Tedious. Way too long & too many characters, twists.

Review contains spoilers.
I continue to enjoy the series and Reichs' snappy dialog. The audio narrator, Linda Emond, is excellent. I love that Skinny is back, and want more of Ryan.
I do not love that increasingly Tempe's cases seem to be more about her than the victims.
And could she please chill with the neurons firing and the id sending messages?
In this installment, the identity of the perpetrator was foreshadowed pretty early on.

Story, characters, and narration were engaging, but the pace was glacial.

On a trip last fall to Santa Fe I visited three of its independent bookstores and found some gems by authors new to me.
I really enjoyed this tale - historical though not a bit dry, with approachable characters and a witty, feisty narrator.

Loved the premise - widowed former NY detective relocates from America to Italy and reluctantly teams up with local law enforcement to help solve a murder
- and the culinary descriptions made my mouth water. But seemingly endless speculation about the victim and his past grew tedious.

Amazing read! The audio narration was outstanding - a different voice and reader for each sister.

Not my cup of tea

Trigger warning: this book depicts extreme emotional and physical abuse. The Puzzle Women was a difficult read for me and I recommend it with reservation because of the subject matter..
The title refers to a real group dedicated to reassembling shredded files of the Stasi secret police agency in the German Democratic Republic from 1950-1990. In the book they are instrumental in piecing together a fractured family. It is set in dual time periods, around the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and ten years later..
The book is beautifully written, the first-person voice of each major character (Rune, Lotte, and Mama) is compelling, and the audio narrator is exceptional.

Pros:
Tonya Wizlawski (sp?) is a great character that I hope we'll see in future books.
Gotta love the series, despite the outrageously improbable coincidences.
We always learn so much - this time vaccines, gene editing, and more.

Cons - contains spoilers:
Am I losing track of characters? Ann in Charleston) is supposedly Tempe's best friend, but I don't recall her from earlier books.
What the heck - there's not a single mention of Skinny Slidell, who is Ryan's detective business partner!

I liked the Anna Turnipseed and Emmett Parker characters, but the plot was too convoluted for me.

This is a tender memoir and tribute to the hard-working Sicilian immigrants who settled in Monterey. I especially enjoyed learning about the squid fishing industry from the viewpoint of the author as a 13 year-old starting as a hand on his father's boat.

Lisa Donovan's memoir was a difficult read; her words seethed with anger. SHE seethed with anger., but also summoned tenderness. It is almost cruel that she tempted us with mouth-watering desserts she no longer makes for the public.

The audio narrator might as well have been reading a recipe.

I have enjoyed all of McGarrity's books set in the southwest- his Kevin Kerney series and his trilogy. However, the narration on Head Wounds was so deadpan and lacking in transitions between characters that the impact of the story was badly damaged.

I chose this book because I loved Chamberlain's Big Lies in a Small Town.
Silent Sister is built upon a layers of lies that have shaped a family over a period of time. It works up to a point because the characters are interesting, but one final lie throws all credibility out the window.

The Hogarth Shakespeare Project was launched for the purpose of retelling Shakespeare’s works for the modern audience. Anne Tyler was commissioned for Taming of the Shrew, one of the first seven works released to date. While I have seen very successful productions that updated the setting of this play, unfortunately Vinegar Girl feels forced and falls flat.
Tyler’s Petruchio is Pyotr, a research assistant in Kate’s father’s lab whose visa is expiring. If Kate marries him, he can apply for permanent resident status. The story is told in third person, past tense, so lacks the engagement and immediacy of the original, and fails to demonstrate any believable emotional connection.

This fifth installment in the Sarah Burke series was very disappointing. The plot was so tortured that by the end I really didn't care about the crime or who or why. Development of Sarah's family dynamics, so integral to the previous books, seemed to be plugged in as afterthoughts.

LCC 2013, Wyoming

This was my first Denise Mina. I was mesmerized by Cathleen McCarron's excellent audio narration. Whenever the arc of the story seemed frustratingly to be going nowhere, it took surprising, suspenseful turns. The medium of podcasts, Twitter feeds, and live streaming is alien to me, so I was initially skeptical about making a connection to the characters, but Mina pulled me in with her protagonist's unpredictable and fearless conviction (reference intended).

The story took much too long to unfold and rather than building suspense, built tedium.

This little book of essays is so perfect it made me stop breathing.

Invisible begins promisingly, establishing the protagonist, Paul McGrath's, credentials and skills in espionage. I liked the novel approach of his working inside a courthouse and his sympathy toward tenants being forced from their building, but I agree with other Early Reviewers that with the introduction of multiple story lines - Eastern European mobsters, money laundering, human trafficing, and so on, that the book quickly lost credulity and interest. I finished it, but do not recommend it.

I have been practicing beginner-level yoga for eight years, am familiar with most of the poses, and doing them as the "prevention variation." Since I was recently diagnosed with osteoporosis I want to be more careful about possible fractures. This book shows modifications for each pose. It also has one of the better discussions that I've seen for the lay person about bone formation, health, and deterioration. The section on medications is outdated.

This well-written & performed work is a treat and provides a glimpse into a culture that is otherwise inaccessible to me.

Likeable characters and nteresting details about how the Army operates & life near the DMZ; however, too much is explained rather than revealed.

Yes, the concept isn't new, but as someone who is already comfortable being and traveling alone, I still found value in revisiting these pleasures through the author's experience, especially at the start of a new year when intentions are set.
- The potential in slowing down and noticing places & details overlooked in our daily routines;
- The discoveries awaiting by wandering off the well-traveled path;
- The joy of savoring small moments without pressure of time.
Alone Time inspired me to initiate monthly rambling I am calling "wander Wednesdays".

One of the best on osteoporosis for non-professionals but needs updating since 2000. Still a good reference for prevention, exercise, & nutrition.

Picoult opens her newest work with an active hostage situation at the only clinic in Mississippi that performs abortions. We learn why each participant in the crisis came to be there through a series of non-linear flashbacks, and this format may be frustrating to some readers. I did not have trouble with the audiobook version. As always, the author is skilled at presenting nuanced perspectives of complex situations, and discusses her preparation for this book in an afterward.

Learning of the devastating fire that nearly destroyed the Los Angeles Central Library in 1986 set the author on a four-year research path that resulted in this captivating non-fiction work that vacillated between heart-pounding drama as wisps of smoke make a path through overcrowded stacks to tedious descriptions of the librarians who helmed LAPL starting in the 1870s.
• Great technical details of methods used to freeze, dry, and salvage over a half million damaged books.
• What the Central Library meant and means to its community, and what challenges libraries everywhere face as patron needs change.

I loved the author's description of living inside a library. This must have been magical to a child.

I knew going in that this one would be messy, violent, and fraught with moral dilemma. The Bedart revenge story line had to come to resolution. I just hoped that Walt would survive. Read for yourself and see.