Sunday, April 28, 2019

Supermarket by Bobby Hall






Hello everyone.

Ladies and gentlemen, boy and girls, I'm about to do something I absolutely hate. I am about to date myself. I know, the world is skewed toward the young. However, sometimes, yes sometimes us old farts must stand up for what we believe in. This is my moment. So to you, dear book world I say the following: Genesis was a great band, Styx was a great band, Van Halen was a great band, Aerosmith was a great band. Invisible Touch, Renegade, Hot for Teacher, and Walk This Way, are songs like nobody makes anymore. Not that I don't like much of today's music, but much of it I just don't know.

These bands I'm talking about didn't use auto-tune, or mouth the words while someone else actually sang. These were bands in the golden age of modern music.  I like older music too. Who cannot appreciate a great Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra or Perry Como song?  Heck, my mom's favorite song was Splish Splash, ever heard that? Then there is classical, too much good stuff to mention except my favorite, Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. I swear if you close your eyes during that song you can see your whole life replay in bits and pieces. Go on Google it, I'll wait......see it is amazing!

While looking at the NY Times Best Seller list one day I saw this odd book suddenly at number one on the paperback list. I hadn't heard any buzz about it, nobody I knew was reviewing or even reading it. It has a simple red front with no cover art. I quickly read the "jacket" and discovered it is about a mystery that takes place in a supermarket. Have you caught my blog name...The Fictional Housewife...yeah, grocery items and converting them into some kind of masterpiece is my life. This book seemed right up my alley, I ordered immediately. When it arrived I was surprised to see that it was written by some young rap star,  Bobby Hall, aka Logic. Really? Okay. A book is a book, I'd give it a go.

First let me say, overall I liked it. The writing was not the best, it felt a bit like a high school kid wrote it...not a talented writer with a wonderful editor. I noticed this lack of polished word play but it was not terribly distracting. The story is told in two parts. The beginning is about the main character, Flynn, and his experiences working in a grocery store. He has had a tremendous stroke of luck and has gotten a publisher to buy his first book on spec, they've paid him an advance now he must produce the manuscript. His novel is to be set in the grocery story where he works. Then in part two, still following Flynn we find that something major has happened and time has passed. I don't want to tell you more, it will ruin your experience. I found the ending pretty unbelievable, but then again, most books I read you have to push your disbelief aside and just enjoy. This is one of those books that is good, interesting, a quick read. Not genius, not my favorite of the year or even the month but definitely interesting and something I am glad to have read.

If you have time to give The Supermarket a go, I think you'll enjoy it. Oh, and if you do, I have one thing to say to you, "coffee, coffee, coffee." (You'll get it if you read the book.)

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing






Hello everyone.

Hubby is back to work! I feel terrible about how he spent his vacation. He did some things around the house, one was cleaning out a walk-in closet to make it a mini library for me. After he went out and bought all the wood and brackets to build beautiful shelving I actually looked at the cleaned out closet and admitted I had forgotten how many shelves it already had and didn't want more. When I asked him to return all the lumber I think he might have hit me with it like in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. In fact, it is still sitting in my hall, days later, unreturned, taunting me. It smells so good, that new wood smell. The boards he picked are so nice, thick and straight, they'd make beautiful shelves. I don't know, maybe I should ask him to build shelves anyway. If you see me in divorce court you'll know why. Likewise, if I suddenly go missing in a very mysterious way, first alert the police, second call my sisters, third write a book about it and make sure you make me an innocent victim with a much smaller butt and better hair!

