Silly Fluff Without the Fun

Next up, an author I did not forget last time, but that you haven't seen yet - Sophie Kinsella. Last time,  I figured I'd get the next in the Shopaholic series, but as it turned out I didn't get the next one, I got one that I had already read. When I realized that, I was just not interested in reading it, and really just not all that interested in the series at all.  So I moved on the stand-alones for this one.  Now Sophie Kinsella's stand-alones have, I would say, a mixed track record.  In general, she's a pretty funny author, and some of these are definitely funnier than others.  From a romance aspect, there's also a lot of variation, some quite enjoyable and others just missing some necessary elements.  There's also the point that it seems like all of her characters are the same - silly girls and brooding boys.  Doesn't sound like I like these books all that much, right? Like I said, it varies.

Moving on to this particular book, it had a strike against it right away because it was about two people. That almost always means at least one story that's not as interesting and always means not enough time given to each.  Strike to was that one of the two sisters has a kid - not that I have anything against kids of course :p Just complicates things.  One of the two sisters is the usual Kinsella flighty sprite, the other is somewhat more refreshingly down to the earth. Their menfolk are, respectively, refreshingly down-to-earth and a brooding male.  The romances are actually both potentially interesting - persuasion-type reconciliation and P&P hate-at-first-sight.  So - an ok mix of potential and meh.

But unfortunately, it didn't even live up to that mix.  Most of the book consisted of Fliss (down-to-earth sibling) ruining Lottie (flighty one)'s honeymoon.  Like really. We just go from incident to incident.  Some interaction with Fliss and her guy, though not much. None with Lottie and her guy (who is not the one on the honeymoon with her).  Sigh.  Quite a disappointment. I was really just trying to get through this silly book. Which incidentally, was also continuously inappropriate (Sophie Kinsella books vary on this front as well).

So yeah, a miss. We'll see what the next one is like.

Verdict: 2/5

Skin-deep Life Lessons, Chic Lit at Heart

Way back before this blog started, we (you know, my we) all read Marisa de los Santos's debut novel, Love Walked In.  The G. girls and Chava *loved* it because the writing (flowery) is just their style.  Everyone else (including me) liked it because it's a solid romance.  The sequel was published around Thanksgiving when Batya was engaged (which I remember because I read it at her pre-Shabbos kallah in cl).  That one was not a romance, and in fact, did a good job of destroying the romance of the first book (okay not destroying, but certainly tarnishing).  So I was not that excited about her new book, Falling Together, since clearly, romance is not MdlS's first priority (she's got like a Ph.d in poetry or something so I would say her flowery writing is actually priority #1 :)).  And Huvi and S.b. read it over Succos and were both quite unexcited about it, Huvi saying it was everything we don't like about MdlS - overdramatic, too flowerly etc.  So you can guess that I did not have hugely high expectations for this book.

It seemed like Huvi might be right as I plunged right in to the "epic" tale of three friends-closer-than-siblings, at their center a girl supposedly wholly adorable whom I failed to find so.  To be fair though, MdlS acknowledges that she sounds annoying, having Pen assure her friend that, really, she is adorable. But on the plus side, the other two friends, (that's Will and Pen) are quite likeable.  And guess what? we get the book from their POV, not from Cat's at all.  I'm not saying that all is well with the world just because the characters are likeable - there's plenty about the book to be approached with skepticism.  The family drama, the overblown significance of little incidents, the similes I find more distracting than illuminating...

But bottom line, surprise, surprise, I think this book is even more of a romance than the first one.  First of all, we get plenty from Will's POV - a major plus, as we get nothing at all from Teo's standpoint, as far as I can remember (at least as hints of his love for Cornelia, whereas Will's for Pen, while never outright stated, is clear and obvious from the start).  And with all else that's going on, the book gives fair prominence to the playing out of the romance - so maybe I was wrong about Marisa de los Santos, she is a romantic at heart :) (one might say a chic lit writer, but I wouldn't be so cruel :)) So basically what we have is two likeable narrators and a good romance.  And not only that, I just realized this now, but a supreme lack of tension! All the uncertainty (other than romantic-wise) comes from not knowing Cat's whereabouts - but who cares about Cat anyway? Will and Pen are in good places in life, and not really in danger of losing them.  So as long as I didn't get distracted by those other things (see paragraph above :) I really enjoyed this book).

