Eggsecutive Orders by Julie Hyzy – Book Review

Jan 042012

Eggsecutive Orders by Julie Hyzy
Published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin

This is the 3rd book in the White House Chef series. I have previously reviewed the first two books: State of the Onion and Hail to the Chef.

Ollie Paras is back, and she’s just as fabulous as ever. In Eggsecutive Orders, we see much less of the White House and the White House kitchen, because Ollie herself gets kicked out of her kitchen in the first few pages of the book. The night before the book begins, the President hosted a dinner that included the Joseph McCarthy of terrorism, the NSA’s Carl Minkus. Minkus has made plenty of enemies, so when he dies after dinner, the Secret Service suspects foul play – and the food service – immediately.

Julie Hyzy does a fabulous job keeping Ollie’s adventures fresh. I was initially a bit worried about how Ollie not being in the White House much would play out, but Hyzy added two new characters to the mix: Ollie’s mother and grandmother who were on their way to visit her from Chicago when the crisis comes to a head. To spice things up even more, Ollie has once more been prohibited from sticking her nose into the investigation, but this time her Secret Service boyfriend Tom is essentially a hostage to ensure her good behavior. He has been put in charge of keeping her in line, and his job depends on her staying out of trouble.

Although I really like Hyzy’s Manor House series, I had forgotten just how much fun the White House Chef series really is. Ollie is a fabulous protagonist: smart, sassy, and occasionally prone to embarrassing herself (but not too much). Even better, she’s just as engaging three books into the series as she was at the beginning, if not more so.

This series is an absolute joy to read, I highly recommend it. I know I’m looking forward to the next books in the series: Buffalo West Wing and the newly-released Affairs of Steak.

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Source: Personal copy.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides – Book Review

Dec 132011

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Published by Farrar, Straus,and Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan

From the publisher:

It’s the early 1980s—the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafés on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels.

As Madeleine tries to understand why “it became laughable to read writers like Cheever and Updike, who wrote about the suburbia Madeleine and most of her friends had grown up in, in favor of reading the Marquis de Sade, who wrote about deflowering virgins in eighteenth-century France,” real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes. Leonard Bankhead—charismatic loner, college Darwinist, and lost Portland boy—suddenly turns up in a semiotics seminar, and soon Madeleine finds herself in a highly charged erotic and intellectual relationship with him. At the same time, her old “friend” Mitchell Grammaticus—who’s been reading Christian mysticism and generally acting strange—resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is destined to be his mate.

Madeleine is a fantastically familiar character to book lovers, and the connection becomes particularly poignant as her situation mirrors the marriage plot, that hallmark of her favorite literature. By reviving that form and making an English major the heroine, Eugenides creates in The Marriage Plot a fabulously meta narrative. Meta, though, is not enough to carry a book, and fortunately in The Marriage Plot, it doesn’t have to.

In many ways, what Eugenides is attempting here is quieter and less ambitious than Middlesex (really, how could it not be less ambitious than a multi-generational epic with a hermaphrodite as the main character?), but no less wonderful. Eugenides brings all three of his main characters to life in a wonderful, flawed way. For much of the book, I found myself greatly preferring Madeleine and Mitchell, as they narrate the majority of the story. Leonard, with his bipolar disorder, is a much tougher character to get a good feel for, but once Eugenides allows him to tell his own story, he becomes just as human and accessible, even in his mania. The writing is constantly engaging, by the second section The Marriage Plot becomes increasingly difficult to put down, as infused as it is with human emotion, and as invested as the reader becomes.

Do not pick up The Marriage Plot unless you are ready to become emotionally involved in the lives of the characters, but do pick it up if you are looking for a fabulous read. It is a very strong, well-written book, sure to appeal to book lovers.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Personal copy.

* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Llama Llama Holiday Drama – Saturday Story Spotlight

Dec 102011

Welcome to Saturday Story Spotlight, my feature where I discuss books my husband and I are reading with our son, Daniel. These are books that he, we, or all of us particularly enjoy.

Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney
Published by Viking Juvenile, an imprint of Penguin

There is a lot to do during the holidays: buying presents, making cookies, putting up decorations, and doing a million little things. This is all a lot to handle for a little llama who is getting dragged to and fro with his mama llama. Llama Llama is more than a bit frazzled and overwhelmed by the whole thing. Finally, his little self is unable to handle it any more and he throws a temper tantrum. Luckily, Llama Llama has a smart mama who, though she lost site of his tolerance a bit while trying to get ready for the holidays, does realize that the point of all of this is to create an atmosphere for togetherness, and that she needs to not let preparations get in the way of time with her little llama. She explains all this to Llama Llama, and takes time out of her busyness to sit still and cuddle with him, which helps to stop the llama drama.

