Shireen > Recent Status Updates

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.

A fun read. Mrs Pollifax a tactician as ever. Reading stories set in the last century is a nice escape from today’s reality.

I enjoyed this book as much as the first one until the last few chapters. And then I found myself wanting to race through it and finish it. I guess I wanted more of her scholarly adventure and less of plunging into full on romance where she ties up her purpose with his quest. I liked her independence and am a little disappointed at plunging into woman tied to man mode even if is the rescuer.

This was fun. It looks like she wasn’t able to turn it into a series but as a standalone was nice escapism.

This was a delight. Taken back into a different era, one I’d forgotten about and Mrs Pollifax remains popular for a reason. Can’t wait to start reading book 2. I don’t know if I’ll remember it…I think I read all her books the library stocked except this one.

The percentage is deceptive. Just over half is text, the rest is acknowledgements and notes and stuff. It’s easy to read and follow. I borrowed the ebook twice from the library because I was posting on it on Bluesky, which slowed me down, and I was focusing on other climate books more. It’s practical and informative. And I loved the stories. They’re what makes nonfiction come to life.

With the reference to the war (WWII of course), I decided I must have the wrong publication date in my head. It was first published in 1966! Long before I read her books for the first time! I have to readjust my mental imagery as I visualize and verbalize this novel.

I read all the Mrs Pollifax books back in the 80s/90s when the library stocked them in mass paperbacks (those used to be my favourite size). But I don’t remember ever reading the first one. The ebook was on hold for months at the Toronto Library. Neat that this series is as popular as ever and to read her at an age close to hers in contrast to when I was young.

I’ve read this in spurts. I liked the characters, though Cordelia’s dialogue seemed to become generic near the end. I mean, generic in style, so it didn’t seem like her. It was an enjoyable and absorbing enough read to let me escape this horror of a world and personal-life upheavals. Really, I can sympathize with Hester! Except my life ain’t returning to normal. [insert scream]

Well. I was wrong yet I guessed right. Twist on twist. Very satisfying! And the final revelation, I think every reader had figured out. But did Juan Manuel know? I guess we’ll find out in the next book?

This book is a different structure than the first one and uses it to fill in a lot of her backstory. It’s interesting how the Before chapters tie in to the current events ones. I don’t think they contradict the backstory given in the first book except for Mr Preston and her Gran’s relationship…maybe. Not enough to bother me, anyway. I think I know whodunnit and why. Neat!

I can’t get into this book. The characters aren’t grabbing me. I think I’m done with tropes, and maybe this is why readers find my novels surprising…because they don’t use tropes. Or at least I hope they don’t! Anyway, I’m setting this one aside for now. I’m getting used to being OK with not finishing a book.

Reading the ePub edition from Toronto Public Library. It takes place 4 years after the first book. Her voice is more mature, less didactic…her thinking/narration is less literal, more mainstream. But the writing is as good as ever.