February, 2023: Reads & Reviews

 

 

Goal: 100 books and 1500 hours
YTD:  30 Books Read, 241 Hours Spent
This Month: 21 Books Read, 147 Hours Spent

February was another crazy month. We spent 5 nights with my folks, working on packing them up for the big move. We got a lot done but by the end of the week, my folks were showing the wear and tear of this 4-month long moving process.  In the meantime, my kids found a house (after 4 years of looking), bought it and moved in -- all in just 6 weeks. They are exhausted but very, very happy.
 
Reading-wise, it was not a bad month. I picked away at various series and authors. Nothing earth-shattering. Nothing really heavy or depressing -- the grey February skies and the cold call for light-hearted reads.

Best of the Month: The Loved One, Trouble Is What I Do
Worst of the Month:  The Fleur de Sel Murders.
Biggest Disappointment: Audible Originals' Playboy Interviews (Podcast)
Biggest Surprise:  Crazy Rich Asians

 

 

•  Evil Under the Sun  --  Agatha Christie   --  NEW10
Another curve-ball but my immediate reaction to the reveal was one of dismay. It was one of those "coming from left field" solutions she is fond of. Otherwise, an interesting twist on a "locked room." Three and a half stars

•  The Dispatcher  --  John Scalzi  --  Re-read
•  Murder by Other Means  --  John Scalzi   --  NEW11
•  Travel by Bullet  --  John Scalzi   --  NEW12
Interesting premise, nicely explored. Four stars.

•  Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses)  --  Terri-Lynne DeFino  --  NEW13
DNF. For all the ballyhoo, I could not get into it.

•  Great Courses: Rise of the Novel  --  Leo Damrosch  --  NEW14
Easier than reading the books themselves. Four stars.

•  A Bad Day for Sunshine  --  Darynda Jones  --  Re-read
•  A Good Day for Chardonnay  --  Darynda Jones  --  NEW15
•  A Hard Day for Hangover  --  Darynda Jones  --  NEW18
A fun series and this is the perfect place to end reading it. Three and half stars.

•  Death in Brittany (#1)  --  Jean-Luc Bannalec  --  NEW16
•  The Fleur de Sel Murders (#3)  --  Jean-Luc Bannalec  --  NEW17
Love the setting. I was so looking forward to reading the whole series but after book 2 (which I had already read), they changed the narrator. His reading is so bad that I will not be finishing the series.; he sucks the joy out of it completely.  As for the books, why do so many good investigators get stuck with schmuck-y bosses? For the first two books, or if you are eyeballing the series, 3 and half stars.

•  "Sister Bessie" or "Your Old Leech"  --  Cyril Hare  --  NEW19
Short story. Twisted. Mark it down for "Deal Me In 2024"

• Grey Mask (Miss Silver #1)  --  Patricia Wentworth  --  NEW20
Clack. Clack. Clack. What an interest character is our Miss Silver, especially here in her first outing.  PW hasn't quite yet figured out how to move her more center-stage in the story. Here, she is more like some omniscient 'deus ex machina.'  Solidly three and a half stars.

•  The Loved One   --  Evelyn Waugh  --  NEW21
So, did you see the movie Bernie (starring Shirely MacLaine and Jack Black)? It is all I could think of as I read this. Macabre. Might work for a "cozy" Halloween Bingo read. No one escapes the razor sharp pen of EW. Four stars.

•  The Franchise Affair  --  Josephine Tey  --  NEW22
Loved it! Rings all the bells. Happy to be getting  my hands on more JT. All most 4 stars.

•  Playboy Interviews  --  Audible Original Production  --  NEW23
Life's too short: Great premise ever so poorly executed -- even for the Sesame Street generation readers. When the description said like Frost/Nixon, I imagined that they would be re-creating the interviews with actors and just letting us listen to the content of the interviews. But, that is not what it was. It was a noisy, distracting pastiche of sound bites interwoven into the re-created interview. I couldn't even finish listening to it. The only two good things to be said for it was that it was short and it was free.

•  Death at the Opera  --  Gladys Mitchell  -- reread
Meh! Sadly, it is the only one I can get my hands on (and only because it is on my Audible bookshelf). Three stars.

•  Maximum Security  --  Rose Connors  --  NEW24
Local author, local setting. So it really bugs me when officers of the court  engage in  breaking and entering, even if it is to get their clients acquitted. This is the third book in the series and the last I can get my hands on.  Three stars.

•  Unseen Academicals  --  Terry Pratchett  --  NEW25
I have yet to meet a Terry Pratchett that I have not enjoyed. It is enough to be able to escape into his zany world and leave my cares behind. Not quite 4 stars.

•  Crazy Rich Asians -- Kevin Kwan --  NEW26
I wasn't sure how I was going to react to this one. It could have gone either way and in the end, I have to say that I enjoyed it -- but I don't want to see the movie and I'm not sure I want to read other Kwan titles. This was probably the biggest surprise of the month.

•  Trouble Is What I Do -- Walter Moseley -- NEW27 

Mosely is always a winner. Four stars.