Tag Archives: library

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Practically Perfect by Katie Fforde

 

I was introduced to Katie Fforde’s books by chance.  My local library happens to have quite a large selection and they caught my eye one day and I began reading through them one after the other.  I’ve really enjoyed them all, well written books with realistic characters in the romance/women’s fiction genre with satisfyingly happy endings. Somehow in my binge, I missed this one, it must have been checked out at the time.  Practically Perfect does not disappoint.  I particularly connected to this book because I had two points of commonality with the protagonist, Anna, extensive DIY home renovation and dog rescue.  In her case, it was Greyhound and in mine, Siberian Husky.

Anna has purchased a small cottage as an investment property.  It was gutted by a previous owner and not put back together and she is renovating it herself.  Anna has an ulterior motive for purchasing a cottage in this particular area involving an unresolved love interest from her past.

Anna is a great character, funny, independent, and a great friend to Chloe, her next door neighbor.  She is someone I could see myself being friends with easily.  Through the course of the story, Anna meets an irritating, or maybe not so irritating, building official, Chloe and her family, a lovely greyhound, and her long lost crush.  The story lines and characters weave together in a seamless fashion making it easy to get lost in the Anna’s world.  I love it when a book can pull me into the character’s life and out of the real world.

Although, I usually see Katie Fforde’s books classified as romance, I don’t feel that classification does them justice.  In Practically Perfect, just as much attention is paid to the other threads of the plot, such as friendship, family, and work as to the romance story line.  This makes reading the book a richer experience than just a romance novel.

Highly recommended read!

 

 

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Death’s Autograph by Marianne MacDonald

 

I just found this series by Marianne MacDonald and my library system had the first book, Death’s Autograph. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more in the series.  The protagonist, Dido Hoare, is a book shop owner/book antiquarian, in her 30s and divorced.  She is smart and independent, a really likable character still reeling somewhat over her divorce from Davey.  Barnabas is Dido’s father, a retired professor, and her main support system. The love interest is a police officer who is working the case.

The main characters are interesting and fully developed, no ridiculously off beat people wandering around the story.  There is a slightly more menacing tone to this than most cozies, which often displace the danger or fear in a situation with humor. That is probably a marked difference from this and many newer cozies is the darker mood that it evokes.  The theme and the setting are both well done and ones that I enjoy.

The mystery has many threads that are all tied together with a common motive at the end.  In the last few chapters, everything comes together neatly.  This was a well constructed mystery with evidence of thought and care taken by the author.  I am wondering if the series is finished, the last book was published in 2006 and the website has not been updated.  Does anyone know if Marianne MacDonald is still writing?

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Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriason

 

 

This is the second book I have read in the series.  I read Jar City,which is book 3 in the series.  Unfortunately, it does not appear that Book 1 & 2 have been translated into English.  Starting with book 3, does not seem to have impacted my enjoyment of this series.

Here in book 4, Silence of the Grave, we again meet Erlendur as he investigates a body found at the site of a now demolished chalet.  The book is told in current time as Erlendur attempts to solve the crime and also in the past with the tragic story of the family that inhabited the house.  The sense of dread builds as the book progresses.  We all know that a human body has been found, but not who is it and meanwhile we are reading about the horrific circumstances of the family.

As a story on the side, we again meet Eva Lind, Erlendur’s drug addict daughter and she has a story line within the book.  Her story line serves to reveal aspects of Erlendur’s past and more of his relationship with Eva and his ex-wife.  The mystery is surprising, especially the twists surrounding the identity of the body.

Very good mystery and I look forward to reading more in this series.

 

 

 

 

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Awakening by S.J. Bolton

I just finished Awakening by S.J. Bolton.  I will start off by saying that I love all the books I have read by this author.  Sacrifice, her debut novel, in particular sticks out in mind as excellent.  Awakening is a good mystery novel.  The snakes alone make it particularly scary, especially as someone who lives in an older house and knows how they could get in if they wanted to and hide in nooks and crannies. {{{insert shudder here}}}

The protagonist is Clara Benning, a physically and emotionally scarred veterinary surgeion, who does a great deal of wildlife rescue work.  She prefers her animal charges to people.  The other characters like Matt, Sean and Sally are well developed and fit seamlessly together.  The misdirection worked very well and I was surprised at the ending.  The novel seemed well researched in terms of the snakes, not that I am an expert by any means.

