Brianna’s Comments (group member since Mar 11, 2015)

Brianna’s comments from the The Genre Explorers group.

Puzzle has been updated.

I should be starting the book today. I've been so sick, so I haven't been getting much reading done cause I've been sleeping. I think I will like this book a lot and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Our First Game!

_ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _: / _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ S _ _ _ _ / _ _/ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _

Category: Dystopia

Letters Guessed: S

Let the Games Begin!!!!

Wheel of Genres will be The Genre Explorers version of Wheel of Fortune. Each puzzle will have a category based on a specific genre that will be chosen randomly. Each puzzle will consist of either a book title, series name, author, or quote that matches the puzzle's category. For example, if the category is historical mystery the puzzle could be MAISIE DOBBS which is the title of historical mystery book.

Rules:

1. You must read a book with a title or author that starts with the letter you want to guess. Excluding A, An and The, so you could not guess T for The Hunger Games, you would have to guess H.

Example: If you want to guess that there's an R in the puzzle, you would have to read a book whose title starts with R (Romeo and Juliet), or an author whose first or last name starts with an R (Rick Riordan or Ayn Rand)

2. Post the book you read, a rating, and the letter you want to guess.

Example: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare - 5 stars - Letter R

3. The book you read must be at least 150 pages and and be any genre

4. You must have at least guessed one letter before you try to guess the answer to the puzzle

This will be an ongoing challenge. Once a puzzle has been finished, a new puzzle will be posted. Each puzzle will always be in the same place so no one has to try to search for the puzzle. Each finished puzzle will be placed under a spoiler titled Previous Puzzle Answers.

Historical mystery not your genre? Here you can post and discuss books you read this month that don't fit our GOTM. Maybe you would still like to read a book with a buddy or buddies. If so, you can stop over at Buddy Reads/ Read-A-Longs Requests and post the book to see if anyone else would be interested in reading the book with you. Happy April reading explorers!

I hope your moving process goes well. Hopefully your new library will have it. If you happen to start late, I'll be more than happy to still discuss it with you.

I absolutely loved The Giver. I read the second book in The Giver Quartet, but I didn't like it as much as the first book. I guess that's because the character from The Giver wasn't in it. So, I'll keep reading to see if the 2 stories happen to come together in the 3rd or 4th book.

1. True Grit by Charles Portis

2. Of Love and Demons by Win Blevins

3. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

4. Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier

5. Stone Song by Win Blevins

Welcome to the group Kristi; we're glad to have you. I don't think I've read a self-help or self-improvement book before, although I do have a few on my TBR shelf.

Our second historical mystery groupread for this month is:

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

Summary Provided by GoodReads:

Maisie Dobbs isn’t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence—and the patronage of her benevolent employers—she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.

Questions:

Has anyone read this book already? If so, do you plan on rereading it?

This is the 1st book in the "Maisie Dobbs" series. Have you read any of the other books in this series? Does this book make you want to read other books in the series?

What thoughts do have about the book? Do you think you'll like it? Or is it something you just can't see yourself reading?

I've heard that it is a more complex read. I'll see how much time I can set aside for it. If not enough, I might end up starting it this month and finishing it next month.

The book does sound pretty interesting and I'm looking forward to reading it. That is pretty terrible that she suddenly died. I guess if I decided to finish reading the series, it would be line those standalones where the author left you hanging on some valuable information. Hopefully her daughter decides to finish it

Our first historical mystery groupread for this month is:

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Summary Provided by GoodReads:

A chilling, mesmerizing novel that combines the best of modern forensic thrillers with the detail and drama of historical fiction. In medieval Cambridge, England, four children have been murdered. The crimes are immediately blamed on the town's Jewish community, taken as evidence that Jews sacrifice Christian children in blasphemous ceremonies. To save them from the rioting mob, the king places the Cambridge Jews under his protection and hides them in a castle fortress. King Henry II is no friend of the Jews-or anyone, really-but he is invested in their fate. Without the taxes received from Jewish merchants, his treasuries would go bankrupt. Hoping scientific investigation will exonerate the Jews, Henry calls on his cousin the King of Sicily-whose subjects include the best medical experts in Europe-and asks for his finest "master of the art of death," an early version of the medical examiner. The Italian doctor chosen for the task is a young prodigy from the University of Salerno. But her name is Adelia-the king has been sent a "mistress" of the art of death. Adelia and her companions-Simon, a Jew, and Mansur, a Moor-travel to England to unravel the mystery of the Cambridge murders, which turn out to be the work of a serial killer, most likely one who has been on Crusade with the king. In a backward and superstitious country like England, Adelia must conceal her true identity as a doctor in order to avoid accusations of witchcraft. Along the way, she is assisted by Sir Rowley Picot, one of the king's tax collectors, a man with a personal stake in the investigation. Rowley may be a needed friend, or the fiend for whom they are searching. As Adelia's investigation takes her into Cambridge's shadowy river paths and behind the closed doors of its churches and nunneries, the hunt intensifies and the killer prepares to strike again.

Questions:

Has anyone read this book already? If so, do you plan on rereading it?

This is the 1st book in the "Mistress of the Art of Death" series. Have you read any of the other books in this series? Does this book make you want to read other books in the series?

What thoughts do have about the book? Do you think you'll like it? Or is it something you just can't see yourself reading?

I'm definitely going to read A Morbid Taste for Bones thanks for the recommendation

@Shomeret I also plan on reading A Murder at Rosamund's Gate

@Talia I'm glad that the list I posted in the other thread helped. I plan on reading the first book in the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. I've never read the Marcus Falcus books.

This month I plan to read A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley and A Murder at Rosamund's Gate by Susanna Calkins. If time allows, I may read The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

I usually just feel like I missed something important when I read series out of order, but sometimes with mysteries you don't really miss much. It's usually just different cases. I'm glad tomorrow is my trip to the library day. Yay!!! See if I can find these books.

1. A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters

2. Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood

I agree that I would like to learn something new about a historical period. I haven't read any historical mysteries, although I have read some historical fiction books. I'm really looking forward to our BOTM, Mistress of the Art of Death, sounds very interesting and it seems like I may learn a thing or two about that historical period just from reading the book summary. One thing I love about some mysteries is when I also get to participate in trying to figure out who did it. I don't like the mysteries that already tell the reader who did it, unless they way they did it hasn't been mentioned and it's far beyond my imagination of how it could've been done.

I may look into reading the Cadfael series, at least the first book, this month if I can get this stack of library books sitting by my bed down.

Shomeret wrote: "I've finished Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, Brianna. I gave it five stars. My review is at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

I loved your review. I had to mark the book as to-read. Now I must search for it at the library or actually go out and buy it. I usually buy 2 books a month.

I've never read Moonlight Water. The cover of The Masque of a Murderer is very pretty. Sometimes I'm drawn into a book because of its cover.

1. The Just City by Jo Walton

2. American Gods by Neil Gaiman