Abandoned Books

Echoes Among the Stones by Jaime Jo Wright
2019
Goodreads:  4.58 - 209 ratings
abandoned 1/4/20
I made it - forcing myself - through the first third of this book, but it was too boring, oh so boring!  S L O W.  Didn't really care for the reader either.  It's the beginning of a new year, so I'm not going to force myself to finish!  (Note:  I didn't care for either of the protagonists in either time period, either!, just couldn't engage with either of them at all.)

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
2020
Goodreads: 3.79 - 28,089 ratings
abandoned April, 2020'
I think I wasn't in the mood, started listening twice but decided to return it to the library.  Maybe again someday?

The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber
abandoned 5/29/2020
DNF at 35%
2019
Goodreads:  3.82 - 1689 reviews
Returned to Audible, since I bought it for a credit.  What a waste of time  The same stuff, over and over and aver again.  And unfortunately, it's boring stuff.  Holier than thou Mormons lying and trying to figure out how to get out of things they've done wrong, all in the name of God.  I just can't go on one more page.

The Huntress by Kate Quinn
abandoned 4/1/2020
DNF at 21%
2019
Goodreads:  4.27 - 55,688 ratings
Usually I like books that keep flipping back-and-forth between people of time periods, but I figure I read almost a quarter of this book and just wasn't into it at all.  Granted, it was about WWII and set between the early1940s and early 1950s, which is a time period of which I am NOT enamored.  This is supposed to be a wonderful, highly rated book, but I've tried off and on for over a week and I'll pass it along to someone else.  (I waited for months for this audio to available through the library.)

Juliet: A Novel by Anne Fortier
DNF at 60%
2011
Goodreads:  3.90 - 25,074 ratings
abandoned 3/1/2020
 I thought I'd be drawn in by the two time periods, the present and the 1400s.  I wasn't.  I've never liked Romeo and Juliet, so I don't know why I thought I'd like this.  Read it on Kindle...

Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman
2019
Goodreads:  3.56 - 12,812
abandoned February, 2020
I guess I wasn't in the mood, this didn't interest me at all.  I had other good ones waiting, so had no problem abandoning it!

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

2020 - borrowed from Library, read on Libby

GoodReads: 4.51 - 8615 ratings

abandoned January, 2021

High schooler takes classes at UNC and encounters a secret magical society.  Read 19% of 512 pgs. (97 pgs.) and just didn't care for it.

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

2020

3.91 - 26,483 ratings

Read 33% of  354 pgs. = 118 pgs.

Just couldn't get into it, flipping from time periods gave me a sinking feeling about what was going to happen to the original character that I really liked, and I dreaded returning.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
2009
3.70 - 493,137 ratings
stopped reading mid February, 2020
I do plan to return to this book!  I started it - on a borrowed copy from Melissa Truelove, when it first came out, and didn't finish it then.  I got through 23% of it this time when others I'd borrowed and waited for a long time arrived.  I WILL finish this book, and not in the too far future!  eAudio from Bosler...

The Marriage Act by John Marrs

2023

Goodreads:  3.83

abandoned 3/27/2024

This one wasn't for me.  Too many unlikable characters.  Plus the whole idea of buying into this paticular marriage contract....just had me scratching my head.  I'd stop reading after a few minutes and put off going back to it, so why waste the time?  I probably read 1//5th to 1/4th of it.

The Poison Garden by Alex Marwood
2020
Goodreads:  3.68 - 703 ratings
abandoned February, 2020
I read about 40% of this and didn't like it.  For some reason it made me really nervous and it was one that I had to force myself to start again every time I put it down, unitl I realized I didn't have to finish it, even if I had paid full price for it, lol!

The Secrets of Paper and Ink by Lindsay Harrel
2019
Goodreads:  4.01 - 948 ratings
stopped reading 3/5/2020
I've started and read a great deal of lots of books lately that have been just plain not to my current liking  This one was pretty endless, the same old thing page after page.  All three protagoists were boring and I wasn't in any way compelled by any of their stories.  I read 52% or 326 pgs. (179 pages total)

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
2012
Goodreads:  3.99 - 73,279 ratings
I returned this in error before finishing, and had others to read so I went on to them.  I liked what I read so far, though, and would like to finish it.  It was a TPPL AUDIO, and I read/listened to at least 100 pages, so I don't want to wait too long to finish or I'll have to start over.  It was quite memorable.

