Everyone sits in the high chair…
The boy in the throne.
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The Splendor Falls
I’m a fan of Rosemary Clement-Moore’s Maggie Quinn series and only discovered The Splendor Falls by accident, when I was looking to see if there’s a new Maggie book… I knew this wasn’t related to Maggie in any way but I don’t think I expected it to contain anything paranormal or supernatural. I thought maybe it was a straight YA romance or something… my library copy has a purple rose on the cover and it really looks romance-y. And it is a romance but it’s got some freaky ghost things going on, too.
I liked it but it was long – a little too long, maybe. I just wanted the story to move a long a little bit and then when it did move along, it rushed the ending. Can I get just a wee little rewrite? Heh.
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Up From the Blue
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.
The Dead Tossed Waves
I thought TW might kill me when she realized I reserved book two in the Forest of Hands and Teeth series… she really didn’t love the first book. But – as we listened to Dead Tossed Waves on audio, she was the one most likely to turn off the radio and turn on the CD. Maybe it helped that the reader was different? And the story was about Mary’s daughter and not Mary? Then again – the writing was the same. Imagine a YA book about Zombies aka the Unconsecrated aka the Mudo written by Rebecca… yea. It’s like that. Wonderfully written but OMG you just want to shake her and say get on with it already. Stop with the flowery writing and the over-thinking, over-writing and just tell the story already. When the writing gets in the way of the story, it’s a problem and that’s what happens in all of Carrie Ryan’s work.
That doesn’t stop me from reserving book three though. The next one appears to be about Catcher and Annah… and the cover has another dead-looking girl on the front (misleading since the main characters don’t ever seem to die or even become unconsecrated…)
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The Hundred Foot Journey
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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Cage Hacks
The p-dogs have a new cage and TW is happy with it because it is much easier to clean. It’s fine but there’s a whole lot of hay and food and p-dog poop hitting the floor of the office. They really need some sort of Plexiglas around the bottom to help resolve the hay throwing issue.
I think we really need to do something like this Ikea Hack.
Little Town, Great Big Life
“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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