"Why even be a fake alcoholic if I couldn't speak my slightly altered truth and be embraced as a survivor?" --rich, privileged serial killer trying to overcome his addiction to killing by attending AA meetings, not understanding why no one feels sorry for his stress endured when trying to get into an Ivy League school and being forced to learn ballroom dancing. ?

Watching the 1983 BBC version of Mansfield Park, which is on Prime currently, and I recommend it for three reasons:
1. Angela Pleasence as Lady Bertram does the best portrayal of a vapid, drug addict idle housewife I have ever seen.
2. Fanny, played by Sylvestra Le Touzel, occasionally gets this look on her face that clearly says "Go ahead, keep it up, I am plotting to murder you all with an ax."
3. It follows the book very closely.

I used to be active on this site but quit when it wasn't available on Android anymore. Due to changes in my hybrid in-office/WFH schedule, am on my personal laptop and tablet more often so will try to get active on here once again. Reading the tagged book, which is weird but intriguing.

3 stars. Mystery set in the Swiss Alps in a tuberculosis residence turned trendy hotel. I think Pearse tries to create a sense of spookiness and claustrophobia when a storm blocks everyone in with a killer, but I didn't find it suspenseful, maybe because I didn't connect with any characters so wasn't invested. I did love the setting as it reminded me of an 1800s hotel I stayed at above the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

I know this is supposed to be a scary scene, like OMG the stalker is impersonating people to get close to Brooke (she had a fling with him but broke it off when her husband moved back in), but all I can think is, "What, you thought a guy living in a sailboat was rich? Maybe he isn't a stalker, maybe he's just broke!" ?

I highly recommend this for anyone interested in British medieval history. Edward I did terrible things: expelled all Jews from England, used trickery and atrocities to conquer Scotland, and subjugated the Welsh and forced them to fight in his wars, to name a few. But there is no question he was an exceptionally strong, effective king and a brilliant strategist. Morris lays out a very good case that his reign forged Britain as we know it. 👇

Myron, a "sports agent" who never seems to actually work, investigates a double murder when one of his clients, who was believed to be dead himself, is accused. I hated the audio reading (especially wanted to tear out my earbuds whenever Myron's parents are speaking), and the whiny drama caused by Myron's ex and their lovechild is pretty annoying. But the possible serial killer mystery was good enough to get me through.

This looked fun, about a sick young woman offered a chance to save herself by becoming a villainous character in her favorite fantasy series, but the writing is so juvenile and simplistic that it just didn't work for me. I only made it 50 pages. Maybe it gets better.

This is a brilliant, Pulitzer prize winning novel about North Korea based on Johnson's research of defectors' accounts and his own visit to the country. It's difficult to read, but well worth it to have a better understanding of how people survive under a ruthless, totalitarian, evil regime that echoes Orwell's 1984. It explores the psychology of a man who does every awful deed he is told to but somehow clings to his humanity.

This definition of the blues is not entirely wrong. 🤣

I loved this as much as the first in the series. The audio reader is outstanding and comes up with a perfect, unique style for each character. Themes include the consequences of self-serving or incompetant commanders calling the shots during war and what it means to be a "good person." Our main characters are scattered, all in some way dealing with various fronts of the raging war. Brutal, bloody, and sprinklered with wonderfully dark humor.

Funny, witty love story about an arranged marriage between a werewolf and a vampire. Excerpt is from the vampire bride's perspective at the wedding.

Excellent fantasy set in a highly militarized country with a tight grip on information revealed to the public. The fantasy part: dragons, gryphons, and some sort of evil wizards.

I put off starting this book because I knew that a Pulitzer prize winning book about North Korea would be awful. And it is deeply disturbing, but the psychology of how people survive in that nightmare society is fascinating. So well written. Here is one of my favorite passages so far--an American is asking a North Korean if he feels free. The Americans have been asking questions that illustrate their utter lack of understanding, like👇

This is a gem. Listen to the audiobook if you possibly can as it is excellent. Fantasy genre, but not over the top with the supernatural elements. Rather, this is a darkly humorous political and war adventure. There is a lot of violence and some torture, but it doesn't have the gratuitous torture porn feel of George R R Roberts Game of Thrones series. I really enjoyed how Abercrombie pokes fun of bureaucracy.

Mediocre, predictable detective novel about three PIs with unexplained vast wealth. One is a heroin addict who largely escapes the typical consequences of that problem because he is extremely rich. I did like how, unlike most detective novels, this story has the PIs working several cases at once, but that is about all I liked.

A fictional account of what might have happened to a NY Supreme Court Justice in 1930. It was a real life case that was never solved. Interesting portrayal of life during that time, where if you weren't willing to use crooked means to get ahead, you would never get anywhere.

