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Post by Marv on Jun 16, 2024 11:35:09 GMT
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Post by wickedkittiesmom on Jun 16, 2024 21:09:02 GMT
I just finished reading a "cozy" Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel by Mollie Hunt, a self published cat author, she has 3 different series and 2 of them involve cat ladies in their 70's so I can really identify with her characters. She is a better writer than many who have actual publishers. She is also the woman who fostered "Lust" a cat who gained fame years ago by trapping her family in a room (the people called the police to rescue them) - they had no business owning a cat. Lust had a rare disorder and was not dangerous..
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Post by theravenking on Jun 17, 2024 8:41:36 GMT
![](https://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/92/2b/922b89ad4903c0e597263756c514345412f5945_v5.jpg) Just finished this. Black Aura is a bit of an oddity: a locked-room mystery written in the seventies, a decade not necessarily known for its interest in impossible crimes or classically styled detective puzzles. Sladek is clearly a fan of mystery fiction and he manages to give the story a unique spin by setting it among hippies, weirdos and junkies. If anything, the book is very good at conveying a strong sense of time and place. The amateur sleuth Thackeray Phin is an amusing character, but I thought some of the supporting players were a bit too eccentric for their own good. Although perhaps, that's how people were in those days. It’s main downfall, to me, was its lack of originality. We get two puzzles here: a man disappearing from a locked bathroom, and another person seemingly levitating in mid-air before falling to his death. I already feared the locked-room mystery would have one of those infuriatingly trivial solutions, hinging on the entire locked-room aspect being a misconception of sorts and sadly that’s exactly what I got. The solution to the impossible crime meanwhile could be described by using an Agatha Christie title (hint: it’s a Miss Marple novel). The master John Dickson Carr did this much better in one of his best-known works. As a pure homage to Golden Age detective fiction this is serviceable. I did not care much for the humour, but understand, that this is a subjective thing. I thought the follow-up Invisible Green was marginally superior to this, since it at least tried to do something new with its locked-room trick.
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Post by gspdude on Jun 17, 2024 11:45:22 GMT
![](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1685355901l/158043792.jpg) An anthology of short works by Cixin Liu, some Sci Fi, some non fiction.
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Post by theravenking on Jun 18, 2024 8:31:44 GMT
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Post by CrepedCrusader on Jun 18, 2024 18:33:23 GMT
Huge by Brent Butt ![](https://files.catbox.moe/v55og0.jpg)
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Post by nutsberryfarm 🏜 on Jun 21, 2024 11:32:11 GMT
I just finished reading a "cozy" Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel by Mollie Hunt, a self published cat author, she has 3 different series and 2 of them involve cat ladies in their 70's so I can really identify with her characters. She is a better writer than many who have actual publishers. She is also the woman who fostered "Lust" a cat who gained fame years ago by trapping her family in a room (the people called the police to rescue them) - they had no business owning a cat. Lust had a rare disorder and was not dangerous.. Thought you might like this… historyfacts.com/famous-figures/fact/mark-twain-was-known-to-rent-cats-when-he-traveled/
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Post by lostinlimbo on Jun 22, 2024 10:46:07 GMT
![](https://assets.koorong.com/Products/9780646289519_842762.jpg) An Outbreak of Darkness by Kel Richards
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Post by Captain Spencer on Jun 22, 2024 14:16:06 GMT
![](https://assets.koorong.com/Products/9780646289519_842762.jpg) An Outbreak of Darkness by Kel Richards For a split second I though this was a Richard Laymon book, haha.
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Post by lostinlimbo on Jun 22, 2024 23:50:27 GMT
![](https://assets.koorong.com/Products/9780646289519_842762.jpg) An Outbreak of Darkness by Kel Richards For a split second I thought this was a Richard Laymon book, haha. Outside of the name Richards. The image and font does kind of remind of Laymon’s novels. Plus he had a few titles with darkness, or dark in the title.
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Jun 23, 2024 2:18:41 GMT
An anthology of short works by Cixin Liu, some Sci Fi, some non fiction. I am reading the second book in his Three-Body Problem trilogy.
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Post by wickedkittiesmom on Jun 23, 2024 11:19:02 GMT
The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods.
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Post by gspdude on Jun 23, 2024 13:21:25 GMT
An anthology of short works by Cixin Liu, some Sci Fi, some non fiction. I am reading the second book in his Three-Body Problem trilogy. My favorite read of 2019. In one of the short works in the book I'm reading now he talks about coming up with his Dark Forrest theory.
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Post by CrepedCrusader on Jun 23, 2024 21:18:24 GMT
Anthem by Ayn Rand ![](https://files.catbox.moe/bqx4tn.jpg) (Most likely a re-read. I could've sworn I read it 20 or so years ago, but I can't find it in a list I keep of books as I read them. Most likely just forgot to add it, but I'm reading it again just to be sure.)
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Post by lostinlimbo on Jun 24, 2024 22:09:41 GMT
![](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/016_GUY_N_SMITH_BLACK_FEDORA_A-1200x1949.jpg) This will be my first Guy N. Smith novel. Finally found one by this British horror author at a reasonable price. Many of his books fetch for a pretty penny on Amazon. I forgot to ask… How did you like it? Did it get you curious in reading more of his work? After you posted this, I decided to check out the author’s work. True, some of his books aren’t cheap… outside of a few titles I saw online (Carnivore, Locusts).
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Post by Captain Spencer on Jun 25, 2024 2:14:46 GMT
![](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/016_GUY_N_SMITH_BLACK_FEDORA_A-1200x1949.jpg) This will be my first Guy N. Smith novel. Finally found one by this British horror author at a reasonable price. Many of his books fetch for a pretty penny on Amazon. I forgot to ask… How did you like it? Did it get you curious in reading more of his work? After you posted this, I decided to check out the author’s work. True, some of his books aren’t cheap… outside of a few titles I saw online (Carnivore, Locusts). I thought The Black Hat was pretty good, but it turned out it wasn't really horror per se, more like a thriller. But I do plan on reading more of Smith's books. In fact, I found two more of his books online that were affordable; a novel called The Wood and a short story collection called Tales From The Graveyard. The Wood is horror for sure, looks to be a living dead/zombie-type book. I'll be starting on that one as soon as I finish that Sandra Brown book I'm on.
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Post by CrepedCrusader on Jun 25, 2024 5:59:16 GMT
Candide by Voltaire ![](https://files.catbox.moe/o4z267.jpg)
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Post by moviebuffbrad on Jun 26, 2024 3:10:39 GMT
The Silmarillian, narrated by Andy Serkis.
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Post by moviebuffbrad on Jun 26, 2024 3:11:30 GMT
Anthem by Ayn Rand ![](https://files.catbox.moe/bqx4tn.jpg) (Most likely a re-read. I could've sworn I read it 20 or so years ago, but I can't find it in a list I keep of books as I read them. Most likely just forgot to add it, but I'm reading it again just to be sure.) You don't seem like the kind of guy who would read or reread Ayn Rand.
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Post by gspdude on Jun 26, 2024 13:51:12 GMT
The Silmarillian, narrated by Andy Serkis. I love The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books and Ive tried a couple of times to read The Silmarillian but could't get into it. Maybe audio would be the way to go on this one.
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