Reading

I didn’t mean to take a blogging hiatus – I just don’t know where the days went. 

My niece has been asking me to do a book post.  We’ve lived here for almost seven years and I just discovered our local library.  Now that I have found it I’ve made it my habit to stop in once a week for a new book and I’ve read a couple of interesting ones.

I love books with a mystical food bent – like Joanne Harris’ Chocolat or Laura Esquival’s Like Water for Chocolate.  Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen has a similar theme, although it is a little fluffier than the first two mentioned.  It is the story of two estranged sisters that come from an eccentric family – one of them infuses her food with different herbs and spices that affect the eaters in different ways.

I just finished Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis – the story of a young woman, living in her family home, that decides to clone her deceased Grandmother when she discovers that she cannot have children of her own.   Instead of creating a baby, like she anticipates, her ‘grandmother’ is born a 22 year old with her memories intact.  She can’t understand why her house has fallen into such disrepair and who all these people are living in it. 

The subject (cloning) may not appeal to everyone and it might seem, on the surface, to be kind of science fiction-y but really it’s a love story.

If you are more of a mystery fan – I highly recommend Deanna Rayburn.  I read Silent in the Grave last year and the author has come up with a sequel – Silent in the Sanctuary (which is on my ‘to read’ list).  The protagonist is a young widow (widowed in the first novel) that hooks up with a mysterious, Victorian era ‘private eye’ (they probably didn’t call them that back then…).  Very engaging characters and the descriptions are so vivid you almost feel like you are there. 

I just picked up Stephen King’s latest – Duma Key, this week.  20 years ago I loved Stephen King but my interest kind of waned around the time the Dark Tower series started.  I read a review that this latest novel is more in keeping with his The Stand days so I checked it out.  Only problem is as soon as I pick it up I start to nod off.  I’m going to give it a 100 pages and if it doesn’t totally capture my attention I’m going to send it back to the library.

I really should get my nose out of a book and start posting more.  As I write I have two lovely Russian gentlemen installing tile in my kitchen.  They are going to finish up tomorrow and I’ll take pictures and do a proper ‘before and after’ post of our kitchen remodel.   It only took us two and half years to decide on a backsplash….