I was surprised the author was able to find as much information about them as she was. I was extra surprised to read about Mary Jane Kelly, but I won‘t spoil it! I listened to the audio book and my mind wandered occasionally, but not much. I was interested enough a few times to rewind, as well, so as to not miss what was just said.

I really liked this. I think the role playing game upped my interest a bit. I do see I‘ve rated it higher than the first in the series (this is the 2nd). Although the game wasn‘t everything I was interested in. Finding out who Ray really is, and why he was hiding his identity was also of interest. I just really enjoyed this one, and am glad I continued the series

Really liked this. I liked the little cartoons, and the corner with the stats also showed a silhouette of the animal beside a human for a size comparison. I thought that was a nice addition. It does frustrate me that the majority of these animals went extinct, due to (or at least in part) humans – hunting, habitat loss, and/or bringing invasive species with them. There is also a glossary at the back to help kids understand some of the terminology

Everybody in this book was weird. Penelope seems a bit clueless as to academic life (not quite sure how she got into Harvard…). There was a lot of crushes that everyone was having on everyone else; it rarely seemed to be reciprocated. None of the characters were likeable, in my opinion, so I didn‘t really care all that much what happened and if they ever got together

I thought she did a good job explaining. I have read other books that tell me that not all sociopaths are serial killers, etc. They aren‘t all violent, as this author isn‘t. I did find some of her comparisons to “empaths” a bit odd, and they often didn‘t seem to ring true for me. It was only in the epilogue that she defined how she was using the word to mean non-sociopaths. I listened to the audio and it was done well. I rarely lost interest

The summaries of this book make it sound like it‘s all WWII, but it‘s not. I found the book to be an entire biography of his grandparents, then his own – with a focus on his relationship with his mom. I really liked this. A little “bonus” for me was that Mark‘s wife is from Assiniboia, Sask, a small town about 45 minutes from the town I grew up in.

There are a lot of characters and I found it difficult to either remember who was who and/or who was related to whom in what way. It took a long time for me to figure out that these three pregnant girls were not of the same generation. I sometimes found it difficult to remember which characters were indigenous. There were very few likable characters. The story itself ended up being ok, but it took a while at the start to get “into” it.

I really liked this one. As always, it‘s fun (and sometimes humourous) to read from Chet‘s perspective. This one was extra interesting to me with the animal welfare/cruelty angle of circuses

I listened to the audio; it was done well. I rarely lost interest (which is always a risk with audio for me). I liked this. I have read plenty of WWII fiction, but in this case, I haven‘t read much set in Italy. I am waffling between 3.5 stars (good) and 4 stars (really good). I might be hesitating on the 4 stars simply due to WWII overload. Often if a book makes me cry, that will be a 4 star rating. I almost cried – one or two tears at one point

This is a bit of Canadian humour, parts made me smile and a few even made me laugh. I was ready to rate it “good” and I (mostly) did like it, but more so in the first half. The second half felt like it got a bit too philosophical for my liking. I liked that so many of the top 10 lists included Canadian authors

I was reading this often while distracted. I really feel like I would have “enjoyed” the scary atmosphere of it more, had those distractions not been there. One thing I didn‘t like, though, was that not everything was revealed to the reader at the end (unless I was distracted when it was?). Cont in comments...

The anecdotes (mostly ranging from one paragraph to five or six) are ok. They are in Peter‘s words, exactly; Diana did not edit them. They are not arranged chronologically, but each chapter is a topic. There is info about Canadian Prairie history, Mennonites in Western Canada, and life in general throughout the 20th century. Cont in comments...

The story is told from the points of view of both Lila (in 2019) and Caroline (2019 and 2004), but the chapter names tell us whose POV and when, so easy to follow. I really liked this. There were definitely some heart-thumping moments, though at the same time, it was a bit tricky to picture some things. I do need to add a warning that this is horror - there are some violent and gruesome scenes.

I quite enjoyed this! I‘ve had it for years and from the cover, it looks a bit like a romance, so I just never felt like picking it up, but it‘s not. Maybe Beth was a bit too “perfect” and things just seemed to often fall into place for her, but I still liked her and I liked the story

I found this really interesting, And sad. He (and others) is (are) slowly, so slowly, trying to change things to make them better, but what an uphill battle. I listened to the audio and it was well-done; it held my attention pretty much the entire way through. Initially, I hadn‘t realized until looking as I write this review, but the author read it himself.

The book is a mix of disaster, biography, and history. It was good. I particularly found the information about arson interesting. It‘s not that easy to tell if a fire is arson. There is lots of interesting info about the inner workings of a library and its services, but I‘m a librarian, so that wasn‘t really new to me. There were some photos included in the book, mostly of the previous librarians (and one of Harry Peak).

