The Rose and the Dagger (The Wrath and the Dawn #2) by Renee Ahdieh

Amy   

young adult, fantasy, action/suspense

This last novel in the duology by Renee Ahdieh was not as good as the first.  It held my interest but it did not grab me as much as the first one did.  The Rose and the Dagger continues where The Wrath and the Dawn left off, Shazi has been taken away from her love, The Caliph, for the good of the city.  She is with her family who has joined a revolutionary group that is set to destroy the Caliph and she must try to unite the people she loves. 

I did enjoy this one except for the often painful slowness of the characters’ thought processes. Sometimes when reading YA, I really see why a certain book is YA. I don't have the patience for the slow speed at which the teenagers come to be more mature and wise. They brood and behave rashly and get repetitive and long-winded. They have to become sobered to reality and learn and grow up before they become interesting to me. This isn’t how I feel about all YA novels, obviously, or I wouldn’t read so much of it. But, this sequel left me feeling a bit hollow because it was just too teenishly annoying. I did still enjoy the well-drawn settings, as with the first novel. And the overall adventure kept me interested. But, all the little side stories being told halted forward progress and began to bore me. I understand that these stories are in tribute to 1001 Nights, upon which this series is based. But, I didn’t feel these added to the story arc.

So, I give the author kudos for her writing and creativity but never felt the true love for this novel that Khalid and Shahrzad felt for each other.

A Handful of Cookbook Reviews

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

Cooking for Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

Possibly my favorite cookbook of the year, this is another great cookbook from Ina Garten. Lots of great recipes for all occasions & I love how she always includes tips on which items can be made ahead of time & the best way to do so. The stories she included about her life with Jeffrey were cute, but the recipes, as always, are the highlights. I have a bunch that I've written down to try. 

The Barefoot Contessa always has recipes that most home cooks are capable of handling. I look forward to her food every time I cook it. 

 Top Secret Recipes Step by Step by Todd Wilbur

How often do you find yourself at a restaurant and think, "I wish I could make this at home!"? This was a fun cookbook to read through for just that reason.

I found several recipes that I hope to make including Pepperidge Farm Milanos, Outback Steakhouse's Honey Wheat Bushman Bread and many others. I've already made the Cracker Barrel Hashbrown Casserole and it was a winner (and I had an entire PAN of it to enjoy!).

I'll definitely be looking at some of Wilbur's other Top Secret cookbooks to try.

Weight Watchers 50th Anniversary Cookbook by Weight Watchers

My library got this book so I decided to look through it. I don't participate with Weight Watchers, but I've cooked a lot of their recipes over the years & almost without exception each has been a solid, flavorful recipe so I am always curious to see what they are coming up with (and there's definitely less guilt when you cook these recipes).

This cookbook is a compilation of some of the most popular Weight Watchers recipes over the years and in many cases they've been updated for modern techniques and flavors. I definitely got a few recipes from the book that I'm eager to try in the future. As always, a sound collection of recipes. 

The Nix by Nathan Hill

Amy    
Lynnie 

historical fiction, mystery

The Nix covers the lives of a mother and son: Samuel Andreson-Anderson, a college English teacher, and his mother, Faye, who has been missing from Samuel's life since she walked out when he was 10.  It's 2011 and Samuel must confront his mother after discovering that she has attacked a presidential candidate and is facing a trial and prison time.  Samuel's life is not what he dreamed it would be.  Faye's life was not what she dreamed it would be either.  By going back in time to Samuel's childhood, Faye's high school and college days, and even to the point at which Faye's father came to America from Norway, we learn the family history and the settings in which poor decisions were made alongside rotten luck. 

Amy's Review

This novel was recommended by a friend. Overall, I liked this novel. It made me smile at times despite the non-comical topics. And, at first, I loved the exaggerated, detailed way Nathan Hill described the characters in such a realistic and flawed way that I felt like I've known people who were exactly like these characters. His sentences, at times, flow on seamlessly to the point where they reveal the characters’ more dire, depressing circumstances. And, thankfully, the futility of their situations are described with a little humor! However, I eventually got tired of the lengthy descriptions, run-on sentences, and extensive listings. I got the author’s point after a paragraph or two but he sometimes went on for pages, getting more and more detailed and/or exaggerated. So, I started skimming those descriptive segments which were adding nothing to the forward motion of the story.

