I‘m back! Work finally slowed down a bit. I needed a comforting book and so I turned to this series again. Just something fun and interesting and not too sad even with all the murder. I like the new characters that were introduced. And overall it was a fun mystery.

I have been so busy with work I haven‘t had time for much else. But I did get around to finishing this. Another charming Flavia mystery. Although if I realized it was set during Christmas I would have read it in December! I do recommend this series for anyone who loves a cozy mystery.

I started this on NYE and finished partly into the new year. This is my first book of 2021, and it‘s a good one. Margery gives up her old life teaching home economics in 1950 in order to hunt for a previously unknown species of beetle and is joined by her assistant. Margery has to overcome her own self doubt and doubts about her new companion while she searches for this bug. I didn‘t expect this to be as gripping as it was! I really enjoyed it!

I haven‘t had a chance to read anything outside of work for a very long time. I knew nothing about this book when I started it. It is very strange but in a good way. I‘m not going to get into plot because I rather liked jumping into it completely blind. I do recommend it. It‘s a quick read, I read it in a sitting, but not one you finish and then completely forget.

I put a hold on this and was supposed to get it in December but it arrived early. Gave it a shot but it wasn‘t for me. I couldn‘t get past the writing style. It seemed too amateurish and awkward. The premise is a local baker helps solves crime in her town like a young Jessica Fletcher. I was about 90 pages in and almost nothing happened. No Murder, just baking. I think the added recipes are very cute but they were the only interesting part

I really enjoyed this book and thought it was beautiful. Very unique. Redniss sketches out a brief biography of Marie Curie‘s life interspersed with examples of how the work of Curie and her family influenced the larger world, from x-rays to the Manhattan project to Chernobyl. It has illustrations throughout. This won‘t be for everyone. If you aren‘t into non traditional books/art or want a very in depth biography of Curie you might hate this.

I mismanaged my library holds and got a bunch at once. So this will have to go back and I‘ll have to wait to finish it! 😭 I‘m a quarter of the way through and really like it so far. The story follows the formation of a band in 1960s London as they navigate the music scene with lots of cameos from famous faces. It seems realistic, like it could have actually happened, but at the same time this could be a slog for some people that aren‘t into music

To be honest this wasn‘t my favorite, but I don‘t love thrillers, even spooky ones. I‘ve been checking out books from my library without much research just to try something new. This one has gotten rave reviews everywhere. The premise seems fairly formulaic at first. College professor returns to his hometown and confronts a tragedy from his past. But North makes it unique with the addition of spooky horror elements. (Continued in comments)

The story follows Cora, a college dropout who‘s life is a mess and yet still finds herself in the middle of alien conspiracy.

I‘m more of a fantasy person than a sci-fi but I thought this was a very fun book. I do read a lot of comics and I thought the take on aliens and the main plot of the book was still read unique. I had to read it in a day because of poor time management 😂 but I probably would have done that regardless.

This book deals with mental health, family violence, and child sexual assault so may not be possible for everyone to read. This was a difficult read because of the subject matter but very powerful. This book is about a family struggling with mental illness interspersed with sections detailing the research on schizophrenia, including the breakthroughs and setbacks.
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I won a copy of this book from Fierce Reads on Instagram and I was so excited to read it!

This is a mystery but it‘s pretty unique. The story follows two sisters trying to figure out what happened to their mom who went missing when they were children. It alternates between each of their perspectives, a movie manuscript, and occasionally adding in a news article or things like that. The latter is a little inconsistent. (Continued below)

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the creature from the black lagoon and I‘m all interested in design, so learning more about one of people that helped design the creature was very fun. Millicent Patrick lead a very interesting life and makes a great subject. I also learned a lot about the film industry. The writing is casual and irreverent which I like. I think that some might find it a bit irritating if they prefer more traditional books.

This is a great read but also a big bummer for the obvious reasons. Bud Westmore was head of the make department at Universal when the Creature of the Black Lagoon was filmed. Taking credit for stuff he didn‘t do seemed to be a habit of his.

I really like O‘Meara‘s writing style. It‘s definitely a situation where she writes like she talks which can often be super annoying in other books. In this book, however, it‘s like listening to your charming friend that has a way with words. I love the pie baking Jack Russell comparison. It‘s also such a bummer that even the positive moments of Millicent Patrick‘s career are still rife with sexism.

Really enjoying this book. Just got to the bit that Millicent Is best known for, designing the creature from the black lagoon and then losing credit. Millicent was sent out on a press tour to promote the movie and her boss Bud Westmore was not happy even though she and the team were already downplaying her contributions.

