HBR Daily Leader by Harvard Business Review

I read this as an ebook and think it would be better as a hard copy; something to keep by your bed or another easy place to open up and read an entry every day. 

Basically, this is almost a calendar of information to use to become "an exceptional leader." Each of the daily snippets come from a longer article (that you can read online. 

An interesting concept with bite-sized information. May also drive traffic to their website when people would like to know more. 

Four stars

This book comes out December 3, 2024

ARC kindly provided by Harvard Business Review Press and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Murder at King’s Crossing by Andrea Penrose

Sheffield and Cordelia are finally married. But the day is marred when news of a dead man carrying an invitation to their wedding arrives. At first, Cordelia fears it is her cousin. She is just as heartbroken to learn it is a man with whom she grew up. Her friend, Jasper, was the one who helped dress as a man to attend university. He was also an inventor and the prologue lets us know that he has just stumbled upon something incredibly important. Something big enough to be killed for.

At the same time, Peregrine has been sent home from Eton giving Wrexham and Charlotte a chance to get the third Weasel under their roof. 

Lots going on in this book. I don't know that it would be a good book to start the series with but is a good addition for those who have already reading.

Four stars

Wrexford & Sloane #8

This book came out September 24, 2024

Follows at Murder at Merton Library

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Guilt and Ginataan by Mia P. Manansala

It's Corn Festival time in Shady Palms. They have a small-ish town so they have teamed up with nearby Shelbyville. Of course, Brew-ha has a stand. And they impress not only the mayor of Shelbyville but also her wife. And it's the wife that ends up dead in a corn maze with Adeena nearby clutching a knife.

Lila has a lot of realizations in this book, especially as she ends up talking to the murdered woman's best friend who also ran a business with her. The parallels in her own life are startling. The woman even has a doxie as well. 

I didn't love the ending of this book. It didn't feel as sewn together as previous books but the overall tone of the book is the same as previous in the series and the story moved along the characters really well. 

Four stars

This book comes out November 12, 2024

Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery #5

Follows Murder and Mamon

ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

A Kiss in the Dark by Suzanne Enoch

Sam has been asked to ask for some last minute security upgrades at a museum in New York so she heads up to help out. When she gets up there, it turns out that she was called because the curator got a note warning them that a thief was targeting this display specifically. When Sam sees the note, she realizes is that it is from one of her dad's old aliases. And she finds out that the reason this specific museum has been targeted is because the curator is connected to Sam's father. 

Of course, there are complications because the FBI is still trying to get Sam. And her father is ready to serve her up on a platter.

Not my favorite Sam and Rick story but it was fine and I really liked the reveal at the end. 

Three and a half stars

This book came out October 8, 2024

Sam and Rick #2

Follows Barefoot in the Dark

ARC kindly provided by Independent Publishers Group and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Third Shift Society Volume Two

Ellie and Ichabod return in an continuation of their adventures from the first book. The supernatural detectives are still working on some random cases but we also get a glimpse into what may have happened to Ichabod. Some of his past does include an old flame, Maris. 

Ellie finally does admit what happened to her with Alice as well which is helpful to the group as a whole. She also is coming more into her powers which is fun to see. 

Four stars

This book comes out October 29, 2024

Follows Third Shift Society Volume One

ARC kindly provided by Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

At the beginning of the book, Evie is dead. Apparently. At least, The Villain sure thinks she is. And he's devastated. But, as the blurb mentions, she is not dead. In fact, she's leading the revolution to release The Villain. He's been tortured in the cellars of the castle only to be brought upstairs to be unmasked and accused of killing Miss Sage. 

Why should The Villain be unmasked? It's part of a prophecy. One that will maybe bring magic back to Rennedawn and stop the mysterious illness that is killing so many people. There are two other parts, one which includes finding Evie's mother.

In the course of the story, we have two different someones coming back from the dead, one person who does evil for the greater good, and one magic dagger. 

Didn't love all of the world building in this one but I was dying laughing and also wished I had pencil and paper to write down some rather poignant quotes.

Four stars

This book came out August 8, 2024

Assistant to the Villain #2

Follows Apprentice to the Villain

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Passions in Death by J.D. Robb

A group of women are out on the town to celebrate a wedding. Before the night is over, one of the brides-to-be is dead in the Down and Dirty. Crack's club. 

Erin had worked hard to be able to save for her and Shauna's dream honeymoon. Her accomplice was supposed to bring in a coconut bra, grass skirt, and the shoes that had brought her to fiancée. When she walked into the private room, she was garroted.

This is an "In Death" where we don't know who the killers are ahead of time. We work through the case with Eve and Peabody. And it pretty much comes down to two people fairly soon. 

I liked this book. I love the whole series and think that Robb is still able to keep some things fresh while still maintaining a rhythm 59 books into the series.

Four stars

This book came out September 3, 2024

In Death #59

Follows Random in Death
Followed by Bonded in Death

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Rockin' Around the Chickadee by Donna Andrews

Meg's sister-in-law Delaney is pregnant and about to burst. While she's on bedrest, the rest of the family is helping out by feeding her chickadees. This leads to Rose Noir finding a body behind the barn. The bad new is that it's the Gadfly.

