This is a compilation of short stories set in Africa. They involve, for the most part, issues between man and animal or animal and animal. They are interesting and fun but also have a larger message.

Now that I’m done, I can say it; What the heck was this? A person who was an editor and writer once told me that readers have to be able to like, empathize, or at least understand a character in order to be able to enjoy a book. In this book NONE of the characters are likeable, and what’s more they are all verbally abusive to one another; mother to child, child to father, sister to sister. Set in India, the mother keeps her teenage daughters locked in their rooms for most of their lives, supposedly to keep them safe, but then says things to them like “Your days are numbered” and “I wish you were dead”. And the book starts off with one of the daughters being approached by a man in town, and there is this whole back and forth between the two where he goes after her, then she goes after him, then he drives her home and……nothing. Nothing more is said about the relationship or what happened. I could not wait for this book to be done and then felt like I needed to wash.

This was a different and very good book, and I’m not going to do it justice in the description, but here goes. A woman has lost her husband to an accident and now has to sell the house they had bought together but had not yet moved into. Each chapter then becomes a look into her perspective of “If only such and such had not happened”. And even though you know right from the beginning what the ending is, it is still an amazing descriptive journey which was originally written in French.

Wow. What a story! AS you read this book, you may think you know what is going to happen next, but trust me you will not see these sharp turns coming! I sounds simple; a man is sold a liquid, by a traveling salesman, that when applied to mirrors makes the person reflected in the mirror, look better. Not perfect or amazing, just a little more full of life and with the rough edges smoothed out. No big thing, right? Wrong!

It is always interesting to journey along with Hercule Poirot and see things the way he does. This is a compilation of short mysteries, each of which is set in a different interesting setting. I did this as an audio book on CDs and while I did enjoy it, I think I would have enjoyed it more had I done it as an actual book and been able to do it at a slower pace.

This was a fun story about a boy’s youth as told by his point of view. It is set in 1964, which for me is a time I can relate to. Unlike many stories about children growing up that focus on hardships, this one is set in a middle-class family and focuses more on fun and experiences than challenges. It’s a good read. My only problem is that based on the way the title was written, I was expecting something less polished, but I was pleasantly surprised

This is an unusually formatted book, done as letters between correspondents and some of the letters are removable from envelopes within the book. This book is a continuation of the series. The story is engaging, but the presentation of the book with its colors and images makes it a striking choice for a read.

A wonderful book

This was an OK romance book; not too sappy and portrayed the female central character as strong and independent. But there were just too many characters and unnecessary short sub-plots. For example, one of the side characters is losing and then does loose his mother to brain cancer. How can you make this a sub plot? And because the side characters were not well developed it took me a while to remember who everyone was.

For those of us who read a lot of mysteries, after a while, you can often see the ending coming. Not in this one! The central character’s alibi appears to be that she is just too dumb to organize and commit this crime. And it turns out what she did do really ends up confusing the police. A good whodunit.