Speed-Reading Book Nerd Reviews

Knit Two

By Kate Jacobs.

The sequel to The Friday Night Knitting Club takes place five years later. Since I can't talk about this at all without spoiling the end of FNKC, the rest of this review goes below the cut.

Four and a half stars. Good stuff. Even better than the first one.

The Friday Night Knitting Club

By Kate Jacobs.

At first I wasn't getting into this book--it was a little twee and tended to "sum up" a bit more than I like, especially in a third person book. But then I started getting into it. Go figure.

Georgia Walker is a single mom to a 12-year-old spunky daughter, Dakota. When she was pregnant and dumped by her boyfriend James, she started a knitting store, which is now a fairly big hit in NYC, and has an interesting social crowd that meets up on Friday nights, even if some of the members don't actually knit. But things are starting to go really weird for Georgia. First, James shows up, wanting back in Dakota's life. And then her ex-best-friend from high school, Cathy (now known as Cat), commissions her to make her a dress, and she also wants back in her life. Georgia's the sort who cuts people off when they dump her, and she's feeling pretty resistant to having these two forced back into hers.

James is well aware that he used to be a total jerk back in the day, and now he wants to make amends to both Georgia and Dakota, and he does. Meanwhile, Cat married a total asshole and is miserable in her marriage, and envies Georgia for having her own business and a kid and managing just fine. She thinks that if she tags along with Georgia, she'll finally figure things out for herself.

There's a fair number of people in the FNKC, and I can't say that the author managed to cover all of them very well. (I never felt like I knew Peri or KC very well, or cared what happened to them.) Anita, Georgia's mentor, is covered a bit more as she starts dating a fellow that's had a crush on her for ages. The other characters I liked beyond Georgia and company were Darwin and Lucie. Lucie's realized that while she really can't commit to a man, she'd still like a kid , and engaged in sperm banditry in order to get pregnant. Now, y'all know what I think about that sort of behavior, but at least it isn't a major focus in the plot. Darwin, on the other hand, is a socially awkward academic who's never managed to make a friend until she met her husband Dan. Now that Dan's living on the other coast doing his residency and barely has time to say hi, she's at a total loss (plus having other personal issues). She and Lucie become friends unexpectedly, and I enjoyed it a lot.

And then...well, the book ends on a sad yet hopeful note (more about that below the spoiler cut). However, this is probably one of the few books I've read, other than The Time Traveler's Wife, where I didn't mind that so much. In this case, it was fitting.

Four stars.

Tap and Gown

By Diana Peterfreund.

Much to my sadness, the "Ivy League" series (previous ones here, here, and here) has come to an end with this book. But it's an awesome and satisfying end, and while I will miss the characters, I'm glad they come out as they do.

It's Amy's final season as both an Eli senior and as a Rose and Grave active knight, and it's time to tap the new members. This turns out to be an incredibly stressful process, even beyond figuring out how many female taps to include this time (a random draw determines it). Amy ends up responsible for selecting two taps, one to replace herself in the "literary" slot and another to replace a missing knight's "science" slot.

When it comes to filling the literary slot, you'd think Amy would have a fairly easy choice of it. But of the three literary bigwigs on campus, one is too eager, another seems to be occupied on her own, and the third choice is, dammit, a legacy--and also a giant tool. The tap that Amy ends up being excited about is her science slot, Michelle. However, Michelle's past history leads to all kinds of things being tricky to deal with, and I don't just mean in the "how to tap a girl who doesn't respond to anonymous phone calls asking for a society interview" sort of way. In fact, Amy's society nickname of "Bugaboo" becomes more bugaboo-y than EVER in this one when things really, really come to a head and Rose and Grave look even worse than ever. One wonders if the knights of D177 will ever have it easy. Apparently not!

