Unguilty Pleasures: Recipes

Recipe links. Because I like food, bitch. Good Stuff Maynard

My Goodreads

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was just... wow. So intense. It took me a little to get into it, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I literally stayed up all night to read it because once I got to The Big Thing in the middle, I seriously COULD NOT stop reading. I had to, HAD TO, know what happened.

This is not a good book. Not in that it's poorly written or anything- it's very well written, the characters are developed, and the story is engaging. No, when I say it's not a *good* book I mean that the subject matter is scary. It's not something that any of us, anyone who has kids or parents or friends or siblings, want to consider happening. Quindlen takes a topic that is the stuff of nightmares, that REALLY HAPPENS but always to "other people", and takes us deep into the sometimes unpleasant fantasy of "what if". And in this book, she does it frighteningly well.

Probably won't read it again because I really don't need to go there again, but I do recommend it!

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The Magician King by Lev Grossman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is really hard for me to review. Not because I didn't like it; I really did. I liked it a lot. I liked it better than the first one, in fact. Largely because although Quentin was still a whiny boob, he was becoming less so. There was real character development going on there. He might even turn into someone I could tolerate. In small doses, but still. That's progress, right?

Anyway, back to the book... the writing was solid. I liked the parts about Julia, and I liked how it all came together. I liked the character development and I liked how gritty and ugly magic could be. This book, I think, was better written than the first one.

Except for one... little... thing....

I HATED THE ENDING.

Not going to give it away, but really? REALLY??? Oh, Mr. Grossman... WHY? Not that I need a patsy little happy ending, but this.. this was just TOO MUCH. And yes, i needed all those CAPS to express how I feel. It is what it is.

So yeah, a strong 4 stars. I wanted to give it a 3, based on the ending, but the story and the writing and the character development... good stuff. It was good stuff.

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My Goodreads

an archive of stuff i've written

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