Cunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena

Title: Cunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena
Author: Philomena Cunk
Published: September 24, 2024 by Grand Central Publishing
Format: Kindle, Paperback 304 pages
Genre: Comedy
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

First Sentence: Preface: When I was asked to write this book, I remember thinking. It was a good feeling.

Blurb: Philomena Cunk is one of the greatest thinkers of the 21st century, and in Cunk on Everything she turns her attention to our biggest why are there so many books? Wouldn't it be better if there was just one? This is that book — an encyclopedia of all human knowledge, delving into not only life's greatest mysteries but our most important political figures and cultural touchstones. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: A collection of short chapters covering various subjects like literature, politics, sports, and love can be read in any order or skipped entirely or skipped if the subject is uninteresting. The book is perfect for reading or listening, or whenever the mood strikes for a good laugh.

Cunk on Everything by Philomena Cunk is written in the style of Cunk’s popular TV documentaries, where she asks absurd questions and makes absurd observations. The book is full of funny and sarcastic humor, as well as some surprising insights and truths. A fun and easy read that will make you laugh out loud and think differently about the world around you.

12 Months to Live

Title: 12 Months to Live
Author: James Patterson and Mike Lupica
Published: September 18, 2023 by Little, Brown and Company
Format: Kindle, 400 Pages
Genre: Legal Thriller
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Jane Smith #1

First Sentence: “For the last time,” my client says to me. “I. Did. Not. Kill. Those. People.”

Blurb: Criminal attorney Jane F. Smith, tough as nails, has received a terminal diagnosis and doesn't have much time. Is her own client trying to kill her first?

Her name is Jane Smith. To friends and foes, she's Jane Effing Smith.

Why? Because she's the best criminal defense attorney in the Hamptons—the elite world of New York's rich and infamous. Because she's as good an investigator as she is a lawyer. Because she's tough. She's strong. A competitive athlete who never settles for second place.

As Jane is preparing to defend a high-profile client accused of a triple homicide, she's also hired to revive a cold case—a cluster of unsolved murders.

Then another bombshell lands: a devastating medical diagnosis. Terminal. She’s given twelve months to live.

But first, she has a trial to win. Unless one of her many enemies kills her first. (Goodreads)

My Opinion: This was a twisty ride. I started with the audio and then switched to the book so I could keep track of all the characters.

Criminal defense attorney Jane Smith is in for the ride of her life and possibly the last trial of her career. She had a successful career with a track record of never losing a case. However, everything might change when she meets Rob Jacobson and the roadblocks his case presents. In her heart, she knows he is guilty, but her job is to give the defendant the best defense she can. This man might cost her everything she has fought for, but that is the job, and with her own life sentence hanging in the balance, what does she have to lose?

The ending is the perfect setup for book number two, ’8 Months More’. Now, we will have to wait until next summer to see where Jane, Jimmy, Rip, and Dr. Ben will go from here.

A Winter in New York

Title: A Winter in New York
Author: Josie Silver
Published: October 3, 2023 by Delacorte Press
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Genre: Romance
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

First Sentence: You know when a high-octane scene in a movie goes slo-mo for dramatic effect, and you hold your breath and ask yourself will the person on the screen leap the burning chasm between high-rise buildings or catch the priceless vase before it shatters into a hundred pieces?

Blurb: A young chef stumbles on a secret family recipe that might lead her to the love—and life—she’s been looking for in this stunning novel.

When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice.

But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s?

Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?

Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she’s been building all winter long.

My Opinion: What begins strong, bogs down with repetition in the middle, then finishes with tears and laughter.

I’m not usually a romance reader, but there is something about Josie Silver’s books that has me waiting in anticipation of her new releases. My practical side has me typically talking to the book, but I always hold on, knowing that there will be something around the next corner that will draw me back in and make her moments resonate with truth and beauty.

If you aren’t a regular romance reader, Josie Silver just might open you up to the genre and a different way of looking at the sweetness in life.

The Book of Silver Linings

Title: The Book of Silver Linings
Author: Nan Fischer
Published: August 15, 2023 by Berkley
Format: Kindle, Paperback 384 pages
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

First Sentence: “Yoga speed dating? You can’t be serious!”

Blurb: Within the margins of an antique book, a timeless love waits for a young woman on the precipice of a terrible mistake in this enthralling new novel from the acclaimed author of Some of It Was Real .

Constance Sparks always says yes …when her capricious best friend needs money; when her boss gives her more responsibility without a raise; and when her boyfriend, Hayden, who is very kind but also secretive, asks her to marry him.

While planning their wedding—and struggling with anxiety about the right course for her future—Constance researches the history of her antique engagement ring and unearths the name of a man who might be connected to it, plus his tragic love story. When she finds a book of letters in her library’s old manuscript section written by the long-dead man, Constance is deeply touched by his words and leaves a note for him confessing her uncertainty and doubts. She’s shocked days later to find a response tucked among the pages.

As the notes continue to arrive, Constance finds herself quickly falling in love with a ghost and putting her real-life relationship in jeopardy. Will a bond based on letters impossibly sent from the past derail her future? Or will Constance discover her voice and risk everything for the chance to somehow connect with her true soul mate?