S.J. Bolton writes in an extraordinarily well paced style.  There are no dull moments or “filler, everything is purposeful.  The book is a mystery and yet it also explores a “monumental change” for Clara through the events in the book and the people she meets, in her perspective and outlook on life.  She is certainly a character that shows growth and change.

I would definitely recommend this book, although I did prefer Sacrifice over it.

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Weekend Cooking II: We Love Madeleines

This is an addendum post for the Weekend Cooking meme hosted by BethFishReads who can be found here.  Today I actually tried three of the recipes from the lovely little cookbook, We Love Madeleines.  I made the:

  • Fontina and Smoked Paprika
  • Basic
  • Cherry-Cornmeal

The Fontina & Smoked Paprika was my first savory madeleine ever and I really liked it.  The “cookie” had an intensely rich cheese flavor.  We had a bean soup tonight for dinner and they went with that really well, but I could also see serving them with chili.  The texture was soft and light…like little cheesy pillows 🙂  The recipe made 24, so you would need 2 regular sized madeleine pans – or you could just wash and re-butter between batches.

The Basic recipe produced a small batch (12) of a very good standard madeleine.  I appreciate the small batch because I have little self control when it comes to cookies.

The Cherry-Cornmeal was my daughter’s favorite.  I thought the cornmeal would overwhelm such a delicate cookie but it was a just-right balance between flour and cornmeal.  The chopped dried cherries combined with a glaze of citrus made a very tasty cookie (I don’t care for orange so I made mine lemon & lime instead).  This recipe also made 24 regular sized madeleines.

Overall, a well written cookbook with successful recipes in it (so far).  I liked the organization of the book overall and of the recipes on the pages.  The pictures were bright and I always prefer cookbooks to have pictures as they inspire me.  In the front of the book is a section which is  basically the dos and don’ts of madeleines.   Helpful information in general, whether you have made them before or not.

If you like madeleines or have madeleine pans pining away in a cupboard somewhere, this is definitely a book to consider.

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Weekend Cooking: We Love Madeleines

Weekend Cooking is a meme hosted by BethFishReads found here.

My entry relates to madeleines.  I have a set of madeleine trays that I have not used in at least a year, even though I do like them, I just don’t ever think about making them.  I was in the library this week and on the new acquisition shelf sat this book:

I picked it up and it has an amazing variety of madeleines, both savory and sweet.  The plan this weekend is to do some test batches of a few of the recipes, seems like a fun thing for a rainy weekend.

The varieties include:

  • the traditional basic
  • gluten-free basic
  • chocolate olive oil
  • chocolate and ginger
  • bacon and chocolate
  • pistachio and cardomom
  • lemon poppy seed
  • chorizo
  • smoked paprika and fontina
  • and lots more

I’ll post again when we have a few done to let you know how it went!

 

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Good Grief by Lolly WInston

I’m sure a lot of us hear “Good Grief” and expect it to be followed by “Charlie Brown”, but that is not what this is about.  I picked it up from the library today and read it right away.

Wonderful book, but please read armed with a box of tissues.  Unexpectedly poignant.  The reader connects instantly with Sophie and follow her “one step forwards, two steps back” journey out of grief and into life after tragedy.  I haven’t cried so much while reading in a long time.  The different ways grief impacts people are shown quite realistically, through Sophie, her mother-in-law Marion, and her grief support group cohorts.  I loved how this was not a smooth journey for Sophie, there were major setbacks along the way, just like in the real world and that the rewards or progress often came from unexpected places.

My only teeny, tiny issue with the book was I wasn’t happy about the resolution of the Drew part of the story line, but ehhh, that might just be me.  Overall, a painfully accurate portrayal of the grieving process and a message that it is a process and therefore at some point, when it is right for you and only when it is right for you, you’ll come out the other side of it.

