A sparkling and fun book for fans of the television program, The Great British Bake Off. It is my favorite show to binge watch when I have some free time. Or when I’m not reading. Which, let’s be honest, is not all that often but it does happen.
You wouldn’t think another competition-type show would be engaging, but this one is. The contestants are so kind to each other and earnest in their presentations. Not only do you cheer for all of them, but it makes you want to emulate them in your own kitchen.
Why don’t I go bang up a bread sculpture that looks like a lion? Oh, that’s right. Because it’s really hard to do, that’s why. But these guys all make it look so easy. Chocolate lava cakes, frosted buns and towers made out of spun sugar seem to magically flow out of the kitchen. We all know it’s not that simple.
Anita Singh takes readers from the creation of the show to the change in most of its hosts in the most recent episodes. We are also treated to funny anecdotes from some of the contestants and assorted behind-the-scenes gossip.
As an American reader, I enjoyed learning more about Paul and Mary’s backgrounds before they joined the show. I mean, perhaps they had enjoyed some success across the pond, but I had never heard of them. I have more context now.
My favorite part of this fan book were Mel and Sue’s confessions about practical jokes they’ve pulled on Paul. I won’t spoil it for you, but one of them involved his Aston Martin. Le gasp.
Recommended for readers who have watched most, if not all, of the seasons of The Great British Baking Show. I suppose you could still enjoy it without doing so, but all of that viewing time helps you to enjoy this book even more.
Big Little Lies follows three different women who all have children starting kindergarten. It is a mystery, drama and satire about the pressures of parenthood, modern motherhood especially, all rolled into one.
“Should I call the police?” wondered Mrs. Ponder out loud, but then she heard the wail of a siren in the distance, at the same time as a woman on the balcony began to scream and scream. pg 19, ebook.
I couldn’t put the book down. I don’t know people who are as intense as the parents are in this book, but with a little push, I could see some of the PTO members making that leap and fitting right in. You know they care about their kids, but it makes them a bit competitive and unapproachable. This book made me wonder what may be going on at home if that’s the face they choose to display in public…
My favorite character in Big Little Lies was Jane, the youngest of the mothers and one who is carrying a devastating secret. She allows her intense love for her son, Ziggy, to keep her going through her anxiety.
If it weren’t for Ziggy she would have driven off. She would have been so focused on her goal of getting him to his kindergarten orientation that she would have left a woman sitting on the road, writhing in pain. pg 28, ebook.
But a close second for favorite character was Madeline, a fiery mother of three children, one from her first marriage and two from her second. She doesn’t let anybody push her around and she stands up for those she takes under her wing. It’s nice to have friends like that.
Madeline saw Celeste and her face lit up. One of the nicest things about Madeline was the way her face transformed when she saw you, as if there were no one else in the world she’d rather see. pg 40, ebook.
Madeline is also the cause of much of the drama in this story. She has a tendency to cause trouble when she’s upset rather than back away from it. Also, gossip seems to follow her around.
Madeline, she realized, was one of those slightly dangerous people who jumped right in defending their friends and stirred up far bigger waves than the first tiny ripple. pg 90, ebook.
Mysterious and beautiful Celeste is the last of the main characters in this story. She’s so easy to love, but, like Jane, also has a terrible secret. And while all of this drama is going on in their personal lives, their children are trying to make it through kindergarten in one piece.
Highly recommended for readers who like their mysteries interlaced with some backstabbing parents and heartbreaking secrets. I’m interested to see the HBO series now and see how true they were to the book.
Something is wrong with the king. His five daughters rush home from various parts of the world to try to figure out what is going on. No one likes a power vacuum.
Meanwhile, there’s problems in the marriage of one of the sisters, whose alliance with the kingdom next door helps keep war to a minimum. Also, there’s raiders who have a mysterious crow-shaped tattoo accosting people on the roads. So, there’s a lot going on.