My Opinion: I would have given up on this book if I hadn't switched to the audio version. Nan Fischer abruptly changes thoughts and sometimes makes statements that are not fully developed, making some parts of the book read like a rough draft. Moreover, when reading the book in one sitting, character and location inconsistencies become more apparent.

Overall, the writing felt stilted only to pull on heartstrings with a discussion on rescuing animals which felt designed to draw the reader back in with a warm feel-good moment. That tactic started to wear thin.

Unfortunately, the book is too long and repetitive and could have used the kindness of a good editor.

The Sentence

Title: The Sentence
Author: Christina Dalcher
Published: August 17, 2023 by HQ
Format: 336 pages, Kindle Edition
Genre: Political Thriller / Dystopian

First Sentence: Death Row Inmate #39384. If I wasn’t going to die, this story would end here.

Blurb: Prosecutor, Justine Boucher has only asked for the death penalty once, in a brutal murder case.

In doing so, she put her own life on the line. Because, if the convicted are later found innocent, the lawyer who requested the execution will be sentenced to death.

Justine had no doubt that the man she sent to the chair was guilty.

Until now.

Presented with evidence that could prove his innocence, Justine must find out the truth before anyone else does.

Her life depends on it.

My Opinion: So disappointing. The premise was good, unfortunately the novel didn’t live up to it.

I have previously enjoyed Christina Dalcher's dystopian novels. Although this novel is listed as a political thriller, it lacked the necessary highs and political writing to keep me engaged. I was expecting more dystopic elements since the premise is -- if an attorney seeks the death penalty and the convicted is later found innocent, the attorney who requested the execution will be sentenced to death.

Sure, Justine was in a bad place when she asked for the death penalty for the crime that Jake Milford was charged with, but she had no idea that everyone surrounding his trial was lying and withholding evidence. Then she reads his journal. What is she going to do now that the truth has been revealed?

Jake’s journal entries were the only spark in this drawn-out book. The rest was a bit meh for me.

The Christmas Jigsaw Murders

Title: The Christmas Jigsaw Murders
Author: Alexandra Benedict
Published: November 9, 2023 by Simon & Schuster UK
Format: Hardcover, 351 pages
Genre: Holiday Fiction

First Sentence: December 19th: No one was dead, not to begin with.

Blurb: On 19th of December, renowned puzzle setter, loner and Christmas sceptic Edie O’Sullivan finds a hand-delivered present on her doorstep. Unwrapping it, she finds a jigsaw box and, inside, six jigsaw pieces. When fitted together, the pieces show part of a crime scene – blood-spattered black and white tiles and part of an outlined body. Included in the parcel is a message: ‘Four, maybe more, people will be dead by midnight on Christmas Eve, unless you can put all the pieces together and stop me.’ It’s signed, Rest In Pieces.

Edie contacts her nephew, DI Sean Brand-O’Sullivan, and together they work to solve the clues. But when a man is found near death with a jigsaw piece in his hand, Sean fears that Edie might be in danger and shuts her out of the investigation. As the body count rises, however, Edie knows that only she has the knowledge to put together the killer’s murderous puzzle.

My Opinion: I didn’t like how the preface started. Alexandra Benedict let the reader know that she had planted references to Great Expectations and Christine McVie’s lyrics and wanted the first person who had found her quotes to send her an email to win a prize. That took away from the beginning of the book since my brain was trying to figure out the “gifts”. That part wasn’t for me; I wanted to enjoy the story.

In the first couple of chapters, I thought the author was trying too hard to impress readers with vocabulary. Then again, Edie O’Sullivan is described as a local celebrity when it comes to puzzles, and as you read along, the word usage no longer bothers you.

When Edie receives jigsaw puzzle pieces containing threatening messages from a killer, she tries to conceal them until the first body appears and then tries to stay a couple of steps ahead of her detective nephew, whom she has raised since he was an infant, in finding the person behind the puzzle pieces.

By the end, you realize that Alexandra Benedict hasn’t held anything back; it was all laid out in a twisty way that had the reader trying to put all the pieces together and, at the least, trying to stay only a step behind Edie. Along the way, you also realized that you had stopped looking for the “gifts” and found yourself not only trying to figure out the “who-done-it” clues but are drawn into the backstories of Edie and Sean.

The Crown's Game

Title: The Crown's Game
Author: Evelyn Skye
Published: May 17, 2016 by Balzer + Bray
Format: 407 pages, Hardcover
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Series: The Crown's Game #1

First Sentence: The smell of sugar and yeast welcomed Vika even before she stepped into the pumpkin-shaped shop on the main street of their little town.

Blurb: Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side.

And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death.

Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has?

For Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful, whip-smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her.

And when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl they both love…or be killed himself.

As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear—the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.

My Opinion: Historical fantasy set in an alternative 1825 Imperial Russia.

Fantasy has never been a genre that I have searched for. I tend to like novels with more pragmatism, but I think that might have changed after this book. Maybe it’s because there was a historical factor or the fact I could pronounce the names, but this book grabbed me from the beginning, and by the end, I was searching out the second book, The Crown’s Fate, of this series.

In this first book, a couple of tidbits were not tied up in neat little bows, and I have to find out if the author was purposely leaving clues for the future or if there was something more going on. Plus, the ending had a nice but foreseeable punch that could lead the three characters in multiple directions, and I want to see which path they will take since decisions need to be made and rules must be followed.