While we were on our staycation, I read My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing. I wanted this book the moment I saw it but resisted buying it. I had just read For Better and Worse by Margot Hunt. Frankly, I was afraid they were they same thing. For Better and Worse is about a murdering couple. They murder for a reason, someone has hurt their child. They have a purpose, a gore filled goal (it isn't really gory). Thankfully, My Lovely Wife is completely different.  I got lucky, my husband is a hopeless romantic, he sends flowers for notable occasions, big beautiful bouquets. In My Lovely Wife, the husband/father is the narrator and honestly, I don't think the author gives his name...ever. He is married to Millicent and they have two children. Life is perfect, their version of perfect.  Instead of showing his affection for his wife with flowers, jewelry or an exciting trip, this husband finds her someone to murder! It is so dark and twisted. They live everyday life like everyone else, making you wonder what the "normal" people you know do in private. Nothing like a Wednesday night of, "honey, can you pass the green beans and how do you think we should torture victim number three?"  As I was telling hubby the story I kept gripping the book, holding it up, laughing, saying it was so good. Makes me wonder about myself!

So, if you have read the latest round of husband/wife killer books, don't worry. You'll enjoy this too. It is well written, fast paced, full of twists that you won't see coming and perhaps a bit shame inducing for how much you'll like it. This was a heart racing rollercoaster from start to finish!

We have our wedding anniversary coming up next month, I'll have to think of "something" to do to celebrate!

Friday, April 12, 2019

Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with recipes)






Hello everyone.

If you look at the last review, I said I had a book I was supposed to be reading but stopped briefly. I have now completed that book. Since we are still on vacation, I'll be brief. The book is Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with recipes) by Lorna Landvik. To be totally honest, it was sent to me for review. It is not one I would buy. I crave thrillers, as you all know. I can't help it; I have an addiction! However, sometimes I get sent a book or someone strongly recommends just a regular good old story, that I have to read. Ninety-nine percent of the time I love them, in fact, my top five favorite books of all time are NOT thrillers. If people didn't insist I read a certain book or send it to me, I would be missing out. It is definitely a fault. Something I have to fix and quickly, as I would hate to have missed this story.

Chronicles of a Radical Hag is a wonderful book. It is about an older woman, Hazel, who has had a stroke. She writes a column for the local newspaper so while she is in the hospital (unconscious), the paper begins to rerun some of her old features. They basically tell her personal story and touch on things that are important at that time too, like the Challenger Space Shuttle exploding or about Princess Diana. Told moving between past and present, Hazel's life and those around her, the reader soon becomes enamored with many residents of the town. This heartwarming story illustrates, often with humor, how none of us is perfect but how we all are redeemable. If you like good stories this is for you, I cannot be any plainer. Get ready to laugh, cry and to think about this book for days after it is over.

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

The First Lady






Hello everyone.

I hope you are having a good day. Not so good here. Well, kind of is, kind of isn't. Hubby is on vacation this week. He has several things he wants to do around the house and was ready for a break from work. First thing on the agenda was to get our taxes done. Ouch! Like I keep hearing on the news, we usually get a refund and this year ended up owing, big time. This is unacceptable. I need my refund for book money. How dare the government want to spend it on things like defense and crummy old roads and bridges. Ok, I'll stop.

One of hubby's "honey-do" list projects is to build a little library. We have an old house, it was actually built with a room considered a library. Unfortunately, it has no bookshelves and lots of windows, a fireplace, and pocket doors, so there is little room for shelving. Besides the ole' spouse uses it as his office. Needless to say, when he is working on a huge problem for work, I do not want to be anywhere close by. Anyway, we have a sitting room attached to our bedroom and it has an unused walk-in closet. I've asked my oh so talented (yes, I'm buttering him up) man, to line those walls with heavy duty, hand built shelves that I can pile high with books. While there really won't be room to read in there, it will be nice to organize my unread books which seem to be everywhere these days.

One book I won't need any shelving for because I've finished it is The First Lady, by James Patterson and Brendan Dubois. I've read books by James Patterson which I very much enjoyed. I have not read anything by Brendan Dubois, so was curious especially when it came up on the NY Times Bestseller Paperback list. When it arrived in the mail, I was in the middle of something else. Something I needed to read right away. Sadly or happily, depending how you look at it, I just "had" to read the first few pages of The First Lady. I should have been patient and waited. Yep, I read the whole thing. I am really a slow reader, I swear I don't know how it happened. I whipped through this book in less than two days, and I didn't really have any marathon reading sessions. The book has 338 pages, it is not like it is a novella. I guess I magically got through this story so fast because it was so good and rapidly paced. The plot was strong and always in the forefront, not wavering. While it is obviously about the President and First Lady of the United States, if you are sick and tired of politics don't worry. The story is about people, supporting characters and settings of a political nature, it really isn't about any governmental issues. It is a great ride of a thriller that races (somehow way faster than I can read) through the twists and turns to the perfect ending. Highly enjoyable.

