‘Beyond the Blonde’ by Kathleen Flynn-Hue is a breezy chic-lit suitable for a lighthearted weekend read. It also is a disguised autobiography which ha‘Beyond the Blonde’ by Kathleen Flynn-Hue is a breezy chic-lit suitable for a lighthearted weekend read. It also is a disguised autobiography which had people guessing who the author’s ‘fictional’ characters were really in real life when published in 2005. The author is a hair colorist who works at real New York Salons patronized by movie stars and wealthy socialites.
There is nothing scandalous in this tale of a small town girl, Georgia Watkins, from Weepeekeemie, New Hampshire who follows her dream to become a hair colorist in New York City. Against the wishes of her mother, she goes to Wilfred Academy, a New York City beauty school instead of University. Her mother owns and runs a beauty parlor in Weepeekeemie. Georgia watched her mother and worked in the parlor after school. She loved it! But the real appeal came from the realization a beauty salon is a women’s social club - full of comradeship and support. At least, that is how a small-town beauty parlor worked.
Uncertain how her career as a hair colorist would happen after graduation, Georgia is lucky. She and some of her Academy friends become employees of a new salon in Manhattan. It becomes a Mecca for important women, and some children, in public media, and for socialite women in the world of the extremely wealthy Manhattanites.
Over time, Georgia makes some discoveries. The wealthy customers truly live in a world apart from the rest of humanity, one intentionally made separate by them, and Georgia will never be able to fit in it. She can visit, she can enjoy their company, but in her opinion, these wealthy people who are constantly in the public eye and who have extreme wealth keep up a walled garden surrounding their lives, even if they originally were born to people like her mother.
But Georgia makes friends and becomes known as THE essential person to color their hair. Her customers are interesting and some are very demanding. Eventually, she and her friends divide up the customers into categories:
-The Manhattan (socialite) -The Manhattan (working woman) -The Bedford -The Greenwich -The Five Towns -The Short Hills -The Beverly Hills
The women in each category are easily identified by the clothes they wear and their mannerisms. While amusing, this also caused me to stop and think about my clothes and manner of speech and assumed physical stances....how am I being assessed? I am very much still the liberal and still poor bohemian which was predominant in 1960’s baby-boomer culture...but I wear my hair cut short instead of long. I get it cut at a beauty school for $5....more
‘Syrian Brides’ by Anna Halabi is a fun read! These short stories are deceptively domestic in nature, with a comic cozy tonality that reminded me of a‘Syrian Brides’ by Anna Halabi is a fun read! These short stories are deceptively domestic in nature, with a comic cozy tonality that reminded me of an old American TV show, ‘I love Lucy’ (youtube video https://youtu.be/iDLO67zQlMQ?si=uxws-...). However, they are actually very cleverly structured to reveal the lives of Syrian women, warts and all.
I enjoyed reading these vignettes. I suspect women who are fond of or who are stuck in domestic family lifestyles without much freedom to choose something different will find much here to laugh at or commiserate with. However, as an American woman, I found myself feeling a bit claustrophobic. Syrian women appear to live a life too restricted to family expectations and the home to suit me. What I saw in these stories is they, as a result of their complete dependence on family members for approval to live with a roof over their heads, must perform in two roles as their only options: as dutiful daughters to older women or as obedient (or, within limited boundaries, comically or cleverly disobedient) housewives to husbands. The women in these short stories appear to be completely accepting of their rigid, to me, cultural roles as housewives, mother or daughter. However, to me, the obvious truth that their happiness or sadness is in how they accept, or not, the role that is a must to them - having a husband.
I think the author demonstrates that these, obvious to the eyes of Western women, constrained and restricted roles as Islamic wives or daughters have their moments of contentment and laughs, many of which are common to all cultures.
‘The Bone Witch’ by Rin Chupeco was not a YA Fantasy that I found very entertaining. It bored me. The problem for me mostly was this book, the first o‘The Bone Witch’ by Rin Chupeco was not a YA Fantasy that I found very entertaining. It bored me. The problem for me mostly was this book, the first of a trilogy, was top heavy in stage-setting and world-building. It also is incredibly old-fashioned, feeling like a fantasy written in the 1950's for girls, instead of what looks to me should have been a more modern fairy tale of romance for YA teens and adults.
Since ‘The Bone Witch’ is a fantasy there are a lot of weird forms of magic abilities that the witch characters are born with, and some very imaginative sword-and-demon-monster world building, which I thought was spectacular. But for me, most of the writing was very pedestrian and dull, often simply a description of magical rules and tools, and rituals of geisha behavior the trained ashas (the witches with various types of magical abilities) had to abide by while taking up their duties as social hostess entertainers and sometimes bodyguard warriors for aristocratic men of wealth and means.
The main character, Tea, was born in Knightscross, a small village in the kingdom of Odalia. Her two sisters were also witches, but Tea’s magic was Dark, the most powerful kind. She can raise the dead. She did not know this until her warrior brother Fox was killed in a battle with a magical beast. When his body was returned to Knightscross, Tea was so distressed she felt a power take over her mind and she forced Fox’s spirit to return to his dead body. He does not come back entirely the same, of course! Since Tea is only fourteen, and this was a talent everyone was unaware that Tea had, including herself, she believes she will be killed for having it. The village does not like Dark ashas, calling them the Bone Witches for obvious reasons.
The Bone witch Lady Mykaela comes to the fearful village to claim Tea as her apprentice and takes Tea, along with her new familiar, the dead-man-walking Fox, away from her family. The three travel on horseback to Tea’s new home in a neighboring kingdom, Kion. She will live in an asha House in the capital of Kion, the large city of Ankyo, initially working as a maid until she proves herself worthy of the House’s investment into training her to use her magical abilities and the tools, mostly magical jewels and stones and the weaving of runes to raise dead things to life. She was also be trained in the fine arts of dancing, singing and entertaining noble gentlemen.
Sigh. This is so f*kced up. Give me a break. Tea can raise dead people and monsters and make them her slaves. Yet she will have to dance and sing for rich men to earn her living and social place in this fantasy magical society? Really? ffs. Haven’t we moved past this shit yet? Thousands of women who have to suppress their powers and be servants only, to men, to live?
Many readers are liking this book. Maybe you will, too. People really like the imaginative concept of the wearing of heartsglasses too, which are magical necklaces containing each individual’s “heart” everyone has to wear which reveal what kind of magic people have as well as every feeling, like those aroused when telling lies and having crushes on boys. Not everyone can read the colors which swirl in the heartsglasses for emotions, though, thank the gods. Can you imagine being fourteen and everyone around you, like parents, teachers, neighbors, friends, rivals, being able to see your every emotion simply by looking at a glowing heartsglass around your neck?