And that doesn’t even take into account everything that is happening to the twins, the sister whose magic is awakening and the eldest, who stands to inherit the throne if her father dies.
“Bluebell wasn’t a child. She knew one day her father would die and she would take his place. She had prepared her whole life for the moment, but it had always been abstract, like a story.” pgs 17-18 ebook
The number of characters in this book may seem daunting at first, but Kim Wilkins introduces them slowly. It makes it easy to keep track of who is who.
“Her father was dying — and her father was the king of Almissia, the largest and most powerful kingdom in Thyrsland. And when he was dead… Well, what would they say? They could not caution her if she was grieving. A counselor’s first law was that compassion comes before all else.” pg 34, ebook.
That being said, the characters are rather flat. As for the sisters, we have the violent one, amorous one, magical one, religious one and promiscuous one. The “bad guys” feel rather the same too — fixated on achieving their goals at any cost, killing indiscriminately. There is very little gray area or layered meaning in this tale. (With one notable exception, but no spoilers!)
“Now everything had been twisted out of shape, the threads of his destiny balled in a hopeless knot. It would be a measure of the kind of man he was if he could smooth things out, take charge of his future, shape the world to his will.” pg 191
Despite the simplistic characters, I would not classify this read as young adult. There’s some violent and sexual situations that younger readers may find confusing. Also, one of the characters, when she can’t think of anything else to say, just uses the f-word, which was disappointing. There are so many different ways to express frustration…
Honestly, I wanted more action in this story and better dialogue. I wanted more magic and less brooding angst. I wanted the sisters to band together and rage across the land like avenging Valkyries. I guess we don’t always get what we want.
“Rose was silent, sulking. Bluebell responded by pretending she didn’t notice. Ash lost herself in thoughts about her power, her Becoming, and how she was to try to make a future for herself.” pg 203
The description of Daughters of the Storm says this book is “Norse-like” but I felt like it was more generic fantasy. I think the author was leaning towards a tale of warriors and gods, but we never quite got there. It was more of a promise unfulfilled.
For what it is though, it is engaging. Readers who like fantasy, large casts of characters and broad story lines may enjoy this book. As an added bonus, the second entry in the series, Sisters of the Fire came out this month, so you don’t have to wait to read what happens next.
“But now, here, once and for all, I set down my tale. I am not who I was then. I said I was ignorant, and I am not wrong, though by that point I had learned that men lived upside down from us, that for them the ocean was below, the Abyss above, our gravities only meeting at the surface.” pg 15
Patrick Ness weaves a re-telling of Moby-Dick, or, the Whale from the point of view of the whales. It falls some what short of his usual magic.
I think the trouble with re-telling major stories or fairy tales, (as I’ve discussed in previous reviews, Dorothy Must Die comes to mind) is that unless the remake is extraordinary in some way, it won’t surpass the original story. It’s exciting to revisit beloved worlds or, in this case, a classic tale and upend reader’s expectations. Using the point of view of the whales is unique, but the story seems to stall there.
The original Moby Dick gives us obsession and memorable characters. Bathsheba, the young apprentice whale in this tale, is a confused mess most of the time. That doesn’t lend itself to either greatness or memorability.
Ness is at his best when he’s describing Bathsheba’s world. I wish he had gotten more into how they respected and feared the depths of the ocean, which they considered the opposite of the ‘Abyss’ in our world. I also wish he had taken readers through one of the cities constructed by the whales. He hinted at a civilization beyond the hunt, but we never quite got there.
I guess he was trying to build tension with the hunt for Toby Wick. I wanted a more layered fantasy tale.
“Maybe it takes a devil to fight a devil,” I said. “But at the end of the fight, Bathsheba,” he said, “Don’t only devils remain?” And for a moment in the ocean, there was only blackness. We were alone. Even with ourselves. And whatever devils lurked, unseen. pg 99
The artwork by Rovina Cai is beautiful and spare, utilizing very few colors or many fine details beyond shading. I think she conveys the idea that most of the story takes place underwater very well. I liked the illustrations perhaps more than I liked the story.