The political commentary seemed timely in our current climate from the lying leaders to the college protests to the media trying to remain impartial to the farmers in Iowa not understanding the city life realities to the police brutality. It’s sad to think that we’ve been here before and learned nothing. At times, I could have been reading a story about what is going on today instead of 1968. I particularly found this passage (from 2011 in the novel) topical:
“What’s true? What’s false? In case you haven’t noticed, the world has pretty much given up on the old Enlightenment idea of piecing together the truth based on observed data. Reality is too complicated and scary for that. Instead, it’s way easier to ignore all data that doesn’t fit your preconceptions and believe all data that does. I believe what I believe, and you believe what you believe, and we’ll agree to disagree. It’s liberal tolerance meets dark ages denialism. It’s very hip right now.”
“This sounds awful.”
“We are more politically fanatical than ever before, more religiously zealous, more rigid in our thinking, less capable of empathy. The way we see the world is totalizing and unbreakable. We are completely avoiding the problems that diversity and worldwide communication imply. Thus, nobody cares about antique ideas like true or false.”

Some things I really enjoyed: the musical descriptions in the section about Bethany's childhood, Disney World described from a cynic’s point of view, the sad details of the life of a computer gaming addict, the fact that the story was told from three main different time periods. Some things I really didn’t like was that one of the main characters ended up surviving his medical emergency (I won’t say more or will give things away)—was the author too attached to just kill him off? I also didn’t like what another of the characters from Faye’s college days became (again, I’m being vague on purpose).

However, I thought the book was well-done overall. I didn’t really love any of the characters but they were interesting and hopeful and that is what kept me going.  

Lynnie's Review

I am the only person I know who didn't really like this book. Honestly, it was a chore for me to finish and admittedly I skimmed a great deal of the last half.

The writing is really wonderful and maybe with some good editing I would have appreciated it more. Rather I found myself distracted by things that were completely superfluous to the story (the entire Elfscape thread in the book for instance). Those moments made me dread reading the story, which made it harder for me to appreciate the really wonderful parts.

I really enjoyed the second section about Samuel's childhood and the sections about Faye's life in the '60s, but generally I only tolerated the rest. There's a lot of navel gazing in this book and while Hill paints a really vivid picture, sometimes it's obnoxiously over-explained. We don't just get a description of a room (for example), we get the smells, the lighting, a description of the way the dust motes float in the lighting, the way it makes Samuel feel and the memories it evokes before we ever get to learn what he's doing in the room and by then I no longer really care all that much.

I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I were on vacation and had both the time and inclination to completely immerse and lose myself in a story. Unfortunately I read it during the holiday season when my patience is already thin. Sometimes a book finds you at the wrong time and I think that was the case with me and The Nix.

Lynnie's Favorite Books of 2016

Another year of reading has passed and once again, it's time to look back and decide which books were my favorites.  With 2 weeks left to go in December I've read 43 books and once again I'm happy to say that I enjoyed the majority of them.  In fact, only 6 books were rated below 3 stars on Goodreads and there was only one book that I didn't finish this year (though there were a handful I wish I hadn't finished!). 

One book I won't include in this year's favorites list is Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling. I did give it 5 stars, but I've re-read it so many times that it wouldn't be fair to count it.  I plan to re-read the entire series within the next few years, but we'll have to see what other books get in the way of that. 

Here are the books I really enjoyed this year- in no particular order:

Favorite Books for Grown Ups:

Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin

Generally I don't love mysteries or thrillers, but this book held my attention right from the beginning because I was totally sucked in by the characters. The premise of this book is that the narrator, Tessa, is the only survivor of a serial killer. She helped convict a man for the crime, but now she has doubts about his guilt and, in fact, she's had doubts for a long time.  



 
How to Ruin Everything by George Watsky

I love Watsky's music and this short story collection really allows his gift for words and storytelling to come through.  This was a great journey through Watsky's adventures and mis-adventures and the lessons learned along the way. 




A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove is funny, charming, and remarkably moving as we get to watch as Ove rediscovers life, love, and community. A stubborn man, Ove is driven by his routine and his uncompromising ideas of the way the world should work.  Slowly, though, a new family in the neighborhood affects Ove and helps him learn to live again. 


 


American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis

Another short story collection, filled with unique stories & a menagerie of housewives. The characters in each story are at turns quirky, charming, disturbing & funny and yet each have something to offer. 



Favorite Young Adult Books: 

Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

The first book in this series (These Broken Stars) made my honorable mentions list last year.  I didn't love the second book in the series, but this final installment was really well done and exciting from beginning to end (other then when the action is interrupted by the "whispers" which I hated).  But I didn't hate the whispers enough to not love this book. A great conclusion to a fun series.



Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

This was a fascinating book. What do you believe when your narrator is paranoid & schizophrenic? Is anything real? Is it all a delusion? Those are the questions you must confront when reading Made You Up. Alex is a compelling character who is never sure if what she's seeing is real or in her head- which means you never know either and, to be sure, there are some gut punches along the way as delusions are confronted and reality is exposed.



