Fiction

The Lonely Hearts Club

2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Queer, Women /

Remember awhile back when I was bemoaning the lack of lesbian lit available at the library only to discover several books with serious lesbian themes were already on my library cart? Well one of the books that WAS available at the library was The Lonely Hearts Club and I did reserve it. How could I not – it’s been a long time since I read a steamy lesbian love story, and Radclyffe DOES write a GREAT steamy lesbian love story.

Something interesting to note… back in the day, lesbian lit was all about coming out. Or all about the OUT lesbian falling for the not yet out lesbian. Now, everything I read is about lesbians who are totally OUT and they all seem to be having babies or thinking about having babies.  Interesting, right?

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Up From the Blue

2010, Books in Bed, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

I really liked this book but I didn’t enjoy reading it. DEPRESSING – from page one it was depressing. But then again, it was about depression and dysfunctional families and plain ole dysfunction. The only problem was that I never felt like anyone EVER came “Up from the Blue” and I kept hoping someone would. Preferably the mother before she killed herself but anyone really would have been fine. Alas… no. It was a very unsatisfying ending and just left me blue.

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The Hundred Foot Journey

2010, Books in Bed, Fiction /

I picked up The Hundred Foot Journey because I liked the cover, I liked the title, and I like food lit. I was ambivalent about it because of the little blurbs on the front – they sounded a little too good to be true. And I was also a little nervous because the book is about a guy from India who becomes a great French chef. Hmmm

It started well, which is good – because books about Indian families sometimes don’t start off well and that can really ruin the rest of the book for me. I got a little nervous when the family moved to London. That little section (thankfully it was a very short section) could have blown the whole story. But once the family moved to France, we were moving along nicely again. The only problem I have with the book is the end. I feel like the best pieces of the book were the sections when the family gets their start in India and then flees – and then again when they move from London to France. That’s where the best storytelling was. It’s where you got a really good look at the characters. I’d like a rewrite on the other two sections…

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Little Town, Great Big Life

2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction /

“This might be the sweetest book I’ve ever read.” – that’s a direct quote from TW about Little Town, Great Big Life. So… I had to read it.

I’m not sure why she was that taken by it – it was sweet but the sweetest? I don’t know. Chick lit with a little magical thinking tossed in for good measure. Sweet – but the sweetest? I don’t know about that.

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Dream Queen

2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery, Women /

There were six books sitting on the library cart – all six needed to go back to the library on 12/13. I only had time to read three – maybe four – of those books. Which should I choose? I took my queues from TW and selected the ones that I remember her making comments about, asking questions about, rambling about… and that’s how I ended up reading Dream Queen.

Dream Queen appears to be a prequel, though that didn’t make sense to me sense there’s a whole lot of back-story given to us about James and Hal… if this is a prequel, I’m not sure I want to see any of the other books in the series. Heck, I’m not sure I want to read any of the other books in the series anyway. I’m not a big fan of Chloe. She’s a pretty wimpy detective… then again, maybe she’s wimpy because this is the prequel and she comes into her own later… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll get another book and give it a try.

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The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

Thank goodness for Sassymonkey and her review of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. If I hadn’t read it long before I read the book, I might have been one of those who was frustrated by this brilliant novel. I might have thought it was a book that is similar to something Jennifer Weiner might have written. Or maybe Lolly Winston. But this book is not anything like those.  It’s closer to something written by Sarah Addison Allen in that it has magical elements but it’s really nothing like that either.

It’s not like anything I’ve read and that amazes me. It’s so rare to find a story you haven’t read before.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake isn’t a happy story. It’s a story that left me feeling out of sorts and angsty. It’s a good story. Read it but read it without expectations – if you can.

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Life From Scratch (by Melissa Ford)

2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

Last spring, when Melissa Ford told me in a “cone of silence” kind of way that she had a novel coming out later in the year I was thrilled for her and then I sort of forgot about it. When she emailed me last week and told me that her book… it was really coming out, like this month. What?! Already?! Awesome!

I headed over to Amazon and discovered I could pre-order the book which should ship in a couple of weeks… or I could get it now for Kindle. I obviously could not wait so onto my Kindle app it went. I said I was going to start reading it over the weekend, after I finished the other books I had to finish over the weekend but the reality was, I couldn’t wait to start – so I started on Friday and got through chapter 2 before I reluctantly went back to the other two books that I HAD TO FINISH…

Melissa opens with a great quote (and don’t take my word for it, Julie Godar Yammered exactly the same thing when she started reading it on Friday).

