January Minireviews - Part 3

 Ironically, my first official book review post on this new blog is actually going to be a "Part 3"!  Parts 1 & 2 of my January 2021 reviews can be found on my old book blog (http://www.thearomaofbooks.wordpress.com).

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

Time & Time Again by Ben Elton - 4*

//published 2014//

The sad part about being way behind on reviews is that books that I really found interesting and thought-provoking at the time have now faded into the distance.  When I read this book back in January, it completely sucked me in.  A fantastic concept well-executed with a great twist - it honestly doesn't fit my usual style of reading as it wasn't a particularly happy book, but it was done so well that I didn't mind.  If you're someone with a rosier view of the human race than I have (i.e., if you think people are on a generally upward trajectory and are constantly improving rather than devolving), you may not like this book as well.  But since I actually think people are on a cyclical but steady downward trend, this book rather fit with my life philosophy in many ways.  

There were a few too many unanswered questions for me to rank this more than 4*, but all in all it was a solid and engaging read a bit outside of my normal parameters.  

Sheriff Bo Tully mysteries by Patrick McManus

• The Blight Way - 4*
• Avalanche - 3.5*
• The Double-Jack Murders - 3.5*
• The Huckleberry Murders - 3.5*
• The Tamarack Murders - 3*
•  Circles in the Snow - 2.5*

I usually give a series its own post, but I'm so far behind on reviews that I'm not even going to do that haha  

I grew up on McManus's collections of essays/articles and many of my life philosophies are based on his theories.  This series was written late in his life and was one of his few forays into fiction.  Set in a small town in Idaho, the books focus on the county sheriff, Bo Tully, and various murders/adventures/shenanigans that occur in Blight County.  While the series started well with a likable group of characters, the last couple of books fell off sharply, with the stories getting weirder and the final book not even including most of the characters who had been regulars in the earlier books.  I can see myself reading the first two or three books again, but not the whole series.

Susannah the Pioneer Cow by Miriam Mason - 3.5*

//published 1941//

This is a simple children's story about a pioneer family who moves west (all the way to Indiana haha) in a covered wagon but told from the (third person) perspective of the family cow, Susannah.  It was a happy little story but since it was focused on the cow it was lacking in a lot of details about pioneer life.  I think I would have loved this book when I was an early reader, though, because Susannah does have some exciting adventures.

Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie - 3.5*

A fun little collection of short stories based around Miss Marple.  I actually rather enjoyed these because I quite like Miss Marple's random-yet-somehow-make-sense connections between different people/situations, and those really shine in these shorts.  Not the best Christie has to offer, but still rather fun.

Possibilities...

 Well, even though there are some things about Blogspot that I'm not super excited about the overall functionality is so much simpler and more streamlined than Wordpress has become.  I'm really sorry to leave Wordpress behind, but it has become such an absolute headache to use that it's making me not enjoy blogging any more - like literally part of the reason I'm so behind on reviews is because I dread messing around with the absolute horror that the dashboard/block editor has become.  

So, for now, I'm going to give Blogspot a try and see how it works.  I think I'll continue to post on Wordpress to direct people to this site, but this will be the new main spot... probably...

Stay tuned for details.

Test Post

 So this is a test post to see if I like the user interface with Blogger.  I've been using Wordpress for years, but the recent updates have just been driving me crazy.  I'm ready to see if there is something else that will work for me!!  So I'm just going to be playing around a bit to see if Blogger is the right fit.

Test picture of our winter garden.  We got an unusually high amount of snow this year!!

It appears that I have options for different fonts, so I'm going to see if those stay different when I actually post the post!

Same for text color!!!