Avoiding Work

So no big surprise, but I'm avoiding work. I have tons to do that I know about and probably tons more that I don't know about. That's what stinks about being new to a job and having a deadline and working part time from home about 2000 miles away from everyone else. You're not quite sure what is expected of you and aren't right there to ask questions and are only working 20 hours and haven't quite figured everything out yet. So what did I decide to do instead of trying to figure out what I need to do and then doing it? That's right. I was reading the blogs of friends of friends of friends. Because I'm a total blog stalker. But then I decided to go on my own blog and do a book review because I love book reviews. I'm not sure anyone else does, but I do!

I also love mysteries. I love trying to figure out who did it. Sometimes I can't wait and have actually ruined quite a few by reading the end before I should. I have to admit, I read the end of this one first but it didn't ruin it for me. Mostly because I was totally surprised and wanted to see how it came about. The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin is a mystery set in 19th-century Russia. The main character is a young man who comes from a wealthy family but is now an orphan and has to make his way in the world. He gets a job with the police and starts by investigating a couple student suicides and ends up, well actually I can't say. What he ends up doing might ruin the story if I told. I will say, though, that the last few paragraphs were almost shocking. I wasn't expecting that at all.

I looked the author up on the internet after I read the book, and Boris Akunin is actually a pen name. Apparently he is a linguistics professor at a Russian university. One day his wife complained that all the books published were about the Russian mafia, drugs, and prostitutes and that she felt stupid reading them on the subway where other people could see the covers. So he set out to write a book she wouldn't be ashamed to read in public and came up with The Winter Queen. It is the first in a series, but only about five of them have been translated into English. The first three are really good- the last few are ok. He also wrote another series about a mystery-solving Greek Orthodox nun. Ha! Pretty awesome. The first book is just ok. I really liked the second one though. With that I'll go back to work. Have a great night everybody.