This is our second Llama Llama book, and both Daniel and I are big fans. The illustrations are adorable, and Llama Llama is the typical extremely cute and occasionally frustrating toddler. He has very toddler reactions, which means that Daniel can relate, understand, and empathize (“Llama Llama is SAD!”). His mama is both firm and loving, a great role model for fallible parents who might similarly forget their child’s limits during holiday preparations. My only real criticism of Llama Llama Holiday Drama is that it didn’t seem to scan quite as well as Llama Llama Red Pajama. Still, though, we will absolutely be buying and reading more of Dewdney’s Llama Llama books.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Personal copy
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Who is Coming to Our House? – Saturday Story Spotlight

Dec 032011

Welcome to Saturday Story Spotlight, my feature where I discuss books my husband and I are reading with our son, Daniel. These are books that he, we, or all of us particularly enjoy.

Who is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate, illustrated by Ashely Wolff
Published by Putnam Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin

It is a special night in the barn. The animals are abuzz with excitement about the special guest who is coming ever closer. “Who is coming to our house?” they ask mouse, in wonder, “Someone, someone” he replies. So of course the animals must get ready for their special guest, sweeping the floor, lining to manger with eider, anything they can do to make the barn comfortable. Finally, of course, Mary and Joseph show up, and in the end, so does the baby Jesus.

Who is Coming to Our House? is a very cute book, an early introduction for young children to the Christmas story. Having the story come from the perspective of the animals lends an extra degree of interest for kids. Daniel yells “look, mommy!” on basically every page. This is clearly not theologically deep, but it is a good opening for parents to explain a bit about the Christmas story. I do wish the lines scanned a bit better, however. The animals are called mouse, cow, etc, but I find myself wanting to read them as THE mouse, THE cow for them to flow better.

Over all, a good religious Christmas book for young children.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Personal copy
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly – Book Review

Nov 142011

The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
Published by Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group

This is the second book in the Rose series. I have previously reviewed The Tea Rose. This review may contain spoilers for The Tea Rose.

When I settled in with The Winter Rose, I was expecting to settle back in with Fiona and Joe and the family they were finally able to create. Although that does happen, they – and in particular, Fiona – are almost secondary characters in The Winter Rose.

Instead, Donnelly features Fiona’s older brother Charlie, best known to the citizens of London as Sid Malone, infamous crime boss, and India Selwyn-Jones, a woman of a good family who has defied her mother in order to follow her passion and become a doctor. Worse still than simply becoming a woman doctor, India will not even deign to be part of a fashionable practice in a good neighborhood, but instead is determined to practice in Whitechapel, and eventually set up a clinic there. India’s work in Whitechapel brings her into direct contact – and conflict – with Sid very quickly. As much as they grate on one another, though, Sid is impressed with India’s occasionally misguided but strongly-held desire to help the people of the East End. India, in response, cannot help but see that Sid, too, cares for these people she assumed he was only exploiting. It might seem logical for love to bloom here, but between India and Sid stands India’s fiance and childhood friend, Frankie Lytton. Frank is also an ambitious Member of Parliament who sees the capture of Sid Malone the one thing that could best guarantee his political future.

In some ways, the Rose series is getting formulaic. Donnelly focuses on a new couple here, so she can again wrench them apart, divided by a different partner, in a way that seems utterly insurmountable. That somehow true love will prevail is obvious from the very beginning – as is the fact that India and Frankie for all their bickering will fall in love in the first place. Frankie Lytton is a much more insidious dividing partner than Millie Peterson was, but they serve much the same function.

Here’s the thing, though. In the middle of the book, the reader is likely to recognize the pattern that Donnelly is falling into, but is equally unlikely to care. She is such a strong writer, creating such vivid characters and settings that she allows the reader to simply get lost in her romantic historical epics. Perhaps this is best evidenced by the fact that she is successfully able to supplant her beloved main characters with characters who were minor or completely missing from The Tea Rose. Fiona and Joe are, of course, still around to give the story continuity, and we do stay within the Finnegan family, but having Fiona take a minor (and eternally pregnant) role could have easily been disastrous in the hands of a less able author.

With The Winter Rose, Donnelly gives us a strong second book in the Rose series. I can’t wait to read the third book, The Wild Rose. Highly recommended.

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Source: .

* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Halloween Dogs – Saturday Story Spotlight

Oct 222011

Welcome to Saturday Story Spotlight, my feature where I discuss books my husband and I are reading with our son, Daniel. These are books that he, we, or all of us particularly enjoy.

Halloween Dogs by Roger Priddy
Published by Priddy Books

It will come as a surprise to nobody who knows him, but Halloween Dogs was one of Daniel’s favorite books for quite some time last year. Not only is it illustrated with actual photos of dogs, but it is sparkly and many of the areas are textured. Although, really, I think it was mostly about the dogs.

