Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi My rating: 3 of 5 stars Is it possible to like a book without understanding it?That's the case with me and Mr. Fox. I received this book as part of The Book Riot Quarterly box #5. I always give those books a shot because they are never books I would have chosen for myself. This book is a collection of short stories and fables, wrapped up in a storyline of an author (St. John Fox), his wife (Daphne), and his imaginary muse who came to life (Mary Foxe). Fox has the habit ...
The Paying Guests review
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters My rating: 4 of 5 stars In 1920s England, Frances is an old maid at 26 years old. Her two brothers died in WWI and her father died shortly after, leaving Frances and her mother much poorer than what they are used to. In order to try to escape their debts, they rent part of their house to lodgers, euphemistically called "Paying Guests." Leonard and Lillian Barber move in, and on the surface, they are a young, vibrant happily married couple.Stay with this book! ...
Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace review
Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace by Anne Lamott My rating: 4 of 5 stars I'm becoming an Anne Lamott fangirl. She's one of the authors I feel is writing directly to me. I think she's the SARK of my middle age.I asked for this book for Christmas and was thrilled to receive it. Thanks to my Nook it's been a while since I've had a real hardcover book. "Small Victories" was the perfect first book for me to read in 2015.Like her other works, this book is filled with essays and ...
The Rosie Project review
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is minorly spoilery, but I'm not going to mark it as such. You can look at the cover and summary of this book, and realize for yourself that we won't be sobbing tears of sadness and heartbreak at the end.I originally gave this three stars and then after sleeping on it, upped it to four.Don Tillman is a 39 year old genetics professor who lives a very literal and organized life. He decides it's time to find a wife so he turns to his ...
Kitchen Confidential review
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain My rating: 3 of 5 stars I have absolutely no interest in the culinary world and I am not a foodie. I'm slightly more adventurous than average when it comes to to food.This is Chef Bourdain's collection of stories of his life in the restaurant biz. It was a fun read, if a little heavy on the rotten language and filth. I enjoyed his journey from a picky eater to a top-tier chef. I loved reading about his typical day ...
Not That Kind of Girl review
Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham My rating: 3 of 5 stars I was pretty excited when the little book with a big side portion of controversy became available from the library. I don't watch Girls, but I was interested in a memoir from a young woman who has accomplished so much.First, the controversy: if the incident with her little sister is now called sexual assault, may as well round up every little kid I grew up with, because looking and poking ...
Tranquilty du Jour Anthology review
Tranquility du Jour Anthology by Kimberly Wilson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have been a LONG-TIME reader of Kimberly's blog (back from the Hip Tranquil Chick days), plus I'm a forty-(cough) lady who works in a cubicle and dreams of tranquility and lavender. So I'm 100% the target reader for this book. This book is a gorgeously laid-out collection of Kimberly's blog postings from the last 10 years. They are divided into topics such as travel, entrepreneurship, creativity, activism, etc. I just ...
A Discovery of Witches review
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness My rating: 3 of 5 stars Our heroine, Diana Bishop, is a real witch. No, really! A real witch - descended from the famous Bridget Bishop of Salem Witch Trials fame. She's a tenured professor at Yale, on sabbatical at Oxford. Diana tries to stifle her witch powers, but not very well. While doing her research in Oxford's Bodleian library Diana finds a book simply referred to as Ashmole 782. Diana looks through the book, discovers that there is hidden text ...
Fangirl review
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell My rating: 3 of 5 stars I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy this book, because I am old, grumpy and not a Harry Potter fan. And sure enough, I really grumped my way through the first half of the book. Our main character is Cather, college freshman, twin sister of Wren*, anxiety-sufferer and one of the best Simon Snow fanfic writers out there.Simon Snow is a boy magician who goes to a magical school to learn magical things. There are 8 books in his series. Cath writes fanfic ...
The Salinger Contract review
The Salinger Contract by Adam Langer My rating: 2 of 5 stars In The Salinger Contract, author Adam Langer writes about a fictional version of himself who has a strange friendship with an Connor Joyce, an author of a series of mystery/adventure novels who gets himself in trouble.The plot idea is great! An extremely rich book collector contacts popular authors and pays them handsomely to write a book for him. Only one copy of the book will be produced, nobody outside the collector's house will ...
Big Little Lies review
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty My rating: 5 of 5 stars At first I haaaaaaated this book. I haaaaaated all of the parents and I strongly disliked all of the kids. I thought the pacing was far too slow and I was annoyed by the little blurbs of inserted testimony.And then about a third of the way in, something magical happened. I started to care about these flawed parents and their goofy kids. More than halfway through, I didn't want any of the ones I cared about to be the murder/accident ...
Your Life Calling review
Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life by Jane Pauley My rating: 2 of 5 stars I saw Jane Pauley speak at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women and promptly put this book on my to-read list. It was immediately available from the library and I snapped it up, eager for inspiration. I'm 42, which mathematically qualifies as middle age, although I suspect the Boomers have wiggled that definition a bit.This book is half auto-biographical and half stories from other people (most of whom ...
