The Overbooked Bibliophile

My Rating: 3.5⭐️ Tara Lingeman’s  Salamandra is a touching story revolving around the life-changing impact of loss and grief and how every individual has to embark on a personal journey to cope with and accept the changes losing somebody important entails. The story explores the void left in lives of those left behind and what it takes to go on living without those who who have passed on.

My Rating: 3.5⭐️ Short story collections are always a mixed bag. The themes in this collection vary between realistic, satirical, fantastical , futuristic and dystopian with touches of magical realism and revolve around themes of coming of age, loneliness, grief, mortality, relationships, regret and so much more. 

My Rating: 4.5⭐️ While reading this story I could not help think of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, whose body was found washed up on a beach in Turkey back in 2015 having drowned somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea while fleeing Syria. His story made the headlines and the picture of that beautiful little boy lying lifeless on a beach made the whole world sit up and take note of the plight and treatment of refugees and asylum seekers across the world.

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ DI Paul French and DS Glyn Edwards are called to investigate the murder of a retired thespian, ninety-four-year-old Sir Frank Taylor, resident of the Irving Home for Retired Actors in Oldminster. His body was discovered in his own bed with a dagger plunged through the chest. The dagger is an authentic SS dagger, the ‘Ehrendolch’, or ‘honor dagger’, part of the ceremonial dress of members of the SS. Could there be a possible connection between Sir Frank Taylor and the Nazis or is the use of the dagger a mere coincidence? Given the timing and manner of the crime committed and the efficient routine maintained by the management of the residence, it seems unlikely that an outsider could have entered the premises and murdered the victim .Thus it seems that the staff and fellow residents are the most probable suspects or are they? 

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “You are a fingerprint. When you open your eyes on the last day of your life, you see your own thumb. In the jaundiced prison light, the lines on the pad of your thumb look like a dried-out riverbed, like sand washed into twirling patterns by water, once there and now gone.” Meet forty-six-year-old Ansel Packer, Inmate # 999631 in a Texas Prison, twelve hours away from execution for the murder of three teenage girls twenty-nine years ago. Dubbed 'The Girly Killer', he fancies himself a philosopher and is hopeful that his story and 'Theory', which he has documented in a stack of notebooks, will be published and revels in thinking of the fanfare that would follow. 

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Returning to Carthage by Ben Sharafski is a collection of interconnected short stories featuring the same protagonist (and narrator, in this case),  a man who though originally from Israel is now settled in Australia with his family.  We also meet Naoko, his wife who is Japanese and his two children – his daughter, Sophie and his son, Daniel. Though not in perfect chronological order, these stories are set during different stages and social situations of the man’s life and we are given a window into his thoughts, perceptions and reactions towards the people and events described.

My Rating: 4.5⭐️ “When she fell, a hole opened in the human world that may never be filled, save in memory. Poets must sing the story over and over again, passing it from generation to generation, lest in losing Troy we lose a part of ourselves.” Stephen Fry relies upon various sources in compiling this comprehensive volume that begins with the origins and foundations of the city of Troy (mythical, historical and geographical) and proceeds to paint a picture of the immortal and mortal forces that lead to the events that ultimately result in the Trojan War.

My Rating:  4.5⭐️ “Five guys went into the woods. One has never been seen again. And the other four . . . they are not who they used to be either. Life is like that.” Haunted by her past, Frankie Elkin is “an average, middle-aged white woman, short on belongings, long on regret” who specializes in cold cases mostly involving the “underserved” in the community. While on the way to Idaho, where she plans to take up the case of an eight-year-old boy who has been missing for sixteen months, she comes across an article about thirty-three-year-old Timothy O’Day who disappeared while on a bachelors’ camping trip with his college friends in the Popo Agie Wilderness on the edge of Ramsey, Wyoming five years ago. Tim’s father has been searching for any clues about his son’s fate for the last five years and is about to venture out on his next trip into the wilderness where Tim was last seen. Frankie changes her plans and joins the search, motivated by her desire to bring closure to the famil...

My Rating: 4.5⭐ It doesn't matter how old you are or which 'Gen' you belong to. The Sarah's Scribbles Collection is pure entertainment! Funny and relatable , this series is perfect for a good laugh. I've enjoyed all the books in this series and Oddball is no exception. I wish it were longer, though!😊 I look forward to more from Sarah Anderson.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ In 1967, our unnamed narrator meets Jacques Austerlitz for the first time at Antwerp Central Station where they share a discussion on the finer points of the architectural structure and historical significance of the same. Austerlitz is a lecturer of art history at a college in London with a passionate interest in the architectural history of heritage sites and buildings which is made more obvious through the numerous lengthy and detailed descriptions of the buildings and places visited throughout the narrative. Over the next thirty years they continue to meet irregularly in different locations throughout Europe and Austerlitz shares fragments of the story of his life and background with our narrator.

