Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

It was a short month for reading. Tax Season started with a bang this year!

1. True Biz by Sara Nović - 5+
Love this author. This gem taught me so much about the world of the hearing impaired. The story encompasses a teacher at a school for the deaf and two teenagers, one whose parents embrace the deafness (they too are deaf), the other whose parents do everything possible to "fix" the flaw in their daughter, even at the expense of her mental health.

2. A Ballad for Georg Henig by Viktor Paskov.
A lovely, heartbreaking story of a young boy and his musician father who "adopt" a destitute old man who was at one time a genius violin maker. Translated from Bulgarian, it is what I consider a "dark" book but well worth the read.

3. The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo -4
Very much liked the premise of the story. A bit more violent than I care to read (my "edge" has been lost with all the British mysteries I read). I took too long to read it and it took me forever to understand the end.

4. The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams,373 -5
Ah, really loved this one. It's about books and a library and how books can change a person's life - how could I not love it! The relationship between the old man and the high school-age library worker was very special. The list is a bit of a mystery for awhile, a rather disparate list of various books that seem to find the right time to aid a reader. A friend thought it was a bit "sappy" but I don't care.

5. Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby -5
I listened to this one because I wanted to experience this one listening to her unique brand of delivery. I have watched snippets of Hannah Gadsby's work as a comic and I think she's brilliant. She's also an Australian, an art history major, late-in-life-diagnosed autistic, and gay. The book is a memoir of her life, culminating in her latest show called "Nanette" which is anything but comedy. It is raw, it is brutal, and it is courageous.

6. The Maid by Nita Prose,304, -4
I struggled with putting a label on this one - finally deciding on "a cozy with an edge". My rating went from a 3 for being a cozy that I liked to a 4, with the extra point for the edge - living in Molly's neurodivergent brain for a period of time. I'll admit, I had one day off this week and read this in that day instead of cleaning!