Not very scary and gets bogged down in incredibly detailed description. The imagery is lush, but we don't need lush, wordy descriptions of every single moment. Would be better if 50% shorter. Opal is emotionally stunted and can't live much after the trauma of her mom's death, just takes care of her brother. But sometimes her childish reactions and decisions (she is 26) feel unrealistic, and she treats her mature 16 YO brother like he is 10.

Got up early for a hike and was waiting for my friend to pick me up, then realized that is tomorrow. Oops! So had unexpected time to catch up on Litsy. Going to finish the tagged audiobook, make lemon lavender cookies and baked beans for a BBQ, and walk in the clear sunshine.
Recommend the new Quiet Place movie, but bring earplugs because they jack the volume up to create a contrast between noisy city and terrified silence. #saturdaychatterday

Elizabeth, suburban real estate agent, suspects she is causing people's deaths by wishing them dead. It's an OK story, but psychic visions are involved, and that always gets a bit silly, whatwith shifting parameters that make zero sense other than to create drama. There is also a stalker who is embarassingly outrageous and clicheic. But PI Rex, quirky Ravinia (E's long lost cousin), and E's bratty daughter, Chloe, are fun.

I have seen this wonderful movie version more times than I have read the book. I wish I could pay a historian specializing in Regency England to watch it with me and answer all my questions. For example, what is that long brush on Jane's vanity? She is brushing her hair with a normal brush, so what is that?

I don't watch or listen to dramatized real crime shows. This book is about a real crime show, with entire chapters describing the setup and film directions of the show. I find it boring. Just not my thing.

Over half of this book is quite good, about a man who has some sort of possibly supernatural mutation or deformity that drives people to want to murder him on sight, so he lives in isolation below the city. Scary and interesting adventures ensue, and then Koontz takes a hard turn into religion. Just a ridiculous Catholic apologist story. Felt like bait and switch, but I finished it. Seriously corny, absurd ending.

I just don't find this mystery, about the disappearance of a teenager 30 years prior, interesting enough to finish.
#foodandlit @Texreader @Catsandbooks

Good murder mystery about a retired cop trying to solve a case he never cracked. I know Iceland was last month but just now getting around to posting. #foodandlit @Texreader @Catsandbooks

Beautifully written story set in an Irish farming town. The reader is outstanding. Highly recommend. Don't be intimidated by the 15 hour run time. It doesn't feel long.

The real tragedy of global warming: you can't just drop a body into a glacier crevasse and assume it will stay hidden anymore. What is this world coming to when a hard working murderer in Iceland can't count on ice to hide a victim? #foodandlit @Texreader @Catsandbooks

Solid mystery thriller about Noah, whose police chief mom just made a drunken confession before shooting herself in the head, and Grace, who is determined to clear her murdered dad's name. As they and the FBI investigate, they uncover some nasty corruption in the Austin PD, and romance brews between Noah and Grace. This opening dedication is a lovely bit of foreshadowing.

Atmospheric thriller set in a remote village of 10 in Iceland. Una moves there to teach the town's two children. It's a ghost story--or is it? Una has some mental health issues, which are worsened by the darkness and isolation. Is her host's house haunted? Are the villagers hiding some secret that involves two mysterious children's deaths decades apart? Or are the villagers just average unwelcoming hermits, and Una is unravelling? #foodandlit

Such a sense of isolation and depression overcoming the main character. I find this interesting for #foodandlit because it evokes what is probably a uniquely Icelandic mileau--tiny, dying fishing village where the lack of sunshine throws many into mental crisis, few people interested in befriending a newcomer, within an island nation with few outsiders. Una seems more unstable all the time. Photo is the actual village.

@TexReader @Catsandbooks
Just checked out a few Icelandic thrillers for this month's #foodandlit. Starting with this one, which begins with a substitute teacher barely making ends meet in the city intrigued by a want ad: "Teacher wanted at the edge of the world."

Great thriller. Emma returns to her family's house years after she and her two sisters found their parents murdered there. The murder was never solved, and Emma's life has been haunted by suspicion from the police and the townspeople. Her sisters, Daphne & JJ, don't like Emma sniffing around and trying to solve the old mystery. I really liked the theme of estranged sisters still having a strong camaraderie when they meet after years of no contact.

I so miss Litsy! I got a new phone, and Litsy doesn't meet the latest requirements to be on the Android play store. Just got on here via the web version, but this was always a phone activity for me. Sorry to everyone who has tagged me in the past couple of months. Thanks to everyone who has hosted fun readalongs, viewing parties, and holiday activities. I hope Litsy is available on Android in the future. Tagged my current NF read.

Early on, I was about to throw this book if one more recent professional acquaintance or obnoxious relative touched this woman in an unwelcome intimate matter and her response was anything other than throat punch, taser, or pepper spray. It feels gross. Because the psychological thriller premise was intriguing, I tried to skip around to at least see whodunit, but the writing is so bad, I quit.

