Monsterland: Encounters with UFOs, Bigfoot and Orange Orbs by Ronny Le Blanc

Started: 8/29/2023

Finished: 8/30/2023

Year: 2016

Pages: 247

Genre: paranormal

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: fan of Expedition Bigfoot and Paranormal Caught on Camera, wanted to know more about him

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "There is an area known to the locals of Leominster, Massachusetts as MONSTERLAND™. There are sightings of UFOS, Bigfoot and Orange Orbs. They have been coming and going for years. But where are they coming from? Why are they here? It seems that the state of Massachusetts has had a long history of sightings and encounters with these mysterious entities and they are occurring in the present day.Could all of these events somehow be connected? What is so special about Leominster that they have plagued the area for so long? Author and Researcher Ronny Le Blanc of Leominster thinks that he might have the answers to some of these questions. But the answers received lead to a whole new understanding of the unknown....Welcome to MONSTERLAND"

Opinion: It is very obvious that he did A LOT of research for this book and for his own passion. Even though it starts off being about Leonminster, MA, other interesting sites are discussed.

N is for Noose by Sue Grafton

Started: 8/24/2023

Finished: 8/29/2023

Year: 1998

Pages: 353

Genre: mystery

Grade: B+

Reason for reading: continuing with the series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Tom Newquist has died. A detective in the Nota Lake sheriff's office, Tom was tough, honest, and respected by all. He was also a heavy drinker and a workaholic, much to his wife Selma's distress. And now that Tom is gone, Selma can't help but wonder what it really was that was troubling him….

"What made Tom so restless during the last six weeks of his life? Why was he up all night and brooding all day long? What―or who―was at the heart of his dark moods? With the coroner's report in hand, Selma decides to enlist the help of Kinsey Millhone to find the truth about what happened to her husband.

"But the residents of Nota Lake keep their secrets close―and their enemies closer. And the deeper Kinsey's investigation goes, the closer she comes to confronting the most dangerous outcome of all: the truth…"

Opinion: Much more suspenseful than most of Grafton's other books...which I like.

Brother by Ania Ahlborn

Started: 8/21/2023

Finished: 8/23/2023

Year: 2015

Pages: 319

Genre: horror

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, book club book with local bookstore-even though I'm not participating in it, I'm still interested in reading the books that are chosen.

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Deep in the heart of Appalachia stands a crooked farmhouse miles from any road. The Morrows keep to themselves, and it’s served them well so far. When girls go missing off the side of the highway, the cops don’t knock on their door. Which is a good thing, seeing as to what’s buried in the Morrows’ backyard.

"But nineteen-year-old Michael Morrow isn’t like the rest of his family. He doesn’t take pleasure in the screams that echo through the trees. Michael pines for normalcy, and he’s sure that someday he’ll see the world beyond West Virginia. When he meets Alice, a pretty girl working at a record shop in the small nearby town of Dahlia, he’s immediately smitten. For a moment, he nearly forgets about the monster he’s become. But his brother, Rebel, is all too eager to remind Michael of his place…"

Opinion: Certainly not the family that I would want to be living with after being kidnapped.

A Wicked Snow by Gregg Olsen

Started: 8/17/2023

Finished: 8/21/2023

Year: 2014 (this edition)

Pages: 389

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: read other books by Olsen, booksfree.com

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Hannah Griffin was a girl when tragedy struck. She still remembers the flames reflected against the newly fallen snow and the bodies the police dug up--one of them her mother's. The killer was never found....

"Twenty years later Hannah is a talented CSI investigating a case of child abuse when the past comes hurtling back. A killer with unfinished business is on the hunt. And an anonymous message turns Hannah's blood cold:

"Your Mom called..."

Opinion: Interesting twist near the end and wish that it was elaborated more. Interesting development of an evil character.

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica

Started: 8/16/2023

Finished: 8/17/2023

Year: 2020

Pages: 159

Genre: horror, dark fiction

Grade; C

Reason for reading: library book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "From celebrated author Agustina Bazterrica, this collection of nineteen brutal, darkly funny short stories takes into our deepest fears and through our most disturbing fantasies. Through stories about violence, alienation, and dystopia, Bazterrica’s vision of the human experience emerges in complex, unexpected ways—often unsettling, sometimes thrilling, and always profound. In “Roberto,” a girl claims to have a rabbit between her legs. A woman’s neighbor jumps to his death in “A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound,” and in “Candy Pink,” a woman fails to contend with a difficult breakup in five easy steps."

Opinion: Like with all short story collections, some are better than others. Some of these will linger in my mind longer than others. 

The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt

Started: 8/15/2023

Finished: DNF

Year: 2009

Pages: 675

Genre: literature

Grade: F

Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "A spellbinding novel, at once sweeping and intimate, from the Booker Prize–winning author of Possession, that spans the Victorian era through the World War I years, and centers around a famous children’s book author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that tear apart the people she loves.

"When Olive Wellwood’s oldest son discovers a runaway named Philip sketching in the basement of the new Victoria and Albert Museum—a talented working-class boy who could be a character out of one of Olive’s magical tales—she takes him into the storybook world of her family and friends.

"But the joyful bacchanals Olive hosts at her rambling country house—and the separate, private books she writes for each of her seven children—conceal more treachery and darkness than Philip has ever imagined. As these lives—of adults and children alike—unfold, lies are revealed, hearts are broken, and the damaging truth about the Wellwoods slowly emerges. But their personal struggles, their hidden desires, will soon be eclipsed by far greater forces, as the tides turn across Europe and a golden era comes to an end."