New bio today. I didn‘t do two in a row on purpose but I am enjoying this more than the other one!

Finished this while lounging outside in a kiddie pool. It was fine. Some interesting cases but ultimately I think the book was plagued by the same problem Heinrich faced throughout his cases in his lifetime. Ultimately, he did interesting work but was not a very interesting person. His more subdued personality doesn‘t really sell a biography (or a court case!) and his exploits mostly consisted of lab work. It just wasn‘t very engaging.

I‘m about halfway through this book. It‘s interesting but I‘m not super into the writing. The book is a biography about a forensic scientist in the early 1900s. I like the bits about the cases but there is a lot of hero worship and I find the constant comparisons to Sherlock grating. In this bit, Oscar vows to solve a case because his reputation depends on it, but the same could probably be said about his oafish rivals. That‘s how jobs work.

This was the first time I actually really liked a book I kept seeing on popular tbr lists! You really feel for the wives and moms. It was a nice twist on vampires. Fun and unique. I‘m definitely picking up more books by this author. Unfortunately I think my library only has one other book by them! Warning: if you don‘t like books where kids get hurt or want to avoid references to sexual assault/abuse then skip this one

I started this series in the middle it seems but I had no issue just jumping in. I enjoyed this series and would read more, but at the same time it wasn‘t my fave. Agatha Raisin and her PI firm is hired to figure out who set a fire in a battery factory but get sidetracked by a fake leg and donkey accused of murder. It‘s supposed to be a little over the top but I feel like it actually didn‘t go far enough.

Another cute mystery. Not too predictable and entertaining. This is really great if you‘re looking for a bit of lighthearted suspense. This does include references to domestic violence, suicide, and the death of a child (not a spoiler-it‘s not the main mystery). If that would bother you then definitely skip this. After typing the above I realize it might not sound that lighthearted! But it‘s more Murder She Wrote than Sherlock.

I was having a hard time picking a book the last few weeks. I started and stopped a few trying to find something light but entertaining and this fit the bill. It‘s a fun mystery and Flavia is a precocious but not annoying child protagonist. It‘s not super complicated but also not incredibly obvious. I‘m going to check out the rest of the series

First book I‘ve loathed in awhile. This‘ll be long. In this book Malcolm argues that humans instinctively “default to truth” which often results in getting taken advantage of. Ironically, the strongest case for his argument is this book and it‘s popularity. Readers trust him to present an argument supported by evidence. What you get instead is cherry picked evidence to support a wildly simplistic hot take on human nature.
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This was entertaining and one of those books you can‘t wait to get back to when you need to stop reading. It seemed to be well researched as well as well written. At times I felt the book spent too much time on historical details. When Teddy Roosevelt is already a main character it feels a little much to also include Franz Boas for example. I‘m so bummed my library doesn‘t have the rest of the series but I‘ll have to get them eventually.

I watched the show before I read the book because a friend had a little viewing party. Obviously we all loved the show and she insisted I try the book which was a brilliant suggestion. The book definitely lives up to the hype. The writing is beautiful and clever and all the characters are so charming. It‘s also extremely rereadable which I love in a book.

A beautiful love story. At first I wasn‘t sure I liked the format as much as “Daisy Jones.” The interview narrative style no longer seemed unique and didn‘t seem as natural at her other book. Despite that, I did get drawn in and found the story very compelling. Her characters are incredibly interesting and complex, and you really do feel like these characters must really exist somehow. And not just Evelyn, but even minor side characters.

I picked this book up because I liked the idea of a library mystery but while I enjoyed the story the writing style was awkward and often cringey. It seemed fan fictiony somehow. I felt like the dialogue wasn‘t natural and neither were the constant descriptions of food and clothing. I did like the story and the characters, just not the delivery. I still want to read another library mystery if anyone has suggestions of ones they‘ve enjoyed.

This is kid‘s book (middle grade) but I had to check it out because I love Ada Lovelace and Mary Shelley! The premise was just too good. I do think this is a brilliant book for kids and a bit of fun for adults who are into history, literature, and science.

The idea of a murder mystery involving a cat seemed very charming. I was very fond of Koko (the cat) who was very charming. The rest of the characters were also a lot of fun, mainly consisting of eccentrics from the art scene in a small town. About half the book focused I setting the scene rather than they mystery but I didn‘t mind it. Would read more from this series.

This was my second Masie Donna book and even though I loved the first, I thought this was better. The characters had already been introduced and I was already attached, so in this book the focus was more on the mystery. It was another one of those mysteries that wasn‘t impossible to solve but also wasn‘t extremely obvious. Good for a night in.

