I put in the spoiler alert text in red but is it useful? It's difficult to decide sometimes what is spoiler and what isn't. I think you cannot write your thoughts on certain books without some spoilers so yes, spoilers for all the books I mentioned here.
Here are all the books I read in September and other stuff I finished.
Books I Read:
What's it about: death of a teenage boy, investigation, teenagers, family, old crimes
This is like two books in one but the same story told twice - one in the victim's point of view (Joel, which was told in the present tense which is odd but acceptable) and the other is the investigation with various point of views, mostly Hanna's (a cop). It seemed like one of the views is redundant. I don't like going back and forth, it cuts off the continuation of the story each time.
I'm annoyed by how much useless information and how many detours the book made before getting to the end. Also, Hanna's father's crime/case hung over the entire book as it was constantly mentioned, constantly thought about by Hanna but of course no resolution but will probably be the last case of the series. But I do find that case more interesting than Joel's case.
Also, they kept mentioning Hanna's height (over 6 feet) and that annoys me because she really had no personality other than her height, her father's crime and also being awkward around everybody. This is a socially, awkward woman who got a bit too emotional when she shouldn't and her so-call great cop skills were mentioned but never utilized. Basically throughout the book, she was trying not to break down and sob. I don't think she's fit to be a cop, at least, she shouldn't be working Joel's case.
I wouldn't call this is a murder mystery or even a thriller, it's mostly about people and their emotions and thoughts. I guess titling this as The Night Singer seemed almost meaningless considering that was barely referenced twice but I guess in a way, it gives a certain mystery. I honestly expected something vile or ultra-violent or something unexpectedly better than this ending with that large knife shape on the cover. What actually happened was underwhelming and dumb and I wouldn't call it murder. I don't like this two viewpoints format so I'm not continuing this series.
What's it about: space, science, math, aliens, traveling, flashbacks, saving humanity, saving an alien race (Cover is illustrated by Marc Simonetti, Subterranean Press edition)
This is like The Martian (which I read) with added aliens and extra dangerous situations with the usual large amount of math and science. You can switch Ryland Grace (the main character) with the guy from The Martian and it would be the same guy just different name and job title.
I don't like Grace but I don't hate him, I just wondered why he is like a 12-year-old boy high on drugs. We only get his perspective which is written like a kid talking to another kid with many explanations about the math and science and he always seemed to try to justify his decisions, sometimes with a shrug and sometimes with an attitude like 'Yeah, I did that, what of it?' Is the author trying to cater to kids?
"Well. Yes. But it was a scientific poke with a very scientific stick." - Spoken dialogue by Grace
I don't like to think of Grace as those cliche science teachers (Grace's profession) with an overexcited mind and overly cheerful personality with lame PG 13 humor but he's exactly like that but with extra brain power. The Eridian alien (named Rocky by Grace because he looked like a rock to Grace) is more mature than Grace but even he get to have his immature moment but he's a little a more strong-willed than Grace.
"I want to spend the rest of my life studying Eridian biology! But I have to save humanity first. Stupid humanity. Getting in the way of my hobbies." - one of many of Grace's thoughts
It's not just Grace. Everyone's got a touch of overly excited kid-like maturity with the occasional few characters who are stoic. What's with that awkward scene where one of the candidates for the Hail Mary project told Grace about having a sexual relationship with another candidate like they were teenagers but without the blushing cheeks - was that supposed to be funny? These people only knew each other a few days. What the heck is this scene?
It also seemed like the characters are stuck in the 1950's though the book was published in 2021. Eva Stratt (head of everything) wanted only men for the mission so there wouldn't be any relationship entanglement but she didn't think that men might be gay? Apparently, being racists and sexist is normal in this world but gayness is nonexistent.
The ending was not the expected ending which I don't like. [SPOILER AHEAD > After Grace sent the info (that supposedly can be used to save earth) through mini rockets and after he saved Rocky and his planet, he didn't return to earth even when he was given the chance. We just know the sun had returned to normal - that's it and Grace just go on living with the aliens, teaching alien children about science and math, the end. END SPOILER]
Stratt is the only character I like even though all her personality comes down to bossiness but at least she makes the tough decisions without any backward thought or regret. All the viewpoints were from Grace, but there was a scene in a courtroom with Stratt and the people suing her for copyrights of books, apps, etc (stuff that were loaded into the Hail Mary) and she just shrugged it off because she had the power to get away with it and I like that scene but Grace wasn't there so how would he know about this when Stratt barely tell Grace anything? Grace is the opposite of Stratt because most of his decisions were made because of external forces and not because he wanted to. Maybe in the end he did get to make his own decision but I still would have preferred the expected ending. We don't get to know what happened to Stratt or the people on earth. They could have added an epilogue to explain how humanity was saved but nope, none of that even though that was the point of the mission. We get a sort of a happy ending but it's unsatisfying and lacking.
