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ClareR (5726 KP) rated Afraid of the Christmas Lights in Books

Dec 1, 2020

I don’t like Christmas books. Usually. I like A Christmas Carol, but I tend not to read many modern Christmas books - unless they’re children’s ones at work, or when I used to read them for my own children when they were little. Which is probably why I liked this so much. Usually in anthologies, there will be a few standout stories that make reading the collection as a whole worthwhile, but I’ve really struggled to single out one or two - I enjoyed them all far too much for that.

Most of the stories are set around Christmas with only a couple of exceptions. That didn’t cause me to like them any less though. The real standouts for me (if I absolutely HAVE to choose!) were: Phoebe Morgan’s Unexpected Present - the gift wrapped so nicely in expensive M&S paper being the main protagonists husband; The Switch by James Delargy had a Stephen King vibe to it (and I should add that it wasn’t because of The Green Mile!); Fresh Meat by Elle Croft gives new meaning to a raw meat diet for your cat; and The Vigilante by Clare Empson was a sad story of a Charles Dickens look-a-like who tries to save victims of crime in the dead of night.

If you need an excuse to buy this, then the proceeds go to ESDAS and Rights of Women, both domestic abuse charities.

Many thanks to The PIgeonhole for serialising this book, and to the authors who joined in. As always, it was a great experience!!

Kudos

Eleanor (1463 KP) rated Murder, etc. in Podcasts

Oct 22, 2019

Murder, etc.

Society & Culture

5.0

(1 Ratings)

Podcast Rating

Epic amount of work has gone into this (0 more)

Very drawn out (1 more)

Hard to understand some interviews

In Depth True Crime for the hardcore

A True-Crime podcast looking back on the murder of a narcotics cop and his father in the 1970s. The whole series is about this one crime looking at the larger picture of what was going on in Greenville SC at the time and if the wrong man; Charles Wakefield; was sent to death row for the crime.

This podcast leaves no stone unturned and the amount of investigation and time put into it is truly inspiring. Unfortunately, I don’t really have the attention span for it, I think I prefer my true crime in much broader brushstrokes this was just too dragged out to hold my interest. Many of the interviews are understandably with very old individuals who I found difficult to understand (accents may be an issue for me as well.) I’m sure for some who really want to be totally in on everything this will appeal. There is a whole community really invested in this investigation.

I’ve listened to 17 episodes but fallen asleep during many of them and i don’t think I’m going to finish it. If they do a summary episode may return for that.