Emma's Bookish Lifestyle

The Rendezvous and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier My rating: 4 of 5 stars Well what can I say about this book. This was my first exposure to Daphne du Maurier and what a clever writer she is, the opening story No Motive has you on the edge of your seat as you follow a private investigator solving the suicide of a supposedly happy wife and wow what a good start, I was hooked. There are fourteen stories in this collection and they stem the duration of her writing career and they truly expose you to the characters every type of emotion, Panic, Love, Lying, Fear, Indiscretion and Duplicity. My favourite stories from this collection in fact and the most memorable ones, which made me pause and ingest before reading on were No Motive, Panic, Adieu Sagasse, La Sainte-Vierge and Split Second. The beauty of a short story collection is that I feel it gave me a good overview of her writing style and although not a full novel has pulled me in and introduced m...

The Blue Door by Lise Kristensen My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a non-fiction book provided as part of my November Book Buddy box from Elena Reads and what another amazing selection. This is the story of a young Norwegian girl called Lise who is living with her family in Java during the second half of World War II when the Japanese invaded the country and placed a lot of men, women and children in prison camps and work camps. This follows Lise's very personal journey and perspective of her life prior to imprisonment and her ability both mentally and physically to keep both herself, mother and siblings going during these dire times. From the unfathomable treatment bestowed on the women and their children by the Japanese soldiers (who denied their part after the war in the atrocities), disease, work parties and so much more. This courageous young ladies words had me rooting for her from the very first page to the last. She truly has a strong spirit which en...

The Thief Taker by C.S. Quinn My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a book I read very early on this year from my Kindle unlimited subscription for books but I forgot to review it. It is a gripping thriller based in 1665 London at the time of the Black Death and a killer is stalking the streets dressed in a plague doctor's mask. That is what drew me in, those two lines. This centres around our protagonist which is Charlie Tuesday who is a thief-taker (similar to a private investigator of the time period). When he is drawn into investigating the death of a girl, he realises that the implications stretch into the politics of the time and we begin to reveal a secret of Charlie's own past. Through his enquiries to find the murdered before the plague obliterates the evidence available the pursuit of justice will take him deep into old London and elements of the mystic arts. I was thoroughly engrossed in this from beginning to end and would strongly rec...

Descender #1 by Jeff Lemire My rating: 4 of 5 stars Wow I really enjoyed this first bind up had me gripped from start to finish. The artwork was stylishly watercolour painted which added a dirtiness to the colour in keeping with the atmosphere of the story. Only thing I will say is if you are new to science fiction then it is a palatable way in. The story of Tim 21 is well set, at a time when an attack on human kind has been made by a large robotic species, many of the humans robots have been destroyed or brutally sold for parts. Tim must find his place in the political middle ground of human and robot relations to ensure his survival and to find answers to why his make up is so important. View all my reviews