Anyway, other asha apprentices and recently graduated asha pole-dancing girls are jealous of Tea and her House, so they decide to harass her and bully her - easy to do because of all of the rules of asha hierarchy and ritual behaviors. So. Even though Tea could kill them all with the magical power of her mind, the other witches try to shame her because Tea hasn’t learned how to dance or to sing provocatively in order to attract a paying male customer without any strong magical powers, just money and a castle. Even more shameful, Tea has to wear a cheaper asha novice dress and funky cheap jewelry - to pay her dues - than what the witch girls wear who have graduated from their finishing classes on how to dance and sing attractively.
The writing was too ordinary for my tastes for the most part, although there were surprises here and there. The novel’s characters were written with a touch too much stereotyping. Everybody is being very rural 1950's teenager in behaviors, even though many of them were actually adults who strangely are acting like they are teens. The novel also has stolen most of the geisha rituals detailed in the novel ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ - which isn’t necessarily a bad thing - almost all books take ideas from other books and repackage them. However, ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ is a gorgeously written literary novel about a genuine historical cultural artifact of the past. It is a tough act to follow when copied by a much more plain-spoken fantasy story obviously aiming for a younger reader.
I know many of you will probably disagree with me about this book. I just can’t handle this non-satiric, playing-it-straight old-fashioned YA story myself. If I could raise dead people and warriors and monsters from battle fields and enslave them, would I care about how the bejeweled hair pin holding my bangs out of my eyes compares to what the other girls are wearing? Or worry about what the other sorority, I mean asha, House’s mean girls are going to do to me to embarrass me because my makeup is all wrong for what all of the other magical witches are wearing this year? That the cute prince likes another girl prettier than me even though she can’t raise dead warrior slaves? Plus, if I fall in love, and marry, I have to give my husband my heartsglass which will take away 3/4ths of my magical power turning me pathetically weak and dependent? Really? Really?
F*kc this. I just can’t recommend this book, despite that many Goodreads YA folks are liking it....more
‘Turtles All the Way Down’ by John Green was too bland for me, despite that the anxiety attacks of the narrator, sixteen-year-old Aza Holmes, raised m‘Turtles All the Way Down’ by John Green was too bland for me, despite that the anxiety attacks of the narrator, sixteen-year-old Aza Holmes, raised my blood pressure while reading through one of her attacks. I am discovering anxiety disorders described on the page produce anxieties in me! I live with someone who has some similar issues, and I guess I have some PTSD after many episodes of being with a person blowing up into a mental hurricane. Boy, the author has nailed this anxiety mental disorder down exactly!
Otherwise the plot of 'Turtles All the Way Down' is a mild-sauce mystery and romance story. It appeared the book is written for very young teens.
Aza has a best friend, Daisy Ramirez, whom she has known since she was six years old. The two girls hope and plan for college, and they are getting interested in boys. Aza and her mother are still mourning her father, who died suddenly. Daisy likes Mychal Turner, who is returning the interest, and she is spending more and more time with him. Aza has few hopes of actually keeping a boyfriend herself because of her mental disorder. She is afraid no boy will tolerate her weird rituals. Germs occupy her mind a great deal, and she keeps reading and re-reading web pages about C. diff . The whole school knows she stays home a lot, but she hopes not many know she does so to avoid the things which set off her anxieties and repeating loops of compulsive thoughts.
Then she hears about billionaire Russell Picket, the father of a boy, Davis, whom she knew a long time ago, in the news. Russell is missing. He disappeared after it was announced by the police that he may have been part of a financial scam. Both Aza and Daisy are especially interested in the $100,000 reward being offered for any information about his return! Aza and Daisy decide to go visit Davis to, you know, find out if Davis is ok, and maybe pick up clues...
Aza is so interested she becomes determined to do this, anxieties or not.
Aza has an anxiety/obsessive compulsive mental condition much like looping computer programs. Her thoughts become trapped in a repeating loop she cannot exit. It is a terrible, permanent condition for the afflicted, and for those family members who live with such a person. Living with someone with this disorder reminded me of a computer going haywire. When I used Windows computers, my desktop computer years ago would get stuck repeating some process cycle I couldn't break it out of, apparently stuck in a loop of activity and unable to exit out of the program. It was frustrating! But with a computer, you can reboot. Or unplug it. A person like this is more challenging.
Having known someone with this anxiety symptom for forty years, I think this book certainly defines how it works, and how high maintenance such people are. The example of a description of a compulsive anxiety the novel uses is an endless replicating of turtles going down and down and down...a bottomless pit of anxiety. Like out-of-control 'worm' malware replicating copies of itself over and over amongst one's neurons, taking over the mind. There are often no palliatives, either.
You cannot fix this. It is as if the sufferers possess no mental brakes. I’ve learned to not do anything but go away, or keep quiet, and change the subject once the worst seems to be passing.
I highly recommend 'Turtles All the Way Down' for young teens - perhaps middle school? Especially for those who have chronic anxiety or obsessive anxieties, or for those who are friends with kids with these mental disorders. I thought it too young for high school kids, but maybe I am wrong. For me, this was too fluffy, a cozy story that is excessively careful to not be too exciting, but it is well-written....more
‘My Not So Perfect Life’ is a light-hearted frolic! Katie Brenner, our heroine, is trying on a new persona - sophisticated Londoner. She wants to put ‘My Not So Perfect Life’ is a light-hearted frolic! Katie Brenner, our heroine, is trying on a new persona - sophisticated Londoner. She wants to put her humble Somerset farm family behind her and become her boss - Demeter Farlowe, the forty-five-year-old executive creative director at Cooper Clemmow. Demeter has a perfect life!
Demeter is wealthy. Demeter is married to a handsome talented man, and she has two perfect children. Demeter lives in a beautiful London mansion that cost two million pounds. She wears haute couture. She has zillions of friends and contacts. She has won lots of awards. She goes to the best parties and she is an early adopter of what inevitably becomes a hot trend.
CooperClemmow is a branding and strategy agency with big-name clients. While Demeter is in the top job in the company, Katie is on the bottom rung. This is her first salaried job! She has been here seven months. She has been trying to fit in while at the same time trying to stand out. So far, she is still doing data input, but she has been polishing her image carefully. First, she has been telling everyone her name is Cat - so much better than Katie! Watching videos, her makeup is all about the eyeliner. Her naturally curly hair has been cut (maybe the bangs are wrong, though) and straightened, which she now wears pulled back in a chignon. At night, she goes to all of the best restaurants and snaps photos of other people’s meals for Instagram, messaging how delicious the food is - then she goes home to her shared flat to eat her real dinner of tuna fish. One of her two weird roommates has boxes of whey and chicken stock filling up the hall and kitchen, so cooking out of the question.
