Almost Bookless July

01 - The universe didn't want me to finish reading too many books even though I did started on a lot of them. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for reading. Here's two books I finished in July:

A) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie > link
I didn't guess who the murderer was but I did think it could be any of the ten people which I supposed is the point of the book. Every one of the ten characters are unlikable and I didn't care who lives or dies. I just wanted to know who the murderer was. The ending was kind of a letdown. I don't think of this as a mystery, more like a murderer's confession. I supposed if you read the epilogue first, then there's no reason to read the story at all.
    Summary: The epilogue, I think, is really the story. But this was still good but it sometimes feels like I'm reading a play instead of a novel since this is mostly consisted of dialogues - external and internal.

B) And Then There Were Nuns (League of Literary Ladies Book 4) by Kylie Logan > link
I didn't read the first three books which I don't think makes a difference. I had started reading this first before Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None but midway, when they started talking about that book's plot, I decided I needed to read that first and it was a good idea because this book gives away everything about And Then There None.
    You think with a title like And Then There Were Nuns, this would be a fun book but nope. Aside from making fun of the nuns as looking like penguins in the very first chapter, there was no fun.
    The narrator and main character, Bea, seems set on reminding the reader she had really good sex with some guy named Levi and for four chapters, we are reminded of this and she even thought about it while talking to the nuns. But then she acted like a child around Levi after they found out about each other's secret. And her thoughts of Levi comes up a lot so you will be kind of stealthy reminded of what they did throughout the book.
    The writing is sort of like Bea talking to a friend or a fan because she seems very keen on making the reader understand her by adding additional comments as if we must know she didn't mean this or that or perhaps she wants readers to know she's a good person which I suppose she is, just maybe annoyingly too full of her own intelligence.
    Bea writes horror books (which no one seems to know about until this fourth book) and that's why she's good at solving mysteries - clearly, being a writer and having some intelligence means you can solve mysteries because you're Bea. So in the first three books, she had solved a few mysteries so the town's people thinks she can do it again. Even the sheriff asks for her help in solving the murder. I think it's strange that he thinks talking to nuns is a delicate matter and so he asks Bea to do it. These nuns are human beings - does anyone here know that? At first, Bea thought nuns are saints and couldn't possibly commit murder but then she changed her mind. Honestly, for someone who is supposed to be intelligent and seems to have lived two or more decades and is a writer, you would think she knows nuns aren't born nuns.
    So Bea is the main, main character and I guess it makes sense everything revolves around her but she seems to be doing the police's job. So yes the sheriff asked for her help but she might as well be the boss. So maybe they give some brains to the sheriff now and then but basically they are saying police and other people are incompetent compared to Bea. I find Bea condescending to her friends, to the sheriff and even to her guests at her B&B. When she describes people, she's quite insulting or does saying someone's head as bullet-shaped, face as bland as khakis, a Pillsbury Doughboy with a smile to match as good comparison?   
    There's not only the love drama of Bea but also the bits of drama between Bea and her three women friends. I don't even think are friends. They are like Bea's entourage since even though they had jobs and their own lives, they keep coming around to help Bea. I don't know how one person can run a B&B especially since she spends so much time solving murders but perhaps since her friends keeps coming around to help her, that must be how she does it.
  I was a little surprised who the murderer was since they came and went almost as if they didn't matter. It was only at the end with the last clue, then it was revealed who it was. Why didn't they go into hiding after committing the deed? The only reason I can think of is they wanted to be caught especially by Bea since they stupidly shows up at her place. I kind of wanted one of the nuns to be the murderer because why let the readers spent so much time with these nuns only to have the murderer be someone else? So what if that someone is related to the nuns, I just think it came out of nowhere, like a twist for no reason other than being a twist though there are already a few twists before the reveal.
    And the book cover? Yes there is a cat in the story but he is not involved in anything and all he does is annoy Bea and her B&B guests. The only reason I think he is in this book and the rest of the series is so they can have a cat on the cover because he certainly didn't do anything important or worth mentioning aside from looking cute.
    Summary: This might have been enjoyable if we are spared of the love drama of the main character as it seems to take over the book because every time the Levi character shows up or is mentioned, the main character Bea seems to dip in intelligence and maturity and yes, his name came up a lot (178 times so said my kindle). And so many food descriptions as if it's necessary to tell us each meals the nuns and Bea and her B&B guests eats - this is not even a food-related mystery. I thought it would have been better if the murderer was one of the nuns since the title of the book seems to suggest this but apparently, we are to protect the innocence of nuns everywhere even though I think the title makes fun of nuns. And those who haven't read Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None know there are spoilers for that book here.

02 - I'm behind in commenting on blogs again. I don't know if I should feel sorry about that or not. I might have been a little lazy because of the heat but that's just an excuse. Summer is always hot, that is nothing I haven't experienced so I can't really say why I sometimes just slack off for no reason, I just do. I don't think I'll ever catch up with commenting so I'll comment when I want to.

03 - I changed my header again but that's not much of a surprise. I don't know. I just wanted to change it.

04 - I watched a lot of book binding videos on youtube because I thought I could fix one of my hardcover books that had a loose spine and loose pages. It did look pretty easy. It seems book binding involves a lot of glues so now I think sniffing books means you're sniffing glues which is probably why some people are addicted to smelling books. But of course it's not all true since old books had their old smells that is not all glues. I'm thinking now I don't ever want to smell books unless they smell like apples or chocolate.

05 - I brought Matt Nathanson's latest album, Boston Accent (in digital format) and it was pretty good. I only listened to the album twice so I can't really judge until I have at least heard it a few more times. At the moment, I quite like the songs. Listen to samples at youtube.

How was your July? Are you having a nice August?