Nightblind (Dark Iceland #2) - Ragnar Jónasson

It's been a bit, but I found the first book in this series, Snow Blind, on a trip to HPB in 2024. It was a whole $2, and it was one of the better finds from the trip. It was so good, that I decided to keep an eye out for this one. It went on sale, and I snatched it up!

Ari Thór has been passed over for the inspector position, and he's a bit salty about it. His new superior officer is a man who he's kept his distance from. He's also having a bit of tension at home with Kristin, and his new son isn't making things easier. A late night attack is going to throw things into further chaos.

These books are short and sweet. For being just over 200 pages, they get to the point and don't try to hit a page count with a bunch of nonsense. I appreciate the readability of both of the novels I've read by this author, and the character of Ari Thór. I was a bit bummed at the end, but there wasn't much else to be done. Another thing I appreciate is the wrap up. I hate when books leave the little loose ends after making me care about side characters. Do you want to know what happened to so-and-so? I was able to find out in this book! Thank you!

Next up is Blackout, and I'll be tracking it. Good Book!

Death Note (Manga) - Tsugumi Ohba

In October, I finished watching the anime for Death Note. I had access to the manga, so I wanted to see how faithful it was to the source material. 

Light is bored. When he sees a notebook fall from the sky one day, he grabs it, and a whole new world opens up to him. Because it's not an ordinary notebook. It belongs to a Shinigami named Ryuk, a creature from another realm who loves apples. Writing someone's name in the notebook results in that person's death. With it, Light envisions a world with no more evil. But his vision has some flaws, and someone is trying to flush him out. A foe that goes by the name "L."

The anime was very faithful to the manga, so I wasn't surprised by anything that happened in it. I appreciate that they respected the source material, but if you have to choose between one or the other, I'm not sure it makes a difference which one you choose. I really liked the art style in the manga, and some of the covers to the volumes really stood out to me. Other than that, it's probably which time dedication you want to invest in. 

There are 12 volumes to Death Note. It's a great story with plenty of twists and turns. I still like Ryuk best, even though his eyes pierced my soul a bit at the end.It's a great chess match that I'd never win, and I highly recommend it. Both the anime and the manga are great. The anime is free to watch on Tubi, so no excuses if you don't want to buy the manga! Good Story, Good Manga!

My favorite cover

My Fellow Prisoners - Mikhail Khodorkovsky

This book covers short snippets of interactions a prisoner in Russia's penal system had with others during his sentence. Khodorkovsky was in that system from 2005-2013. And these are some of the characters he met along the way.

The corruption was crazy. The way men were manipulated into testifying against others so they would spend more time incarcerated was insanity. Those men were being threatened as well, so I couldn't pass judgment on them, because I have no idea what I'd do in a situation like that.

One of the stories that stood out to me the most was about a man framed for a brutal attack. He had multiple forms of paperwork showing that he was nowhere near the location of the attack, but all it took was two "witnesses" (who were told what to say), and the man was suddenly in a lot more trouble.

What you won't find in this book is a personal account of the author's stay. It was too much for him, and he doesn't want to talk about it. And that's completely fine. What he did was to preserve a slice of time and experience that doesn't often see the light of day or get spoken of in detail.

Overall, I would recommend this for anyone who wants a glimpse into the walls of a Russian prison. This book is perfect. It's short, there are plenty of breaks, and it covers a lot of different types of people. It's hard to understand how places like this can exist. According to Wikipedia, it's common for the judge to read the entire verdict. In Khodorkovsky's trial, his verdict was 662 pages, and the reading started on May 16. It finished up on May 31! The entire system seems surreal and like something out of a novel. If you have even a smidgeon of interest in this subject, you should check out this book. It's short, and the Kindle version is very affordable. Good Book!

Waltz into Darkness - Cornell Woolrich

Louis is waiting for his intended to appear in New Orleans after they've exchanged a few letters. There's a few things that strike him as odd, but nothing really prepares him for the day when she drains his bank account and disappears without a trace. After that, he has to verify if she was really who she claimed and approaches the sister, only to find his worst fears realized. His wife was a fake, and it seems his intended was done away with on her way to New Orleans. A private investigator is hired, and Louis is suddenly not sure what to do with himself.

I was willing to give Louis a pass on not spotting the red flags at the beginning. Sure, they were lined up for me all neat and tidy, but I was giving him the benefit of the doubt and saying he missed them until after the fact. The man destroyed all my sympathy for him with everything he did after that point.

