This is just a wonderful novel by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner. It's a story of love, and family, and how we are all connected. We start in 1952 in a little village in Afghanistan, with brother and sister Abdullah and Pari. The siblings are as close as two people can be, but when they are cruelly separated, their lives take very different paths.
Hosseini uses Abdullah and Pari's story to interweave several other stories, all different, yet all connected. He takes us from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to Greece, and back again. We go from 1952 to 2012 to 1968 to 2003. Through it all we meet a group of people who are connected in ways they can't even imagine, and who show us the different ways we love, and the different ways there are to be a family.
I just gobbled this book up, it was just a fabulous story.
And the Mountains Echoed
Friday, October 4, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
Revenge Wears Prada
Okay, so everyone read The Devil Wears Prada, or at least saw the movie, right? So if you enjoyed the book and/or movie, you will probably enjoy this book. Is it great literature? Nope. Does it make you think, or teach you something new? Nope and nope. But it is entertaining.
Andy Sachs is 10 years older now, and she and former nemesis Emily are best friends and partners who publish a high-end wedding magazine, called The Plunge. Andy still superficially looks down her nose at all the trappings of the fashionable while still having, hoping to have, or admiring them. She has a handsome, well-connected husband and a job she loves, so all is good in the world. And then The Devil, Miranda Priestly, sees how successful The Plunge has become, and she wants it in her little empire.
What happens then is entertaining, not really surprising, but fun to read. It's a quick read, and if they do make a movie and bring back all of the same cast, I'm likely to go see it (or at least put it on my Netflix).
Revenge Wears Prada
Andy Sachs is 10 years older now, and she and former nemesis Emily are best friends and partners who publish a high-end wedding magazine, called The Plunge. Andy still superficially looks down her nose at all the trappings of the fashionable while still having, hoping to have, or admiring them. She has a handsome, well-connected husband and a job she loves, so all is good in the world. And then The Devil, Miranda Priestly, sees how successful The Plunge has become, and she wants it in her little empire.
What happens then is entertaining, not really surprising, but fun to read. It's a quick read, and if they do make a movie and bring back all of the same cast, I'm likely to go see it (or at least put it on my Netflix).
Revenge Wears Prada
Monday, September 16, 2013
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
I really enjoyed this adult fairy tale by Neil Gaiman. It's a compelling story that draws you in, and hold you until the very end (which isn't that long). If you're into mystical realism/fantasy, you'll love this novel.
Our unnamed narrator is approaching 50 when he returns to his hometown for his father's funeral. Finding himself with time on his hands, he returns to the place he grew up - though the house is long gone - and finds himself at the big farmhouse at the end of the lane, where his friend Lettie lived. He sits on a bench overlooking the pond, and thinks back to when he was seven-years-old, and the series of intriguing, scary, and fantastical events that took place.
This is a fairy tale, but it's not for kids. It's dark, and scary at times, and explores themes of loss and betrayal and memory. A really great read that I just couldn't put down. I'll definitely look for more of Gaiman's work.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Our unnamed narrator is approaching 50 when he returns to his hometown for his father's funeral. Finding himself with time on his hands, he returns to the place he grew up - though the house is long gone - and finds himself at the big farmhouse at the end of the lane, where his friend Lettie lived. He sits on a bench overlooking the pond, and thinks back to when he was seven-years-old, and the series of intriguing, scary, and fantastical events that took place.
This is a fairy tale, but it's not for kids. It's dark, and scary at times, and explores themes of loss and betrayal and memory. A really great read that I just couldn't put down. I'll definitely look for more of Gaiman's work.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Salt Sugar Fat
This book is a must-read for EVERYONE. Seriously. If you shop at grocery stores and eat any packaged/canned/processed food, you need to read this book.
I consider myself to be a healthy eater. I don't drink soda, I generally avoid cookies/chips/candy, I eat fresh fruits and vegetables as much as possible. When I do indulge, I indulge with homemade or bakery sweets, or good quality dark chocolate. But Michael Moss has shown me that you need to read the label of EVERYTHING you buy in the grocery store, from salad dressing to yogurt to breakfast cereal, because the food manufacturers add sugar, fat, and salt to everything. Seriously, read the label on a Yoplait yogurt, then read the label on any brand of cookies - I bet the Yoplait has more sugar than a cookie. Seriously.
Moss is a really good writer - Malcolm Gladwell-ish, in that he takes a lot of information and distills it down to something normal people can read, understand, and enjoy. And he doesn't preach, this isn't a diet book, it's just a book that says, "this is what the food industry does - how will you deal with that?" Probably one of the most interesting things is that almost every food industry insider he interviewed said they did not eat the products their company made, or only ate them in very small quantities. Now what does that tell you?
Salt Sugar Fat
I consider myself to be a healthy eater. I don't drink soda, I generally avoid cookies/chips/candy, I eat fresh fruits and vegetables as much as possible. When I do indulge, I indulge with homemade or bakery sweets, or good quality dark chocolate. But Michael Moss has shown me that you need to read the label of EVERYTHING you buy in the grocery store, from salad dressing to yogurt to breakfast cereal, because the food manufacturers add sugar, fat, and salt to everything. Seriously, read the label on a Yoplait yogurt, then read the label on any brand of cookies - I bet the Yoplait has more sugar than a cookie. Seriously.
Moss is a really good writer - Malcolm Gladwell-ish, in that he takes a lot of information and distills it down to something normal people can read, understand, and enjoy. And he doesn't preach, this isn't a diet book, it's just a book that says, "this is what the food industry does - how will you deal with that?" Probably one of the most interesting things is that almost every food industry insider he interviewed said they did not eat the products their company made, or only ate them in very small quantities. Now what does that tell you?