That was until almost the end.  The romance got somewhat resolved with a little plot still to go, and I didn't adore the way it finished up.  But that can be forgiven, indeed this is something I often forgive authors for, it being so difficult to do a good finish :) And after that was wrapped up, we wrapped Cat's story up - and to my surprise, I found that MdlS pretty much agreed with me the whole time - Cat isn't a "fairy tale princess" - or if she is one, she sure isn't perfect.   It's Pen and Will who come off good in this one -  Cat's going off on her own, and I say good riddance to her.  That was the end of Cat's story, but since the book is more about Pen, there were a few revelations to go.  I can't say they were earth-shattering, but neither were they wholly misguided.  Pen realizes the importance of love - can't say it isn't.  And Will realizes how important it is to fight for it, which is why he fights for Pen (don't worry, it was just a minor incident that necessitated that fight).  So it was all's well that ends well, though it could have ended sooner and just as well in my book.  Likeable characters, decent romance, and fairly non-intrusive life lessons.  I have to say, more the best of MdlS than the worst.

Verdict: 3.5/5

This Time, There's No Upside

No new interesting author for you this time folks (is there ever? :)), it's one you've seen before, in a genre you've seen before.  Yay for you and yay for me :) Do I sound cynical? Forgive me, but there wasn't much Tasha Alexander's Dangerous to Know (other than the fact that I recognize the allusion in the title :)) that I hadn't seen before.  Not that I'd complain about that of course, since I have been known to read the same book 10 times over if I like it… so what am I complaining about? Well aren't we rushing ahead of ourselves just a bit? Maybe just a bit :)

So I put Dangerous to Know on reserve a while ago, and it became available at the same time as two other books, all right before I left to Israel, so perfect timing there :) Finished this one on the plane, and responsible girl that I am, writing this on the plane too :) (and now I have an excuse not to reread my previous Tasha Alexander entry to make sure I'm not repeating myself without duly noting it :)) Anyway, as you may recall, I enjoyed Tears of Pearl, her last one, more than I was expecting, so I had some hopes for this one.  She managed to keep the romance fresh by introducing issues with pregnancy and whatnot, and the setting kind of saved the story (if I recall).  So at best, I could hope for both a satisfying Colin/Emily plotline and a fairly decent story (this one set in the Norman countryside, less exotic but still plenty to work with).

And you know, right away I noticed what I have always noticed about this book, that Lady Emily is a bit of a Mary Sue and that these books are written in the "tell, don't say" style - these characters just jump from one dramatic turn a phrase to another hyperbolic outburst and then onto some light fervent outpourings (I had fun with that sentence, could you tell? :)) Never mind that they say things I wouldn't expect to hear coming out of most people's mouths, they say them without any warning, any lead-in.  So yeah, no prize for writing here… but I knew that going in.  

What about Colin and Emily? To be fair, she did try to introduce some decent tension… but omg, not my style.  All about Colin smothering Emily and she not wanting to be smothered… really she is just *way* too into her own independence - again, no change from earlier books, but it doesn't make for compelling romance.  And as for the pathos involved in her continued child-bearing related issues, I have to say I actually found her wallowing annoying.  And if I found it annoying, you know it was pretty extreme, since I'm usually up for a good wallow as long as it gets the main character some sympathy :) But here it was just another contribution to all the drama, drama, drama that pervaded the story.

Which brings to me to what I guess I disliked most about the book, the story.  I mean, of course, it's what I care about the least :), but, come on, I need something to fall back on when there's nothing else there.  But here, I felt like the mystery was simply badly developed.  There were never any hints, never any deductions, just a matter of things happening… okay I guess there was a little investigation, but mostly it was Emily talking to people and getting nowhere.  And to keep up the urgency, instead of going with real plot or decent villainy, there was a lot of drivel (I'm proud of that one was well :)) about ghosts and whatnot.  Make up your mind, is this a gothic horror or victorian whodunnit? (and proud again :)) I mean, in their place, spooky ghosts are fine, but there place is not the sedate Norman countryside in Victorian times, where the author just doesn't have the weaving skills to graft them in seamlessly (and again! :)) Even the ending didn't redeem - I knew what was coming, I pretty much guessed who the bad guy was (or at least I knew he was not as he seemed when we met him, and he seemed good :)) and I have to say I was almost skimming at one point because the ending was just more of the same frenzied palooza (I couldn't think of a good prefix, sorry :)) that occupied the rest of the book.

