A Good Thriller discussion

This thread is where you can chat about all things PIFM, ask questions and once books have been read, review your selected reads. A complete free for all.

PLEASE NOTE:

PIFM is meant to be FUN and not to be taken seriously. I would appreciate it if all participants just chilled and not get worked up about voting, who votes, who doesn't, etc. Please bear in mind that some will just want to vote, many don't come on everyday and most of us have time constraints. I just want a relaxed approach to it all and for you all to just enjoy the process! I'd really appreciate your courtesy in this matter. Many thanks.

I am 3 books behind so I am not going to post a list this month. I still want to participate though so I am going to vote for everyone.
Hopefully I will be able to read a few books this month. I think things are getting easier for me now (hahahaha, but I am not sure. I just think!)

Vickie, are you teaching? Like you, I have found myself falling behind on my reading too. In fact, I am still working on my September read.

I have just posted my November list. I am currently laid up and self-isolating with suspected Covid so have had plenty of time to think about my books for next month! I hope you have all managed to stay fit and well.

Now that the schools are back, the days are shortening and the weather over here in the UK is turning colder I hope to have more time to read. Autumn is my favourite time of year and I am super excited to have many cosy nights curled up with a blanket, cup of tea and a book!

I’m going to be reading all of my Christmas books before November

Sophie, hope you don't have Covid. This pandemic has been a life changer for all of us. Take care of yourself.

Oh no Sophie! Is testing to find out an option for you? I'd want to know! I like several of the ones you chose this month. I'll work on getting a list together

Thank you
Thankfully I am eligible for testing because I work in healthcare but the tests are hard to come by at the moment due to a recent surge in cases in the UK again. I should hopefully know by Wednesday whether it’s Covid or not. If it is positive then it’s mild in comparison to many and I’m supremely grateful that I haven’t had to be hospitalised unlike so many poor souls. I’m just crossing my fingers that it’s flu so that my daughter is allowed to go back to school immediately!

The one nice thing about isolation at the moment is that my daughter and I have been able to spend the day curled up on (opposite ends of) our sofa with our cats and our blankets reading our books together and listening to the rain 😊

Sophie you are in my thoughts

Sophie, I hope you get negative test results. I think my husband and I will be getting tested in a few days. We had a death in his family and no one at the funeral socially distanced (we did all wear masks, though).

Vicki, I'm glad you're not dropping out of PIFM. Read for enjoyment. Don't put pressure on yourself to keep up.

Christine, you read very fast! What will you read when Christmas is here?

My list is up, and I've voted on others' lists.

Brenda I love to read and Brenda I’ll be reading more Christmas books when Christmas is here

Brenda, so sorry to hear about your family loss. In these times, it seems like it would be much harder to bear, but glad you were able to attend the funeral.

Brenda wrote: "Sophie, I hope you get negative test results. I think my husband and I will be getting tested in a few days. We had a death in his family and no one at the funeral socially distanced (we did all we..."

Thanks, me too! Should find out today hopefully. Sorry to hear about your loss and I'm glad that you could at least attend the funeral. These are truly strange and slightly terrifying times. I'm ready for it all to be over!

Perri, I was so torn between Dear Edward and Valentine. I notice that Valentine is set in Odessa, Texas. Is it a particularly significant place? This is at least the third book I've come across recently set in Odessa (Friday Night Lights and another title whose name I have forgotten) and just wondered if it was famous for much or if it's just a random coincidence that I've come across it so much lately!

Sophie your question interested me. I've heard of Odessa and Friday Night lights so I was curious as well.
I found this in Wiki: Odessa was also the home of First Lady Barbara Bush, and the onetime home of former Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. Former President George H.W. Bush has been quoted as saying "At Odessa we became Texans and proud of it."
So I'm thinking Odessa is just a quintessential Texas town.

Perri wrote: "Brenda, so sorry to hear about your family loss. In these times, it seems like it would be much harder to bear, but glad you were able to attend the funeral."

Thanks, Perri and Sophie. We’ve had four funerals we couldn’t attend since Covid hit, but this latest was a sibling. I’m glad my husband got to be with his family to say goodbye.

Take care Sophie. I hope you are negative.

Sorry to hear about your loss Brenda. Not being able to be with your people is so hard during an already hard time.

Patricia- Yes, I think we are in week 6 already. I don't know where the time has gone. Our district is completely online, but teachers are allowed to work out of our classrooms if we want to. I have been going to to my room every day for work because it is easier for me to have all my stuff there. My teaching partner is working from school too, so that makes it nice. We can plan together.
I have 20 kids, ages 7-8 and they are doing amazing considering. The families have been amazing to me too. Very understanding and patient when things go wrong (which seems like every day).
I am working longer and harder than I ever have in my life and it is exhausting, honestly. But I am a total A type personality, so I have to know everything and do everything and try everything.
Things are starting to fall into a routine, so hopefully I can settle down a bit.
Thanks for asking!

Vicki, I am giving you a standing ovation. I remember teaching 36 7th graders and becoming exhausted every evening after grading test papers and writing exercises.

I can't imagine the effort it takes to deal with this pandemic and making sure parents are placated. Thank goodness for weekends.

Vicki Willis wrote: "Take care Sophie. I hope you are negative.

Sorry to hear about your loss Brenda. Not being able to be with your people is so hard during an already hard time.

Patricia- Yes, I think we are in wee..."
Thank you, Vicki.

I think (hope) that most parents are just grateful that their kids are getting an education again from professionals after the disruption of the last few months so it's lovely to hear that your kids' families are being understanding and supportive of your efforts.

