Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas is a fun read. Don't expect any serious advice on moving to the country--but do expect some charming and fun stories about a couple who did. Laskas and her boyfriend treat their Sunday "go out and look at farms" as any other weekend-escape-from-the-city (Pittsburgh in their case) excursion. They're not expecting to seriously buy anything until the day they stumble upon their future home.
They have many adjustment to make. Although they've been dating a while, they don't live together when they find the farm they eventually buy. And neither of them know much about living in a rural area, let alone being responsible for 50 acres of it!
The neighbors and resident animals come to life in the book. It was a fun read. The only thing I found disturbing about it was the continued use of present tense, but maybe that's just me. And the continued inner conversations with Bob the cat got a bit tiring. Still, it's a fun read and a worthy tale. I'd read a sequel to see how they're all faring a few years later!
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Comfort Me with Apples
Now this was a fun book to read! I had read her earlier book, Tender at the Bone, and really enjoyed it. This is one of the few sequels that doesn't disappoint a loyal reader. Ruth Reichl's Comfort Me with Apples is superb.
There is less of her cooking and more stories of restaurant critiques here, how she got into it and various escapades. She bares everything personal as well as professional. This follows her philosophy: "Appetite is not enough. And knowledge is not sufficient. You can be a decent critic if you know about food, but to be a really good one you need to know about life." And I suspect she believes that if you want to really know about a food critic you have to know about her life.
Cooking and dining around the world, in the company of the great (both known and unknown), Reichl regales you with great stories and recipes for tasty dishes. One would not be complete without the other somehow. I'm not a foodie, at least not in the gourmand/snobby sense. But I loved this book.
There is less of her cooking and more stories of restaurant critiques here, how she got into it and various escapades. She bares everything personal as well as professional. This follows her philosophy: "Appetite is not enough. And knowledge is not sufficient. You can be a decent critic if you know about food, but to be a really good one you need to know about life." And I suspect she believes that if you want to really know about a food critic you have to know about her life.
Cooking and dining around the world, in the company of the great (both known and unknown), Reichl regales you with great stories and recipes for tasty dishes. One would not be complete without the other somehow. I'm not a foodie, at least not in the gourmand/snobby sense. But I loved this book.
Monday, July 17, 2006
The Year of Pleasures
I have loved every Elizabeth Berg I've read, but I cannot say that about this one. I liked it. I enjoyed it. I'm glad I read it. But I didn't love it. Maybe it's because the storyline is different from anything I've lived. But somehow even the little details that I usually love about her novels were somehow contrived in this one. I'm not sure why. I can't quite put my finger on it.
That said, I did still like and enjoy the book. After a strong and happy marriage, albeit a bit insular, Betta Nolan follows the dream she'd shared with her husband before he died and moves to a new small town to start fresh. (And picky me, I admit to being bothered by the fact that the back of the book says her name is Bette but in the book it's actually Betta.) She impulsively buys a home in a small town and sells her Boston home where she lived for years with her husband. They'd never had children and kept to themselves pretty much. Now she's out on her own, ready to make a change from her previous life as an author of children's books, but still grieving for her husband. She reaches out to some old college roommates and everything ends up happily ever after.
It's a nice story. It's just a bit sad even at the "happy ever after" to me. She and her husband apparently had no good friends as a couple and she'd cut herself off from her college friends. There's no family, no in-laws, no parents, and no friends from her married life that she feels any need to stay in touch with in her new widowed life. Somehow her married life seems to have been lived in a vacuum and that seems sad.
The writing is good, the details interesting... I guess I just don't really like the main character and I can't quite get past that. Yet, I'm still glad I read it.
That said, I did still like and enjoy the book. After a strong and happy marriage, albeit a bit insular, Betta Nolan follows the dream she'd shared with her husband before he died and moves to a new small town to start fresh. (And picky me, I admit to being bothered by the fact that the back of the book says her name is Bette but in the book it's actually Betta.) She impulsively buys a home in a small town and sells her Boston home where she lived for years with her husband. They'd never had children and kept to themselves pretty much. Now she's out on her own, ready to make a change from her previous life as an author of children's books, but still grieving for her husband. She reaches out to some old college roommates and everything ends up happily ever after.
