Shireen > Recent Status Updates

I’m reading these so quickly now (quickly for me post-brain injury — before my injury, I’d read a novel like this in a couple hours on one day), that I’m forgetting to enter them and update them. It’s interesting how the author inserts all sorts of political and geographical info in a totally natural way. Truly progressive politics for the time. But not preachy or judgy. It’s a treat to escape into this.

A great read. Loved going back into an era when these things were real but now I can just enjoy a good story. Reminds me that one day these current horrible times will end.

I’d forgotten how much fun Mrs Pollifax novels are. Light, fun, a different era to take out of this awful time. The books don’t strain the brain, either. So important with the cognitive heavy course I’m doing.

I’ve started an intense course on Zoroastrian customs, oral traditions, and rituals. A very light read is the only viable novel reading. This book is just the ticket. Although I have no recollection of it, I’m pretty sure I read all or most of the Mrs Pollifax books the library stocked before my brain injury. That should make it easier to visualize and verbalize.

Well, my original whodunnit and why was correct, but I thought it was so easy and I cottoned on to it so early, I dismissed it. Ah well. But what kind of doctor sees yellow skin and immediately thinks all in the head and not liver damage? Bad medicine!

I’m pretty sure I know whodunnit and now I think I’ve figured out why. One small mystery also solved, too, as part of the bigger one of whodunnit.

Toronto Library suggested this, and it dovetailed with some aspects of my third novel in The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy which I’m currently revising. I skipped to the pest part. So disappointing with info on how to prevent mouse intrusion. It’s great if you’re a rich Californian, but the rest of us plebes get barely any suggestion. Back to chapter 3.

Decent read. I checked the copyright date to ensure my visuals matched with the era. Hard to believe I lived in that time and how different it is from today.

The author was recommended to me as background reading on constructed emotion. I’m starting with this easier book as I revise my third novel of The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy. So far no surprises. From having brain injury, already knew about deposits and withdrawals of resources. Accessibly written.

There’s light reading and then there’s so light, it feels like nothing is happening. I neither like nor dislike, neither bored nor engage. Being indifferent is probably the worst response to a book. Setting it down for now.

I was a little turned off by the stereotypical tropes that seemed forced on the character. I guess like Ana, I’m looking for novelty not the same old predictable responses. But that went away, and the story was interesting enough. And the character of Kol grew. And decent ending.

A good story. Well defined characters. But how can John Dee and Margaretta not know who the shepherd is by now. Is Dee too consumed by looking at cards to notice reality staring him in the face? And Margaretta too dependent on Dee for understanding to see what she is looking at? It feels rather artificial.

I roller coated between liking this book and getting bored with tropes. But the twist at the end is genius. Made it worth reading.

She’s a murder mystery author and is about to do the dumbest thing that every author and screenwriter knows reveals the culprit. Unrelenting panic mode wears a bit thin after many chapters.

Barely in to this book, and I’m already laughing. The humour isn’t forced nor pratfall slapstick that makes one laugh AT someone. Instead it’s relatable.

Some things are obvious. Tropes and all that. Some mysteries so twisty like dappleglass that one gets lost in the details. I like the narrator. The slowly unfurling skills and growth. Very organic like the whole of this Empire. Took me awhile to get the names in my head and more while to remember them. It’s a nice escape from all the hell being wrought in the world.

More and more I’m pretty sure I know whodunnit. But it’s not so much the mystery as it is the characters and psychology that keeps me reading. The book gets more and more unputtable down the further I get into it.

I love the sudden little twists. They make me laugh out loud. Something I very much need right now with it being sunshiny very cold out and no main heating STILL! I have just figured out the title. Love it! I love a title that makes you think yet represents exactly what the book is about.

A twist! I hadn’t seen it coming yet so obvious. I had guessed right who the mother is. An absorbing tale with the right amount of escapism for my trying days.

I’m really enjoying this series. I especially appreciate that the protagonist isn’t the usual trope of PTSD, you know, drinks hard, ignores loved ones, etc etc. He is more true to what it’s like. I haven’t read Regency romances in decades. A Regency mystery is like visiting long forgotten familiar characters but with a modern sensibility.

I’ve been trying to focus on light reading as both need rest and escape from cold house reality. This filled the ticket. But only today can I actually focus on properly visualizing and verbalizing. Even if I had been paying better attention, I don’t think I’d have caught the twist before reveal. Clever! The gentle tone obscures a lot.

I don’t believe I’ve read this series. I was browsing Toronto Library digital collection for a Christmas themed novel when I came across this one. It’s unusual to have a first-person protagonist with PTSD so well shown that isn’t eyes deep into the usual tropes. I’m visualizing but not verbalizing well. Too much stress at this time of year with added heating problems to focus well. But this is a comfort.

A breezy read. I like how Parker packs a lot of visuals and meaning in very few words. It’s an art! I give it 4 stars because I’m not a fan of the hookup with Jesse. A cross-over is OK, but the relationship, though it didn’t feel forced, was…well, I prefer Richie.

Nice solve. The characters are fun, and the descriptions bring conversations to life.

This is a fun read. A suitably twisty murder mystery but written in a style easy to visualize and verbalize. Not doing a whole lot of the latter as my days are tiring getting a book ready to launch and dealing with repairs.

Decent read. But since I had a few books all of a sudden coming off, hold, I didn’t visualize and verbalize this one very well in my attempt to finish it quickly. I found the formatting of the texts a little confusing – other publishers do a better job setting apart text messages from the story. I sometimes found the stereotyping a little monotonous, but overall a decent mystery within the game.

Since I hate not finishing and had gotten enough into the book to want to see how this ends, I skipped to the last couple of chapters. Decent ending. Way too much telling. Suddenly reading dialogue felt like I’d walked into a wall because this book is mostly descriptive, like a third person explaining a character’s thoughts. Interstitials were good. But I wouldn’t have read this if the blurb had been accurate

Because my holds on the library were forever on hold, I took this out through Libby app new Inspire Me function. It’s billed as a comedy. It ain’t. It’s a picture of a widow refusing to process her grief. Like in any grief story, there are laugh out loud moments. That doesn’t make it a humour book or amusing or a comedy. If you’re mid-grief, this is too raw and too close to home.

Recommended to me but “psychobabble” put me off. This kind of determinedly ignorant, unintelligent, hatred-filled attitude is why society has turned into a fear-filled divided one, convinced a criminal is around every corner and bad guys are wholly and only evil. As if “good guys with guns” aren’t violent. I have to say I’m sick of this USA miasma that’s turned decades of peace into unspoken war.

My God, the protagonist Green is quite the self-justifying, self-centred prick, at work and home. Mostly at home. Fradkin does an amazing job of getting inside the head of an SOB who can’t or doesn’t want to grow up or work differently, who likes to stay within his comfort zone and will self-talk to do so, no matter how out of touch with reality it is. The mystery is decent.