Favorite Cookbook: 

Cooking for Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten 

I haven't published an official review of this book on the blog yet, but Ina's cookbooks continue to be filled with tasty recipes that can actually be recreated at home.  She's still my go to celebrity chef when I want a recipe that I know will work exactly the way I expect it to.




Looking for more great ideas? Here's an easy link to my favorite books from 2015 and 2014 as a bonus. Also, don't miss Amy's favorites from 2016!

Happy New Year!

Amy's Favorite Books Read in 2016

Here are the best books I read in 2016.  (These are not all books that were released during 2016.)  I read 50 books this year (so far).  I enjoy good stories that pull me in, interesting characters, action, and author creativity.  My preference is for the characters to go on some sort of adventure--either mentally or physically or both.  I like to escape the real world when I read. I did not give 5 stars to any book this year.  It happens.

My 2016 favorites, in order, were:

Standalones/first in a series:      

      1.      A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley (historical fiction, women’s fiction)      

      2.    Wonder by R.J. Palacio (young adult)

      3.      An Ember in the Ashes and A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes #1 and #2) by
             Sabaa Tahir (young adult, fantasy, action/suspense)

      4.      One Plus One by Jojo Moyes (women’s fiction)

      5.      The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (historical fiction)

      6.      The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks (historical fiction)

      7.      Riders (Riders #1) by Veronica Rossi (young adult, fantasy, action/suspense) 

      8.      Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (historical fiction)

Sequels:

1.      Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer (young adult, sci-fi, fantasy, action/suspense, romance)

2.      Their Fractured Light (Starbound #3) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (young adult, sci-fi, action/suspense)

Below are some details about the books above (listed alphabetically below):

A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley (historical fiction, women’s fiction) - Another Susanna Kearsley success. (This is the seventh novel I’ve read by this author.) Loved it! In typical Kearsley fashion, A Desperate Fortune tells two stories (where each featured young woman goes on an adventure)—one set in present day and one set in history. The device of deciphering a personal diary from the 1730s worked very well as a means of going back and forth. Both stories were fun and grabbed my attention equally. The modern-day story is about Sara Thomas, a woman with Asperger Syndrome, who has been hired to decipher an old diary. The historical story is about Jacobite exile Mary Dundas and her adventures during the time in which her diary was written. Other Kearsley novels have made my “Best of” lists in the past – The Firebird and Mariana.

An Ember in the Ashes and A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes #1 and #2) by Sabaa Tahir (young adult, fantasy, action/suspense) – Yes, I’m sneaking in two books here but I read them both this year and loved them equally.  In An Ember in the Ashes, Laia's brother is taken into custody by the Empire and she decides to find him and save him.  She is ill-prepared for the ensuing adventure yet she uses her wits and bravery to make significant progress during the novel.  Elias is a trained soldier who does not wish to be forced to kill so many people.  Events bring Laia and Elias together and they must work together in order to survive. In A Torch Against the Night, the story continues where the first novel left off.  Of course, dark forces are working against them and dangerous adventures ensue.  I loved these novels! Sabaa Tahir is a wonderful storyteller. They are true adventure stories, packed with action, forward motion, and suspense, about underdogs fighting to make their lives better. The cruelty and violence shown was sometimes difficult to bear but it all felt right for the story. The characters and the settings were extremely well-drawn and, mostly, believable. There are heroics and love and loyalty and hope. I couldn’t help but get caught up in Laia’s and Elias’ world and cheer for them from the stands.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (historical fiction) - The Nightingale was a great story that illustrated the lives of those living in France during WWII—those who were not soldiers but were left to face life during wartime in a land being occupied by German soldiers. It centered around two sisters with very different personalities. I enjoyed both viewpoints and the time period bouncing between past and present. All the characters were very well-developed. The story was sad, inspiring, shocking, educational, heartwarming, infuriating, and complete. It covered the entire lives of the main characters, although the meat of the story took place during the war years.

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes (women’s fiction) - One Plus One tells the stories of Jess Thomas and Ed Nicholls who both find themselves in dire straits.  Their desperate stories intersect and the readers get to go along for the ride.  There are several ups and downs.  There are emotional roller coasters.  It's an adventure, a love story, and a tribute to choices. And it’s funny!  I couldn’t help but fall in love with all the characters. And the situations, while a bit extreme, seemed feasible.  Moyes also made my “Best of 2014” list with Me Before You.

