Audiobook – Page 92 – Carol's Notebook

From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming

October 16, 2018October 15, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

I'm officially done with the James Bond books. I enjoy the movies, but the books are just too incredibly chauvinistic and sexist. Usually I can take books for when they were written, but when characters say things like, "All women want to be swept off their feet. In their dreams they long to be slung over a man's shoulder and taken into a cave and raped." or when one scene is literally naked gypsy women fighting to the death over a man. Rape was never okay, not then, not now. Our Bond girl, Tatiana, is gullible and too sweet and beautiful and Fleming actually has her ask Bond, "You won't let me get so fat that I am no use for making love? You will have to be careful, or I shall eat all day long and sleep. You will beat me if I eat too much?" I want to say at least the plot was good, but I'm not entirely...

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

October 12, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

I finished Something Wicked This Way Comes several days ago, but have been putting off writing about it. Usually I put my thoughts down as soon as I can after finishing a book - I'm notoriously forgetful and if I wait too long I lose a lot of most books. It has to make a major impression to stay with me longer than a week or two. But I don't know how I feel about this one. I listened to Something Wicked This Way Comes for the read along hosted by Michelle at Castle Macabre. It's not something I would have picked up on my own. First, I'm not a huge horror fan. Second, I tend to avoid books that have children/teenagers as the main characters. The good: The writing is gorgeous! It makes even the small everyday things seem magical. The hero is a middle-aged library janitor who loves books. The carnival and Dark are downright spooky. The bad: The writing made everything...

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

October 9, 2018October 8, 2018 by Carol9 Comments

Peril at End House is classic Poirot. Lovely Nick doesn't know her life is in danger until Poirot helpfully points out that her near-accidents were probably not coincidence. But why would any of her friends want her dead? She's not rich, she's not mean. Poirot is determined to keep her safe, but that's easier said than done, especially when another woman is killed, mistaken for Nick. This was a fun little mystery. The denouement was a good one, a bit unusual for a Poirot mystery. I mean, there was the typical gathering of all the players, but the excuse he uses to bring them together is a good one. The killer doesn't see the trap he has set at all. (S)he thinks (s)he has everyone fooled. (S)he doesn't, of course, and there are plenty of clues sprinkled through the book - I just missed them....

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

October 2, 2018 by Carol5 Comments

It's funny, when I saw Lethal White was out, I had to pick it up. I remember loving Cormoran Strike, the detective, and really enjoying the novels. I apparently had absolutely erased Career of Evil (#3) from my mind. Looking back at my review for that one, I almost DNF'ed it, but finished only because, well, I love Cormoran Strike. That's fine, because Lethal White was a return to the series I enjoy. The mystery begins, as the blurb states, with a young man's visit to Strike's office. The young man, Billy, clearly has mental health issues, but he also clearly believes he saw a child strangled years earlier. Separately, Strike is hired by Jasper Chiswell, the Minister of Culture, who is being blackmailed by Jimmy Knight, Billy's older brother, and Geraint Winn, the husband of the Minister for Sport. Chiswell wants Strike to get dirt on Winn and Knight that he can use against them, but won't tell Strike what information...

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie

September 21, 2018November 30, 2021 by Carol5 Comments

Yes, Poirot again. I've been on a bit of a kick lately, I know. I'm almost reading/re-reading the series in order. I #4 earlier this year and obviously still remember it well. I skipped #5 because I don't like it. So now we're at #6, The Mystery of the Blue Train. There's a lot of lead up before the murder. We meet an heiress whose millionaire father gives her a fabulous ruby to cheer her up a little. She and her husband are having problems and, as the father sees it, her only real option is to divorce him. We meet the husband and his mistress, a dancer who is only interested in rich men, which he won't be if his wife divorces him. We meet a not necessarily above-board jewelry merchant and his daughter. Finally, I think, we meet a lovely young woman, Katherine Grey, who has recently become rich herself, after the elderly woman she was a companion to...

True Fiction by Lee Goldberg

September 19, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

I originally picked up True Fiction as a Kindle First for free, but decided I'd rather listen to it, so ended up picking up the Audible version for $1.99. I've enjoyed the Fox and O'Hare series Goldberg writes with Janet Evanovich, but had never read anything else by him. I'm glad I took a (cheap) chance. True Fiction was a fun read, a bit over the top, in a good way. Ian Ludlow writes a thriller series featuring an assassin named Clint Straker. True Fiction includes snippets of the Clint Straker novels and they are perfect- cheesy clichés. I love that Goldberg is poking fun at the thriller genre while writing one. Years ago, Ludlow and several other authors participated in a weekend where the CIA asked them to come up with disasters, in theory so that the government can be prepared for the worst. But now, the scenario Ludlow came up with has happened, and a bunch of people are dead. Turns...