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
2019
Goodreads:  4.09 - 381,656 ratings
Read 24% (of 325 pgs.)
abandoned 4/26/2020
Slow and boring.  I put off reading this because it didn't sound like my cup of tea, and reading the first quarter of the book made me realize it's just not worth any more of my time.  They haven't even gotten into a tiny bit of Alicia's backstory yet.  I'm not going to wait any longer because, well, I don't care!

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

2020

abandoned 1/20/21

DNF @ at least 50%

I got well into the life of person #3 (the twin sister passing as white) and since I've had to FORCE myself to pick this up, I ended it..

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

2023

abandoned 3/14/24

Read 1:17, 9:53 left -12% read

Loved the contemporary witches/Salem idea, but just couldn't get into it.  Lots of switching around people, situations, couldn't see it, or keep it in my mind's eye.  Maybe if I read this, but listening isn't working.

DNF - Echoes Among the Stones by Jaime Jo Wright

listened on Audible - my purchase
narrated  by Pilar Witherspoon
Unabridged audio (12:34)
2019 Recorded Books
324 pgs.
Adult Time Shift:  1946/Present
Stopped reading on Jan. 4, 2020
Goodreads rating: 4.58 - 209 ratings
My rating: boring, but didn't finish so won't rate
Setting:  somewhere in Wisconsin both in 1946 and current time

First line/s:  Imogene Grayson, Mill Creek Wisconsin, July, 1946.  "She should have paid more attention to her longtime neighbor, Oliver Schneider, when she passed him on the road at dawn."

My comments:  I made it - forcing myself - through the first third of this book, but it was too boring, oh so boring!  S L O W.  Didn't really care for the reader either.  It's the beginning of a new year, so I'm not going to force myself to finish!  (Note:  I didn't care for either of the protagonists in either time period, either!, just couldn't engage with either of them at all.)

Goodreads synopsis:    After Aggie Dunkirk's career is unceremoniously ended by her own mistakes, she finds herself traveling to Wisconsin, where her grandmother, Mumsie, lives alone in her vintage, though very outdated, home. Aggie didn't plan for how eccentric Mumsie has become, obsessing over an old, unsolved crime scene--even going so far as to re-create it in a dollhouse.
          Mystery seems to follow Aggie when she finds work as a secretary helping to restore the flooded historical part of the town's cemetery. Forced to work with a puzzling yet attractive archaeologist, she exhumes the past's secrets and unwittingly uncovers a crime that some will go to any length to keep hidden--even if that means silencing Aggie.
           In 1946, Imogene Grayson works in a beauty salon but has her sights set on Hollywood. But coming home to discover her younger sister's body in the attic changes everything. Unfamiliar with the burgeoning world of forensic science and, as a woman, not particularly welcomed into the investigation, Imogene is nonetheless determined to stay involved. As her sister's case grows cold, Imogene vows to find justice . . . no matter the cost.

42. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

read the book AND listened to on Audible...I really tried...
1994
386 pgs.
Adult Nonfiction
Stopped reading in May 8, 2018 after watching the movie and listening AND reading over 200 pages.
Goodreads rating:  3.91 - 186,079 ratings
My rating: 2.5/3ish
Setting: 1990s Savannah, GA

First line/s:  "He was tall, about fifty, with darkly handsome, almost sinister features: a neatly trimmed mustache, hair turning silver at the temples, and eyes so black they were like the tinted windows of a sleek limousine -- he could see out, but you couldn't see in."

My comments:   When this book first came out, everyone raved about it so, even though I have an aversion to nonfiction, I tried it.  I didn't get very far.  Las month, in anticipation of a trip to Savannah, I decided to try it again.  This time I listened to it, and I wonder if perhaps I wouldn't liked it better if I had read it.  I just didn't care for it.  I rented the movie on Amazon shortly before I left...although lots different from the book, I liked it better.

Goodreads synopsis: A sublime and seductive reading experience. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic.
          Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.
          It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.

9. The Magician's Elephant- Kate DiCamillo

listened on Audible
2009 Candlewick Press
201 pgs.(I read/listened to about 80 of them)
Middle Grade Fantasy
Feb. 17-18-19, 2017
Goodreads rating: 3.82 (15,420 ratings)
My rating: 1/DNF 'cause I hated it

My comments:  I keep trying to get into Kate DiCamillo's fantastical realms, but I can't.  I loved Because of Winn Dixie, and Raymie Nightingale, but I haven't liked a single other of hers.  And this really bums me out!  I listened to 40% and decided there are so many other books out there waiting for me to read that I'd pass on finishing.  Yuck.

