The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian

Amy     

Lynnie 

contemporary fiction


Michael Zadoorian's The Leisure Seeker chronicles a final road trip taken by an elderly couple, against their family’s and doctors’ wishes, along Route 66 in their old Leisure Seeker RV. As the adventure progresses, the reader learns more about the couple’s lives and histories.

Amy's Review

I read this book at the recommendation of a friend. It was a quick read and a perfect choice to read during my own weekend road trip. It’s very bittersweet.  The story’s climax is not until the very end and I found myself occasionally hoping something more exciting would happen along the way. Yet, despite the lack of a gripping event during the story, the intrigue of the adventure and curiosity about what would happen when (if?) they reached their destination kept me interested enough to keep reading. The love that the man and woman still shared was very endearing and we can only hope that our love for our partners is as healthy and strong after 60 years of marriage. I can imagine that I will hold these brave and adventurous characters close to my heart for a long while.


Lynnie's Review

This book took me a lot longer to read than I expected it to in large part because I just found it depressing. It certainly had its moments, but I realized about 10% into the book where it was headed & I was really in no hurry to get there.

I was surprised while reading it to discover that Route 66 really doesn't exist anymore, which I guess I sort of knew but didn't realize the extent of its decline. In my mind I've always imagined it like US 1- less traveled, but still around, romanticized a bit even. Anyway- the characters were interesting, if sad, & I enjoyed reading about the travel despite the characters.

There's a sad little slice of life portrayed in these pages & I'm glad to be done with it.

Finding Fraser by K.C. Dyer

Amy  

women's fiction

Amy's Review
(audiobook)

In Finding Fraser by K.C. Dyer, Emma is not a smart woman. She has no life plan. She gets fired from her job, sells all of her possessions in Chicago, and decides to take off to Scotland to find her very own Jamie Fraser. (He’s the lead male character in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and he happens to be my literary boyfriend, as he is for most women who have read the novels.) So, only because I love Jamie and can understand why a woman would go searching for her own version, I decided to read a book that I would normally never read based on the story premise. I thought it might be funny.

Nope. It was a fairly flat novel. Emma blunders her way through her travels, continually making mostly unwise decisions. She predictably gets taken advantage of and walked all over because she has no self-concern and no clue. But, the worst part of the story by far was when she pathetically insisted on trying to stay attached to the wrong guy. And this went on FOREVER. I mean, I had thought she was stupid before, but I lost all respect for her at that point and she was never able to redeem herself in my eyes. And, when she ends up with the guy who the reader knows she will end up with (no mystery here), it does nothing to improve my opinion of this character or her story. I am left wondering why the guy likes her. What could possibly attract someone of his caliber to someone like her with no impressive skills or brain? It’s certainly not her writing skills, which the author tries to make us believe are so evident from her travel blog.

Fortunately, I was able to smirk at several inconspicuous references to the Outlander novels—other than the obvious ones which were pointed out to be Outlander references during the novel. Those sneaky “easter eggs” were the best thing about the novel. But, they were not enough to make me recommend this novel to anyone.

I listened to the audiobook and give the narrator a C-. I didn’t love the tone of her voice and her accents weren’t great (although, better than I could do myself, admittedly).

Their Fractured Light (Starbound #3) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Amy     
Lynnie  

action/suspense, sci-fi, young adult

When a LaRoux Industries (LRI) security breach interrupts Gideon and Sofia’s separate attempts to infiltrate the LRI headquarters, they’re forced to work together to escape. Each of them has their own reason for wanting to take down LRI, and neither trusts the other. But working together might be the best chance they have to expose the secrets LRI is so desperate to hide.

Amy's Review
(audiobook)

What an awesome finale to the series! In fact, Their Fractured Light was my favorite book in the series. The best thing about it was the pacing and momentum and suspense. I never wanted to stop listening! (Yes, I “read” the audiobook as I had done with the first two novels in the series.) And, I was thinking about the characters when I wasn’t able to listen. The new characters, Sofia and Gideon, were even better than all the previous characters we’d met in earlier novels. And their interactions with the old characters were perfect. The setting changes were well drawn. And even the difficult science behind the fiction was mostly understandable and well-explained. As much as I often shake my head at novels where teenagers act more like kids than adults, I had to let the particularly frustrating scene go in this one and admit that it was probably realistic for Gideon and Sofia.