A excerpt from early in the book:

“Lately, life requires so much self-discipline.  While most people have a to-do list, I have a to-don’t list.  Don’t eat Oreos until your gums bleed.  Don’t sleep in your clothes.  Don’t grab the produce boy’s teenage wrists and sob.”

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The Hanging by Lotte and Soren Hammer

 

I will admit that I basically gave up and skimmed to the end of this book.  I really do enjoy Nordic crime fiction but this just did not work for me on a number of levels.

The characters were not fully developed and seemed rather flat to me.  This, however, was not the main problem.  The writers are a Danish brother and sister and I’m assuming they are not native English speakers.  I do not know if they wrote the book in English or simply had a sub-par translator.  The dialogue was often stilted and not natural at all.  There was odd phrasing and strange idioms, all things a competent translator would have ironed out.  These oddities kept pulling me out of the story and  ultimately made it not work for me.

I will also say that this book was less a crime thriller and more of a political statement on the  child abuse laws, regulation of pedophiles and vigilantism, but it didn’t really do that either, at least not to the extent that I came away with a good grasp of what was happening with their laws or public policies.

To give a shortened version, the book opens with a harrowing scene of children finding men’s mutilated bodies hanging in the gym of their school.  Very early on we meet the “lead” culprit and then discover that the victims were all pedophiles and this was an organized effort by a group to punish them and draw attention to the issue of child abuse.  The book then meanders on from that point with the reader already knowing basically “who did it” and why and the rest of it was some issues with the press, concerns of a lack of public support for punishing the killers, and police procedural drills.

Disappointing read.

 

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Sundays in Bed with…Paradise Fields by Katie Fforde

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This is a meme hosted by Midnightbookgirl.com found here.  I hope this is running this week, I just have gotten used to looking forward to doing it.

Feeling very decadent this morning as I actually did not get up and go run or the gym as scheduled, this compounded by the bad diet choices yesterday is not a good thing:(  But I did get much reading done 🙂

Yesterday I read two amazing thrillers by S.J. Bolton see posts here and here, that led me to change up the pace this morning by reading the very lovely Katie Fforde’s very lovely book Paradise Fields.

I have read several of Katie Fforde’s books and have enjoyed them all.  This one was no exception, the main character Nel is a widow kept busy by the needs of 3 children, 2 in university and one about to go and her dogs and her “good works” on behalf of a children’s hospice and organizing a farmer’s market, all in addition to keeping up with a nice group of friends and a rather unexciting boyfriend.  When the hospice’s future becomes uncertain, Nel rises to the challenge.

I love how the author draws her characters, they are so real, so ordinary, you can picture sitting at the kitchen table with them and having a chat.  Nel isn’t perfect, she doesn’t leave the house perfectly turned out to run errands, she doesn’t keep her pets off the furniture, she doesn’t turn out a 3 course meal for 10 and then immediately hop up and do all the dishes by hand, in short she lives an “every woman” life.  As a reader, I felt immersed in Nel’s life and her concerns.

Very good romance with enough tension about how things will turn out to keep me turning the pages.  I highly recommend this book to romance readers.

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Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton

 

Could not put this book down!!  Fresh off of Dead Scared also by S.J. Bolton I started this and read it straight through.  Not part of the Lacey Flint series, this was the author’s debut stand alone novel.

Chilling thriller in which the sense of dread builds exponentially.  The twists and turns leave you scared to death for Tora Hamilton.  Red herrings are plentiful and DS Dana Tulloch even makes mention of the term, which was quite clever.  Tora, the protagonist a surgeon and Dana, a police officer are well crafted, likable characters, as are the others in the book.

The setting of the Shetland Islands adds so much to the story, that it is almost another character, in the style of Ann Cleeves or Elly Griffiths.  The sense of isolation on the islands is made  even more eerie by the hints and warnings of the danger that faces Tora.  The story is based on some particularly gruesome historic legends from the Shetland Islands and that historic piece is incorporated believably with the modern story.

Having read two other books by this author, I continue to be impressed.  I am especially impressed by the range exhibited by her.  All her books I have read so far have been thriller/mystery types, however the characters are very distinct, the settings are varied and the plots are very dissimilar.   A great read!  I have one more book out from the library by this author and I am tempted to start it right away.