What's it about: psychoanalysts, therapy sessions, kidnappings, random people intruding into the main character's lives, murder
I don't want to say Fried Klein is an unhinged psychoanalyst but she did things and didn't tell the readers why (like punching out a therapist - no explanation, just hints) or she did things and didn't tell others, it's like she must do things alone or she must keep things to herself unless she decides to share. She doesn't seem to like people but keeps getting involve in other's people's lives and even accept a total stranger (who seemed rather suspicious) as a friend. And it seemed everyone knows where she lives because a lot of people visited her home uninvited. Professionally, she seems competent but she crossed the lines with her patients many times which should make her a bad doctor but nope, she just carries on with her patients.
There are many perspectives but we keep ending up with Frieda. Just when we thought we were going to get to see Karlsson (the detective) do some police thing, they switched to Frieda so we can watch her wait. But Karlsson isn't any better because he only have two emotions - frustration and anger and even though we get his perspective, he never does anything worth witnessing unless he's with Frieda. The focus isn't on the police but on Frieda so why bother with all the other perspectives when they give so little? There's also the kidnapped boy's perspective which borders on sort of fantasy-dream-like state which I find depressing.
[SPOILER AHEAD > The final resolution is twins. Really?? This is supposed to be a psychological thriller but they settled on twins instead of something like multiple personality? Twins always almost leads to switching places and that's what happened here - the kidnapper/killer (Dean) killed his twin (Alan) and switched places with him. What's frustrating is Frieda had a chance to meet Dean pretending to be Alan after the supposed death of Dean but she didn't. If she had met the guy, perhaps she would have known it wasn't Alan and Dean might not have gotten away but she had to go and get someone to do a DNA test which she could have asked Karlsson to do which might moved things along quicker but no, she had to do things alone (sometimes secretly) because...we aren't certain. At this point (near the end), why was she holding back from Karlsson? They said she needed to confirm her ideas before sharing which sounds stupid. And Frieda, of course she would have tons of contacts to get anything done as if she knew everyone in whole city. And one of these contacts, she get info from but withheld info which resulted in someone getting killed but her body was not found so no resolution there. When Frieda got an idea where the kidnapped boy might be, she go and try to find the boy herself when she could have called Karlsson and maybe gotten to the boy quicker but they wanted Frieda to find him and of course for Frieda to find the missing girl (the first kidnapping case) because Frieda gets to do all the things because yada, yada, for a psychoanalyst, she knows nothing about sharing or even working with others. Besides that, Karlsson would have listened to her at this point. END SPOILER] I just think Frieda's a dumbass for not sharing information but also for sharing information when she shouldn't.
This is a first book in series so a couple of things aren't resolved which is fine, readers can read the next book but this ending is lame, somewhat predictable and unsatisfying. I would read the next book but if I have to read more of Frieda's unexplained actions and dumb decision making, I might punch someone like Frieda did only I would tell the reader the reason instead of keeping it to myself. Basically, I can't stand Frieda so no more of this series.
What's it about: a mother running around an island looking for missing daughter, meandering thoughts, unlikable people
This is like stream of consciousness, meandering by the mother, Nina (the main character), and her running from place to place and sometimes driving or being driven but mostly she ran. In between, threads of Charlie's (missing daughter) life through Nina's discoveries. I didn't like the singular point of view because we don't know anything of what other people (mainly the police) are doing or thinking unless they interact with Nina. Nina did everything because she didn't think anyone else could do it. To her, everyone's useless unless they can give her information about her daughter. Even at the end, even when she called for help, she still did everything alone and everyone just showed up later. She's like super mom/detective/runner/talker/hanging up on calls expert/information gathering expert and law breaker. I understand Nina's motivation but by her actions, she's basically a crazy person running around not caring about hurting people or breaking laws and possibility destroying a couple of relationships. I guess I like her to care about something else other than her daughter.
Nina's very singular focus in finding her daughter means everything else is secondary including her son who she passed from person to person. She spent the whole book trying to compliment him, reassure him, like he's a toddler but he's ten. Then there's the cousin who came to watch the house and the dog while Nina and her family go on vacation (which didn't happen) but this cousin didn't do anything but be depressed. Then there's the dog - he just hangs around and eats everything. The book would have been shorter without the cousin, the dog, the son, Nina's boyfriend (who was struck in traffic and made his appearances by phone calls but he never shows up at the end), and maybe the ex-husband (rather an annoying man, whiny and selfish) - none of these people does anything worth mentioning.