Verdict: 2/5

Food: Weird ingredients that just don't mesh… can I make something up? I guess that's cheating… but I must have had enough weird foods in my time… but of course I can't think of anything… maybe it's time to give this up… for now anyway

The Ending Is Everything

Quite a saga I have to record... a small percentage of my reading material comes from random sampling of the library shelves, whenever I'm in the mood for something slightly different.  So it must have been like in March or April or something I was in Towson library and I picked up this book called Mr. Allbones Ferrets (actually it was maybe more like June, I don't know).  It seemed like a witty type of book, decently written, and the cover claimed it had a love story at the center... so you know, on the appealing side.  But given that it was about a man who collected ferrets, I just never got around to reading it that first time... But it was by a New Zealand author so when I got back I decided to get it out again (plus I'm a bit compulsive about reading books once I've gotten them out) but yet again I didn't read it... and then I got it out *again* when I first went to the library in Manhattan (see this post) and I kept on renewing it and renewing it... and *finally* I started reading it.
I was reading it mostly on the train, as I do these days, and I was finding it surprisingly engrossing.  After the first rather gross chapter, which described ferret-aided poaching activities in great detail, Mr. Allbones turned into a surprisingly likeable man, considering that he was a completely uneducated nineteenth century English villager (right time, right place, wrong class :)) He takes care of his family, he knows what's what, and he's good at what he does, which is basically ferret keeping.  And the other characters too were well formed... I guess I really do like England, because they were somewhat Dickensian stereotypes, I think (can you say pretension? :) (I'm referring to me here, not the author)).  And the story... well it wasn't that much of a story, but it moved along well, and I had great hopes that everything would turn out well for our friend Allbones.
The slightly disturbing feature of the narrative turned out to be the promised love story.  Now it was bad enough that the romance was between Allbones and his employer's daughter, who differ by at least two degrees of class (she being a gentleman's granddaughter, the bourgeois at least intervening between the them) but really that wasn't even as bad as the fact that I can't imagine what he saw her in her.  Actually I don't have to imagine it - it's very clear that he admires her more as a porcelain doll than as anything else.   Or if he appreciates her inner beauty (and there is some of it in her love of nature and desire to educate combined with a certain innocence and a near complete ignorance of class boundaries) we don't hear all too much about it.  Just about her clear skin and flax blonde hair, etc.  And even though Allbones is a poor villager, he's a good poor villager and I don't like him falling for nothing but a pretty face.  It doesn't mesh with what  I think of him, that's all.
But with that said, the book was flowing along well, and I was willing to give it a chance when... I took it out of my bag and forgot to put it back in before I left the house... which means I didn't have it to read on the train... but since it was Friday, I also didn't have it to read over Shabbos, when I most certainly would have finished it.  And I was quite upset actually - mostly because I wanted to finish it, but really, I was enjoying the book and I thought it would ruin it if I stopped in the middle... but there was nothing for it, and I put off finishing it till the next week (which was last week, I've just been lazy about writing a review).  So anyway, I picked up reading it the next week on the train, and it continued along fine, going along to what I hoped would be some amiable conclusion.  There was a little too much gory detail about this or that, which I guess the author feels makes it more villager like or whatever, but that was okay.  The romance continued to be annoying and implausible, and actually got worse as the relationship grew... but okay, I was still going to finish the book and it wasn't hard to get through or anything.
So yeah, they're all on the ship to New Zealand (yay, New Zealand :)) and the book is almost finished when... I don't know, I guess it's a spoiler, and I don't feel like saying it, but trust me it's weird.  Gross and weird.  And pointless.  I mean what a way to end it.  I really didn't see it coming, it was really not necessary, and I don't see what it added... but whatever at least it was at the end of the book, so I didn't have too much more to get through after the bomb was dropped... oh well, it was good while it lasted :)
Verdict: 1.5/5
Food: something utterly disappointing in the end... like with a terrible aftertaste... like mexican food... well not all mexican food but definitely some of the mexican food i've tasted that uses that weird spice... it's like almost going to be good, if different, but then that spice (whatever it is) just ruins it...

Spoiler Alert...