If you must read And the Ocean Was Our Sky, may I suggest borrowing it from your local library.
Sebastian Maniscalco (one of my favorite comics) shares his journey from just another funny guy to successful stand-up comedian.
I was so excited to see Sebastian had penned a memoir. If you’ve never had a chance to enjoy one of his specials or to see him live, I highly recommend it. He has a very physical style of comedy. You can see his emotions on his face while he runs all around the stage, mimicking other people and ridiculous situations for laughs. Sebastian is an observational comic who skewers the every day nonsense that others might miss because it’s so mundane. It’s a gift.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t translate as well into a book. However, I was notified by Netflix that he has a special coming out this week with the same name as this book, Stay Hungry. You better believe I’m going to watch it to see if any of what was in here makes it on the screen. I think it might have a chance to shine that way.
As it is, the material just doesn’t have the same flavor as the comedy I’m accustomed to from Sebastian.
For starters, I think Jim Gaffigan has the food angle of comedy pretty well sewn up. Sebastian apparently enjoys food too, but it didn’t feel like his introduction was particularly strong because I associate food so heavily with Gaffigan.
Another thing about me: I’m constantly starving. My entire day is planning around food. What’s for breakfast? Should I scramble a couple eggs like a normal human, or wolf down the dozen my appetite is telling me to do? pg 9, ebook.
On the other hand, Sebastian quickly moves away from the “food” type of hungry into the real meaning of this work, which is to always keep looking and moving towards the next step of your career. This is more about “being hungry” for success, not resting on your laurels.
He’s been a mover and a shaker almost his entire life, having worked multiple jobs from a very young age. Sebastian was kicked into the workforce by his father and supported by his large Italian family. This cocoon of family meant more to him than he realized, but its importance became clear when he moved to Los Angeles and his family was back in Chicago.
So I went from that environment, a welcoming, warm home with tons of people coming and going, to my one-bedroom in Hollywood with a naked man outside the only window. pg 20, ebook.
Success didn’t come either quickly or easily to Sebastian, but he never gave up. He always kept reaching for it. And he relied on his friends and family back home to never let him forget where he came from.
I love to share what I’m doing with my family and old friends. That’s where I get my enjoyment. No matter what, I can count on these guys to keep me grounded and rip me to shreds. pg 159, ebook.
In that way, this memoir is totally relatable. In other ways, Sebastian mingles with celebrities and lives an upper class lifestyle with his bride. He describes the first weeks of being a new parent and learning the ins-and-outs from a night nurse, who stayed with his baby so they could get some sleep. Not so relatable…
Recommended for readers who like memoirs about someone climbing the ladder to their dreams. Fans of Sebastian may want to stick to watching his stand up routines, many of which are available on Netflix.
Tana French’s second book in The Dublin Murder Squad series packs a serious punch. Cassie Maddox, a former murder squad detective, has moved to a different unit because of the stresses of the case called “Vestal Virgin” and personal difficulties with her former partner. She’s dragged back into the murder squad, when a woman’s body is found and she’s carrying identification showing her name is one of Cassie’s former undercover personas.
This is the main thing you need to know about Alexandra Madison: she never existed. Frank Mackey and I invented her, a long time ago, on a bright summer afternoon in his dusty office on Harcourt Street. pg 12, ebook.
The slain woman has a unique living situation. She rooms with four other adults in a stately manor home called Whitethorn House. The group is a tightly-knit bunch of university students who not only live together, but also spend nearly every waking moment in each other’s company.
“Her main associates,” Sam said evenly, “were a bunch of other postgrads: Daniel March, Abigail Stone, Justin Mannering and Raphael Hyland.” pg 71
None of the group had a motive for killing Alexandra, whom they called Lexie. Or did they? Or perhaps it was someone outside the group, someone who had an old reason for hating them and the house. Or maybe it was a crime of opportunity… and who was Lexie Madison anyway?
