The Miserable Mill and The Austere Academy are books 4 & 5 in the series. Both involve the same plotline as books 2 & 3... No one ever recognizes Count Olaf in his ridiculous costumes except the Baudelaires, and no one ever believes them. And in the end, when Count Olaf is finally discovered, he escapes. In the Miserable Mill, the children are forced to work in a lumber mill, and the Austere Academy takes place in a boarding school. At the school, the Baudelaires finally meet some friends their own age who believe them.

In the Ersatz Elevator, the formula finally changes. The Baudelaires are adopted by a wealthy family near where their home burned down. As the back of the book says,

"Even though their new home in the city is fancy, and the children are clever and charming, I'm sorry to say that still, the unlucky orphans will encounter more disaster and woe. In fact, in this sixth book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the children will experience a darkened staircase, a red herring, an auction, parsley soda, some friends in a dire situation, a secret passageway, and pinstripe suits."

 

I was thrilled at a change and having someone else to root for and someone else to hate. The characters are quirky and outlandish, but fun to read about.

The mystery deepens...

Chapter 9

This post is a little late this week. We were without internet since Sunday morning after a truck driver came through and took out a cable.

Books Read: 9

"Why is This Night Different From All Other Nights?": This is the last book in the All Wrong Questions series and just like A Series of Unfortunate Events, it doesn't end on a positive note. 4 stars.

The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy: After finishing the All the Wrong Questions series I had to go and start reading this series again. I didn't realize it had been so long until I looked at my shelf on Booklikes. This is one of those series that I could read over and over again. I will say as much as I enjoy this series, I find that it doesn't really pick up until the fifth book The Austere Academy, though the preceding four books are still enjoyable. 4 stars for The Bad Beginning. 5 stars for the other four.

The League of Frightened Men, Too Many Cooks: Two more Nero Wolfe books and two more re-reads, I really am trying to cut down on re-reading. I'm actually enjoying these more the second time around and I'm curious how I'll rate the other books in this  series as I work my way through. 4 1/2 stars.

The Final Descent: This is the final book in The Monstrumologist series and I have to say, I don't think I have ever been so disappointed in a series ending (excluding Sherlock Season 4, I'm just pretending it never happened and hoping for another season). The author warns the reader going in that the format of this final book is quite different than the others, but it was still annoying. The ending itself was just ... I knew it was headed in that direction from the previous book, but I was just so unsatisfied in the ending. 1 star.

Ongoing Reads: 2

The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Reveled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime: This book is quite interesting, but it's a slow read as well. I'm stuck reading this book only at home because my co-workers, who have never previously taken an interest in what I read, insist on coming over and asking a million questions about it. Aargh!

Champagne For One: Another Nero Wolfe book and I actually finished it Sunday morning, but it didn't seem right to count it in the previous weeks tally.

  ❝ Before too long, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire will have so much adversity that being dreadful Carmelita Spats, and if you wanted to give a gold metal to Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire. it would be for survival in the face of adversity.❞

This one, along with the second book, are my favorite. I will have to wait to actually finish in order to see which was the best story. 'Best' being used ironic of course as these stories the children appear are truly horrible.

The Austere Academy is the fifth book in the "Series of unfortunate events" and the Baudelaire orphans are enrolled in the worst possible boarding school: Prufrock Preparatory School, whose motto is: "Memento Mori" that means according to Klaus: "Remember you will die" (in other words something like R.R.Martin's "All men must die" motto). This truly dreadful school has the worst imaginable Vice Principle who also happens to be the world's worst violinist: Nero. He is a highly delusional man that he gets in line with all the other incompetent guardians the kids had over the series so far. Mr. Poe is truly awful at his job!

I really liked this story because we had two nice character additions: the Quagmire triplets. Except there are no longer three but only two: Duncan and Isadora. The third one, Quigley, met his demise along with the triplets' parents in a terrible fire. Sounds familiar?

So, it's no surprise really that the five children bonded and I really liked how they clicked: Isadora with Klaus and Duncan with Violet. As always, it's only a matter of time before count Olaf appears and make things worse. Because at the boarding school, things were far from ideal: the Baudelaires stayed at a terrible shack with crabs and fungi infested ceilings. Furthermore, the teachers the kids had, Mr. Remora and Mrs. Bass were terrible. The first one, constantly ate bananas and made his students write down his awful stories and the other one was obsessed with measuring useless objects.

I don't remember reading this story when I was younger, so it was extra enjoyable compared to the previous ones. I wonder what will happen next!

I like the books. They are dark, weird and humorous. 

Now I know the writer is a women right supporter. All the better.