The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels--A Love Story
This is just bad. It's listed as non-fiction despite the fact that the author seems to recall in great detail every emotion, thought, tear, AND article of clothing worn during the courtship with her husband. Poor little rich girl meets cowboy worth millions and proceeds to have a fantasy fairytale romance. One wonders if the bulge in his jeans that attracted her the most was his wallet. But then again she, admittedly, could afford to buy $495 coats when she was an unemployed college graduate living with her parents, so perhaps it was a mutual financial romance. So to everyone who insists she is "keeping it real", when is the last time you knew a "real" person who could afford top end china, couture clothing, and had a TV Studio/professional kitchen/bed & breakfast on their vast cattle empire?
The Da Vinci Code
Horrible, trite writing. Unoriginal conclusion. Overly contrived character motivation. Just awful.
The Deviant Strain (Doctor Who)
It wasn't my favorite Doctor Who book, but it's still Doctor Who so ... Aside from that, the plot was just okay. The whole Russian thing isn't really anything I'm interested in though.
The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac
The reviews said this was supposed to be funny. I honestly can't say if it is or not because I disliked the book so much I never finished it. I wanted to like it, but the main character bored me to tears. An over-privileged under-stimulated middle class college graduate with no direction in his life bemoaning his fate. His father has cancer, his sister is pregnant, his mother is struggling to pay the bills, but Calvin's biggest concern is how he's going to save enough to get his own apartment and pay his student loan. If that's not the definition of a shallow unlikeable character I don't know what is. Every time I picked up this book I lost interest after only a few pages. Enough's enough. I'm done. I hate whiny novels.
Trapped
The overall idea of the book was good, but it was poorly written. Seems to be written for teen boys but some overly sexual remarks made me think twice about giving this to my 13 year old son. They're mild for an adult but some of the comments objectify women as sexual objects and I will not expose my child to those attitudes. If that was the worst of the book I might have given it another star, but the plot is dull, nothing much really happens other than what you'd expect, the writer spends too much time telling instead of showing. Feels like a 15 year old boy wrote this book.
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen: A Novel
Glad I hung in there with this one, although at first I didn't think it was going anywhere. There was a problem with the dates in this book however. Short of spoiling the plot I'll just say the author got off track with her timeline. Despite that it turned out to be a pretty decent read.
Tuesdays at the Castle
Wonderful children's book filled with all the things that truly great children's books SHOULD have. Adventure, magic, and bravery all wrapped up in an entertaining story. Perfect for grades 4-7, and even us older people who still like a little bit of magic to believe in.
A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy)
This book was dumb. The plot went nowhere and the book was filled with annoying "oh so perfect and amazing" Mary Sue type characters. I think we need to organize a search party to find all the good book editors as they no longer seem to exist. The fact that this author, Dan Brown, Stephenie Meyer, and others can get published is proof.
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
I wanted to like this book but eventually I had to stop wasting time on it and move on. The threads of the narrative were not woven together in any way that made sense. There was a lot of skipping around during the timeframe of the novel with no explanation for the sequence of things. The author is working at Babbo in NYC, then in Italy, then maybe a second stint at the restaurant? And perhaps a second or third trip to Italy? Culinary history is mixed in and while interesting didn't fit well. Honestly I think the author had three books here that he crammed into one, and rather sloppily in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, the information was interesting if you like culinary information, it just needed to be more clear and more concise.
