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oashackelford's Reviews (353)
Roger Ackroyd has been murdered, but by whom? With a diverse cast of suspects, each with their own motives, only the great Hercule Poirot can determine who the true murderer is.
This is one of the mystery novels that Christie writes that "breaks the rules," but she does it in such a fun way that no one seems to have minded when the book came out, and no one seems to mind now.
To be honest, I had less fun reading this one because I had the ending spoiled for me on accident, but I still think that the mystery is incredibly clever and a good read.
This is one of the mystery novels that Christie writes that "breaks the rules," but she does it in such a fun way that no one seems to have minded when the book came out, and no one seems to mind now.
To be honest, I had less fun reading this one because I had the ending spoiled for me on accident, but I still think that the mystery is incredibly clever and a good read.
Peter Grant is at it again, this time battling a heavenly angel? To the naked eye it seems like Peter is fighting with an Angel sent by God to take down the unrighteous, but Peter Grant has met Gods and Goddesses before, and this seems to be something altogether different. To add to his stress, Beverly is due to give birth soon, so it is all he can do to clean up this mess and get back before his twins are born without him.
I liked this adventure a lot more than some of the recent ones. I think I like the ones where he is exploring the limits of magic and doing experiments the best. I also liked that Leslie returns in this one. I do wish that we got some more answers on why the angel was created or what the rings had to do with it, but I still enjoyed it all the same.
This did feel like a finale to me. I hope it isn't because I like reading these and I want to know what Peter is like as a father, but if Ben Aaronovitch is done writing them, then at least he left everyone in a pretty good place. I do wish he had caught Leslie though.
I liked this adventure a lot more than some of the recent ones. I think I like the ones where he is exploring the limits of magic and doing experiments the best. I also liked that Leslie returns in this one. I do wish that we got some more answers on why the angel was created or what the rings had to do with it, but I still enjoyed it all the same.
This did feel like a finale to me. I hope it isn't because I like reading these and I want to know what Peter is like as a father, but if Ben Aaronovitch is done writing them, then at least he left everyone in a pretty good place. I do wish he had caught Leslie though.
John Hammond wants to use science as a way to provided entertainment. in his opinion, it's really the only way to get anything done with science that doesn't come with multiple rounds of red tape. Of course everyone he talks to keeps telling him that his dinosaur park is, "too dangerous" and "will fail immediately". Fortunately, he was never one to let a little negativity stop him from doing exactly as he pleases. Unfortunately, in order to get his investors off of his back he is going to have to take some experts on a a tour of his dinosaur park in order to get approval for things to keep moving forward.
I love the movie Jurassic Park so much, and so I finally decided to read the book. I think the book is so much better than the movie, if only because more people get what they deserve in the book than they do in the movie. I also think that the book did a better job of setting up all the ways in which the park would eventually fail, and it did this by flashing between characters so that the reader had a sense of impending doom that the characters weren't aware that they should be feeling.
I think that the movie was an extremally faithful adaptation of the book, but the book does end up being better in the long run because you get more detail and understanding of what the dinosaurs are, why they are behaving the way that they are behaving, and what can go wrong when humans with a lot of money fall victim to Hubris.
I love the movie Jurassic Park so much, and so I finally decided to read the book. I think the book is so much better than the movie, if only because more people get what they deserve in the book than they do in the movie. I also think that the book did a better job of setting up all the ways in which the park would eventually fail, and it did this by flashing between characters so that the reader had a sense of impending doom that the characters weren't aware that they should be feeling.
I think that the movie was an extremally faithful adaptation of the book, but the book does end up being better in the long run because you get more detail and understanding of what the dinosaurs are, why they are behaving the way that they are behaving, and what can go wrong when humans with a lot of money fall victim to Hubris.
I think that this is the first book that was described as a Jane Austen Regency style book that I actually felt like was a Regency style book.
Dora only has half a soul, which is fine since the only real problem that it has caused so far is that she doesn't feel anything deeply. Not love, or hate, or even anger. This makes her odd and and problem for her Aunt Frances who is trying to marry her own daughter, Vanessa, off to someone in a higher position. Dora is off putting to everyone except to the new Lord Sorcier who is in charge of magic for the crown, and who himself is off putting to everyone around him.
Can the Lord Sorcier help Dora retrieve her lost soul? Can they solve the sleeping plague that seems to been haunting London?
I like that this was a standalone novel because I felt like I got closure at the end of the book instead of being left hanging. That said, I really enjoyed the book and I was a little sad at the end when there wasn't anything else to read. I hope that maybe someday Olivia Atwater will do what Diana Wynn Jones did and write books about other characters who live in the same place, and know the characters that you love, but have their own stories because I really loved the world that she built for this book.
