June & July 2020 Group Read - Beach Reads

[Agnieszka]

Sarah wrote: "Thanks for explaining about the books with Stephanie and Lula and Ranger..I guess I misunderstood you.

I can understand that Ranger needs comic relief..I'm sure he and his crew do very dangerous ..."

No swamp but my most favorite one was when a garbage truck flattened Ranger's brand new Porsche 911 (just fell over it *grins*)

I think I get the issue with the misunderstanding - though it took some time to get what went wrong. Ranger has an actual account in his accounting books called 'comic relief'. First time he told her (because of course Stephanie was wondering as well what all the help and cars will cost her - an yeah her mind was in the gutter too - he explained it that way) she wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry about it, but in the end she accepted it for what it is - a show of his appreciation, however twisted it is. Sorry if I worded it incorrectly.

Most of the single book editions have really interesting covers - unfortunatelly I can't see them, since they are not included in the book set. Still the good thing about GR I can look them all up if I want :-)

A High Wind in Jamaica sounds interesting and I'm glad it worked out that well for you.

[Renata]

Sarah wrote: "Well I finished Shark Life. The large selection of true stories about encounters to sea life was interesting. Most of the stories I found fascinating, but at least one was dull (shark autopsy) and ..."

Thanks for the review. When I read Jaws years ago, I didn't know he wrote from actual experience with sharks. I'm looking forward to reading this book now.

[Renata]

I finished Saeed Jones' "How We Fight For Our Lives" - about life as a gay, black man, raised by a single mother following Buddhism in a Christian family - Facing racism, homophobia, and prejudices for his religious beliefs. A haunting memoir with beautiful prose

[Agnieszka]

Finally I started today two of my library books due soon. When I'm finished with them I can read Renata's book :-)

The Enlightenment of Bees is a book about a young women who loses on the same day her job and long-term boyfriend (whom she expected to propose any day now) and goes instead with her best friend and roomie on an humanitarian around-the-world-trip. I've read 2 of the five parts and still don't really know what to think about it. What I can tell so far:
- the language is very sophisticated: so I learned already plenty of new words but it's goes rather slow since I have to look up more than I'm used to
- the MC character is interesting though naive and immature
- the first part of the humanitarian trip (a week long orientation with introduction of the additional characters - on the private island of the organisation's founder!?!?) was very unrealistic at least from my non-profit-organisations experience

The next part will be set in India and I'm very curious how it will develop from here.

BTW: The title is because she grew up at an eco-lavender-and-honey-farm and dreams very often about bees. It appears like she sees these dreams like some kind of councel if she's in a difficult sitation.

The other book is (lit. transl: Vegan Without Soy)

[Agnieszka]

Renata wrote: "I finished Saeed Jones' "How We Fight For Our Lives" - about life as a gay, black man, raised by a single mother following Buddhism in a Christian family - Facing racism, homophobia, and prejudices..."

Sounds like he had a very difficult life. Are you reading it for PopSugar or just for fun/out of interest?

[Renata]

Agnieszka wrote: "Renata wrote: "I finished Saeed Jones' "How We Fight For Our Lives" - about life as a gay, black man, raised by a single mother following Buddhism in a Christian family - Facing racism, homophobia,..."

It showed up as a recommendation on Goodreads when I had read and rated Anthony Ray Hinton's "The Sun Does Shine". I had added it to my list at the time, and then it showed up again on Goodreads' anti-racist reading list. So decided to read it now.

[Sarah]

I really enjoy looking at the book covers too. Some books just have such wonderful covers! Such pretty artwork. I know they say we shouldn't judge books by the covers but sometimes it's the cover image that attracts us to a book..I know that happened to me today! I started reading another book just because of the pretty cover. And other books have covers that don't really say much at all. The Mercy Thompson books are that way...but the first book was a group read and I read it and it was great! But the covers are so drab!

I do look forward to reading other books about Stephanie Plum..if I can find them. Hopefully someday. I could use a few more laughs. 😅

[Sarah]

I had no idea he grew up swimming in the ocean or had diving experience or even saw a real shark. I had always thought he was just a man sitting at a desk and typing away at a typewriter...and making it up..but he grew up on Nantucket. And his father was an author too.

Did you ever read ?? I really loved that one! It's partly based on a true story. It's about a giant manta ray...and very different than Jaws.

[Sarah]

So I have finished today..it's not your typical pirate story as there's no sword fights or cannon fire. Instead it's about the children living on the pirate ship and how they see things. They see things very differently than adults. One example: if the pirates kidnap someone and tie that person up with ropes, the children think that person is bad and very dangerous because why else are they tied up? They don't realize it's the pirates that are bad. They were actually friends with the pirates. There are some big surprises in the story too...things that even shocked me! The story could be kind of slow at time describing the games the kids were doing on the pirate ship (often very dangerous, one involving a marlin pike) and then something shocks you! Mostly it tells us how kids work ideas out by playing games and the moods they go through and how they develop ideas like having a conscious..nor are they very good at judging the passage of time (months or years). I think it's kind of realistic. I remember as a kid I wasn't too good at the passage of time either!

Then I also read today which was short at 134 pages. I was just attracted to the pretty forest on the cover. This is a collection of 10 short stories from a Jamaican author. Out of the 10 stories, 4 I had really loved. The others weren't bad either - just not favorites. Many of the stories dealt with the generation gap, the difference in ideas between the grandparents and the grandchildren views of things, esp the ones near the front of the book. Many of the tales use island accents & spellings or unique words. For example the word "pickney" is used a lot. Some of my favorite stories in this book include:

Bright Thursdays: a young girl from the country trying to adjust to life in a fancy mansion.

Real Old Time T'ing: a woman who loves antiques fixing up her father's old beat up house and getting a big surprise.

Do Angels Wear Brassieres?: A young child having tea with an important man from the church and asking him big, hard to answer questions.

The Boy Who Loved Ice Cream: a young boy looking forward to tasting his very first ice cream at a yearly festival but his father is worried about something else.

I found the very last story in the book, Ballad, to be too sad and bitter. It's also about a girl being giving conflicting advice from two different groups of people...and about a murder as well. If it weren't for the mothers bitterness I probably would have enjoyed this one too.

"Ascot" was the hardest to read due to the accents..

All in all I say this is a decent book of short stories..it didn't have that element that was in that fairy tail book (praise someone for being crooked)..

[Sarah]

Sometimes it's hard to know what to think about books or what to say about them on reviews..I've had that problem too! Then sometimes I get surprised...I'm sure I have no idea what to write on the review and my mind is like blank but when I actually go to the review page to my surprise lots of stuff actually comes out! That happened to me with Uncle Tom's Cabin.

