The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder

This ended up on my reading list because I'd seen it go on the public domain. The summary sounded interesting. There will be spoilers in this review. It's something of a short book, and I have a few choice words for it.

When the bridge collapses, five lives are snuffed out. The priest that witnesses the event goes on a mission to try and explain if there was a specific reason God let that happen to those specific people. What follows is the story of three and a half people. One is a clingy mother and her maid(?), another is 1/2 of twins, and the last one is a weird guy who guilt trips a longtime "friend" to let her sickly son accompany him to Lima (this takes place in Peru). Later, the priest also had a system where he was evaluating parishioners on their value, and he's eventually put to death for heresy.

This book was so weird. Half the time, the text wasn't even focusing on the person the priest was researching. I read so much about the other twin and the girl the weird guy was obsessed with. It was just odd. And the idea that any kind of explanation to a random tragedy would result from exploring people's backgrounds is just ridiculous. The priest thought that a bridge collapse was a more controlled tragedy than other types of deaths. Umm, ok. Things like that aren't "controlled" more than anything else. It happened when the structure gave out. The whole book was just weird. At least it was short.

A False Mirror (Ian Rutledge #9) - Charles Todd

This is one of the paperbacks from the HPB trips. I didn't realize it was part of a series when I picked it up, but the main character, Ian Rutledge, solves mysteries and has 8 previous cases under his belt. I was intrigued by the setting of post WWI, and the summary for the mystery was unique.

A man is attacked while out walking by the water in a smaller town. When his wife's former lover hears of it, he freaks out and rushes to her house and ends up taking her hostage. After that, the husband is barely alive, and people are being killed. The former lover served with Rutledge in the war, and the suspect insists that he'll only talk to his former comrade.

The thing about this novel is that it was weird. First, it's number 9 in the series, so I wasn't used to Hamish-in-the-head. This is also one of the men he served with, but this one died and now harasses Rutledge day and night as a sort of conscience ghost (?). Another thing was the plot. It was unique, and normally, I love that. But this one got super weird. The initial victim disappears, and we assume he's dead, and then other people die, and we're not sure if the assumed dead guy is committing the acts, or if there's another murderer. And then the answer just didn't seem to make enough sense to satisfy. I suppose it made sense, but it also kind of didn't, so I was torn on the "villain." And then it just ended. There weren't really many people to root for in this one, and you didn't find out what really happened to them anyway, so it's a lot of unresolved feelings. 

The book overall was enough to keep me entertained, but I wouldn't pick up another one. Rutledge kept referring to a case in London that I didn't know about, so there was that. I also didn't ever really get used to Hamish. And at the end of the book, I didn't really get a feel for enough of Rutledge's personality to say one way or the other whether he was interesting enough to follow. Since this is his 9th adventure, I'm not very optimistic about his prospects to show up in my reading pile again. The writing style was fine, I just wasn't a fan of the weird plot or the detective.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Volume 9-14) - Koyoharu Gotouge

To continue my personal summaries of Demon Slayer:

Volume 9 - It's time to go to the entertainment district. Tengen Uzui has lost track of his 3 wives, and the friends are sent to infiltrate the same houses to find out what happened. Of course there's a demon involved, but it's not a straightforward enemy. I really love the imagination used to create these demons. It's not the usual "they fight with a sword" or "they're skilled with a bow." I'm just impressed every time. Big fight coming up next! 

Volume 10 - Well, the fight has taken an interesting turn as a new player (brother) has joined the fight. These two are connected but have very different skills. Tanjiro gets himself into trouble, and Nezuko comes to the rescue. She's even stronger than she was before, but she's also more dangerous. The fight isn't over yet! But we've got some reinforcements, and the two groups have to work together to deal with this double demon threat.

Volume 11 - We're still dealing with the siblings with the different skills. It's going to take all the fighters working together to defeat this strong team. But even after they're defeated, Tanjiro finds the compassion to try and mend their relationship with each other. It's an interesting facet to the demon personalities. Seeing their backstories and feeling some sympathy for their predicament, in spite of what they've done and tried to do to the heroes, is so unusual. I'm constantly impressed by the creativity involved with this manga.

Volume 12 - It's recovery time. I really liked the first part where it was from the POV of the person that found them and thought they were hugging. As I get deeper into this series, I am falling more in love with Inosuke's character. I can't get over where he was when Tanjiro woke up. Anyway, the group is split up as everyone gets sent on a different mission. Tanjiro is sent somewhere else (he's still healing), but it's a secret place, so he has to be blindfolded and taken there by multiple escorts. They think it's a safe place, but they don't know that a couple demons are already on their way. A feisty demon slayer, Genya, is on the scene, though, and we'll see what happens next. 

Volume 13 - The demons are relentless, and Tanjiro is going to have to dig deep. Genya wants the glory of killing an upper rank demon, and Tanjiro doesn't care as long as everyone is safe. The demon has basically five "aspects," and tracking down the main one isn't going to be easy. They're going to have to look high and low. Then, it's going to take timing. Meanwhile, another fight is going on with a Hashira back at the swordsmith village. And it's not going well with the vase demon. He's a complete putz, and he's really cruel to the smiths he's captured. There's hope toward the end, though, as the peppy Love Hashira, Kanroji, is back on the scene!