Dora only has half a soul, which is fine since the only real problem that it has caused so far is that she doesn't feel anything deeply. Not love, or hate, or even anger. This makes her odd and and problem for her Aunt Frances who is trying to marry her own daughter, Vanessa, off to someone in a higher position. Dora is off putting to everyone except to the new Lord Sorcier who is in charge of magic for the crown, and who himself is off putting to everyone around him.
Can the Lord Sorcier help Dora retrieve her lost soul? Can they solve the sleeping plague that seems to been haunting London?
I like that this was a standalone novel because I felt like I got closure at the end of the book instead of being left hanging. That said, I really enjoyed the book and I was a little sad at the end when there wasn't anything else to read. I hope that maybe someday Olivia Atwater will do what Diana Wynn Jones did and write books about other characters who live in the same place, and know the characters that you love, but have their own stories because I really loved the world that she built for this book.
In an age where honor and propriety are king you get a lot of individual trapped between their desires and their sense of duty. Newland Archer is an eligible bachelor and he has all of the things in life that should make him happy. He is wealthy, he has a job that does not really require anything of him, and his fiance, May, is young and innocent. Unfortunately she is too innocent and good mannered, because she has no opinions of her own and she only seems to be able to parrot back, and reflect what society wants her to be. She is nice, but boring. Enter Madame Ellen Olenska, May's cousin who has left her abusive marriage to be with her American family. Ellen has seen too many things to pretend to be innocent anymore, and is too "foreign" to keep her opinions to herself. So, of course, when Newland finds himself falling in love with Ellen he feels trapped between her, and his duty to follow through on his marriage with his fiance.
This book is a very interesting look at a kind of societal pressure that we don't really feel in the same way anymore, and yet it is still familiar to us. The challenges that the characters face between doing what is right, and doing what they want, feels like it deserves our empathy, but you do get the feeling that this book is from a time gone by, because at some point you want the characters to shirk their duty and ignore the scandal in order to be happy.
I read this as a way to fill a category in my library's 50 in 50 challenge, but I don't think I would have finished this book otherwise. I think that it is a good commentary on duty, honor and sense of self, but since we don't see things that way anymore, it got frustrating. I personally thought that May deserved a lot more than she was given, and so did Ellen. I know that in the past they both probably settled for what was the best course of action for them to survive and be comfortable, but I think that they deserved better. May deserved a man who actually cared for her, not just one who was duty bound. And Ellen deserved to fully leave her husband and find happiness somewhere else.
This book is a very interesting look at a kind of societal pressure that we don't really feel in the same way anymore, and yet it is still familiar to us. The challenges that the characters face between doing what is right, and doing what they want, feels like it deserves our empathy, but you do get the feeling that this book is from a time gone by, because at some point you want the characters to shirk their duty and ignore the scandal in order to be happy.
I read this as a way to fill a category in my library's 50 in 50 challenge, but I don't think I would have finished this book otherwise. I think that it is a good commentary on duty, honor and sense of self, but since we don't see things that way anymore, it got frustrating. I personally thought that May deserved a lot more than she was given, and so did Ellen. I know that in the past they both probably settled for what was the best course of action for them to survive and be comfortable, but I think that they deserved better. May deserved a man who actually cared for her, not just one who was duty bound. And Ellen deserved to fully leave her husband and find happiness somewhere else.
Five teens going on a fun spring break excursion, what could go wrong? Well, a lot apparently. Red Kenny has a secret, one that no one else is supposed to know, but someone clearly does know it because she and her friends have been targeted by someone to get that secret. Their RV has been attacked and stranded and unless someone comes by to help them soon the attacker is threatening to take them out one by one. That's about the time that Red finds out she isn't even the only teen on this trip that has something to hide, but is anyone else's secret worth killing over?
I really struggled with this book. I loved her other series, and so I thought that this would be fun as well but it took me a really long time to get into this one. I know that she was trying to do like a locked door mystery where no one can leave and it takes a while for the characters to realize why they are there and how futile escape is, but it just seemed really really unplausible. When Agatha Christie invites all of her characters to an island during the stormy season, she knows that there is no way for her characters to leave, this just feels really unlikely. In addition to that, I don't think I really liked any of the characters. I know that you should at least feel some sympathy for Red, but after a while it doesn't have any impact and her character feels very one note.
And now for a spoiler.....
I really struggled with this book. I loved her other series, and so I thought that this would be fun as well but it took me a really long time to get into this one. I know that she was trying to do like a locked door mystery where no one can leave and it takes a while for the characters to realize why they are there and how futile escape is, but it just seemed really really unplausible. When Agatha Christie invites all of her characters to an island during the stormy season, she knows that there is no way for her characters to leave, this just feels really unlikely. In addition to that, I don't think I really liked any of the characters. I know that you should at least feel some sympathy for Red, but after a while it doesn't have any impact and her character feels very one note.