Gordon Norton, called the Gadfly by Meg's family, has been a thorn in the side of many people in the true crime community. He keeps trying to prove that people who have been exonerated were actually guilty. In fact, he's been harassing them pretty thoroughly. Which is why no one was happy about the fact that he was coming to the true crime conference that Meg's grandmother, Cordelia, had put together. 

There seem like a few more side characters than usual but we do get to see a lot of the regulars. I didn't love the ending and the motives but the overall book is a nice addition to the series. 

Three and a half stars

Meg Langslow #36

This book comes out October 15, 2024

Follows Between a Flock and a Hard Place

ARC of ebook kindly provided by MacMillan and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

Wrong Side of Forty by Jana DeLeon

Marina Trahan might never have known that her husband was cheating if her last hair appointment of the day hadn't gotten canceled. Not only does she find him in bed, it's with a girl only three years older than their daughter. The girl who stole two of their daughter's boyfriends. The girl who is wearing the new lingerie that Marina just bought to spice up their love life. 

Now, Marina doesn't have a house, doesn't have a job, but DOES have her sister and her mom's old fishing cabin. And the dog. And, now, some strange guy who is calling himself a demigod and telling her that she is a "seeker." Of course, she is the one who has to save the world.

But does Marina want to be that person? She's forty-eight years old and she's tired. But she needs the money and Alexios is offering her a million dollars. 

I didn't expect much from this book. Did every plot point make sense? Maybe not. Were the characters entirely loveable? Maybe not.  But I thought it was going to be fast, fun, and fluffy and that's what it delivered.

Four stars

Marina at Midlife #1

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

I heard about this one of my podcasts. For the first fifty pages, I wondered why I kept reading it. Then, I was hooked.
What do they do with spies that aren’t good enough for the field but aren’t bad enough to be fired? They’re sent to the Slough House. And that’s who we’re following, the occupants known as the Slow Horses. There are the screw ups, the alcoholics, and the people who no one likes. But one of them obviously isn’t as slow as everyone believes because they’re all about to be plunged into a mystery. Parallel stories tell us about a young British boy of Pakistani descent who’s been kidnapped. The kidnappers have promised to cut off his head on a live internet feed. Then there’s the betrayal in Slough House. But who’s done the betraying and why is one agent dead and another one near to it?

Four stars

This book came out June 1, 2010

Slough House #1

Followed by Dead Lions

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Murder at the Merton Library by Andrea Penrose

Wrex receives a note from a friend of his brother's, asking him for help. But when Wrex arrives at the college, the friend is already dead. It will be up to our intrepid team to find out what happened to the man. 

As we get further into the books, the mysteries are fine but, for me, it's more about the characters. And there is some growth for them in this book. Sheffield and Cordelia get closer to marriage, the Weasels start to interact more with their newest member, and we get to learn more about Wrexham and his brother. 

Four stars

This book came out September 26, 2023

Wrexford & Sloan #7

Followed Murder at the Serpentine Bridge

Followed by Murder at King's Crossing

Borrowed as hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

The Examiner A Novel by Janice Hallett

Hallett writes mysteries in a way that no one else does. She has tight stories that leave clues the whole way through but you never can quite tell where she’s heading until you get there.
Like most of her stories, this is told in two parts; one told in “present” time while the other is told as the bulk of the story unfolds. In this case, we have six students and a teacher who are embarking on a Multimedia Arts course teaching creative-types who to work in the “real world.” It is a prospective course and being added to the calendar full time means that Angela “Gela” will get to keep her job.
We watch the six students work their way through the nearly ten months of the course as they work through personality clashes and their assignments. But some of the students aren’t there just to take the class and at least one of them won’t be alive at the final presentation.
The last section dragged on a bit (the last day was maybe 1/4 -1/3 of the book) and the end was a bit over the top but always a fun read from Hallett.

Four stars

This came out September 10, 2024

ARC kindly provided by Atria Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Strip Tease by Carl Hiaasen

This book is Hiaasen at his finest. We have the story of a stripper with a heart of gold. She was formerly a secretary for the FBI but her no-good husband is a felon so she got fired. To add insult to injury, he turned state’s witness so his record’s been expunged. The judge in their custody case only sees that Erin has a “bad job” so she is definitely an unfit mother. Meanwhile, her ex is still stealing wheel chairs and now he’s using their kid to do it.
While she’s dancing one night, a bachelor party gets a little rowdy and a stranger attacks the groom with a bottle hard enough to put him in the hospital. This sets off a chain of events that leads to a number of deaths and Erin being put in danger. Also included? A senator, a sugar plantation, and a kinkajou.
We do get to see Al Garcia from the Skink series as well. He’s trying to take some time off with his new wife Donna and her two kids when the son finds one fo the formerly mentioned dead people.
A wild ride this story is told cleanly with a few extra details that really make the story come alive.

