The Other Typist
The Other Typist is one of the most interesting books I’ve read this year. A little slow (surprisingly so) but otherwise, excellent.
Twisty, turny, and throw in some girl crush for good measure.
Now…. who did it? Rose or Odalie?
Mystery
Brew to a Kill
I was in a reading rut so I figured a cozy about coffee might help. It didn’t. It took me days and days and days to read Brew to a Kill.
It was amusing in places. Slow in others. At first I thought I knew “who dun it” but then decided I was wrong. Turns out I was right after all.
The best part of the story was the food truck storyline — you’d think it would have been the coffee/coffee house setting, right? Nope. Food trucks. Food trucks are fascinating. (I priced food trucks a couple of days ago, lol. Anyone want to go into the Food Truck biz with me?)
We could have a Balikbayan Box food truck, lol, (which was also an interesting, to me, part of the story — the Filipino references, that doesn’t happen often in cozies.)
Nevermore
I read Nevermore because TW said it was good. Also because while she was reading it she asked me weird questions about Davy Crockett and Edgar Allen Poe and also because we listened to the Davy Crockett song about 15 times while she was reading. I couldn’t pass it up.
And damn, I’m glad I read it.
I chuckled all of the way through it. I like Poe. I like Crockett. I like Poe and Crockett together. They should have a TV series. Maybe also fight zombies together. It would be awesome. This book was awesome. (Except the creepy parts where Poe was crushing on his cousin… I know, I know… still creepy and really especially so in this book. Thankfully it didn’t happen so often that I had to throw the book across the room.)
Black Water Rising
After I read Attica Locke’s The Cutting Season I decided I should go back and read Black Water Rising – before the next “Jay Porter” book is released and I’m glad I did. I don’t read a lot of suspense/mystery stuff (TW was surprised when I pulled this out of the library book return bag because I haven’t read it), not because I don’t like them but because they are so often series and those series can seem sort of redundant. (I won’t read James Patterson because once you’ve read three, you’ve read them all – at least that’s how I feel about it.)
I liked this story – I liked Jay Porter. I liked the Houston setting. I’m not sure I liked the early ‘80s time period, particularly since there’s going to be another book (and more after that, maybe?) Gas was $1.37 and expensive… Yes, I remember those days but it’s a nostalgia thing and causes me to roll my eyes a little now, (after paying $3.45 for gas yesterday.)
I’ll probably give her next Jay Porter book a try but odds are slim that I’ll keep reading if she keeps writing this particular series.
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With a Name Like Sparkle Hayter….
I reserved Nice Girls Finish Last and Revenge of the Cootie Girls because I saw the cool pulp fiction-y covers on the library’s recently reviewed spinner. I am a sucker for a good pulp fiction style cover. And once they arrived, I noticed they were written by Sparkle Hayter. Hahaha. I love her name. I love it so much that I actually own Naked Brunch (but have never managed to read it.)
I was a little unhappy when I realized Nice Girls Finish Last was not the first book in the series. I do not like reading books out of order. But, I didn’t have anything else handy that I really felt like reading and I figured I’d take a shot. I still wish I’d read them in order but I enjoyed both of these books a lot. Enough that I’m thinking about reserving the rest of the books in the series. I like Robin. She’s a great character and her supporting cast is pretty darn good, too.
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Double Dexter
We just finished Double Dexter on audio – Jeff Lindsay does a fabulous job of reading Dexter. He really does. I think that might be why I never could get into the TV series, well that and the fact that the TV show is so different from the books. I just plain love the books. It was nice to see Astor get a wee bit of play time in a book, that was excellent.
I have one tiny complaint – Rita is getting worse with each book and Dexter’s ridicule of her is getting a wee bit ugly. Not necessary. It just is not necessary at all.
Mozart’s Last Aria
How did Mozart really die? Was he poisoned? And by whom? And why? Mozart’s Last Aria is about Mozart’s sister and her efforts to find the answers to those questions – and in the process, we see Mozart as a bit of a radical feminist, which was kind of nifty. Fun little whodunit and Madame Mozart is fabulous, as are all of the female characters in the book. The guys aren’t bad, but it’s the women who are best – much like in The Magic Flute…
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Belly Up
People in my house kept asking me if I was reading a book about a hippo. Or why I was reading a book about a hippo. Or why was that hippo DEAD? I don’t think I’ve gotten as many questions about a book, from a cover, in ages. Which means – Belly Up had an excellent cover.
These discussions also led me to realize I don’t read many middle grade mysteries. It’s always scifi/fantasy. Or relationship-y stuff.
Belly Up was good and deserved a place on the Cybils shortlist. A little slow to start but I really liked Teddy and I liked that he was an animal expert and adults should listen to kids more often.
Creep
Last week TW was mumbling about a book creeping her out. I was surprised because not many books creep her out. I’m the one with corn field issues and stuff. Then, we were in the car and a Radiohead song came on. She said, “I’m glad they aren’t playing Creep” which confused me because I like Creep. I could not imagine any circumstance where I would be unhappy to hear Creep on the radio. I shrugged it off and just chalked it up to being a weird TW thing that could not ever really be explained – or understood.
And then I started reading Creep.
I guess I understand why it creeped her out. Though oddly enough, it didn’t really creep me out. No cornfields, I guess. It wasn’t til the end when I figured out why Creep, the song, was on TW’s creeped out list. That… was pretty creepy. Well maybe not creepy, just ugly.
The book was good in a bad things happen to good people (and to sex addicts, as well) kind of way. Nice little twist at the end – we should all remember that homeless people are not STUPID and when they tell you someone is BAD, maybe you should consider the possibility. I’m not creeped out by listening to Creep (I tried it earlier today just to be safe) and I wouldn’t mind reading the sequel because it sure seems like there’s going to be a sequel.
Ink Flamingos
I downloaded Ink Flamingos to my Kindle app, which annoyed TW since she does not like e-books but she does like the Tattoo Shop Mysteries. I couldn’t help it, I really wanted to read it and I think it would be a good book to read in airports and on planes, which it sort of was – I read about half of it during the trip to/from BlogHer 11 (and that’s pretty much the only thing I read for an entire week!)
I really like The Tattoo Shop Mysteries and I mostly like Brett but sometimes I just want to kick her. She’s so awesome and then she does something really stupid – like drink absinthe with a guy she doesn’t even like. What would lead her to make such a stupid mistake? She’s not a stupid woman. Whatever. I got passed that and appreciated the role the flamingo tattoo played in the mystery.
Hmm. Maybe that’s the tattoo I should get… a flamingo, just like Dee’s.