I continue my quest to read the full Christie library! This one is a bananas in premise, but hidden jewels and and all girls school is just too fun.

Read out loud to my 8 and 11 year olds. Can not believe I’ve read 14 (15 really with the Darkstalker stand alone) of these books out loud!
Elly’s Review: 5 stars! I loved how dramatic it was. I loved how it shows how a mother really loves her daughter. My favorite character was still bumble bee.
Max’s review: it was good. I’d give it like 3.5 stars. Out of them all it wasn’t the best. I don’t like that Turtle wasn’t in it at all even though he was over there. Lynx was probably my favorite character of this book.

This was good but… tough? Dry? I’m not sure, but I struggled with it. Elektra was insufferable through most it. Her mother was tragic and is frustrating in her failures to her younger children. The story drove home its point (to my understanding): that revenge does not a happy life make.

… for a book billed as “from the women’s perspectives” it remained entirely about the actions of men - but then that’s the story, I guess?

Working in higher ed this hit a little close: it’s thin line between the noble pursuit of knowledge and the (much less noble) pursuit of being “the smartest and most important person in the room.” Liesl is an imperfect heroine with a rich and honest backstory. It’s not so traumatic as to completely devote us to her, but instead reflects the reality of slogging through life. Borderline addictions. Depression. Martial woes. Professional regrets. Aging children. She encompasses an all too relatable look at real life in late middle age. This book is not a fun romp or a cheeky behind the scenes tale of librarians. It’s a mystery wrapped in realism, egos, age, and fear… and very old and rare books.

I wasn’t sold at first, then stayed up too late finishing this. Six perspectives, in a heist/caper story, is a lot and she crafts it so clearly. This was just fun and a nice return to the Grisha universe from Shadow and Bone (though unrelated plot wise).

This book is like someone wrote down a (very cheesy, very reductive) Hallmark movie. The main character is ridiculous. But three stars because (a) I’m a sucker for Paris as a character and (b) frankly, I did this to myself. Reading the back of the book you knew: this was going to be a Hallmark movie and it lived up to what it advertised.

This was a great collection of stories and a few poems all centered around witchcraft. The poems didn’t do much for me, and like any collection of short stories I had to push myself through some while others I deeply enjoyed. My favorites were The Luck Thief (Tade Thompson), As Wayward Sisters, Hand in Hand (Indrapramit Das), Her Ravenous Waters (Andrea Stewart), and John Hollowback and the Witch (Amal El-Mohtar). Wonderful diversity of authors, themes, characters, and tone while still feeling unified.