Literary Lundi #4

I bought... kind of a lot of books this week? A few of these were from the Nook holiday sale, so I'm going to try to read them while they are still seasonally appropriate!

Books Acquired:

The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart-- It's about the plants that go into booze, so it should be fun.

A Crossworder's Gift by Nero Blanc-- Mystery stories with crosswords included! I may have read something from this series before? I have definitely read a crossword-related mystery. Reviews for this title aren't great, but could be decent travel reading.

The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber-- I guess I'm going all in on this Michel Faber thing.

Doon by Carey Corp-- A YA fantasy based on Brigadoon. The musical.

Mistletoe Murder by Leslie Meier-- Again, reviews aren't great, but I'm not really that picky.

A Crossworder's Delight by Nero Blanc-- I think this one comes with crosswords AND recipes. Hunter pointed out that he doesn't usually read books that come with freebies. Here's my response to that:

Books Finished:

The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So, this is the second Margaret Atwood I've read, and I believe her first novel. Although there were definitely some similarities, I didn't like it as much. Both deal with the pressures put on women, but this deals more with internal pressure rather than external. In some ways, I was surprised by how little there was in this book to date it. Aside from a few things like a hotel requiring a couple to be married, I would almost believe this was written in the 1990s or later. I guess I'm not sure what that says about the state of society. Anyway, it was okay and the narration on the audiobook was really good--I mean, the voices she did for the different characters were apt and well-done--but I don't think it's a great book and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone just getting started with Margaret Atwood, because I think if I had read this first I might not be super interested in her later stuff.

View all my reviews The Antiquarian by Julián Sánchez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really like books about books, and historical mysteries. Because that sentence is supposed to lead into this one, it pretty much goes without saying that The Antiquarian is both. As far as the writing style goes, it's somewhere between Dan Brown and Umberto Eco. Which I guess you could say, what isn't? But I mean, there is definitely a strong plot moving things along, but that's not ALL there is.

It reaaallly made me want to visit Barcelona, and just Spain in general, too.

View all my reviews

Currently Reading:

Give Them Grace by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson-- Hunter got this book and started reading it, and then thought it would make more sense if we both read it rather than him just telling me what he got out of it. It's a little different for me to read a book with the potential to have so much impact on my life, but maybe it's good for me to read things for reasons other than just plain enjoyment.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon (audio)-- In an alternate timeline, some people have psychic powers and the government doesn't like that. Pretty good so far, and I like the narrator's ability to do different English accents.

Next Up:

Levi Stack, the author of The Silent Deal, which I read recently, also gave me a copy of the second book in the series, The Magic Trick, so I'll probably move on to that next.