Read recently
Jul. 15th, 2014 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidJane and the Wandering Eye (Stephanie Barron), another period mystery. I had no idea there was once a fashion for single-eye portraits.
Jane and the Genius of the Place (Stephanie Barron), and another; can't stop when there's another right there! This one had me thinking of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, with all the discussion of redoing gardens, and having books of overlaid plans.
The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Living with a Tawny Owl (Martin Windrow), nonfiction about the years the author had a tawny owl as a pet, while he was living in a south London flat, then out in Sussex. Some anecdotes, some science, some anthropology; it was an interesting read. (I thinkhrafn might like this.)
A Gathering of Days (Joan W. Blos), a YA novel, the diary of a young woman in a little frontier town in NH in the early 1830s. I liked it, but it's not a deep book.k
Murder in Gray and White (Corinne Holt Sawyer), a murder mystery in an assisted living facility, looked into by two residents as well as the police. Fluff.
The Beast (Faye Kellerman), another murder mystery, this one a much more grisly read. I read some of her books years ago, and it's using the same base characters, but I didn't find that so compelling, in the end.
The Soul of a Chef (Michael Ruhlman), nonfiction about what it means to be a chef, looking at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America, not the other one) certified master chef exam, then through the lens of two different chefs' restaurants, one in Cleveland, the other being the French Laundry, which became a paean to the appreciation of detail, along with a sense of humor and whimsy. There are recipes at the end, which brought home how the food talked about in the rest of the book is almost all of it completely traif, so I must read about, rather than eat, it.
Jane and the Stillroom Maid (Stephanie Barron), and another in the series, this one with receipts for various ills included. The story resolution was a bit less plausible (both $unlikelythingX and $unlikelythingY happening at the same time), but I'm still enjoying the series.
Almost Like Being in Love (Steve Kluger), another epistolary novel from this author (I love Last Days of Summer, this time about a couple who met as teens, then lose touch in college, and twenty years later get back in touch. Not quite as heart-rending as the other book, but an extremely enjoyable story.
The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon; translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves), a novel set in Barcelona before, during, and after the Civil War (WWII seems a minor tangent, which I found unusual, but I realized I know very little about Spanish history after the explorers and the Expulsion), about a boy and a book, which becomes his obsession with the story of the author, while odd strands of story almost from that book happen around him. All sorts of great story happening here, totally intriguing plot.
M Is for Magic (Neil Gaiman), a book of short stories "for younger readers," some of which I like more than others (isn't that always the way), none of which struck me as amazing gems, though enjoyable.
Where'd You Go, Bernadette (Maria Semple), a mostly epistolary novel about a family where the father is a brilliant Microsoft inventor, the mother is a non-working architect with a streak of crazy, and the stressors that change their lives, at first definitely for the worse. Plus, cruises to Antarctica. I liked this more than I expected to, with more of each character showing over time, becoming understandable, even when mutually unintelligible to each other.
Jane and the Genius of the Place (Stephanie Barron), and another; can't stop when there's another right there! This one had me thinking of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, with all the discussion of redoing gardens, and having books of overlaid plans.
The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Living with a Tawny Owl (Martin Windrow), nonfiction about the years the author had a tawny owl as a pet, while he was living in a south London flat, then out in Sussex. Some anecdotes, some science, some anthropology; it was an interesting read. (I think
hrafn might like this.)A Gathering of Days (Joan W. Blos), a YA novel, the diary of a young woman in a little frontier town in NH in the early 1830s. I liked it, but it's not a deep book.k
Murder in Gray and White (Corinne Holt Sawyer), a murder mystery in an assisted living facility, looked into by two residents as well as the police. Fluff.
The Beast (Faye Kellerman), another murder mystery, this one a much more grisly read. I read some of her books years ago, and it's using the same base characters, but I didn't find that so compelling, in the end.
The Soul of a Chef (Michael Ruhlman), nonfiction about what it means to be a chef, looking at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America, not the other one) certified master chef exam, then through the lens of two different chefs' restaurants, one in Cleveland, the other being the French Laundry, which became a paean to the appreciation of detail, along with a sense of humor and whimsy. There are recipes at the end, which brought home how the food talked about in the rest of the book is almost all of it completely traif, so I must read about, rather than eat, it.
Jane and the Stillroom Maid (Stephanie Barron), and another in the series, this one with receipts for various ills included. The story resolution was a bit less plausible (both $unlikelythingX and $unlikelythingY happening at the same time), but I'm still enjoying the series.
Almost Like Being in Love (Steve Kluger), another epistolary novel from this author (I love Last Days of Summer, this time about a couple who met as teens, then lose touch in college, and twenty years later get back in touch. Not quite as heart-rending as the other book, but an extremely enjoyable story.
The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon; translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves), a novel set in Barcelona before, during, and after the Civil War (WWII seems a minor tangent, which I found unusual, but I realized I know very little about Spanish history after the explorers and the Expulsion), about a boy and a book, which becomes his obsession with the story of the author, while odd strands of story almost from that book happen around him. All sorts of great story happening here, totally intriguing plot.
M Is for Magic (Neil Gaiman), a book of short stories "for younger readers," some of which I like more than others (isn't that always the way), none of which struck me as amazing gems, though enjoyable.
Where'd You Go, Bernadette (Maria Semple), a mostly epistolary novel about a family where the father is a brilliant Microsoft inventor, the mother is a non-working architect with a streak of crazy, and the stressors that change their lives, at first definitely for the worse. Plus, cruises to Antarctica. I liked this more than I expected to, with more of each character showing over time, becoming understandable, even when mutually unintelligible to each other.