And now for a spoiler.....
Spoiler
I did like the part where the sniper took out Oliver, because he was a psychopath and he deserved to die, but I don't like that Arthur killed Catharine Lavoy. I don't know why but I guess I wanted Red to be able to take her down in a legal way, or at least confront her for the damage that she caused her life. I think that it ended up being a little anti-climactic for me, because I wanted Red to resolve some of the issues that she had in her life.
After the catastrophic events of Jurassic Park, Ian Malcom would like nothing more than to pretend that dinosaurs were never brought back from extinction, and that he hurt his leg some other way. However, when his acquaintance, Richard Levine, starts bringing him evidence that there are dinosaurs on another island in Costa Rica he feels that he must investigate.
Richard Levine is sure that he has found evidence of a Lost World, a world untouched by humanity where he can observe dinosaurs in their native habitat and finally answer paleontology's biggest questions.
I love that bad characters often get their comeuppance in Crichton's novels. I think that it might be one of my favorite things about reading his Jurassic Park books, that all of the really awful characters cannot seem to escape the dinosaurs.
Once again I think that the book outlines the dangers of hubris in man. I think that every time mankind seems to think that they can control the dinosaurs, or tame them, or use them for their own evil misdeeds, they are swiftly and harshly reminded that the dinosaurs have no natural predators for a reason. I kind of like that Michael Crichton has only ever written two of these books because how many times does man need to be taught that the dinosaurs cannot be controlled and that we simply do not know enough about them.
I do wonder why Crichton uses kids in his books. I know that in the first one John Hammond was being selfish and using the kids as a way to get the lawyers off of his back, but in this one it felt like the kids were there so that the adults would have someone to save. I did appreciate that Sarah Harding's character is tough, and not a damsel. Her character feels very real to me, in that she is tough, but it is a result of her work, and she is still feminine, but not in a helpless damsely way.
Once again, I think that the books outshine the movies. The books are able to give you more detail and dialogue than the movie reasonably can, but it is also the reason that they are more satisfying. The Lost World is a very cathartic read and one I would highly recommend for any reader.
Richard Levine is sure that he has found evidence of a Lost World, a world untouched by humanity where he can observe dinosaurs in their native habitat and finally answer paleontology's biggest questions.
I love that bad characters often get their comeuppance in Crichton's novels. I think that it might be one of my favorite things about reading his Jurassic Park books, that all of the really awful characters cannot seem to escape the dinosaurs.
Once again I think that the book outlines the dangers of hubris in man. I think that every time mankind seems to think that they can control the dinosaurs, or tame them, or use them for their own evil misdeeds, they are swiftly and harshly reminded that the dinosaurs have no natural predators for a reason. I kind of like that Michael Crichton has only ever written two of these books because how many times does man need to be taught that the dinosaurs cannot be controlled and that we simply do not know enough about them.
I do wonder why Crichton uses kids in his books. I know that in the first one John Hammond was being selfish and using the kids as a way to get the lawyers off of his back, but in this one it felt like the kids were there so that the adults would have someone to save. I did appreciate that Sarah Harding's character is tough, and not a damsel. Her character feels very real to me, in that she is tough, but it is a result of her work, and she is still feminine, but not in a helpless damsely way.
Once again, I think that the books outshine the movies. The books are able to give you more detail and dialogue than the movie reasonably can, but it is also the reason that they are more satisfying. The Lost World is a very cathartic read and one I would highly recommend for any reader.
Alice's grandmother was a famous author who wrote dark fairy tales about a placed called, "The Hinterland." As a child, Alice was obsessed with finding out more about her estranged grandmother, until her mom scared her off of it for good. Unfortunately for Alice, a being claiming to be from her grandmother's Hinterland has stolen her mother away. Alice, having never read any of her grandmother's stories, must team up with her classmate in order to find out what has taken her mother , and how to get her back.
This book was not at all what I was expecting. I think I was expecting something more like Disney's Enchanted, where a princess was missing from a magical land, and I was not expecting dark, but very compelling, fairytales.
I did enjoy being surprised by this book. I like that as the reader, you know just as much about the fairytales as Alice does, and together you get to learn about them at the same time. I think that this book did a good job of hiding clues to the truth in plain sight. By that I mean that if a character was doing something shady Alice noticed it, and the clues are there that something is off, but you still can't quite guess the whole truth, and I thought that was really fun.
I will say though, that I did end up with more questions than I started with, even though the book seems to resolve itself at the end. I am hoping that in the sequel more of my questions are answered, or that at least the book gives me enough of a direction that I can figure it out myself.
This book was not at all what I was expecting. I think I was expecting something more like Disney's Enchanted, where a princess was missing from a magical land, and I was not expecting dark, but very compelling, fairytales.