Opinion: It had grabbed my attention...and then it didn't. And the longer I went, the more my attention was not grabbed so off I go to start a different book.

Woom by Duncan Ralston

Started: 8/14/2023

Finished: 8/15/2023

Year: 2016

Pages: 129

Genre: dark fiction

Grade: C

Reason for reading: library book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Warning: this book contains graphic violence and sexuality most readers will find offensive."Trust me when I say, this is messed up..." - Matt Shaw, author of Sick B*stards"I believe pain lingers," Angel said. "Do I believe in spirits? In the supernatural? Probably not."The Lonely Motel holds many dark secrets... and Room 6 just might possess the worst of them all.Angel knows all about pain. His mother died in this room. He's researched its history. Today he's come back to end it, no matter the cost, once and for all.Shyla, a plus-sized prostitute, thinks the stories Angel tells her can't be true. Secrets so vile, you won't want to let them inside you.But the Lonely Motel doesn't forget. It doesn't forgive. And it always claims its victim."

Opinion: Definitely could trigger some people so it isn't for everyone. It's horrific in some aspects. Psychologically disturbing in others.

Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes

Started: 8/13/2023

Finished: 8/14/2023

Year: 2023

Pages: 388

Genre: Literature

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, title sounded interesting

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live."

Opinion: Wasn't quite what I was expecting but definitely interesting way of looking at murder and what it takes to perform a perfect one.

Turbo Twenty-Three by Janet Evanovich

Started: 8/9/2023

Finished: 8/10/2023

Year: 2017

Pages: 319

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: continuing with the series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Larry Virgil skipped out on his latest court date after he was arrested for hijacking an eighteen-wheeler full of premium bourbon. Fortunately for bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, Larry is just stupid enough to attempt almost the exact same crime again. Only this time he flees the scene, leaving behind a freezer truck loaded with Bogart ice cream and a dead body—frozen solid and covered in chocolate and chopped pecans.

"As fate would have it, Stephanie’s mentor and occasional employer, Ranger, needs her to go undercover at the Bogart factory to find out who’s putting their employees on ice and sabotaging the business. It’s going to be hard for Stephanie to keep her hands off all that ice cream, and even harder for her to keep her hands off Ranger. It’s also going to be hard to explain to Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, why she is spending late nights with Ranger, late nights with Lula and Randy Briggs—who are naked and afraid—and late nights keeping tabs on Grandma Mazur and her new fella. Stephanie Plum has a lot on her plate, but for a girl who claims to have “virtually no marketable skills,” these are the kinds of sweet assignments she does best."

Opinion: Working undercover at an ice cream factory allows for more silly antics that Stephanie gets herself into.

Mrs. Plansky's Revenge by Spencer Quinn

Started: 8/7/2023

Finished: 8/9/2023

Year: 2023

Pages: 291

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Mrs. Loretta Plansky, a recent widow in her seventies, is settling into retirement in Florida while dealing with her 98-year-old father and fielding requests for money from her beloved children and grandchildren. Thankfully, her new hip hasn’t changed her killer tennis game one bit.

"One night Mrs. Plansky is startled awake by a phone call from a voice claiming to be her grandson Will, who desperately needs ten thousand dollars to get out of a jam. Of course, Loretta obliges―after all, what are grandmothers for, even grandmothers who still haven’t gotten a simple “thank you” for a gift sent weeks ago. Not that she's counting.

"By morning, Mrs. Plansky has lost everything. Law enforcement announces that Loretta's life savings have vanished, and that it’s hopeless to find the scammers behind the heist. First humiliated, then furious, Loretta Plansky refuses to be just another victim.

"In a courageous bid for justice, Mrs. Plansky follows her only clue on a whirlwind adventure to a small village in Romania to get her money and her dignity back―and perhaps find a new lease on life, too."

Opinion: In the era of phone scammers, this had an interesting take on how to handle these scams and what most people would want to do.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Started: 8/2/2023

Finished: 8/7/2023

Year: 2021

Pages: 359

Genre: Literature

Grade: C

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.

"As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages.

"Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement and with the Great War looming, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell this highly original story. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world."

Opinion: Not quite sure what I was expecting while reading this but it didn't grab my attention. And the way that it jumped between certain scenarios....those scenarios did not need to be included.

M is for Malice by Sue Grafton

Started: 7/30/2023

Finished: 8/2/2023

Year: 1997

Pages: 372

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: continuing with the series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "M is for MONEY…

"Malek Construction is a mega-million-dollar company that grew out of modest soil to become one of the big three in California construction―and one of the few still in family hands. Today, the three Malek sons stand to inherit a fortune, but in order for any one of them to claim his share, the missing fourth brother must be found.

"M is for MISSING…

"Now it's up to Kinsey Millhone to find the man who, eighteen years ago, vanished without a trace. Did he run away―or was he abducted? Did he intend to make something of himself on his own, apart from the wealth and prowess of his family, or were his motives something more sinister?

"M is for MALICE

"The ties that bind. The rivalries of brotherhood. The fall of an empire… As Kinsey tries to unravel the mystery of the missing Malek brother she finds herself in a heart-stopping race against time in which loyalties are tested, greed is rampant, and no one―including Kinsey herself―is safe…"

Opinion: Another decent book with Kinsey as the PI...what she thought would be a simple missing person location turned out to be a lot more.