 

Riders (Riders #1) by Veronica Rossi (young adult, fantasy, action/suspense) – In Riders, four young men have woken up from serious accidents to realize they have special powers and are now the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse--War, Famine, Death, and Conquest.  The story is told by War (Gideon Blake) as he is strapped in an interrogation chair.  His story begins with his accident and covers his period of discovery about his new situation and his journey to locate the other three horsemen so that they can save the world from the evil Kindred. It was a compelling story full of engaging characters and action. This is one of those storylines you cannot describe to friends without sounding ridiculous. It sounds silly or unrealistic or ambitious. However, the way Rossi weaves the tale, it is entirely believable. The main character, Gideon, sucked me in from the first page and kept me wanting to turn each page. The story is creative and engrossing. I can’t wait to read what comes next for Gideon and the gang! All three books in her first trilogy, the Under the Never Sky series, made my “Best of” lists and the first novel in that series was my favorite book of 2012.

The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks (historical fiction) - The Secret Chord tells the story of the life of David, conqueror of Goliath.  I found the story and the characters so engaging.  It kept me interested to find out what happened next.  I thought it was very effective to have the narrator be Natan, David’s prophet and counselor.  He was in a position to know everything that was divulged in the story. I’ve never given much thought to David.  I knew he was little and Goliath was big when he became famous for defeating the “giant”.  And that’s about all I knew of David other than he was the subject of the famous statue by Michelangelo.  But, what an interesting life he had!  From very discouraging beginnings, to a youth of brilliance and success, to leading a triumphant kingdom, to his slow demise, David is a flawed hero who is difficult to reconcile at times.  Brooks definitely made him seem human—wise yet imperfect.  I thought it was a great novel.

Their Fractured Light (Starbound #3) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (young adult, sci-fi, action/suspense) – The first novel in this series made my “Best of 2015” list.  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. What an awesome finale to the series! In fact, this was my favorite book in the series. The best thing about it was the pacing and momentum and suspense. I never wanted to stop reading! The new characters 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. It was a fantastic novel.

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer (young adult, sci-fi, fantasy, action/suspense, romance) – Books #2 and #3 in this series made my “Best of 2015” list. This was a fabulous ending to a wonderful series. Every book was better than the one before! I don't believe I've ever experienced such a thing. Winter is the retelling of Snow White. This novel wove her storyline further into those already in progress of Cinder (Cinderella), Scarlet (Little Red Riding Hood), and Cress (Rapunzel). Winter had a little bit of everything--adventure, suspense, action, romance, loveable (and hateable) characters, and lots of author creativity and future lunar world-building. I do love a happy ending and this one was extremely satisfying.  (I have not yet blogged about this one because Lynnie plans to read it too and I'm waiting so we can do a joint posting.)

Wonder by R.J. Palacio - I loved this book!  It’s really geared for middle-schoolers, I think, but it’s worth the read for all ages.  This is the story of August, a boy born with facial deformities, who is attending school in a classroom for the first time in 5^th grade.   It is told from the viewpoint of several characters who, together, paint the complete picture for the reader.  Chapters are broken up into small chunks (for the benefit of the young reader, I presume) which worked perfectly for pacing.  The characters are so understandable and loveable (or not) and I appreciate the way the book deals with the issues of equality, adversity, and humanity.  It’s a quick read and has a lot of heart. 

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (historical fiction) – This is the second Brooks novel making my list this year! (See The Secret Chord above.) This story 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. 

If you're hungry for more, here are my Favorites from 2015 and 2014.  Also, don't miss Lynnie's favorites of 2016!

 

 

A World Without You by Beth Revis

Lynnie

young adult, fiction

I love Beth Revis and adored her Across the Universe series, but I did not love A World Without You. You know the worst thing about this book? The blurb- it spoiled everything. 

It's hard to enjoy a book when you know exactly what's going on and while the story itself is interesting- it would be even better if you didn't already know the reality of Bo's situation. Instead, I just felt sorry for Bo and his inability to cope with the world around him. I think mental illness is such an important topic, but I've read books that deal with youth mental health in a much better way. Was this realistic? Maybe. But I think it would've had a much bigger impact if I didn't already know the reality Bo was living in.

Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin

Lynnie

psychological thriller, mystery

I surprised myself by really enjoying Black-Eyed Susans!

Generally I'm not a huge fan of mystery/thrillers (for reference, I hated Gone Girl and Girl on the Train), but Heaberlin held my attention, because I was totally sucked in by the characters in Black-Eyed Susans. The premise of this book is that the narrator, Tessa, is the only survivor of a serial killer and obviously this has had an effect on everything in her life afterward. She helped convict a man for the crime, but now she has doubts about his guilt and, in fact, she's had doubts for a long time.

I had strong guesses about the "who" in the whodunnit portion of the story but I was completely invested in the how & why of things as the story unfolded as it wasn't clear in my mind how all the pieces fit together. The beginning of the book is a little confusing as the time line flashes back at forth between current events and the aftermath of "the event." Once you get used to that however, the narrative flows pretty easily.

I'd definitely recommend this, particularly for people who enjoy a mystery.