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Frank Lowy: A Second Life
Book
The brand new second volume of the biography of one of Australia's richest, most active and most...
Building Your Ideal Private Practice: A Guide for Therapists and Other Healing Professionals
Book
Building Your Ideal Private Practice, a best-seller in its genre, is now fully revised after its...
Cruising Anglesey and Adjoining Waters: Cruising Anglesey and Adjoining Waters
Book
Ralph Morris's guide to the island of Anglesey and coast from Liverpool to Pwllheli was first...
The Little Wonder: The Remarkable History of Wisden
Book
John Wisden, at his peak known as 'The Little Wonder', was a key member of the England cricket team...
Going in Style (2017)
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Movie Watch
Oscar winners Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), Michael Caine (The Cider House Rules, Hannah and...
How To Achieve A Lifetime Of Sustained Peak Performance
Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller by the 6-time Super Bowl champion The first book by Tampa Bay...
John Company: Second Edition
Tabletop Game
In John Company, players assume the roles of ambitious families attempting to use the British East...
Laura Doe (1350 KP) rated The Man Who Died Twice in Books
Jul 31, 2022
Another fantastic book by Richard Osman, sometimes sequels fall a bit flat and have lost the magic of the first book, but not this one.
We start not long after the last book finished, the following Thursday in fact. Elizabeth has been invited round to a flat in the retirement village, but the letter inviting her has been signed off by a dead man. All becomes clear as soon as Elizabeth goes to meet him, and it her ex-husband, Douglas. He tells her he is in trouble and needs her help. Elizabeth being Elizabeth agrees to help, but only if she can enlist the help of The Thursday Murder Club.
Elsewhere, Ibrahim is happily going about his business when he is violently mugged. This leads to the book touching on agoraphobia and how people deal with things after a violent attack, whilst pretending to everyone around them that they are perfectly fine.
Donna and Chris are back, with Chris dating Donna’s mum and making Donna a little uncomfortable. She also begins to question her own loneliness and it is interesting to watch how she tries to combat it, without succeeding.
As the book goes on, the situations get more and more ridiculous (but this never had me questioning if it could really happen, as I just enjoyed the ride) and once one mystery is solved, two or three more crop up! I definitely didn’t guess the ending, and 70 pages from the end I was sure that I knew how it ended, but I was extremely wrong.
I also didn’t guess where the money would end up either, but I’m extremely pleased with the ending and I feel that it changed the ending from something a little obvious to something no one would guess.
I have been enjoying this series so much, that the next release cannot come soon enough for me! I very rarely understand the hype around books, especially ones written by celebrity authors, but this one has lived up to the hype and more in my eyes.
We start not long after the last book finished, the following Thursday in fact. Elizabeth has been invited round to a flat in the retirement village, but the letter inviting her has been signed off by a dead man. All becomes clear as soon as Elizabeth goes to meet him, and it her ex-husband, Douglas. He tells her he is in trouble and needs her help. Elizabeth being Elizabeth agrees to help, but only if she can enlist the help of The Thursday Murder Club.
Elsewhere, Ibrahim is happily going about his business when he is violently mugged. This leads to the book touching on agoraphobia and how people deal with things after a violent attack, whilst pretending to everyone around them that they are perfectly fine.
Donna and Chris are back, with Chris dating Donna’s mum and making Donna a little uncomfortable. She also begins to question her own loneliness and it is interesting to watch how she tries to combat it, without succeeding.
As the book goes on, the situations get more and more ridiculous (but this never had me questioning if it could really happen, as I just enjoyed the ride) and once one mystery is solved, two or three more crop up! I definitely didn’t guess the ending, and 70 pages from the end I was sure that I knew how it ended, but I was extremely wrong.
I also didn’t guess where the money would end up either, but I’m extremely pleased with the ending and I feel that it changed the ending from something a little obvious to something no one would guess.
I have been enjoying this series so much, that the next release cannot come soon enough for me! I very rarely understand the hype around books, especially ones written by celebrity authors, but this one has lived up to the hype and more in my eyes.
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Good Neighbor in Books
Feb 13, 2018
Recently divorced, Izzy finds herself right back where she started -- literally, she's living in the house she grew up in (her parents have moved on to retirement), struggling to take care of her young son Noah, and dealing with the fact that her ex, Bruce, is dating again. A school counselor by day, Izzy finds solace in blogging about her woes and dating life online at night. But when she starts writing about an imaginary boyfriend, "Mac," to make herself feel better about Bruce's new girlfriend, things go south quickly, especially when Izzy's blog takes off after her friend hires her to write for her up and coming "Philly Over 40" site. The only person Izzy can confide in is her next door neighbor, Mrs. Feldman, but her sweet 80-something neighbor may have a few secrets of her own.
