Synopsis:
The Cuckoo's Calling is a 2013 crime fiction novel by J. K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
A brilliant mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide.
After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.
Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.
You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.
Review:
After reading the first page, I realized that I like J.K. Rowling's writing style. Despite being out of my comfort zone (I'm not a fan of murder mysteries), I found this book to be well-written and engaging. I rated it 5 stars on Goodreads because I couldn't think of anything at all I would have changed about the book (which doesn't happen very often). I was a little concerned at first at the length of the book (455 pages) but I read it in just a few days because I found it so captivating and enjoyable. Even though I am not one for remembering minute details, I liked that I was not able to guess whodunnit, but that could just be me.
I intend to read the rest of the books in the series, including the new book coming out in 2017, unless the others in the series aren't as enjoyable and well-written. However, I have decided, based on how much I enjoyed this book, that I might actually try reading J.K. Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy" as well. We'll see what 2017 brings.
Read on,
Paula
1. Best book(s) I read in 2016: "Circus" by Claire Battershill, "The cuckoo's calling" by Robert Galbraith, "Jane Steele" by Lyndsay Faye, and "Poles apart" by Terry Fallis
2. Most disappointing book of 2016: "The view from the cheap seats" by Neil Gaiman
3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2016: "The cuckoo's calling" by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)
4. Books I recommended most to people in 2016: "Jane Steele" by Lyndsay Faye
5. Best series I discovered in 2016: The Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)
6. Favourite new author(s) of 2016: Claire Battershill
7. Most thrilling, unputdownable book of 2016: "The cuckoo's calling" by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)
8. Book I most anticipated in 2016: "The Grain Brain whole life plan" by David Perlmutter
9. Favourite cover of a book I read in 2016:
10. Most memorable character in 2016: Cormoran Strike
11. Most beautifully written book of 2016: It's a tie between "Circus" by Claire Battershill and "What is not yours is not yours" by Helen Oyeyemi
12. Best book that was out of my comfort zone or was a new genre for me in 2016: "The cuckoo's calling" by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)
13. Book that had the greatest impact on me in 2016: "Spark joy" by Marie Kondo
14. Book I can't believe I waited until 2016 to FINALLY read: "The song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller
15. Book I read in 2016 that would most likely be reread in 2017: "Circus" by Claire Battershill
16. Book that had a scene in it that had me reeling and dying to talk to someone about it? (A WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. No spoilers!): "The slow fix" by Ivan Coyote
Some fun stats:
Books completed: 46
Goodreads Reading Challenge goal: 40
Books by male authors: 17
Books by female authors: 28
Fiction: 21
Non-fiction: 25
Children's books: 9
YA books: 0
E-books: 3
Did not finish (DNF): 3
Re-reads: 0
Translated books: 0
Big fat books (more than 500 pages): 0
Read on,
Paula
Synopsis:
The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret—Oyeyemi’s keys not only unlock elements of her characters’ lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In “Books and Roses” one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers’ fates. In “Is Your Blood as Red as This?” an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” involves a “house of locks,” where doors can be closed only with a key—with surprising, unobservable developments. And in “If a Book Is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think,” a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).
Oyeyemi’s tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation?
Review:
I read this book because Simon from The Readers podcast mentioned it on his Booktube (aka YouTube) review. It's mid-December and I haven't quite completed my Goodreads 2016 Reading Challenge so I've been seeking out titles to help me accomplish that. I'm glad I decided to actually read it because I enjoyed it very much.
The book is a collection of short stories. Although they are all meant to have the theme of keys, there were a few where the key wasn't as obvious to me as in the others. The stories are lightly interconnected; characters from other stories are mentioned but play no part in the story you're reading. Simon mentions that they are fairy tale-like and there are some where this is more obvious, especially the one with the red cape and the "wolf". However, none of them seem to me to be retellings of the "famous" (Western world) fairy tales. They just require a certain amount of suspension of disbelief because of the tangled realities.
Because it is a book of short stories, I found it hard to follow the plot/story sometimes because of short, interrupted reading (a short lunch break, for example). But I found the writing compelling, even in the weird stories that I didn't "get", enough to continue reading.
As a single (aromantic asexual) white female, I wholeheartedly enjoyed the fluidity of gender relationships in this book. This book talks indirectly about romantic relationships as if the ideal world already existed where the gender of who you love is irrelevant. In a book where labels were not affixed, it made me realize that the labels for same-sex relationships are too harsh for what they represent. Especially in this book where relationships are not always the focus of the story/plot.
The first story in the collection, "Books and Roses", was my absolute favourite. I LOVED it. I took a break after reading it just so I could contemplate the various threads and how they interwove.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fairy tales that aren't exactly fairy tales, light fantasy, and/or short stories in general.
Read on,
Paula
