Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith: a Review

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


The goal of this story was to take the much loved tale, Pride & Prejudice, and add zombies to it to make a funny romp of a classic. It's supposed to be funny and read with tongue in cheek. I understood that when I picked it up. However, any good mash up should take two different ideas and combine them to make something better.
In this case, Grahame-Smith falls pitiably short, taking characters whose learning in the arts of zombie killing could have added depth and interest to their characters, but instead, grossly detracted from them. I will own that Charlotte only marrying Mr. Collins because she had been infected was a clever bit, and does, truly, make more sense than her simply being afraid of spinsterhood, but that is the only case in which it works well. Further, that one case was dealt with in a manner which strikes me as insupportable by the rest of the story.
Also, this novel could have been improved by the judicious application of copy editing. I do assure you that sometimes spellcheck, alone, is insufficient. For instance, I doubt Mr. Darcy took great pride in his coy pond, but his koi pond, on the other hand, he may have.
I also found the ridiculous attempts to take perfectly British households and overlay a fawning attitude toward all things Japanese forced. No English maid during the Regency is going to be answering the door with bound feet, for instance, and little details like those suggested to me that the amount of research done by Grahame-Smith was sorely wanting.
Even when writing books for comedic effect, one must, surely, continue to respect their audience, and in this case, the precedent of the book from which half the words were drawn. This didn't do it, though I admit, I did enjoy going through and mentally highlighting the original text and marking those deviations which turned it into that which I had hoped would be a deeply entertaining zombie romp.

Timepiece, by Myra McEntire: a Review

Timepiece by Myra McEntire

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I feel like Ms McEntire underestimates her readers. I don't believe that reducing 90% of her main character's interactions to hormones and sexuality helps keep the reader's attention, but rather paints the main character as disturbingly immature.
I'm sure this is just personal, but I liked each and every one of the characters better when viewed from Emerson's perspective in Hourglass, and I don't think the choice to write Hourglass from Kaleb's was a good one. While it opened the door for a whole new budding romance without having to go the overdone route of girl meets boy and falls in love in book one, and in book two gets drawn away by someone else, only to reunite with Mr. Right in book three, I don't think picking the budding alcoholic and outward chauvinist to be the center of the tale was a great idea.
Sorry, it just didn't do it for me.

Hopefully the third installment in the series will redeem it. Yes, you read that correctly, I do intend to finish what I started and see the whole series through to the end. If nothing else, the premise is just too interesting to not keep giving it another try.
Fingers crossed and allons-y.

Hourglass, by Myra McEntire: a Review

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An interesting and fun time travel novel, but I do have to say, what's with the cryptic overprotective men?  I'm getting so tired of reading about them.

It's hard to properly review a novel that raises a lot of questions but resolves next to nothing. While the premise is both strong and intriguing, and the characters seem to have a lot of fertile soil in which McEntire has planted the seeds of interest and and deep backstory, I'm concerned that they haven't been properly watered. Here's to hoping.

The Wild Flower Book, by Donald Stokes: a Review

The Wildflower Book: East of the Rockies - A Complete Guide to Growing and Identifying Wildflowers by Donald Stokes

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was very much written from the environmental moralist standpoint. That can be nice, but it can also be off-putting. I wish the pictures had included more than just the prettiest of blooms, but also pictures of the various plants throughout their annual lifecycle to help prevent the accidental weeding of precious wildflowers. The information could also have been improved upon by making it clear whether each plant discussed was edible or not. An occasional plant was described as poisonous or had a blurb regarding herbal or traditional uses, but on this subject, most plants' entries remained silent.
If you're wondering what that pretty flower you saw might have been called, it's a good book. If you're looking at wildflowers with a mind to foraging, it wasn't quite as useful.
I did appreciate the brief section outlining which "wildflowers" are pernicious weeds, rather, invasive imported species.

Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford: a Review

Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


The premise was delightful, the pacing, in the beginning seemed appropriate for a book about Austen, but the female characters are written like caricatures of women, at times, even the seemingly strong female characters devolve into vapid stereotypes and I don't have time for that.
Further, the metaphoric and nearly literal rape apology rampant in the book is rather stomach churning. Spoiler alert: a woman being coerced into sleeping with a man she doesn't even like is a bad plot device when the rest of the plot is trying to set up some sort of likeable rouge character. As a repeat offender, plotwise, the fact that Ford keeps trying to redeem this character, or at least write heroic scenes for him just makes me want to puke.
Further, the plot tends to focus on unnecessary details a little too long, and with arguable accuracy (see makeup tips that died in the nineties) then to completely fast forward when details would make "action" scenes a little more readable.
I also disliked the suddenness of the plot turns toward the end. They reminded me of a role playing campaign with a lazy DM.
Sorry, there were parts that were enjoyable, but the parts I didn't like or that broke my willing suspension of disbelief barrier simply outweigh the good of the book. I won't be bothering with the sequel.