Katie’s - no, Cat’s - she keeps forgetting that Cat is her new name - co-workers have invited her out to join them on Wednesdays at the Blue Bear for drinks. She will have to readjust her small budget somehow to take her turn at buying a round! Flora, Rosa and Sarah seem very talented. But for some reason they all hate Demeter. Demeter does seem rather abusive in a flighty way to the staff. Plus, she can’t seem to remember names and she apparently appropriates all the credit for their work. Wow!
Katie, uh, Cat, has to make this work. She can’t face going back to the farm. London is where she belongs! Especially after meeting Alex Astalis, Demeter’s boss. Katie feels an electricity between them. Or does she? Time will tell, maybe....
I liked the book, but it is very breezy and full of chick-lit slapstick. The last third of the book kinda got too breezy. Much of the fun is about being caught out in social puffery, bullying, jealousy, mistaken assumptions and being authentic. ...more
I read and enjoy beach reads, but normally I avoid girly romance stories. However, I occasionally read an entertaining book which not only is a girly I read and enjoy beach reads, but normally I avoid girly romance stories. However, I occasionally read an entertaining book which not only is a girly romance, it is a fun girly beach read! ‘The Identicals’ is somewhat serious about relationships, yet still breezy, charming and full of happy endings. It has some of atmosphere of the song, Harper Valley PTA, too, only more nice. People in ‘The Identicals’ never go dark, although bad stuff happens.
I’ve never been to Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard, the setting for the story. The book describes them as nice in different ways, even if both islands appear to be ingrown and socially incestuous to me. Everybody knows everybody, and everyone has a circle of friends defined by class and pocketbook, but all are united in their dislike of summer tourists.
The plot and the main characters are where the breeze and fun come in. Harper and Tabitha Frost are twins, but earlier family difficulties - a parental divorce - split up the seventeen-year-old twins between the parents. Billy took Harper to live with him in his house on Martha’s Vineyard, and Eleanor took Tabitha to her mansion on Nantucket. Billy is a down-to-earth electrician, and Eleanor is a snooty elitist who would welcome only Old Boston blue-bloods to her home as long as they patronized her designer clothing store.
The twins haven’t seen each other in fourteen years, having become seriously estranged when Tabitha’s second child died. Their relationship had been already frayed before the death of Tabitha’s preemie baby, as the difference in their parents’ styles had set them along separate paths. Thirty-nine-year-old Harper was a beer-and-a-shot gal, wearing Billy’s clothes when she found something of his that fit, and she worked as a messenger bicyclist and waitress. Tabitha had become a upper-class breeder looking for someone for whom to be a trophy wife, but meanwhile managing her mother’s boutique. Tabitha’s daughter Ainsley is a 16-going-on-45-kid, drugs and alcohol in her system most of her days. Harper is childless.
When Billy dies, leaving his rundown house to the twins, the two women are both in the middle of relationships which are blowing up in their faces. One of the things common to both Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, everybody takes sides when relationships are going askew or dying. Events begin taking a sideways turn to slapstick comedy which neither appreciates, and the twins find themselves trading places to reluctantly help the other; but they each are actually running away from their significant friends and family.
The shift of perspective results in monumental changes for the twins.
So, maybe the ending isn’t HUGE or a surprise. Bite me....more
Cute tale for children about a hungry dragon and a village full of edibles.
People actually are not very wise, but never mind. Love conquers all, with Cute tale for children about a hungry dragon and a village full of edibles.
People actually are not very wise, but never mind. Love conquers all, with elbow grease and a little fibbing. Grand artwork. People and animals die offscreen....more
I did not like Judy Blume’s ‘In the Unlikely Event’. To me, it was a dull narrative. It consists of alternating chapters and interlinked characters’ eI did not like Judy Blume’s ‘In the Unlikely Event’. To me, it was a dull narrative. It consists of alternating chapters and interlinked characters’ experiences of excruciatingly ordinary small-town family life of 1951. Teenagers are growing up with the usual coming-of-age joys and pain of that unsophisticated era and place, and divorced adults ease their children through their divorces. The plot utterly dies as normal difficulties between kids who are dating and then their sad breakups are told, spiced up (not) with the coolness and betrayals which develop between best friends, interspersed with tiffs between parents and their kids, and a distinctly non-exciting family disturbance when a father who divorced a mother tries to reconnect. It is not that these events are not full of drama in real life, but it seemed to me Blume made a decision to suppress almost every strong emotion in her novel when stuff happens, moving too quickly on. Things do not simply blow over, they quickly blow out like wet firecrackers. I felt like I was on a fast three-hour hotel bus tour of historical sites.
All of the characters in the book live in the same small New Jersey town of Elizabeth when an astonishing tragedy occurs three times within an 8-week time period— commercial airplanes take off from nearby Newark Airport, lose power, and crash down on top of various buildings in the town, killing more than 100 passengers and more than 10 people on the ground.
I believe the original intent of the author was to fictionally establish a baseline sense of the town’s relationships and everyday rhythms before the planes crash, and then dramatically show what emotional disruptions happen to her fictional characters because of the disasters overturning their life expectations. My problem with the novel is right at this juncture - to me, most of the people appear to go on with their lives, with no real change from the bland grind of small-town life (except for one character). Most people go on in ways that seemed logically bound to happen whether the crashes had happened or not. The remarkable confluence of disasters effected nothing! Most people are mildly off-balance for a few weeks. A few of them are terribly upset by deaths of people they knew. Many do not recover emotionally for a while, but the low-key inhabitants of Elizabeth remain mostly calm and maintain their routines and step forward in paths towards their obvious fates which they all had appeared to be heading for before the crashes. To my eye, 98% of the events in the novel would have happened exactly the way they happened whether the plane crashes occurred or not.
One aspect of the book which most disappointed me was the impact of the town’s incestuous web of relationships on the plot. These relationships were only slightly utilized for plot development by the author, in my opinion. Such relationships could have been used either for strong comic or dramatic reveal effects. Everybody knows everybody. They all have history with each other going back several generations, or they have gone to the same schools since Kindergarten, or everybody had a common relation through marriage and divorces, or everyone worked for or with someone who knew someone who was related to someone everyone knows. Although this was briefly amusing initially, it also was completely a sidebar plot point, thus ending up ultimately more of an irritating background noise for me. Why have such a large cast of characters related in some way to each other but who mostly end up in ten-second walk-on parts with a few lines, never to have any contribution or real reason to be on the page? What was the point of including characters for a paragraph here and there? I believe the inclusion of most of these walk-ons were supposed to add depth and color, but they were awfully one-dimensional to me.