Goodreads synopsis:  In a highly awaited new novel, Kate DiCamillo conjures a haunting fable about trusting the unexpected — and making the extraordinary come true.
          What if? Why not? Could it be?
          When a fortuneteller's tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchene knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can he find her? The fortuneteller's mysterious answer (an elephant! An elephant will lead him there!) sets off a chain of events so remarkable, so impossible, that you will hardly dare to believe it’s true. With atmospheric illustrations by fine artist Yoko Tanaka, here is a dreamlike and captivating tale that could only be narrated by Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo. In this timeless fable, she evokes the largest of themes — hope and belonging, desire and compassion — with the lightness of a magician’s touch.

5. Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo

#1 Six of Crows
listened to on Audible
2015 Henry Holt
read 151 pgs. of 465 pgs.
YA Fantasy
DNF - dropped
Goodreads rating:  4.45
My rating: Couldn't get into it at all

First line/s:  "Joost had two problems, the moon, and his moustache."

My comments:  I only read about 35% of this book, but had to force myself to read it, then would put it down after about 10 minutes.  I thought  I liked fantasy, but I not only couldn't get into this book, I didn't like it. I've discovered that these fantasies with huge world-building aspects just aren't for me.  So I'm not going to rate it - that's not fair when I only read a third of the book, but I don't intend to read any more of it.

Goodreads synopsis:  Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker has been offered wealth beyond his wildest dreams. But to claim it, he'll have to pull off a seemingly impossible heist:
          Break into the notorious Ice Court (a military stronghold that has never been breached)
          Retrieve a hostage (who could unleash magical havoc on the world)
          Survive long enough to collect his reward (and spend it)
          Kaz needs a crew desperate enough to take on this suicide mission and dangerous enough to get the job done - and he knows exactly who: six of the deadliest outcasts the city has to offer. Together, they just might be unstoppable - if they don't kill each other first.

70. The Prayer Box by Lisa Wingate

listened to on Audible
2013 Tyndale House
400 pgs. - read 125 pgs.
Adult CRF
Started and gave up on the same day, Sat. 11/26/16
Goodreads rating: 4.1 - 6069 ratings
My rating: 1.5
Setting: Contemporary Cape Hatteras

First line/s:  "When trouble blows in, my mind always reaches for a single, perfect day in Rodanthe."

My comments:  I've listened to over 30% of this book and I can't get into it...perhaps because I can't stomach the protagonist or her choices?  Or perhaps it goes waaaay too slowly.  Not going to waste my time going any further...too many others waiting for me out there.

Goodreads synopsis:  When Iola Anne Poole, an old-timer on Hatteras Island, passes away in her bed at ninety-one, the struggling young mother in her rental cottage, Tandi Jo Reese, finds herself charged with the task of cleaning out Iola's rambling Victorian house.Running from a messy, dangerous past, Tandi never expects to find more than a temporary hiding place within Iola's walls, but everything changes with the discovery of eighty-one carefully decorated prayer boxes, one for each year, spanning from Iola's youth to her last days. Hidden in the boxes is the story of a lifetime, written on random bits of paper--the hopes and wishes, fears and thoughts of an unassuming but complex woman passing through the seasons of an extraordinary, unsung life filled with journeys of faith, observations on love, and one final lesson that could change everything for Tandi.

27. The Fifth Gospel - Ian Caldwell

It looks like The Rule of Four may be some sort of prequel, but I'm not sure...
listened to on Audible
2015
431 pgs.- I'm guessing I read over 200 of them, because I listened for over 7 hours
Adult mystery
Abandoned 5/15/16
Goodreads rating  3.69
My rating:  2/I tried....
Setting: Vatican City, Rome, Italy

First line/s:  "My son is too young to understand forgiveness."

My comments:   I truly enjoy forays into the history of biblical times - but this was so rooted in the Catholic church, the differences between orthodox Greek and Roman Catholic, and believing in the bible, that the plodding manner in which this book moved was just too slow for me to read all the way through. I did read over half the book, but I couldn't get enamored with any of the characters enough to find out more about the history OR who the murderer was.  So I made the decision to go on to one of the thousands of other books waiting for me to read (the same thing happened to me in Rule of Four, I should have paid attention to that, but am forever optimistic....)

