nigmatillium

It took me such a long time to read this book. And not because it wasn't interesting, I don't think so, but rather because I prioritised other things. So I took some time to finish it today, and... I'm a bit dissapointed.

The book is on the slower side, but there are interesting things happening. At the same time, I couldn't say that the plot point makes a lot of sense to me, and some of the characters are just despicable.

Towards the end of the book there were more interesting things happening, but the most thrilling part was rushed. I got through all these emotions way too fast, the book didn't keep me engaged, and I think this will make it forgettable.

All in all, not a bad read, but could have been better.

I would recommend it for a light thriller.

Wasn't quite sure I wanted to read this book, but thought I'd give it a go. It started quite slow and wasn't sure if I'll drop it or not, but then it really gripped me and all I wanted to do was keep on reading.

There wasn't much description, especially in the first few chapters, so the author made an amazing job at shaping the characters, showing who they are.

The murder plot was also interesting and I liked the court bits too. But mostly I liked how level headed the characters were, and the lack of unnecessary drama.

Well, the start and the ending were eeeh for me (I'm sure other readers would absolutely love it), but the middle (which is basically the main plot of the book) was great.

First book I'm reading from this author, and I definitely want to check what else is out there.

I enjoyed this book so much. There was no drama, no over the top situations, just two guys getting to know each other and dealing with their jobs. It was such a refreshing read.

While I enjoyed the first book in the series (different pairing) I wasn't actually decided to read this one also, but I'm so glad I picked it up. I don't know what I expected, but definitely not this.

It's a fun book and the action progressed so easily and naturally, I was giddy to keep on reading whenever I could. It's been so long since I read such a book and I got two in a row! I've been spoiled by Lisa Henry and I thank her for it.

It would have been a great idea to read this before the holidays, but oh, well, at least I did get some snow to put me in the holiday spirit.

I especially liked the first story, and slowly lost interest along the way, but I still enjoyed it, it's just that I wasn't in the mood for such a lenghthy audiobook at this time. Still, I really liked it and completed it.

I really have to say that the narrator, Fenella Woolgar, was amazing, loved the way she accurately narrated each character, it was delightful.

I enjoyed the book, liked the main characters and the plot was interesting enough. Actually, at one point I thought, right, I'll read this chapter and then go to bed, but then something happened, and I went well, fk, now I have to keep on reading. So this pretty much sums up what I feel about this book. I'm actually glad I randomly picked it on a whim.

It also helps that I read books by Lisa Henry before and enjoyed them.

The only reason why I don't rate the whole 5 stars is because there were a couple cliches that I came accross in so many books before, it took me a tad out of the mood, but other than that, really enjoyed it.

I managed to finish reading the second book of th Theodore Boone series. The series is great, but my expectations were definitely different. I was waiting for Theo to become an adult and only after reading the second book I thought of looking the series up and found out that he is no older than 14 by the last book in the series.

Still, it is a good read and now I know exactly what I can recommend to kids in case there is ever a need, and it's certainly entertaining for adults too. I did like the first two books, I just want a different kind of entertainment.

It has been a really long time since I read something, so I started this series hoping it would get me very interested and make me want to read all the books right now. I actually took very long to finish the first book in the series. It's not bad, it just didn't grip my attention as much as I was expecting it to. Maybe because Theo is a kid (literally the title) and I find that I enjoy reading about characters closer to my age. But anyway, it is an okay book and I read a few pages out of the next book which got me juuust a tad bit more interested for now.

It took me way too long to read this book, I actually started it a few weeks ago and then I put it on hold around chapter 28. The POV changes at some point which is a big pet peeve of mine with some books and I simply did not feel like picking it up again. Yet, I was really curious to know what exactly happened to Ellie, so I picked it up again as an audiobook.

The book does a great job at setting up the scene, it intrigued me from the first pages. Only that, I would have preferred it without some of the character's own voice. I see why Lisa Jewell made this choice and I would normally say that it's a great idea, but I really didn't care about Noelle enough to know the story from her perspective. I would have much rather had it be told in 3rd person.