Thankfully the schools over here re-opened in September with the classes being kept separate in their own social bubbles. As an only child my daughter had really missed being able to interact with other children since March. BoJo says closing the schools again would have to be a very last resort. My daughter has just gone into the year above your year group and thank goodness her new teacher is enthusiastic and pro-active because her class was sorely let down last academic year even without the chaos caused by covid.

Well done to you for your hard work! :)

Brenda so sorry to hear about your family loss

{{Brenda}} you've had a really tough year, on top of the Covid stress. So sorry about your losses

Vicki, wow , sooo impressed with your enthusiasm and work ethic. Teacher rock hard! The kids are lucky to have you

Perri - I am happy to see all of us so supportive toward each other.

Brenda - Hopefully, you don't need to attend more funerals this year. 2020 has been bear.......

Vicki - I can relate to you being anxious to return to the classroom. I bet the kids are excited.

Thanks, everyone, for your condolences. 2020 has been a rough year for all of us. I keep thinking it can’t get worse, and yet it does. Please keep yourselves safe, healthy, and happy!

Sophie, have you gotten your test result yet? I looked back in this thread and didn’t see anything about it. 🤞

Patricia. Larson in one of my fav NF writers. Which other of his have you read? I liked Devil in the White City and Jacob's Storm the most. Oh and Dead Wake :)

Perri - I've read Devil in the White City and Isaac's Storm. I found both very interesting.

This is my favorite group and you all are my favorite people on Goodreads.

Thank you everyone and cheers to us for having book friends!

I finished a dark read. What Happened That Night. It was a bit young adult with very adult subject matter. I rated it 4 stars. Trigger warning: rape and pyschological abuse

Brenda, I got my test back on Thursday evening and thankfully it was negative so must have just been flu! It was such a relief to let my daughter go back to school on Friday and be able to be near my family again this weekend.

I’ve just finished a book called The Other Girl by C.D. Major. It was fascinating, based on the true story of a psychiatric ward in New Zealand burning down and killing 39 patients in the 1940s. It was a dark read so I think I need something a bit more upbeat next 😄

Vicki, ditto! Whew, great news Sophie! I'm in the mood for a dark read, I'll look into both these suggestions. Thanks!

Congratulations Sophie. I am getting ready to go to the store now so my mask is sitting next to me. What a pain!

That’s great news, Sophie! Glad you’re better! “Must have just been flu” sounds so innocuous, but I’ve had flu and it knocked me down for two weeks. Get your flu shot, people!

Brenda wrote: "That’s great news, Sophie! Glad you’re better! “Must have just been flu” sounds so innocuous, but I’ve had flu and it knocked me down for two weeks. Get your flu shot, people!"

Oh I wasn't trivialising flu lol, simply breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn't CV19 because of the aggro it would cause to people I'd been in contact with. I had flu once before when I was 21 and you'd never mistake it for a cold haha.

Thank you for your good wishes everyone :)

Perri, I do love a dark read, especially in October though I tend to switch to horror rather than thrillers. My daughter has just started to get into reading which I'm super stoked about. Given the choice she would still rather rot her brain on the computer but she's just picked her first ever 'spooky' book to read for Halloween. It's called Small Spaces by Katherine Arden. I have The Bear and the Nightingale on my Kindle, which is also by Arden so I've agreed to read it while she reads hers.

Sophie. I know, I read these descriptions on how to tell the difference between a cold and the flu and I'm like... really?

I can't find either What Happened of The Other Girl, but my library does carry Small Space so I'll read it with your daughter :)

Tonya - Freezing is written by a real-life forensic anthropologist. She also wrote The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo

Hey if you haven't voted yet -- I seem to have a 4-way tie.

Wow Kirsten that sounds so sad!

Small Spaces for a JF book it's pretty intense!

I read four Christmas books before November and they were called His Christmas Wish by Allie Pleiter and The Rancher's Holiday Arrangement by Brenda Minton and An Unforgettable Christmas: A heartwarming Christmas romance from Hallmark Publishing by Ginny Baird and A Christmas to Remember by Rebecca Moesta

Kirsten, I've just voted and broke your tie :)

Perri, is it? As in scary? I haven't actually read it but my daughter hasn't expressed any particular concerns so I hope she isn't being spooked in silence lol.

I haven't actually read much this week. Now that she's back at school I've been taking advantage of the empty house to get my chores done in peace and catch up on my podcasts (My Favorite Murder) and a couple of Netflix series I've started watching (The Pharmacist and Dead to Me) which are definitely not child friendly!

Sophie wrote: "Kirsten, I've just voted and broke your tie :)

Perri, is it? As in scary? I haven't actually read it but my daughter hasn't expressed any particular concerns so I hope she isn't being spooked in s..."

Thanks Sophie!

Sophie how old is your daughter? I think kids see a lot more these days and aren't as much a scaredy cat as I was ;)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Perri wrote: "Sophie how old is your daughter? I think kids see a lot more these days and aren't as much a scaredy cat as I was ;)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

i agree

How's everybody doing? Haven't seen anything posted here for a while. Did everyone vote? It looks the winner for me will be The Buddha in the Attic which got 2 votes while all the others got 1.

Is it just me or was there less voting this month?

Have a great (and safe) Halloween everyone

Did you all see that moon!?

Perri, our moon wasn't blue, although it was beautiful. It might have been because of clouds.

December threads are up. Have fun!

I read four books in November and they were called Holly Pointe & Mistletoe by Cindy Kirk and A Christmas Wedding for the Cowboy by Mary Leo and Santa's Seven-Day Baby Tutorial by Meg Maxwell and Hold Me, Cowboy by Maisey Yates

I just finished The Beautiful Mystery which was my November winner. For those who love music, this is your book. It drove me to U-tube to listen to Gregorian chants. Although the book was actually a mystery, the discussion of the history of music was fascinating.