Goals for the week: Start and finish at least 2 books.
Mon 2/22: I finished The Ravens tonight. I enjoyed it enough to give it 4 stars, but I will say that I guessed one of the twists pretty early on. It was a while before I got confirmation, but it didn’t diminish how much I enjoyed reading this book. If this author team writes something else, or even continues with these characters and makes this a series, I will definitely be picking it up.
I’m not sure what I’ll be picking up next. I’ve got a lot of books out from the library but nothing is calling to me at the moment.
Tue 2/23: I started reading Sustainable Thinking: Ensuring Your Library’s Future in an Uncertain World by Rebekkah Aldrich. I’m going to have to return it to the library sooner than planned, but I’ll definitely be getting it back soon to finish.
Wed 2/24: I needed a lighthearted audiobook, so I started listening to Daphne & Velma: The Vanishing Girl by Josephine Ruby, which is a Scooby Doo retelling/continuation/I don’t know how to categorize this. It gives me all of the nostalgia vibes though.
I also started reading Two Truths and a Lie by Ellen McGarrahan. I heard about it on the All the Books podcast from BookRiot and had to wait a few weeks for my library hold to come in. It’s a true crime memoir…sort of. It’s told from the perspective of a female private investigator, but the case she looks into is one that she only has a tangential relationship to. It’s different and the writing style is a little stunted, at least in the first few pages. I’m hooked though.
Thu 2/25: I made some progress in Two Truths and a Lie today. I’m about 1/3 of the way through the book at this point. I’m hooked, but uncertain about where this is going.
Fri 2/26: For the first time in a long time today, I spent 90% of my lunch break reading. I had to know what happened in Two Truths and a Lie. The pacing goes back and forth between breakneck speed and seemingly useless rehashing of what she knows. It can be a little frustrating to read, but when she starts down a new road, I want to know what happens.
Sat 2/27: I finished Two Truths and a Lie today. Overall, I put the story at a 3 star read for me. I really liked the story of the crime and I appreciated the amount of work she put in to trying to find out the truth, but the writing just let me down. She used a lot of short choppy sentences and the writing felt like reading stream of consciousness at times. She also used a repetitive structure throughout that I felt kept taking me out of the story.
I started reading Good Girl, Bad Blood today after I finished the McGarrahan book. I only made it to the 9% mark in the audiobook, but I’m liking it so far. It is the sequel to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and picks up very soon after that book left off. I am struggling a little bit to remember some of the characters from the first book, even though I only read it a few months ago.
Sun 2/28: I finished Good Girl, Bad Blood today. I really appreciated how much emotional depth the main character experiences in this story. I have to admit that I wasn’t as crazy about the first book, but after finishing this one, I will definitely be continuing on with the series (which is slated to be 4 books total). I compare this series to Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series, because it is a YA mystery with a teenaged female protagonist with an obsessive interest in true crime. I still feel Truly Devious is the stronger of the two series, but they’re both worth a read if you like YA mystery/thrillers.
Books Dani Likes 