Goodreads synopsis:  A lost gospel, a relic, and a dying pope's final wish send two brothers - both Vatican priests - on a quest to untangle Christianity's biggest mystery (the shroud of Turan)

DNF - The Inquisitors Mark - Dianne K. Salerni

Eighth Day #2
Goodreads rating:  4.34
2015 Harper Collins
352 pgs.


Nope, decided not to continue with this....not that I disliked it, more that by page 93 I was bored and not interested - at this time - to continue.  I'm guessing I'll come back to it sometime in the future, especially if my students read it, so that I can discuss it with them.

DNF - Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

listened to audio on AUDIBLE (It's still in my cloud - what a waste of money for me!)
Kate Daniels #1
2007, Ace
280 pgs.- I listened to the equivalent of about 60 of them
"Urban Fantasy"
Ended 5/8/15
Goodreads rating:
My rating: I didn't enjoy it at all
Setting: Magical Atlanta, a short time in the future:

My comments:  I'm not going to rate this one, since I only got through about 60 pages.  It came highly recommended, but this genre (whatever it's called) just isn't my cup of tea.  There's too many books waiting for me to spend time reading something I don't enjoy.  It's probably a wonderful book, just not for me.

Goodreads synopsis:  Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up paranormal problems. Atlanta has two factions struggling for power. Masters of the Dead are necromancers who control vampires. The Pack are a paramilitary clan of shapechangers. When Kate's guardian is killed, she is caught between.

The Glass Sentence - S. E. Grove

The Mapmaker's Trilogy #1

2014 Viking Juvenile

493 pgs. (I read 88)

July, 2014 - Boiling Springs, PA

YA (?) Dystopia

Goodreads Rating: 4.00

My Rating:  DNF - could not get into it

My comments:  I don't want to be a party pooper, and this has gotten marvelous reviews, but I've started this book twice...got to about page 45 the first time, then reread from the beginning the second time to page 88.  I just can't get into it at all.  It may get better, but I'm not willing to give it any more time.

Goodreads Summary:  She has only seen the world through maps. She had no idea they were so dangerous.
     Boston, 1891. Sophia Tims comes from a family of explorers and cartologers who, for generations, have been traveling and mapping the New World—a world changed by the Great Disruption of 1799, when all the continents were flung into different time periods.  Eight years ago, her parents left her with her uncle Shadrack, the foremost cartologer in Boston, and went on an urgent mission. They never returned. Life with her brilliant, absent-minded, adored uncle has taught Sophia to take care of herself.
     Then Shadrack is kidnapped. And Sophia, who has rarely been outside of Boston, is the only one who can search for him. Together with Theo, a refugee from the West, she travels over rough terrain and uncharted ocean, encounters pirates and traders, and relies on a combination of Shadrack’s maps, common sense, and her own slantwise powers of observation. But even as Sophia and Theo try to save Shadrack’s life, they are in danger of losing their own.
     The Glass Sentence plunges readers into a time and place they will not want to leave, and introduces them to a heroine and hero they will take to their hearts. It is a remarkable debut

Midnight Express - Melinda Leigh

Abandoned after about 80 pages
listened to on my phone through Audible

2012, Montlake Romance

306 pgs.

Adult Romance

DNF

Goodreads Rating:  3.82

My Rating: 1/Didn't Like it

Setting: Tiny Maine town, in the woods

My comments:  I was hoping this was more mystery than romance - I read it because its setting is a small town in Maine - but if the tall, handsome guy with the southern accent spoke about Jayne's eyes and hair one more time I was going to barf.  So when she was abducted by the unknown druid/ Celtic/ blood-loving bad guy, I decided I just couldn't make it through 7 more hours of listening.....

Goodreads Summary:  When two hikers disappear, their hometown in Maine blames the blinding storms. But the truth is far more sinister. Unaware of the danger, tabloid photographer Jayne Sullivan follows an anonymous tip to find the most reclusive sculptor in the art world. Instead, she finds sexy handyman Reed Kimball—and a small town full of fatal secrets.

Alliance - Mark Frost

#2 The Paladin Prophecy

2014, Random House

329 pgs.(read the first 88 and the last 35) DNF

YA Fantasy/SciFi

Abandoned 4/1/14

Goodreads Rating:  4.06

My Rating: 2/It was okay but didn't care about it at all, so abandoned it.

TPPL

1^st sentence/s: "Lyle Ogilvy had trouble staying dead."