Something I should probably mention: a theme in this book is secrets. Specifically, how secret IS a secret society? How secret is it when most people can figure out that they're a potential R&G tap, or when barbarians can figure out who's in what society? Is it at all practical and realistic to assume that one can keep it all quiet? Demetria in particular seems to be bothered at how much the Diggirls haven't reformed things and to some degree are continuing with traditions they might not like (example: legacy guy Topher). It's also made pretty clear in this book that in some cases, the "secrecy" rule really needs to be dropped/relaxed. Is this something that can change in the future? Amy also ponders a few other people's secret societies in this book, especially when certain members seem happier and more stress-free in theirs. It is hard to argue with Jamie when he points out that he was against letting women into the society because it did end up causing a lot of drama.

In other news, Amy has finally gotten romantically involved with Poe/Jamie, as official boyfriend and girlfriend, even though one way or another they'll probably end up in different places in a month and a half. Negotiating their relationship is interesting, given the R&G tap stress Amy is going through and Jamie's trying to stay out of it. The progression of their relationship is darned sweet, though, and there are some great moments. But much like Josh and Lydia, who may end up at different law schools, circumstances may part Amy and Jamie (yup, rhymes) as well. Should anyone give up their future life plans just because of a new relationship? It's the eternal graduating senior question. The hinted-at affection between Jenny and Harun is covered in this one as well, in a mature and surprising manner.

But in the end, I think the Diggirls find it all worth it. And we leave the D177 folks on a high note.

Might I request that the author later write another 4-book series on D178? I'd love to see Michelle's take on secret society life, what life is like for those living with the legacy of D177, and if Topher becomes less of a dick. Please?

Four stars. (Yay, a happy review went up today!)

The Secret Lives of the Sushi Club

By Christy Yorke.

I'm not exactly sure what to make of this book. For the record: good title, pretty sushi cover, but it has very, very little to do with sushi. What does it have to do with? Rafting down the river, folks.

(Starred comments go below the spoiler cut.)

Jina, a widow with a young kid and a live-in boyfriend who's just freaked the hell out when she proposed to him, has three friends she's acquired over the years and roped into going to sushi with her. Jina's more friends with each chick than they all are to each other, but they're still a pack who have shared various details with each other of their lives. So when Alice the author finally has a hit novel titled after their group, Jina, Irene, and Mary pick up their copies...and are mortified beyond belief to find their real life secret (and not secret) lives splashed across them. Mary's prim spinster life is immortalized as the "Virgin Maria", prompting all kinds of pervs to start calling her. Irene the actress's own soap opera past, affairs, and the accidental murder she committed are now all news to her Middle Eastern surgeon husband Naji, and his uber-uptight brother Ahmad encourages him to leave her. As for Jina's detailed trip of the river rafting trip that killed her husband Zach, well, this confirms Mike's thoughts that Jina is still obsessed with Zach...and also reveals to her son Danny how his father really died.

Danny, who seems to be haunted by the ghost of his dead father*, starts insisting on going out to Idaho and going down the Salmon River that killed his dad. Soon enough, virtually every single character in the book ends up going on this rafting trip. Mary falls for their hunky river guide Dean, Irene tries to get her marriage back while her brother-in-law works against it and acts all kinds of strange, Alice tries to make it up to her friends for using them as novel fodder (not terribly well), Danny dukes it out with an old friend of his, and Jina, well...has the surprise of her life when she reunites with Dean's dad, who she met on her previous trip.

I will say that there are two large, though well-foreshadowed, flat out soap opera twists in this book. I wasn't too thrilled with either. One was too weird and I just kinda wasn't buying it*, and the other, well, way to try to have a nonstereotypical couple of characters and then promptly make one of them into a horrible stereotype!** And this isn't even going into the stuff like the fish-man legend (which is kind of a giant "huh?") and Elvis the elk. I felt like the author was trying to squeeze in some magical realism and it just didn't work in this world for me.

And the end kinda sorta peters out. Mary and Alice get about a chapter apiece of backstory explanation, Irene gets a bit more, but most of it focuses on Jina and her infamous honeymoon river trip of death. Narration bounces through various people's heads without sticking to some consistency. It would have worked better if each chapter had had a focus on one person, rather than hopping through heads in some chapters. Alice pretty well drops out of the story for 90% of it, despite her being the impetus for it. Mary is magically fixed by trashing her life and ah, well, take a guess. Most of the stories are left awkwardly hanging open at the end.

