture to make up for the so-so rating. It‘s nice that my kids were such good sports.
Up next. 50 pages in and already loving it. The writing is so beautiful. Even the dialogue - almost distractingly so - like, why don‘t I know people who speak this eloquently? 🤷🏼♀️
Listening to this one. (Thank you library!)
I love the design of cover of this book!
Kind of desperately want to read this. I even found a used copy, but we‘re on a serious budget. Thank god for libraries.
pickAnother surprise favorite read for 2017. Completely different from THE DOG STARS, this literary P.I. story within a story is just as wonderfully written and has great characters. Plus, the suspense of various mssing people throughout her life is fascinating & creates interesting tension while reading.
so-soI had mixed feelings about this book, the first I've read by this author. It is the story of a blue-blooded private investigator and her husband who specialize in reuniting separated families. They head out to Yellowstone to look into the disappearance of a young woman's father and adventure ensues. I enjoyed his evocative nature writing and the main character's backstory but felt that it was all over the place at times.
so-soI would totally give a 🤘 for the PI portion of the story. Love their investigative process, her 'granny' toughness, as well as her 'movie star' image. I'm sure you can sense the but...there was just too much other. I totally get why the back story is included, wish that was covered as a novella or...tried reading and couldn't so listened to the audio book. It was beautifully read. If there was a 3/4 thumbs up icon that's what I would be voting.
so-soWhile I enjoyed certain storylines here, I found the book splintered into too many threads which were difficult to follow. I would have liked to see more editing. Especially after The Dog Stars, which is so spare and I loved, this didn't quite work for me.
pickIs there protagonist impossibly infallible? Yeah. Does that make the story less enjoyable? Naw. A quick little mystery set in our first national park with quirky characters and love letters to literature.
