Murder Takes A Vacation ~ Laura Lippman

 I might give it another go.

There is "cosy crime" and there is "stifling schmaltz" ... this struck me as the latter.

The Frozen River ~ Ariel Lawhon

 DNF

OMG ... this rated so well but was totally irksome.

Once I had the image of Snidely Whiplash in my head, I couldn't shake it.  The Villain was sooo bad.  The Husband was soooo good.  She is so brave and full of herself. It was all soooo sanctimonious and shallow

Dream Hotel ~ Laila Lalami

A Black Mirror Dystopian story.

Three Body Problem ~ Cixin Liu

 

Small Mercies ~ Dennis Lehane

 

*** 

Liked the feisty female lead

White Cat, Black Dog ~ Kelly Link

 Read the first 2 short stories but then a very definite

DNF and WINS (wish I never started)

The Club ~ Ellery Lloyd

 

The Book Of The Goose ~ Yiyun Li

  A ** read for me

I took a gander and I know who the Goose is!  Me!

Just not me! (And that's a good thing) Very Meh

The Anomaly ~ Herve Le Tellier

 *** LIKE+

Are we all a simulation game?

A planeload gets cloned ... a glitch in the game?

No One Is Talking About This ~ Patricia Lockwood

 * DID NOT FINISH

Pretentious Drivel

Literary Elitism 

Luster ~ Raven Leilani

 

Lost Children Archive ~ Valeria Luiselli

Sunburn ~ Laura Lippman

The Expatriates ~ Janice Y K Lee

The End Of Eddy ~ Edouard Louis

A Wrinkle In TIme ~ Madeleine L'Engle

* NO *

- UNFINISHED -

So dated, such stilted language, such cardboard characters
Just like a wrinkle, is shows its age - and not well

Pachinko ~ Min Jin Lee

** OK **

Like Pachinko machine, a little mechanical.
Like a Pachinko ball, the narrative fell through the gaps

Many of the characters are involved in the Pachinko business and there was mention of adjusting the pins to regulate winnings.  As a reader, I felt a little like this - my involvement in the characters was manipulated.  I felt like a Pachino ball guided around a track but ultimately a random path.  And I wasn't a winner.

I did enjoy the historical and cultural background of the narrative.  While it wasn't unknown history to me, it was well presented in the events of the story. The overt racism against the Koreans in Japan is head shaking!  The bigotry and prejudice is clearly evident.  It is hard to say that it is a good light read (and it is!) but it is also a dark and depressing read.

There was plenty of colour but it started to fade in the second part of the book.  A good edit would have worked wonders (eg a section where they are watching a tv program; a gloss over many years to leap to x years later; inclusion of characters or characterisations that seemed to just tick-a-contemporary-box; exposition rather than action). It would have been a 3 to 4 star read if it had kept its momentum or not become a muddled message mess.


Pachinko (パチンコ ^?) is a type of mechanical game originating in Japan and is used as both a form of recreational arcade game and much more frequently as a gambling device.

 

The Girl In The Spider's Web ~ David Lagercrantz

** OK **

Get In Trouble ~ Kelly Link

** OK **

Interpreter of Maladies ~ Jhumpa Lahiri

**** RECOMMEND ****