I'm not a huge fan of mysteries for their own sakes (as you probably know :)) so I'm not a voracious reader of Agatha Christie.  I mean, I read the Poirots when I was younger, and a few others, but despite the fact they do take place on my favorite island :), I've never made an effort to get through every single one (or even most of them.)  That being said, there are a few that I have read multiple times and thoroughly enjoy, those being of course, Why Didn't They Ask Evans and Tommy and Tupence's first story, The Secret Adversary.  Even if you've never read a single Agatha Christie (which I know you all have :)) I'm sure you can guess why these two lucky books have gained my favor... yes, it's the romance :) I mean, not like romance is the central focus in the book, but it certainly adds plenty of incentive (especially Why Didn't They Ask Evans, which features the daughter of a peer (maybe an Earl? side note, though, now that I think about it, not exactly enamored of an earl's daughter marrying the vicar's son... Georgette Heyer, you have made a snob of me :))) Oh and there's also The Man in the Brown Suit, which was excellent, but somewhat ruined by *s/1* telling me she gets together with the wrong guy, causing me to root for the guy I didn't want her to get together with... who she didn't, because of course *my* romantic instinct was not at fault and she in fact got together with the right guy!... whatever, I know that was hard to follow, and has not much to do with the current point... which is that Batya told me that besides these three, there was one more I'd find romantic - They Came to Baghdad.  Now obviously, I took that with a grain of salt, #1 because you can't really ever trust a/1's else's ideas of romance, #2, because she made this recommendation years ago, and she's probably got smarter about it since she read this books some time in high school, I presume, and #3 (most importantly) Agatha Christie just isn't about the romance, so no matter what, it's not going to be *that* amazing.  But with all that said, I still wanted to read it and actually have had it in mind to read for years. But it was never at my branch of the library... but now that I'm basically just reserving books and having them sent over to Muhlenberg for pickup Tuesday or Thursday, I just put it on the list... so I finally had a chance to read it.  Whew, that was a longer intro than I had planned :)

So anyway, I read this book mostly on the train - +1 for public transportation :) - so that alone says something.  It was definitely compelling enough to hold my attention.  Which isn't really surprisingly, as we are talking about Agatha Christie here.  Isn't she like the #1 best selling author ever or something like that? And again, we do get all those delightful English sensibilities that make the book such familiar and welcoming territory.   Do I *really* care about the mystery? Certainly not overly much, but it was a spy story, which I always care more about than the generic murder mystery types... spies are just so *cool* :) And while I found the main character, Victoria, to be frankly annoying at the beginning, she grew on my quickly enough - and I found her to be as delightfully charming as she is meant to be, rather than a fairly silly creature who doesn't get along at all well in the world. And the romance? Well I  wasn't expecting anything much... and I have to say, I pretty much got what I expected.  There was no romance at all for 3/4 of the book (and by that I mean the couple doesn't even meet until that point) and even from then, there's very little interaction, as most of the book's action is happening then as well.  But I must say, their story was a *very* cute one - bachelor archaeologist and English gentleman, wise and fairly uninterested in women, meets utterly frivolous but very pretty and surprisingly resourceful English girl... it works, ya know? :)

Actually, what I found most interest about the book was how affected I was by the back cover.  I mean, this is a mystery, you wouldn't think they would give anything away.  But they state that Victoria follows Edward to Baghdad, where she immediately witnesses the death of a secret agent and is kidnapped by her rival.  Now that being said, when do you think all this would take place? Within the first few chapters, right? Well actually, the secret agent's murder is about 1/3 of the way through, and the kidnapping over half way! Which means that 1) even though I found the secret agent awesome, I knew he was going to die, which kind of killed some of the tension and depressed me at the same time.  2) I was on alert for the rival girl and knew her for an evil one the second we were introduced.  and 3) (most importantly) I was pretty darn sure Edward was a shady character (not that  I wouldn't have known that anyway, I'm pretty sure).  Anyway, suffice it to say, that for a mystery, there was not *tons* of suspense here.  Not that I'm really complaining, since I don't really care much for mysteries/guessing games anyway :) And there were a few (really one big one) surprises left at the end... in good Christie (at least I assume good Christie :)) style. I just thought that whole back cover was more than a little irresponsible...