[Agnieszka]

Sarah wrote: "I do look forward to reading other books about Stephanie Plum..if I can find them. Hopefully someday. I could use a few more laughs. 😅"

Evanovich's books are pretty popular so I'd expect your library (or online library) should have some/most of them. By now I like her Fox and O'Haare series much more and both are very fun. Still as I already mentioned last month the Jana Deleon series are (in my oppinion) much more fun and if I didn't mix it up you like paranormal elements as well so you'd have two series instead of one (I tried the Ghost-in-Law series as well but I just don't like those elements - not even combined with the author witty style and great characters). In case you can't get your hands on anything by Evanovich and are not in the mood for Deleon here some other ideas:

Out of the classics I can recommend The Anne of Green Gables series (the original books written by L.M. Montgomery for sure - I've not read the recently written prequel by a contemporary author) - espcecially the first two or three books in series when she's very young could help you here.

One of the few parnormal series I enjoyed and mostly because it's witty is Rose Gardner Mystery Series and #1 in series is still free on Kindle: Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes https://www.amazon.de/Twenty-Eight-Ha...

One of my favorite romantic suspense series worlds is pretty fun as well. The first thrillogy is more suspensful than the following spin-off series but all are witty: Bluegrass - All Series

If you like the combination of edge of the seat suspense and LOL humor you could see into J.A. Konrath - especially his Jack Daniels series - though I have to warn you he likes graphic violence and writting book 3 in this series realised writting horror is much more fun (in that book the MC a police officer named Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels gets slasher-videos from a serial killer) though even the first two are not for the faint of heart.

Neighbor From Hell (NFH) and the later written companion series Honeymoon From Hell (HFH) are very fun though they are very spicy bordering on erotic romance - since I don't know if it's something you'd read I wasn't sure if I should list it. All the HFH are set between the last chapter and epilogue of the main book but can be read at a later time as well.

If you have a heart for underdogs I can recommend Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist as well. A YA story of one single night (I read it for a challenge - despite the fact I seldom like YA books becuase there are not that many books set withing 24 hours and loved it so much I'm looking for a deal to buy and re-read it).

Here something very different and the fun was unexpected for me Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

And if everything else fails you can always go to Kindle shop, pick humor and sort by price ascending and check out all the freebies and see if there's something looking appealing. That way I found some gems (unfortunatelly among a huge pile of rubbish). I made these selections and that's the link I got: https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n%3A13314...
In case you ever want to try it manually (this way it works on in the desktop version of your brower - not in the Amazon App on a smartphone. I still didn't find out how to find it in the app): when you are on the homepage of Amazon.com change 'All' in the search bar to 'Kindle Store' (not deals - they won't show the 'normal' freebies only a couple or at best a handfull of those reduced to $0,00) and press 'Enter' then klick on the 'Kindle ebooks' link (I know - once again). At the left side about a page from the top you find the genres: go to Humor & Entertainment than on the next page to Humor (again at the left side, though not that far down) and finally you can change the sort by from 'featured' to 'Price: Low to High' - you have always the possibility to narrow it down even more - though from experience I don't do it anymore and just wade through all the pages and check out interesting books and download those sounding still interesting after reading the blurb.

[Agnieszka]

I finished (lit. transl: Vegan Without Soy) and that wasn't it.
The next two novellas from the I read were & - both were ok.
Than late last night I'd gone for one of the short erotica romance freebies I downloaed yesterday - in the hope to distract myself from the wish to read something really fun, instead of those I already started - in case anyone is offended by this genre I hidden the book behind spoiler-formatting (view spoiler)[ Plucking Her Clover (hide spoiler)] For a less than 50 page story it was ok. I hope the full-length book in this series has more plot and character development.

I'm not able to resist a fun read anymore and decided to start now (while soaking in the tub - again :-)) Muffin Top I loved the first in series very much and hope this one will be as fun, entertaining and uplifting as the previous book. I love it so much Avery Flynn decided to go for underdog heroines and hot alpha heroes, plus the covers are so beautiful:

Afterwards I'll go back to

[Sarah]

I will have to do a very long walk today. Late yesterday I found a surprise email from the one library, saying the two books I had borrowed from them are due on the 15 (Monday). They were borrowed through inter-library loan, which means they had been shipped to my local library, which is just a few short blocks from my apartment.. well the suburbs are beginning to reopen here (but the city itself is staying closed) so I guess this far away library has now reopened and they want the two books back. But my local library is not opening until September! Obviously these two things don't agree with each other!

I have heard that our central library is open for curbside pickup (but you have to be in a car and I don't have one) and that their book drop will be open for awhile too..so I'm going to walk to Central to return the books. They will have to ship them back to the far away library..I just hope central allows pedestrians to return books somehow in the bookdrop. I'm not sure where the bookdrop is so I will call them and ask.. this is much farther than the usual walk I do. And then I'll have to carry the books too... I think lots of other people will have problems with this too.

Before I could ride the bus to Central library but now the bus is only for "essential travel" which means people going to jobs, to doctors or to the supermarket. It's not for going to the library.. I'm guessing the whole trip will be close to 14 miles..

I've started reading 2 new books:

which is one of my PIFM books this month. I'm a bit more than halfway done. So far I'm enjoying it. It has two plots running in this FBI story: one about a kidnapped baby right from the hospital and the second about a bank robbery.

The other book I'm reading is from open library: which was published in the 1947. It's set in Haiti. It's for my Around the World challenge and for my classic ABC challenge. I'm on page 72 so far and it has close to 500 pages. It started out a bit slow but then it picked up nice. Now the main character, a lawyer but also a farmer, has arrived in Haiti. He's looking for a girl called Lydia Bailey who is to inherit a lot of money from her dead uncle and another relative who had lived with the uncle had lied, saying Lydia was dead. But someone had told the lawyer that they had just seen her two weeks ago! So they had lied to get the money! The lawyer needed to go to Haiti anyway to deal with Spoliation Claims.

I will reply to your other posts later! Thanks for all of the book recommendations! 😁 But I need to start my long walk. I was so tired yesterday I went to bed early..

[Agnieszka]

Sarah wrote: "I will reply to your other posts later! Thanks for all of the book recommendations! 😁 But I need to start my long walk. I was so tired yesterday I went to bed early.."

No worries. I can undestand it and this should be fun and not a chore. So if you are too tired or just not in the mood it's ok.

14 miles is pretty much and I don't envy you the task. I hope it still worked well enough and you were able to return the books.