This was described by the author as overly reductive yet extremely helpful content and I think this fits the bill. I think this will be helpful both to people with anxiety and those that are just feeling anxious. Strategies were very clear and easy to follow. My only issue was that I got this as an audio book from the library and because of that I had difficulty retaining a lot of the content. (Continued)

This is a really engaging science book. It‘s very accessible to the average reader and no science background is needed to be able to follow it. Despite this, the information is still accurate and not dumbed now. It examines the current era of mass extinction by looking at the animals affected by it (some species of frogs, bats, rhinos, etc) with a chapter on each.

I picked this up because it‘s the holiday season and thought it would be fun. I wasn‘t wrong! I read it quickly, in just a day. The mystery was not obvious but also not impossible to solve, which is exactly what I like in a mystery. I also liked the cast of characters and the writing style.

This is my first intro into Carpenter and Quincannon. I am aware that I‘ve gone out of order but this is what the library had available. I thought this was super fun. It‘s a story of two halves with each partner working on a different case. It could be frustrating if you‘re invested in the characters and were hoping for more interaction. The two mysteries also weren‘t groundbreaking but they were interesting enough. I do want to read the series.

I didn‘t know much about this book before I picked it up. I assumed it would be a mystery with a fun main character and this seemed light on the mystery to me with most of the focus being on characters dealing with aftermath of WWI. I still really enjoyed the characters and will try to read more of the series now that the groundwork had been laid down.

I really enjoyed it! I listened to it as an audiobook and it‘s a great format given it‘s written as a transcript of a documentary of the rise and fall of a 70s rock band. I grew up watching a lot of these types of documentaries and behind the music type shows and it‘s very authentic in that regard. It‘s hard to believe it‘s not a real band. In addition all the characters are great and while they‘re not always good people they‘re still likable

I really enjoyed this book but if you just want a book about the LA library fire, this is not the book for you. The author adds in a history of the LA library and library system itself, discussions of the purpose and value of libraries in general, and various other tangents. If you don‘t like jumpy books then you‘ll hate this. But I really found it fun and interesting

I thought this was going to be some kind of thriller because I didn‘t really look into what this book was before starting it. But it isn‘t and I think that‘s why I liked it so much. It‘s a clever story and very well written. It‘s an quick and easy read. I recommend it if you‘re into book about murder but want something different from the typical books in this genre.

This book was fine. I thought it was interesting and I don‘t mind a standard thriller. The descriptions of psychology/psych wards just didn‘t ring true to me. I found it distracting, which was a problem, as it‘s pretty much a major part of the plot. It was very similar to how hospitals get portrayed on cheesy tv dramas.

Interesting historical story and very accessible. I did listen to this as an audiobook and felt like it would be more entertaining and easier to follow if I just read the book. The narrator was good but it‘s just easier for me to follow when there are names and dates I need to remember

Super quick read. But I liked the story and the characters. I wasn‘t completely satisfied with the ending but it was fun nonetheless.

This is another fun book in the series. The focus definitely seems to be in setting up the next book. The motivation for and the conclusion of the big adventure wasn‘t completely satisfying. But I enjoyed the focus on the characters and their relationships.

I was torn over whether I should mark this as a pick or so so. I found it entertaining and liked a lot of the characters but was unsatisfied with how a lot of the story points were tied up. This may have worked better for me if it was broken up into a series with some of the parts fleshed out a bit more. In the end my favorite part was the beginning before the twist. Would still read more books by this author even in the same world she developed.

I liked the concept more than the execution. The writing didn‘t draw you in. It was obvious it was building up to a dramatic ending but it took forever to get there and once it dead I felt like even that was clumsy, heavy handed, and way too long. It was vaguely entertaining.

This book was very cute. It‘s in the same world as the Etiquette and Espionage series and there‘s a lot of connections to that series if you enjoyed it. There are similar themes and even references those characters but it focuses more on the supernatural themes than the espionage themes. A little white saviory at times but not the worst offender. I‘m going to keep making my way through Carriger‘s series

The second in the series and it was another super fun read. Looking forward to the next one in the series.

This was a fun quick thriller. Maybe not as predictable as others in this genre but still very similar.

An interesting mystery and very well written. If you don‘t like books where the majority of characters are unlikeable then this book will probably annoy you. I felt the mystery was a bit more predictable than gone girl but it‘s still a very good book.

I really enjoyed this Australian mystery. It‘s a great summer read.