Day 17 Prompt - Wreath
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A Christmas cosy mystery. No, I haven't read it.
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Day 17 Prompt - Wreath
#ChristmasCheer @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs
#WinterGames2024 #XmasChaCha #ChristmasChapterChasers @staycurious
A Christmas cosy mystery. No, I haven't read it.
Day 16 Prompt - Bows & Ribbons
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A Christmas story about the owner of a gift-wrapping store called 'Ribbons & Bows'. To no-one's surprise: I haven't read it.
pickThis penultimate (for now) book in the series examines the dark side of....Morris dancing. Yes the traditionally twee pastime involving dressing in a costume, with bells, & banging wooden sticks together! I might have been more incredulous had I not read a book earlier this year (or last year) about the old practice of wassailing & its more sinister side.
Day 15 Prompt - Yuletide
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A collection of festive short stories by indie authors. Haven't read it.
Day 14 Prompt - Bells
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Cozy mystery - haven't read it.
pickI wasn't sure whether I liked this book right from the start but there was something about it that kept me reading. It did pick up into a decent thriller apart from the absurdity of Yasmin driving an eighteen wheeler along the ice road in a heavy snow storm. Suspend your disbelief there!
Day 13 Prompt - Family
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I immediately thought of Little Women. The 1994 film is my favourite screen version & I love the book.
pickThis is a comparatively short read for a crime thriller at under 300 pages but it packs a punch. I was simultaneously sympathetic to Madeleine & suspicious that she might not be being completely truthful. It was fairly fast-paced due to the length but I thought that the ending was a little weak. 4🌟
Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5966872614
Read 8th-9th Dec 2024
Day 12 Prompt - Candy Cane
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Cosy mystery.
Day 11 Prompt - Gift
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This author's writing seems to be like a certain yeast-based food spread, you either love her books or hate them.
pickThis is the fourth of the books set in the Jolvix world that I've read, & it's probably my second least favourite. The story line is good but I disliked the main character. Granted she has issues to do with both her childhood & the death of her first love, but she is absolutely horrible to ex-colleague & friend Ted at times. I found myself a bit irritated with her to be honest. 3.5 🌟
TWs: death, discussion of suicide, drug use/alcoholism.
Day 10 Prompt - Festive
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One of my favourite series!
so-soA book by a former head of the FBI‘s Behavioral Sciences Unit, Gregory M. Cooper, which details the founding & work of the Cold Case Foundation which he started in 2013. The Foundation takes on cases which have gone unsolved for many years & applies the latest techniques & the combined experience of more than 150 former police officers & FBI agents who donate their time to help solve the cases & give the families some closure.
Day 9 Prompt - Santa
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Origin story of Santa Claus by the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz himself.
Day 8 Prompt - Advent
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25 short stories based on Christmas carols - I haven't read it so no idea if it is any good or not.
so-soMy review is a bit too long to post here so see it in full at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/729121346
Read 6th-7th Dec 2024
4630 points (including 419 words found)
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#WinterClearDown #WinterCosy @puddlejumper
#ReindeerReadathon (Dancer) #ChristmasCardReadathon
Day 7 Prompt - Lights
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Posting 2 today as I missed yesterday's prompt. One of my cats, Cole, had a seizure out of nowhere & passed away during it. It was a total shock, if he had been ill I would have been prepared. At least he died surrounded by those who love him.
RIP Cole my little prince.
Day 6 Prompt - Holly
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A short book of scary tales for young teenagers written by a teenager.
Just finished my Goodreads 2024 goal a few weeks early.
pickI've had this on my TBR shelf for absolutely ages so decided this year was the one, & I wish I'd read it earlier. The synopsis really doesn't convey how creepy the story is & there are one or two good twists. The only weak point I thought was the conclusion, I could see what the author was aiming for but it could have been a bit stronger.
