Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

Quite a mix of genre this month. And some of these books are quite small.

✨Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin -5, fiction, three friends start a gaming development company.
✨A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson -3, mystery thriller, definitely outside of my wheelhouse, but enjoy enough aspects to have finished
✨Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack -4, mystery, first in a series, cute
✨ The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod -3, historical fiction, set in Suriname during the 1700's when sugar was king.
✨The Moon Lady by Amy Tan -4, fiction, children's book with beautiful illustrations, in which a grandmother attempts to teach a lesson with a story.
✨The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros -4, fiction, short stories, it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become.
✨Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr -3, mystery (published in 1935), has a great concept marred for me by the very dense writing.
✨Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction by Patricia Highsmith -3, nonfiction, this is really a study of how Highsmith uses plotting in her own novels more than teaching anyone else how to do so.
✨A Cowrie of Hope by Binwell Sinyangwe -4, set in Zambia in the 1990's against the background of severe poverty and the threat of the Aids virus. A story of friendship.
✨Murder is a Piece of Cake by Valerie Burns -3.5, second book in a cute cozy series, where a blogger from LA inherits a bakery shop in Michigan.
✨Murder at a London Finishing School by Jessica Ellicott -4, mystery, set between WW1 and WW2 with two female "enquiry agents", one a Brit, the other American.
✨The Dogs and the Wolves by Irène Némirovsky -5, historical fiction, set first in the Ukraine and then France in the 1930's, contrasting the lives of the poor Jews to the rich Jews, using one family. One of my favorite authors.
✨A Land Without Jasmine by Wajdi Al-Ahdal -2, translated, mystery and a bit of magical realism, set in Yemen. A female college student just disappears and a police detective is assigned to investigate. It is a very weird book in a negative way.
✨Intimations by Zadie Smith -5, nonfiction, short vignettes about the start of the COVID shutdown in NYC.
✨Lailah's Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story by Reem Faruqi -4, fiction, another children's book that explains why a little girl can't eat lunch with her friends at school during Ramadan.
✨The Last Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal -4, mystery, last book in the Maggie Hope series.
✨The Book of Proper Names by Amélie Nothomb -4.5, fiction translated from the French, with a "punch in the face" beginning and ending, and the middle the story of a young ballerina. It is a strange book and I really liked it.

wow!

BarryP wrote: "wow!"

Oh, don't be too impressed - I read the same number of books as June, but 1500 pages less. Translated works and children's book are fun but quicker.

Very nice lineup Gail! Your rating (5) for Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow will help me route it higher on the tbr list. It's been there waiting for a nudge. Intimations also catches my eye,Zadie Smith is a favorite.

what barry said! impressive month!

Impressive indeed! This comment by you stood out:

"✨Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr -3, mystery (published in 1935), has a great concept marred for me by the very dense writing. "

I found the same to be true of The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey (published in 1929) and I said as much somewhere here. One can go pages without any dialog, and the typeface is on the smaller side, which combines to make it slow going. Thankfully the plot is solid.

For next year's challenge to read a book published before I was born, I may switch to audio.

Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Impressive indeed! This comment by you stood out: "✨Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr -3, mystery (published in 1935), has a great concept marred for me by the very dense writing. " ..."

I have learned to do much older books either on the kindle or nook apps (including Libby - you guys are teaching me to be a little more cost conscious...) At least there I can adjust the font!

Gail W wrote: "I have learned to do much older books either on the kindle or nook apps (including Libby - you guys are teaching me to be a little more cost conscious...) At least there I can adjust the font!..."

Good idea!