I heard so much great stuff about Coulter's FBI series plust it's my favortie genre. Untortunatelly they are very expensive (in English) so I wasn't able to afford them until now. After I checked last time the first six book were translated or republished as ebooks and my online library has them :-) Even if I prefer to read book in original I'll read the translated edition - it's better than nothing. I already downloaded the first in series and as soon as I read the snail book (and another library book I need for a challenge) I'll read this one. I'm so glad you read it now so I checked again if I it's available in my library.

Your other book sounds interesting as well. Still it's historical fiction & classic so even if I ever decide to read it it will take most likely pretty long before I'll actually attempt it. I'm still interested what you think about it.

is as great as I hoped for (at least the first five chapters) and even if I'm not really happy about the change in plan, I stick to it and continue the other one tomorrow. My library licence is valid another two days - so it will be pretty close but still manageable to finish before I lose access to it. BTW I'm so happy our online library started to add some English and Christian fiction books about a year ago. These are often so expensive in Germany and now I can read at least some of them :-)

[Sarah]

Well I called up central Library this morning to find out where their book drop was located as I had no idea and I told the man about the problem created by the subburb library...he did some looking and he found out that the library right near my apartment has the bookdrop open! So I was able to return the books just a few blocks away and I did not have to walk all the way to Central! Which was really good!

I did end up doing a lot of walking anyway though. As I had to walk up and back to two different supermarkets in two different directions..so all together today I did three separate trips up and back. I probably walked 10 miles.. otherwise I would have had to walk all the way to Central and then none of my shopping would have gotten done..

I have finished and this is the first book I've read in this series..while I did greatly enjoy the double plot (one is about a baby getting kidnapped from a hospital and the other is about a bank robbery) I kept getting confused about the various FBI agents. I kept forgetting who is who and which ones were the female agents. Which I think is kind of strange as normally I don't have that problem. I guess I would have preferred for more character development? To get into the characters heads more? And the contents of the box stolen from the bank vault really shocked me! I never saw that coming! So they plot itself is really great but I think the characters need work.

As for so far I'm.on page 159... The pages in here are very dense. There are 45 lines of text per full page and about 12 words per line so that's a lot more words per page than the average book.. so the lawyer, Albion Hamlin, is in Haiti and he has made a good friend. They were looking for Lydia and they had heard the news (via voodoo drums) that a huge fleet of French naval ships have arrived! So it seems France is going to invade Haiti..I'm thinking now the majority of the story might be about this invasion. The story contains lots of details about the people and culture of Haiti as well as the plants and landscape. It's dense but interesting and very readable. But 1 page in this book is like 1.5 or 2 pages in another.

I do feel I'm learning a lot about Haiti and it's history from this book. Also learning some USA history too.. and I do feel it's probably better to actually learn a little bit about the country if you are doing the Around the World challenge instead of just reading some generic book set there and you really don't learn anything about the place or their culture. And that could happen easily in some books I think..some books you read you don't even have any idea where it's set or even the time of year. It's like a generic town.

[Sarah]

I would think it's much easier to read a book translated into your own language. I know I've read translated books before. Like The Box Man was translated into English..and I've read a few Chinese books that were turned into English (it must be a huge task to translate a book).

I'm glad you will hopefully get to finish your library books before they are due! And that's good your library has gotten more ebooks in English and Christian books..

And that's great the first 5 chapters of your new book are good so far. Hopefully it will continue to be good!

My other PIFM book is: and since I'm doing really good this month I might read more books that were on my PIFM list. They are all pretty much the same category of books...thrillers or mystery, which ever word you prefer.

[Agnieszka]

Since Enigma is #21 in series I'd expect most of the character development and introduction happens in the previous books and it's easier to follow if you read book in order (similar like the Romantic Suspense series by Karen Rose) where it's pretty easy to follow if you start at the beginning though if you jump into #1 of a (new) city (Amazon series numbers) you'd get confused rather fast and don't experience enough of the character development in the later books to enjoy it entirely. And after experiencing this phenomen several times in the beginning (when I often wasn't even aware some of the books were part of a series when I started them) I'm pretty OCD about reading series in order now. On the other hand it could be this series gets too much praise that's not warranted. Since I have book 1 from library now I'll read it and decide if it a series I'd like to invest money in.

In terms of language and general understanding it would be much easier for me to read everything in German though even if many translations are solid and manage or at least try to transport the language pariculars of an author, general feeling for the atmosphere of settings, characters or plot it's seldom accurate - very difficult if not impossible in some cases. I started to read in English because a publisher decided not to continue the translation of my favorite series at that time but decided to read as much as possible in original language after an excurse within the In Death series by J.D. Robb. Until a couple of years ago most of the In Death between the numbers novels were not translated into German and for some years not even the main books (after #21 or 23 the gap between publication and translation is more than 10 years). When the German publisher continued the translation process the first few books came pretty fast (which let me think the lady made the work and was able to help us readers that way a little) but now it's back to two books a year which is pretty great pace. The other issue was when the short stories and novellas between the main books were finally translated the publisher used a different translator and that was a disaster in my oppinion. He used very different expressions for most of the futuristic gadgets and the language was very different so in the beginning I hated those. Than thinking there will be no further translation of the series I bought one of the main books and though I stopped to understand English at all. The language of this series is so different from the current American English I was shocked. Luckily shortly afterwards the publisher offered a huge sale of the first three books and I got them started from the beginning and now I love this series even more. Oops that got pretty long so I hope you're still with me :-)

Rick Mofina is another author I heard much great about it though if I got it correctly his speciality are more psychological thrillers (not my favorite stuff) so I'm not entirely convinced I really want/can deal with his work. I hope my situation changes and I start to enjoy this subgenre since it's more and more difficult to get around it.

So far I enjoy my book even if I didn't read much yesterday (got stuck with Farm Heroes - a game that's pretty addictive).

[Sarah]

Lots of the books I read are books from the free Library here, so it's very random what you find in the little wooden boxes on someone's front lawn.. you're never going to find them in order that way. You need a proper library for that. Most if not all of my PIFM books are ones I found at random in a free library. It's something to read and I guess I can find out if I like that author and what they write about.

Maybe some of the earlier books are on open library. I'd have to check.

I've read another 100 pages of Lydia Bailey (in about 3.5 hours) and I'm getting quite hooked on the story. What it's really about is race relations between whites and blacks. The blacks of Haiti used to be slaves but they got rid of the French who were oppressing them and they all became free.. there's also lots of different groups that are part white and part black too. These groups have different names according to how much of each they are. It's been some years since they were free but now the French have come back. So a war has broken out. This is Napoleon's army. The main characters are just trying to survive the mass hysteria (confusion) that's going on. So the whites and the blacks and the other groups are all fighting and killing each other. Lots of violence. Fires. Murders. Albion is trying to find Lydia again and to simply stay alive.