But basically, the book was fun - good writing, good plot, good characters, good reading... not too taxing, not too compelling either, but good stuff :)

Verdict: 3/5
Food: good stuff... I'd say potato chips, but I think I've compared something else to potato chips, so let's just go with corn chips... but I like corn chips too much... back to potato chips - this is just a very potato chippy book (not pringles, potato chips :))

Enthusiasms Taken Way Too Far

Guess what? An author you probably haven't heard of... and there's a fairly good reason I'd say.  Anthony Capella, author of, amongst others, The Food of Love, at best fills a niche for travel/gourmet novels, which as far as I know, is a fairly empty one.  The concept is pretty great, I admit, at least from my perspective.  You know how much I love travel books, or really books that take place in different countries that make my list of interesting ones (yes, that's Western Europe, if you're wondering :)), and it should be fairly obvious how much I love food :) So a book about Italy, and really about Italian food? Sure, why not? Actually though, when I read my first of Anthony Capella's books, The Wedding Officer, I had no idea it would be so food-centric (it is rather less than this one, his first).  I got it out because it looked romantic... and to some extent, it was that too.  But Anthony Capella, being a man, doesn't write chic lit, or even what I consider good romance.  I mean there's drama and great love involved, but not necessarily that angst, frustration, and ultimate reconciliation that comes standard in my favorite fare :) So the point is, I'm not even going to evaluate this book based on its romantic possibilities... I'm going to do it on its own terms.

Well not quite its own terms I guess... that would be merely a question of does it succeed upon the travel and gourmet fronts? Let me first answer that.  Travel - I'd say you get a good feel for what he think Rome is like, or wants it to be like (and he has some experience, as he's spent time there)... and it's a very Italian place, as I would expect.  And since Italians at their most Italian are a group about which I thoroughly enjoy reading - super confident, fairly capable, completely unfazed by everything displays of emotions and insurmountable obstacles - I'd say it was a definite plus for the book.  Food-wise... well #1, I had no idea of what half the foods he talked about were, since they were mostly Italian specialties, and #2, he makes this huge deal about the subtleties of this or that flavor and the importance of this or that ingredient, which I don't quite buy into.   With that said, if there's one enthusiasm with which I sympathize, it's food.  So it takes a while before the deeply detailed descriptions of every part of the meal you can think of get old.  They do get old eventually though, so I'm not sure if the culinary description is a redeeming feature. 

So from what exactly does this book need redeeming? Am I allowed to complain about the romance? :) Yes, because I'm not complaining about the lack of my idea of romance per se... that's fine, not every book has to be written to be good chic lit, and I certainly wouldn't expect this one to be.  It's much that even what the book does purport to be, a modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac tale according to the jacket flap, it... well I don't know if it fails utterly, but it certainly falls short.  Here's the main complaint: Bruno is madly in love with Laura who's in love with his best friend Tomaso, so he cooks all these amazing dishes for her and comes up with more and more spectacular food as he's inspired by her... but meanwhile, it's all a tragedy because she thinks it's his best friend who's really a total nobody and he's just sitting there nobly pining away... but guess what? THAT GIRL JUST AIN'T WORTH IT.  She's pretty, artsy, and appreciates food - but she has *zero* personality.  She's boring and stupid and totally unworthy of inspiring great love.  In the middle of the book, another girl (some Italian name I can't remember) is introduced as a foil, and I was like, yeah, pick her, she's cool! But of course, no, he has to go back to Laura.  The whole thing, which tries for big drama, comes of more as a farce.

Now here's the second issue.  To some extent I think, the book is meant as a farce.  And as a farce, I could have enjoyed it a whole lot more.  But unfortunately, it just takes itself *way* too seriously.  I don't know if you remember, or if I actually ever even posted this (pretty sure I did), while I love The Morning Gift, the most annoying part of the book was the almost religious significance it bestowed on music.  I mean I like music *a lot*, but it doesn't like move my world or anything.  I felt like this book did the exact same thing with food.  It's just not that earth-shattering, ya know? It's good, there's a lot to do with it, but in the end of the day, it doesn't express anything more than the obvious.  And I know that's kind of funny, coming from me who compares e/t to food... but you know I'm not actually serious, right? :) Whereas this book seems all too serious about it... and turns what could be a light and fun Italian festo (looked that up :)) into a melodramatic and rather lurid tale of appetites. (man I think I outdid myself there with subtle punning :))

Verdict: 2/5
Food: Gosh I feel silly doing this... a food that takes itself too seriously? There are a lot of those, but I don't tend to eat them :) Let's just say any chicken dish with exotic ingredients... unnecessary, don't add much, and if the chicken isn't cooked right, it's still not good

