SheriC > Recent Status Updates

I've been reading Lost Girls at the beach instead of this one, but I had fun describing it to my sisters this weekend.

Finished over vacation at the beach. Loved it, but need to gather my thoughts before I review

Have I said before how much I adore the life that Flo Gibson brings to reading Jane Austen's work?

Struggling with this one. Recommended by a friend as a good myst/thrill but it's very YA heavy in tone and subject matter and the use of dramatic irony is more annoying than intriguing. Just tell us what happened, already, and stop with the teenaged angst over mean girls and love triangles.

The action is pretty gruesome. I wonder if he's ever going to reveal how the U boat crew became flesh eating zombies. Last we saw they were under attack by US ships. Surely just getting sunk in war doesn't create the undead.

I really want to see how this story plays out with the dragon/curse/thingy, but I have to say that Arthur is a pretty annoying protagonist. He's so wishy washy.

The action is interesting, although the characters are not very memorable. I had to do a little internet searching on German u-boats so I could better understand what was happening.

An odd book so far. The first chapter had my full attention, then I struggled through the next 8, finding the whole friend group boring af. Then somehow, they got interesting. Weird.

Oooo eee that’s how to start off a story!

This has got to be an improvement over the last one. Much more fun, anyway!

Authors claim that when you are put on the spot you can suppress your fight or flight response by thinking really hard about something complex. I don’t think physiology works that way.

This book was all the rage at my workplace several years ago, so typical me, I picked it up and left it gathering dust on my bookshelf.

Read the opening chapter aloud to my dog using my best Dramatic Voice, and honestly I think that might be the best approach given the quality of that opening chapter.

So far this isn't matching up with the synopsis - it seems the main events it describes may actually be the climax of the story. But holy shit! what a ride it's been so far. It's been pretty much all character development. We are just starting to really delve into who Lauren really is and what drives her. I can't wait to do the same with Cal. We haven't even met Joszef yet.

Great fake out!

Joe Hill's endings are usually pretty good, but not today

Now we are finally getting going. I was ready to give up on this one, but Thom is settled into Little Bracken and strange things are happening.

I love the setting, an old stone "folly" with it's own mini tower, out in the woods.

I want to like this book but it's just not catching my interest.

Helen is incredibly irritating. She wants to move to the country then is continually freaked out by the sounds of normal wildlife. If she is in hysterics over porcupines and birds going about their normal business, how am I supposed to take her seriously when she starts seeing ghosts?

"The Plymouth Express" 4 stars. Still no magnificent moustaches or egg-shaped head, but this is the first Poirot where I guessed the whodunnit before the reveal. Also, lots of almighty little gray cells!

"The Clergyman's Daughter" 3 stars. Only the 2nd Tommy & Tuppence I've read, and this one was much more interesting. The mystery and solution wasn't all that much, but T&T characters were charming.

"The Coming of Mr. Quin" 4 stars. Again, using a version of the parlor storytelling device, but in this case instead of just telling the story, it is a group of people actually involved in the mystery, figuring it out as they re-tell it to themselves.

"A Christmas Tragedy" 3 Stars. The mystery was interesting, but I dislike the story framing of a group of people sitting around and telling a spooky (mystery in this case) story to each other. I thought that device went out of fashion after the Victorian period.

"The Chocolate Box" 3 Stars. Seems a little hastily put together. Perhaps too short to really develop the story or characters. Poirot gets his little moment of unconscious arrogance, but I missed his extravagant moustaches and egg shaped head.

"Three Blind Mice" 4 Stars. You can tell this was originally a radio drama from the structure and the characters. This may be the first AC I've read that doesn't have a recurring detective. She's packed it with misdirects and red herrings, but whodunnit is not hard to guess.

Good Lord, that foreword! Agatha Christie reminiscing on the gluttony of the good old days. The thought of drinking straight cream, and worse, raw cream makes me shudder.

Re-shelving. I never got to even open this one before the start of the festive challenge

Another one I need to review

Finished this one, oh boy I'm so behind on my reviews!