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This book is the second in the Cormoran Strike detective series. The stories are not interlaced but the events of the first novel are mentioned in them. I guess you wouldn’t have to read them in order but I have so far and probably will continue them in order.

In this second case, author Owen Quine goes missing and his wife calls Strike to find him, even though she believes he has just disappeared for a few days which is a common occurrence with him. As he investigates further, it turns out that Quine has written a book that would literally ruin everyone he knows if it were published and those people would perhaps want him silenced because of the manuscript. Strike discovers him to have been brutally murdered and must understand the killer’s motive in order to find out who he or she is.

This book, like the first in the series, kept me hooked from beginning to end. It’s nice to find a book series that keeps the same enjoyable pace in at least the first two books. So, if you choose to read it, enjoy!

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SO for those of you that don’t know this, Robert Galbraith is a pen name for J.K. Rowling. There has been a lot of hate towards her because of things she has said online that were not acceptable. I did not buy this book (or others in the series) after she made her transphobic comments online, nor do I support the things she said, but I did surprisingly enjoy this book and the one after it which will come in a later review. I’m not sure why I felt the need to write that, I could have just gotten straight into the book review but I felt that was important to say so if you don’t like it then you can stop reading my page.

The Cuckoo’s Calling is the first novel in the Cormoran Strike series. Cormoran Strike is a private investigator barely getting by after he lost his leg in Afghanistan. Cue the entry on one John Bristow who’s sister is the famous Lula Landry. She fell to her death from a balcony, which the police ruled as a suicide but her brother does not believe that in the slightest so John hires Strike to find out what really happened.

After falling love with Harry Potter as a child and rereading it several times, I was skeptical about reading this series because the “adult” novel J.K. Rowling released under her own name did not receive good reviews at all. I don’t even remember the book’s name. Luckily I was pleasantly surprised when reading this. I recommend it if you like a good whodunit book with comic relief from Strike’s wonderful character.

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So, this book came onto my radar because of the Netflix show. I am a huge fan of all scary stuff and I DEVOURED the show. I guess I didn’t pay attention to the part of the credits where it said it was based on a book. I’m kind of crazy with things like this and prefer to watch the show/movie AFTER reading the book/books but clearly I messed up for this. I also now realize that I did this with the show YOU but I have heard that the books aren’t very good. I will probably still read them because I am addicted to reading. Plus, I like to see the similarities and differences between both the book and the show. Do not even get me started about Game of Thrones. I will do a complete blog post about that one day when my anger simmers down. I am still salty about the TV show.

The Haunting of Hill House book and TV show are very different, so if you’re coming into the book after watching the show, you’ll be in for a bit of a surprise. The show is about a family that moves into Hill House which does not happen in the book, even though some of the characters are the same.

Dr. Montague is an occult specialist looking for evidence of a haunting at Hill house. He decides to recruit people to spend time with him, including Theodora, Eleanor, who has communicated with spirits and Luke who is the heir of Hill House. The book is not, in my opinion, scary, but more spooky. I enjoyed it because of the way the characters interact and the personality of the house. I find the basic storyline of a haunted house can be sometimes boring because it can be the same story over and over again whereas Hill House has a personality in both the book and the show (because of the inhabitants) and I guess that is part of the book’s charm.

I also enjoy the character development between everyone involved. In the show, Eleanor and Theodora are sisters and in the book, they develop a friendship that brings them close until it unravels thanks to Hill House. I won’t give to much away about that because then there’s no point in reading the book yourself. The house literally confuses everyone in it and while Eleanor is the main character in all of this, she is the most affected by the house and all its bizarre elements. It really does a number on your psyche because of the feeling reading this book gives you, it’s spooky and a perfect fall read to get you in the mood for Halloween! I definitely suggest you read it and give yourself a little scare!

The People Code & The Character Code by Taylor Hartman Ph.D.

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As an author, psychologist, and leadership coach, Dr. Taylor Hartman offers an incisive system for improving your understanding of yourself and others and strengthening your day-to-day relationships. In first The People Code and then The Character Code, Dr. Hartman introduces the Color Code Personality Profile, explaining why people do what they do by identifying four basic personality types and showing you how to use “color profiles” to cultivate rich and balanced character and relationships.

All people, reveals Dr. Hartman, possess one of four driving “core motives,” classified by color: Red (“power wielders”), Blue (“do-gooders”), White (“peacekeepers”), and Yellow (“fun lovers”). Once you understand your color code—and the color codes of others—you can analyze your own innate personality and use that knowledge to balance your relationships, both personal and professional.

The essence of character is the ability to enhance not only your own life, but the lives of others as well. Together, The People Code and The Character Code provide a universal message, simple and profound: life is about relationships.

This book was given to me as a gift and a year or two later, I finally read it. I won’t lie, it took me a long time to read this book because there was a lot of information in here. At first I felt like I was reading a textbook but as I read on I learned more about myself and the people around me. The book explains personalities in four different colours which I won’t explain here, I’ll let you read to find out more. It’s the first time I read something where I was bored at the beginning and super interested afterwards.

This book taught me a lot about my personality and my limitations as well as the people around me. First you take a quiz to find out what colour you are and then you read all about yourself and your relationships and limitations. I found it to be quite interesting and it gave me a lot to think about. If this sounds like something interesting to you, I recommend giving it a read. I wasn’t convinced at first but after finishing it, I was glad I read it.