I must confess, I almost gave up on this book in the beginning. It just seemed to start slowly for me. There is a lot of hand wringing from Izzy about her life and her blog. Eventually things take off and the plot gets more exciting. My biggest issue is that, in many ways, Izzy's fabrication of "Mac" doesn't really seem to be the huge deal that she makes it out to be. Sure, she shouldn't be lying to everyone, but really, her lie is going to supposedly bring down her friends' business, destroy all her friendships, and ruin Izzy's life? It is just a blog after all. Some of that just seems to be a stretch. Compare to the heartwarming and heartbreaking storyline with Mrs. Feldman -- it truly can't compare.
However, because I'm a total sucker, I kept imagining this movie as a romantic comedy or sitcom. I was sort of tense reading this novel, because you knew eventually the lie would be revealed, everything would get crazy, and all would be for naught... but you hoped like any "good" romantic comedy or sitcom, it would still tie up pretty neatly with a bow at the end, right? (And I won't lie, I sort of like that sometimes. There's enough uncertainty in real life.)
(Note: I received an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.)
I must confess, I almost gave up on this book in the beginning. It just seemed to start slowly for me. There is a lot of hand wringing from Izzy about her life and her blog. Eventually things take off and the plot gets more exciting. My biggest issue is that, in many ways, Izzy's fabrication of "Mac" doesn't really seem to be the huge deal that she makes it out to be. Sure, she shouldn't be lying to everyone, but really, her lie is going to supposedly bring down her friends' business, destroy all her friendships, and ruin Izzy's life? It is just a blog after all. Some of that just seems to be a stretch. Compare to the heartwarming and heartbreaking storyline with Mrs. Feldman -- it truly can't compare.
However, because I'm a total sucker, I kept imagining this movie as a romantic comedy or sitcom. I was sort of tense reading this novel, because you knew eventually the lie would be revealed, everything would get crazy, and all would be for naught... but you hoped like any "good" romantic comedy or sitcom, it would still tie up pretty neatly with a bow at the end, right? (And I won't lie, I sort of like that sometimes. There's enough uncertainty in real life.)
(Note: I received an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.)
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Greenfield in Books
Feb 13, 2018
Jack Clayton is retiring from the police force and dreaming about a calm life in retirement. All that changes when he meets Officer Yolanda Tilden, a young hotshot officer on the force he's just left. Once a prospective FBI Detective, Yolanda had to leave the FBI after getting injured and she's not happy about it. Jack's former boss, Chief Varner, convinces (tricks?) Jack into coming back for a special assignment to work with Yolanda for thirty days as a mentor. At first, the set-in-his-ways Jack and the angry Yolanda clash, but eventually the two work together on a drug case and start forming a true partnership.
Full disclosure - I only read this book because the author is a friend of a friend, and my friend bought the book for me. I knew the author wrote the book in his spare time, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect.
The first part of the book wasn't my favorite. It lagged and was totally unrealistic (let's completely solve the drug wars in 48 hours!), but did a good job of setting up Jack and Yolanda's friendship and partnership. The writing can be a little stilted at times (must Yolanda say Jack's name every time she speaks to him?), with a few typos. Still, as I thought about it, the plot certainly wasn't any more outlandish than the New Adult romances that are all the rage right now.
Things certainly improved with Part 2, and I found myself staying up late to find out what happened. Part 2 sets up what appears to the "Cold Case Series" that Krammes writes (he has several books after this one). I really enjoyed Part 2 and found the plot to be engaging and interesting. While Jack and Yolanda's relationship is still a little far-fetched, the two are rather endearing at times, and amusing. The mystery portion was interesting and very solid. Overall, it was a fun book and Part 2 probably pulled it to a solid 3 to 3.5 stars. I look forward to reading the next one, since it's basically set in my hometown!
Full disclosure - I only read this book because the author is a friend of a friend, and my friend bought the book for me. I knew the author wrote the book in his spare time, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect.
The first part of the book wasn't my favorite. It lagged and was totally unrealistic (let's completely solve the drug wars in 48 hours!), but did a good job of setting up Jack and Yolanda's friendship and partnership. The writing can be a little stilted at times (must Yolanda say Jack's name every time she speaks to him?), with a few typos. Still, as I thought about it, the plot certainly wasn't any more outlandish than the New Adult romances that are all the rage right now.
Things certainly improved with Part 2, and I found myself staying up late to find out what happened. Part 2 sets up what appears to the "Cold Case Series" that Krammes writes (he has several books after this one). I really enjoyed Part 2 and found the plot to be engaging and interesting. While Jack and Yolanda's relationship is still a little far-fetched, the two are rather endearing at times, and amusing. The mystery portion was interesting and very solid. Overall, it was a fun book and Part 2 probably pulled it to a solid 3 to 3.5 stars. I look forward to reading the next one, since it's basically set in my hometown!