Below is a list of the main protagonists, but there are also peripheral characters I did not include. Gentle reader, you may notice how they all are a bit incestuous in their connections to each other:
Natalie Osner, Miri Ammerman’s best friend Dr. Arthur Owner, dentist, Natalie’s father Corinne Osner, Natalie’s mother Steve Osner, Natalie’s older brother Fern Osner, Natalie’s little sister Ruby Granik, dancer Daisy Dupree, secretary
Christina Demetrious, high school senior Nia Demeurions (Mama), Christina’s mother, owner of lingerie store everybody shops at Nico Demetrious (Baba) Christina’s father, owner of luncheonette everybody eats at Yaya and Papa, Christina’s grandmother and grandfather Athena, Christina’s older sister Jack McKittrick, Christina’s boyfriend and Mason’s brother
Phil Stein, Steve Osner’s best friend Kathy Stein, Steve’s girlfriend, cousin of Phil Stein Mrs. Stein, Phil’s mother, Kathy’s aunt
Mrs. Barnes, Fern Osner’s babysitter, mother of Tim Barnes, airline pilot Laura Barnes, Tim’s wife
Eliza, daughter
Anyway. I simply am not the right audience, I suspect. The book is being marketed as an adult novel, but it seemed more older teen/YA to me, with a strong Romance undertone....more
'Another Day', the sequel to Every Day, is a well-written teen romance, but it is not the ground-breaking mind-bending novel 'Every Day' is. I strongl'Another Day', the sequel to Every Day, is a well-written teen romance, but it is not the ground-breaking mind-bending novel 'Every Day' is. I strongly recommend reading 'Every Day' by David Levithan. Since 'Every Day' is standalone, gentle reader, you can stop at that point. However, if you are curious about how Rhiannon felt being on the receiving end of the peculiar high school love affair between a human girl and an invisible being without a gender or a permanent body, and you are a fan of teen Romance genre novels, this book will ring your bells. It is absolutely a nice teen Romance.
Rhiannon is the girlfriend of Justin, an angry high school teen who prefers drinking over Rhiannon, but despite this, she is hanging on to Justin hoping he will change. She believes she loves Justin, but Justin treats her most days like an unpleasant cousin he has to be nice to. Sometimes he seems to feel he can actually use her for something he enjoys, like someone he can take his rage out on and other days she is someone who relieves his sexual tension. She ignores this, because Rhiannon continues to feel a nice Justin is inside the exterior of mean Justin. Somewhere.
Then one day, 'A' wakes up in Justin's body. 'A' has no control who it will be every day. It wakes up in a different person's body every morning, whether girl or boy, gay or straight or transgender, white or black or Asian.(view spoiler)[ The only rules seem to be 'A' will only be in that body for one day, it is never the same body twice, the body is always whatever age 'A' is actually is too, and the next day the new body 'A' wakes up in is within a few miles of the last body 'A' possessed. (hide spoiler)] Unfortunately for both 'A' and Rhiannon, they really really like each other. However, 'A' doesn't know how to explain itself, and Rhiannon thought 'A' was Justin being really nice to her for once.
Talk about a complication for true love to overcome!...more
‘Nora Webster’ is dull and slow. I get what the author was writing about - a woman coming out from under her old role as a wife and mother - but on th‘Nora Webster’ is dull and slow. I get what the author was writing about - a woman coming out from under her old role as a wife and mother - but on the other hand, personally I've never been able to understand the small, scared tentative attempts to change while apparently being more terrified and concerned about the community's opinion. Some people care more about their surface appearances of emotion, apparently, than acting authentically, and Nora is one of these people. These kinds of women seek to mollify small-town neighbors first before all other considerations, especially the women of town, while barely daring to change to the beat of one's inner songs and finding a way to survive.
Nora's husband dies, and she persists in being respectable and socially acceptable while recreating her life and moving on from her tragedy. She has children in college and other younger children at home, and they all get in her face to different degrees while she is working out if she has damaged them. She is disturbed by everyone's sympathy, but while she is in grief, she tolerates her neighbor's pushes at her and nagging and recommendations at her.
This book was too quiet for me, and it bored me. Nora was too limp and small-minded of a personality to hold my interest. I understand the author captured a personality type which exists, but as the focus of an entire novel for hundreds of pages, yawn. As to Nora’s point of view, from the first pages, I could not understand why she simply allowed her neighbors to bother her with their unwanted visits. I would have made them go away until I wanted to see them. The book, and Nora, just meekly crawls into her new future without her husband for hundreds of pages. So polite and respectable and restrained despite her problems, more concerned about giving polite responses and following convention in grieving appropriately .
Omg, 'The Japanese Lover' is such an emotionally flat read! The title is the only grouping of words with a hint of a living heartbeat for what seemed Omg, 'The Japanese Lover' is such an emotionally flat read! The title is the only grouping of words with a hint of a living heartbeat for what seemed to me like thousands of pages. However, unlike 'Ripper', which Isabel Allende also wrote, this book is coherent.
Reader, if gelded literary reads are the kind of books which you recommend to your book club because it helped you pass the hours between arranging the flowers into a delicate expression of beauty and checking the work of the servants, or you wish you had a quiet, but socially-responsible, elevated life of wealth and 'the mind', may I then recommend this book. The novel IS certainly written well enough for a particular upper-crust soulful audience I've noticed exists, especially patron-of-the-Art wannabes whether actually wealthy or not (fans of Paula McLain will adore this book).
This book is kind of a gentrified Romance novel for an excruciatingly sensitive, necessarily protected audience of liberal rich upper-class blue bloods who must live life speaking in quieted soft whispers because the few emotions they allow to flow around them must be wrapped in thick cotton to mute the intensities of ugly life. Too much? Sorry. I apologize. Don't want to offend...so if I am, stop reading this review.
The tone of the novel is close to the same feeling I have drinking a soda which was opened and left out for a week, which is surprising because the subjects are death, dying, racism, child abuse, war atrocities and aging - which come up off-screen in the memories and present time of many forgettable characters involved with an assisted-living senior facility in California. Old Alma Belasco, a pampered wealthy artist, her married secret lover Ichimei Fukuda, likewise very old but also a member of a social class forbidden to her - a son of a gardener, and Irina Bazili, a young refugee and an elderly-care worker, are the primary personalities we follow throughout the story. Their introduced but quickly marginalized friends, families, and fellow patients are mentioned for some reason and the brief flattened description of their lives apparently outline the secret sufferings people undergo all around us. Aah, the quiet desperation and hidden heroism!