Lamentations on The State of Literature

After the previous months' reading, consisting of either junk or girly classics, you must be wondering, does Rochel ever read any quality literature? An excellent question - and one to which the short answer is yes, when I get around to it.  Having read all my good library books and treated myself to a few old favorites, I finally got around to reading one of my man books, which is due pretty shortly.  As I've said before, I prefer woman writers in general, but I like male "funny guys" - see my earlier post about Terry Pratchett, etc.  Peter Carey came up on a list of authors matching the keyword "Australia" at my library's search engine.  My Life As a Fake seemed to be the kind of satirical and lighthearted material to which men are best suited and which I often enjoy, so I got the book out as potential entertainment for my down under journey.  Of course, I didn't get around to reading it till a month later…

…and I must say that while it did live up to its promise as an Australian novel, that is *all* it lived up to.  Let me just talk about that a little first - although the book takes place in 1970's Malaysia, a place about which I know very little and about which I wish I knew even less after reading this book, one of the central characters talks extensively about his earlier life in Australia.  Mentioned are, among other places, Queensland, Townsville, Melbourne, Sydney, Bondi, St. Kilda, the Australian Hotel, Darlinghurst, the Harbor Bridge, Warrnambool… so it was definitely exciting to have been to all those places.  But DO NOT read this book, even if you've been to Australia and want to relive the glory.

Peter Carey is considered a pretty literary author.  He's won the Booker Prize, which I think is the English equivalent of the Pulitzer *twice* (and he's considered a long shot to win this year actually).  He has a plaque in Sydney harbor (that got me pretty excited when I saw it, I admit) and the little blurbs all laud him as a master.  I have no idea why.  The writing itself… well I guess it was pretty powerful and it moved along pretty quickly but I found it needlessly confusing and hard to understand.  I get that's the effect he was trying to create, but I think it does more to obfuscate (like that bit of poetry? a nod to a central issue in the book, the definition of great verse :)) And more than needlessly confusing, absolutely, completely, needlessly and extremely crude.  I mean seriously - is it really great literature just because its so completely off-putting in every way? Disgusting, dirty, cruel, malevolent… none of the characters was at all likable, nothing good happened, the scenery was repulsive.

I just don't get the point of this book.  It doesn't even have a discernible theme.  There seems to be no moral lesson, just an obsession with evil and reprehensible behavior.  I mean bad isn't rewarded, not by any means, but it's not like divine justice pays back, just that nothing good happens period.  These people all have miserable lives and they behave miserably.  Why would I, why would *anyone* want to read about this? I really don't get it.

Verdict: 1.5/5 (.5 because the writing wasn't junk writing, I'll admit that)

Food: something gross and repulsive that some people seem to like, but I don't get why - how about that plain yogurt I ate in New Zealand.  Full of bacteria, tastes gross, but some people claimed it was edible, even somewhat decent. (yes that was a jab at those some people, dear to my heart as they are :)) 

Love and Adventure in *this* :) Foreign Land

Anticipating that I would spend several hours every day in the car on this trip, I brought an entire duffel bag full of books (okay, it had a few other things in there as well :)) but as you can see from the lack of posts over this past week, that didn't so much happen.  Actually, it did happen, but I was usually either sleeping, trying to sleep, or arguing, with a distinct lack of reading activity thrown in.  So sorry, no updates till now.  But now, in my usual Shabbos tradition, I have finally finished a book! So I can post! And what a book...

When I found out I would not be going to Alice Springs, Outback central, and would have to satisfy myself with the "outback" (yes, l&gs, that's colloquially any area outside the main urbanized part of Australia, according to Wikipedia) I knew I needed to whip up some enthusiasm from somewhere - and I recalled Sarah Sp's suggestion that I reread Victoria Holt's The Pride of the Peacock, which takes place in the opal mining towns of late nineteenth century Australia.  And we will be going by some mining towns (and some opal mining towns now that I've read the book :)) And  I was definitely amenable, especially since it wasn't a bad book the first time I read it.