The first paragraph sets things up, telling the reader of the bank robbery and also about murders, still to come. So, it starts with a “bang”, but after that, the book moves pretty slowly. That being said, I grew up in Southern Saskatchewan and thought the descriptions were very well done. It‘s also always fun to recognize places, and there were a few really small towns mentioned nearby to where I lived. Overall, I‘m considering this one “ok”.

i just wasn‘t interested in what was happening in the book; when I lose interest, I skim and miss much of the goings-on. I assume both murders were cleared up at the end, but I couldn‘t say for sure. The animals are somewhat cute/amusing, but even then, not always. I will not be continuing the series

I found the second half more interesting than the first. I guess all of it was potentially interesting to me, but I was surprised to be more engrossed in the parts as the modern-day scientists dug up the graves to find extremely well-preserved bodies and to read the details of their testing and what they found. Be warned that there are photos of the bodies that were dug up; of course, there are other interesting photos, as well

Wow, this pulled me in right away and I wanted to keep reading! Unfortunately, for me, I was reading before bed (twice) and especially the first night, I had a hard time getting to sleep! (Which, really, in a thriller or horror book, is a good thing!). All three storylines were appealing to me, and the author brought them together very well.

I really enjoyed this. I listened to the audio, and I thought it was done well. I did lose a bit of interest in the stories that Martha had written (but “stories within stories” tend to do that with me… not usually interested, I skim). I did find the rest of it – the family relationships and secrets interesting, though I did guess at one of them, but that didn‘t take away my enjoyment of the book

The book was good. To say i really liked it is hard to sustain with a 1000+ page book, but there were parts I really liked. Roger and Bree‘s story pulled me in immediately and kept me interested. There were parts that focused on Lord John Grey and his son William – much of which I didn‘t find as interesting, though some parts were. Cont in comments..

It was good, but she does sound very young, in more ways than one. I did listen to the audio, which she read herself, and her voice sounds young (she must also still look quite young, as she is often mistaken for much younger than she is). But also in the book, she uses a lot of sort of “catch phrases”. I can‘t think of the correct term, but young, slang-sounding phrases/sayings

This pulled me in right away. The first chapter felt almost like horror with the chills it brought, though I‘d tend to classify this more of a thriller. Some chapters do show the POV of the new rapist in town, but we don‘t know who it is until the end, though there are a few possibilities. There are stats on rape included (both within the book and as part of an afterword) that I found interesting. I, of course, also loved the found little puppy

I thought this was good. He was able to sit down with some of these patients and talk to them and find out more about their backgrounds, so he provides more than the medical information about each one. He talks about their lives, and how they came to be in New York and in the hospital. Some of the patients were immigrants and some were prisoners from the nearby Rikers Prison, and there is more variety in addition. Cont in comments...

This was good, but long. A lot of religion in this one, and it seems some of it (but what?) was historically accurate. Unfortunately, the author only included acknowledgments at the end, so the fact that some of this really happened was mentioned but not expanded on. I assume what really happened was the Children‘s Crusade, but I will have to look that up to find out. This is long – almost 500 pages of small font (in the physical book

Audio. This is a mix of children‘s lit, historical fiction, and mystery. I listened to the audio, and overall it was ok. I did lose focus (as I seem to with audios more often lately) a few times, but the story was ok. There was a short author‘s/historical note at the end, though being a kids‘ book, it didn‘t go into detail. Even with only an “ok” rating from me, it might still be a fun series to continue

I thought this was really good. The reader gets to see some of what she was struggling with as she lived through those years as someone who refused to conform to what girls should look like or do. Though I was never a tomboy, I was certainly also not a “girly girl”, so I could see some things in her that I felt, as well. I really thought this did a good job of showing her struggles

It was good, but I found the union/company stuff less interesting. The mystery itself didn‘t really dig into any racism, though the company complained about affirmative action and having to promote the black workers, even if they weren‘t as qualified as the white workers. After the book got past much of the union issues, I found it more interesting, and I thought it had a good ending. This was based on a real murder in Texas in 1979

Audio. There was very little to no recap for the previous books (or if there was, I missed it). Most of the characters have two names – their real name and their nickname, so it‘s hard to remember who is who sometimes, especially when not fully engaged/interested in what I‘m listening to. There were two different narrators, one male and one female, but more than two different viewpoints. Cont in comments...

For the most part I liked it. I found the schooling and the anecdotes interesting. Of his home life, the pets were the best part. I was disappointed, however, to read that at least one of his cats (not sure about the others) was declawed, as was the office cat at his practice.

I liked this. It did show how hard it would be to fit back in to a regular life, for Eli and the family, in addition to Eddy having to get used to this new world, as well. As I noticed at least one other review mention, the science fiction aspect of the book didn‘t come into play until near the end, but that didn‘t bother me, as I still thought the rest of the book was good, too. Cont in comments...

I really liked this one. Historical mysteries aren‘t always my favourite, but I think the historical aspect of this was really well done: dealing with the hardships of arriving as an immigrant, not really knowing anyone… finding a job, so she can eat and pay for shelter. I did like her relationship with the kids she brought with her, especially the little girl. Cont in comments...