I've read a lot of old gothic romances in the past. If you're not familiar, they usually involve a not very smart woman getting herself into stupid situations. That's what happened here, except it was Louis. And he did it over and over again. Probably more times than any of the women in the gothics I read. He really was his own worst enemy and thus deserved everything he kept walking back into.

The end of this book made me physically angry. The lack of real justice bothered me, because it involved the one character I actually cared about. The writing itself was smooth and easy to read. I just hated the plot and the characters.

My Dancing White Horses - Alois Podhajsky

Horses are one of my favorites animals. Always have been. Inside of that group, the Lipizzaner stands apart as a breed of mystery and elegance. I didn't know a lot of details about them, just that they were skilled in various steps, notably "airs above the ground." Recently, I'd heard of General Patton assisting in the reunion of the Lipizzaner stud with the rest of the herd toward the end of WWII, and I knew I had to look into that! At that point, I was on the hunt for just the right book, and I found this autobiography. 

Colonel Podhajsky's life was these horses. From the moment he was assigned to their care, he took the assignment seriously. More than once his own health hung in the balance, but he did everything in his power to shield these horses from harm. Appealing to the occupying U.S. Army for help in retrieving the Austrian horses was a bold move, but it paid off.

After the war, the horses went on tour. They traveled many places and dealt with a lot of different levels of accommodations. Different treatments and celebrations of horses were shown to him, and every culture adored his horses. But it wasn't until 1955 that he was able to take them back where they belonged: to Vienna. And that's where they stay.

I really liked this book. I liked how Podhajsky was humble and grateful for every bit of assistance he was granted, and the small gifts and expressions of gratitude were just as welcome to him as the ones that came from heads of state. I loved how he cared for the horses and did everything he could to save them. I thought it was wonderful how those horses were a bridge for those countries in the postwar years.

The only downside I can see is that this book was hard to find. I found a decently priced used copy, but I had to sacrifice a bit on condition. My binding was scary, and the dustcover was beat up. It's a shame, because this was a really good book. The pictures in it were crisp, and there were multiple pictures (clear, in motion pictures) of the horses in the middle of some of their jumping movements. This book needs to be digitized for future generations. Especially those that love horses! Good Book!

The Layton Court Mystery - Anthony Berkeley Cox

This book was initially published anonymously, and the author used a number of pen names throughout his writing career. I don't know how this particular book ended up on my radar, but I'm always ready to give a new author a chance! This one is in the public domain, and I got it from Project Gutenberg.

Roger and Alec are at the home of a wealthy man when he winds up committing suicide. It appears to be an easy crime to solve, but Roger isn't so sure. He wants to play Sherlock, and he enlists Alec to be his Watson. Even though the authorities have ruled it a suicide, Roger won't leave it alone. Alec is along for the ride, but he's also the voice of dissent.

I was on the fence for a long time with this one. I didn't like that Roger kept going after these people after he found out the dead man wasn't a great person. I didn't want it to be the suspect he was leaning toward, and I was going to be bummed. But, the thing with Roger is that he isn't Sherlock. At all. His theories are wrong. A lot. I like how he's a normal guy. He goes into an interrogation with preset notions and expecting certain answers, but when he doesn't get them, suddenly he has to rethink his entire theory.

I think that's what really drew me in at the end. Not only the way Roger was slogging through the mystery with all his missteps, but when he finally gets it at the end, the way he dealt with it made me smile. This is one of the mysteries that stands out for being unique. It's what would happen if normal people tried to be Poirot or Sherlock, and I loved it. I've written this author's name down so I can try and get my hands on more of his books. Good Book!

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

I'm going to start this review with an awesome fact. My daughter has already read this book. We were talking about what we were reading, and I was describing my book. She said that it sounded familiar, and she knew it was Fahrenheit 451. She'd read it in high school and thought it was a good book. I thought that was neat. She was just surprised I hadn't read it before.

Guy is a fireman. In this history, firemen don't put out fires. They're sent out to track down books and destroy them. One day, Guy is sent to burn a home, and the woman who lives there refuses to leave. He's also been spending time with a young lady named Clarisse, and these events change everything he thought he knew. Guy has already hidden away some books of his own, but now he's going to explore what it means to have them. His wife isn't ready to challenge any rules, and Guy's life changes drastically. 

I'm not going to explore all the subtext and meaning behind the story. It was written after the time when the Nazis had burned books and during a time when people were afraid of the Soviets. During the Great Purge, Stalin was credited with burning the authors instead of the books. Not a great time for sure.

This is one of those stories that stick with you. You'd like to think things like this can't happen, but it certainly can. I liked this story a lot and recommend it. Good Book!