Halloween Dogs is more poem than something with a plot, talking about the way these anthropomorphic dogs relate to Halloween. The book is cute and the pages are brightly colored to keep a young child’s attention. That being said, I think Daniel liked it more when he was just a little over a year old. Now that he is over two, it isn’t quite sophisticated enough for him.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Personal copy
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin – Book Review

Oct 172011

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin
Published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House

In P.T. Barnum’s over-sized world, Lavinia “Vinnie” Bump was both the biggest and the smallest thing around. Born a normal size, both Vinnie and her younger sister Minnie simply stopped growing as young children, Vinnie eventually standing only 32 inches high, and Minnie even smaller. Vinnie, however, was determined never to let her height define her or hold her back and set out to make sure that she had access to nearly everything life could offer.

Melanie Benjamin has a special talent for ferreting out fascinating women who most people would never think to wonder about and bringing their stories to life, first with Alice Liddell, the real Alice behind Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and now with Lavinia Bump. Benjamin’s Lavinia was strong and determined, although fallible and occasionally naive. There were times that her voice seemed a bit too reminiscent of Alice’s in Alice I Have Been, but the women did, at least how Benjamin wrote them, have somewhat similar, at times almost imperial, personalities.

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb provides a much different perspective of the 1850s and 60s than most readers are probably familiar with, but Benjamin makes both her characters and the time period come to life. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Personal.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Whooo’s That? – Saturday Story Spotlight

Oct 152011

Welcome to Saturday Story Spotlight, my feature where I discuss books my husband and I are reading with our son, Daniel. These are books that he, we, or all of us particularly enjoy.

Whooo’s That by Kay Winters, illustrated by Jeannie Winston
Published by Harcourt Children’s Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Whooo’s That? is a very cute Halloween lift-the-flaps book. Every page other than the last one has one or more jack o’ lanterns that can be flipped down to complete the sentence “Whooo’s that….” Beneath each of the flaps is some sort of Halloween creature, most of which are shown on the last page to be kids out trick or treating.

This is a very cute book with big, easy to manipulate flaps, and even the biggest Halloween beasties are basically adorable. Facing pages rhyme, and everything scans well. It isn’t Daniel’s very favorite Halloween book, but it is a good addition to the rotation.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Personal copy
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Five Little Pumpkins – Saturday Story Spotlight

Oct 082011

Welcome to Saturday Story Spotlight, my feature where I discuss books my husband and I are reading with our son, Daniel. These are books that he, we, or all of us particularly enjoy.

Five Little Pumpkins, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
Published by Harper Festival, an imprint of HarperCollins

Five Little Pumpkins, a Halloween classic!

You all probably know the Five Little Pumpkins poem: “Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate; the first one says “Oh my! It’s getting late!” And so on, and so forth.

This might be one of Daniel’s very favorite books. I think we kept reading it for about six months after Halloween last year. There is a great rhythm and rhyme, and this edition has only a short bit of text on each page, which really keeps the poem moving -and which makes it easy to repeat and memorize, I’m pretty sure Daniel is going to know the whole thing before Halloween. The illustrations are simple with lots of contrast, which makes them great for young children. Oh, and if you weren’t aware, that pumpkin in the back with the down-turned oval eyes is crying. At least according to Daniel.

Five Little Pumpkins is a great Halloween staple for any young child’s library.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Personal copy
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums – Saturday Story Spotlight

Sep 242011

Welcome to Saturday Story Spotlight, my feature where I discuss books my husband and I are reading with our son, Daniel. These are books that he, we, or all of us particularly enjoy.

Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Daniel Jennewein
Published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins

In 2010, the world’s cutest buffalo ever made his debut in Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?. The only thing I didn’t like about the book was the fact that Daniel was only one, and we wouldn’t have any need for it for a long time. Enter the second buffalo book, Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums.

In Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums, the buffalo is still the most adorable thing ever, but now he’s trying to free his inner-musician and play drums. It isn’t easy to get a buffalo to hold drum sticks, but if you help him out, he can find a way to do it.

Okay, admittedly I bought Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums more for me than for Daniel. It is a really cute book, one that a parent could read multiple times without getting sick of it. It is, however, a bit more than Daniel’s two year old attention span can handle; we have yet to actually get through the whole thing. He loves the part we have read, though, and it is a book that can continue to grow with him.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Personal copy
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Older Entries

Devourer of Books

Eggsecutive Orders by Julie Hyzy – Book Review

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides – Book Review

Llama Llama Holiday Drama – Saturday Story Spotlight

Who is Coming to Our House? – Saturday Story Spotlight

The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly – Book Review

Halloween Dogs – Saturday Story Spotlight

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin – Book Review

Whooo’s That? – Saturday Story Spotlight

Five Little Pumpkins – Saturday Story Spotlight

Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums – Saturday Story Spotlight

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