My Rating: 4.5⭐️ At the onset of this novel, we meet 34-year-old Jenna whose husband informs her that he is in love with another woman and no longer wants to be married to Jenna who, though aware of the cracks in their marriage, is taken aback by this revelation. Her marriage of four years is over. Fast forward six months, Jenna is living in her childhood home with her parents and is still unable to come to terms with her marriage falling apart and the uncertainty in her future. Her parents, her mother, in particular, are trying to get her to venture out of the house and resume her life. Enter eighty-nine-year-old Evelyn Bergman Gold, Jenna’s grandmother who announces that she intends to drive from Maryland to her hometown of Hereford, Massachusetts to take care of family business. 

My Rating: 4.5⭐️ “Myth can be a kind of human algebra which makes it easier to manipulate truths about ourselves. Symbols and rituals are not toys and games to be dispensed with on our arrival at adulthood, they are tools we will always need. They complement our scientific impulse; they do not stand in opposition to it.” In Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined, Stephen Fry’s retelling of the timeless tales of the “heroes", we learn about the origins, quests, triumphs and legacies of  Perseus, Heracles, Bellerophon, Orpheus, Jason, Oedipus and Atalanta. The stories of Atalanta, the only female among the heroes and that of Bellephoron were completely new for me and I enjoyed them thoroughly. The Labors of Heracles and the story of Jason and the Argonauts were my personal favorites. I particularly enjoyed getting to know more about the mythical creatures the heroes go up against. Stephen Fry’s characteristic humor and wit render this an informative, entertaining and engaging read. ...

My Rating:  4.5⭐️ A Deadly Affair by Agatha Christie, is a compilation of 13 short stories each featuring one or more of her famous characters- Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, to name just a few. In addition to the stories, there is an autobiographical chapter titled “Affairs of the Heart: Agatha’s Early Courtships” which is an entertaining account of the author’s “two near escapes from getting married”. While these stories might not be viewed as ‘love stories’ per se, they do revolve around the theme of love, albeit, the darker side. The crimes, for the most part, are motivated by infidelity, unrequited love, rejection and other not-so-pleasant aspects of love such as jealousy and possessiveness. 

My Review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Aptly titled, An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten (translated by Marlaine Delargy) is the follow up to An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good by the same author, featuring Maud, the smart, independent, no nonsense octogenarian who you would definitely never want to go up against.

  My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ “Lena, Robin, Margaret, Carrie, Susan, Jill” Dr. Chloe Davis has never forgotten the six teenage girls her father was convicted of killing almost twenty years ago or the part she played in his arrest. With her father. Richard Davis, incarcerated and branded a serial killer, her family was torn apart and the trauma of their childhood followed her and her older brother Cooper throughout their lives . When, twenty years later, teenage girls go missing and are found murdered under circumstances eerily similar to the events 20 years ago, Chloe must confront her past once again . Copycat or is there more than meets the eye?

My Rating: 4.5⭐️ “It was a summer in which death, in visitation, assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.” This is how Frank Drum recalls the eventful summer of 1961. Frank, a young boy of thirteen growing up in New Bremen, Minnesota with his Juilliard-bound older sister Ariel, younger brother Jake , his WW2 veteran father who is a Minister and artistically inclined mother who shares her love and talent for music with her daughter. When the body of a young boy they know is found on the railroad tracks the whole town is left in shock, with speculation about the nature of his death.

My Rating: ⭐️⭐⭐ Matt Pine returns to his dorm room after a night out with his NYU friends to the news that his parents, younger brother and sister were found dead while vacationing in Tulum, Mexico. The local police rule it as an accident attributing the cause to an accidental gas leak but the FBI suspect foul play. Matt’s family has had its share of troubles. His elder brother Danny was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend Charlotte and has been serving a life sentence,  a crime that many believe he has been wrongfully convicted of. A true crime documentary featuring Danny’s case that delves into aspects of the trial, investigation and coerced confession have placed the Pine family in the spotlight and insinuations about the faulty investigation and possible suspects have led to the family being driven out of their hometown in Nebraska and relocating in Naperville, Illinois.  

