esmemoria

Reading this Series is a Slippery Slope of Delight

The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket

January 2, 2021 by esmemoria Leave a Comment

Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don’t always like. – The Slippery Slope The 13-book series “A Series of Unfortunate Events” is conversely the most fun I’ve had reading in ages, written by Lemony Snicket (the pseudonym for author Daniel Handler) (by pseudonym I mean a different name and persona) (that aside is inspired by one of the recurring conventions in the series) (all will be revealed soon). The series follows […]

Mystery as Lightweight Snack

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

February 16, 2020 by esmemoria Leave a Comment

I’ve been having some trouble making it through another book for CBR. I started a collection of Ngaio Marsh mysteries, but half-way through the stories dropped off in interest and quality. I then made it about a third of the way through The Best Mystery Stories of 2018, but I didn’t seem to like any of the selected authors. Grumpy, and falling behind in my reading, I seized on The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. Skimming through some reviews it seemed to be a quick, […]

“We are all of us ill prepared for what is to come”

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

January 30, 2020 by esmemoria Leave a Comment

I saw the film No Country for Old Men long before I ever read the book, and it is #2 on my list of all-time favorite movies. I’ve read two other books by McCarthy, Blood Meridian (brilliant but a very dense read) and The Road. Now that I’ve read No Country for Old Men, the movie really did the book justice. While I liked the book a lot, it’s one of those rare cases where I think the movie was a little better. Set in […]

A Serviceable Mystery

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

January 20, 2020 by esmemoria 4 Comments

I love a good mystery. I can tear through an absorbing mystery in a day, but I slow down for certain mysteries because of the depth of the characters. While Case Histories moves at a decent clip, the characters are sketched with more mannerisms and exposition than depth. To her credit, though, author Kate Atkinson is quite good at portraying the many forms of grief and loss. While I did not find this mystery very satisfying in the end, I do appreciate the effort that went in […]

Malin
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
In my book club, when we have pretty much come to the agreement that if the protagonists are still teenagers...
katie71483
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
Like so many others here, I'm a sucker for Tamora Pierce. Is Robin McKinley YA? Because I love her books,...
Tracy
on Interesting From an Intellectual Standpoint
I didn’t find it funny, and I’m not sure if my sense of humor doesn’t mesh with his or if...
Jen K
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
Oh, see I definitely read it as, “give your teens this magic school book instead.” Maybe because I remember The...
wicherwill
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
Interesting with Scholomance, I very much read it as the adult book for former YA magic school book readers

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