City of the Dead | 
so-soI walked past my bookshelf, caught a glimpse of this one, and immediately wondered “Why haven‘t I read that?!” At just a little over 200 pages, this book is unique and a quick read. I lost interest once or twice, but it was overall a good read!
pickFascinating mystery reminiscent of I Heart Huckabees only with more hallucinagens and with an actual murder mystery. Loved the mystical take on detection and the stranger elements in the story set against the starkness of post Katrina New Orleans. I didn't necessarily like most of the characters but it didn't matter. It was refreshing to read a book with fully realized characters who were good and yet who also sometimes did terrible things.
pickSet in post Katrina New Orleans, it is the twisty story of who killed Vic. Claire DeWitt is such an interesting character and the use of dreams to help her solve the crime was an interesting take as she knows what is happening, but just can't see it for herself. New Orleans really comes alive in this book, but it isn't the Bourbon St tourist part, but rather the real parts of single and doublewides. I liked it.
so-soThis has a noir-like feel to it and everything about it screams that I would really love it, but I just could not find the awesome in here that so many other people love about this book. I thought the parts were good but the marrying of them all just didn't work for me. I think I was expecting some other element to show up and I just didn't find it. So I know it's a well loved series but I don't know that I'm gonna be picking up the next one.
#garden #cemetery #lLetsTravelJuly #ClaireDeWittandtheCityoftheDead
A walk with my sister (pictured) among the plants, flowers & gardens in the cemetery where our parents are buried.
Tagged book is set in post Katrina New Orleans, 2005, hence the “City of the Dead.”
#Bfcr2 #fitlit #audiowalk #checkin
Approx 3.5 miles walking so far this week. Planning to walk tomorrow & Saturday so should reach my 6 mile goal.
Almost finished tagged book and will surely finish a second. 🙌🏻😃
New Orleans is a complicated place and not for the faint of heart.
Really. We are having the most marvelous spring. If you're looking for an unconventional Private Investigator then I've got just the slueth for you. Meet Claire DeWitt who is smart and strange but also kind of a pain in the ass. A great combination if you ask me.
Oh dear. Our fearless detective is gathering fingerprints from a missing persons' house... From doorknobs, televisions and the refrigerator. Only thing is....a few pages ago there was no refrigerator in the house. It's quite clear when they first go inside that the fridge is gone. So what, then, did our dear detective collect fingerprints from? 🤔🙈 (I'm still enjoying the book though. Minor mistake. These things happen. 🤷)
The hammock was calling.
Got a nice surprise at book club last night! @Soubhiville gave me a book from my tbr 😍
Your thoughtfulness is much appreciated, Soubhi!
pickClaire DeWitt‘s vocation is a detective, trained in her calling by a disciple of a French detection theorist, incorporating not just subtle physical clues but emotional visceral reactions and omens/signs. A New Orleans DA is missing in the aftermath of Katrina, and Claire wades through the physical and mental morass of the city to find answers. Not the same at all but I was getting echoes of Angelheart. New Orleans can put a spell on you.
“Most people who‘ve been abused as children never hurt a fly. But of all the people who hurt flies, almost all of them have had their wings broken themselves.”
“People bury things in their house; things they can‘t get rid of but can‘t take with them. They weren‘t physical, but they were there all the same. All houses were haunted. Some by the past or the future. Some by the present.”
pickI don‘t read a lot of mysteries or detective books. I think this may have ended up on my TBR because it takes place in New Orleans. There‘s a lady private detective, trying to find out what happened to a missing guy after Hurricane Katrina‘s floods.
The first half was just so-so for me, and I thought of bailing. But the second half picked up and I started caring about some of the characters. Between a Pick and So-So.
So I was reading in my car waiting for my hair appointment, and came across these lines in my current read. I may have snort-laughed. This was published in 2011. 🤣😂🤣
1. Farewell My Concubine 🇨🇳
2. Leaving Las Vegas 🥃🥃🥃
3. The Bonfire of the Vanities 👎
4. I‘ll watch anything with Anthony Hopkins, but also love Idris Elba; Mahershala Ali; Viola Davis; Catherine Keener; Margo Martindale 🎭
5. I wish Sara Gran‘s entire “Claire DeWitt” series would be made into movies!! 🤞🏼
#frideas
My tentative February TBR. I‘m about 1/3 through the tagged book and also A Ladder to the Sky on audio. I‘m expecting to get my holds on Becoming on audio and The Library Book on audio this month too.
My mood may change this up, plus it‘s a short month, so let‘s see where the reading muse takes me!
pickI liked this far more than I thought I would. Hard boiled detective novels are not typically my cup of tea but this was well written and great characters. Not necessarily automatically likable but entertaining for sure. Also another #Booked2019 done! #femaledetective Also #LitsyAtoZ
pickI really enjoyed this book. It was a good mystery, in addition to a excellent study of New Orleans culture (the good and, especially, the bad) and issues surrounding poverty. It was much more nuanced than I expected from the genre. If also made my very nostalgic for New Orleans. Not a fan of the narrator, though. The voice was certainly not nuanced, and a little too tongue-in-cheek, old school P.I. for the WHOLE thing...
pickThis was really good, for so many reasons. It took me a few chapters to get hooked—Claire is not always the most likable character. Set in New Orleans, post Katrina, Gran uses the storm and its after affects as a huge part of the story. But she also focuses on Claire‘s past and a mystery that she has yet to solve. I am anxious to read the next book.
pickThis was one of the most mysterious mysteries I've ever read. Private detective Claire DeWitt returns to New Orleans to solve the disappearance of a local DA. In a city still reeling from Hurricane Katrina, Claire uses her quasi-mystical methods of detection to retrace the missing man's steps. Fans of Jessica Jones will appreciate Claire's people skills. I enjoyed this strangely philosophical novel and will read the next book in the series ASAP.
pickThis mystery is so smart and fun. Claire DeWitt is a great, quirky detective and this case takes place in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Picked up these today on the Kindle “build your summer reading list” sale. Going on this week!
https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=kc_deals-GB-ILM?node=6165845011&pf_rd_p=43ada719-42...
#noteworthynovember #birds
A #quirky murder mystery with a former Brooklyn detective that takes place in another favorite city of mine, New Orleans.
pickRead this book tomorrow! If you like an off-beat, flawed yet defiant heroine & love a layered mystery in a gorgeous, heartbreaking setting, read this. It's a mystery, a story of survival, a literary depiction of Hurricane Katrina, in short, a bloody brilliant book. #6stars #mystery #NOLA #moving #clever
"Houses are like people, only less annoying. To take them in you start with the big and work your way down to the small." -Sara Gran
Happy birthday to me-what beats an atmospheric NOLA mystery and a pedicure while wee boy is at gymnastics class? #metime #grippingbook
pickFinished this on audiobook a few days ago and forgot to post. Sososo much fun!! Totally in my wheel house:) thanks to Get Booked for the rec!
#readjanuary #bookswithapropername
Just a couple from my tbr piles.
pickI love the Claire DeWitt novels so much and only wish Sara Gran would write them faster. Claire is the ultimate anti-heroine, rifling through witnesses' medicine cabinets in search of prescription drugs she can palm, running with a rough crowd, making a glorious mess of everything.