Volume 14 - Goldfish/Bubble demon is finally taken care of, but Tokito is paying a high price for fighting it. The insults were flying for a long time with those two, but seeing the backstory was intriguing and knowing Tokito had a twin brother was interesting. We get another backstory in this volume as well. Kanroji gets herself in trouble and sees her past. It's one where she's had to hide who she was, and it reminded me of someone close to me. I love how that scenario turned out in the fight, even though the fight is ongoing.

Berserk #10 - Kentaro Miura

So, I'm getting close to caught up with what's released with Berserk. Casca has a possible way of being healed, but the issue is that they aren't there yet! And at the end of this tome, they still aren't there!!

The Kushans are using spellcasters to control monsters and attack the gang and later the city. The only way to really defeat the overpowered monsters is to take out the spellcasters. Fortunately, Schierke is able to locate them. Guts just has to buy time until Serpico can get to the spellcasters and take them out.

Also important in this tome is Farnese. She ends up back with her family, but it isn't a happy homecoming. The gang needs a boat to travel to the elf land where they will heal Casca, but all the ships are currently being used for the war efforts. Farnese is approached with a way to secure passage for her friends, but it will mean sacrificing her new life for the greater good. The funny thing is, Casca takes care of that in a short amount of time, and then it's up to everyone to get out of there before the Kushan attack again. But it's too late, and it's deja vu trying to get out of the city.

I was particularly struck by the art in this one. Specifically, I keep remembering one double-page picture of a ship. It was incredibly detailed, and I just kept wondering how long it took to make it. How many hours? Days? The child has to show back up. It would be really weird if he didn't, but I'm a bit confused about his role in the overall story. I won't make any predictions. I can't guess where this story goes! Maybe...just maybe! Can we please heal Casca in volume 11? I know Guts was told she may not come back the way he hopes, but I'm ready for her to do more than "Ooooo."

The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett

In February of last year, I watched the movie based on this book. It starred Humphrey Bogart, and while he isn't my favorite actor, I wanted to give the character of Sam Spade a chance. In the movie he was a putz, and I wasn't sure if I didn't like him more because of the actor or if it was mostly the character.

The plot revolves around the hunt for a gem-encrusted falcon. I went into detail about the story during the review for the movie, and it was pretty faithful to the book. I'll give the movie props for that at least. If you aren't familiar with the plot, you can check out my movie blog post.

Okay, so it wasn't just Humphrey Bogart. Sam Spade is a major putz. He's a jerk for the whole book, and there's literally no one to root for in the book. I did have a different person to feel bad for, though. It was the policeman, Tom. He was just trying to be friendly and keep the peace, but, as usual, Sam was a putz to him just like he was to everyone else.

Yes, it's bad for business if you let people get away with murdering your partner. Sam's a putz for not liking his partner to begin with. And even if you don't like him, there should be some kind of code that says "don't have an affair with your partner's wife even if you don't like him." Anyway, I'm glad everyone got caught. It's just a shame Sam didn't get maimed or die or something. 

The Road to En-Dor - E. H. Jones

This is an autobiography of a man who escaped Turkish custody during the first world war. Spoiler: It's also one of the strangest prisoner of war escape stories I've ever read.

Jones is the main character here, and he's the one that comes up with the plan. It all starts out as a way to pass the time and mess with his fellow prisoners. He gets a postcard telling him about Ouija boards, and he makes his own. What follows is one of the most convoluted experiences I'm sure these prisoners have ever been a part of. Most of them are just unaware of their participation.

Jones ends up dedicated to the idea of the Spook. He gets the commandant of the camp to believe the Spook will be able to help him find a treasure. This is what Jones believes will be his ticket out of the camp. He has a comrade, Hill, and the two of them work together to use the Spook to find freedom. By acting insane.

This story was crazy. I think if someone tried to pass it off as fiction, critics would rail at it for being too outrageous and nonsensical. As it was, I was surprised at the lengths these men went to trying to get back to England. In the end, I'm wondering if it was really worth it. They endured sickness, starvation and had to keep up the ruse for many months. On the flip side, they did help out their friends a few times.

The copy I had was pretty jacked up. The footnotes would just pop up wherever and interrupt the story. It was strange, and I'm not sure, but I think my epub came from Gutenberg. If you end up tracking this one down, just skim through and make sure you get a decent copy.

Overall, this was a bit of a weird one. It's unique for sure. The writing style was good. I just had a bad copy. I think if you're looking for the usual POW escape story, you'll be scratching your head. If you're wanting to read something you'd never dream of in a million years, this is right up your alley. And you'll probably still be scratching your head when you're done. Good Book!

Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey #1) - Dorothy L. Sayers

This is one of those public domain mysteries I wanted to check out.

Lord Peter is a private detective who teams up with Mr. Parker, a Scotland Yard DI to solve two cases. Or are they connected? A prominent financier is missing, and nearby, a naked man is found in a bathtub. With little to go on, these two have an uphill battle to untangle the webs of the mystery.

This book didn't really grab me the way some of the others have. Lord Peter got under my skin with his high energy personality. It felt like he was trying to be a Sherlock but without any charm to back it up. His valet, Bunter, was my favorite character. He had some neat little zingers in there.

The end of this was a bit irritating. Not only did Wimsey "warn" the suspect, we had a whole confession that went on forever. Things were explained in excruciating detail, and it was a bit much. I still don't really understand the killer's motive. The confession seemed more like he was focused on how to get away with a murder than revenge for a perceived wrong.

Anyway, that one's over and done with. Lord Peter can go drink a bottle of Napoleon and enjoy himself. I'm moving on...