This was good. The first chapter did back up just a little bit to give the reader a taste of what he‘d had to endure previous to being removed from his biological family‘s “care”, before moving on to follow him until he no longer needed to be taken care of via foster homes. Cont in comments...

The audio itself was fine, but there was a lot of wedding… and three bridezillas. I found some of the wedding traditions odd. I‘m not sure why Meg was in charge of planning three weddings for other people; for a while, I thought maybe she was a wedding planner, but nope. Overall, it was ok. I won‘t be continuing the series

I liked the short stories – the first one was the best one, in my opinion. The photos weren‘t as interesting, but were ok and the book finished off with full page illustrations of the children in the series with other things in the background (the back of the book tells me these are additional covers). Overall, I‘m rating it ok

I really like this series. I feel like it‘s gotten better as it goes along. This is actually a translation and the author discovered he actually has a hangman in his family‘s history, so the series is based on that. I‘m happy to see that the series continues

I really liked this; it was really interesting. I know very little about the Korean War, and not only did this tell the stories of these Marines and how they (most? some? of them) got out of a bad situation, but I got a bit of insight into how the war started

I listened to the audio, so I do suspect that had a bearing on my rating. It just didn‘t hold my attention at some points, though other parts were good. Fighting is one thing that I just don‘t find very interesting, especially on audio; I tend to tune out. That being said, I finished it two days ago and sadly, I have already forgotten most of it, unfortunately. However, there is one more book in the series, and I will plan to finish it

What a monster! She got out with her kids in 2008, only a couple of years after Natasha Kampusch. Maybe I don‘t remember as much because the entire family ended up changing their names/identities so they could try to get some peace and try to heal. Cont in comments...

I‘m not much for superhero stories. I had hoped to like this one more, but I think it just wasn‘t my thing. There were parts that were interesting, but mostly I just wasn‘t very interested. I also didn‘t quite agree with her hypothesis – yes, there is some collateral damage to innocents, but much of it is to the “bad guys”, anyway. The guys who are intentionally trying to do bad things to innocents! The author‘s note at the end was interesting.

I really liked this. As interesting as it was even from the start, it kept building to the end. I also liked the character from out of town who was introduced. There are some nice (mostly repeated, I think) dark illustrations between chapters, and I liked the way the scene was “set” at the start of the book, via what looks like a newspaper clipping, reporting the attack on Patrick

This is an audio book only, as Larson felt that ghost stories are meant to be told aloud. Great idea! Also great title, and (usually) great author. I was more interested in the author‘s note at the end (at least it held my attention more) than the story itself. This did not hold my interest. It felt like a classic – slow, not much happened.

There are sad parts thrown in as if it‘s from one dog‘s point of view, as well. Some of the work with the scared dogs reminded me of my volunteering with shy/scared cats, to be honest. The end of the book did a “where are they now?” for both the dogs and the people involved. Of course, “now” was around the time of publication over a decade ago. I realized that none of the dogs are probably living now.

I have read a lot about the FLDS already, so I‘ve heard a lot of this. This one, though, gave me more insight into the behind-the-scenes investigating of Jeffs and investigating the issues with abuse (and money) within the community. As usual, when I end one of these books, I need to look up what is happening with Jeffs at the moment – he is still in jail, but he still has followers.

It took a while for me to get “into” the book. I did like both Kasia‘s and Herta‘s stories. All the stories skipped forward in time fairly quickly, and I would have liked for it not to skip so much time so fast, as I felt like things got missed. I could have done without Caroline‘s story altogether, and definitely without Paul. Author‘s note: Herta and Caroline were real people. Kasia and her sister were also fictional but based on real sisters.

There was a lot more politics in the book than I‘d expected, so that was not as interesting to me as the parts that did focus on the family itself. This seemed really well researched with a lot of primary sources being used, most notably writings by the last head guard of the Romanovs in Ekaterinburg, also one of the main murderers. This book may have included the most detailed description of the murders themselves.

This is told with humour and plenty of fun illustrations from the past. Very interesting stuff. Some of what they look at here were things doctors actually did, but some other things were what the “quacks” were selling. Unfortunately, I‘m not sure how much I‘ll remember. It looks at so many different things in short bursts of information, but was definitely interesting as I read it. The authors are a doctor and a journalist.

This was pretty slow. And vague at times as to what exactly was going on. I don‘t think I particularly liked any of the characters – oh, I suppose I kind of liked Uncle Ira. I really didn‘t care much about the characters, either, maybe because I didn‘t like them very much? Initially, I thought I was enjoying the book, but I‘m leaning more toward it being ok.

This is a mix of survival, historical fiction, and (some) horror. The horror (the “thing” out there), I found was minimal. The focus was on the survival aspect. The book is very long, and I had a hard time getting interested until the last 1/3 of the book. I wasn‘t able to keep straight who “belonged‘ on which ship. The end was a bit vague in a couple of cases, I thought. Cont in comments...