Purchased – Page 47 – Carol's Notebook

Something Fresh by P. G. Wodehouse

February 19, 2019February 19, 2019 by Carol7 Comments

I've read several of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Bertie books, but Something Fresh is the first of his Blandings Castle series I've picked up. It was funny and light-hearted and just a nice break. Lord Emsworth, owner of Blandings Castle, accidentally stole a valuable scarab from his son's fiancée's father, a millionaire American. Our two main characters, Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine, are headed to Blandings Castle for a house party, both trying to retrieve the scarab and receive the reward. They both are impersonating servants, so we see a lot of what is happening downstairs. Ashe and Joan have a lot in common even though they have only recently met; they are both writers, both live in the same building, both could use a new direction, something fresh. In the meantime, Lord Emsworth son may or may not be a spot of trouble over a former crush. Now that he is engaged, those letters he wrote to another woman may cost...

The World Beneath by Rebecca Cantrell

February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

The World Beneath is just a fun book. Joe Tesla is rich and extremely intelligent, but can't go outside due to extreme agoraphobia. While in the tunnels under New York, he meets a man who is then brutally murdered near a long bricked in train car. Joe has to make sure he doesn't get killed too, and in the process stumbles into a nightmare of a conspiracy. Joe is charming and while obviously not fearless, he is determined and inventive. He's a whiz with computers, but also understands people, which is a nice change. His service dog Edison is adorable, and I was more worried for him than I was for Joe. He also has a couple people who are wholly on his side, and they each bring their own strengths. The plot is well-done. The tension holds throughSubwayout and even though the reader knows who all the players all, you still wonder what can happen next. And the fact that Joe...

Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri

February 7, 2019February 7, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

It's been a while since I listened to a Commissario Montalbano mystery, but Voice of the Violin was part of Audible's 2-for-1 deal, so I picked it up. They're always enjoyable, well-thought-out mysteries and I love the cast of characters. In Voice of the Violin a young woman has been murdered and Montalbano is determined to find the killer, in spite of his new boss's manipulations. Montalbano may not always do things the legal way, but for him finding the truth is more important. Even though it's a pretty gruesome murder, there's humor sprinkled throughout the book that lightens it up. And Camilleri does a great job with depicting Sicily, the people, the weather, the food. These books always make me crave pasta - as if I didn't already. I especially liked how the violin plays into this one. I'm still not a fan of Montalbano's relationship with his long-distance girlfriend Livia. I'm pretty sure I say that every time....

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

February 5, 2019February 7, 2019 by Carol10 Comments

I don't want to tell you much about The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I don't want to ruin it for you. Someone described it as "Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day" and I think that's pretty dead on. If you enjoy a good country house mystery, but like to take a chance with a book that's outside the usual, that may confuse/frustrate you at times, you should definitely pick it up. Aiden Bishop is our detective, but he doesn't remember being Aiden. He only knows that he's here, in Blackheath, and has to solve a murder that doesn't look like a murder. He repeats the same day eight times, but in eight different bodies. There are clues and red herrings, helpers and adversaries. We've got the standards of a house party, relatives who don't get along, guests with tons of secrets, scandals and drugs. And then we've got the almost sci-fi aspect of switching hosts and affecting how the day progresses...

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

January 30, 2019January 29, 2019 by Carol8 Comments

I knew I'd love The Three Musketeers. The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas is one of my favorite all-time books and this is even more mentioned/read/known. So, I was happy when the Classics Club Spin hit #1 and my challenge was then to read The Three Musketeers by the end of January. Dumas takes the historical events of France, 1625-27, and plays with them to bring us one of the best adventure stories ever. The beautiful Anne of Austria is Queen of France, but she is lukewarm, at best, toward her husband, XIII. Cardinal Richelieu, the true ruler of the country, has made advances towards her, but been rebuffed; he's eaten up by jealousy and spite, especially since he knows through his network of informers that Anne's heart in fact belongs to the handsome Lord Buckingham. These fictionalized historical figures are at the center of the story, it's their loves, desires, conquests and favors that everyone else's life revolves...

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

January 29, 2019January 28, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

Sapiens looks at our history, but that history is 100,000 years long, so it's more of a quick overview of our history. I found it rather fascinating though. He takes us through the history of human development and migration, through the Cognitive Revolution, and Agricultural Revolution. He looks at how currency and coinage developed, the creation of religions, the arrival of imperialism and capitalism, and the history of inequalities and injustices. Yes, he has his own biases, but I loved the bits of information. So many things from this book pulled into conversations I was having, like the worth of a slave's life and the bank run in It's a Wonderful Life (which I've never watched by the way). In the end, he veers off into predictions for the future. I, personally, didn't find it particularly pessimistic, and there was a lot of hope too, like how relatively peaceful it is now. If you love history, I wouldn't suggest reading...