Honestly, it's pretty weird and awkward in general. I'm giving it two and a half stars.

Dixieland Sushi

By Cara Lockwood.

This is a fun little book about culture clashes, preteen crushes, wedding drama, and there's also a hot English dude. What's not to love?

Jen Nakamura Taylor grew up half-Japanese in the South, in a town called "Dixieland", no less. She had a drooling crush on Kevin, the school stud who never knew she was alive no matter how much teenage machination she tried to unleash upon him. Her sister's obsessed with political correctness, while Jen has a deep, abiding love for Mr. Miyagi. She juggles a high-powered TV job where she's forced to kiss the ass of a crazy anchorwoman. She's never home, her place is a mess, and the last guy she dated had an Asian fetish that included a hentai stash in the bathroom.

Did I mention that Kevin the crush is getting married? To Jen's 20-year-old white cousin? Jen has to take time out from her job (not that the job is cool with this) to go down and watch the whole thing. Even though she's over Kevin by now, she's feeling dateless and sad about it. Her hot English work friend Riley, whose girlfriend has just been caught cheating on him, volunteers to go as her date. A trip to Graceland, fishing, beautification, and some wedding drama ensues from there, and it's fun times.

I enjoyed reading about Jen's racial issues and personal dilemmas, and how she worked things out for herself. Riley is a fun guy to read about, and I can't help but wish I could have seen him singing myself, heh heh heh. So, fun read. Four stars.

Isabel's Bed

By Elinor Lipman.

"You threw her out on the street, Ken. You cheated on her, which is humiliating enough, but then, after al those years of whining about what difference would a piece of paper make, you ran to City Hall to get married as fast as your little legs could carry you. Maybe this is the first chance she's had to say, 'Fuck you.'"

Harriet Mahoney is...well, a loser. She's rapidly nearing 42, she's still piddling around trying to write the great American novel (about her parents remarrying), and she's been with the same guy who has very little interest in her for 12 years...only the guy's just fallen in love with someone else and given her the boot. So when Harriet sees an ad in the New York Review of Books looking for a live-in ghostwriter, she applies and gets it.

The woman who placed the ad, Isabel Krug, is a 42-year-old hottie/former personal shopper whose main claim to fame is being in bed with her married lover, Guy VanVleet, when his wife Nan suddenly ran in and shot and killed him. Isabel, planning to cash in, wants to write a book about it. 

So Harriet moves in, meets Pete the handyman and Costas, Isabel's semi-estranged husband, learns about the wackiness of Isabel's life, gets a new haircut, learns to tell Kenny the ex to fuck himself, finds herself a new man and new career...blah blah blah. It's one of those "dull woman gets her life revamped by Manic Pixie Dream Girl who gives her a makeover and then she gets a man" sort of novels, except it's not quite as interesting as those other novels. I wouldn't say it's for lack of trying- Isabel is pretty interesting on her own, and when Nan VanVleet strolls into the story when she gets out of the mental hospital, she's a crackup too. But Harriet still stays pretty dull. She doesn't exactly make it in her chosen career, she seems to end up with the guy she does by default, and...eh. I didn't care all that much. There's some fun scandals that comes up towards the end of the book regarding Costas, but coming up that soon towards the end means you can't do much with them, and in the end he wanders out of the story anyway.

And in the end, I guess I was all, what was the point again?

Two and a half stars.

The Wedding Party

By Robyn Carr.

Charlene has been happily single for many years now. She had a brief marriage to a cop named Jake, which produced a daughter, Stephanie. A few years ago, she met the nice, kindly, stable widower Dennis, and they have been happily unmarried and uncohabitating.

Then Charlene has a really bad day, in which her daughter says she doesn't want to come out like her, she has squabbling couples at her job, the car breaks down, her mother is apparently getting Alzheimer's.... and by the time she staggers in the door, wet, she proposes to Dennis. He's wanted to marry her for years, now she's giving in. Okay, right?