Cassie’s superiors ask her to use her physical similarity to the dead woman to infiltrate the group in an undercover operation to try to dig up some answers. Can she pull it off? And, if she does, will whoever attacked Lexie come at her again?
“This is the part I didn’t tell Sam: bad stuff happens to undercovers. A few of them get killed. Most lose friends, marriages, relationships. A couple turn feral, cross over to the other side so gradually that they never see it happening till it’s too late…” pg 62, ebook.
The tension throughout this entire book is incredible. I noticed the same thing with French’s other book, In the Woods. She really has a way of building the story up through complex layers and then delaying the big reveal to pour on the stress.
The characters are fantastic. The conversations are dances, setting up further plot points.
“She’s fine,” said Abby. “She just said so.” “I’m only asking. The police kept saying—” “Don’t poke at it.” “What?” I asked. “What did the police keep saying?” “I think,” Daniel said, calmly but finally, turning in his chair to look at Justin, “that we should leave it at that.”
I had to suspend my disbelief at a couple points in the story. The big one was believing that Cassie looked enough like the dead woman to make the undercover part even possible. I suppose I’ve heard stories about doppelgangers, but I’ve never truly believed such a thing actually exists.
Highly recommended for readers who like their mysteries with a heaping side dish of tension.
The past comes alive in Paul Martin‘s compilation of villains, scoundrels and rogues from history.
Although many of these people were famous in their own time, they’ve largely slipped into the shadows for most modern readers. … What makes these figures worthy of note is that their life stories all read like fiction. From the introduction.
And they really do. From the truly terrible like serial killers, including one who wore a suit made of human skin, to the less terrible like fraudsters and a counterfeiter of one dollar bills, these are people who made their mark on history in one way or another.
I find this kind of non-fiction read absolutely fascinating. It makes me wonder, these are the stories that almost slipped through the cracks. How many note-worthy people have been completely forgotten?
I have a small quibble about how this book was organized. Martin takes the reader from the awful to less-awful, which seems anticlimactic. Shouldn’t it have gone the other way?
Dr. Martine Rothblatt, an expert in medical ethics, takes the time to imagine a future in which artificial intelligence is real and the potential problems that could arise from such interactions.
Unfortunately, I found Virtually Human to be virtually unreadable.
The introduction sounded promising enough — a description of the robot that Dr. Rothblatt created and its capabilities — but then Dr. Rothblatt launches into an abstract conversation about what is consciousness. She applies her definition to hypothetical artificial intelligences, which haven’t been created yet, and proceeds into a dizzying array of potential scenarios involving mindclones and “bemans”.
She talks about potential marriages between people and machines, various types of AI — some dysfunctional, some not — voting rights, reproduction rights, and more. It all reads like a discussion of very dry, very abstract human rights law mixed with a smidgen of science fiction, but not enough to be engaging.
Dr. Rothblatt certainly knows her stuff, but is seemingly unable to impart her knowledge in an approachable manner. Perhaps, I should say, this is a book that would probably be enjoyed by scholars interested the subject.
I suppose this might be more interesting when such technology actually exists, but in the meantime, it seems rather pointless to be asking ourselves if mindclones should have the right to vote or not. I’m not convinced that by asking ourselves unanswerable questions we’ll be better prepared for when/if this sort of thing actually occurs. Maybe we’ll just have to take life as it comes.
I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads.
I liked having Harry back on this side of the veil, but I was so-so about the rest of Cold Days, the latest entry in The Dresden Files.
Man. Being mostly dead is hard on a guy. pg 11, ebook.
Harry Dresden, wizard for hire, is now the Winter Knight after a series of misadventures and serious adventures in the past couple of books. And the position isn’t very much fun.
The winter fae are hardcore. They’re mean, full of tricks and generally happy to kill without consideration for any consequences. So you can see how poorly Harry is going to fit in.
