Three Bedrooms in Chelsea

I recently read Three Bedrooms in Chelsea by Liz Ireland. The book starts off a bit awkwardly, with the main character, Edie, coming off as whiny as her boyfriend of four months is sent off on a journalism assignment to Uzbekistan. Edie, an actress with a severe deficiency in the work department, can't keep the rent up herself; so, when the for-rent stipend given to her by her boyfriend wears off, she makes a decision her friends see as radical, especially in as unpredictable a town as New York City: she decides to get a roommate.

Edie gets more than she bargains for, even after trying to screen through all the potentials. She ends up with not one, but two, roomates: Greta, a German immersed in the hard-partying nightlife, and Danielle, a provincially innocent Texan with a triple-digit allowance from her father.

The book goes through these three women's trials and tribulations in the city -- Edie dealing with her friend's blossoming acting career and her noticeable lack thereof, Danielle getting accustomed to the big city and that thousand-dollar shopping sprees don't agree with someone starting off on their own, and Greta pondering a major lifestyle change.

There's a fair amount of catfights, especially towards the end when Romance Interests are present, but the moment when the three women stop tolerating each other and start getting a little friendlier is surprisingly sudden and quick. I remember distinctly noting how ridiculously quick the turnaround was.

I guess this counts as 'chick lit' because it follows the affairs (love, work, and otherwise) of three women who didn't know each other from a hole in the wall and become, though incredibly different, friends by the end of the book  -- the ending, if you couldn't guess, is one of those everything went to hell during the story but then there's the feel-good ending where a brighter day seems to be coming things.

Overall, it was a fun read.

Last Writes

I just finished another Jaine Austen novel, the one that I believe is second if going chronologically, Last Writes. This one was hilarious - Jaine manages to get on as a guest writer on a sitcom, and finds out how un-glamorous Hollywood life can actually be. Of course, everyone is starstruck (and proposing their scripts), but the gossip train really fires up when a murder occurs on set.

This story was hilarious and emotionally charged, with Jaine investigating upon an earnest request. While she battles the rigors of television production and the demands of her cat, Prozac, the mystery unfolds in a way that is a surprise unless the reader has a good memory and/or reads the book in one sitting (most mysteries go like that, though, unless you take notes, which...you're going to find out, ANYWAY, so...) and has lots of logical explanations that makes the most common guesses (my most common) at least partially right. Fingers point everywhere until the story, at last, crests at the confession.

Cherry Cheesecake Murder

Hollywood comes to Lake Eden in this highly entertaining installment of Hannah Swensen's delicious detective work. (Er, snooping. She's not investigating officially, after all.) This book broke from the others I've seen in that it started with a prologue -- from the getgo, you know who the victim is. This leaves room for most of the book to focus on the relationships between characters and to establish possible motives while watching a small town relish in the limelight. Added to the mix, if Hannah's debacle between two suitors wasn't bad enough, an old friend appears on the scene and seems to somewhat sweep Hannah off her feet. The book is mostly relationships and happenings of a small town, gossip and little problems. This is fun to read, and gives the reader a lot to think about, especially with the murder victim already in mind.

I think this was my favorite one yet.

The PMS Murder

On a recent murder-mystery binge, I finished The PMS Murder, one of the Jaine Austen books by Laura Levine. Jaine's wise-cracking, food loving personality warmed up to me and cracked me up almost as soon as I started flipping the pages. The writing was as quirky and funny as I remembered from This Pen for Hire and the selection from Candy Cane Murder. I thoroughly enjoyed weaving my way through the Los Angeles mystery of a murder at a very high-scale home -- one at which Jaine herself happens to be at when the death occurs. Interactions with Lance, her nosy next-door neighbor, and the other personalities in her fellow murder attendees/suspects are entertaining and Jaine's sharp wit keeps things interesting and moving. Plus, watching her job as a freelance writer pan out alongside the story is quite amusing.

Candy Apple Red

One of the genre of murder mysteries followed by everyday, plucky women that find themselves in a situation with the curiosity and means to discover who committed the murder du jour, Nancy Bush's Candy Apple Red introduces odd-job worker and Oregon resident Jane Kelly. Using the knowledge gained from criminology courses she took to fawn over a now ex-boyfriend, Jane dabbles in tasks such as bearing the bad news of a 72-hour eviction notice to their recipients. By association, she is brought into a slightly different job, one that concerns an infamous local tragedy. Jane goes through her tasks with an irresistible sass and wit, taking plunges more hesitant people wouldn't dare, getting drinks on the house while schmoozing with Lake Chinook's best, and finding herself getting more and more involved in a mystery that blooms to bigger and bigger proportions. The book moves at a good pace, with several humorous asides and subplots that wind their way into allegories and unexpected revelations -- or that just provide a moment of amusement.