[Sarah]

I love reading JD Robb too! It's amazing at the difference when different people translate the books but I guess it makes sense. I mean different people have different styles. Maybe that's part of it. I know often translations may not be very accurate. I've seen that before on anime that has English subtitles...they don't exactly translate it word per word. I learned that from watching the DVD of the Kuroshitsuji musicals. The English subtitles are very loose and not very accurate. But it's better than nothing! Otherwise one would be very, very lost! And it does give you a loose starting point to start learning the language, with the help of some printed dictionaries.

[Sarah]

Well I'm about 3/5 of the way through Cold Fear. I'm on page 293 of 476 pages.

So far I much prefer this book to Enigma. The characters are way more interesting and written better in my opinion. I'm not getting them mixed up. And the story itself is fascinating too..it has two different plot lines that are coming together to make one big complicated story. The first is about a ten year old girl lost in a national park and she is a city girl so no experience with that type of environment at all.. she has her dog with her but a pet could attract bears.

The second part of the plot is about a man on death row. He is said to have killed a girl.in the park many years ago but he says he's innocent.. I don't know if I should believe him or not?? No idea. I think either could be true. There is no way to know.

I would not exactly call this book psychological ...?? A few characters feel guilty about the lost girl but they feel that way because she's lost. One character is dealing with trauma from the past (a death she witnessed). Of course different things bother different people in books... The trauma in this book is about national parks... accident in the park. And the type of guilt involved is the "if I would have done this and not that"... I think it's called "survivor's guilt". Obviously someone who actually lost a family member in a national park or some other natural type setting would not want to read this at all.

I just find this book to be much smoother flowing and way more interesting than the other triller I finished yesterday.

With any luck I can finish both books tomorrow...or maybe only one of them..I'll see...

[Sarah]

In your opinion what makes a thriller a psychological thriller? I guess I see it as someone playing mind games? Like stalking or maybe making threats or playing tricks?? I'm not really sure??

Oh...the cover images on the "Muffin Top" book series reminds me of the colourful covers that were on the Pretty Little Liars books..they also had a girl on each book cover.. have you ever heard of that series? See the similarities?

[Agnieszka]

I finished yesterday in the evening just couldn't stopp, so got even more behind with my original reading plans. So I continued immediatelly afterwards with and despite the fluffy and somehow disspaointing beginning the book turned out to be really great - with some very deep insides and twists that were both interesting and partially surprising.
After reading originally the plan was for the teams to go to India, Thailand, Mexico and I think another country I was very surprised to see in the table of contents they went after India to Hungary and was very curious how that came. I was positively surprised that the actual main topic of the book was the refuge crisis in Europe a few years back which led for myself to the shocking realisations I almost entirely forgot it - despite the high waves some of the political decisions made and the changes for us in Germany. By now there are only few of the refugees left, it's no more a crisis so it's more or less wanished from the media and daily life awareness.
l liked the development of the main character and most of her relationships very much. There were parts that were not very realistic, other's that were painfully too realistic and it was a book I struggled with. Still it was so good I hope to buy it sometimes and re-read it at a much slower pace.

After the short night I'm too tired today for = and the mistake of reading the preview of I'll start with this fun book I planned to read later this month as soon as I go offline. While reading Muffin Top I realised this author's Harbor City series ( & ) which was written previous to this series describes events mentioned in this series as well - my only consolation is the spoilers were of the minor, very obvious variety but still I wish I'd read these two series in the other order. As I planned to read these book this month anyway it will now only mean a change of my reading order.

[Agnieszka]

We have something similar to the 'free Library' here in Germany and that's something I'm so glad swapped over from the US or UK since I check them all any time I walk by and that way found most of my second hand English books I have - my biggest treasure in terms of content was (and until that point I wasn't aware that great movie was based on a book) - unfortunatelly when I found it it was after a period of severe rain and this books was soaked. I still took it, bought a pack of kitchen rolls and dried it out. It's still in a very poor state but apart from one tear (I was somehow able to fix) the content is not affected :-)

I'm glad you like Lydia Bailey so much. Your notes confirm my impressions from the blurb.


Sarah wrote: "In your opinion what makes a thriller a psychological thriller? I guess I see it as someone playing mind games? Like stalking or maybe making threats or playing tricks?? I'm not really sure??..."
It's part of it but for me it included also books that/were
- center around behavioral analysis/psychological profiling as means to solve a crime (usually used for serial crimes) and where the understanding and 'crawling into the perps mind'
- show the crimes from the perps mind and their way of thinking
- showing how a person's state of mind deteriorates
- the reasons behind a crime/obession are more important than who's done it
- the perp's known and the time proceeding it or the why is more important
- emotional, psychological, social, religious abuse of any kind are vital part of the story (actually almost all kinds of abuse fit here in some variations - especially if it's a negative impact on the life of other people or show the destructive consequenses)
- the perps plays with basis fears or the particular fears of a person (though I think you could call it mind games, even if it's something different to me)
I'd add to stalking any kind of obsession as center of the plot here as well.
I even looked up the GR definition for the genre: Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on the unstable emotional states of characters, in combination with mystery and thriller.

Only if I'm feeling very well I'm able to deal with this kind of books, so I try to go most of the time for the other kind of thrillers: action/adventure, whodunit, crime thriller, espionage, economic, even cyber thrillers. Of course romantic suspense is a hybrid genre where the suspense part can be any of the mystery, thriller, suspense (sub-)genres and therefore one of the most difficult to say upfront. Sometimes it's possible to gauge it from the blurb or the other main page genres on GR but I experienced some very nasty surprises in the past. With the current bout of depression I'm not able to deal with the psychological/emotional aspects of this genre if it's too big a part of the plot.

The Pretty Little Liars covers are kind of similar to the Harigans books (at least most of them). Did you read this series? If you did was there much intrigue and deception in the plot or was it more of a thriller showing what really happened to Alison?

[Sarah]

I managed to finish Lydia Bailey last night but then I was very tired so I went to bed. To my surprise the story took a sudden turn and left Haiti for Tripoli. There the theme of slavery continues from what was going on in Haiti. Albion and King Dick continue to be best friends (one is white, the other black) and trust each other with their lives.. new characters are introduced as well as a whole new environment. We also start having naval battles and even Old Ironsides (the USS Constitution makes an appearance! She is still in our fleet of naval ships by the way) .