About the plot itself, it was really good. I felt so sorry for Ellie and so much contempt for Noelle. In broad lines, I also figured out what happened, like many other readers did, but there were some details I just couldn't figure out and I am glad for that, it kept me engaged in the story.

There are some other things in the book I could have done without, like entire chapters, but it was a good read, overall I can say I enjoyed it.

I will start by saying I am not a huge SF fan, I read it sometimes, usually I like it, but I don't go out of my way to pick up a SF book. I listened to this one because I wanted something in the background while doodling and since I kept seeing the book around and was one of the first to pop up when looking up audiobooks, I said why not.

I read the other reviews on this book and I see that most readers really love it. I am kind of in between, I can't say I loved it, but it wasn't terrible either. For one, I liked reading a book from where I knew some quotes without knowing where they are from, and I must agree there are some great one-liners in the book, but I only laughed once.

Somehow the storytelling read more like a documentary to me and some of the characters seemed to be forgotten sometimes. I keep thinking I might have missed something, but looking up what that might be, I can find nothing. I think I simply should have read this book when I was a pre-teen. That being said, still a nice read.

I had hopes for this book, it has a really strong start, I was intrigued and curious, but it took a dive. I read about ten chapters, but I really can't continue. There is so much going on, way too much, and there's obviously more coming. I already struggled to read a book that I didn't quite enjoy and I can't do it twice in a row.

Right there on the cover of this book it says that Mark Gimenez is the next John Grisham. I don't think so. I have said this a lot and I am saying it again, I am a John Grisham fan, I read quite a few of his books, and Mark Gimenez doesn't have anything of John Grisham in any shape or form. But that can be a good thing. When I picked up this book I picked it because I wanted to read something other than John Grisham, I wanted to see what else is out there. If Mark Gimenez will be the next John Grisham in the sense that he would be just as famous, that remains to be seen, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The prologue of The Perk was quite intriguing, but after I got into the first chapter I wanted to drop the book. I started another one, but I kept wondering what will happen with that prologue, so I went back to The Perk to find out. The first few chapters were so unnecessarily detailed with a lot of irrelevant information. I skipped quite a few chapters. I skimmed through some reviews and since most readers were saying that the book gets really good later, I skipped over the first five or more (I don't really know where exactly it became interesting to me) chapters until the book started dealing with what happened in the prologue. That means that I don't really know who was who, I skipped over the most introductions, but I really don't feel like I missed any important detail, I could read the book just fine.

What followed in the book was interesting enough, it bordered a bit on the unrealistic, but for the most part it was okay, I could ignore some of what was happening. But not in the last few chapters.

I appreciate what Mark Gimenez created here, the book had quite the potential. The prologue is gripping, but the book itself is not, at all. The last few chapters were almost ridiculous. I think there was supposed to be some tension buildup there, but I did not get any of that. So many things happened in the background, most of which as a reader I had no idea of, no hint, until they were revealed out of nowhere.

And there is something I want to point out. That bit where someone changes the subject abruptly and the other person misunderstands what they are referring to is funny once or twice, but when everyone does it, it gets old really quick.

And what was that about the coyotes?

I still don't get why the book is called The Perk. That was in no way the main focus of the book. It started with it, it was in the prologue, but there is no way that that was the main plot of the book, this was all about Beck and no one else. Not to mention that the whole thing is spotty at best, the characters involvedI don't know what they were on about. So many things didn't really make sense and their behaviour was odd.

Going back to that comparison someone decided to make between Mark Gimenez and John Grisham, Mark Gimenez does not have characters that feel real, like John Ghrisham's do. Mark Gimenez's book did not catch my attention and did not keep me on the edge of my chair the same way John Grisham's books do. There are John Grisham books that I enjoyed less than others, but those still made more sense than The Perk.

I think The Perk had the right idea, but it lost its focus at some point. Mark Gimenez put into it too much stuff, and all of it was resolved, was crammed, one way or another in the last few chapters. It might have been better to lose some of the plots developing at the same time, or make the book longer.

