I think I read most of Crichton’s works one summer (I was hugely pregnant with twins and mostly bedridden.) There’s a lot of great stories in the man. However, I must have missed this one (perhaps it is newer than 2006? Yep, 2008) and honestly, I’m not so thrilled with the fact that I “went back” for this. It’s no Timeline or Andromeda Strain. It’s kind of close in sphere to Jurassic Park, but it lacks the humanizing qualities. This is a story of man […]
Faking It
Faking It is a rather carefully contrived series of coincidences, but then, most romances are. I like Jennifer Crusie’s novels because the heroines are rarely 20 year old waifs. Matilda Goodnight is definitely not a 20 year old waif. Neither is she cosmetic-ad gorgeous. She’s struggling to hold together a family and a failed art gallery when a problem from her past announces itself, propelling her from mural painting to art theft in a single evening. And Davy Dempsey, the brother of Sophie Dempsey (Welcome […]
Peony in Love
Peony in Love was, well, more the story of how a girlish obsession could turn into a one-note bit of character development. Sadly, Peony is a boring young lady, rich and well-bred, and betrothed to a rather mushy-headed young man. They meet once, never once trading identities (it’s once a night for three nights, actually, but they do so little they could have done it all in one night) and based on that, Peony is In Love. Her mild obsession with the Chinese opera “The […]
Love and other strangenesses
Meet Shannon Mc Farland: in one night, she goes from atop the world to underneath it. Now, as anyone who’s read a Palahniuk novel knows, the problem is not giving away the twist, and dancing around this one is going to be difficult. This novel is about the bonds of love and friendship and the illusion of outward appearances. It touches on desperation, toxic families, and hatred: it does a bit more than flirt with suicide. For those of us with triggers related to drug […]