Book Review – whiskybaker

The actual books this time!

Clavir, Miriam: Insinuendo: Murder in the Museum – Dear Lord I read “but you’re so old at 53” in various ways so many times I thought I was going to scream. Seriously. I cannot tell you anything about the damn story several months later except for this very irritating tidbit. I hope her writing has changed since 2012 (when the book came out). I found this is a local little free library.

Canadian – set in the UBC Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, it gives a good description of a new comer to the city in the mid 2010s.

Chandrasekera, Vajra: The Saint of Bright Doors – This was a really good sort of queer fantasy story. This was one of the “12 books recommended by friends.” And conveniently a C book. Nominated by Aurora – I have to use this opportunity to give her amazing jewellery skills a plug: https://www.handmaderevolution.org/

Not really the centre of attention but it is a photo with the book in it!

Chow, Jennifer J.: Star-Crossed Egg Tarts – Is food-mystery a sub-genre of cozy mystery? This was very cute – and at the same time with a bit of depth. Definitely not something to keep you up at night but also you do kinda wanna know how it ends. I won this book early this year. It fits the TPL 2025 reading challenge category of “a book published this year.”

Bookish – 3 Bs

So, moving on to the Bs….

The Sins of the Fathers by Lawrence Block

A screen capture of the cover from the library app; There is a church steeple in the fog.

This sort of shouldn’t count for the decluttering / organizing part of this activity because it turns out the actual physical book I have is book two in the series so I read book one from the library.

Storygraph key words: fiction crime mystery darktense medium-paced

Me: while parts of this “written in the 70s” detective story were kinda painful to read nowadays (bosoms should just not be commented on okay?!?) the overall premise of this one is awesome and I will be reading more! I don’t want to spoil it – which is weird to say about a book as old as I am but still. Once I get through the alphabet I’ll come back to read the second one.

Milkman by Anna Burns

A photo of the cover of Milkman, an evening sky in shades of pink and rose and a person walking by the water. The book is on Lisa's desk

Storygraph key words: fiction historical literary challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Me: if you want to read a book that seems to me like what my brain is like read this. Digressions all over the place (like for pages!), but always swinging back around to the point etc. Again, not my usual sort of thing but I LOVED it. So far it’s still on the shelf. And will likely stay there for a while.

Kindred by Octavia Butler

A picture of the cover for Kindred. A Black woman wearing a light coloured blouse looking down; overlayed with an image of trees and houses

Storygraph key words: fiction classics historical speculative fiction dark emotional tense medium-paced

I loved this book first published in 1979. Usually Butler is lumped into science fiction but I far prefer The Storygraph’s use of “speculative fiction.”

I thought this was just beautifully done. And also so much of what I would do. She travels through time, but doesn’t understand how or why and she and her partner try to figure it out as the story progresses and I love that part of it. I will definitely read more by her. I have read Bloodchild and Other Stories – I love short stories and these were all fantastic.

So I was really happy that I read three A books and got 4 books out of the house. Less decluttering with B books – they are all still here. But ohhhh so worthy of staying on the shelf. On to C next!