audiobook-ish
Occasionally, Lea drops by work when there's nothing to do to alleviate my boredom. Yesterday, I reciprocated and it ended with me reading 'Rivers of London' to her for a couple of hours. Well, I had been reading some lines of 'Moon over Soho' while she was distracted by a customer and there was something funny and I snorted and quickly read her a couple of sentences aloud. Then I sank back into reading until the next funny bit which I had to read to her as well. After that, when I fell silent again, she said, "Go on!" and I thought it would be better to start with Rivers over London because it has the proper Introducing The Characters spiel (and I didn't want to start with poor Lesley and her poor face). Not that Rivers is much better. By chapter two, there are already four gruesome murders.
Of course, I had to stop reading every time a customer came in and every time the workman drilled new holes in the walls. (When will they ever be done? Le sigh.)
Promised to drop by today and continue reading Rivers. (She's an audiobook gal.)
Of course, I had to stop reading every time a customer came in and every time the workman drilled new holes in the walls. (When will they ever be done? Le sigh.)
Promised to drop by today and continue reading Rivers. (She's an audiobook gal.)
- The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melissa Senate
Romance
Having just her heart broken (again), Holly Maguire flees to the cooking school and pasta take-out she just inherited from her beloved grandmother. She learns to cook. She learns to love (again). Etc. pp. The plot is pretty straight-forward.
I liked the handling of such sensitive topics as loss and how to remember those lost. I was disappointed by the half-hearted attempt at a dual structure. It seemed to me that the author set up to tell Camilla's (that's the grandmother) story through her diary/notebooks. But the entries shown were few and a sad mockery of what someone with feelings would write in their diary. It felt like a cop-out.
Other than that, I liked the book a lot more than I had anticipated. It also made me hungry. - Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien
Fantasy
Sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone lives outside the enclave in a mostly arid, dystopian world. We encounter her when she's on her first solo gig and delievers a baby. Her job is to "advance" the baby from the poverty outside into the enclave. (Midwifes have to advance a certain quota of babies per months.) When she gets home, her parents have been taken by the enclave and nobody knows what's going on.
Her efforts to find her parents lead her into the enclave where she encounters life on the other side for the first time; and also learns that not everything is gold that glitters.
Now, this book ... I felt claustrophobic reading it. Part of almost every fantasy parcel is The Journey which the main character undertakes (alone or with companions) in order to grow up. Either s/he travels to some fixed real world destination or it's a search for lost or stolen property - a grail, a gemstone, a sword, a book - in short: the quest. The reason for The Journey doesn't matter. What matters is that there is movement. The main character's growing up is mirrored in the distance s/he travels from her/his starting point. New surroundings, new people, new ideas ...
Birthmarked takes place in the enclave and its surrounding village/slums (not sure what to call it; in the book it had been merely called "Outside"). That's it. Oh sure, there's talk about a Dead Forest beyond The Wasteland but that's a destination that seems almost fictional in the minds of the characters. Nothing exists beyond the enclave and it's immediate outside. This is stifling! Even the main character doesn't seem to be able to even conceive of leaving her home for most of the book. So many times, I wanted to take the characters, shake them in frustration and yell, "Go away! Go on your Journey! Undertake your Quest! Go and spread your wings!"
Well, it turns out this is not a single-book fantasy, as I had hoped because I'm fed up with series for a bit, but only the first part of three and it ends with the start of The Journey. The second book 'Prized' is out already, the final book will be out this fall. *headdesk* The universe hates me or something.