The Locket

The Locket by Richard Paul Evans was an intriguing story. The book is essentially a flashback, with the prologue and epilogue being "present day". It tells the story of Michael Romney, a Utah man struggling to keep on his feet and make ends meet taking care of his terminally ill mother, a duty he forfeited his college education for. Michael takes up a position at The Arcadia, a nearby nursing home. Michael's relationship with his coworkers, the residents of the home, and his girlfriend, Faye, intertwine in ways that grab the heart and keep one unable to put the book down. A twist midway through shows the effect of relationships and personalities, eventually bringing the book to an immensely satisfying ending. The writing is heartfelt and connects deeply, bringing characters to life almost as though it is a stylized biography.

This Pen For Hire

I talked about Candy Cane Murder in a prior post. By sheer chance, when I'd grabbed that book from the library, thinking it was just a pure Joanne Fluke Hannah Swensen mystery, I'd passed by gloms of books by the other two authoresses. For whatever reason, I didn't pick up any of the Leslie Meier ones - the all holiday/event-themed titles didn't appeal to me, I think it was - but I did pick up one by Laura Levine - the apparent debut novel of the Jaine Austen series, This Pen for Hire. When I realized that the second short story about the wise-cracking Californian coincided with that novel, I was excited, because I liked the urban tone of the novel (a little more relatable to me than a cozy small town where everyone always knew everyone or a rural area where...it was...rural. And you were pregnant.). Also, Levine's short story had been highly comedic.

Well, This Pen For Hire was like a full novel version of that short story. It was a great read. And, the characters were so endearing, I figured out who the real murderer was about halfway to three-quarters of the way through the book (or suspected), but I refused to believe it - I did not want that character, of all the characters, to be the killer. Of course, that was on purpose, but it was still a character connection. And, the novel was wise-cracking humor all the way through. It had some good subplots and really set up the potential for a good cast of characters.

Overall, I'm not sure if this has displaced the warm, fresh-baked coziness of the Hannah Swensen novels in my "unconventional murder mystery heroine" book, but I'm sure as heck letting Jaine munch on Hannah's cookies up there at the top. And...maybe I'll check out a Meier and see if Lucy Stone can chill with Jaine's friend Kandi, a fellow ex-New Yorker. (I'm getting very corny now. Wow.)

In less silly words, I enjoyed the book.

Hercule Poirot's Christmas

When I went to the library (over a month ago, now...my fault for taking out loads of books at once), I was in a Christmas spirit, and grabbed a few Christmas-themed mysteries, including a work by the great Agatha Christie that I happened to lay eyes upon: Hercule Poirot's Christmas. As witih all other novels by Agatha Christie that I've read, it was very proper, very polite English reading. And, as with all those other novels, it was good reading. I thoroughly enjoyed following Hercule Poirot's thought processes - he was brought in rather early in the novel, which I appreciated, because there have been times where he does not make an appearance until quite near the end - and trying to assemble the well-laid clues for myself. I fell for a few red herrings - at the beginning of the book, someone mentions that the butler would lie to protect anyone in the family, and that continuously led me down wrong paths - and honestly, the mystery was difficult to figure out. It's funny, though - in all my overspeculation, I actually had the right killer, but I ended up ruling them out in my own deliberations. And there were a lot of red herrings and lies and curiosities for one to work through - Agatha Christie really is a master, the mystery's solution was embedded deeply beneath several other mysteries. It was a feast for the mind, that's for sure. And I regret taking only one Agatha Christie novel out from the library this time.

An ironic take on the Christmas spirit, and a wonderful novel.

Eleven Minutes

I just finished reading Paolo Coelho's novel Eleven Minutes. I read The Alchemist a few years ago, and fell in love with it; this book was just as enrapturing. It took a mature, spiritual view to love, desire, and sex, by telling the story of a Brazilian girl's sex life, from innocence to becoming a prostitute to having spiritual revelations and pondering what it is she is doing. The book explores sex unabashedly, sometimes a bit explicitly, but it never seems racy or overly smutty. Throughout the entire book, the more explicit bits are used more in the monumental turning points of her spiritual growth.

The book, besides having loads of food for thought on its particular subject, has its own dose of amusement. Particularly towards the beginning of the novel, the author adds what are almost his own sarcastic/sardonic asides in parentheses as he narrates Maria's (the protagonist) life in third person, making humorous addendums; of course, this could be a device to show Maria's innocence and naivety. Additionally, there is a clear reference to Coelho's prior work, The Alchemist - there is a sentence about Maria having read a book about a shepherd and how he follows his dream (which, for those who don't know, is the basic plot of The Alchemist, pretty much).

