Often I complain about a book when I think there are characters superfluous to a story. So why then am I so enamored by this series best served read in sequence from book 1-4? Besides some fun murder mysteries, I think it‘s because Osman creates such a big dynamic world for his octogenarians.

It‘s mystery/thriller grid time for me! But it was picturing 3 generations of Gilmore Girls solving a murder that gets the tag as my fav!

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

At first I thought I might slam this story for including a child in this cast of unlikable characters, but honestly it was fun to read, and I was intrigued to read to the conclusion.

This has been on my TBR since, well, since acknowledging a TBR, I suppose. The writing, though filled with melancholy, flows beautifully. I‘m so glad I read it and wondered how this author would write this story some 75+ years later - relations between Catholics with anyone not Catholic, and shhhh, homosexuality.

Sept #DoubleSpin Cat: Pub prior 21st Century @TheAromaofBooks

I finished this book, and immediately wondered why I hadn‘t come up with the ending before it came to me because geez, of course. I guess It was one of those reads where I was intrigued with what/why of now and didn‘t consider what might happen next. …Assisted with book pic by the first born of my first born!

I liked this atmospheric story but was more interested in the characters and their survivor guilt than the actual mystery …I‘m fortunate my teenage self never experienced a trauma causing my adult self to question whether I deserve anything but goodness.

Oh this was good. My first thought was isn‘t this supposed to be a thriller, but oh well, I like it anyway. Then the tide turned, and it twisted and twisted and then twisted again because 3 times makes it real!

Hmmm, I‘m on the fence on this one. I like to either root for or against my main character which can make unreliable narrator stories a hit-or-miss for me. I didn‘t have thoughts for Sarah until I finished the book which was too late for me. There were parts of this that were kind of creepy though -getting into the skin of the person you most admire.

So a new cover reveal of an upcoming sequel just made my day a bit more fabulous!

I‘m always down for an immigrant story because they are unique and I‘m left considering situations I‘ve never had to confront. This time the American-born children of two Palestinian refugee immigrant families are arranged in marriage. Yara is a young mother of two with a masters degree but desperately unhappy. What I‘m left thinking … Family is important, yes; but geez, for sanity‘s sake, women need their own friends, as well ↓

The many details of the potential land grab of a dead guy‘s ranch started to bore me here. But the characters - main and side -are enough to garner this a pick. An insta post sold me on the book by writing - think 3 generations of Gilmore Girls solving a murder - and that‘s what I thought the whole time. …I do think think is prime for a fun screen adaptation by Reese and Co.

Oh this was fun. At just about 75% in the reader is fully let in on the mystery. So I thought I‘d just sit back and enjoy as the characters figure out what I already knew. But oh no, Alice Feeney doesn‘t make it that easy. The twists just keep coming!

I seldom give 5 stars to a mystery/thriller because I typically find at least something in the story to gripe about. I‘m thrilled to tag one as my grid favorite!

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

Overall I liked the Rachel Krall and Terry Gonzales story. My problem is with other parts of this story. I have a hard time connecting when the influencer (‘er content creator) trope is written into a story because the characters are most often painted as shallow and narcissistic with no societal value-add. Once in a while a plot twist changes that perception, but I got bored with the influencer build-up too early to care.

I anxiously await each installment of the octogenarian Thursday Murder Club so I thought I‘d be amiss to skip the current installment of this teenage murder club. It was all right, but I thought it tried to hard to give the series characters (even the dead ones) air time. I think I‘d have been more engaged if it only carried the characters necessary for this particular story.

As I posted my Sept #BookSpin list I hoped for a landing on my favorite category Litsy Stacked. I really liked reading, The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty, and based on Litsy posts wanted to prioritize Paris. And yes, it is everything that Litten‘s have been raving about. …Paris, for ever thinking you unremarkable, I‘m sorry. You are the ass-kicker A in ADHD. You go, Girl! ↓

Sep ‘23 #BookSpin Cat: LitsyStacked

Even knowing at the meet cute what the HEA will be, it‘s fun for me to read a romcom when the path to get from here to there is unique. But this - digital dating app vs traditional matchmaker, attraction to rival to client, miscommunication to love - offered nothing unique. Liv was a brat, and the amount of times the word compatible was used became my fingers down a chalkboard.

This was fun, and a quick check through my #indexcard collection provides me this list for #Top10Summer2023Reads. Shark Heart is my overall favorite but still swimming (pun intended!) in my head as a recent read. Collected Regrets is a close second. Also, it seems my Kansas City self pulled my virtual armchair to the ocean for a summer of reading!

