I generally avoid romantic comedies as a genre, but there are some that I will watch every time they’re on TV, despite the plot holes etc.; this book felt like those. It had a good pace and lots of charm, I liked the variety of characters, I loved the depiction of female friendship. Sort of spoilers ahead: My main problem was that Lincoln, although well written, and although I was rooting for him, just didn’t seem all that interesting. I wasn’t sure what Beth saw in […]
The Silkworm
Leonora Quine wants private detective Cormoran Strike to find her husband, writer Owen Quine. He’s been missing for two weeks which, as it turns out, is not unusual for him. She’s sure he’s at a writer’s retreat. But Own turns up dead–murdered in a grisly, bizarre fashion. At the same time, his book is published–a grisly, bizarre book that infuriates Owen’s editors, publishers, lovers, and fellow writers with its gruesome, barely fictionalized depictions of them. Everyone’s a suspect, and they’re all also pretty unpleasant people. But are […]
Foreign Gods, Inc.
This is the seventh of ten African books. I’ve been trying to get these books from different African countries, but Nigerian authors are so prolific! They’re hard to escape. Maybe after I finish the ten, I’ll seek out more non-Nigerian books to even it out. Foreign Gods, Inc. is about Ike, a cabdriver in NYC who had a promising future…until he married poorly and started gambling. Embarrassed by his failures (and his ex-wife), he ignores his mother’s e-mailed pleas for help–he can’t send money home, […]
A Model Murder
Alicia Allen is a half-Italian, half-British lawyer in her late twenties, living in London. One of her new neighbors, a model with whom she is friendly, is murdered before she can collect her first paycheck at a “hostess” club. Alicia gets involved in the investigation, hijinks ensue, mysteries tangle and untangle, love connections are made and doubted. The premise has potential, and I enjoyed the plot basically, and I wanted to like it, but I just didn’t. There’s lots of telling rather than showing. There […]
Potatoes in Space: The Perfect Book for your Inner Astronaut
(I bought this because of alibaba77’s review.) This is a great book. If you’re at all into astronomy, stargazing, astronauts, science, or good books, you should read it. Mark Watney, our hero, is MacGyver on Mars. His Mars mission crew colleagues presumed him dead after an accident in a Martian storm. He has to figure out how to survive until the next Mars mission or until NASA figures out a way to save him sooner. He’s got a few potatoes, some duct tape, and a […]
Ms. Hempel Chronicles
Well this is just a charming little book. Ms. Hempel is a twenty-something schoolteacher who lives a pretty normal, almost mundane, life. She attends the school talent show. She muses on the odd relationship between student and teacher, and sometimes teacher and teacher. She gets engaged. She breaks up. She takes kids on field trips. She wants to be the young cool teacher but she also feels that she ought to learn how to be a disciplinarian. The book is a novel, sort of, in […]
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