It's a nice story. It's just a bit sad even at the "happy ever after" to me. She and her husband apparently had no good friends as a couple and she'd cut herself off from her college friends. There's no family, no in-laws, no parents, and no friends from her married life that she feels any need to stay in touch with in her new widowed life. Somehow her married life seems to have been lived in a vacuum and that seems sad.
The writing is good, the details interesting... I guess I just don't really like the main character and I can't quite get past that. Yet, I'm still glad I read it.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Between, Georgia
Between, Georgia, Joshilyn Jackson's second novel is as delightful as her first, gods in Alabama. It has the same combination of mystery, romance, family love, and Southern flavor. In fact, I devoured it as quickly as I had the first one because the story was so darned good--and then, as I had with the first, I had to go back and reread parts because the writing itself is so good. And I know that I'll reread it in its entirety later, after I've loaned it out to my sister and friends.
When I'm reading a novel, there are a few outward signs that it's great. First, I'll end up carrying it around and reading it in fits and spurts, while I cook dinner for example. Second, I'll stay up way past my normal bedtime reading. Third, as I get near the end, usually while I'm up way late past my bedtime, I'll either start ready super slowly, to savor every word, or gorge on it so I can finish it and learn the final outcome. When I can't decide whether to slow down or speed up, it's a darn good story with darn good writing and I can't decide which I want to enjoy most: the plot or the writing!
Between, Georgia is the story of Nonny Frett and when she stopped "working on things" and did them, although that's not obvious until the end. Born into one family and raised in another by a woman going deaf, then blind, Nonny is trying to get divorced, but she keeps falling back into bed with her soon-to-be-ex-husband, a situation made even more complicated when her best friend confesses his long-standing love for her. Her two families have feuded for years before she was even born, but her birth and subsequent "theft" escalate things. But things really escalate when her birth family's dogs attack and injure her mother and her aunt as they walk home. Things escalate from there. You know as a reader that somehow things will fall into place but you can't quite see how so you keep reading... And that's why I stayed up way too late to finish the book and then had to go back and reread sections to get the details. I rushed through the end the first time and regretted it later, because it mean that Jackson's lovely writing wasn't savored as it should be.
My inner conflict about enjoying the story versus enjoying the writing reminded me of my sister's story about her youngest. He would carefully eat just enough dinner to get dessert, then after dessert he would go back and want more dinner so he was full. I savored the writing but the plot kept me guessing and I had to find out what happened next, so then I rushed through to the end--only to go back and satisfy a different appetite with the lovely writing.
When I'm reading a novel, there are a few outward signs that it's great. First, I'll end up carrying it around and reading it in fits and spurts, while I cook dinner for example. Second, I'll stay up way past my normal bedtime reading. Third, as I get near the end, usually while I'm up way late past my bedtime, I'll either start ready super slowly, to savor every word, or gorge on it so I can finish it and learn the final outcome. When I can't decide whether to slow down or speed up, it's a darn good story with darn good writing and I can't decide which I want to enjoy most: the plot or the writing!
Between, Georgia is the story of Nonny Frett and when she stopped "working on things" and did them, although that's not obvious until the end. Born into one family and raised in another by a woman going deaf, then blind, Nonny is trying to get divorced, but she keeps falling back into bed with her soon-to-be-ex-husband, a situation made even more complicated when her best friend confesses his long-standing love for her. Her two families have feuded for years before she was even born, but her birth and subsequent "theft" escalate things. But things really escalate when her birth family's dogs attack and injure her mother and her aunt as they walk home. Things escalate from there. You know as a reader that somehow things will fall into place but you can't quite see how so you keep reading... And that's why I stayed up way too late to finish the book and then had to go back and reread sections to get the details. I rushed through the end the first time and regretted it later, because it mean that Jackson's lovely writing wasn't savored as it should be.
My inner conflict about enjoying the story versus enjoying the writing reminded me of my sister's story about her youngest. He would carefully eat just enough dinner to get dessert, then after dessert he would go back and want more dinner so he was full. I savored the writing but the plot kept me guessing and I had to find out what happened next, so then I rushed through to the end--only to go back and satisfy a different appetite with the lovely writing.
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