There are no chapters breaks, everything's separated by line breaks so you read continuously. It's like the whole book is a chapter by itself because the whole event took place in a single day which I don't believe because Nina did so many things and go to so many places and even if the island is small, she couldn't possibility did so much moving around all in a single day unless she is super fast (which it seemed in the book she was) and this whole event started out at about 11 am until sometime at night.
There might have been bits of clues but it just seemed suddenly that guy was the culprit - all that running and suddenly he's it. Plus most of the explanations are Nina's assumptions which aren't proven so we don't know if any of it are true or not. But at least, we got a happy ending.
What's it about: family, cheating, romance maybe, some bits about murdered girls, small amount of investigation which is maybe true but readers don't get to witness any of it
This is not a mystery, this is a family soap opera focused on the Ellison family but mostly Charlotte (main character). It's full of narrowed-minded characters and none of them do anything interesting except cheat on their wives. And there were the murders which felt like they were just a plot used to introduce this family and of course one of them became a victim because why not. I disliked every character even Charlotte - she seemed to have a modern mind but her being in love with her brother-in-law irked me. I don't think there is a character worth caring about, not even the dead girls because somehow they made them sounded so unimportant.
We get a lot of perspectives which doesn't do much for the mystery so I'm annoyed (and maybe slightly confused) as to why we don't get Thomas Pitt's perspective even though his name is in the series title and he's the detective (and supposedly the second main character). Do we get to see Pitt doing some investigating? No. Do we see him in the police station even just shuffling paper around? No. (Although there is a scene in his office but that's because Charlotte was present.) Do we even get a scene where he checks out the bodies? No. Do we know what he is doing to solve the murders? A little. When he goes to visit Charlotte and asked her questions, he gives her some info to the case which is how the readers get information. Pitt just comes by now and then just to hangs out with Charlotte and supposedly he's investigating by talking to her. His casual talk about his fellow policeman losing an arm chasing after a criminal (the only interesting thing in the entire book) is just odd because why would he tell her that?
And the romance between Charlotte and Pitt - I wouldn't even call it that. Even those days there were courtships but I guess they just decided to skip all that for no reason. Charlotte sort of hated Pitt for 99% of the book and then just suddenly decided she was in love with him and desperately wanted to marry him. But she was supposedly in love with her brother-in-law but once she found he wasn't the man she thought he was, perhaps she shifted her affection onto Pitt - yep, that's romance. And Pitt, no clue why he even fell for Charlotte.
I think readers can making a drinking game of the phrase 'withdrawing room.' So yes, this is an old term and is correctly used but it annoyed the heck out of me maybe because the writing is a bit too modern for this or maybe the phrase sounded so pompous that it made me want to snort when I read that phrase.
[SPOILER AHEAD > The mystery is not solved by anyone, the murderer just showed up to kill Charlotte but Pitt showed up to save her. He was there because he was worrying about her. She was stupid enough to walk home alone when there were murders going on around her very neighborhood. They had a chance to make Pitt useful or at least, pretended he had done some police work by saying he was following the potential suspect but nope, saving Charlotte was his whole existent. Also, pissing off readers. END SPOILER]
Who doesn't love a romance with no romance and a mystery with no investigations? The couple (Charlotte and Pitt) got together and that seems to be the point of this book or else I missed the point or is there a point to this book? Like I said, this is not a mystery, the mystery is why did I finish this book? (Okay, I confess, I might have done some skimming) I did read a few passage of the second book and we do get Pitt's viewpoint but I don't care and won't be continuing the series.
What's it about: law, trials, death, lawyers
The main character Daniel Pitt is the son of Thomas Pitt of the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series (see #5 above) so this is a spinoff series.
It was obvious to me why the dead woman's face was burned but it took them too long to find that out - why? Since the main character (Pitt) is not a detective but a fresh lawyer, I guess he didn't have enough experience to think this. I think this book focused too much on Pitt's feelings - it's like Pitt is all about analyzing his feelings and using them to make decisions. He seemed very sensitive to other people's feelings as well which I'm not sure it's a good trait. At one point, he worried about the female coroner and having her feelings hurt if the men didn't accept her as a viable expert on the witness stand. She was clearly someone who could stand on her own but he worried even though he only knew her for a couple of days and she's older than him. The central case involved Pitt's father and so he worried like crazy about his father who wasn't someone who needed protection from anyone. Pitt is just overprotective about everybody. I don't know lawyers but this lawyer is too emotional. This wasn't a bad first book but I don't like it enough to continue the series.