Thanks for the fun idea @Cinfhen

I almost returned this audio unread after realizing it was book 11 in a series I haven‘t read. But I gave it a go and was drawn in right away. It was obvious characters had backstories, but that didn‘t distract from the currents story. In fact, dang, now I‘ve just added 10 books to my TBR!

I was riveted to this one and found how the story weaved together to be thrilling mystery writing. I don‘t always understand the nuances in the why or when of mystery vs thriller, but which ever one this was - it was very good. I really like this author!

This was a tough call because I liked the book once it got going. It just took way too long to get there with character back stories that didn‘t pull me in. I‘m all about shorter chapters, but 133 was a lot when many just seemed like a paragraph break. It is an interesting take on reality entertainment and the last sentence (don‘t go read it!) was great.

Yet another world building series I read this year. I anticipated being one and done choosing to stick with the Fourth Wing series. But dang, I liked this one, too, and I have questions. I need to know the nuances in the rules of Jumping! You know, because like zombies, there has to be rules!

This is kind of odd. On the one hand it‘s a romance where JE creates an interesting protagonist choosing between two men and neither choice is a bad decision . In the midst of this fun romance is a serious (might I say, break away) plot of providing support to a red-state teenager as she seeks an abortion in blue-state NY. Ultimately it gives pause to consider someone else‘s life is not the narrative you create while living your own story.

If I actually owned as many physical books as I now have #indexcard representation, I‘d have to get extra support beams running under my floors!

August ‘23 #MonthlyWrapUp

I really wanted to finish this stack of books this month and gave a couple books too little attention, but some reads were unforgettable. Tagged my fav!

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

I‘m ready for my Sept-Oct genres of books and should have released this from my Libby holds before it dropped. I just wasn‘t in the mood but kept with the audio because it was only 7 hours at normal speed. I couldn‘t decide if the point of the story was the books or if it was the touch-of-magic matchmaking. This one deserved better from me. …When you know it‘s you and not the book ;(

I procrastinate mythological settings never sure I‘m in the right place for the story. I was where I belong here!. Aaslo was a great character and I cracked up at Mathias‘ continuing story. The supplemental characters were spot on. Peck and Mory have my heart, and I never knew I‘d have such fondness for a reaper!

#14books14weeks2023 Book 14!
@TheHeartlandBookFairy Thank you so much for giving me the incentive to read down my BOTMs!

I grew up in a non traditional setting during a traditional era, and I‘m certain that is what draws me to fictional family sagas. If the author throws in even a touch of Irish Catholic family dynamics, well, I‘m gonna sink down and read straight through to the end. It‘s my way of convincing myself - see mine was never inspiration for a novel of family drama, so that must mean we were a nearly normal family, right!?

Oh, what to read, what to read!?
September 2023
#BookSpin / #DoubleSin
@TheAromaofBooks

I‘m not sure about this one and maybe my head just wasn‘t in the right place to track the story. I thought there was too much going on and I couldn‘t decide where to focus- who was dead, who was alive, who and if anyone was danger, who was hiding, and just how pivotal where the dolls to the story. Sometimes it just… Read. Okay. Next. But the cover is all sorts of gorgeous!

This book came on my radar when I noticed it received all the stars from Jordys.book.club on my Instagram feed. It‘s a fun girl-power Greek archeological dig story. But honestly, it‘s the writing itself that had me most entertained. The narration is sharp-witted and snarky. Had I owned the print version, I‘d have dog-eared and highlighted piles of pages and lines in hopes to incorporate in my own lexicon at the appropriate times.

I read piles of romance and rate them a A- often enough, but I‘m typically too critical of details to go higher. However, I thought this story was adorable and couldn‘t wait for Sadie to see what the reader knew was right there in front of her.

I wasn‘t as invested in this story as I was when I first met Ray Kearney, but I‘m still glad I read it. When I see this book in months to come it‘s not the details I‘ll remember as much as getting a sense of what it was like to be a black man in 1970s Harlem.

I was particularly interested in how this story played out because I know such a scenario is possible. My daughter‘s sister-in-law was adopted and raised as an only child. Recently and much to her surprise, she was found and fully embraced by her two half siblings (a slightly older bro and slightly younger sister - all three share the same birth father) and their mother. So I was hoping for a satisfying ending to the book, as well.

This was good HF! 1930‘s-40s Brazil to Hollywood with two unlikely bffs. It‘s always interesting to me the success someone, even a kitchen maid, can find when allowed education, even if that education is only to supplement the success of someone born to more privilege. Also, trying to find success with Brazilian music in a Hollywood rampant with racism was an interesting read.