“June Cleaver beat the crap out of me with her rolling pin.”

Heh.

Life From Scratch is about Rachel… a graphic designer living in NYC who has pretty recently divorced from her trying-to-make-partner lawyer husband. She read blogs and relationship blogs helped her get through those early divorce days. One of those blogs spurred her to start a blog of her own – a food blog/life blog sort of thing.

Rachel is like a lot of bloggers – she finds it very hard to believe people actually read her blog. It isn’t until her best friend introduces her to a stats program that she realizes just how many people read her blog. After her best friend nominates her for a “Bloscar” — well, she really begins to understand that not only do people read her blog, they like it – and she’s (gasp!) a writer!

Rachel struggles through dating and family relationships and trying to figure out what to do with her life and in the end… you’ll just have to read it to find out what happens to Rachel. And then sit here and wait with me while Melissa writes the second installment in the series. Because there must be a second installment… the book ends with Rachel not quite where I expected her to be (or if I’m honest, where I wanted her to be) and now I need to know how she’s going to manage…. Everything.

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She’s Gone Country

2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Queer, Women /

She’s Gone Country is the other book that was due back to the library because it had holds – but I was a bad library patron and kept it out for three extra days so that I could read it. TW said it was good – she said she kept thinking about it. So – I figured I should read it.

And it was good, but I’m not sure why TW kept thinking about it after she finished. She said she wanted to know more – but the epilogue told us more, what more did she want? I guess a sequel would be nice enough but I’m not left dying to know what happened to the lives of Shey or Dane or the boys or… or anyone else. It was good but not good enough to leave me wanting more.

I still am not quite sure why it has holds – the books I reserve at the library, even the big sellers, rarely do…

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Stiltsville

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

We went from having not enough good library books to choose from to having too many. We’ve had so many that we’ve held a couple a few extra days so one of us could finish something we started on the due date. We’ve had some books go back unread by either of us. It’s a frustratingly awesome problem to have. As I was reviewing my library account, I saw some books that were due back today – none had been renewed, so I clicked the renew button only to discover that two of them had holds and couldn’t be renewed. Huh. Neither were books I’d heard anything about. Both were just plucked from the New Arrivals shelf because their titles or covers looked interesting. I figured TW would have time to read them both – she reads faster than I do and has more reading time than I do. I thought I might get lucky and manage them both but I decided I’d read She’s Gone Country, if it looked like I’d only have time for one.

But while TW read Stiltsville, she kept stopping to talk to me about it.

“I want to live in Miami.” – Weird because while we both like to visit Miami, neither of us has really expressed interest in living there. I don’t think we’d like it.

“How’s that reading along with your daughter’s syllabus working out for you?” – Hmph! It isn’t. I read one book instead of three because our library was closed for so darn long.

“I want to live near the ocean.” –Well sure, me too, but can you define near? “Closer than our Starbucks.” Wow, that’s really near. You’d better get another job or start saving some more money because that’s pricey.

“I don’t want Michelle to go to college in Gainesville.” –Err she lives in Gainesville and she isn’t dropping out.

So… rather than read She’s Gone Country (out from under TW who hadn’t really started it until 10:30 last night because she spent six hours on my quilt) I picked up Stiltsville.

And it was good, I read it straight through – It didn’t quite make me want to live in Miami and I wouldn’t want a house in Stiltsville and I wouldn’t want Michelle living in Gainesville if another Danny Rollings decided to do horrendous things to women (and one man) and damn it, I still want to read along with Michelle’s syllabus. And I don’t particularly want to move to Asheville… even if TW dies.

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Book of Shadows

2010, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery /

TW said Book of Shadows was good (even if it did have the lamest sex scenes ever…) but when I picked it up to read, she said it wasn’t my kind of book. I have no idea why she thought it wasn’t my kind of book. I like lame sex scenes – and mysteries – and creepy paranormal stories. I really have no idea what her problem was. This isn’t a great book but it’s not a bad book either. Creepy, lame sex scenes, easy to stick with and a pretty good book to read when you’re sick and there’s no way you can focus on anything deep or serious. I might even reserve another of Sokoloff’s books from the library.

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