This month I downloaded an app called Storygraph, which is similar to Goodreads but I much prefer the interface and information, plus you can give not only half stars but quarter stars too! I haven't properly started using it so the below are still rated 1-5 stars without decimal points, but I'm so excited to be able to rate books a bit more accurately! I'd definitely recommend it if you currently use Goodreads, as you can transfer your books over too (although I haven't actually done that yet...)
The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman // This is the third in the Thursday Murder Club series of books and to begin with I really wasn't into it. I think it felt quite samey to me and almost too much of an easy read. I maybe just wasn't in the mood for it because once I made some headway with it I started to love it. The Thursday Murder Club are looking into another old murder case while also having some present day potential murders to worry about. Some parts were maybe a little silly, but I think that's kind of the point of these books. If you've read and enjoyed the first two, you'll enjoy this one too. I rated it four stars.
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson // Set in London in the 1920s the Coker family led by their mother Nellie run a variety of clubs mixed with various levels of corruption. Gwendolyn Kelling has come to London to search for two missing girls, who ran away to London to seek stardom but may have ended up starring in the Coker's world instead. I was absolutely hooked by this and almost rated it a five, but it takes a lot for me to rate a book a five so it received a solid four stars (but a high four stars!).
Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus // The story of Elizabeth Zott, a chemist in the 1960s who finds herself the host of a daytime TV cooking show. She doesn't come across as a particularly likeable person, yes this somehow makes her likeable. She stands up for women in an extremely patriarchal world, falls in love with a fellow chemist with an equally liberal view of life then ends up as a single mother. I was all set to rate this a five, but found the ending a little bit rushed so another four from me.
The Bees by Laline Paull // Flora is the lowest class of bee in the hive and works in sanitation, although her unusual attitude means she ends up working in countless other jobs around the hive, including briefly with the queen. She is desperate to serve her hive, but she's also desperate to be a mother, something absolutely forbidden for anyone other than the queen. An interesting read that felt way too long and probably had a huge societal message that I totally missed, it maybe just wasn't really for me. I rated it three stars because it was too good for two!
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