Oh Jennifer. You’re so fluffy and light and fun and innocuous. Sometimes, that’s just what a girl needs. Nina Askew has just moved in to her new apartment on the second floor of a three flat building. She’s left her dolt of an ex-husband, and she’s forty and fabulous. Well, fabulous on the outside, but as any woman of a certain age knows, sometimes it’s hard to be fabulous on the inside. But Nina’s giving it the old college try, and even goes so far […]
Indonesian best-seller about poverty, education and hope
The Rainbow Troops: A Novel is not so much a novel as a memoir or collection of vignettes from the author’s childhood in Indonesia. It is an eye-opener about life in the world’s fourth most populated country, the largest Muslim-majority country. Hirata is Indonesia’s best selling writer of all time (according to the book blurb) and The Rainbow Troops was a huge best-seller in Indonesia and abroad. Hirata provides a vivid depiction of the poverty that many Indonesians experience and of the hope that education […]
Less Plot Recycling but Characters are Still Reused
Even though I was underwhelmed by the first book, The Abyss Beyond Dreams, I decided to persevere and conclude “The Chronicle of the Fallers”. In the year 2384 a group of humans leave Commonwealth space to found their own society. They find themselves sucked into the Void, where time moves differently and technology is dampened to nearly primitive levels, and dumped on a planet they name Bienvenido. Not only does the Void warp space time, it also gives sentient creatures the ability to perform telekinesis and […]
This man called Ove seems vaguely familiar
Minor spoilers ahead. I suspect everyone has at least one curmudgeon in their life–that grump, that sourpuss, that malcontent who seemed to emerge from the womb yelling, “Turn that damn music down!” In certain hipster circles, they may refer to it as Early Onset Grumpiness. Now, I’m not trying to throw shade at any particular person in my life, but when I asked my husband whether he’d consider driving a Saab if they still made them, I got a ten minute lecture about how Saabs […]
Blurred Lines and Sharp Twists
You always know what to expect – especially when reading romance novels – until suddenly you don’t. Kinda like life: it just happens. It’s messy and funny and absurd and surreal but never, not for one second, can you ever really be sure of what’s going to happen next. Our heroine, Parker, has to move home after a two year peacing-out which happened after her sister’s wedding. The same sister – twin sister, no less – who Parker caught doing the dirty with Parker’s boyfriend […]
Werewolves in New York? It’s more likely than you think!
A Canadian mystery writer lives in New York city and gets involved in some supernatural/criminal hijinx. Also, he’s a werewolf (which is kind of obvious right from the cover, so, like, not a spoiler). This book started life as a stand-alone short story called “This Time Around”. I read that and totally loved it. The author has a nice touch and a good sense of humor so I was interested to see how the whole story played out. The short story serves as the start […]
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