These people should have been engaging and long-lived in our minds long after we, gentle reader, have put this kind light-stepping book down on our highly polished coffee tables, and probably they will be for some readers. Perhaps one day I too will like books which discuss searing issues in a manner that does not tread too hard on our hearts. ...more
‘Corduroy Mansions’ struck me as a stream-of-consciousness cozy! Experiment? I wouldn’t be surprised. Whatever the readers’ opinion of Alexander McCal‘Corduroy Mansions’ struck me as a stream-of-consciousness cozy! Experiment? I wouldn’t be surprised. Whatever the readers’ opinion of Alexander McCall Smith’s writing, uneducated provincial dullard is not where he is coming from, despite the fact his books’ characters are mostly provincial and dull. He demonstrates sly erudite intelligence in both of the series I have read. Smith strikes me as very aware of the limitations of his characters and their simple outlook on life, but he apparently loves them as much as he reveals their defects.
Anybody who knows me is aware of my worst defect: I hate provincial simple-minded dullard characters in real life as well as fictional protagonists (I pat myself on the back every time I restrain myself from screaming abuse at them, another defect I willingly own). Smith allows me to like them, if not love them. I tip my hat to Smith in respect.
Because the other series I read is a cozy about an African detective, I was expecting another cozy mystery series, but with London as the location for the ‘action’. However, this novel is what I would categorize as a quainted-up slice of middle-class neighborhood life, photoshopped and PG-abridged, where a group of connected individuals go about existence in a pleasant glass-half-full fugue, making the best of things. Bad stuff happens, but inevitably, these characters come out the other side with their happy faces intact, usually because the impending disaster either is resolved on its own or a friend or group of friends intervene. Smith’s books do not avoid sex-violence-evil, but he writes such scenes in extremely mild, brief, heavily-edited, euphemistically-expressed versions. I admit that maybe my depressive sarcastic angry personality might be improved if I thought in such terms - but I don’t.
So, why am I reading this helium-light novel? One, it was sitting on my bookshelf, probably something I picked up years ago on recommendation from one of my sunnier acquaintances. Two, I DID enjoy the lady detective series that Smith wrote. Third, I’m a sucker for stories about pets, even dogs. Unfortunately, Freddie de la Hay, the Pimlico terrier that is acquired by the main protagonist, William, a wine merchant, is not around in many scenes, although his adoption causes a lot of big changes in William’s life (I use the term ‘big’ because they would have been huge dramas in any other genre, but in cozies the action tends to told in emotional tones similar to buying a new purse).
William lives in a flat at the top of a London 4-story apartment building. His family, friends and neighbors, particularly a group of 4 young girls, drive the domestic dramas. They are all currently unmarried, so there are plenty of opportunities for anxious hookups - hoped-for and messed up. The girls are starting jobs or are students, but since they are basically good girls, the mischief comes from bad bosses or bad boyfriends. William has a thug son, Eddie, but he is never described directly as evil as he obviously is. (view spoiler)[ In payback, he steals Freddie de la Hay from his father’s apartment and deliberately enters the mild gentle dog in a dog-fighting contest because William, in a round-a-bout accident, kicked the 27-year-old out of his flat, something he has wanted to do for years. (hide spoiler)]. William’s wife died, but while he misses her, he is not a man to have regrets. He works at being the most mild-mannered and inoffensive person in the world; in fact, emasculated would be too strong a word to use to describe William because that indicates an actual force of personality ever existed to be excised.
Reluctantly, I intend to read the next two books in the series simply because I own them and they are also sitting on my bookshelves. Otherwise, sorry, I would not continue with this series. ...more
This is one of the most boring books I've ever tried to read.
I finally broke down and checked ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ out from the library through the This is one of the most boring books I've ever tried to read.
I finally broke down and checked ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ out from the library through the Overdrive app. To my surprise, there was no waiting. I was the only person requesting it.
This is not so much a book about S&M as it is an explicit Harlequin Romance. If a few scenes were modified, it could be a book to give your 13-year-old daughter, if all she thinks about is getting a boy to like her and being a good mother some day. As it is, thousands of pages are of a 'college' girl in 'love' emoting emoting emoting emoting emoting emoting emoting emoting emoting emoting emoting.....
Basically, almost every character in the novel is very simple, sweet, wicked or stupid the way families were in television family sitcoms in the 1950's - one dimensional and unearthly clean. No current college girls would recognize these college women characters as peers, except maybe those who STILL are going to college to get married or those who are 21 going on 14 years old. The character Christian Grey, who is our heroine Anastasia Steele’s idea of the sexiest man in the world, is suave the way Jim Carrey, the comedic actor, plays suave. No one would like this guy in the real world. The writing can be surprisingly clumsy on occasion. I kept reading scene after scene after scene about Christian’s and Anastasia’s flushed faces repeatedly. Anastasia is an insecure stumbling fumbling lovedrunk heartsick tongue-tied girl-child in too many chapters in this novel to generally to hold my interest.
What on earth is causing everyone to be so excited about this book? Only Romance genre readers could remotely be interested, or care....more
Since I'm no neophyte on GR, and because I rarely get feedback, I feel confident that I can honestly say this is a stupidly written novel - great ideaSince I'm no neophyte on GR, and because I rarely get feedback, I feel confident that I can honestly say this is a stupidly written novel - great idea, chess and patriotic mutant people with powers, etc., but the horrible childish dialogue is not just grating, it's completely imbecile. I am aware I'm going against the HUGE volume of reviews that adore this book. However, I simply could not get past the inane, inappropriately-used, ill-timed jokey snark.
Myfanny, uh, Myfanwy Thomas is 31 but she speaks 8th grade snark. The reason for that became obvious the further I got into the story - this is exactly like the kind of stuff I was writing in the 8th grade, only my protaganist was a cat who was a spy. She lived in a cat world of cat people, and I imagined her as a spy saving the world just like the spies in 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' and 'The Wild Wild West.'
I thought my cat story was brilliant, if I said so myself. My teacher gave me A's. I was very satisfied. Until I went to the library and discovered there not only were a million children's books about spy cats, but they were really really good. Literary, even. Unfortunately for me, because I have severe deficits in my character, I cried and moaned and gave up immediately any idea of becoming a writer.
After reading 'The Rook', perhaps I should have pursued being published after all........more
Serious reasons drive four strangers to become friends. They all share one thing from the start - they are tourists on a journey of exploration. Each Serious reasons drive four strangers to become friends. They all share one thing from the start - they are tourists on a journey of exploration. Each booked a trip to a Greek island from four quarters of the earth for six weeks. When hiking about, looking for the next sight to see, a boat catches on fire in the harbor below their hill, and in their shared consternation, they begin introducing themselves while taking a seat at a nearby restaurant table.
Fiona, an Irish nurse, is in love with her companion, Shane. She knows Shane is a drug abuser, but she doesn't care. When her family objected to her boyfriend, she decided to take off with him on this vacation. Shane, by the way, is as awful as her family thinks. He makes no effort whatsoever to be kind or loving. Fiona is as blind to his horrible personality as her family thinks.