What's it about: nurses, hospitals & sanity conditions, murders, amateur sleuths
I don't like how they did the exposition by having the main character Florence Nightingale, thought back about her life in the first book. She kept pausing to reminisce, sometimes in the middle of a conversation with someone and it deterred to whatever talk or action was currently going on. At the end, she summed up the crime so it kind of made me think of Sherlock Holmes and she even have an assistant who writes down her thoughts and happenings.
In book 2, there was less reminiscing so it's better. Even in book 1, there was so much mention of Richard (the suitor she would have married if she had not decided to go into nursing) that it annoyed me. This guy is not in her life but she kept thinking about him. Somehow whenever he is mentioned, Florence becomes a lovesick puppy and that annoys me. And he was never physically there but he's on her mind a bit too much, like whenever someone mentions their husband, she would think of him also. She should be resolute about her decision, at least, more so in the second book.
Even though I don't really like reading about real people in fiction books but so far the two books are pretty good. If there are more, I'll read them.
What's it about: spirits/ghosts, psychics, deaths, poverty, insanity, prostitution, paranormal, murder, kidnapping, bits of romance, amateur sleuths
These historical books seemed to speak a lot of how dirty the streets are in those times (late 1800's). I didn't really care to read those bits but it does make me glad I don't live in those times.
Book 1 has a slow start. I don't really like reading books set in asylums but it had a main character who can see ghosts/spirits and sometimes see people's future when she touches them but also get possessed by ghosts but those aren't present a lot. But the mystery kept me reading.
Book 2 seemed to take too long to get to the answer. There's a fire and a birthing scene, the latter, I really didn't want to all those unnecessary details. I don't like romances between the poor and the rich, which this book have two of that (one of them is gay) in the same situation but I'm here for the paranormal and the mystery. These two books were good but they could have been better but they are entertaining and kept me reading.
What's it about: a dog's life, kidnapping, food, dog owner
This is from the point of view of a dog (Chet), a very distracted dog. His attention span varies but on the short side. Sometimes his focus is on food and other dogs more than on the mystery so whatever information we might get, gets cut off but you get the story.
It would have been nice to see some of Bernie's (Chet's owner) perspective because when the two are separated, more than once, we don't know what's going on with Bernie and part of the story is untold. There was a scene where Chet helped Bernie from falling off a cliff which I thought was unbelievable because even though he's a large dog and even though Bernie's a large guy, how could he haul himself to safety with just some help from Chet? After a thought, I didn't believe it but then I just accepted it however unbelievable because I wanted Bernie to survive because Chet would probably not be as enjoyable without Bernie.
The mystery would have been more engaging if Chet wasn't so distracting but he's a dog so I can accept that. This is a fun read. I might continue the series just to see how it will go.
Shows & Movies I Watched:
What's it about: slight time travel, past, future, crimes, murder, cops, family
It seemed the time travel bit was almost unnecessary since it wasn't even used much. If there were no time travel, it's pretty much a crime show except it's a long case they had to solve.
This was a remade of a Korean show (Tunnel) which I think was much better in comparison but this show rewrote almost everything but the basic elements. If I have not seen Tunnel before this, I would think this is a pretty good show. But I wasn't emotionally invested in the characters - they seemed mildly interesting but that's about it. The culprit seemed almost wrong but maybe I just didn't like the reason for the murders.
This has a decent ending but still a bit incomplete because many things weren't resolved mostly because it's time travel so once you return to the original time, the future is different the show can indefinitely go on.
What's it about: assassins, assassins guild, revenge, lots & lots of fight scenes & shoot outs, dogs & dog lovers
These movies are entertaining but highly violent. I'm a little annoyed they didn't translate the dialogues which are in various languages in movie 3 (those foreign dialogues in movie 2 were translated). So the third movie has an opened-ended ending but I doubt I would watch the fourth movie unless it's free on youtube.
Jigsaw Puzzle I Finished:
What's included: A fold-out poster with a guide to each clue
If you're a Miss Marple fan, you would know the clues (things that are in the books like characters and objects) but I just chose this because I just like Miss Marple. This was a good puzzle but probably a bit difficult because so much of the image consisted of much of the same things - lots o flowers and shrubs so the poster is very useful. I finished this in three days. The pieces does seems a bit thin but when you continue to handle them, they feel a bit more solid. And there are some puzzle dusts but that's normal though when I take apart the puzzle, there were more dust which is unusual but fine.
Have you read any good books or watched any tv shows or movies or finished any puzzles lately?
good for you
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