It's only the second book from Coelho that I've read, but I loved it, again. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to read yet another Coelho work, The Zahir soon; there are no guarantees for me on that one, though.

Candy Cane Murder

I was rather surprised when I picked this up. Rather than being just another one of Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen mysteries, it was a three-in-one -- two other authors under the same publishing house contributed to the book, making it a set of three short stories.

The first story was a typical Hannah Swensen murder mystery. It's Christmas in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and a local department store tycoon plays Santa...until he ends up dead. In typical Hannah fashion, the tight-knit ties of family and a small town mix with scrumptious cookies for a heartwarming yet bone-chilling mystery that's got a laid back, cozy pace.

The second story, written by Laura Levine, is a murder mystery starring an LA girl, Jaine Austen. While Jaine - who, as an aside, would fall head over heels for Hannah('s cookies) - deals with the doom of an upcoming Christmas in Florida with family and the discovery that volunteering to spend time with motherless girls isn't as simple as it seems, she takes on a request from a local roofer to clear him of suspicion. A roof that he recently fixed came loose, causing his former client to fall to his death, but he swears the roof was done properly. Jaine's story has a grittier feel to it than the former, having a more urban setting and pace.

The final story is probably the most relaxed of the three. Written by Leslie Meier, this follows Lucy Stone, a New York City mother moved to rural Tinker's Cove, Maine. She doesn't run around chasing down murderers - with a toddler in tow and a second child on the way, this comes as no surprise - but rather tries to solve the mystery of the local librarian's mother's death by digging through memories and records. This story is laid back, showing the historical mystery as well as Lucy's struggles to live in a major "fix-er-up" with funds drying quickly, all the while dealing with her child and husband.

White Oleander

I had to read the book White Oleander by Janet Fitch for English this year, because we wanted to compare the book to the movie. I have to say, the book is amazing. The writing style was so delicately beautiful while coming from the first person of a girl who ages from about twelve or fourteen to eighteen while under unimaginable stresses. It's lyrical and artfully weaves figurative language in for a gorgeous experience. Plus, there's so much symbolism planted in it - it's basically a book that screams "I am what happens when hard work comes out right."

The story, while well done, is kind of creepy, in a few ways, though. The story follows Astrid Magnussen, a girl who's mother is quite a character: an incredibly strong, independent woman who lives the life of a cynical poet and takes pride in her Norse ancestors. Together, they have traveled the world, enjoying the poetic wonders. However, one day her mother falls in love...and that brings her world crashing down. Put in a nutshell, some Los Angeles hotshot plays with her mother's heart, causing her to break all the rules she'd carefully instituted - rules that kept her at arm's length and strong. After sleeping with the guy only to find out he had to go, he had a date [with another woman], she takes the insult to an extreme level: murder. In the wake of her actions, Astrid is thrust into the world of foster homes, and grows up in a pretty tumultuous way.

There are some aspects that will make your skin crawl, the kind that a girl will run into learning the do's and don'ts of life, but the book is incredibly powerful. It's such a beautifully written story, and it gets under your skin. I loved it despite having it as necessary reading.

The Taboo Topic: Twilight

Yes, everyone's heard of it, the four-series book about vampires and werewolves that is once beloved and despised by society (two different portions of it, not at the same time, generally). It's true, Stephenie Meyer didn't write them too well - the style is pretty bland. But once you let yourself get into it, the books aren't THAT bad. I'm not saying that they're amazing, and I can't speak any further than New Moon, but they really aren't that bad. The first one I was skeptical the whole way through but I didn't mind it in the end, and the second one I found myself getting into.

The thing about the second one, though, is that I read that AFTER I saw the movie. Now, I heard people screaming about how good it was, but I, for one, HATED the New Moon movie. I found it to be the most bland and boring thing ever on the face of the earth. I know there's a lot of intense drama going on in that book, but that is ALL that the movie is, pretty much: intense drama. I can sum up half the movie like so:

Two characters are talking, staring intensely at each other in the drama of the moment. The camera gives a headshot of CHARACTER ONE.

CHARACTER ONE
(dramatically)
LINE.

There is a pause. The camera shifts to a shot of CHARACTER TWO.

CHARACTER TWO
(dramatically)
LINE.

Seriously, that's what it felt like. The book did a better job of going in-depth and actually made it feel like Bella was a human and not just an Edward-centric puppet. I loathed that movie, I'm sorry. I just did. I couldn't stand it. But it did make the book better for me.

Now I'm going to read Eclipse, the third book (as far as I know). I have NO idea what goes on in this one, nor have I seen the movie (obviously), so this will be a first with the Twilight series. I will actually find out what the hell is going on IN THE BOOK.