#14books14weeks2023 Book 13!
@TheHeartlandBookFairy

Haha, this grid is represents what might be a top 5 read, as well as what is likely on of my bottom 5 reads, Tagged my grid favorite.

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

Misty, thank you! Not only was I the recipient of your end-of-summer book give away (a book which happened to already be on my virtual TBR) but a baggie full of bookish fun, as well! I can‘t wait to wear the earrings to next month‘s IRL bookclub. I‘m planning the next 2 months to be filled with thrills,chills, mystery, and fantasy so this book fits right in with the plan. @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This is a slow pick I may have enjoyed more had I went in without previewing the story. I was expecting more Cold War intrigue, but the vast majority of this story was in have and have-not intertwining lives of 2 island families at at a beach estate. In that way it was consistent with BW books, but it teased intrigue that is not played out in the pages and only explained in the last chapter. Odd storytelling.

This book came to my attention in posts guessing the clues for Aug BOTM picks. Shark Heart was the selection, but I remained intrigued by this one, too. In one story a 35 yo man turns into a shark, in the other a 17 yo boy is sucked into a sperm whale. I loved both! This one does a fantastic job of seamlessly weaving whale facts into a beautiful story of a boy coming to terms with who he was to his father. It‘s claustrophobic in the best way!

When your husband is diagnosed with carchardon carcharis mutation, what do you do? Well Wren has the life experience to sympathize and know to love him, simply love him. …All the positive reaction this book is getting is so well-deserved.

This was a smart, twisty thriller that kept me invested in the whodunnit through the end. I mean a mathematical equation that can map out the time and place of murders - that premise fascinates my geeky numbers mind!

#14books14weeks2023 Book 12
@TheHeartlandBookFairy

It took a few years to read down my thrifted EH books while keeping up with her new releases. NowI‘m working down my Libby TBR of her earlier works… There was a phase in my life were it seemed everyone I knew was involved in affairs. Of course I had opinions. So it‘s good to read of fictional affairs where I don‘t react based on my own self-centered desire for what that relationship meant to my life.

Aug #BookSpin Cat: Author‘s Canon

There‘s a pile of details in this book and I often thought some could easily have been left out in building this story. But as I neared the end, I realized, no. Those details and interactions are the complexity of ‘passing‘ in a society made infinitely simpler if your ancestors were all white.

Malcolm Gladwell gets to use his fine analytical skills to interview the genius that is Paul Simon - and do it for many hours over multiple meetings. Count me in! This was great, and for Paul the telling was all about the music. If I knew anything about music beyond tuning a radio (and with Alexa I don‘t even do that!) this would have been all the more fascinating! Five hours - highly recommend! ↓

It‘s 2049. Rose is a Korean American sex worker who is bribed by her powerful icky client (he invented the flick which is oddly only a sidebar to the story) to leave the floating city near Boston where she resides to spy for him at a Canadian camp. I should have been rooting for her but there seemed too many characters unnecessary to Rose‘s story, and too many disjointed details for me to care. Others like it so I‘m in the minority here.

This was a good read for me because I most enjoy historical fiction when characters aren‘t drawn with a naïveté that can sometimes make me avoid the genre for my next 7 or 8 books. The fictional Gloria was interesting but it‘s the IRL Estee Lauder that I found most interesting.

I loved this grid so much I could eat it up! Tagged my overall favorite.

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

Note: To equate quarter ratings to A-F scores, 3.5 and 3.25 both garner a C+, but 3.5 represents my quandary - can‘t decide if it‘s a pick or a so-so!?

I think the magical elements in this book worked well because it allowed me to read the Oxford setting without a need to separate fact from fiction. I feel like I was introduced to a parable I‘d never before heard, and I‘m left with all sorts of feels.

#14books14weeks2023 Book 11
@TheHeartlandBookFairy

Aug #DoubleSpin Category: over 500 pages @TheAromaofBooks

I was expecting this to be a shallow quick read but it had some substance with likable characters who deserved a HEA. As I marked its GR completion I noticed it was third in a series - I didn‘t even realize I might be missing details. Looks like 2 more books just got added to my TBR!

It‘s been four years and hundreds of books since I read the the Unhoneymooners and I still remember this story. When I saw there was a 5 hour audio (narrated by Harry Shum Jr) with updates on Ami & Dane and Olive & Ethan, I had to know what happened over these last 4 years. It did not disappoint! …Also, this was the rom-com that saved me from certain ugly tears on an airplane as I was reading Go As A River (my last post). ↓