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A fun ride with enjoyable characters experiencing mysterious murders, cats, private jets, a glamorous best-selling author, nefarious use of chat GPT, and much more. Below the surface, it's a story about dealing with loss, love, boundaries, and trust. A fun book to take my mind off everyday worries. It hooked me enough to want to just go into a bubble of my own and enjoy the story with no interruptions.

A series of small, fun stories by Terry Pratchett. Many are Christmas or winter-themed, which was a pleasant surprise as I accidentally read it in the right season. I rate the fact that they've been collected together like this as 5 stars, but objectively speaking the stories themselves are fun and thought-provoking, but not yet on par with some of the masterpieces that Pratchett would later create. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book, even if you haven't read Discworld books before. Seeing the "proto-Pratchett" stories was entertaining and interesting, and the stories themselves were uplifting.

It was a difficult read for me, not because it was over 700 pages, but because the strong atmosphere of despair and hopelessness was too much for me in these difficult times. There are some interesting characters and events - I can easily see someone adapt it to be a miniseries. There were strong characters with different personalities and definitely significant flaws, which made them interesting. I wish the characters well in their continued lives between the book pages, but I don't think I'll revisit this specific story any time soon.

A darker, more modern sequel to a classic fairytale, but with drum n' bass, set in the late 90s in London. I'm less familiar with London, but loved all the lovely descriptions of its personality and architecture. It has its own personality. All the characters are fleshed out, flawed, and feel like they have their own stories which would easily fill a few other novels.

A cat and a little bookstore - what's not to like? The story evoked a lot of visual imagery for me. It was easy to imagine, for example, a stop motion version of the story playing out while reading it. The main character is awkward indecisive, but earnest and well-meaning. He may come across as judgemental because of his love of specific types of books and how they should be treated, but he doesn't do so to be spiteful and superior - it's just what he believes. A pleasant, light read with some deeper thoughts about today's world and literature.