Elsa, a beautiful German television reporter, has come to have a think about her relationship with her boyfriend. Long ago, her father deserted her mother. She recently discovered her boyfriend also deserted his child from a former relationship, and fuming, she decided on a Greek vacation to decide whether she should marry him or break it off.
David does not understand how to handle his father. He loves his dad, but his father is demanding he take over the family business. In confusion, he has come to the beautiful island to figure out what to do.
Thomas is upset that his ex-wife and her new husband seem to be coming between him and their son. Whenever he calls, he feels like a fifth wheel. He has decided on this vacation to review his options.
The cafe owner, Andreas, can't help overhearing their conversation. His heart warms to them because he also has family troubles. Long ago, he and his son argued, and as a result his son left for America and was never heard from again. Andreas regrets the argument and wants to see his son once more, but he doesn't believe his son will ever forgive him.
The four new friends arrange to meet for either sharing apartments or resources at the restaurant, and soon they are involved in sorting out the others' problems.
If you, female chick and/or sensitive child (I am making such an assumption, gentle reader, if you have read my review this far and that perhaps you are familiar with Maeve Binchy's other novels, some of which I confess I have enjoyed more), are looking for a sweet breezy read, something easy on emotions and violence, and happy endings are absolutely required, then I have the joy of recommending a good-enough read for you. May I suggest 'Nights of Rain and Stars."
However, I thought it too by-the-numbers and dull, so I hesitate to recommend it wholeheartedly. But knowing the sensitivities of readers of this kind of fiction, I am attempting to be as amiable in my opinion as possible.
Ordinary and wealthy families mingle and earn a living in a small lovely village overlooking the ocean. Life moves slowly and smoothly in predictable Ordinary and wealthy families mingle and earn a living in a small lovely village overlooking the ocean. Life moves slowly and smoothly in predictable rhythms - at least, it does for most of the people living there. A few of the inhabitants are aware that something is off in the small community. A few have seen things which they cannot talk about. Every night at sunset the sound of a mournful bell rings out - no one knows why or where it comes from, but it has rung through generations of births and deaths. People rarely even notice or question anymore about where or what it is, although some think it comes from a drowned ship, sunk beneath the waters.
The Cauleys run the Inn at Sealey Head, with servants occasionally helping with the cleaning and cooking, although lately they have not had very many guests coming.
The Blair family are merchants who own a fleet of ships and warehouses where they keep their goods to be sold.
The Sproules are local farming aristocrats who live in Sproule Manor.
At the Aislinn House, Lady Eglantyne resides. She has the oldest pedigree.
Then, a colorful stranger, a gentleman, arrives at the Inn. His name is Ridley Dow, a traveling scholar, who has come to find the bell. Judd Cauley, who has taken over the running of the Inn since his elderly father has lost his sight, couldn’t be more curious about this bell search. He is also very interested in the satchel of books Dow carries.
Judd is afflicted with a love of reading and he has read every book his family owns. Until Dow arrived, only his friend Gwyneth Blair shared his love of reading. Judd is in love with her as well. But she is beyond his reach in class and wealth. Fortunately, Dow is friendly and willing to share his books with Judd, and soon they find much in common.
Gwyneth’s family is eager to marry her to Raven Sproule, to her dismay. Fortunately, she is able to find excuses to avoid most of the ‘opportunities’ both families try to set up for the two to meet and converse. What she prefers to do with her time is write stories. Her younger siblings love her stories about the bell most of all.
Emma works at Aislinn house as a housemaid, but things are not well. Lady Eglantyne is dying. It is necessary to send for her heir, Miranda Beryl, a granddaughter of Lord Aislinn’s brother. Miranda has lived in Landringham, a nearby city, all of her life. Dr. Grantham asks Emma if her mother Hesper could possibly help him give Lady Eglantyne some ease. Hesper had left Aislinn House to go to live in a tree. She knows a great deal about woodland medicine and the doctor asks for Hesper’s help often. Emma agrees to find her mother, known locally as a ‘wood witch’, but she is also thinking about Ysabo, a mysterious princess, and wonders what will happen to Ysabo when Miss Beryl becomes the Lady of Aislinn House.
(view spoiler)[No one except Emma and Hesper knows about the magical world of Princess Ysabo, as far as they know. Sometimes, when they are going about their duties around the House, Emma will open a door to a closet, a bedroom, a pantry, but instead of walking into the expected room will find themselves looking across a mysterious threshold into a different world. It is where the Princess Ysabo lives. Ysabo is also startled to see Emma. Neither can explain what is happening or why, and neither dares to cross over into the other’s world.
Princess Ysabo’s universe appears to be older than the late middle ages time of Emma’s world. There are knights and castles where Ysabo lives. But there is something very wrong in Ysabo’s reality. She must perform rituals every day which appear to have no value, and if she refuses, she is punished. Worse, she has been engaged to a knight she does not know, and he will not permit her to speak or ask questions. After her betrothal, she realizes she does not even know her intended husband’s name. Her mother and grandmother do not know the name of her fiance, either; however, her mother and grandmother will not allow her to deviate in any ritual or refuse her marriage. Any change in any routine will mean a terrible disaster for their world. Nobody knows why.
Then, one day, Dow pushes past Emma when she has opened a door into Ysabo’s world. He crosses the threshold. For the first time in anyone’s memory, the bell rings in the morning….oh oh. (hide spoiler)]
This is a charming story written in good, but simple, prose, but it a bit too sweet for my taste.It has a tone which reminded me somewhat of a light and short Jane Austen novel. But this is not Great Literature, or in my opinion, even an adult read as it is advertised. While a few of the characters undergo some violence, and there is a touch of romance, this book is like an innocent teen fairy tale which reminded me of early Disney films like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. I would not recommend this to anyone who prefers thrillers, horror or mysteries.
I think it is a very nice dreamy fantasy I will never want to read again....more
There are lots of failures to communicate going on in the picturesque village of Winslough.
Photographer Deborah St. James can’t talk about adopting aThere are lots of failures to communicate going on in the picturesque village of Winslough.
