P is for Peril by Sue Grafton

Started: 11/21/2023

Finished: 11/29/2023

Year: 2001

Pages: 514

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: continuing with the series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Kinsey Millhone never sees it coming. She is mired in the case of a doctor who disappeared, his angry ex-wife, and beautiful current one–a case that is full of unfinished business, unfinished homes, and people drifting in and out of their own lives. Then Kinsey gets a shock. A man she finds attractive is hiding a fatal secret–and now a whole lot of beauty, money, and lies are proving to be a fatal distraction from what Kinsey should have seen all along: a killer standing right before her eyes. . . ."

Opinion: Slightly different situations that Kinsey finds herself in...some are surprising because she's usually more aware.

One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley

Started: 11/17/2023

Finished: 11/21/2023

Year: 2023

Pages: 343

Genre: mystery

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: library book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "I kept your secret Lucy. I've kept it for more than sixty years...

"It is 1951, and at number six Sycamore Street fifteen-year-old Edie Green is lonely. Living with her eccentric mother and her mother's new boyfriend, she is desperate for something to shake her from her dull, isolated life.

"So when the popular, pretty Lucy Theddle befriends Edie, she thinks all her troubles are over. Even though Lucy has a secret, one Edie is not certain she should keep.

"Then Lucy goes missing.

"Now in 2018, Edie is eighty-four and still living in the same small town, when one afternoon she glimpses Lucy Theddle, still looking the same as she did at fifteen. Her family write it off as one of her many mix ups, there's a lot Edie gets confused about these days. But Edie knows she's the key to finding Lucy. 

"Time is running out and Edie must piece together the clues before Lucy is forgotten forever."

Opinion: An interesting way at looking at a decades old mystery with someone with dementia. 

Must Love Flowers by Debbie Macomber

Started: 11/9/2023

Finished: 11/13/2023

Year: 2023

Pages: 321

Genre: literature, romance

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, synopsis looked good

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Joan Sample is not living the life she expected. Now a widow and an empty-nester, she has become by her own admission something of a recluse. But after another birthday spent alone, she is finally inclined to listen to her sister, who has been begging Joan to reengage with the world. With Emmie’s support, Joan gathers the courage to take some long-awaited steps: hiring someone to tame her overgrown garden, joining a grief support group, and even renting out a room to a local college student. Before long Joan is starting to feel a little like herself again.

"Across town, Maggie Herbert works mornings as a barista, tending to impatient customers before rushing to afternoon nursing classes. She lives with her alcoholic father, ducking his temperamental outbursts and struggling to pay the household bills. But her circumstances brighten when she finds a room for rent in Joan’s home. In the unexpected warmth of her new situation, Maggie finds a glimmer of hope for a better life. But will Maggie’s budding attraction to one of her favorite customers ruin the harmony she’s only recently found with Joan? Meanwhile, what is Joan to make of the mysterious landscaper who’s been revitalizing her garden—a man who seems to harbor a past loss of his own? 

"As Maggie and Joan confront difficult life choices, they draw strength from this new friendship in surprising ways—discovering in the process that “found family” is often the very best kind."

Opinion: A heartfelt look at people starting their lives over after huge losses. Touching look at relationships.

The Taste Bud Diet by Irv Brechner

Started: 11/9/2023

Finished: 11/9/2023

Year: 2023

Pages: 72

Genre: dieting

Grade: C-

Reason for reading: review for Librarything.com

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Unlike any diet book you've ever read, you'll learn that more pleasurable and delicious taste = less weight. Even if you’re happy with your current weight, this book will help you enjoy food and drink more than you ever thought possible.

"Your taste buds will explode with thousands of “pleasurable taste sensations” every time you eat and drink. As many as 8,280 of them every single day! Every meal. Every snack. Every coffee break.

"Rooted in science and endorsed by experts, learning the “micro habit” of eating less and enjoying taste more is a cornerstone of successful weight loss. It’s easier said than done which is why I wrote this book based on my personal experience. I’ll show you how to make a simple and tiny change in the way you eat and drink, starting with your very next meal.

"When food lands on your taste buds, zillions of "pleasure inducing chemicals and hormones" that your body produces naturally including endorphins, serotonin and dopamine will drive your brain crazy with pleasure! Every second this happens, your brain gets this message: yummy that’s good and I’m happy!