Austenland, by Shannon Hale, a Review

Austenland by Shannon Hale

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I can not properly sum up my thoughts or experiences with this book. From the moment Jane began to discuss her obsession with the Pride & Prejudice DVDs, something in the tone reminded me of the work of Anne Rice, when writing under the pseudonym Anne Rampling. This slightly uncomfortable feeling bloomed as Jane headed off for Austenland. I must say, the premise of the novel's primary setting was about ten kinds of squicky for me. Romance with actors paid to pretend to like you? That's most unsettling.
However, after many plot twists, sadly predictable, I found the novel resolving around 2am and realized I hadn't wanted to put down a guilty pleasure in the least, and had read it cover to cover in a matter of hours.
I don't know that I'll read the sequel, and I don't know that I'd recommend it, but it did keep me turning the pages, even for all it's Regency propriety.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds, by Cat Winters: a Review

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Cat Winters was a young girl, she watched an episode of Ripley's Believe it or Not which featured the fairy photographs taken by cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths. As a reader, I am grateful that she did because the interest in the WWI era, spiritualism, photography, and the horrors of the Spanish Influenza came together in a marvelous story of young love, tragedy, and the value of tenacity.

Immediately, Winters' impresses with her use of voice and back story. The motion of Mary Shelley's journey and the rhythm of the prose meld seamlessly. In the Shadow of Blackirds reflects deep research without flaunting it. The cast was uncluttered, the memories pertinent, the characters well formed, and to give credit where it's due- they physical book is beautiful.

Tip of the hat to the genius who decided to write the story in black on white and the author's note, acknowledgements, dedication and copyright page in white on black. The typeface is elegant, chapter headers interesting, and although the cover art frustrated me in that it only nearly recreates an image featured in the story, it's pretty fantastic as well.

Loved this story.

Edible Landscaping: Urban Food Gardens That Look Great, by Senga Lindsay: a Review

Edible Landscaping: Urban Food Gardens That Look Great by Senga Lindsay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


If you are looking for a book to give you examples of different types of areas that can be landscaped for edible purposes, this is a good book. If you are looking for copious example pictures to inspire you, this is not the book you are looking for. If you are looking for a quick run down of various different colored common edibles, this is a good book for you. If you are looking for a long list of edible plants, their growing requirements, and a few edibles one might not think of on their own, this is not the book for you. It's a good starting point with some great ideas for gardening with kids in mind as well as good information you will be able to use when you start planning your garden, but it will have to be a companion book to a more extensive one that deals more with plants than garden form.

Dearly, Beloved - by Lia Habel: a Review

Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yes. Lia Habel's high tech with a Victorian twist world, rife with holographic edifices reminiscent of the world before the second ice age, took on a broader life in Dearly, Beloved that left me smiling for hours. The Characters from Dearly, Departed are here given the freedom to interact in new environments and blossom into themselves. Because the plot in the second book of the Gone with the Respiration series is less immediately catastrophic than the kidnapping plus zombie apocalypse scenario set forth in the first, the reader gets to see the characters in their daily lives and learn more about their world.

Of course, true to form, Habel doesn't leave anyone's world in tact for long. All too soon the fissures in the calm facade begin to show. Pamela's panic attacks prove to be not only merited, but nearly prophetic - Nora's independence leads her back into danger - Dr. Dearly's solution to the Laz proves to be too little to quell tensions between the living and the dead. Characters like Michael, who at first seemed simply callous, grow into full fledged villain-worthy unlikability while the seemingly vapid Vespertine blossoms into a deep woman with intricate motivations. Habel's approach to Bram in Dearly, Beloved is far more entertaining. Gone is the tired "I'm no good for you, I'm too dangerous," droning, replaced instead with a young man who doesn't pretend that he knows what's best for Nora at every turn, but instead allows her to make her own decisions. Sure, he continues to weigh in on her options, and she continues to at least consider the words coming out of his cold lips, but the dynamic morphs into something far more healthy and rather beautiful.

Although my experience with the zombie genre is limited to perhaps a dozen books, Dearly, Beloved has proved to be the most enjoyable. I look forward to the saga's conclusion, which can not come soon enough.