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ In the Indian epic, The Ramayana, Queen Kaikeyi is portrayed as a jealous queen who wants her son Bharata to ascend the throne of Kosala and uses the boons granted to her by her husband King Dasharath to send Rama , the eldest of Dasharath’s sons and first in line to the throne, into exile . She is , therefore, labeled a “villain” as is her trusted maid, Manthara who is instrumental in fueling Kaikeya’s jealousy and convincing Kaikeye to make use of her boons to further her agenda. In reimagining Kaikeyi’s story, Vaishnavi Patel adds much depth to this powerful, brave and influential woman who, forsaken by the gods and left to carve her own destiny emerges powerful in a day and age when men rule in accordance with the will of the gods and women are bound in roles defined by age-old traditions and relegated, in most part, to the background.

My Rating:  4.5⭐️ More often than not I end up disappointed with books with a lot of hype surrounding them . So, naturally, I had my reservations about investing my time in reading this novel. But I am glad my curiosity got the better of me and I did not miss out on this beautifully written, atmospheric and moving novel about survival, a father’s unconditional love for his child, kindness, sacrifice and above all, grace. “The thing about grace is that you don’t deserve it. You can’t earn it. You can only accept it. Or not.”

My Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I never thought I'd say that I enjoyed a book about a lethal killer so much. But I actually did! Octogenarian Maud is one of the most unique fictional (I certainly hope!) characters I've come across in a long time. Smart as a whip , no-nonsense Maud finds solutions to her "problems" by disposing of them , literally and with no help needed whatsoever. An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten(translated by Marlaine Delargy) is a fun read that keeps you engaged throughout. Five short stories detailing Maud's (mis)adventures kept me riveted with its tongue-in-cheek humor and no frills storytelling.  Needless to say, I need to read the next book in the series as soon as I can get my hands on it because I can't wait to find out what Maud does next! Thanks so much Kat(Books are Comfort Food) for putting this on my radar!

My Rating: 3.5⭐️ " Abru. It means Honor.” Meena Mustafa’s husband Abdul was burnt alive by her brothers in an attack that left a side of her face disfigured and left hand permanently damaged - an ‘honor killing’ as punishment meted out for the crime of marrying inter faith. Meena , a Hindu, fell in love with Abdul , a Muslim, leaving her home to be with him  , an act that is viewed as dishonorable by her family and community. Four months of marriage ends in tragedy for Meena who was then pregnant with her daughter who she names Abru, Meena ,having survived because of the intervention of her brother-in-law who has since absconded fearing for his own life, goes against the wishes of mother-in-law and with the help of a lawyer ,who is fighting her case pro bono, reopens the case against her brothers and is now awaiting the verdict. Meena is aware of the deep seated corruption and potential danger she is up against but does not shy away from fighting her case in the honor of her husba...

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “This is a book for everyone, eighty or eight-” I agree wholeheartedly! Reading “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” written and beautifully illustrated by Charlie Mackesy is a moving , inspiring and comforting experience .Expressed through short and sweet conversations between four unlikely friends - the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse, the author touches upon themes of kindness, friendship , self–acceptance and life in general. The handwritten and hand illustrated format gives this book a personal and intimate feel reminiscent of some of the fables and stories we read as children (and still love and enjoy!). This is a very short read and I reread this book a few times before I finally put it down.

  My Rating :  3.5⭐️   As the story begins, we meet Liz, Pat and Thelma, former colleagues and retired teachers of St. Barnabus’s Primary School who meet up every Thursday at the Thirsk Garden Centre café sharing gossip and tidbits about their lives and families. On one particular Thursday, they bump into Topsy, another ex-colleague, former nursery nurse at the same school, and her daughter Kelly Anne. Topsy is in the early stages of dementia , a condition that has worsened since the death of her husband . KellyAnne is her only caregiver. While the friends appreciate KellyAnne’s taking care of her mother and sympathize with their situation, they also sense that there is something that is not quite right when Topsy shares some disturbing facts . This prompts the friends to visit her at her home. They come to know that recently Topsy has been the victim of financial fraud and has lost all her life savings.  When Topsy is found dead in her home the following week Liz, P...

My Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I a m so glad that I started 2022 with this book! The retelling of the Greek myths with Stephen Fry’s own brand of humor and wit is interesting, informative and entertaining. I am no expert on Greek mythology but have developed a keen interest after reading a number of recent retellings. So, naturally, I had to pick up Stephen Fry’s series and I am so happy that I did. From Chaos to Kronos, Zeus and beyond , Mythos by Stephen Fry holds you in its thrall. The stories are interspersed with historical facts and tidbits about the origins of the names of familiar places and etymology of certain words used in modern day English. The author also adds footnotes referencing text, poetry and other art forms that have been inspired by some of these myths as well as scientific facts. My favorite parts would the segments pertaining to the Titanomachy, Prometheus, Eros  and Psyche and Arion and the Dolphin. I found the myths pertaining to the sting of the bee,  ...