Photographer Deborah St. James can’t talk about adopting a child with scientist Simon, her husband, because she continues to have miscarriages, and it’s tearing them apart. Having a little vacation in Winslough is not helping. Deborah is pissed that Simon wants to adopt, so of course Simon becomes interested in the details of a local accidental death which he soon realizes was handled in the manner of a coverup. Simon calls in Inspector Thomas Lynley, who is in the middle of an ongoing one-sided argument with Helen. Lynley can’t talk to Lady Helen Clyde about marriage because she refuses to consider it. So, Lynley goes to talk to Sergeant Dick Hawkins, who was in charge of the Winslough death. Hawkins can’t talk about the possibility of a murder instead of an accidental poisoning because he has too many friends he is protecting. Hawkins’ best friend, Detective Chief inspector, retired, Kenneth Shepherd can’t talk to Colin, his son, about his love life or his blind stupidity, although he can’t quit trying, since his son Colin is now the town’s law enforcer. Colin Shepard refuses to talk to Lynley because it was Colin’s girlfriend, Juliet Spence, who accidentally poisoned the dead man.
But that isn’t all. Who knew Ben Wragg’s little Winslough country inn with a convenient in-house pub and restaurant could be such a good place for a couple of investigators to pick up clues?
Lawyer Brendan Power can’t talk to Polly Yarkin about his loveless marriage to Rebecca Townley-Young because Polly dislikes him intensely. St. John Andrew Townley-Young can't talk about how much he hates Brendan Power generally, but right now it’s because Brendan ‘knocked up’ his daughter Rebecca, forcing her to marry Power. However, now that his daughter and Power are married, the vacant Winslough mansion has to be repaired for their new home. Someone keeps vandalizing the old house, so Townley-Young hires Juliet Spence to housesit. When Colin and Juliet meet, it’s love at first sight.
The Vicar’s housekeeper Polly Yarkin can’t talk about how much she loves Town Constable Colin Shepard because he refuses her attentions since he only has eyes for Juliet, causing Polly to resort to witchcraft with an unintended dark soul. Colin Shepard can’t talk about the cancer death of his wife Anne Alice Shepherd or his true love for Juliet Spence because Juliet is ten years older than Colin and people do not approve.
Housesitter Juliet Spence can’t talk to her daughter, 13-year-old Maggie, about who Maggie’s father was, despite Maggie’s pleading. Maggie can’t talk to anyone about why she loves sex with 15-year-old Nick Ware, because she doesn’t understand it either, and not knowing who her father was is messing her up, which her mother refuses to see.
Oh, the unrequited and unacceptable heartbreak! Lovesick, one and all! The sweaty overheated burning of unrelieved desire is destroying most of the people who matter in Winslough, in spite of the seasonal cold and snow of Winter throwing a lovely white duvet over the unquiet beds of bestial longings! The passions are boiling over! Can this go on without an explosion?
Vicar Robin Sage can’t talk to anyone without people thinking him a one-dimensional tool, because he thinks in biblical platitudes. However, Vicar Sage is soothed through the joy of his relationship with his god. He makes a herculean effort to explain to his new flock in Winslough that their misery can be alleviated through Christianity. He has had his crosses to bear. He understands that loving fathers are the key to a happy marriage, that children are necessary for completion and purpose. But he also knows religion makes it right when it all goes wrong.
Unfortunately, someone probably thought Sage was annoying. His body is found, twisted with convulsions caused by food poisoning. Was it as accidental as it was officially decided? No one in town thinks it was an accident. I don't think so, either.
Sweet, charming and cute. I'm inspired. Sitting in my closet are bags of stash yarn. Sitting on my shelves are hundreds of books. They look cold. HmmmSweet, charming and cute. I'm inspired. Sitting in my closet are bags of stash yarn. Sitting on my shelves are hundreds of books. They look cold. Hmmmmm....more
There are a number of problems in reading this book.
The Number One problem is Upfront Bald-Faced Lying in the marketing of the book.
1. The title has nThere are a number of problems in reading this book.
The Number One problem is Upfront Bald-Faced Lying in the marketing of the book.
1. The title has nothing to do with the contents of the book on any level. It supposedly is the name of a video game. However, the video game is never played or used as a clue or ever referenced again after being used to explain how a club in the book starts. 'Ripper' references nothing about ripping or anything knife-y which occurs in the book. Instead, it is used as the name of a kind of meek role-playing club which meets online to figure out 'real life' crime. The crimes the club tries to solve are actually based on stolen inside information that the leader of the club, Amanda Jackson, who is either 16 or 17 (her age is given as both in different places in the book, but since she is going to college soon and it mentions her almost being 18 several times, I decided that the earlier reference to her being 16 was an editing error) acquires. Her father, Bob Martin, is a deputy chief of homicide in San Francisco, and it's his information that Amanda 'rips' off, although Martin could care less when he finds out, and he actually provides Amanda with whatever she wants to know later. These are the only two possible reasons I can think of to use the title, 'Ripper', neither of which is one that a buyer of the book will assume is the reason to use it. All of the publisher's advertising about the book says this novel is a murder mystery, so everyone, including me, thinks it's about a serial killer who uses a knife like Jack the Ripper, the famous London 19th-century serial killer. Not.
2. The book is being advertised as if it were a genre mystery. Not! It absolutely is not! It is a mild, mannered, friendly, easy-going, romantic-comedy, chick-lit novel for 400 pages. It actually had me on the path of thinking this was a family-oriented Romance genre author attempting to write an Armistead Maupin book, such as 'Tales of the City', only a lot less interesting, dramatic, engaging or cute. A defined mystery finally becomes important at page 400 or so, but until then the mystery reader must be satisfied with quickie peculiar murders, which pop up every ten chapters or so, that the characters completely ignore or briefly converse about (the Ripper Club). The murders NEVER impact anybody or anything, having absolutely no intersection with the life of any character in the book. In fact, whenever anything mysterious or murderous pops into the universe of the book, it is only noticeable in how it quietly tiptoes away.
3. Amanda Jackson is billed as the amazing blazing wunderkind at the center of the book, girl detective. Instead, she is a peripheral character, barely on stage. She's a nice girl with an occasional walk-on part. The end.
The plot:
Indiana Jackson is an 'earth mother' of the type who includes a tremendous amount of New Age beliefs and customs in her life and philosophies, but strictly of the urban fantasy kind. She runs a small massage healing business utilizing aromatherapy and meditation in San Francisco, and most of her friends are astrologers, mystics and acupuncture specialists. Her daughter Amanda, her father Blake Jackson, her ex-husband Bob Martin, an ex-Seal Ryan Miller and his war dog Attilla, and various other relatives, friends of relatives, clients and small business owners revolve in and out of Indiana's social life, interacting in a variety of romantic comedy cute meet-and-greets. Amanda grows up under all of this slightly unconventional but warm love so that she is spunky with her mom, dad, granddad and wants to start a murder club with some of her 'Ripper' online video game friends.
