Theoretically I really enjoy mysteries and thrillers. In practice, so many of the ones I start reading end up prominently featuring rape that I tend to avoid the genre. My mother assured me this one featured neither so I decided to give it a shot. The Lucky One is set on an old estate in California wine country. It’s recently been sold off to developers, despite the objections of the local community. They think the developers will rip out all the historical features of the […]
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
Hey, so did you know that Salman Rushdie doesn’t like Donald Trump? Because he doesn’t. He really, really hates him, in fact. I know this because I read the Golden House, which is ostensibly about Rene and his relationship with his neighbors, the Golden Family, but it is actually quite a bit about the fact that Donald Trump became president and Rushdie didn’t like it. This is good and bad, in some ways the device works, but in others it was a little too […]
Dare to be different and true to yourself
Sebastian is a prince who, when looking in a mirror, sometimes sees a princess instead of a prince. Sebastian longs to express this other side of himself but is afraid of the resulting reactions, particularly what his parents will think. Frances is a low level seamstress in a shop. She has daring fashion designs in her heart but the shop Frances works for does not share her artistic vision. Seeing one of Frances unique designs at a ball sparks an idea in Sebastian, to hire […]
I have no heart; I hate the song Jolene (thanks, fam.)
I really rather wish this book had been written back when I was in my late teens, so the girl-I-was could have been reassured that she wasn’t alone.