We're an Open Book
I have been meaning to get to this book for years. YEARS. The Mortal Instrument series has the honor of being one of the first series we reviewed and looking back on some of the older reviews I feel like we didn’t give it a fair shake. I mean people love this series and The Powers That Be have so much faith in the story it’s getting a TV show after the movie bombed.With all that in mind I decided to go into this book with positive intentions. Did it work ? Ehhhhhhhh….nope.
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These mini reviews feature my informal thoughts on two non-fiction books I’ve been reading and pulling tips and advice from all year long.
In 2015 I wanted to start eating healthier, so I picked up Gina Homolka’s Skinny Taste after seeing the beautiful cover in Target. Plus this Target edition had extra recipes.
I loved the recipes in this book so much that I actually gave it to my brother, BC, as a birthday gift. It features colorful and flavorful recipes that are so good you won’t believe they are healthy. Even in my tiny kitchen they bring out my inner Top Chef.
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| Chicken Pot Pie Soup ! |
One of the first recipes I made was the chicken pot pe soup. I also highly suggest her beef and broccoli plus I’ve made her chicken marsala on multiple occasions.
If you’re not sure if Gina’s recipes are for you check out her blog SkinnyTaste.com it’s how I first discovered her ! I co-sign on her Skinny Chicken Enchiladas!
This is the little book that was everywhere this year. This book outlines the KonMari method for tidying. I grabbed it on audio performed by Emily Woo Zeller. It’s a shortie at around four hours and I listened to this audiobook while doing the KonMari method. I really embraced her philosophy on discarding and organization.
As a book blogger I couldn’t quite commit to her ideas behind book organization. Just no. I can’t say I’ve kept up with tidying but I do find myself folding stuff into rectangles and throwing out things that don’t have that spark.
Kondo seems to realize her ideas and thoughts on organization may be a bit radical and I couldn’t help but to side-eye some of the lengths she goes to in the name of order.
One of my criticism of this book is that Kondo’s book doesn’t fully take into account individuals who might have non-familial roommates or who share a house. Her book is very focused on homeowners or those who live with parents. I enjoyed the audio but if you’re not sure if it’s for you this is a book I’d grab it from the library.
Robert Langdon is back. This time the symbologist (although most of this book really just needed a Art Historian and Italian Lit professor) wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy with no memory of how he got there or why a shadowy organization is after him. As Langdon dashes across Italy with a beautiful blonde Girl Friday doctor, Sienna Brooks, he starts to put the pieces of his memory together. Langdon and Sienna are racing against time to save the world against a plot inspired by Dante Alighieri himself. This installment features all the twist and turns you expect in a Dan Brown novel with the addition of what I think Dan Brown considers strong female characters. I didn’t see the ending coming and Brown mixes just the right amount of facts and fiction to create a page flipping novel. A great addition to the Langdon series, this coming from someone who has read every Brown novel. We’ll just pretend The Lost Symbol never happened. Jess – ★★★
Song of Achilles is the story of Achilles from The Illiad told through the perspective of his lover, the exiled prince Patroclus. Let me stop you right there. Yes. Yes, this book is basically The Illiad fanfiction, but it’s the good kind. Although I suspect if Patrolcus was a female character in a YA book he’d be called a Mary Sue and bad role model. His character begins and ends with how awesomesauce Achilles is.
Miller’s writing is so vivid and engrossing, it works perfectly with Frazer Douglas’s audiobook narration. This book works great on audio because some of these names can be tough. Douglas’ does read a little slow and it felt like the ending of this book was dragging. I think it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible about the actual story because it follows the Greek myth so closely.
I do want to point out that there is a fair amount rape and misogyny in this book, but Miller handles female characters well. The few speaking women in this book could have easily been lamps with wombs, but Douglas brings them to life. Kat – ★★★★
SIDE NOTE:
Also, Miller does the *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* thing to keep it kind of meta. Odysseus tells a central character (who you have probably never heard of) “Who knows, I could be more famous than you one day. Welp, back to Ithaca I go now.” (Okay, that may not be paraphrased.)
So…I finally listened to Fairest, the story of the Lunar Chronicles’ villain, Queen Levana. I expected some Once Upon A Time -never-love-anything-it-will-not-end-well level flashbacks and that’s basically what I got….
- Release Date: September 8th 2015
- Pages: 368
- Genre: Contemporary
- Publisher: Balzer + Bray (Penguin)
I was about 40 pages into this book when I had my review already written . I thought this was another overly earnest, quirky contemporary about finding extraordinary in ordinary with your new Magic Pixie Dream friends. Then this book took an unexpected turn, as it delved into some really difficult truths.
Fans of The Impossible Life begins with Jeremy who is returning to his parochial school, St. Francis, after leaving early the year before. He is a loner, but soon befriends the new girl in school Mira and her friend Sebby. Mira is coming to St. Francis after having to leave her former school for reasons that are unclear until later in the book….
- Release Date: April 6, 2013
- Genre: Contemporary
- Audiobook Hours: 13 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
From the opening lines–which describe a serial killer’s thoughts as he disembowels his recent victim –this book hit my squick button. Hard. I can do gritty, but Game had more body mutilation and necrophilia than I like in my….everything. I was prepared to return this audiobook to the library but I was driving so I kept listening. I’m glad I did because once I got past the prologue, I was dipped right back into a story that was like watching my favorite procedural crime shows. From its twisty mystery, acerbic humor and constant supply of WTF-ery….