This installment in the Jack Reacher series goes back to 1990 to tell a story of one of his Army MP cases, a murder he is ordered to cover up. At the same time, his mother is dying, and he and his brother are finding their own ways of coping. Well written and poignant, it provides a lot of background and insight into Reacher's early life. Helps the reader understand why he is in some ways extremely capable and in others quite helpless.

"A person lives 60 years, does all kinds of things, knows all kinds of things, feels all kinds of things, and then it's over, like it never happened at all."
"We'll always remember her."
"No. We'll remember parts of her, the parts she chose to share, the tip of the iceberg. The rest, only she knew about. Therefore the rest already doesn't exist as of now." Dialogue between 2 brothers upon their mother's death.

#rereadtheclassics #whartonbuddyread
Found just what I needed at our local bookstore for September's Wharton read and October's classics read. Plus picked up Ethan Frome for my mother-in-law, who was just evacuated due to a wildfire near her home. 😟🔥

If you like the TV show Shadow and Bone but frankly could do without the Sun Summoner stuff and the Alina-Mal-Darkling angsty love triangle, you will love this book. All the cool characters from Kaz's gang are here, and they are attempting a heist to make them rich. Great character development and lots of tense action.

Despite the grumpy, rude, bitter protagonist, this is a suspenseful and interesting crime thriller. I plan to read more of this series.

It took me awhile to get into this, mostly because I did not like the tactic of starting it post-disaster and then going back in time to explain everything. But I kept reading, and the writing was much better about 1/5 in. It's a reimagined modern day Yale where magic and ghosts exist, and magic societies of rich, often ruthless, students and alumni hold enormous power. The Ninth House tries to keep them from abusing it. Dark, gory, scary fantasy.

Not in Litsy yet. I liked another thriller from Christine Feehan. This didn't thrill me. A nurse is playing at a high stakes televised poker match while trying to decide if she should jump into a relationship with a guy she really likes but who has a dangerous job with lots of travel. I. Don't. Care. The scenes of poker games, with details of the hands, are interminable. If you really like analyzing poker, you might like it.

Usually I can make it to the end of a mediocre crime thriller with judicious skimming, but I just couldn't with this sophomoric murder mystery. Between cheesy, clicheic lines, poor editing of the ebook so you can't tell when a new speaker has started, and a main character who is annoyingly gullible, careless with her safety, and a bad judge of character despite being described as a very intelligent psychologist, I gave up.

Like a silly, funny version of the 80s TV show Friday the 13th, with a guileless pastry chef who can sense magic objects helping a handsome magic detective guy, Diesel, find charms that curse people with various types of gluttony. They face off against Diesel's rogue cousin and his delusional Ren Faire sidekick, Sir Hatchelot. 😆 I highly recommend the audio version because the reader is spot on and hilarious with the voices and accents.

I listened to half of this silly, funny fantasy book while doing housework yesterday, and I am here to warn you that it will make you want baked goods. 😆 The main character is a pastry chef, and she is helping track down some cursed objects that cause gluttony. Low fat vegan microwave mug cake to the rescue!

Soft pick. A parish priest is murdered in 1957 Ireland and the Catholic church naturally wants to cover it up. I don't think it's a spoiler alert to say he was a child rapist because it is pretty obvious early on, plus, well, many of them are. The detective, a bit of an outcast determined to solve the crime, is likeable, and the politics are kind of interesting, but I didn't find the story terribly memorable.

I made it to 25% and there is still no hint of what the mystery is. A mediocre travel journalist with a messy personal life has her apartment robbed while she is in it, which gives her panic attacks. She is then stuck on the first voyage of a fancy cruise ship for work, full of other desperate journalists and rich boring people. The repartee is not witty. Just not enough here to hold my interest.

"They did that sort of manly half hug thing, where you're too metrosexual for a handshake and not hip enough for a fist bump." I am not sure about this book, but I like the author's funny commentary.

Highly romanticized version of ranch life set in CO. Lots of casual sexism--consensual sex initiated by a woman is "taking her virtue," blatant assumption that single working mom=bad mom, and the dangerous idea that men show they are really in love by being jealous and possessive. Martin doesn't say the murder victims deserved to be beaten and strangled to death for being cheating sluts, but clearly implies their choices lead to their murders. ?

I usually despise conartist characters, but Charlie was compelled to become one and then manipulated into also becoming a thief as a child, plus she is a very relatable badass, so she gets a pass. This fantasy envisions an Earth where magic exists and people's shadows can become sentient. Charlie is trying to live the straight life as a bartender, but gets sucked back into her past life when a job to bring home a miscreant to his GF goes bad.

"I discovered that my house actually had its site, in such a withdrawn, but forever new and unprofaned, part of the universe." I visited the tiny cabin and property (more remote than Thoreau's, actually) I once lived in last weekend, and this passage resonated with me. @AllDebooks #naturalitsy #rereadtheclassics