I did enjoy being surprised by this book. I like that as the reader, you know just as much about the fairytales as Alice does, and together you get to learn about them at the same time. I think that this book did a good job of hiding clues to the truth in plain sight. By that I mean that if a character was doing something shady Alice noticed it, and the clues are there that something is off, but you still can't quite guess the whole truth, and I thought that was really fun.
I will say though, that I did end up with more questions than I started with, even though the book seems to resolve itself at the end. I am hoping that in the sequel more of my questions are answered, or that at least the book gives me enough of a direction that I can figure it out myself.
Last summer Alice Ogilvie pulled a full-on Agatha Christie. She made herself disappear for five days. Ever since then she has been the town pariah. But when her ex-best friend Brooke disappears from a party on Halloween night, she makes it her mission to get the town, and the police, to take the case seriously. They think that Brooke is just doing a disappearing act, so Alice does her best impression of Poirot to find out what happened to the girl she used to consider a friend.
Iris Adams wants nothing more than to leave this town. Something bad happened last summer and she wants out, but unfortunately for Iris, she's poor. So when Alice asks her to investigate Brooke's disappearance, it does not slip her attention that there is a sizable reward for the capture of Brooke's abductor. It might even be enough to leave this town behind for good.
I think that this book was trying really hard to be Agatha Christie, but it just didn't quite live up to that. I think that by invoking Christie it invited the comparison, but was not able to deliver. As a mystery it is still pretty good though. I think that the writer did a good job of lacing clues pretty seamlessly into the plot so that they were always there for the reader to discover, but not super obvious. Glasgow also did a good job of drawing the reader's attention to other suspects, which made the actual culprit more satisfying at the end.
As I said, I thought that this was a good read, but I did not find it gripping, or that it kept me on the edge of my seat at all. I do appreciate that there were no masked killers in the woods chasing after a group of teens, but I think the pacing could have been reworked a little better. I found that getting through the book was a slog at times, and I listened to the audio book, which usually makes the book feel like it is flowing better.
All told, I will probably check out the characters in the sequel as they were likable and I think that the case she has lined up next sounds pretty fascinating.
Iris Adams wants nothing more than to leave this town. Something bad happened last summer and she wants out, but unfortunately for Iris, she's poor. So when Alice asks her to investigate Brooke's disappearance, it does not slip her attention that there is a sizable reward for the capture of Brooke's abductor. It might even be enough to leave this town behind for good.
I think that this book was trying really hard to be Agatha Christie, but it just didn't quite live up to that. I think that by invoking Christie it invited the comparison, but was not able to deliver. As a mystery it is still pretty good though. I think that the writer did a good job of lacing clues pretty seamlessly into the plot so that they were always there for the reader to discover, but not super obvious. Glasgow also did a good job of drawing the reader's attention to other suspects, which made the actual culprit more satisfying at the end.
As I said, I thought that this was a good read, but I did not find it gripping, or that it kept me on the edge of my seat at all. I do appreciate that there were no masked killers in the woods chasing after a group of teens, but I think the pacing could have been reworked a little better. I found that getting through the book was a slog at times, and I listened to the audio book, which usually makes the book feel like it is flowing better.
All told, I will probably check out the characters in the sequel as they were likable and I think that the case she has lined up next sounds pretty fascinating.
Euphemia Reeves has always been a maid, and she has no problem with hard work. She does have a problem with being mistreated, however, and she and the other household staff have been mistreated for far too long. So when a faerie shows up in the manor she is cautious, her mother always warned her not to make any deals with faeries, but she can't help herself. She makes a deal. If she can marry the man she loves in one hundred days, then she only owes the faerie some embroidery stitches, but if she can't convince her love that she is a lady and get married, then she will have to go back to the land of faerie and be his maid forever.
I have really been enjoying her regency fairy tales. I feel like they are so well thought out, and they don't seem to be related to any fairy tales that I already know, so it is harder to predict the endings, which I like. I feel like I have been reading mysteries for too long, and so I read this book as a sort of pallet cleanser, and I found myself really enjoying the tale and this world that Atwater has built. I am so excited to read the third installment.
Another thing that I like about it is that each tale is separate from the other tales, so you do not have to read them in order to enjoy them. There is a part of me that wishes that she would write these forever, but I am also happy to have the ones that she has already written.
I have really been enjoying her regency fairy tales. I feel like they are so well thought out, and they don't seem to be related to any fairy tales that I already know, so it is harder to predict the endings, which I like. I feel like I have been reading mysteries for too long, and so I read this book as a sort of pallet cleanser, and I found myself really enjoying the tale and this world that Atwater has built. I am so excited to read the third installment.
Another thing that I like about it is that each tale is separate from the other tales, so you do not have to read them in order to enjoy them. There is a part of me that wishes that she would write these forever, but I am also happy to have the ones that she has already written.