"You will eat less, feel fuller faster, be better hydrated, improve your digestion and not feel stuffed or bloated. And lose weight if you want to.

"This book is unique because there are:

• No food restrictions.

• No meal plans

• No calorie recommendations.

• No food lists.

• No drink restrictions.

• No pills.

• No exercises.

• No recipes (well, just one, my all-time healthiest and sweetest snack ever!)"

Opinion: A thorough review is posted on Librarything.com

The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto

Started: 11/8/2023

Finished: 11/9/2023

Year: 1988

Pages: 133

Genre: literature

Grade: C-

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Yayoi, a 19-year-old woman from a seemingly loving middle-class family, has lately been haunted by the feeling that she has forgotten something important from her childhood. Her premonition grows stronger day by day and, as if led by it, she decides to move in with her mysterious aunt, Yukino

"No one understands her aunt's unusual lifestyle. For as long as Yayoi can remember, Yukino has lived alone in an old gloomy single-family home, quietly, almost as though asleep. When she is not working, Yukino spends all day in her pajamas, clipping her nails and trimming her split ends. She eats only when she feels like it, and she often falls asleep lying on her side in the hallway. She sometimes wakes Yayoi at 2:00 a.m to be her drinking companion, sometimes serves flan in a huge mixing bowl for dinner, and watches Friday the 13th over and over to comfort herself. A child study desk, old stuffed animals--things Yukino wants to forget--are piled up in her backyard like a graveyard of her memories."

Opinion: I think something was lost in translation. The story could have been longer and maybe some of the gaps would not have been there.

Twisted Twenty-Six by Janet Evanovich

Started: 11/2/2023

Finished: 11/8/2023

Year: 2019

Pages: 305

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: continuing with the series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Grandma Mazur has decided to get married again - this time to a local gangster named Jimmy Rosolli. If Stephanie has her doubts about this marriage, she doesn't have to worry for long, because the groom drops dead of a heart attack 45 minutes after saying, 'I do.'"

"A sad day for Grandma Mazur turns into something far more dangerous when Jimmy's former "business partners" are convinced that his new widow is keeping the keys to a financial windfall all to herself. But the one thing these wise guys didn't count on was the widow's bounty hunter granddaughter, who'll do anything to save her."

Opinion: A more personalized case for Stephanie. Still some really funny moments.

The Night House by Jo Nesbo

Started: 11/1/2023

Finished: 11/2/2023

Year: 2023

Pages: 245

Genre: horror

Grade: C

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "In the wake of his parents’ tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank-called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Mirror Forest. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . . ."

She’s going to burn. The girl you love is going to burn. There’s nothing you can do about it.

"When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence—and preserve his sanity—as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.

"Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . ."

Opinion: The first part was great....did not need the second or third part. Would have been a B if it did not have the additional parts.

The Book of Moods by Lauren Martin

Started: 10/30/2023

Finished: 11/1/2023

Year: 2020

Pages: 254

Genre: self-help

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: goodreads.com giveaway

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Five years ago, Lauren Martin was sure something was wrong with her. She had a good job in New York, an apartment in Brooklyn, a boyfriend, yet every day she wrestled with feelings of inferiority, anxiety and irritability. It wasn't until a chance encounter with a (charming, successful) stranger who revealed that she also felt these things, that Lauren set out to better understand the hold that these moods had on her, how she could change them, and began to blog about the wisdom she uncovered. It quickly exploded into an international online community of women who felt like she did: lost, depressed, moody, and desirous of change.

"Inspired by her audience to press even deeper, The Book of Moods shares Lauren's journey to infuse her life with a sense of peace and stability. With observations that will resonate and inspire, she dives into the universal triggers every woman faces -- whether it's a comment from your mother, the relentless grind at your job, days when you wish the mirror had a Valencia filter, or all of the above. Blending cutting-edge science, timeless philosophy, witty anecdotes and effective forms of self-care, Martin has written a powerful, intimate, and incredibly relatable chronicle of transformation, proving that you really can turn your worst moods into your best life."

Opinion: I like how Martin uses her own life experiences to show case how to better handle the triggers that could occur in one's life.