My comments  :I read up to page 88, and it didn't interest me at all.  Nada.  So I read the last 30-35 pages and realized I hadn't needed to read much of what was in between to understand what happened.  So I'm not going to rate it.  I just don't care about the characters.  Isn't that funny - I so enjoyed the first book but reading the first quarter of this second book didn't add any dimension to those same characters, it almost seemed to flatten and stereotype them.  One of the two "surprise" revelations at the end were totally foreseeable.  I made the right decision not to read the book. 

Goodreads Review:  After exposing the sinister underground society of students known as the Knights of Charlemagne, Will West stays at the Center over the summer to explore his newly developing physical and mental abilities. Meanwhile, his roommates investigate the Knights' shadowy purpose and discover unsettling information about their own backgrounds. Will and his friends must quickly figure out what's going on and separate friend from foe as they prepare for the coming fight.

Through the Evil Days - Julia Spencer-Fleming

Rev. Clare Ferguson & Russ VanAlstyne Mystery #8

I ABANDONED THIS BOOK 

audio read by Suzanne Toren

2013 Macmillan Audio

368 pgs.- I only got through a little more than 50

Adult mystery, quit reading on 3/19/2014

Goodreads Rating: 4.09

My Rating: 1/Didn't Like it

TPPL

Setting: Contemporary upstate New York

My comments:  I guess I should have read these in order, but the first books in the series were totally unavailable (or extinct) in audio, so I jumped into #8.  I made it through almost the first two cds.  Too many bigoted church people. Too much talk about church and church-related "stuff."  And one of the most unlikable protagonists I've encountered in a while (Russ). Totally negative, pissed about his new wife's pregnancy, temper easily triggered.  I spent a 35-minute ride without even turning it on - that's when I decided I didn't like it and didn't want to listen to another word. (In 50 pages, the mystery was barely even touched upon!)

Goodreads Review:  On a frigid January night, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and Reverend Clare Fergusson are called to the scene of a raging fire, that quickly becomes a double homicide and kidnapping. Which is the very last thing Russ needs...Currently he's struggling with the prospect of impending fatherhood. And his new wife is not at all happy with his proposal for their long-delayed honeymoon: a week in an unelectrified ice-fishing cabin. The vestry of St. Alban's Church has called for the bishop to investigate Clare's "unpriestly" pregnancy. She has one week to find out if she will be scolded, censured, or suspended from her duties. Officer Hadley Knox is having a miserable January as well. Her on-again-off-again lover, Kevin Flynn, has seven days to weigh an offer from the Syracuse Police Department that might take him half a state away.

     As the days and hours tick by, Russ and Clare fight personal and professional battles they've never encountered. In the course of this one tumultuous week the lives of the Millers-Kill residents readers have come to love and cherish change forever. Readers have waited years for Through The Evil Days and Julia Spencer-Fleming delivers with the exquisite skill and craftsmanship that have made her such a success.

Sepulchre - Kate Mosse

Audio read by Donada Peters

16 discs - I made it through 6 of them

2008 Penguin Audio

560 pgs. - I read 205

Adult - Switched back and forth between 1891 and the present

Historical Fiction & CRF

Goodreads Rating: 3.68

My Rating: 1 (Didn't like it)

Acquired through PBS

Set in France - Paris and the countryside

My comments: I listened attentively to the first six cds.  Since it takes place in France, the reader did a wonderful job using French accents, and I enjoyed her reading.  But the story dragged.  Switching back and forth in time, there are two protagonists.  The 1891 protagonist, Leonie - is a spoiled idiot.  The 2000 protagonist isn't too irritating (yet), but her primary interest - Claude Debussy - is of no interest to me. Ten more discs to go?  Sorry, life's not long enough.....

Goodreads:  In 1891, young Léonie Vernier and her brother Anatole arrive in the beautiful town of Rennes-les-Bains, in southwest France. They've come at the invitation of their widowed aunt, whose mountain estate, Domain de la Cade, is famous in the region. But it soon becomes clear that their aunt Isolde-and the Domain-are not what Léonie had imagined. The villagers claim that Isolde's late husband died after summoning a demon from the old Visigoth sepulchre high on the mountainside. A book from the Domain's cavernous library describes the strange tarot pack that mysteriously disappeared following the uncle's death. But while Léonie delves deeper into the ancient mysteries of the Domain, a different evil stalks her family-one which may explain why Léonie and Anatole were invited to the sinister Domain in the first place.
          More than a century later, Meredith Martin, an American graduate student, arrives in France to study the life of Claude Debussy, the nineteenth century French composer. In Rennesles- Bains, Meredith checks into a grand old hotel-the Domain de la Cade. Something about the hotel feels eerily familiar, and strange dreams and visions begin to haunt Meredith's waking hours. A chance encounter leads her to a pack of tarot cards painted by Léonie Vernier, which may hold the key to this twenty-first century American's fate . . . just as they did to the fate of Léonie Vernier more than a century earlier.