4.5🌟
Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2422935343
Read 2nd-3rd Dec 2024
Day 4 Prompt - Decorations
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pickRemie Yorke took a job at the MacKinnon Hotel in the Scottish Highlands to be close to her brother, the only family she had left. Now he is dead & Remie has one shift left before she catches a flight & leaves for good. Only Remie & 2 guests are left at the hotel so it should be an easy shift but then Storm Ezra threatens to derail her plans as a blizzard hits.
Day 2 Prompt - Manger
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so-soArcadia 'Dia' Gannon applies for an internship with Louisiana Veda Foundation. Veda was a feted creator of intricate board games which now go for thousands of dollars apiece. Although Veda is dead, her foundation is apparently carrying on her work & 7 lucky applicants will have the chance to work for the company. The application is surprisingly simple, just answer one question: what would you kill for?
Day 1 Prompt - Elf
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pickMost people know about Vegas/jewel-encrusted-jumpsuit Elvis, but what about before he was really famous? This book looks at the first 24 years of his life including his early life in Tupelo, his start in the music business at Sun Records, & it runs up until he was drafted into the US army at the height of his popularity.
so-soThis book looks at the topic of premature interment (a more genteel way of saying buried alive) & some miraculous escapes in the nick of time. To be honest, I'm really not sure what possessed me to read this book, I can't think of something more likely to induce nightmares! It was shocking just how many possible 'premature interments' there may have been, particularly around the time of war or disease. (continued)
so-son the autumn of 1541, Henry VIII is on progress to the North of England & will be staying at York, seat of a rebellion a few years back. Shardlake has already been employed to hear legal cases in the city, but before he leaves he is called before Archbishop Cranmer & given another task. Cranmer wants him to oversee the welfare of a prisoner being transported to London for questioning. (Continued)
pickCaptain MacMasters & his wife return from their vacation & find the body of their 16-year-old daughter. Brutally assaulted & murdered, Deena went through hell before she died, & her parents want Lieutenant Eve Dallas as lead. As the team start to look for the perp, he seems to be one step ahead: fake ID, avoiding CCTV, uploading a virus into the victim's security system, & it looks as if Deena may not have been the only victim he has lined up.
This is my most looked forward to read for next month. Two strangers turn up to an isolated hotel in the midst of a storm, each of them claims to be a police officer called Don Gaines, but only one of them is telling the truth.
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pickThe Pacific Crest Trail is one of the toughest hikes in the US. Running between the Canadian/US border at one end & the US/Mexico border at the other, it totals 2653 miles. Its terrain encompasses whole gamut between deserts & snow-logged trails, minimal signage, & the local wildlife includes rattlesnakes & bears. Still, many people try to thru-hike (travel from one end to the other) [continued]
1. Hot Chocolate topped with cream.
2. Always been Christmas Day for my family to open gifts.
3. No tree at moment due to a pudgy feline.
4. I'm vegetarian so of the options it would be Chinese food, but at home I have a Sunday roast without meat.
5. I've done both but I prefer to stay in.
6. A question of my own at the end - I like both but at present (hyperacusis) it has to be books.
#XmasChaCha #ChristmasChapterChasers
I'm a mood reader & like to have a large list to choose from, so I'll probably read 15-20 of the above.
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@StayCurious
so-soCove & her dive team arrive at the place where the 'Arcadia' is said to have been rediscovered after sinking 60+ years before. Off-course & giving out strange emergency messages, the 'Arcadia' went down leaving no survivors & the mystery of what happens could now be solved by Cove & the others. They are heading down to depths rarely visited to film the wreck & look for evidence as to what happened, but no-one could ever dream of what awaits them.
so-soShort novella which fills in a bit of the background about Cal, a peripheral character from the second book in the main series, Sanctum. It details his initial dealings with the Scarlets, but I'm not sure it added that much to the story to be honest. 3⭐
Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7030330910
Read 24th Nov 2024
pick**Review contains a slight spoiler about a character's death**
One day, unhappy housewife Evelyn visits her mother-in-law at her new nursing home & gets talking to a resident there called Ninny Threadgoode. Well Ninny talks to Evelyn is more like it, but she starts to tell her about her life in Whistle Stop, a small town in Alabama in the 1920s & 1930s.