Not so much. (Despite the title, this is not a wedding book.)

Charlene's life becomes incredibly busy, in between her work and her family. Grandma Lois is definitely going downhill. Stephanie's a drama queen who's flirting with a creep behind her boyfriend's back because she feels neglected (and he's pretty fed up with her too). Ex-husband Jake and his friends take young girls in trouble under their wings, and he talks Charlene into taking up the case of one. Meredith's a 27-year-old whose uncle made her work at a strip club as a teenager and she got knocked up at the ages of 15 and 18. Now her ex-husband suddenly wants custody of his daughter. Given how old the daughter is, and how old Meredith is, and the fact that she nearly gets shot, well...Charlene and Jake end up coming together more often during all of this crisis. Meanwhile, Dennis discovers that he's hitting it off with the wedding planner a lot better than he ever did with Charlene, and Charlene's assistant has a younger man interested in her.

There's good things and bad things about it. On the bad side list, there's a lot of "tell, not show" going on. I rather wish we had less summarization, especially when it came to characters having Big Realizations about their lives. I wouldn't quite say this is a romance (it's not massively romantic, even with the "lead couple."), so if you were going for that, it's not so much. More of a big yet quiet soap opera. I kind of liked Pam and Ray's relationship, but it really felt tacked on the side and didn't really mix n' mingle with everyone else's stories too well. I think I would have rather the author gave them their own book. And things are somewhat predictable when it comes to all the couples anyway.

On the good side, I was interested in the Meredith story despite myself. She starts out as sounding like her case is doomed, and ominous, then the story takes a very unexpected right turn. I don't know whether to (a) be impressed with the author for surprising me, or (b) think that the publisher told the author that she couldn't go where it sounded like she was intending to go. Either way, it's an interesting resolution. I also really enjoyed one particular moment with Grant (Stephanie's boyfriend) in the book. I really wanted to cheer him on for making a hard decision.

I'm giving it three stars.

Been There, Done That

By Carol Snow.

This is one of those books where when I told my friends what I was reading, they got all amused. Because I am out of my 20's and work at a college, and look like I'm 12 years old...let's just say my daily life might not involve a dorm, but it's still pretty similar to this book. Hah.

Anyhoo: Kathy Hopkins is a 32-year-old education writer with the face of a teenager who definitely can't drink without ID. She's still pining over the loss of her college boyfriend Tim, who dumped her out of the blue a few years ago. When Tim gets a dubious scoop that a prostitution ring is being run out of Mercer College, he gets the bright idea to rope Kathy into it...and get her to go undercover as a freshman. Kathy isn't too hot for this idea, but her creepy boss loves it, and next thing you know, Kathy's in the dorms and spending more time collaborating with Tim.

It's...weird. Kathy dislikes her Claymate roommate and isn't used to the drunken all-nighters, but on the other hand, she gets to join a choir group (something Tim talked her out of doing in college) and try doing some things she never got to do the first go-round. I wish the book had emphasized that a little more, but it's a good point to make. However, trying to track down college hookers doesn't go as expected. (I do give the author points for pulling some twists on this.)

And then there's Kathy's RA, the hunky 21-year-old Jeremy. Who's not only hot, but incredibly nice and sweet and likes her. How skanky is Kathy if she chases after him? And is there any kind of future with someone that young?

I will admit I think the ending is a bit piddly. After Kathy's article gets written, there's some twists, but it does feel slow. I do like the ending, though, which ends on a good note.

Three and a half stars. A few reservations, but pretty good overall.

Savannah Blues

By Mary Kay Andrews.

Antique "picker" Weezie's rich husband threw her over for one of his employees, the snooty Caroline. Now Weezie lives in the carriage house behind her old house, where she and Caroline engage in petty behavior. Things come to a head when the last member of the Mullinax family dies, leaving behind a beautiful plantation house and tons of antiques. Weezie loves the house (Beaulieu) and plans to get her hands on the antiques. But other folks have plans to get the house torn down, and the antique sale goes awry when Weezie finds Caroline's body on the premises.