Reading this second half I begin to realize that some of the other themes in the story besides slavery and fighting for ones freedom is governments mismanaging funds (big shots will use the money for fancy dinners while the actual people serving don't have enough proper equipment), power struggles of who is in charge, blunders made higher up - like putting someone into office because they are buddies instead of chosing someone for their skills & knowledge, broken promises, and leaders seeking glory but not doing the right thing.. it can be very hard doing the right thing..

The story is quite the adventure story. Lots of plot twists. All together it was 488 very dense pages. Some of it was clearly researched so I think a lot of it is accurate. There was a bit of a bibliography at the back to show where the author got some of the info and some of the characters were real..it did seem real when I was reading it, like I realized that the bit in Haiti was part of Haiti's history even though I knew nothing about Haiti! The writing is very vivid and yet easy to read. You get caught up in the story.

I guess then in part Cold Fear would be a psychological thriller. The mother has a background of trauma (she saw her sister die) and is trying to recover from that. The murderer in jail is a psychopath - he thinks very weird but you don't realize it until later in the book.

Most of the story is the FBI talking to the parents and trying to figure out if one of them have killed their missing daughter Paige - but we already know that they didn't. She got lost with her dog. The aspect of the book is that the mother has "survivor's guilt" and feels she should have done something to save her sister even though there was nothing she could have actually done. The death happened in the national park. There's lots of dangerous landscape in a national park. High places. Swift rivers. Bears. Temperature changes. They were little girls. Things can happen very fast. Kids are careless.

I would guess maybe this book would be ok to read unless one has problems with national parks, height phobia or survivors guilt?? But only you can decide if you would be ok with these subjects. There's no abuse in the book.

Oh the killer was abused as a child and that is mentioned in the book but it's not from his viewpoint. They just state what had happened to him.

But most people carry some kind of emotional baggage...they have some kind of history. Or they should anyway. How many people have perfect childhoods?

Yes I did read Pretty Little Liars some years ago..there's lots of mystery in it. All of the girls have secrets or they are doing things they shouldn't be doing. I remember one started dating her teacher (she's in high school) and another was shop lifting. But the one who had the biggest secrets was Alison. The other girls are trying to figure out what actually happened to Alison and who is sending them notes. It's quite good and there is actually a TV show based off of it! I would say there is intrigue and deception. It's about rich girls. But girls with problems. I know I enjoyed it. I should reread it. It was very popular some years ago.

And I love those little free libraries! I'm glad you have them in your area too..with our main library closed until September they are a real lifesaver for people who love reading..they also get me reading a larger variety of things. I've also found a large selection of old vintage books in them including lots of the classics. I really love looking in them as I don't ever know what I might find. Sometimes I even find a few proofs of books not even released yet! The advanced readers copy. In fact I just found 2 of those the other day. One is a fantasy type story and the other is a graphic novel.

The next book I will read will probably be which is another one of my PIFM books. I think this one got only 1 vote.

[Sarah]

Well it's no surprise but I've read more books!

I wanted something light after reading the fat those of Lydia Bailey so I read these today:



This is a graphic novel about a bunch of kids in a neighborhood who love playing dress up using cardboard, blankets, tape and whatever else they can get their hands on. They create their own characters too. There's a sorceress, the blob, a robot, a mad scientist, a swordman, etc. The stories are simple but entertaining while they teach about stuff like friendship and how to handle problems. The kid dressing up as the sorceress is actually a boy. Different ethnic groups in here too.



This book has 5 short stories in it from different time periods of Puerto Rico. The book was published in 1944 and it has beautiful artwork. I enjoyed the stories, esp the last three. They tell us about the various plants and trees growing there and one story features a hurricane too.

Oh I read it for my Around the World challenge.

Tomorrow I'm going to the ranch again. 🐎

[Agnieszka]

I'm not ignoring you just dealing with another bout of depression and migraine. I hope I'll be back online in a couple of days.

[Sarah]

Take the time you need to feel better, hopefully soon.. I'll carry on the group while you are gone..

Too bad you can't go see a horse as they are great at helping people with issues. That's why I go to the ranch. I spent a lot of time today with Oliver and George. I saw the others too. And the two donkeys were rolling in the dry dirt to help protect themselves from flies.

[Agnieszka]

Sarah wrote: "Take the time you need to feel better, hopefully soon.. I'll carry on the group while you are gone..

Too bad you can't go see a horse as they are great at helping people with issues. That's why I..."

Thanks! Animals are great though after some difficult childhood experiences with horses I'm not a huge fan of them. The mental image of the donkeys made me smile. Thank you.

[Sarah]

I've read the short story which was very powerful and sad..and thought provoking too. It's about a man who is not very smart at all who grows to be a genius after an experimental surgery. But there are unexpected side affects... And Algernon is a white mouse. Very well written! I really enjoyed reading this.

You can download the short story for free. It's 23 pages.

I also finished and I rated it only 3 stars. The cover says the author is the queen of suspense but the story was mostly all chitchat! The actual suspense came way at the very end, so it was not suspenseful at all. It was mostly talking, dinner dates and interviews..no suspense! A real disappointment!!

Oh I'm going to start reading next. It takes place in Michigan so great for my 50 states challenge!

[Sarah]

As a child I never had any contact with actual horses. They were only something you saw on TV.. but I was recently given the opportunity to work with them. And they can help a lot with stress. We don't ride them though...we just brush them or talk to them, etc. But they can be dangerous.. I've learned to keep my eyes on the herd (especially George) when I'm out in the pasture with Oliver. Because sometimes George will move towards Oliver and then Oliver will move suddenly and if you're not careful and watching they can knock one over. Got to be fast! So I do understand what you mean by bad experience with horses. They are big and powerful...

The two donkeys are miniature donkeys. They are very short. But they are also incredibly strong!

[Agnieszka]

Sarah wrote: "I've read the short story which was very powerful and sad..and thought provoking too. It's about a man who is not very smart at all who grows to be a genius a..."

I'm a little confused. I looked into this book a while ago and decided not to go for because I'm not a fan of SF and I'm not willing to buy a 300+ pages novel in a genre I'm not fond of. Are you sure it's the same book and not one of the summary-books and where did you find it for free? I re-checked Amazon and it's ot free and still 300+ pages.

I heard great stuff of Mary Higgins Clark and so when I found in a library a used copy of Moonlight Becomes You (German edition) I got it and had to give it up pretty fast since the book starts with a scene where the MC wakes up burried alive (in a coffin) - that was too much for me.

I'm glad you're enjoying the animals at the ranch and have good time there.


