I just finished The Likeness by Tana French. I really liked it. It was a very unique story line. I plan to finish her Dublin Murder series, but I need to take a break with some lighter reads. Her books are very intense.
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I recommend the Rip through Time mysteries by Kelley Armstrong. The gist: Canadian detective goes to Scotland where her grandma is in hospital, is attacked in an alley, and wakes up in 1869, servant to a family of eccentrics (the head of the family is what we’d call a forensic pathologist, the “country son” aka illegitimate, half Indian child of a now-passed undertaker, his sister was allowed to study herbs and chemistry as a hobby, they take in “reprobates” as servants). It makes for a very interesting team of “detectives” and setting.
It’s kind of a cozy/historical mystery with a twist. Pleasant, suspenseful, very well done.
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My Caribbean American friends and family say “outside child”.
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Recently read The Hole We’re In by Gabrielle Zevin. It came out in 2010, and while it’s not Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (which deservedly got raves on this thread), her talent for creating characters and her dark humor are fully evident. Amazing book? No. Fun, original, somewhat wacky,fast read? Definitely. It’s not deep, but there’s a bit to think about after you’ve turned the last page.
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Just finished “The Life Impossible” by Matt Haig. Not one of the best books of the last 6 months, but tidbits that made me think.
I also loved “Trust”.
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I am almost done with Trust. I definitely continue to enjoy it.
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I’ve read AJ Fikry and Tomorrow etc, but never checked that she’d read other books. Somehow I thought they were her other two. Thanks for the intel!
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I read both of those based on hearing about them here and was equally surprised to find this one. If you read it, I’d be curious to hear your take. It struck me that for someone a decade out of college, she had some old soul perspective!
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Big Brother. Was this a great book? No. Would I recommend it? No. Yet, it will stay with me possibly forever. Why? Because it was the “right book at the right time”. It’s amazing that a book I picked up from our work book exchange shelf and didn’t read for months happened to be the story of exactly what was happening in my life as I read it. Dealing with a brother who is eating himself to death, the sibling relationship of kids vs. parents, and how a sibling’s addiction affects your relationship with your spouse.
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Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie.
One of the best things I’ve read lately. It’s a Poirot “cold case” : sixteen years after a painter’s poisoning, he reconstructs the crime through five first-person accounts. The structure is brilliant-same events, five angles and it’s classic fair play: every clue is on the page, no gimmicks. What surprised me was how humane it is; beneath the puzzle are memory, jealousy, and regret. If you’ve only read Orient Express or And Then There Were None, this one shows how sharp (and moving) Christie can be without losing the fun of the chase.
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Christie holds up very well even after all these years. If you like Poirot, the David Suchet TV versions are outstanding. They were made by the BBC years ago and aired on PBS. You can find them on the internet to watch in various places.
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If you haven’t listened to David Suchet’s audiobooks of many Poirot stories, you’re in for a treat. He plays every character with an amazing range of ages, accents, and gender–a treat even if you know whodunnit!
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Just finished The Measure and really enjoyed it! Thanks for the rec!
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Speaking of Agatha Christie – I just finished The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict. Usually I love her books; this one I felt so-so about. There was , IMO, a serious error in the book: Mrs. Christie’s sister is named Madge, and Benedict uses the same name for the woman who hosted Christie’s husband for a weekend of dalliance with his mistress. When I realized their names were the same, I assumed for a few minutes the characters were the same person – but no, only sharing the same name. An editor should have caught that.
Regardless – it was, as I said, kind of so-so to me.
I am usually lukewarm on her books. I feel she is too loose with historical facts, portraying women in history as she would have liked them to be, not as they actually were.
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I really enjoyed both Carnegie’s Maid and The Only Woman in the Room.
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