Oh, and with all the skipping I did in the first few chapters, I still figured out what Jodie's deal was. Because of course, this was all about Beck. The title would make more sense if it would be just his name, or The Judge. Actually, yes, The Judge would fit this book better.

Bottom line is that the book is not the best, the comparison to John Grisham has nothing to do there and it kind of annoys me that someone looked at this and made that connection; and the title makes no sense. I would say don't bother with this one, but eh, might as well give it a try either way, it is not horrible, just too focused on showing the main character from all his sides and it kind of forgets what the point was. Also, this might be the first book I read that made use of Chekhov's Gun both right and wrong way at the same time. That's a feat in itself.

I really, really wanted to read this book. I got it as a gift for someone and even before that I was thinking that I'd like to read this book. Me, along with a lot of other readers, know Rob Temple from his Very British Problems account so when this book got published I thought I'd like to see where his inspiration comes from. And also thought it would be a fun, but serious, realistic book that I would enjoy.

And it is, sort of. I did enjoy the writing style, I liked reading about Rob Temple by Rob Temple, I sympathised with him too. The first few chapters were great, the exact type of funny I was expecting. And then it lost me. My biggest, and perhaps only, issue with the book is that it doesn't seem to have a flow. There are random happenings (while not really happening much) one after the other, with nothing to tie them apart from the narrator.

I also wanted to mention about the various characters introduced, which are actual people, and that made me think the issue might be with me too. I think I might be a bad biographies reader. I did read biographies that were very interesting and that I liked a lot, but I might treat them more like fiction in the sense that I expect fiction levels of action and intrigue. That doesn't really happen in biographies, does it?

With this book, I really tried to read it, manged to read about half of it, but it just isn't for me, it didn't keep my interest, I got bored while trying to read it.

What I'm saying is, this book, like pretty much any book, is not for everyone. Give it a try anyway, though, you might love it.

I don't know, I can't read this book. Actually, it's both interesting and not. I wanted to read it and I wanted to drop it at the same time. I found it to be a bit disturbing, a type of disturbing I can't manage right now.

Oh, do I have some thoughts on this book. First off, I found this book after reading The Vegetarian, it was recommended to me by the website, and they indeed have common themes. One of the main ones is simply being a woman in South Korea. What a dreadful thing. How do Korean women survive? I am so enraged on their behalf, and mine too.

It has been so tough on Kim Jiyoung to simply exist. She never got any real support, only empty words of encouragement, ultimately being left to fend for herself, to just deal with it. And then she was criticised too for things out of her control. And isn't that something that keeps happening over and over again and we are all so painfully aware of it, but other than fake encouragement words nothing gets done? Ugh, I'm pissed off.

Every time I had the impression that not every woman's situation is the same and that not every man in the book is the same, I was absolutely crushed. They absolutely are the same, with no question. Even when there was a glimmer of hope and no matter how hard I tried to hang on to that hope, it just wasn't happening. I disliked that so much.

And I disliked the narrator, what a self-righteous prick.

Needless to say the book is amazing, it is so powerful, even more when you can actually relate to it, and I would say there is no excuse to not reading it, but also there is a really high chance that some of the readers will not fully get it and I don't know what's worse, not knowing or knowing but not taking any action. There's no win on this one.

Out of the blue I found myself wondering what is Alice Vega up to, so I looked her up and, to my delight, I found there was a new book out! It's been released for more than a year at this point, which makes me wonder when I read the first two books (it was just about 3mo before the third one was released, I didn't think it was so long ago). But either way, that's just a random thing that has no connection with the content of the book.

Alice Vega reminds me, juuust a tiny bit and only sometimes, of Rosa Diaz (from the TV show Brooklyn 99), which is a great thing as I like them both a lot. There are just a few things that they have in common, the way they deliver some lines or how they are very serios most of the time. This is another thing that has nothing to do with the content of the book.

And then let's get to it. Alice Vega is great and I like her a lot. She is so focused and so sure of herself, she doesn't need advice, she doesn't dwell on things, she's very straightforward and knows exactly what she's capable of. She might have also learned a couple things about herself during the events in his book, which is great!

