Leopards is a non-fiction book about Leopards. Leopards live in Africa's grasslands and forest. They're able to stay cool hanging out in the shade. They hunt for antelope, birds and small mammals. Leopards are very strong and use their legs to climb tall trees.

This is another one of those books where the journey is really fun, but then the author proves that writing endings is really challenging. You can have a great idea for an atmospheric mystery, but you also need to have a great idea for how you are going to close things out, which Sarah Pearse didn't seem to have. The book follows Detective Elin Warner, who isn't really a detective anymore after a case went wrong and she decided to take some extended leave. Elin and her boyfriend, Will, have arrived at a hotel in the Swiss Alps to celebrate her brother's engagement. The hotel just happens to also be a really creepy former sanatorium, because the designer thought that would be a super cool place to build a fancy hotel. To continue with wonderful decision making skills, Elin also decides that this would be a fitting trip to accuse her brother of possibly killing their younger sibling during a childhood vacation. Because, hey, nothing says "happy engagement!" like "did you kill our brother, though? You can totally tell me if you did." There are just a few problems with this plan - first, Elin doesn't really talk to her brother anymore, so finding time to accuse him of this is a challenge. Second, his fiancée just went missing, and it may or may not be in poor taste to accuse him of anything given those circumstances. Third, there is an avalanche approaching the hotel, so they really all need to leave. And, of course, fourth, some people are starting to get murdered. After staying behind and getting trapped from the avalanche, Elin has to really deal with all her personal issues at once because she is the only cop-like person on the mountain who can investigate anything. No one can come help until the weather clears, which probably won't be for a while. There were a few issues I had with the book, two of which I found to be major issues. The first is that this was a fun crime novel, but ultimately it seems like no one could ever be punished for the murders that happened here. Elin isn't a detective in this area, as she points out again and again, and she tends to disobey the orders she is given (or just hides what she is doing because if she doesn't ask permission, she isn't doing anything wrong?) so it seems like everything she has gathered would be utterly useless. She also has a weird tendency to tell everyone around her everything she has discovered. Like, maybe they don't all need to know every piece of evidence you have gathered? You know someone around here is killing people, maybe stop telling everyone everything and you'd have better luck. The second is that the ending was just really dumb. The culprit didn't really make any sense, and it seemed like a massive overreaction for that person to be the one responsible for everything. I think it's worth it for the fun atmosphere of being trapped in the mountains with a killer, as long as you keep your expectations in line for the ending.

Amazing, takes a little while to understand certain references though!

This was okay. Josephine has just gotten married. As a child, she was known as a "Divine" - she went to a very expensive school for entitled rich people, where the children were taught nothing academic and mostly just how to treat people they considered beneath them poorly. She hasn't thought about her years there much since she left, but when her husband starts asking questions about the box of mementos she's kept, she's forced to relive her past and confront some of the darker moments within - especially the tragic tale of her roommate, Gerry. The mystery part takes a bit to develop, and really isn't the focus of the story? It seems more like the struggle of a young girl to find her place in the world, and to deal with the pressure to conform to what her friends and family want her to be. The chapters alternated between her years at the school and her adult life, and I honestly didn't really care about her as an adult. Those chapters didn't really add anything to my experience. By the end I was left with this vague feeling like I'd missed something important, but I'm not sure what? This was the sort of book that seemed like my jam, because I love a good boarding school mystery, but something about it fell flat and I just didn't adore it like I expected to.

I fee like I'm on a trend this month of books that just start out really slow. Emily and Kristen have been best friends since college, and they have a hobby of going on trips to random places together. Last year they went to Columbia, where their trip ended with a dead guy. This year they go to Chile, where their trip also ends with a dead guy. Now forced to deal with the trauma of two dead men, Emily is struggling to return to normalcy. And then all of a sudden Kristen appears in town, moving in and inserting herself in her life more fully than ever before. Could those two instances really have been just a fluke, or is something darker hiding under the surface of their relationship? The first chunk of this book was just so boring, because it felt like you were waiting for the shoe to drop and the action to begin. The world-building aspect here was not captivating at all. The book was also SUPER predictable. You could see every twist and turn coming on a mile away, and I felt like the author didn't trust me to put together anything subtle. There was one clue near the end of the book that I went "huh, I wonder what that will mean," only for it to be immediately explained a few pages later, like she was afraid I wouldn't remember it if she waited. Overall a little too much of a handhold while reading, and nothing really special. Probably closer to 2 and a half stars, but I'll give it three because I don't think I regret reading it, it just wasn't memorable.

A corporate trip to the French Alps turns to a nightmare. Erin works for the chalet comoany hosting the group. An avalanche occurs and one by one people are dying. Liz the meak outsider of the froup ends up being revealed as the killer. She kills for revenge.

not very in depth but still good, nice story line, book of the other main character from a different series.

Robbie Jordan moves to a tiny town after visiting her aunt. She opens a country store called Pans n Pancakes. She then is suspected of murder. The town is where her mother is from and begins to learn a few things about her mom and the dad she never met. That is just a small part of the story. It's a cozy mystery!

This book is based on the premise that the solidarity dividend is when folks come together across racial lines benefits society as a whole. It is a dense book written mostly from an economical standpoint which surmises that the cost of racism and white supremacy hurts not only Black people but white people as well.

This book tells the story of the generation who came to Britain from the Caribbean after WW2. Powerful story with many first-hand accounts. It helped me gain a sense of the Afro-Caribbean community in Britain decade by decade. Also gives the historical background to the Windrush Scandal that broke in 2018.