Recently Finished Book Archive

Aroma -- Mandy Aftel (This book had a vegan recipe for lime caramel that made my mouth water. I didn't ever get around to making it, and then I had to give the book back to the library. Oh well. If you're looking for some foodie inspiration, go get this book and then invite me to dinner)

Chalice -- Robin McKinley (So, about five years ago I went through a McKinley phase and checked out every book the Spokane library had. I kinda figured I'd read them all. Apparently not, since there were several available in the Seattle library last time I updated my book requests. This one is neat--I think I enjoy her books that veer off well known myth/legends and create new worlds and new stories. 4/4)

The Graveyard Book -- Neil Gaiman (I bought this book for my mama for her birthday, but I haven't mailed it to her yet. She's got the best birthday present from us ever, cuz in addition to this book Rob gave her a case of sardines. At any rate though, this book is really good--I liked it about as much as I liked Anansi Boys. 3/31)

Sunshine -- Robin McKinley (When I first read this book several years ago I really really liked it. It's still good, but I found all the narrative a bit annoying this time. A vampire book I'm not ashamed to let people know that I've read. 3/24)

Lotta Prints -- Lotta Jansdotter (This is a neat book--I didn't have a chance to do any of the projects in the book before I returned it to the library, but there were a few good ideas and several jumping off points I'd like to come back to sometime. 3/23)

Outlaws of Sherwood -- Robin McKinley (This was pretty good. Not the most fabulous of McKinley's I've read, but I enjoyed the retelling of the Robin Hood legend. Maybe I would've liked it more if I didn't have phantom cartoon images running through my head while I read the story. 3/20)

Spook Country -- William Gibson (This story, too, had Big-End! Gibson's writing isn't spectacular, and his characters are often pretty undeveloped, but I liked both this and Pattern Recognition for what they are: quick reads and detailed fast plots that twist and wriggle. I loved the Cuban/Chinese acrobatic thief Tito the best. 3/13)