The club itself serves as bridge to move the plot forward occasionally. They put information together about some murders which they miraculously link up, but half of the time, it didn't matter. Three times what the club comes up with only serves to help the club members think about possible connections, but ultimately they and their conclusions are meaningless to solving the crimes because the information they figure out is already out there on some level and either the cops or other people have it as well. When they do figure stuff out that's important, cool, because the story briefly begins to have a heart beat. However, the information wasn't acted on except for the last two bits of stuff they figured out, near the end of the book. By this time, I was already wondering what was the point of this club? Sorry to say, but it was more of a chick-lit social club to discuss the poor health of most of the members than anything else, and a way for Amanda to playfully bully her beloved grandfather, Blake. Amanda and Blake really are quite charming together. But every member is a walk-on and forgettable.
The club members are all damaged - physically disabled, suffering from cancer, socially shy, etc. They met each other through the online game 'Ripper'. All of them have ridiculous avatars, which seems to be a point of the book, although it doesn't ultimately mean anything. The author includes them as if they will be people who matter, but they don't, except to be able to pass on a vital fact around page 450.
There are several characters who annoyed me terribly. One character who may have been written in for the purposes of a red herring, or a lovable crank, or comic relief, but all I know is I was strongly hoping she'd be a murder victim by page 50 - Celeste Roko, astrology consultant. She annoys half of the other characters in the book as well, but to no real purpose.
I was not real happy about a heroine character either - Indiana Jackson, Amanda's mother. She is one of those ridiculous people who think massage and smelling flowers cures everything except cancer. Unfortunately, she is the center of the book. We readers are supposed to adore her. I didn't. The blurbs on the cover of the book reveal she disappears, and Amanda marshals her mystery team together to save her. This is SO misleading and wrong!
A number of strange murders happen. Bob Martin is in homicide, but he has no idea they are connected. After all, there are a lot of murders in San Francisco. Amanda figures it out by no means I can see, and puts it to her video playing friends to think about. Meanwhile, her gorgeous mother Indiana is at the center of a circle of women and men who are fascinated by her. All of them are mesmerized by her full figure and unaffected unadorned personality. After she massages them, they want nothing more than to follow her around, call her, date her or be her friend. She believes she cures their aches and pains through massage and aromatherapy, but they think it's the being with her that gives them peace. So, for 400 pages we see how these various Indiana-enchanted folks intersect their lives with Indiana, meeting for coffee, competing for her hand in lust, etc. When there are 75 pages left to read, Indiana finally disappears. The 'Ripper' club figures out a clue, Amanda calls Ryan Miller and Martin, and everybody bumps it up a little into a thriller, with an identity mystery cleared up that I had figured out by page 200 simply because of a certain character's social weirdness.
I'm not a genre martinet, ok? If new authors or established literary novelists want to try genre writing or escape an author hell of writer typecasting, that's ok with me. I don't freak because Stephen King writes literary horror books, and I easily rate with a clear conscience many mystery novels five stars while giving literary classics and award winners of prestigious prizes three stars or worse. Books are a subjective experience in the end, right? Right?
That said, this book is ok, but it's messed up. If you ordinarily like gentle family-friendly chick-lit, this might shock you horrifically with the free-floating scenes of brief and unattached, and two incidents of unnecessary, murders. I suppose you can skip those pages. If you wanted a mystery, this book will bore you to death. I recommend avoiding this book. If Romance is what rings your bells, this book will massively disappoint you by the end. Again, I'd recommend avoiding this book. While there is gentle humor, and perhaps some sharp-elbow but underdone digs at the California New Age milieu, there is no real literary- or gutter- satire or irony. Literary readers will be scratching their heads. Isabel Allende is an experienced award-winning literary writer of many many books, and she has millions of fans. If there was anything metafictional or illuminating of the human condition in this novel, I missed it. If anything, it's mostly a chick-lit read, but not for the sensitive. I frequently see reviews where some readers are upset by a single scary mild attack by a bad guy, or throw a book out with the garbage at the first 'darn', yet strangely, those readers would like 2/3rds of this book, I think. However, they would be throwing up their lunches every 50 or 70 pages by the murders, which, by the way, are not really graphic.
Well. In re-reading what I wrote, I guess I'm saying everyone will be disappointed by this book, but with completely different complaints and disappointments. Bravo, Isabel Allende!
The Marketing Department of Harper Collins should be ashamed of themselves....more
Book 2 is not for softies, but domesticated toughies will enjoy it very much. I'm discovering that the Kat Colorado series treads a path between cozieBook 2 is not for softies, but domesticated toughies will enjoy it very much. I'm discovering that the Kat Colorado series treads a path between cozies and mean streets, but still maintains a comfortable chic-lit atmosphere. Bullets fly, throats are cut; yet cookies, hot chocolate and grandmothers are sure to be nearby, while the women joke and kid each other around plates of food and cats.
Kat takes on two separate cases which before too long have become entangled by her clients and family and friends all meeting each other. The first begins with the death of John Benson, the grandnephew of Alma Flaherty. Alma is Kat's 'grandmother'. Kat isn't actually related to Alma or John except in sharing a childhood and a house. Alma took Kat in as her own granddaughter when Kat's mother, an alcoholic, died. Emotionally, they are family. Unfortunately the mysterious murder of John means confusion and grief for everyone, especially after the police discover drugs in his car. John was a serious individual of 22 studying to be a veterinarian and he also worked at a laboratory doing animal studies. Investigation by the police and Kat deepens the mystery when there is no sign of John's involvement in drugs, but instead it seems to lead to various people interested in a large inheritance which is supposed to come to John, and to his missing runaway sister Michaela, a talented musician, on their 23rd birthdays. Michaela is two years younger, but she would inherit John's share immediately upon his death, not having to wait for her 23rd birthday. Kat confirms John's father is still a respectable banker who is managing the trust for his children, but Kat dislikes the man, as do his children John and Michaela, before she ran away. There is something wrong about the banker.
Meanwhile, a 15-year-old girl, Lindy, shows up at Kat's office. After she throws a can of soda at Kat's head, Kat learns she is a prostitute who wants to hire Kat to find out who murdered her friend Lisa, also a hooker. Kat is very certain this isn't a case for her but for the police, who are already investigating, but Lindy insists that Kat do an investigation, too. Charity, Kat's best friend and an advice columnist, walks into the office at this delicate juncture, and after a few minutes of strident intense conversation where a lot of issues are aired, Kat finds herself having agreed to talk to her Sacramento police friend, Henley, and begin investigating Lisa's murder, while upper middle-class Charity hires the flighty teenager Lindy to do work around her horse farm for room and board. Everyone is uncomfortable about all of this, but oh well.
As usual, things begin to darken chapter by chapter. The secrets that Kat uncovers are making someone, or several someones, VERY upset. Soon, shots are being fired and more bodies bleed out. Kat has to get to the bottom of these mysteries quickly, or the case will be the end of her........more
aPriL does feral sometimes
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