Books finally...
I remain very bad about keeping track of everything, except possibly posts involving puppies, my apologies. But I have been actually finishing a few books, I think the trick was a definite change of palate, no real wow books ( I wish!) but some which I managed to get into and finish.
- Kitchen Confidential - sort of a tell all memoir set in the restaurant business. There is a pretty useful chapter ( it seems the most important high end restaurant cooking trick is butter), easy to read, funny and colorful. I might never eat mussels again though - apart from possibly in Galicia, because they are so good there, and so far never been ill there. So far..
- Wintersmith - new Terry Pratchett, I would read this sooner or later. New to me because I am always some months late with his books. This is a new Tiffany Aching novel, now with romance. Of a sort. With Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg (with a cameo by Magrat I think). With Tiffany, Pratchett seems to be able to change the witches series a bit, make it a bit newer, though the series seem to be merging nicely. BTW Granny gets a kitten, which is not a spoiler because it is right at the beginning. It´s not my favorite of Pratchett´s novels, but I liked it and better than Thud and Going Postal.
- Knit one, kill two - a knitting murder mistery, all I can say is that I am trying different genres, and I was curious, just in case and because I wanted to see how it is pulled off. In fact the whole mistery genre is incredible, you got mistery series about everything it seems. There are probably mistery series about avocado growing. Or hamsters as detectives. I gave this a try. It just did not work for me. And these characters felt very very remote to me. In the fiction I like to read, somebody who knits something neon lime with cherry details is not on the side of good.
- Dead Famous - a murder mistery set in Big Brother´s House. Very satirical of course.I liked this a lot. Sadly I suspect the most shocking details might actually be true.
- Twilight - a sort of teen YA novel. I might be having Buffy withdrawal symptoms years after the fact or something. I first saw it on fnac, but checking later this seems to be hugely popular, my book radar is not what it once was. I enjoyed this, might read the sequel but a warning, in my opinion this is very much a teenage fantasy fulfillment book. Not that there is nothing wrong with that, if you have the patience for it ( I do. And I am in one of those moods) but if one starts to think too much, the plot is perhaps a bit weak. And the book seems mostly to be about how gorgeous the male vampire is and how in love he completely is with our main (female) character, lots and lots of devoted love, I think mostly due to her smelling delicious to a vampire. No sex - and I must rant a little bit how in a lot of popular culture, vampirism seems to be a lot more acceptable than characters ( say 17 or 18) having sex. Vampire boyfriends, excellent way of not having sex, boyfriends can´t do it or will kill you, or lose their soul, or you got to do it to save their lives or something. And don´t get me talking of the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.
- Priestess of the White - it´s the first on one of those fantasy series, seems to be pretty popular, I picked it up by accident. It´s a bit predictable, I think it is directed mostly at teens, but I am sort of impressed. It´s like a simple dish, but pretty well cooked and served. You more or less know what you are getting, but the author gets it presented fast and with a couple interesting details. I am not sure if I will read the rest of the series ( it´s on going for a start) but I will actually finish this volume, which is more than can be said for other versions of this type of thing ( sort ofYA, sort of medieval with magic, multi volume fantasy).