This was one of those mystery/thrillers where you go, hmm I think I can see where the story is going, but there are still plenty of pages left, so hopefully there’s some totally unexpected juicy twist in store… oh wait there isn’t. So then the remainder of the book is just waiting for the main character to connect all the dots and for the story to roll out, which is rather tedious. I don’t usually play Sherlock and try too hard to solve the crime or predict the plot of the books and movies – in most cases I prefer to sit back and go along with the story, and I rather like being surprised. Here though the red flags are so obvious I couldn’t help but guess the culprit long before the heroine does.
Tag: book
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante – Book Review
Surprisingly, I got through the third entry in Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels much quicker than the first two – maybe because of greater familiarity with her style. In this novel, Elena/Lenú and Lila, the two girls we first met as young children in My Brilliant Friend, are now grown women entering their third decade.
The Bat by Jo Nesbo – Book Review
I wanted to take a short break from the Neapolitan Novels and read something less dense, so I read the first entry in the Norwegian crime series about Harry Hole, the hardboiled anti-heroic Oslo detective whose inner demons don’t stop him from having genius insights and solving cases by the end of the book.
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante – Book Review
The second entry in Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels is just as good as the first one, if not better. It continues to chart the stories of Elena and Lila, the two young girls from Naples, as they enter adulthood, and the course of their relationship which is far too complicated to be referred to as friendship.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante – Book Review
This is the first volume in the Italian writer’s Neapolitan Novels series, and if the next three books are as good as this one I should make it to the end of the quadrilogy in no time at all.
Death in Holy Orders by P.D. James – Book Review
I finished this book in a couple of days while recovering from a nasty cold. This was in fact the first P.D. James novel I’ve read in my life – despite their enormous popularity they just never fell in my lap before, even though I quite like the crime genre.
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell – Book Review
Another I-moved-to-another-country book, this one by a London woman who moved to Denmark after her husband got offered a job with Lego – and rather than exchanging one capital city for another, they move to the “real” Denmark, a tiny town of 6,100 in the rural Jutland (the European peninsula part of Denmark). Unlike many other books of the similar sort, which are rather rambling in nature and simply concern themselves with the author’s experiences in a foreign country, this one has an actual focus: uncovering the secrets of Danish happiness.
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley – Book Review
I first read this book when in high school, and had only vague memories of it, so when I spotted it in friend’s book collection while housesitting I was curious to read it again.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell – Book Review
What a book. Its scope and ambition made me feel like I’ve read multiple books and been away on a very very long journey.
Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist – Book Review
I absolutely loved Let the Right One In, Lindqvist’s brilliant, original and macabre first novel, which offered a new take on the well-beaten vampire story, so when I saw this one at my local op shop I grabbed it immediately. While I didn’t think that Harbour was quite as strong, it’s got some of the same haunting power and memorable imagery that made Let the Right One In unforgettable
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