The Introverted Detective

 I have to rave about this one, both as an Alfred Hitchcock fan and as a thriller/suspense fan. The Hitchcock Hotel is the easiest five star read of this year. I bought it on a whim because I read the plot synopsis. I finished reading faster than I expected to, and I have thoughts - so many thoughts! Courtesy of Audible.com Warning, this blog will have some spoilers in it. Read it yourself and wait to read my review if you want a spoiler-free experience. You've been warned. Don't spoil it for yourself! This book is a fantastic tribute to Alfred Hitchcock. The main storyline, without giving too much of the plot away, is one man, Alfred Smettle, inviting college friends into his Hitchcock-themed hotel for a free stay. From there things are already tense. Odd things are happening, people are getting hurt, secrets are being spilled- that haven't been spilled in years- from senior year at Reville (the university just across the way). You're waiting for the first body to fall...

 This is my review of Ration of Lies by M. Ruth Myers. This is mystery #8 in the Maggie Sullivan series. Maggie Sullivan is a private investigator in the 1940s, navigating a world before and during World War II.  Courtesy of bol.com I love this series. I don't often find female private investigators. This is one of a few books that feature such things. In Ration of Lies, Maggie Sullivan takes the case of a Nisei (Japanese American) family when their son is accused of arson. It starts as a simple case (with some hesitation to take the case), but becomes more complicated as she finds more and more evidence of the boy's innocence. She also has to locate him as part of her agreement and nobody knows where he is.  Amongst all this, we see WWII and its effects around Maggie. You see people sign up too young (a newspaper boy) and someone come back from the war injured. On top of that, the boarding house she lives in is now a little more populated and will take anyone in - when t...

 "Audiobooks aren't really reading" is an opinion I've run into at least once, despite the fact that audiobooks are everywhere on the Libby app and offline. Let's talk about the pros and cons of audiobooks, and why they are absolutely reading.  I once told one of my Bible study people that I listened to my morning Bible passage. The look I got back was a face of "well, that's not really reading" -despite her not saying those words. What she actually verbally responded with was close to that, but not exactly that. Why do people think audiobooks or listening to a book isn't reading? Let's look at that for minute.  Psychology Today has an article on this. According to them, it depends on what you are reading. Fiction is comprehended equally in audiobook and word form. Textbooks and books with complex ideas, not so much. If you are studying something, it might be better to read it physically with your eyes, rather than just with your ears (especi...