so-so10 years before: four students disappear whilst on a school trip. They were supposed to complete a short orienteering challenge using a map & compass & passing various checkpoints, but Nathan Brookes, the teacher who was supposed to be keeping an eye on them went to talk to his secret girlfriend, & three of the four have not been seen since. (continued)
pick2024 Review:
Reading these books through again 5 years later is very revealing. I missed a ton of 'Kerwent' subtext the first time around, & knowing what I know about Derwent now, I can see how a lot of his banter & toughness is a front. The case also was a lot more interesting this time around & I've bumped my rating up by 1 star. 4🌟
pickAn account of the 1906 sinking of the 'Valencia', a ship sailing between San Francisco & Seattle with 108 passengers and 65 crew members aboard. Bad weather & human error combined to cause the 'Valencia' to strike a reef off the coast of Vancouver Island which lead to the deaths of 136 people, including all the women & children onboard.
pick17-year-old Persephone (Persey) struggles to live up to her perfect older brother, so when she is the first player to solve a supposedly unsolvable escape room & is invited to take part in the ultimate competition to win millions of dollars, she hesitantly accepts. 8 contestants are flown to Las Vegas to take part in the contest, & tension is high with the prize money at stake. (continued)
pick“No,” said Miss Marple. “You believed what he said. It really is very dangerous to believe people. I never have for years.”
Gwenda arrives in England from New Zealand. She's been sent ahead by her husband to buy a home for them & after several days house-hunting, Gwenda happens upon the charming village of Dillmouth. There is a house there up for sale & it's perfect for Gwenda & husband, Giles, (continued)
pickFrom the families of Augustus to Nero, the imperial mothers, daughters & wives led male-dominated lives & their (tragic) deaths were usually a brutal punishment. The Emperors were cruel & some seemingly depraved & yet it is the women that have come in for the worst criticism.
Overall, although it was a difficult read at times due to the subject matter (misogyny & the casual cruelties women were subjected to), (continued)
pickLast time Alice was in Wonderland, she inadvertently allowed the Knave of Hearts to escape his trial for stealing tarts but when she is recalled there to help track him down, Alice finds out that he wasn't stealing delicious sweet pastries but a very powerful weapon called T.A.R.T.S (Totally Automatic Random Targeting System).
pickA group of Edward Luddenham's nearest & dearest are invited to gather at his home on the North Yorkshire moors on the first anniversary of his mysterious death. All meals & accommodation have been paid for & they are to stay until Christmas Eve when his final Will will be read. For entertainment, each one has been instructed to tell a 'festive mystery story' over the week.
pickIt's best not to know too much about Stuart Turton's books before reading them, then you get the full effect. Suffice to say that a group of 122 villagers live on an island, the last refuge on earth for humans, after a strange fog with killer insects inside took over the planet. Three scientists also live on the island & are responsible for keeping the villagers safe, but one of the villagers (called Emory) knows that something is not quite right.
pickA book about the finding of the wreck of the Titanic in September 1985 & the subsequent expeditions to bring to the surface items such as dining sets, luggage & jewellery. Thousands of items have been recovered & yet so much remains down there & not even the ship's lists give the full picture of the items carried. Rumours have abounded since the beginning about millions of pounds' worth of diamonds & gold being interred in the first class safe.
so-soGrace moves to the country in Devon with her dad for a fresh start after Grace suffered some (unspecified) trouble. They have an ex-service dog called Shelby who has also undergone a trauma of her own. The village is too quiet for Grace but it seems that may not be the whole truth. One night Grace is downstairs having trouble sleeping when the smart speaker (Alexa) in their rented house suddenly switches on & tells her “I'm going to murder you.“
