Tag: mysteries

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Best of List Books Watchlist

Mid-Year Check In: Best of 2024 So Far

I am ready to write bad angsty poetry on my never-ending reading/ blogging slump! Still, somehow, pushing myself to do this mid-year 2024 blogpost on stuff I have liked till now.

Let’s all pledge to move out of Slump Valley! And just in case these recs reach you, hope you’ll like some of these.

1 / The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

    I have not been a great fan or follower of the Grishaverse, so was hesitant in picking this up. But what a marvelous story this turned out to be. We peer into the ages of 16th century when anti-semitism was rife. Luzia is desperately trying to escape her confined pitiful life with her displays of magical craft… but soon ends up getting embroiled in a larger political net. Everything in this book was so impressive – the Spanish Golden Age/ Renaissance feel, the worldbuilding, the writing, the prose, the characterizations. Aaaaand, it is a standalone. If you’ve liked Mistress of the Art of Death, you’ll love this one too.

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    Books Starred Recommendations

    December Wrap-Up

    Three great December reads — all mysteries, all within this month, and all pretty good! I am already adding some of them to my Best of 2023 list.

    Night Will Find You by Julia Heaberlin

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Phenomenally well-written, terse suspense. Astronomer Vivvy Bouchet also has unsettling psychic insight and gets pulled into looking for a missing girl by cops. Is she a quack or is it real – nobody can make up their mind about it. As a narrator, Vivvy is unusually talkative but also just a bit unreliable, and this makes her a supremely interesting character. Equally interesting is her public fight with a cult-ish conspiracy podcaster Bubba Guns.
    The tense pacing of the first half dwindles later, but Heaberlin still manages a very decent wrap-up at the end. I hear  the book’s already up for TV adaptation. And with a title like that, how can you possibly ignore this book? Highly recommended!

    Wherever She Goes by Kelley Armstrong

    Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

    Another solid thriller from Armstrong. Recently divorced single mother Aubrey Finch believes she has spotted a kidnapping, but nobody wants to believe her. But Finch has other ghosts from her past, which compel her to pursue the case and in the process, reveal her own ghosts to the public eye. The pacing is excellent. If you can ignore the fact that most of Armstrong’s heroines seem very alike, you will like this one — not as much as the Rockton series, but still quite engrossing.

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    Books Watchlist

    Mini Reviews / Last Quarter(s) Wrap-Up

    Mini Reviews

    What’s been cooking for the past few months? Er, past few quarters (since my last mini reviews date back to pre-July)? At least for me, the last 2 months fared way better for my reading than the rest of the year, so I am thankful for that. All in the name of conquering Mount TBR!

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    Best of List Books Memes

    Ten Deliciously Dark Reads

    Happy Halloween! And right on cue, we have Top 10 Tuesday giving out a Halloween freebie treat. I’m by no means a horror fan, but I will try to wrap up the month with top 10 spooktastic and deliciously dark reads.

    1 / The Shepherd King series by Rachel Gillig

    Phenomenally gothic and creepy. This duology took me completely by surprise and got me out of my reader’s block. Absolutely mindblowing world-building, plot AND writing.

    2 / The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

    In Udolpho, young Emily St. Aubere finds herself orphaned and in the clutches of her wicked uncle-in-law, Montoni. Montoni is up to no good, and more than one skeleton hides in his closet. This is Gothic suspense at its finest, and is highly recommended.

    3 / Cry Baby Hollow by Aimee Love

    I found this on Goodreads for lesser known Urban Fantasy reads. One of the reviewers said that the “Hollow” was for “holler” — and this is not about your friendly neighborhood wolf. It was such a change from the usual Urban Fantasy, recommended.

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    Miscellany

    Monthly Wrap Up (May-June ’23)

    This will probably be the world’s shortest wrap-up. Still, I do need to keep tabs on what I’ve read or watched in the past few months, so here it goes.

    A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers. Historical with (possibly) SFF elements as it plays with the question of who is a true psychic and who is just a quack. Heroine is rescued from prison to speak to a client’s dead wife, but is she the real deal? The suspense builds up splendidly but the ending felt needlessly convoluted. Works well overall for a Gothic mood read.

    Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. I’ve seen reviews likening this to Hunger Games + Sarah J. Maas. I thought it was a lot like Divergent + Dragonflight, and let’s face it, very very tropey. In any case, it was enjoyable but made me think I’m too old for this.

    The Fallen Idol (1948). Old British thriller full of unreliable narrators declaring that “the butler did it” (do you believe them?). There’s this one critical scene that I had to go back and rewatch at least thrice to understand how it changed everything. Seriously, kids say the darnedest things!

    Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. A neighbor persuaded me into watching this one with her. Despite my I’m-too-old-for-this grumpiness, I managed to laugh my way through this one. If you’ve seen the movie, you know that Wolf is QUITE scary. I particularly loved This is the End song (above).

    Also binge-watched a couple of Asian dramas on Netflix: Who Rules the World and Till the End of the Moon. Lots of fantasy martial arts and villainous scheming, a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. If you’re new to Asian dramas, probably not the best place to start. But they’re great for stress-busting.

    That’s it for May-June ’23! Pretty bad reading stats for this year so far, but I still have hopes for the rest of the year.

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    Miscellany Recommendations Watchlist

    First Quarter Wrap-Up +Movie Recs

    Well, it’s been more than a quarter, but it’s just easier to sum up that way! I’m still not getting much reading done, but at least I managed to find some really good movies. Here’s a wrap-up for the first quarter.

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    Books Miscellany Recommendations Watchlist

    Last Quarter 2022 Wrap-Up

    Here’s a quick wrap-up of what I read and watched in the last quarter 2022. I found a few great shows even though I read very little. And now we are already gearing up for 2023. How time flies!

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    Recommendations Watchlist

    Movie Review: The Inugami Family

    The Inugami Family (Japanese Movie)
    Year of Release: 1976
    Director: Kon Ichikawa
    Based on the Book: The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo
    Recommended for fans of: Gothic, Foreign Period Dramas, Eerie Mysteries, A touch of Horror, Brilliant Plot, Golden Age of Detective Fiction

    Some time back, Words & Peace had recommended The Inugami Curse and I’d wanted to read the book ever since. I decided to take the shortcut when I accidentally discovered there was a subtitled movie adaptation too.

    It’s a superb plot. The patriarch of the Inugami family clan dies, leaving behind several competing successors and a really crazy will. I don’t think it’s giving away spoilers to say that the will goes along the lines of “If A dies, B gets the property. If B dies, C gets the property….” It’s like the dreadful old man was setting them all up to murder, starting with A! Along the way there are some red herrings – the challenge is to identify which ones are red herrings and which ones are not.

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    Books Music & Poetry Recommendations Watchlist

    Tri-Monthly Wrap-Up/ Mini Reviews

    Is “tri-monthly” the right word? June, July, August — loads of books and shows that I discovered and even liked (wonder of wonders)! Interestingly, in pretty much all of these, I also found that the blurb or the trailer had been misleading. Here’s a (long post) wrap up.

    Castle Barebane by Joan Aiken

    Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

    A rather strange and underrated historical fantasy work set in the 1880s involving a “road trip” from New York to Scotland. The journalist heroine sets out to help her odd brother (and also escape her marriage). Then she finds herself embroiled in a blackmail plot and with her young nephew and niece in tow. This book really defies genre and age groupings. The suspense is slow to build-up, the “fantasy” part is very, very subtle. I even thought there was some LGBTQ representation in this 1976 book. Also historically accurate, as can be expected from Aiken.

    Why didn’t they ask Evans?

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    A very quirky new adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s more complex mysteries. This cryptic question changes every time: Why didn’t they ask Evans? Why didn’t they ask Evans? Why didn’t they ask Evans? Wait at least till Episode 2 for the show to really get going.

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    Memes Watchlist

    10 Recent Book to Screen Adaptations

    Since most books these days have both prologues and epilogues, this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic didn’t really ring a bell for me. Instead, I’m just gushing about 10 recent screen adaptations of books. Just in case you want to add to your watchlist….

    [1] The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry ⎮ Apple TV

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