The last few days I finshed (was still fun but somehow sports romances are not really my thing), started the series that precedes this one with (not so hot about this one yet - so I'm glad I read these series out of order - for a change) and read the next of the travel mysteries: which would've been more enjoyable if I read another of the author's cozy mystery series first. I wasn't aware this book is a cross-over between two series and that was dissapointinig for me. I hope I find the bookset on sale or it's still on KU when I re-join it for a month or two later this year and read it then.
I started yesterday = and it's so light to read. I want to read one of the six parts per day so I post more about it sometime next week.

I realised I completely forgot three of the books from my local library and they are due in two weeks. So looks like I have to change my plans again and push the books I own down my list again :-( especially since two of them are rather long (500+ pages). I enjoy David Baldacci but his books are not easy to read - especially in English (one of them), they are well researched and he uses very sophisticated language with many expressions not common in the everyday language but important for the particular topics of the thrillers - so those take time. I love his style and the usually very interesting characters (plus I need the 2nd for a challenge - same series so I can't skip the first one).

[Sarah]

You follow this link to get a download of the original short story, which is 23 pages. The book is based off of the original short story.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The download link is in the very first post of that thread. It's a quick read. 23 pages. Because in the other group we are reading short stories instead of books this month. I found the stoy very interesting. It's about a mentally challenged man who volunteered for an experiment. Sad but powerful.

I just finished reading which I had really enjoyed. I read this for the 50 states challenge. It takes place in Michigan and I hadn't read a Michigan book yet. The story was fun and revolves around a small town where many people are in the magical community of Fortune tellers, mediums, etc. They were holding a zombie run through the woods to raise money for a local pet rescue when someone gets murdered. Of course the main female character starts snooping! The story has lots of action too. Lots of plot twists but it's just simply fun to read. There is also a character that can communicate with animals, which is neat. There is a huge extended family in this book and it takes awhile to remember who is who when you first start it. I have heard some books by this author are free on readanybook website.

I have heard from someone else that the one local library might be opening up next month because that one is located in a subburb. But I'm unsure if that is true or what do they mean by "open"? Because apparently what some places mean by open is you can pick up books via a drive tru. And that is not my idea of open.

I am getting a LOT of books read off of my shelves during this though! And I've been reading more old books too. For my clallenges.

I'm glad you remembered you had those library books! Hopefully you can read them before they are due.. I would think it's very hard to read any book in a different language. I hope you enjoy the books. Hopefully they are all good ones!

I have started reading but a different edition. So far I'm greatly enjoying it. It is a very old story from 1919 that revolves around archeology on a mysterious island in the Pacific and these old ruins. Weird stuff happens at night during a full moon..a stone door opens and a weird thing is seen and it takes people, one at a time... Now a survivor from this told the story to another man and he's going to investigate it! Personally I think he should run the other way! Reading this for my Decades challenge.

[Agnieszka]

Sarah wrote: "You follow this link to get a download of the original short story, which is 23 pages. The book is based off of the original short story..."

Thank you for explaining it to me about the short story and the link. Now that you mentioned it I remembered reading somewhere Fahrenheit 451 was originally published as a short story as well and I think in the blurb of one of my many freebies I've read a note the orginial short story was re-written by the author and is now published as full-length novel - so it looks like it happens more often than I'd imagine it possible.

I'm happy you enjoy your current books and liked the cozy you finished.

I finished today and I'm happy I didn't read this one as the very first book by this author (even if it's the very first in the Harbor City/Waterbury series with three series so far). Despite the fact the chemistry between the MCs war palpable the romance and development of their relatiohsip still don't make sense to me.
I decided not to continue with the books by this author this month. After reading three of her books in such a short frame of time I noticed they are basicaly the same in format: man meets women in a rather outlandish way or set of circumstance, they have instant chemistry but for one reason or another fight it, then give in, plenty of sex, than they realise they're in love with each other but none of them says anthing, than they have a big fight (where both are at fault) and make a big mess of things, so they separate, both are miserable but again don't talk about it, next friends or family make them recognise their error (of course after first being very vehement they were the one wronged) and decide both to make up and live happily ever after. Add to it all women are fascinated by the man's strong, boad shulders (and huge equipment) and the man by the woman's behind and breasts and I'm not a big enough fan of plain romance/romantic comedy to read them in such a short frame of time without getting anoyed.

So I checked my library due dates:
= & = (due within a week without the possibility to extend them - online library)
& (lit. Lord of Small Birds) (due in two weeks - local library) I'll read the paper books when I want spend some time outside since readers are not great for that.
In-between when I'll need something lighter I'll coninue - so it looks like my next days will be busy :-)

[Agnieszka]

I have almost forgotten. One of the books from my watchlist on Amazon listed as recommendation and I thought it could be something you'd enjoy. Usually I'm not fan of paranomal elements but this one looked fun. So I got it and will see if it's something I'd like.
It's free, here's the link in case you want get it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...

[Sarah]

I hope you can read all of those books in a week! And I know sometimes one thinks a particular book should be a quick read but for some reason it's not and one struggles with it. Which can throw the entire reading schedule off. Hopefully all of your books will be quick reads.

I don't think authors want us to notice or see their book formulas..it's their "recipe" to write their books. That's why they all follow the same pattern. And once you notice the pattern you basically already know what's going on later in the book before you even got very far. Which isn't any fun. 😛 I would be bored with a plain romance book too. I really have no interest in that. I don't mind romance in a storyline if there is other stuff going on as well.... suspense, fantasy, sci-fi, creatures, horror, adventure, etc. Sometimes I can easily guess who the killer is in a book because I sort of understand how writers put in red herrings (a character that looks extremely guilty or suspicious) and they want you to think it's that person. Of course that doesn't always work!

I've also started reading and it's a murder story but a rather gruesome one. On page 39 at the moment. So I'm reading one paperback and one online book (Moon Pool is the online book). Bentley Little is a horror author. I've read some of his books before..

The one book I chose for the Pool activity on Old Books New Readers for next month is which also started out as a short story and was turned into a novel. In the activity everyone picks 3 books (books 50 years or older) and then the people who sign up try to read as many of the chosen books as they can or want to..so if 5 people sign up there is a "pool" of 15 books one could read for the activity, the books you chose plus the books the others chose..it's a way to read stuff you wouldn't read on your own I guess or to find new authors. That is of course if one can find the books the others chose. I know lots of older books are online at Open Library.. Soldier Ask Not also won the Hugo Award for the short story it was based on..

[Sarah]

The Forgotten looks like an interesting book. And I think the other one...the memory keepers daughter, must be popular as I've seen that cover a lot..others must be reading it.

