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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2340 KP) rated Death by Dumpling in Books

Jul 18, 2018  
Death by Dumpling
Death by Dumpling
Vivien Chien | 2018 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Lana Finds Herself Delivering Death
Lana Lee has landed back at her parents’ Chinese restaurant as a waitress in an effort to get her life back together. She thinks she’s hit rock bottom, but she’s wrong. Not too long after delivering Mr. Feng his usual order of dumplings, the man is found dead. Somehow, he got shellfish dumplings instead of the pork he ordered. With the police looking at everyone at the restaurant, Lana starts poking around to clear herself and the rest of the employees. But is one of them really guilty?

This was a very fun debut. The mystery is good, although the pacing does lag a bit in the middle. It does pick up again in the final third, giving us some great twists and turns before we reach the logical climax. The characters are mostly strong, which some room to grow as the series progresses. I did feel that Lana’s mother was the weakest characters, and I hope she is fleshed out more as the series progresses. I will definitely be back for seconds.
  
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Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated The Noise of Time in Books

Oct 9, 2017 (Updated Oct 9, 2017)  
The Noise of Time
The Noise of Time
Julian Barnes | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
9
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Historical fiction at its very best
There is a huge amount of non-fiction elements of this bleak novel about one of Russia's most noted composers and musicians Dmitri Shostakovich, who fought inner demons for the majority of his life due to the immense pressures and threats posed by the Soviet Union.

From his complex relationships with women, to the government, the artist was forced to live a life of paranoia, after many of his fellow composers and musicologists mysteriously disappeared following talks with the "Power" at the Big House. There were many moments where it resembled Room 101 from George Orwell's 1984, and the oppressive atmosphere that Shostakovich had to live through.

In the end, Julian Barnes explains that agreeing to Stalin's and Khrushchev's demands had been the ultimate downfall to his health. and in many ways it was a fate worse than death. It is grim and tragic to think about such an important composer in history being treated in such way.
  
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saheffernan (157 KP) rated All Your Twisted Secrets in Books

Apr 2, 2020  
All Your Twisted Secrets
All Your Twisted Secrets
Diana Urban | 2020 | Young Adult (YA)
4
5.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
TW: Drug use, suicide, bullying, toxic friends: Overall I enjoyed most of this book. There was a few writing issues that took me out of the story like certain descriptions of sounds characters would make would be used multiple times. In the beginning it was also hard to keep track of which character was which. This story took a turn for the bad towards the end. It reminded me heavily of one of us is lying; someone in the room knew what was happening. In Amber's quest to make Sasha see the error of her ways (after Sasha accuses her of being like her) Amber becomes just as terrible if not more so than the toxic Sasha. In the end Amber ends up messing up 6 people's lives trying to prove a point instead of trying to properly get her friend back and get Sasha some much needed help. I really disliked the ending but the book keep me reading so it gets points there.
  
    My Home Legrand

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    The ufficial app developed by Legrand which allows you to control home automation functions of your...