Just catching up on the thread after a crazy week at work, cleaning up the mess of other people, who thanked me by trying to blame me to my manager’s manager.
Welcome to the new joiners, this is definitely the best thread on mumsnet, although it will most likely result in a spike in your book purchasing!
Glad all is going well with the little one @GrannieMainland and hope you are managing in this heat.
Good to see you @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie and hope things are getting better for you.
@HagCymraeg I’m sorry to hear about your loss. Grief is complex and the grief that comes after a difficult relationship is all the more challenging, because you have the grief for what could have been and will never be to deal with as well.
@AliasGrape sorry to hear about your hospital visits, not fun at the best of times, but doubly so in this weather. I hope you are on the mend now.
Another one who had my gallbladder out a few years ago, one of the best things I ever did. I felt so much better after that.
Interested in the Toibin chat as I have Brooklyn on my TBR pile but I read The Blackwater Lightship earlier this year and really liked it.
I do have some reviews, but because of the heat and having little headspace because of the work situation they’ve all been more ‘easy reads’.
62 Beneath Devil’s Bridge by Loreth Anne White
This was a kindle unlimited book, which is where I get my fix of crime / thriller books most of the time now. It’s based on a true crime that occurred in the 90s; the murder of a teenage girl whose parents were Asian immigrants, and who never managed to fit in. Leena Rai is desperate to fit in, and does silly things to try to do so, but can never manage it. This is less to do with her ethnicity and more to do with the fact that she’s not pretty - brown skin the teenagers can forgive, but physical imperfection they will not. The story is a dual timeline set just before / after the murder, and 20 years later when a podcaster begins investigating the crime. The catalyst for the story is that the confessed murderer, Leena’s teacher, is now claiming that he is innocent. We see the viewpoint of a number of people, including the detective who investigated and who is Mum to one of Leena’s classmates, and the podcaster.
I thought this was pretty well done, but the fact I was familiar with the real life case meant that I was not surprised by the reveal. That said the author added enough of her own spin on things to make it interesting and the exploration of Leena’s loss on the family who loved her, and the town that didn’t was well done. It’s as much of an examination of the cruelty of teenagers as of a crime,and the sad fact that, as too many of us know, if you can just get past those teenage years then often the bullied come into their own. Sadly Leena, and her real life counterpart, never had that chance.
63 The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado
64 A Different Dawn by Isabella Maldonado
65 The Falcon by Isabella Maldonado
This trilogy follows one of the BAU teams from the FBI as they investigate 1) a serial killer who kills teenage girls who resemble one of the team, who escaped said serial killer over a decade ago. 2) a recently discovered serial killer who annihilates entire families (mother, father and newborn), and have been getting away with it for over 20 years by framing the mother. 3) a serial killer who preys on young women at college and who seems able to manipulate technology so that he is not seen.
These weren’t bad, with the second being my favourite. That said, the connection to one of the team stretched credulity somewhat, but I think you have to suspend that to an extent with this type of book. Less easy to get past was the depiction of SA in the first book, where I definitely felt the author could have achieved the same aims without being quite so graphic.
66 When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
This is a children’s book that I managed to miss when I was actually a child. It’s one of a selection I bought DD in an effort to find something to get her interested in reading (it turns out that her gateway drug was manga) and picked up myself a couple of nights ago. This is a semi-autobiographical account of her family’s flight from Germany when the Nazis came to power by the author Judith Kerr, who is probably best known for the Mog the Cat books. I thought this was a great book and a good way to introduce children to the impact of Nazism on those who opposed them. The fact that Anna and her parents have a relatively ‘easy’ time of it, in that they see which way the wind is blowing and get out of dodge (or Germany) just before the Nazis come to power definitely helps with this. That’s not to say that Anna and her family don’t have their issues and struggles, suffering financially and having to move to three different countries as refugees. But as Anna herself (and the author in her afterword) says she never felt like she was suffering as her family was all there together.
67 The Appeal by Janice Hallett
I think a lot of you have read this book where the reader, along with two newly qualified solicitors, to read through the evidence of a murder trial (mostly in the form of emails) to determine who was responsible. As someone who has read a lot of crime books this was an interesting approach. At first I thought the fact that pretty much everyone in this was thoroughly unlikable, along with my pet hate of alpha people being enabled in their poor treatment of people, was going to mean that this was not for me.
Overall I did enjoy this, although the plot device of nudging the reader along, and telling them what to focus on via the assessment of the two new solicitors, really set my teeth on edge as I do not like to be told what to do or think. It was good enough that I’ll probably read more by the author but not one of my favourites.