Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Belated Books

I'm still determined to catch up with my book reviews!  Look for a few posts over the next couple of days!


More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin: I really took my time and savored every word of this book.  Her style of cooking is just so down to earth--she makes it sound effortless and enjoyable instead of onerous and complicated!




Ireland Unhinged: Encounters with a Wildly Changing Country by David Monagan: I thought this was going to be a really interesting read for me, having visited Ireland during its Celtic Tiger days and then after the economic collapse. I feel like I could do a better job describing the atmosphere than he did, and I only visited! I kept reading, hoping something would really strike a chord with me, but I was disappointed.



American Boy by Larry Watson: Watson's Montana 1948 is a perennial favorite pick for high school reading lists, but I've somehow never read it.  Now that I've read American Boy, I'll give it a try, because I really liked Watson's writing.


The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian: This is one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to get my hands on the new book! I don't think it was his best, it was a bit too predicatable to me, but it was a fun read. It reminded me so much of a Jodi Picoult book, so if you enjoy her, I think you'll like this!



84, Charing Cross Road  by Helene Hanff: As a friend of mine pointed out, this is one of those titles that is always showing up on "You Might Also Like" or "Customers Also Bought" lists, so we both gave it a try!  It was pretty neat, and I enjoyed it, but it's just a little amuse-bouche type of book, not something you really sink into.




The Call by Yannick Murphy:  This book is written in a style that takes some getting used to, and I had one or two false starts with it before I really got into it.  I'm not usually a fan of books that make me work, but I'm glad I stuck it out with this one, because once I got used to it, the style was very effective.

Comfort and Joy by India Knight:  I like to read a few Christmas books every holiday season, and Scroogenomics wasn't going to cut it on its own!  Unfortunately, this one fell short as well.

Murder at the Painted Lady by Barbara Warren: This really got some poor reviews, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with it.  Certainly liked it better than some of the wacky series that are out there!

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading by Nina Sankovitch: Didn't like this at all.  It took me a few tries to get going, which should have told me something!

5 comments:

Anita said...

hmm, I will have to look for this one (Murder at the Painted Lady by Barbara Warren)in our Digital Library.

I enjoy see what your reading and your impressions. Just finished one of a new-to-me series: "The Unravelling of Violeta Bell Morgue Mama Mystery Series, Book 4" by C.R. Corwin. Have you heard of them? I love the reader, she did an excellent job on this one.

Did I ever mention that I wanted to be a librarian when I was in grade school? :D

Anonymous said...

I LOVE Laurie Colwin's books- that is to say, I love her two cookbooks. I have never gotten engaged by the others. Did you know that her recipes are absolutely delicious? My copies of her books are just as splattered as my regular cook books.

LindaC

Darling Petunia said...

Anita, I hadn't heard of that series, but I'll look into them!

Darling Petunia said...

Linda C, I also like the cookbooks better. We have many photocopied recipes from them! Have you ever made any of her cakes?

Anonymous said...

I have made the Wensley (?) cake, without cheese and Katherine Hepburn's brownies, not really cake. I ogle the Gingerbread but I have not got there yet. Ditto, the
Country Christmas cake. The sponge cake is nice.

If I made the Christmas or the Black cake, I would like to slow savor it and make it last a gong time especially after cutting all that fruit. It would never happen because I have three guys who are passionate about fruitcake (I like it well myself). I have visions of them polishing offr a wole fruitcake with delight. They are happy with a store bought Claxton Fruitcake.

Which ones have you all tried?

LindaC