[Sarah]

That book you recommended with the kitty on the cover does look great! 😁🐈thanks!

[Sarah]

Well I have finished and it was a real nail biter..intense action right up until the very last few pages! Some plot elements were very shocking too. I would not recommend this to anyone with a weak stomach. It's more horror than a murder mystery. Lots of violence. Lots of deaths.

My first idea of who the killer was ... I was right (but it was hard to believe).. I did enjoy the book..the writing was top notch and a very interesting plot..it kept moving very fast. No dull moments at all..

The story is about a very unique serial killer in Arizona..he or she leaves the bodies in a grotesque manner. The cops are clueless..no clues. No evidence. And the main character is a woman who lives with her angry, abusive father. She's very mousy. Mild and innocent. The murders are going on in her area and coming closer and closer to her house.

So thanks to this book I've now marked off another state on my 50 states challenge.

[Agnieszka]

Which states do you (still) need?

Good to know this is not a book for me. BTW from what and how you've written I'd say the perp is either the MC or her father - though I tend more to her :-)

I'm glad you liked the recommendation and hope it will be as interesting as the blurb indicates.

I read yesterday the first part (of six) in and it's as dramatic and emotionally intense as I expected so I hope to read today another two.

[Sarah]

Well your guess of who the killer was is wrong. The MC ended up dating the cop who was working the case and she almost got murdered two separate times. And her father was murdered..and the neighbor boy (Jimmy) his father and dog was murdered too. The murderer was (view spoiler)[ a young boy who was very mentally disabled - he was a savant and had a unique gift for turning anything into a murder weapon and he was always sneaking out of locked rooms too. He loved crawling around the town at night and peeping in windows. He couldn't even talk. He would say "mamama" and he tried to kill young Jimmy too. Jimmy shot him with the dead cops gun but he only got his hand. Then the MC shoved him out of the hospital window. He lived across the street from the MC. (hide spoiler)]

I have read more of Moon Pool and I'm about halfway through it now. The storyline is really reminding me of a classic Star Trek episode. I see a lot of the same elements: strange ruins, a dangerous creature, a forgotten civilization, strange technology...and lots of danger! Maybe I'll finish it tomorrow.

I also read today which was published in 1914. So this book and Moon Pool only have 5 years difference. This was a collection of a bunch of short stories. I found this very easy to read. I only had to look up one word..the language flows smoothly. The majority of the stories are about things people can still relate to today. It's about the common people living in Dublin Ireland. There's a Christmas story and a Halloween story. There's young love, drunks, music, politics, people doing vary jobs or trying to get out of doing jobs...a very large variety of subjects. I also found it very interesting in how things have changed between then and now. I think it shows up the most in the Halloween story. There's no commercialization of the holiday. No big bags of candy or costumes. Treats were little cakes, nuts in the shells and fruit..

[Sarah]

I states I still need are: Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Rhode Island.

I spent some time today going through some of the books I have in my apartment and I found some that cover 15 other states: Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, nebreska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, west Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming..so I put these books on to a separate pile so I know those are ones I need to read. 😁

I still look in the little free libraries so who knows what I might find in them. I did go for a nice 3 hour walk today and I looked in two different free library that are a great distance apart. In one I found a bunch of sci-fi books and in another I found a few mystery books..

I still have a few other books to look at to see where they take place. Maybe they will be in the missing states. Most books seem to take place in New York or California.

I know that open library let's you search for books by country and state..that's how I've been finding my books for the Around the World challenge. For example you can write "Jamaica fiction" into the search box and it will give you a list of books set in that country..very useful!

I know Michael Chricton wrote a story set in Hawaii. Michael Crichton I'll either read that or just find something on Open Library.

[Sarah]

I'm glad you are enjoying and hopefully it will continue to be good! 😁

[Agnieszka]

You're really good with the 50 states challenge and even knocked down Utah one of the states I usually struggled to find a book for. Delware was another year though I recently discovered a book I read years ago in German and got in English (free) without realising I already read it is set in Delware. Luckily I liked the story (as a bonus it's the author's rare entirely contemporary - she uses mostly dual time and plot lines) so I'm looking forward to re-read it this year. I joined a challenge I where I need to complete tasks in order the states joined the union and Delware was first. One of the task is always to read a book set in that state and with 50 states I'd like to complete at least 10 states per year (I joined quite a while ago and am stuck still in Delware) so I need to get going if I want to finish this challenge this decade or at least as long as I'm alive *grins*

I finished today = but it wasn't what I wished for. I have to admit it was partially fun and all in all very interesting (I learned more about snails than I wanted to know - ever) but somehow I expected more about the author's situation and how she dealt with it. There were a few passages about it but not as much as I thought. I'm glad I read this book but I don't think I'll re-read it - it's just not really my cup of tea.

While the sun was gone I used the time and read the first 4 chapters in (another 92 to go). I'm so glad I have full two weeks before it's due because of the topic: human trafficing, and not the one where poor people decide to do it for the money but where they were kidnapped and forced into it. Since the MC is an criminal investigation division officer I'm curious if there will be any military connection or if it's only linked by the death of his aunt.

While reading I was shocked to learn how children/people with down syndrom where treated only 50 years ago and how much changed for them during that time frame. I'd say all the people (mostly parents) who fought for their rights are heroes - regardless if they received any recognition or not.

Now I'm going to take a bath with the next story.

[Sarah]

Yes I'm having a lot of luck with the 50 states (but odd they forgot Washington DC as lots of books are set there too). I read a book online today for Rhode Island. It is which actually was a very excellent story about lost pirate treasure and two sisters who are looking for it. It's a mystery with lots of danger and some light creepy stuff. You know, mysterious shadows and ghost stories. This book was actually written better than some adult mysteries!

Then I also started reading which is also set in Rhode Island..so far it's different than what I had expected. There are several characters in here and each has a different situation going on..one teen boy has bulemia where he throws up food he eats but he sees the ghost of a boy that had died, another girl suddenly can control animals and a different boy woke up from a coma. Not sure where it's heading yet...

I also read this morning just for fun. It's a zany crazy story. A very fast quick read. There are books in different states in this series and I'll probably read the one for Delaware...

I was looking on Open Library for a Delaware book and have found a slight problem. An unexpected one too. It's giving me books about the Delaware Indian tribe... but then I don't know if those books are set in the state of Delaware! So it's a tricky situation! I'll have to either read that creepy one from the above series or do more looking about.