While the first two books had Vega and Cap working alongside pretty much from the start of the case to the resolve, this time they didn't work it together, not really, and I liked that. I feel like the book broke from its own mould, it didn't follow a carefully laid out path, but it made its own. I think a lot of series fall into the easy comfort of following the same structure over and over again, making it feel like you read the same book, but slightly to the left, so I am very happy this one did not do that.

This time the case was again very interesting, I am sure Louisa Luna brought me exactly where she wanted me to go, to reach the conclusions she wanted me to reach, and I must say it was beautifully done. The case was also different from the other two books which I, again, liked very much.

And going back to Vega and Cap, I did mention in my previous reviews that I am curious about how their relationship will develop, both professionally and romantically, so, again, I was very happy to see some progress. And I look forward to what exciting things are there to arise next. For anyone looking for an exciting detective book with just the right amount of romance, highly recommend the Alice Vega series.

I kept seeing this book on Hardcover and although I wasn't going to read it at first, after seeing it for the umpteenth time I was like "fine, okay, I will read it." That's probably not the best way to decide what book to read, but it worked out for me because I liked it a lot.

This book was not at all what I was expecting it to be, it was definitely better and I feel like I went through a brand new experience that I could not have had went through otherwise. Rosie and Penn were such a great couple, the understanding between them and the way they worked together naturally, without fuss, was beautiful. They made a beautiful big family together and nurtured it in a way that most families should do. I am saying most and not all because I don't think a certain style can apply to everyone, but Rosie and Penn are an example to follow.

And because Rosie and Penn did such a great job, all of their kids were amazing. I liked all of them and I enjoyed seeing them grow. Also, while reading I thought that for sure this book could not have been written by someone who did not have kids or grew up in a big family. I know the author has a daughter from the Author's Note in the book, and I think she does have siblings based on my looking it up, but I could not find any certain answer (not that I looked very hard), but either way, the family dynamics in the book is flawless, if these are not real kids, then I don't know what they are.

I might have said, me and others I am sure, that this book is about Claude and/or Poppy, but I don't think it is. Yes, they are a big part of it, but this is mostly about the family itself, about Rosie and Penn trying to make the right decission, their approach to new, to unexplored, to continue rising their kids with the same care and responsability no matter what. And I liked that angle so much. It is new and unexplored for me too and I really can't say anything but wonderful job to Rosie and Penn, they are such awesome parents.

If I would have known more about this book before reading it and if Hardcover wouldn't have been pushing it in front of me, I would have not read it and I would have missed out. So thank you to the forces that brough this book to me, it was an amazing read.

After reading Shogun (a while ago) and Tai-Pan (a shorter while ago) I was not expecting less from Gai-Jin. However, I went into it with as little expectations as possible. If I learned anything from the two previous books is that things can get very complicated very fast and even the most straightforward thing can go seven different ways if not more.

However, I thing Gai-Jin was not as captivating as the other two. It was still very interesting, but not as intriguing. I liked the characters, but I don't have any strong feeling one way or another for either of them. Even so, it was quite fun reading about them and their scheeming.

For such a long book this is all I can say about it. It was a great read, very enjoyable, but not as engaging as the other two.

I almost dropped this book. Since I had already dropped another Yukio Mishima book before starting 'Confessions of a Mask', I wanted to stick with this one. I also knew that if I drop it, I won't pick it up again. It also took me way too long to read it.

The book became interesting to me about 50 pages in, but it kind of backfired because as soon as it did, my expectations shoot up way too high. I guess I was expecting a lot more drama.

However, despite all this, the book is great. I liked the setting and I liked the main character's journey. I liked getting to know him in such an intimate way. I actually can't think of a single thing I did not like or any way this could have been more entertaining to me.

Maybe it just wasn't the right time to read this book, or maybe it's that I can't relate to it. I really don't know, could be something else entirely.

At one point, though, the book really inspired me. There is a scene on a train that pushed me to do a pixel of a train scene. It didn't come out precisely as I imagined it, but either way, I'm quite proud of it and since this book inspired it, I'm linking it here.

