katestine: (reading)
[personal profile] katestine
I got James Haller's Vie de France bc it's the only book of his the NYPL owns and [livejournal.com profile] jofish22 recommended him highly. Turned out to be a memoir of a month he spent with friends in a house in France. I'm glad I waited until the end to review it, bc I've been complaining the whole time that he sounds like the most naive person to ever leave the country: everything is so wonderful and so picturesque, I bet if he'd been mugged, he would have talked about what an authentic experience it was. Then I got to the last "chapter" and it turns out that this trip motivated him to quit the restaurant business and start writing the cookbooks [livejournal.com profile] jofish22 so highly recommends; I could see why a vacation that had such a large impact on his life might be viewed with rose-colored glasses.

I'm also highly motivated to buy his cookbooks after reading this book - he gives detailed menus for the meals he prepared for his housemates and most of them sound so simple, maybe even I could make them. It's clear from his descriptions that they are simple bc he has technique: he just buys what looks good at the market bc he doesn't have to think about a recipe, he knows chix get cooked at such-and-such heat for such-and-such time.

**

I'm dragging out the last Harry Dresden book for as long as possible bc it IS the last, but I did want to comment briefly on one of the anthologies. There are several Harry Dresden short stories in anthologies and after reading every single one (who me, obsessive?) I can state you don't really need to hunt them down: he's a much better novelist than short story writer. If anything, I think the plots in the novels are a little more convoluted than necessary.

For some reason, I ended up reading every story in My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding and oh wow was that a terrible idea. Some of them were entertaining - L. A. Banks' "Spellbound" put a different spin on the Hatfield-McCoy thing and Esther M. Friesner's "The Wedding of Wylda Serene" was fun if you like Victorian-style storytelling w/a big fat twist - but most can be summarized as "girl helping friend get married finds twu wuv". There's only so many times you can read that story in a row.

Several of the stories were set in already-developed universes - Charlaine Harris has a story in it - and some of the premises for the universes are so bad, I was dumbstruck. Come to think of it, the Charlaine Harris story is so bad, I can't understand how she ever got published. Then again, while I thought Rachel Caine's story in this volume was pretty silly, I read the sequel in My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon first, and thought her story in that volume was great - so entertaining, I've started looking for her books.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-10 01:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jadia.livejournal.com
Have you read Harris's novels? Just like Butcher is a better novelist than he's a short story writer, Charlaine Harris's novels are actually worth reading. At least the first one or two are fun.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-10 03:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] katestine.livejournal.com
Somebody got me a copy of Dead Until Dark which I duly read. Somehow I didn't take to it *shrugs* but the short story I read in My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding was written with the sophistication of Nancy Drew or Babysitters Club. Not exaggerating.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-10 03:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jadia.livejournal.com
Oh, um, I have a memory here somewhere....

Iew. Gross.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-10 03:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] katestine.livejournal.com
s'ok. the other book you gave me in the same gift was the first Jhereg book, which has been sitting on my nightstand this whole time. Thank you for giving me such awesome presents all the time. Also, after knowing each other for almost a dozen years, I may have to start asking you what I've gotten you as a present to avoid repeating. Well, except when I buy you weird books off defunct Amazon wishlists. That's extra-special :-)

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