52. Japantown - Barry Lancet

# 1 Jim Brodie/San Francisco Antique Art Dealer/ Investigator

2013 Simon & Schuster

Written for adults

Abandoned - stopped on pg. 146 (401) pages total

Contemporary murder mystery

Goodreads Rating: 3.89 (76 ratings)

My Rating: (2) it was okay

TPPL

Setting: Contemporary San Francisco; Tokyo, Japan; and an outlying small Japanese town

1^st sentence/s:  "Two shades of read darkened the Japantown concourse by the time I arrived.  One belonged to a little girl's scarlet party dress.  The other was liquid and far too human.  City officials would evince a third shade once reports of the carnage hit the airwaves."

My comments:  Well, another big decision to abandon a book.  I don't know what's going on with me - are my tastes changing?  Perhaps it's my interest level....I can't tell.  I greatly enjoyed the beginning of this book, but now it's dragging.  I don't even care why everything is happening.  I'm getting confused about all the people - lots and lots of Japanese names and aliases, waaaaay to hard to remember who's who.  Lots of random killing by people who apparently love to kill and have been trained to do it well for centuries. I have been to Japantown and am getting quite familiar with San Francisco, so I was looking forward to this murder mystery.  Nope.  Gonna go on.  Sorry, Mr. Lancet.

Goodreads:  FIVE BODIES. ONE CLUE. NOT A TRACE OF THE KILLER.  San Francisco antiques dealer Jim Brodie recently inherited a stake in his father's Tokyo-based private investigation firm, which means the single father of six-year-old Jenny is living a busy intercontinental life, traveling to Japan to acquire art and artifacts for his store and consulting on Brodie Security's caseload at home and abroad. 

49. A Guide For the Perplexed - Dara Horn

2013, W. W. Norton & Co.

336 pgs.(I stopped at pg. 168)

Adult CRF

Stopped reading on 11/8/2013

GoodreadsRating: 3.69

My Rating:  Didn’t like it (1)

TPPL

Setting: Massachusetts and Egypt (Cairo & Alexandria)

1^st paragraph:  "What happens to days that disappear?  The light fades, the gates begin to close, and all that a day once held -- a glance, a fight, a taste of bread, a handful of braided hair, thousands of worires and triumphs and regrets -- all of it slips between those closing gates, vanishing into a dark and silent room.  When Josephine Ashkenazi first invented Genizah, all she wanted to do was open those gates."

My comments:  I've been wading through this book for over a week and am only half way through.  Last night, at my usual "reading time" I didn't want to read it, realizing I didn't like it at all.  I don't like the characters, I don't "get" the second time period that it keeps switching back to (it's boring) and I have absolutely no desire to discover what's going to happen. So why waste my time?  So sorry, Ms. Horn.....

Goodreads Review:  Software prodigy Josie Ashkenazi has invented an application that records everything its users do. When an Egyptian library invites her to visit as a consultant, her jealous sister Judith persuades her to go. But in Egypt’s postrevolutionary chaos, Josie is abducted—leaving Judith free to take over Josie’s life at home, including her husband and daughter, while Josie’s talent for preserving memories becomes a surprising test of her empathy and her only means of escape.

A century earlier, another traveler arrives in Egypt: Solomon Schechter, a Cambridge professor hunting for a medieval archive hidden in a Cairo synagogue. Both he and Josie are haunted by the work of the medieval philosopher Moses Maimonides, a doctor and rationalist who sought to reconcile faith and science, destiny and free will. But what Schechter finds, as he tracks down the remnants of a thousand-year-old community’s once-vibrant life, will reveal the power and perils of what Josie’s ingenious work brings into being: a world where nothing is ever forgotten.

An engrossing adventure that intertwines stories from Genesis, medieval philosophy, and the digital frontier, A Guide for the Perplexed is a novel of profound inner meaning and astonishing imagination.