Too bad voting for politicians is not as fun or thrilling as reading this book! If it was, everyone would vote.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

The Girl He Used To Know by Tracey Garvis Graves






Hello everyone.

I have a word for you...ready?  SEX!  Yes, sex. Okay, goodnight and have a safe drive home! No? Okay, then I'll go on. Sex is everywhere. It is getting checked out at the grocery store, in more ways than one, or being noticed while walking your dog. Sex is in movies, nature, tv, in books. I am assuming we are all adults here, if under 18 turn this off and go read a book. Back to being adults, being a few years out of my twenties, okay more than a few. No, not that many...okay maybe...let's get off my age. Let me just say, by now what I haven't done, I have ruled out or put in that side category of "maybe just once if I'm in a weird mood and have had a hell of a lot of wine." No matter where you are in your sex life journey, we all know what that attraction feels like. As with many things promoted for money, sex has been turned into a sales vehicle. Whether we like it or not sex sells. I remember being in a marketing class in college and being shocked when we were shown an ad for a certain kind of scotch. It was in a glass over ice. The teacher asked us to look very closely at the ice and sure enough the shape of the haze within the ice was that of a woman's body. Sex does sell, more than booze too, it sells books. No? Don't think so? Ask the author of Fifty Shades of Grey. It was a fan fiction version of Twilight but became SO popular, partly because of the sex. Result, book deal and well paid author.

Sex in a book is especially important in a romance novel. Perhaps not the sex act itself but definitely sexual tension. We root for the characters to get together, to fall in love, to have emotional as well as sexual chemistry. But frankly, if there is no physical spark it could end up like loving your brother not someone you have great passion with. This week I read The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves. First, let me say, I was very fortunate to receive an advanced copy from the publisher (thank you most excellent St. Martin's Press). I know several other reviewers who also received copies. They ALL LOVED it. Adored. Best thing since sliced bread. When looking at the author on Amazon you will see she is highly rated, a NY Times best seller.  You know it's coming don't you?

For me, this book missed the mark. This is the story of a couple that falls in love in college,  separates then reconnects years later. The story is painfully slow, they don't go anywhere or do anything. That is fine, it drives me crazy when I read a bunch of books where all the activity and settings are over the top, but when you stay in one place the reader is relying on the author to really develop the characters and for some wonderful dialog. The conversations between characters in this story seemed somewhat forced. Not playful, fun, or enjoyable. Not that all discussions have to be light but they didn't seem particularly meaningful either. In this story the girl is on the autism spectrum, the third book with that theme that I've read in six months. Makes me wonder if that is the next trend like vampires were a few years ago (betting female French spies during WWII follow as next major book topic). I can't really explain it other than to say what others found charming, I found flat and uninteresting. The writing was slow and bland. There was a big event at the end but frankly by then it seemed awkward and out of place. I know the work that goes into a book. I really do. It hurts me to say something bad about any book, please remember I am one of the very few people that don't like this. I just thought this whole story, minus the ending, could have been told in 10 pages.

Now that I've depressed us all, time to go to the grocery story to get "checked out", one way or another.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Transcription by Kate Atkinson






Hello everyone.

If my spelling is off today, it is not really my spelling...well it could be, but I'm sticky. Why you ask? I did something housewifey today. I made flakey pastries with a chocolate cream filling, golden brown topped with a light dusting of confectioners' sugar. They are tasty and pretty but seems like a lot of work for something that will be gone so quickly. Although if I think what I'd pay for something like it in a store or coffee shop, hmmm, I guess the stickiness is worth it. It was a nice surprise for hubby too, who is working from home this afternoon. Speaking of hubby, this is the second and last of his reviews for the moment. He read and loved Transcription by Kate Atkinson. When I read him the plot, he was all in and dove into the book the second it arrived, not putting it down until it was over.

