I thought "S" and "T" were a bit more challenging...more of an experiment(Although even on their best day I wouldn't call them 'experimental", )but they are not quite so by-the-numbers...there wasn't even a junk-food binge lovingly codified in either(and I say that as a person who loves a Quarter Pounder with Cheese herself.) But I wouldn't expend a lot of writing passion on them...if you eat 'em, you get it, and if you don't, you're totes disgusted by every greasy syllable. Yeah, sj, I've read some of the Connelly books...I don't know why, they stop just short of turning my crank...well, I suppose it's hard to believe a second group of parents pulling the pin on "Hieronymus" but I don't think that would be enough to take me out of a story I really loved.

I have never gotten tired of Miss Marple, though.

I'm pretty sure his mom didn't know who the father was, and wanted to give him a fancy name... I feel like I usually buy Connelly at the airport or a drug store, so I like them, but don't usually seek them out.

I liked how the Brother Cadfael books ended up, with Cadfael's crisis of faith and how he came back and was forgiven in the end.

Good to know, Pix! I mean, the topic of the last two books was sort of off-putting, too, but they just seemed overly dense and boring. I'll try again, though! I loved those books so much.

Miss Marple rocks. So does Brother Cadfael.

I'll try again, though! I loved those books so much.

Me too, and yes on the previous books being dense and boring. Do you know the big huge OMGWTF plot twist that happened at the end of the previous one? I'd say you could skip them both and just start with the newest one so long as you know that Helen is killed at the end of the previous one in a random drive by shooting. She was pregnant, and both she and the baby die. Lovely bit of SRSLY?!? there. But if you know that, you can move forward without reading the others.

Yeah, I knew that, Pix. I was horrified! I'll pick up the new one, though, because man, I miss Tommy.

Even the Jack Reacher books have gotten a little silly I think--I was explaining them to MeganWalker the other day and his whole schtick with not carrying even a bag etc? Yeahhh. I mean at least he supposedly has a bank account and ATM card these days...

I finally read N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms today, and even though in many ways it's the kind of book I don't like (it's about gods, most of the characters are unpleasant, the world-building is kind of glossed-over, and sex is RLY IMPORTNT), I actually enjoyed it a lot. It's compulsively readable, with some great mysteries you want the answers to, it's quite well-written, and there are some really vivid moments.

And the sequel is more about ordinary people than the elite, so I'm looking forward to that.