Sunday, September 29, 2013

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple kept me wanting more...right up to the end.

I love a book that keeps me wanting more.  The first book that I borrowed from the Charlotte County Library System's new e-book provider 3M Cloud Library had me wishing that I could stay home and keep reading.

Where'd You  Go, Bernadette is the story of 15-year old Bee, her hilariously dysfunctional parents Bernadette and Elgie, and the events that lead up to the disappearance of  Bernadette. Dad works at Microsoft while mom stays home and finds ways to annoy her neighbor, Audrey Griffin.

When Bee brings home her report card with straight A's, her parents are forced to give her "anything she wants" because they promised her they would if she got straight A's.  What Bee wants is to go on a family trip to Antarctica. The problem is, Bernadette is a bit of a recluse. It turns out that she was a famous architect until she had a breakdown due to a neighbor tearing down the famous house that she built all from extremely local building materials.

Between the feud with her neighbor, Audrey and the rest  of the mothers at her daughter's school and Bernadette getting scammed by the Russian mafia through the false virtual assistant, Manjula, that she hires, the story of Bernadette's mania and the inevitable "intervention" and disappearance - this book had me not wanting to go to work, food shopping, get out of bed, because I HAD to find out what was going to happen.  I found myself chuckling one moment and sniffling back a tear the next.  It was a truly enjoyable book.

Thanks for reading.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Something Borrowed, Someone Dead by M.C. Beaton - A great read

I received a copy of Something Borrowed, Someone Dead by M.C. Beaton from NetGalley.com in return for my honest review.

I am late to the Agatha Raisin series by M.C. Beaton.  I see them come and go at the library and always think to myself, "I should try one of these books. They seem popular."  It took book #24, which is set to be released on September 17, to get me started.  Better late than never!

I loved this book.  The characters, including Agatha Raisin, are so quirky and fun. 

Agatha is a private investigator in England.  Due to the current financial climate, business is slow in the P.I. business. That is until Agatha gets called to a nearby village to investigate the murder of Gloria French, a randy widow with a penchant for "borrowing" things.  Everyone in the small village in which the murder occurs seems to be hiding something.  With the help of her employees, her fellow private investigators, and her ex-husband James, Agatha gets to the bottom of the murder and more. 

With enough twists to make a pretzel, this book kept me interested and planning to go back and read the other 23 books in order.

If you like a good British mystery or are a fan of the Agatha Raisin series, you are going to love Something Borrowed, Someone Dead.

Thanks for reading.
Title release date: September 17, 2013
Find it at AmazonBooks-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, your local independent book store, or your library .

Retiring this blog

I am retiring my Blogger blogs.  Starting today, June 16, 2018 my blog posts will be found at  https://thislife225879410.wordpress.com