Angelic Paranoia

I subscribed to the Kobo Plus free trial, which meant I had 30 days (what they call a month...) to read as many books opted into the program as possible. I managed 32, but still have a few series that have more books to read, so may need to pay £9 to do it again sometime when I have time to read them all in 30 days. Here are some of the books I finished that I have something to say about.

What I Just Finished Reading
Unseen by Molly Burke. She's a blind content creator, but neither the blindness nor the content creation were the most interesting parts of this autobiography. It was the first job she had, which was about conference speaking that absolutely exploited all of their workers that was interesting and horrifying.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko by Derek Tyler Attico. I've read the other Star Trek autobiographies, but didn't like this one as much. I'm sure why, maybe because it's something Sisko sent through the wormhole to Jake, which he then publishes. I felt that it might have been more interesting if it was a biography written by Jake.

For Better or Hearse by Laura Durham. I read the first of this series when I found it in Kobo's free books of the first of the series. I thought it was worth trying another. Now I've read the second book in the series it's definitely not worth another one. I just find the characters too overdrawn and it feels like the characterisation has entirely come from the idea that all characters should all have flaws.

The Murdered Matron by DS Lang. The first of this series was a free book a while ago when I acquired a load of cosy historical mysteries. I liked the first one enough to try another, but this one bored me. I just couldn't get into the 1930s American university setting.

Pippa Darling Mysteries 2-9 by Jenna Bennett. The first book was another free cosy historical mystery, but this is set in southern England in 1926, which is very much a setting I'm into. They're not great: they're in a confusing mixture of British and American English (when someone's wearing suspenders at a drag ball it's not clear what piece of clothing it's referring to). The main characters investigate, and discuss it endlessly, but never work out whodunnit. And since each book is set a month apart and all of the murders involve people they know/family, it's a wonder they have any friends/family left.

Captain Randall books 2 & 3 by Elaine Burnes. I read the first book in this series a while ago, so it was very handy that the rest of the trilogy was opted in to Kobo Plus. I did enjoy them, but struggled to get past nearly all the characters in it being female and lesbians. It just felt too much. And it's obvious from the way that the book thinks that women being in charge will fix everything that they know nothing about British politics, where we've conclusively proved that's not the case.

Another Alice by Alice Peterson. This was such a sad story. Alice picks up tennis at what feels like quite old to me, but is really good at it. And then at 18 she's struck down by rheumatoid arthritis and it's a struggle to find something that happens, and just exist. Playing tennis is right out.

Perfect Rhythm by Jae. It turns out this was a romance. There was all sorts of interesting plot the story could have explored, but it was just focussed on the romance. I kept reading it in the hopes that they would come back to any of that plot, but it never happened. Supposedly it was different because they were both lesbians and one was asexual, but it was just like any other romance.

Death Takes a Holiday by Tammie Painter. The summary for this is very similar to another book I enjoyed earlier in the year, but it is completely different. It's Death taking a holiday on Earth, but then people die who aren't supposed to. I enjoyed this, but then it ended suddenly. It turns out this is a trilogy and book two will be out next year.

The Undead Mr Tenpenny by Tammie Painter. This has an interesting premise, but then turns into Harry Potter. Even the main character keeps comparing everything to Harry Potter, although the magic users insist the magic works completely differently. I don't know if I am interested enough in that to read the rest of the series.

Lighthouse Island by EJ Indigo. This needed another read, because it was full of typos, and timeline errors (it's somehow January but New Year is coming up, for example). The story in general was fine, until it got near the end and suddenly turned into a romance where they're clearly going to live happily ever after despite barely knowing each other.

Kate Redman Mysteries books 1-3 by Celina Grace. I read these because books 4-6 were 99p. It's murder mysteries, and those are fine, but I could do without her various body parts doing weird things every time she looks at her boss.

Three Twins at the Crater School by Chaz Brenchley. Even if I hadn't known, I would be able to tell from reading this that the author is a Chalet School fan. This is very much similar, but set on Mars. But a Mars with native flora and fauna and a level of technology similar to the Chalet School. I did enjoy it, but I really wanted to know more about the setting and the background to that.

New Adventures in Space Opera edited by Jonathan Strahan. This was a selection of short stories and very much a mixed bag. Some I enjoyed and some I skipped after the first few pages. They were all pretty missable, really. I would read a few stories, then go to another book and come to this, and repeat, because I didn't mind if I ended up not finishing this one before the trial finished.

What I'm Currently Reading
Kate Redman Mysteries book 4 by Celina Grace. After reading three of them last week, I know what I'm going to getting.