My only complaint is similar to my big complaint with book #2. Those annoying whispers! Once again, having to put the brakes on the story to experience things from the whispers’ point of view was inconvenient. Once again, most of their sections were unnecessary—just forced buffers between the two narrators’ sections—which added no value to the story and only disrupted the flow. Their voicing has been improved since book #2. But, even though they sounded more realistic, I really had a hard time understanding them at times—especially in the first half. So, I didn’t understand that we were hearing different factions of whispers at different times. I didn’t understand that they were often going back to the past. I can’t help but feel that I wouldn’t have minded so much if I had read the book instead of suffered through these sections of the audiobook. I really wish the authors didn’t feel the need to force these sections in between every single chapter. Oh well.

If you ignore all the whispers, it was a fantastic novel! I loved it!

Lynnie's Review
(partial audiobook)

A fun ending to the trilogy!

I listened to the first half of this book on a road trip & finished it with the physical book. While I enjoyed it, it felt long and occasionally dragged, particularly when the "whispers" broke into the action. Even though their little snippets were short, they never failed to stop the momentum. Even worse, they often whispered (ha! See what I did there?) about events from previous books which then made me stop to try and remember what they were talking about and why it mattered- it was entirely unnecessary.

That said, I really enjoyed the two new characters introduced in this novel-- Sofia & Gideon (well, Sofia was introduced in the 2nd book in the series, This Shattered World). In fact, I think they were the most interesting of all the main characters. This book is filled with action & moves at a great pace (when not interrupted by the whispers) which kept me interested throughout. I enjoyed how all 6 main characters came together, weaving their stories together in a way that didn't seem forced. A fun series from beginning to end.

Here is our review of the first book in the series, These Broken Stars.
And our review of the second book in the series, This Shattered World. 

Cookbook Reviews- Chicken & Egg and A Homemade Life

I love cookbooks but don't have the space for them in my kitchen. Therefore, I am a serial cookbook borrower- from the library or friends, it doesn't matter- I read them, write out the recipes that look good to me and send the book back for someone else to enjoy. Here are the latest additions to my non-collection.

 -Lynnie

Chicken and Egg: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading by Janice Cole


I'm always looking for new ways to use my CSA share & since the Little Free Library at my CSA had this book I decided it was a match made in heaven.

This is a GREAT collection of recipes, particularly if you find yourself with a glut of chicken and/or eggs & want some new ways to enjoy them. I can't WAIT to make some of the recipes from this book. The book is organized by season, taking other seasonal foods into account, which is a lovely way to consider dining. For two staple foods, there is a lot of creativity in these recipes.



 
A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg


This is a lovely cookbook- each recipe with it's own story. Honestly, I enjoyed the stories more than the recipes. The reality is that a lot (I mean a LOT) of the recipes are desserts & generally I don't cook a lot of sweets. I did get a couple good-looking savory recipes from the book, but overall it's a miss for me. I think if you really enjoy making dessert though, you'd get much more out of this book than I did. 

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Amy 

historical fiction

Wow.  Geraldine Brooks is really a fantastic author.  This is the fourth book I’ve read by her. I must admit that I’ve read none of them by choice.  I’d have never selected any of them based on their descriptions but they were all book club choices over the years.  This is why I participate in book clubs, after all.  This novel wasn’t as good as The Secret Chord, her best, in my opinion, but was amazingly beautiful despite the terrible topic of living through the plague.  For me to highly rate a book about such a doomed topic is high praise!

Year of Wonders tells the story of a small plague-inflicted village in England that made the tough decision to cut themselves off from the rest of the world so as not to spread infection.  It is a fictional story based on a real town, Eyam, in which this truly occurred.  It is told from one young woman’s point of view—a woman who grows so much during the course of the story and is quite a heroic figure in several ways.  The townspeople are described so vividly and the picture is painted so well by Brooks’ words.  As I listened to the audiobook, I would look forward to any opportunity to be able to listen. 

I was going to give the narrator a “B”.  But, at the end, the audiobook was credited as being read by the author herself!  This made me change my mind about her grade—I give her an “A”!  I love it when an author reads their own books because the reader’s interpretation of the story is JUST as the author intended!  The main reason I was going to give her a B was because she sometimes sounded like she was about to fall asleep while reading—she would get a little lazy and lose gumption so that it seemed as if final consonants were a struggle.  But, when not seeming sleepy, her tone was a perfect one for the character of Anna. And her inflections and acting when reading the more exciting parts were really perfect.  She did not bother to change her voice for different characters but that was not a problem for this story.  It worked.  And, I do appreciate her taking the time to record the whole thing for listeners like me!