I also finished The Moon Pool. I was reading it today and I suddenly realized I could use it for the Popsugar challenge! It includes a made up language! I was going to read another book I had set aside for the language but I might as well use this one. 😁

A lot of the story was inspired by Irish myths and also from myths from the Pacific islands.. the creature in here is called the Dweller and also called the Shining One. It's a glowing thing made of sparkling moonlight. Basically it's an old fashioned adventure story of a hidden culture living deep underground and they have the creature. Apparently this is the most popular book the author wrote..

The book was published in 1919. The author also included some cutting edge science of the time. I'm sure back then it was big news!

Sometimes books are very different than what we expect. I find that too. Sometimes it's in a good way and other times we are disappointed by it. Often I'll start a book blind, not really knowing what it's about at all. I had virtually no idea at all what The Moon Pool was about when I started reading it, as the page had no description at all..I only knew the author's name and that his other book (which I have but not have read yet) is a fantasy..

I guess at the moment the book that is surprising me the most is Raven's Point .I was judging it by the cover and I had thought it might be a creepy story but I guess it's a fantasy. And I hadn't expected such serious topics as a boy in a coma or one with an eating disorder...

Many groups were treated horrible years ago.. 🙁

In my book search I've actually been coming across a lot of books set in Utah or at least partly in Utah! And I keep thinking that it's a state I must need but I look at my list and see I've already did that state.

[Agnieszka]

Wow you had a really productive day! Good for you.

Yesterday I read and I have very mixed feelings. The relationship and characters part of the book was at least a 4* for me but the mystery part was so outlandish I just thought 'NO WAY!'. All in all I enjoyed the book more than some of the other stories but don't think I have it in me to give it more than 3 or 3.5 stars. I start to think cozy mystery is the wrong genre for this author. She is really great at characters, their relationships and development but I struggle more and more with the mystery part of the books :-(

I finished today (during my reading time before I get up) my mammoth book and I'm very dissapointed. I admit the book was partially fun and it was interesting but the subtitle was very misleading and so I got something very different from what I expected and was looking for. This book was not really about how hiking helped him to battle depression but how it led him to the edge of sanity and finally to admit he's dealing with depression. I think it's a great book for people to make them aware what depression is (and what it is not) and how you can recognise it but can be very dangerous for those at a low point in their life and looking for solutions since it's taking you into the emotional precipice of the author. In the appendix he lists what's helpful for him but that's as close as it gets to solutions or helpful clues.

I have several out-of-house appointments today so I'll continue mostly with my two paper books.

[Sarah]

I woke up early and I've started reading for one of the 50 states challenge. It's in Minnesota. My paper copy I found is a bit beat up and looks like it had gotten wet in the past. But it's still very readable. Found it in a free library. The author also wrote a book that was turned into a movie: the house with the clock in the walls. I remember seeing movie previews for it and thought it had looked interesting!

Also later I'll probably finish which is an online book..

If I have enough time I'll start on something else...

I would also like to try reading as I think that would make a good beach read. The creepy woman is crawling on to the beach (or rocks anyway) I presume! I think the story is about mermaids...

Sorry that hiking book wasn't helpful...it can just be disappointing when books are not what you think they are going to be!

[Sarah]

Sometimes I have a hard time rating some books. Like the Moon Pool. I had a hard time rating that one..

[Sarah]

Well I have finished those two books...

turned out to be a big disappointment. There were parts of the story I simply could not stand, like a character torturing animals. And everyone was going insane and doing totally crazy (often violent) things for no reason. It just simply didn't make much sense. They tried to add a witch to the story but by then it was so horrible I just didn't care. And I didn't care about the characters at all. I ended up skimming through the last third of the book, just to finish it, but any interest in the plot was gone. A very tiny portion of the story was a diary entry from 1702 and that was well written but the rest was just awful!

I had finished this one first today. The plot was ok.. mystery wise it was interesting but I don't know, something must have been missing. It just didn't grip my attention.

I'm not sure what I will read next...

[Sarah]

Well I have just finished reading and I must say it was an excellent book. It's about a man who has a deep fear of the water (any water deeper than a puddle) who loses his son to drowning in the ocean, as his son loved to surf. The father felt helpless, as he was too scared to help his son. So he felt guilty and ended up seeing a shrink. Then one day he hears a lovely, naked woman singing on the beach by some rocks. Unknown to him she's a deadly siren, a type of mermaid. And so he starts an affair with this mermaid and keeps it a secret from his wife. Their marriage is failing because their son died. But then someone, a friend at work, thinks the lady is a mermaid and tells him...

There's a second story in the book too, about a sea captain who is holding the same mermaid prisoner on his ship back in 1887. Needless to say his crew starts disappearing...

To my surprise I quite enjoyed this book. I read it rather fast as it was interesting. I really didn't know how it might end, as it could have gone either way. The ideas about the mermaid and how she looked was interesting too. Different.

The story is a little bloody but nothing extreme.

I think the theme in here is probably self control or the lack of it. Falling prey to temptations. As the mermaid represents desire and temptations. And once one falls prey to it all sorts of things can happen.

I did like the very end, the epilogue. It should have surprised me but it didn't. I guess I was expecting it.

[Agnieszka]

Your last book wouldn't be one I'd enjoy so I'm happy it's something you loved.

I finished yesterday . It's a thought provoking book, interesting and very well written. It's rubbed me wrong in so many ways I rated it only 3* and would recommend it only to a select group of readers, mostly those interested in the development of rights/condition of disabled people, regarding ethic issues in stories more of an idea or way to explore human behavior and it's consequences and hard-core lovers of literary fiction.

In the last two days I read another 100 pages in and lucky for me so far the focal point is not so much human trafficking but the MC's investigation in his aunt's so called accidental death - which he struggles to buy. There's another minor but vital character a man who escaped the human traffickers though his skill set and way of acting don't compute. I hope he's undercover law enforcement or military of some kind plus I'm very curious how these two characters path will cross and how they will help each other.

Looks like (once again) I wanted to read more books than there's time plus I read more than usually of those 'just for fun' instead of those I originally planned and won't finish all of those I need for monthly challenges or committed to for this month. After listing all of them and looking for reasons why I like to read them or why not so much, I was able to cut it down to two and will decide now between:
The Road to Key West according to blurb an adventurous/humorous sojourn that cavorts its way through the 1970s Caribbean
That Bear Ate My Pants! Tony James Slater went to Ecuador, determined to become a man. It never occurred to him that 'or die trying' might be an option [... a] hilarious tale of one man's quest to better himself set in Ecuador
I hope at least one of them will be a fun, entertaining, light story and a great change/addition to all the other books I read recently or still am reading, where I can just laugh.