What I'm Reading Next
I have a few library ebook holds about to come in, so those, whenever they turn up.

Mirrored from my blog.

Mirrored from my blog.

What I Just Finished Reading
The Killing Time by Elly Griffiths
I was very excited to read this one, although now I have it means I've read all of her books. I enjoyed this one, but I'm used to being able to read the next/other books in the series pretty quickly and having to wait until the next one comes out is ages.

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
I saw an amateur production of this and realised that I've completely forgotten the book, so I re-read it.

Epically Earnest by Molly Horan
I don't know why this one was on my wishlist. I only finished it because it was short and we were in a heatwave at the time. It's The Importance of Being Earnest but set in a modern day American high school with all the interesting bits taken out.

The Coming of Age of the Chalet School
I had this lying around from GGBP, so I re-read it. The more books I read with Mary-Lou in the more she annoys me. And grown up Joey also annoys me.

A Stocking Full of Spies by Robin Stevens
I keep thinking I'm not going to read any more of these because I'm not that into 12 year olds during the war, but then it was hot and this was an easy read. So I read it. It was quick and easy to read.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
I've seen the BBC adaptation of this and the book explains and expands things that aren't really explained in the series. Although interestingly, the series makes it all out to be about one thing she needs to get right, but the book isn't about that at all. I enjoyed both. But interestingly, there's a sequel to the book that cannot possibly be a sequel to the TV series.

What I'm Currently Reading
The Library by Bella Osbourne
I am enjoying this. It's about a teenager and older woman who become friends via the library.

What I'm Reading Next
The Long Shoe by Bob Mortimer
This library hold came up, because they're like buses. But now I know to expect a Bob Mortimer book to be what you expect from a Bob Mortimer book, I'm looking forward to it.

Mirrored from my blog.

What I Just Finished Reading
Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. I read this in about a day, it was so interesting. The author worked for Facebook and started when she thought it could be a force for good in the world. It was clear pretty early on that it wasn't a good workplace, but she gets used to it. And then it gets worse. And then worse again. And worse. In summary: the people in charge of Facebook don't care about anyone. Not their employees, nor their users, nor people who were hurt (literally) by their algorithms. It's really awful what they did (and are probably still doing). I did know this stuff, at least sort of, but it hits different when reading a first-hand detailed account.

Barry Cryer: Same Time Tomorrow by Bob Cryer. This was really interesting to hear about his life and work. He was just a lovely and funny man who loved people.

Doctor Who: Origin Stories. This got a bit samey after a while - a lot of the stories were companions meeting a Doctor as children and then being made to forget about it. Which just felt a bit pointless. On their own they were fine, but it just me feel like I was reading the same thing over and over again.

The Return of Robin Hood by Paul Magrs. I found this a bit dull. There's nothing specific about it that I didn't like, it just didn't do anything for me.

What I'm Currently Reading
The Twat Files by Dawn French. This is stories from her life where either she behaved badly or made mistakes. It's quite interesting, I just stopped because I had library books to read.

A Witches Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna. I'm enjoying this. I got worried when it was clear there was a love interest, but actually the romance has been okay and not that big a thing. I'm only 30 pages from the end, so I'm confident it's not suddenly going to become one.

What I'm Reading Next
Excitingly, whoever had The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths out of the library has brought it back. I just need to finish the library books I have and hopefully this will still be there when I go. And then after I've read that, I'll read The Great Deceiver by Elly Griffiths, the last in the series, which I own but decided to save for last.

Mirrored from my blog.

What I Just Finished Reading
The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths. According to her website this is a atandalone book, but one of the investigators is DS Kaur, who was in the previous book. And next two. Not that it matters, I enjoyed this one anyway.

The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths. The next one in the Brighton 1950s series. I'm really enjoying these. Plus, after this one the rest are in my local library, so I can get them for free (as long as someone else isn't reading one).

Esther is Now Following You by Tanya Sweeney. It took me a little while to get into this. It's about someone who starts obsessively following an actor and builds up this whole idea in her head about how he'd meet her and instantly fall in love. Which, of course, is never going to happen. But it was fascinating, and going back to the beginning of her story it was believable how she ended up in that situation.

What I'm Currently Reading
Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths. The next Harbinder Kaur one. I'm enjoying it.

What I'm Reading Next
White Male Stand-Up by Alan Davies. Annoyingly discovered it's a hard back when I picked it up from the library. I read his previous autobiography about his childhood and it was interesting, so I expect this one will be too.

Doctor Who: The Adventures After. Also annoyingly a hardback. Since this is short stories I expect some of them to be better than others because that's how it usually goes.

Mirrored from my blog.