Book: Everyone In This Bank Is A Thief

 Book: Everyone In This Bank is a Thief

Author: Benjamin Stevenson

Pages: 368

This is my 85th read for the year

What Amazon Says:  

I've spent the last few years solving murders.  But a bank heist is a new one, even for me.  I've never been a hostage before.  The doors are chained shut.  No one in or out.  Which means that when someone in the bank is mudered, everyone is a suspect.  The bank roober, the manager, the security guard, the kid, the film producer, the priest, the receptionist, the patient, the caergiver, me.  Turns out, more than one person planned to rob the bank today.  You can steal more from a bank than just money.

This is my 4th Benjamin Stevenson book, and it was just as enjoyable as the others.  I like his books, his main character - Ernie - and the snarky commentary that always appears in his writing.  He is a good writer, and I like his mysteries.  Good character development.  This book lost a half a star for me only because I didn't love the direction he took Erine for a bit in this book, but he redeemed it with the ending.

Stars: 4.5

Book: Murder at the Church Picnic

 Book: Murder at the Church Picnic

Author: Denise Jaden

Pages: 359

This is my 84th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Mallory Beck never imagined she'd be Honeysuckle Grove's next amateur slueth.  After all, she was more at home with a muffin tin than a magnifying glass.  But when a casserole delivery to a grieving family leads to her unexpctedly solving her first murder, Mallory realizes life in her quiet little town isn't as peaceful as it seems.  What was supposed to be a simple contribution to the church picnic potluck quickly spirals into a deadly mystery, involving a sarcastic teenager, a charming cop with green eyes, and a cat with an uncanny knack for sniffing out trouble.  Can Mallory uncover the truth before the picnic turns into a full-blown crime scene?  It's a race against time in this cozy culinary caper!

This was a great little book.  I found it because for a reading challenge I needed a book with a picnic basket on the front - which was harder to find than I realized.  But I stumbled upon this book and it was a gem!  It is well written, and a good mystery, and some good characters.  This is a second book in a series - and while it was fine to read it without reading the first, it might have helped a little bit with background on the characters.  But only a little.  Author did a good job not adding too much to this book to make it impossible to follow if you don't read in order.

Stars: 4

Book Piranesi

 Book: Piranesi

Author: Susanna Clarke

Pages: 272

This is my 83rd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls lined with thousands upon thousands of statues.  Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; and waves thunder up staircases, while rooms are flooded in an instant.  But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself.  He lives to explore the house.  There is one other person in the house - a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowlege.  But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

This was an interesting book.  I read Susanna's tome "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (and watched the show which helped clear some things up), so I was interested to read another one of her books. Thankfully this one was a lot shorter.  It is an interesting tale, and even with its short length, it took some concentration to follow the story to the end.  This is not a skimmable book.  The world Piranesi has built is an interesting one but also one that was hard to understand his love for at the same time.  I kind of knew where it was going after while, but it became clearer near the end.

Stars: 4

Book: Rain Before Rainbows

 Book: Rain Before Rainbows

Author: Smriti Prasadam-Halls

Pages: 32

This is my 82nd read for the year

What Amazon Says: 

In this heartfelt story about courage, change, and moving on, a girl and her companion fox travel together away from a sorrowful past, through challenging and stormy times, toward color and light and life.  Along the way they find friends to guide and support them, and when the new day dawns, it is full of promise.  With gorgeous, richly realized illustrations and immense hope at its heart, Rain Before Rainbows holds out a ray of sunshine for anyone looking for light.

Cute book I read for a reading challenge.

Stars:4

Book: Winterdance - The Fine Madness of Running The Iditarod

 Book: Witerdance - The Fine Madness of Running The Iditarod

Author: Gary Paulsen

Pages: 272

This is my 81st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Fueled by a passion for running dogs, Gary Paulsen entered the Iditarod - the 1180 mile sld-dog race through the Alaskan wilderness - in dangerous ignorance and with a fierce determination.  For 17 days, he and his team of dogs endured blinding wind, snowstors, frostbite, dog fights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, hallucinations - and the relentless push to go on.

This was a good book.  I have always been interested in the Iditarod, and it was neat to read about it from a first hand view of someone who did this race as a rookie.  How he trained, how he found the dogs he wanted to use, and the rules of the race and care of the dogs.  It is amazing what these dogs can do - especially the lead dog.  I think about my two lazy doodles and cannot even imagine them being able to drag us around the yard let along 1180 miles.  Pretty cool

Stars: 4

Book: The Mystery Knight

 Book: The Mystery Knight

Author: George RR Martin

Pages: 160

This is my 80th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Westeros is eerily peaceful.  King Aerys I sits on the Iron Throne.  A ravaging plague has abated.  Yet beneath te surface, tensions linger 16 years after a failed rebellion.  In these restless times, noble hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall - Dunk, to his friends - and his precocious boy squire, Egg, travel the Seven Kingdoms performing chivarlrous deeds, though Egg's bloodline must be concealed at all costs.  After heading north for Winterfell, Dunk and Egg are lured off the kingsroad by a wedding feast - and an unusuall lucrative tournament.  The champion jouster will claim a rare trophy indeed: a dragon's egg.  Dunk, always better in a melee, would be satisfied with a hot meal, a cup of wine, and a purse full of coins.  But a treasonous plot is more likely to hatch before another dragon ever stretches its wings.  Someone's on to Egg. And a mystery knight with designs on an even bigger prize soon throws the entire affair into chaos.

This was a good graphic novel.  I will read anything in the Game of Thrones world, and since this year there was the HBO show "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" which was about the two main characters in these novels, it may be get back into them.  It is a well written story, and I do like graphic novels.  Especially when it comes to fantasy worlds - gives good insight into the mind of George RR Martin.  This is the 2nd book in this series.  

Stars: 4

Book: Direction of the Wind

 Book: The Direction of the Wind

Author: Mansi Shah

Pages: 318

This is my 79th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Sophie Shah was six when she learned her mother, Nita, had died. For 22 years, she shouldered the burden of that loss.  But when her father passes away, Sophie discovers a chache of hidden letters revealing a shattering truth: her mother didn't die.  She left.  Nita Shah had everything most women dreamed of in her hometown of Ahmedabad, India - a loving husband, a doting daughter, financial security - but in her heart, she felt like she was living a lie.  Fueled by her creative ambitions, Nita moved to Paris, the artists capital of the world - even though it meant leaving her family behind.  But once in Paris, Nita's decision and its consequences would haunt her in ways she never expected.  Now that Sophie knows the truth, she's determined to find the mother who abandoned her.  Sophie jets off to Paris, even though the impulsive trip may risk her impedning arranged marriage.  In the City of Light, she chases lead after lead that help her piece together a startling portrait of her mother.  Though Sophie goes to Paris to find Nia, she may just also discover parts of herself she enver knew.

Stars: 2