Wendy > Recent Status Updates

One of my friends said this book reads like someone's thesis. She's right. I'm reading this for a book club, so I will try and finish it, but it is slow going, and it skips around in time a lot, and referees to various parts of different Dickens works. Now I have read some of Dicken's novels, but the author seems to think people reading this book are familiar with ALL of Dicken's work, and I'm not.

I liked this one a little less than some of the other entries in the series. Trying to put my finger on why. I think because the one with the dog made me sad, and in another story a woman kept arguing about the rules for the time travel and I just wanted to say - that's how it is! Arguing won't change it. I still love the cafe and the characters who work there.

In the story Exit Before Midnight, a bunch of business associates are trapped in the upper levels of a skyscraper on New Year's Eve, giving me Die Hard vibes (yes that was Christmas Eve) and actually Die Hard was based on an unrelated book called Nothing Lasts Forever, but it's still kind of a "locked-room" setting and people are getting picked off one-by-one...

It's good - but listening to the audio I'm getting a bit bogged down. I lived through the 1980's and I'm not sure I need all the extra context - would like to have focused more on Madonna's life only if that makes sense.

Although I am reading this straight through, it's almost more of a reference book to look up notes on different Christie stories, novels and plays by decade. Spoilers abound. Not really to be read unless you have read all her books and want a peek behind the curtain on how Christie's mind worked putting her works together.

About 60% through.

This book is about her writing process and is full of spoilers for the novels - more for people who have already read all the books.

Couple things are irritating me. One is that I don't like it when books switch narrators from chapter to chapter. Then I have to remember who all the characters are and if there are more than three it's annoying. Also Freya keeps referring to a mysterious betrayal in her past. Just tell us about it all ready! Maybe I am just in a bad mood but that's how I feel today.

A forgotten gem from my childhood.

I made it about halfway through and now I am skimming. There are so many people mentioned I can't keep them straight in my mind. Very good if you want a detailed dive into her career.

I'm about 1/2 way through and the pace is intense. Enjoying the ride.

I thought this book was supposed to be mainly about the backstory of the show Lost that ran on ABC but the discussion of Lost doesn't even begin until the 5th chapter. It has a much broader scope.

I'm working my way through this book, but it is very data heavy and I have to read it slower to absorb what I'm reading.

I had a skip the line loan on Libby and my time ran out so I'm waiting to get it again. I was about halfway through. But having read David Copperfield by Dickens, I can tell you it is amazing how Kingsolver has adapted the story to fit an unwanted boy in Appalachia in modern times. Really well done!

I learned today that spalpeen is an Irish word for rascal from this book!

Why does this book have a naked woman on the cover? The part of the book I've read so far doesn't even contain any female characters.

I can tell by reading the first few paragraphs that I have read this book before, but I don't remember how it works out so I will read it again.

This series is known as the Leaphorn and Chee series, but this is the first of the books where they are both working together.

I am listening to this book on CD and I like the fact that they have both male and female readers so the characters voices sound different from each other. Really well done.

Just started book 2 about halfway through the book itself.

This is one long chase!

The Ethel Lina White story 'White Cap" was first published in the Akron Beacon Journal on 31 January 1942. My local newspaper!

The story Exit before Midnight is really good.

Came across this by accident in my local library's catalog. Many, many mystery and detective stories appeared in serials first and are sometimes difficult to find. This author rounded up a bunch of Hammett stories - from the original publications - and collected them into this book. Can't wait to read them!

Still working on this - I have about 200 pages to go. It's good but lots of information! And I keep stopping to look up authors I'm not familiar with...

I'm trying for the most part to read these in order and I realized that I must've skipped this one as I had missed the death of character referred to in later novels!

My loan is up! Will get this again to finish.

This is clearly more of a reference book to all things William Desmond Taylor. A big first section is press releases from various newspapers and magazines that contain his name. I don't think it's really a read straight through type of book.