So first off, *definitely* good for whipping up enthusiasm for the quote-unquote outback :) The book glories in all the primitive gorgeousness that was early Australia.  And I'm inspired to go to Lightning Ridge, which is anyway on the way, so yay :)

The book itself... well Victoria Holt has written more than two books, but other than two I was told are the best, I'm not really tempted to read any.  That's because her books are not romances, but mystery-romances.  Heavy emphasis on the drama.  I suppose I don't have *such* a problem with that, but when it comes as the expense of the romance... well naturally I do.  Here, Jessica spends half the book worried that her husband is going to kill her.  And that does tend to cut in on the romance stuff, if ya know what i'm sayin.  And I thought I remembered that he really loved her the whole time (he does :) (silly grin :)) but I wasn't positive, that the writing doesn't give much hint of that.  But still, I could dream... and the dream was the reality... so it was all worth it :) 

I mean, I definitely liked it... so much that I was almost disappointed when it finished.  But I think that was kind of my mood for some reason, like I was excited it was about Australia.  Because actually I was quite impatient with the story and all the stuff going on... but in the last analysis ;), I liked it... so it was good. 

This is a boring review... I think I read the book without keeping the review in mind, so I don't have much to say... or maybe there just isn't much to say? In any case, finishing off with this:

Verdict: 4/5
Food: (sidebar - I now have a host of new foods that I do *not* like, thanks to my rather limited food choices here, so that should open up a whole new vista of food selections :)) so I liked it for sure, not my favorite, but something good... I don't know, what else to say? something that has a little something extra over its usual that kind of added to my enjoyment.  So how about nuts... I like them in general, I don't like a few of them, and I *love* some.  And if they're honey glazed pecans... oh my :) so I'll give this book honey glazed pecans... which I love a little more than this book, but okay

Sophistication Worn So Lightly It Doesn't Fall Flat

For almost every book about which I've posted so far, I've had, at the very least, expectations of how much I would enjoy it (and of course, for several I knew almost *exactly* what to expect, because I'm a creature of habit :)) But this Shabbos's priority reading, given that it's due on Monday (after nine weeks out) was Peter Mayle's A Vintage Caper.  I thought this was the author's second novel, but apparently it's only his second novel that I've read - but whatever.  I read his novels because I'm a fan (not a huge fan, but a fan) of his travel books, about life in the Frence pronvince of Provence - obviously a rosy eyed and whitewashed if not fairy tale view of French country life, but fun all the more so :) (and Huvi does get credit for introducing me to the series if she's reading this :))

But I read those books years ago, and I read his first novel a while ago, and don't remember at all well.  So if I was expecting anything at all, it was a slightly pretentious book, given that the book was about wine and France by a total Francophile.  And while I do love reading about all things French, I wouldn't say I'm an unquestioning Francophile myself... too much other stuff going on that I know ruins that whole romantic image.  But mostly, I really just wasn't too much looking forward to the book one way or another and my only real assumption was that it would be about France.

Well it was about France, and the French, and it definitely had all that pretension about fine food, fine wine, and uncouth Americans but surprising... it was *not* pretentious.  It wasn't even really a mystery - more of a light con novel.  You know the genre... or maybe not - I actually can't think off hand of any con books I've read, though there must be some, but it's Ocean's Eleven, The Sting and that type of thing.  And I like smart con men books! and of course, I like light books - there was obviously some tension, but actually, nothing ever went wrong - it all just flowed along, interspersed with *a lot* of description of French food and some of French hotels - to which I am not necessarily averse, when sprinkled in judiciously.  Well they were that judiciously sprinkled, so it was slighly distracting, but not enough to ruin the book.

And deliciously enough, there was decent romance going on! First I thought it was all one of those male point of view books written by men which are just not fun to read, but Sam's relationship with Elena was pretty cute and had a nice ending to round off the finish - while it was not the main point of the book.  And the final note was a perfect ending for this type of thing - one of those little "it's not over yet" con things.

So a good book - and less pretentious than I expected, so I can't complain :)
Verdict: 3.5/5 (well it's not my *favorite genre)
Food: It was, as I said, somewhat out of my comfort zone, but surprisingly good, even if there were some bits not exactly to my liking... I'll go with a milchigs restaurant salad - there's always some vegetable or cheese I don't like in there, but there's also something good like grilled eggplant (or I wouldn't order it :)) and as long as the vegetables are fresh, it's good!


Oh, the only thing was, the whole thing felt a little dated... like there *are* no con men anymore, and that whole Hollywood lifestyle just doesn't hold any attraction (well to me anyway...) and as for France - if it was *ever* that way, it sure ain't now... but what do I know? and I think he does acknowledge the book is more a fantasy than a realistic depiction of anything... but I'm just proud of myself for picking up on this so I'm putting it in :)