Queen Mab, his new boss, is smart and dangerous. She also has a lot of pans in the fire that the reader isn’t necessarily aware of until later in the book. But, being that it’s the freaking Queen of the Winter Fae, maybe I should have expected more backstabby things.
“Oh, the Sidhe’s influence had been waning as the Industrial Age gathered steam,” I said. “By making sure the tales kept being told to mortal children, she made sure that she and her folk were never forgotten.” pg 28
I didn’t like Harry’s character development as much in this book. It seems like much of his choice and free will was taken away when he took up the “mantle” of the Winter Knight. I’m not sure that my feeling is fair though. How much choice did he have when he was under the thumb of the White Council? Or being manipulated by the Red Court, etc.
See, that’s the tragedy of the human condition. No one wants to be corrupted by power when they set out to get it. They have good, even noble reasons for doing whatever it is they do. They don’t want to misuse it, they don’t want to abuse it, and they don’t want to become vicious monsters. Good people, decent people, set out to take the high road, to pick up power without letting it change them or push them away from their ideals. pg 30
Harry continues to use “blast first, ask questions later” but now he’s got ammunition made out of ice in addition to fire and he isn’t afraid to use it. His new job (and prior ghost experience) have driven some major wedges between Harry and his friends. I didn’t like that we saw less of the minor characters, some of whom I’ve grown quite fond of. Bob the Skull is the one that comes to mind first, but there were others.
I’m not entirely sure his relationship with Molly is ever going to be the same. The patchwork relationship fixes Harry makes with Karrin Murphy, Butters and Thomas are questionable. Overall, I just felt sad. Sometimes, we out grow our friends or they out grow us. I wanted Harry to be best of pals with those folks forever.
Butters tore off a final piece of medical tape, stuck the end of the bandage down with it, and sighed. “Yeah. Just try not to… well, move, or jump around, or do anything active, or touch anything dirty, or otherwise do anything else that I know you’re going to do anyway in the next twenty-four hours.” pg 287
That’s not to say there aren’t moments to enjoy in this book. There’s still magic, danger and adventure. But I feel like things have certainly changed since a few books ago, and Jim Butcher hasn’t necessarily recaptured the magic he conjured when his characters were racing to prevent the death of a little girl at the hands of Red Court vampires.
Wizarding just isn’t what it used to be. Not so many years ago, I’d think it was a busy week if someone asked me to locate a lost dog or a wedding ring. It had been horribly boring. I’d had lots and lots of free time. I hadn’t been rich, but I’d gotten to buy plenty of books to read, and I’d never gone hungry. And no one had tried to kill me, or asked me to make a horrible choice. Not once.pg 457
I’m dragging my feet on picking up the next entry, Skin Game, because I read that it was the last that Butcher has finished, for now. There are plans in the works for another book, Peace Talks but it isn’t finished yet. I’ve been burned by too many science fiction/fantasy writers like George R.R. Martin or Scott Lynch to expect that the next book will be finished any time in the near future.
Butcher writes on his professional website that he’s lost his dog, gotten a divorce, moved, been delayed in the construction of his new house and gotten engaged since the publication of the last book in the Dresden Files. That’s a lot of change. I wonder if it will come through in his writing…
Maybe I’m mourning the loss of Harry Dresden before the series even ends? The ending seems to be there or at least coming towards us, on the horizon. In addition to the approaching end, I feel like the quality of writing in the books isn’t as good as it was, even a few books ago, when Butcher almost blew up the world he had created with the awfulness that went on between Harry and Molly.
Anyway, of course I will read the next book. Maybe over the holidays, which are swiftly approaching.
In conclusion, I wish Cold Days was more whimsical like the first books in the series or action-packed like some of the last. Because it seems to exist in this middling reality where Harry can’t do anything right and seems to be losing friends faster than he’s making them, all the while spinning his wheels on ice and being manipulated by others who are far more powerful and inventive than he will ever be.
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