I tried to read this book a while ago and I dropped it, but I did keep it with the intention of trying again. I read another Yukio Mishima book that I really liked, so I thought that maybe I wasn't in the mood. Well, I tried it again and this time around I came to the conclusion that I really can't read it. I read about the book and I am sure it is a great one, with complex plot and great autobiographical elements, but I really can't get into it.

This is the thing with some short stories: the plot is great, it's obvious there's a lot going on in the background, for both main characters, and it becomes clear something really intense happened before. In 'Night Watch' it is revealed exactly what happened, but I needed more excitement, more keeping me on the edge.

But I kind of expected this. Josh Lanyon is one of my favourite authors so I kind of knew a short story won't satisfy me. I still liked it a lot, though, and on one hand I think I prefer this as a short story. I liked how so much was packed in just a few pages. And I really liked the mai characters too, Parker and Henry were both great.

I don't even know what I was expecting when I started reading this, but what I got is definitely not it. 'Sweet Bean Paste' is a very interesting book while keeping that mild, heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, quality that I got used to in Japanese books.

I liked the plot, I got to read about a subject I did not read about before. And I liked the characters, I liked them from the first meeting.

There is something about Japanese arts that's very specific, but very hard to explain. For me at least. This is valid here too, in this book. I got a specific vibe from it that I can't get from a book written by any other author besides Japanese. But enough about that, this book is simply great and I recommend it.

This must be the funniest John Grisham book I read so far. The humour in this really got me, it came out of nowhere in the most casual way. There were lines and replies that had me laughing out loud. I don't know if I was just in the right mood or this is really the funniest one, because John Grisham's books definitely made me laugh before.

Besides being very funny, 'The Client' is also (my) first John Grisham book that features a female lawyer as one of the main characters. And I'm here for it. I can't say that I liked Reggie exceptionally much, but I did like her. As expected from a great lawyer, she was fierce and dedicated to her client.

Speaking of the client, Mark was a handful. As clever as he was, he also annoyed me sometimes with his stubbornness, but I couldn't stay mad at him for long, I doubt anyone could. He was essentially just a kid doing his best after experiencing something he really shouldn't have. Poor kid.

As usual, I enjoyed the book a lot, it was very entertaining, I liked the characters and I liked how sometimes the author would follow an idea with 'he would never get to do that' or 'she didn't know that x will happen' and it's never in a spoilery way, but in a way that makes me wonder how on earth will that happen. (I may have mentioned this on other books as well.) There are just so, so many directions the plot can head to and I find myself continuing anxiously because it's 50/50 for something good or bad to happen and I just have no way of knowing without reading on. I love it!

And now I want to rant a bit about the version of the novel I got. So, I was happily reading, thinking I have about 60 pages left when I read a couple 10s of pages and reach the end of the story. And then I can read a few chapters of another John Grisham book. I dislike this so much because it builds up to what might happen next only to reach the finish of the story with no warning whatsoever. And it really sucks because I really had my hopes up for something more and now I feel cheated.

I am actually taking half a star off because of this. It's the second time this happened with a John Grisham book (amazingly, the excerpt was from the same book) so be warned to check if there's any sneaky 20-30 pages of something else lurking at the end of the volume.

Like usual, Agatha Christie's book kept me on the edge of my seat, but this time I actually lost my interest towards the end of the book. I went ahead and took a guess on what the murder is all about, who did it and why, at the start of the book, and when it turned out I was half-right, I lost some interest. Of course, everything was way more complicated than I assumed, but that also made it feel a bit over the top, just a tad.

Do not think I did not enjoy the book, because I did, a lot. I like Agatha Christie's writing style and I absolutely love Hercule Poirot. There were some instances, some remarks, of the great detective that actually made me laugh. The humour is great in this book and I am a big fan of it.

Hastings, on the other hand, is just as insufferable as I remembered him. Luckily for me, I felt like I had to put up with him for only about three chapters before the murder plot took over and he remained just a narrator. I wonder if he'll grow on me, because I do plan on reading more of Hercule Poirot's adventures, not necessarily in order, though.

I don't think there's much else to be said about the book. It's a classic, it's just as enjoyable now as it probably was when it was first published. Highly recommend it.

