Updates - B

B as books.

I've been reading a lot lately, some books were good, some were average and some ... meh.

- Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. That was a nice surprise! Easy and entertaining to read albeit a tad predictable. Great writing style and a very likeable main character. I could easily imagine myself writing such letters :-) Thumbs up.

"The world is full of happiness, and plenty to go round, if you are only willing to take the kind that comes your way. The whole secret is in being pliable."

"I've discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is to live in the now. Not to be for ever regretting the past, or anticipating the future; but to get the most that you can out of this very instant... Most people don't live; they just race."

- The Daffodil Mystery by Edgar Wallace. A lovely classical mystery with some likable characters and unexpected twists.

- The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah. Another wanna-be Poirot story. While the book starts very very promising with a highly interesting plot, it fades away and becomes increasingly dumb towards the end. I've read it about a month ago and I already cannot remember who the killer was. No surprises, nothing special, nothing memorable. And why can't the Battenberg cake be called by its name? In the age of The Great British Bake Off, we know all the cakes by their names :-)

- The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Oh, boy... No wonder I got this book for 2 € only. Nothing happens in the first 150 pages, then Tom randomly kills a guy, dresses up as a woman, goes into a gay bar, does not steal the ransom money, which he could, and... that's it. No twists, no surprises, no action, no subplots - no plot, actually. Meh.

- Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice Leblanc. Oh, a classic. Needs no description. Pure joy to read. Except one or two stories that I didn't like, the rest is just ... charming.