His thoughts:

Although the title suggests a somewhat mundane activity, typewriter keys drumming an erratic song as voices resonate from earphones, the assignment only begins that way. Set against a backdrop of the early days of England ’s entrenchment in World War II, the MI5 job suddenly casts a large shadow. The eavesdropping heroine of our tale is neither saddled with an escape-worthy past nor endowed with extreme talents. This everywoman quality makes it a comfortable fit for the reader to hear both her catty thoughts about a coworker one moment and tensely follow a flashback as duty tested her bravery and patriotic dedication to her newfound craft. Immersive and spanning a decade in the environs of London, the story will leave the reader pondering the character’s post-novel life, proof of a good tale. Mid-century and espionage fans will want to listen along with Miss Armstrong.      

Well there you have it, hubby read two books about spies and loved them both. I'll make a reader of him yet....picture Scarlet O'Hara in the scene with the orange sky where she says "As God is my witness I'll never be hungry again." If you have any suggestions about what to tempt him with now, let me know. Next time you are back to boring old me y'all.

Saturday, March 23, 2019

The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff






Hello everyone,

Have you noticed a change in the air lately? No, I haven't stopped cooking fish. We love fish and it is good for you, not to mention we live near the ocean. Nope, it's not the spring flowers starting to bloom. At our house the skies have parted and the book Gods have shined upon us once again. Oh yeah, you guessed it...hubby has started reading! All those years of me telling him endlessly about the books I've read and nah...he'd rather not read. I start burdening you, dear internet, with the books I MUST discuss and don't tell hubby...BINGO now he wants to read. Sure, he read a couple of thrillers last year just so he could see if he could spot the twists I missed. I am not talking about that. I am talking about bona fide, "Hey, that book sounds interesting, think I'll buy it and read it" kind of reading! Yes, I realize my purchases are increasing because he is now buying books, but this does give me the chance to  grab one for him, then tell him that while I was there I cleared just a "few" things off my wish list and chuck some books in the cart for myself. Tricky huh? I'm telling you, if you try you can justify anything to yourself (or sneak past hubby without leaving purchases in the trunk of the car).

So, I know you're curious as to what has drawn my non-reader into the world of ink and wonder. Well, for one think he loves how books smell, the older the better. I thought it was a wacko thing (although I like old book smell especially when combined with coffee) but I asked around and lots of people like the smell. It was actually spy novels. Now I love action books that often have some spy or a little military edge to them, like Green Zone Jack or my endless supply of James Rollins. I adore those kinds. No, he likes more hardcore spy stories, especially those that have to do with WWII and women. He says that women in France did a lot of spying at that time. Who knew? Course, if I read more spy stuff I guess I would. Anyway, I asked him to write just a paragraph about two of his recent reads. He is a much better writer than I am so please, do not get used to it. Here is the first one, it is The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff.

Risky shortcuts often take their toll, and postwar Manhattan is no exception. The romantic notion of American women returning to suburban homes from factory jobs has yet to be realized as citizens and an influx of immigrants maneuver for new lives in the melting pot. Widowed and set adrift in an unplanned existence, Grace inexplicably finds herself obsessed with solving a mystery. The reader is not left without the back stories, and is given an intimate look at the wartime lives of two women intertwined in the conflict across the Atlantic . The suspense builds, and the tale of survival and betrayal shines light on a less familiar but no less admirable group of women. Is Grace’s trust in the handsome friend helping her justified? This story of the British women’s effort in the French resistance keeps the reader intrigued to the last chapter.

Yep, hubby really liked it. He was "intrigued" which means he often asked to turn off the TV to read! If that isn't the sign of hubby enamored with a book I don't know what is.