Salt Sugar Fat
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
The Color of Tea
I had a hard time getting into this first novel by Hannah Tunnicliffe, I have to admit that. It just started out a little depressing for me, and I wasn't sure I really wanted to keep reading. Grace and Pete have just moved to Macau for his job with a casino, and she's a bit adrift, depressed after learning she's unable to have children, and wallowing in sadness.
Luckily, things get better.
Grace rediscovers her love of baking and decides to open a café, catering to mostly expats but some local Chinese as well. It's during that process that she meets Rilla, a hard-working young Filipino girl with a sweet disposition and a secret she's hiding; Gigi, a sassy native girl who's crusty exterior hides a warm heart and a talent for baking; and Margery, the gorgeous Aussie who's a little too salty for the "ladies who lunch" crowd. With these women - and a few others - Grace finds a new kind of a family and finds a way to make a life in a foreign land.
The characters are lovely, and pastry descriptions are decadent. I wound up really enjoying this novel.
The Color of Tea
Luckily, things get better.
Grace rediscovers her love of baking and decides to open a café, catering to mostly expats but some local Chinese as well. It's during that process that she meets Rilla, a hard-working young Filipino girl with a sweet disposition and a secret she's hiding; Gigi, a sassy native girl who's crusty exterior hides a warm heart and a talent for baking; and Margery, the gorgeous Aussie who's a little too salty for the "ladies who lunch" crowd. With these women - and a few others - Grace finds a new kind of a family and finds a way to make a life in a foreign land.
The characters are lovely, and pastry descriptions are decadent. I wound up really enjoying this novel.
The Color of Tea
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
The Lost Art of Mixing
So apparently this is the second book in a series, but don't let that deter you - I didn't read the first one and I didn't miss it.
Lillian is the owner/chef at a restaurant in a small town in the Pacific Northwest (it took me a while to figure out exactly where the story takes place, and to be honest I'm still not exactly sure). She has a way of drawing people to her - Al, her accountant, stuck in a loveless marriage; Chloe, her sous-chef, who thinks she'll never be good enough; Isabelle, quickly going into Alzheimer's but still with so much to share; and Finnegan, her dishwasher, taller than everyone but often overlooked; these are just a few of the diverse characters in Lillian's world.
This isn't an action story, and there's no mystery. It's just a lovely little story about a group of people who find each other. It's about how your family is not necessarily the one you were born into (or gave birth to), and how even the people who live with us the longest may not know us at all, and misread us all the time. It's about finding your home, wherever it may be. I thought it was wonderful.
The Lost Art of Mixing
Lillian is the owner/chef at a restaurant in a small town in the Pacific Northwest (it took me a while to figure out exactly where the story takes place, and to be honest I'm still not exactly sure). She has a way of drawing people to her - Al, her accountant, stuck in a loveless marriage; Chloe, her sous-chef, who thinks she'll never be good enough; Isabelle, quickly going into Alzheimer's but still with so much to share; and Finnegan, her dishwasher, taller than everyone but often overlooked; these are just a few of the diverse characters in Lillian's world.
This isn't an action story, and there's no mystery. It's just a lovely little story about a group of people who find each other. It's about how your family is not necessarily the one you were born into (or gave birth to), and how even the people who live with us the longest may not know us at all, and misread us all the time. It's about finding your home, wherever it may be. I thought it was wonderful.
The Lost Art of Mixing
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Peaches for Father Francis
This is Joanne Harris' follow-up (I think there is one in between, too) to Chocolat (which was also a great movie). It does not disappoint.
Vianne Rocher, now living in Paris, receives a letter from beyond the grave from an old friend. So she and her two daughters return to the village of Lansquenet where she caused such a stir so many years before, to find things are very different. The town is now split between the natives and a large group of Muslim immigrants. The townspeople never did take to strangers, but these strangers have built a mosque, and more and more of their women are dressing head to toe in black, and they don't seem to want to fit in with the natives... and Vianne's old nemesis Father Reynaud is at the center of all of the problems, it would seem.
I just gobbled up this story. It's beautifully written, haunting and mystical. The descriptions of the sights and smells are beguiling to the senses, and the magical bits are not too contrived. And the characters are just wonderful, so clearly drawn that one can almost see them.
But aside from all of that, this is a story about otherness, and acceptance, and finding ones place in the world. It's about how appearances CAN be deceiving, and how the thing that we think is hidden is often right in front of our faces. I highly recommend it.
Peaches for Father Francis
Vianne Rocher, now living in Paris, receives a letter from beyond the grave from an old friend. So she and her two daughters return to the village of Lansquenet where she caused such a stir so many years before, to find things are very different. The town is now split between the natives and a large group of Muslim immigrants. The townspeople never did take to strangers, but these strangers have built a mosque, and more and more of their women are dressing head to toe in black, and they don't seem to want to fit in with the natives... and Vianne's old nemesis Father Reynaud is at the center of all of the problems, it would seem.
I just gobbled up this story. It's beautifully written, haunting and mystical. The descriptions of the sights and smells are beguiling to the senses, and the magical bits are not too contrived. And the characters are just wonderful, so clearly drawn that one can almost see them.
But aside from all of that, this is a story about otherness, and acceptance, and finding ones place in the world. It's about how appearances CAN be deceiving, and how the thing that we think is hidden is often right in front of our faces. I highly recommend it.
Peaches for Father Francis
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