Also, while reading the book, I thought I'd do a simple pixel art portrait of Hercule Poirot, so since this book kind of inspired it, I'll link it here.

This book was nowhere near my reading list. How I came about it is through a friend. They were recommended the book and when they started reading it I thought, hm, let me see what's it about. And not knowing what to pick out of the other 70+ books waiting for me on my phone library, I naturally went and got The Vegetarian.

I don't know, I just felt like mentioning how I came across this book. And one note, might be some very slight spoilers in here, nothing straight out spoiler, but might take a bit away from reading the book. Some readers might not mind it, but I know I would, so here, you've been warned.

There's something I thought about while reading this. There are books, paintings, films, criticism, studies, all talking about and showing how women are treated unfairly in today's society. How they are expected to fulfil certain wants, how they are ignored by doctors and even car manufacturers. How they are treated unfairly in a school or work setting. All these works detailing all the unfair aspects of a woman's position in society, a staggering amount. And then, I wonder, how come we make such little progress in fixing this unfairness? In how many other ways do the same things need to be said and shown?

This book made me feel things, disgust being the most prominent one. But it's such a complex feeling of disgust aimed at so many things I don't even know how to begin to describe it. I certainly can't describe it in just a few sentences, but it mostly has to do with what I said the the previous paragraph.

The Vegetarian. I... disliked almost everyone there. Actually no, the only seemingly sensitive person there was Yeong-hye's sister-in-law, she was the only one appearing to care at all about Yeong-hye. And I disliked Yeong-hye's husband so much. He was so insensitive, so selfish, so preoccupied with appearances. Although I understand the cultural context around it, I blame him for his attitude and actions towards his wife.

Mongolian Mark. I think this might have been the most disturbing part of the book for me. Yeong-hye was clearly not well, and yet, her state of mind was dismissed solely on the account of what other people wanted to see. I felt my skin crawling. And it infuriated me how she was seen by others when they were actually the "bad guy".

Flaming Trees. By this point I think I was just tired. I felt the weight of it all. I was also expecting, for some reason, for the narration to be more abstract, more fantastical, so I was startled to see it being so mundane, so slice-of-life. It's kind of heartbreaking.

So yeah, I don't really know how I feel about the book overall. I'm kind of sick of representation. I would rather have some change instead. But the book is well written, I think it does what it's set out to do, so from that point, The Vegetarian is a good book.

This John Grisham book really hit the spot. I enjoyed reading it a lot. I'm probably going to repeat a few things I also mentioned in other reviews on books by John Grisham, but I can't help it. It's the same author and yes, there are some patterns and some things that he often does in his books, but he does them so well I think it's forgivable to keep bringing them up.

One of those things is how real the characters feel. It's never plain black or white, it's always a wide array of grey and I love that so much. The main character here, for example, Michael Brock, is a good guy, but he did a few bad things. I could not not like him, he felt very genuine and very candid in his storytelling. I even liked how he spoke about Claire and I appreciated his going on about things.

And the other characters too, Ruby was not just this or just that, she was quite complex and she had a background and a reasoning. I actually liked her too and I am rooting for her.

Then there is the plot itself. It is a given that a lot of things can happen when it comes to law and trials and lawyers, but what is amazing to me is how can someone write so many books on the same subject and have them (on varying degrees) keep the reader glued to the pages. I can actually go ahead and say I read at least two other books by John Grisham that are somewhat similar to this one, and yet, they are unique too. I don't really know what is it about them that makes them so different, but I love them and I want to keep on reading them. To be honest I don't even want to go into it and analyse each book, I just enjoy them.

I went on quite a rant there, let me get back to the book. The Street Lawyer deals with a very serious subject, which is the rights of the homeless and the homeless life in general. Well, on the homeless life more can be said, but even so, it brings awareness to it and that gets this book extra points from me. I like how the book just lays the facts, I never felt like it tried to make me think one way or the other.

And then there is the issue of Michael Brock, his actions and how they have to be dealt with. And I liked how it all was dealt with very much. At some point it was quite satisfying.

All in all, loved the book.