There are three mysteries in this:

1. who offed Caroline
2. how is Beaulieu getting destroyed?
3. what happened to the furniture in Beaulieu after the aborted sale?

To be honest, I wasn't terribly captivated by most of that. To me, reading this book is kinda like reading about shopping. It's fun to do in person, but pretty dull to read about someone else doing it. There are also some drastic character changes at the last minute, which seem fairly well out of left field.

I dunno...it was fine for reading in the bathtub, it doesn't suck, but I won't remember this past tomorrow, either. Three stars.

Rites of Spring (Break)

By Diana Peterfreund.

Previous book here.

Amy's winter in Rose and Grave isn't going too great. She gets pegged as being a member of the Diggers during a raid on another secret society's (Dragon's Head) tomb, and then is the target of many a nasty prank. Adding to the complications, she briefly considers getting back together with her ex Brandon.... and the two come together into one bad, bad night for Amy.

So, hey, who could use a vacation, to the super-secret Rose and Grave PRIVATE ISLAND, Cavador Key in Florida?!

Vacation, alas, is not what it's cracked up to be. Even though R&G has their own private Idaho island, it's not nearly as ritzy as one would assume. The island caretaker is a very paranoid guy- as it turns out, he has good reason to be. Any patriarch that wants to can come stay...and recently politically disgraced (and enemy of Amy's club, D177) Kurt Gehry is hiding out with his family on the island. Also on vacation are the Myers, one of whom is pretty bigoted. But on the good side, Malcolm returns (though he isn't seen as much as I would have liked), as well as Poe, Amy's enemy-turned-who-knows-what over the last year.

Amy has a rough time from the getgo, as she is Not A Swimmer. This bites her in the ass right from the getgo when she has a nasty pitched-out-of-the-boat incident upon arrival. But pranks abound on Cavador Key, some of which are looking suspiciously nasty. Who's doing it? Kurt Gehry? The Myers? Dragon's Head? The people who seem to be sneaking onto the key? This takes a different twist, one that is kind of hard to handle...

And then there's Poe, who Amy's slowly seeing as not such a bad guy. They start hooking up on the island, but they also fight over the nature of the pranks. See, Poe is pretty convinced that someone's out to kill Amy...and Poe's not a dumb guy...

Now, I generally don't like the Asshole Love Pairing sort of story. Which anyone can figure out by reading any of my reviews of the Gardella Vampire books- I still do NOT love Max, I still think he acts like a dick to Victoria about 97% of the time (I can cite in my head about three times when he's not being a dick), and I can't root for a guy who acts like that. I keep hoping he'll make a drastic change and make even me like him by book 4, we'll see next month, but so far, it ain't working for me. (Though oddly enough, she is managing to morph Sebastian into a more sympathetic guy. Go figure.)

Diana Peterfreund, on the other hand, totally gets it right on how to make that sort of pairing work. Jamie/Poe doesn't lose his bad traits necessarily that you saw in the first few books, but you see the good side of him, he softens up some, you like him. I was semi-liking him in the second book, but I do root for him now. Yay. See, THIS is how you do it.  I look forward to seeing him with Amy in the next book. And much like the scenes with George in the previous book, I got pretty hot and bothered reading about Poe. So, yay.

With regards to the other developments in the book, I'm not sure what to think. I can see why people think the way that they do towards the end, and how it would be a hard situation to handle. I do like how it's pointed out to our current crop of Diggers that they seem to be more "D177 against the world" and not so friendly to others already in the organization, and how that may very well come to bite them in the ass later on.  I'm not sure how our Diggers would manage to fix that problem (especially since well, that's how their year has been going due to other people like Kurt Gehry), but I think it's good to point out.

I will be interested to see how this goes.  I am giving it three and a half stars because I'm not quite as in love with it as the last two, and I'm not sure what to make of the non-romantic developments in it. But still, good stuff. I am sad the series ends in another book.