Four stars

This book came out September 1, 1993

Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Plus

Opinions are my own

The Lost Art of Connecting by Susan McPherson, Jackie Ashton

People today are doinga connections all wrong according to McPherson. This book was written in the midst of COVID and, of course, people were isolated. But it started before that (and, according to many has worsened since.)

McPherson talks about having the right kind of connections, getting into them for the right reasons, and having the right depths. She talks about ways to build connections and how to do so purposefully.

Four stars

This book came out March 23, 2021

Audible book of mine
Opinions are my own

Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie

Opening lines can make or break a book and this one has a doozy: You see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed? This is a line that will come back to haunt some of the characters in this book when Mrs. Boynton ends up dead. Certainly none of her three stepchildren nor even her own daughter will mourn the woman. She wielded the family wealth like a jail. For most of them, this was the first time they had ever left home (and what a place to head out to!)

Their are several travelers who they have met along the way who have noticed how strange this family is. Could it be that one of them took matters into their own hands? Or was it something darker?

Of course, it could have been a natural death. But the doctor that was nearby doesn't think so and asks Poirot (who is on his own vacation) for help.

Four stars

Hercule Poirot #18

This book came out in 1938

Follows Death on the Nile

Followed by Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Borrowed as audiobook 

Opinions are my own

What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

I enjoyed this book and think I will look for it in a hard copy. 

Goldsmith talks not only about the things that you SHOULD do but also the things you should NOT do. He mentioned that too many of us fall into the trap of thinking that we can just do MORE of the thing that got us to a particular point to help us get to the next level. There is also a lot of food for thought about how we talk to the people around us, being realistic without too much positivity or negativity.

Four stars

This book came out January 9, 2007

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Joyful Recollections of Trauma by Paul Scheer

I really enjoy "How Did This Get Made" but wasn't sure I wanted to read about someone else's trauma. I did like that Paul Scheer read his own book. And it was spliced together with clips of Paul reading sections at various podcast shows. 

There was quite a bit of trauma but Paul tells the stories with a bit of humor (thus the title). But there are also a lot of stories just about Paul's life.

Four stars

This book came out May 21, 2024

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

What the Vicar Saw by Benedict Brown

This book opens with a funeral and a dead body. To be clear, the funeral was for one man (a despicable baron whom no one in the small town of Condicote liked) and the dead body is that of another (the local vicar.) Christopher and his grandfather are on the spot because the family had come down to look at the church as a possible wedding venue for Christopher's brother. While there, their paternal grandmother insisted that they stay for the funeral. 

When the vicar didn't show, Christopher and his grandfather went looking. They found the body and also discovered that there was an item missing from the church. That same item was found in the hands of a man who has had some shady dealings in town and he is immediately arrested. But did he really do it? While Lord Edgington is sure, Christopher is not. But then somebody else dies and, at least for Lord Edgington, the case is reopened.

We actually start to see more growth for Christopher (physically as well as mentally) which is nice. While I adore Hastings and Watson as characters, they never changed. We get to see that in Christopher. 

Four stars

Lord Edgington Investigates #9

This book came out March 24, 2023

Follows The Snows of Weston Moor

Followed by Blood on the Bannisters

Borrowed as Audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie

This is one of my favorite Poirot stories. Partly because of the story itself and partly because I love the David Suchet episode of this story; the dog that plays Bob is adorable.

Emily Arundell has fallen down the stairs. She nearly died. Her family said that she slipped on her dog's ball (Bob has a habit of dropping the ball down the stairs and then chasing after it) but that doesn't seem quite right. She writes to Poirot in April, asking him to come.

Poirot receives the letter in June. Why was it posted so late? And was Miss Arundell's eventual death because of some food she ate that upset her stomach? Or did one of her loving relatives help her along?

Four stars

This book came out July 5, 1937

Hercule Poirot #16

Follows Cards on the Table

Followed by Death on the Nile

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Between a Flock and a Hard Place by Donna Andrews

If you've ever looked up how houses have fared after a makeover show, you'll see that people are often unhappy. Based on what she's hearing through the grapevine, the Smetkamps are going to in the same place. They've won a makeover from Marvelous Mansions but the producer seems shady and the workforce is unsettled. Meanwhile, Meg is just trying to make sure they stay in code. 

Someone seems particularly against the show though (or maybe it's the Smetkamps) because they've gathered up the wild turkeys and released them on the Smetkamps street. There's a fairly amusing bit where an Amazon driver almost gets taken out by the turkeys. He makes it out alive with some help but someone else on the street does not. So, Meg is once again sleuthing a murder mystery. 

This book doesn't have much with Josh and Jamie, nor Michael. We do see any number of other regular characters in this book though and it is a nice addition to the series. 

Four stars

Meg Langslow #35

This book comes out August 6, 2024

Follows Let It Crow, Let It Crow, Let It Crow

Followed by Rockin' around the Chickadee

ARC of ebook kindly provided by MacMillan and Edelweiss

ARC of audiobook kindly provided by MacMillan and NetGalley

Opinions are my own