Mini Monday, Featuring Lunar Betty!

Hooray for Julie, Lunar Betty, who has graciously agreed to let me post a couple of her mini-reviews.  She asked that I remind everyone that these are just her emotional reactions and not "real" reviews.  We all know what that means, right?  Say it with me!  "Julie, YOU ARE A GREAT REVIEWER!!!1111!!!!111!!"


And now, on to the reviews!  

I finished a book yesterday that I did not love.  (This won’t be a review, I already told you that I can’t do those, I’m too emotional, can’t analyze with enough distance.  I am only capable of saying “yes I liked it, or “no I hated it.”  Not much gray area for me.)  I can tell when I am not adoring a story by the number of times I set it down.  If I carry the book around with me constantly, and finish it in a day or less, then I adore it.  If it takes me more than three days to get through, it is not a winner.  The latest from Laura Lippman was totally not a gem, to me.  I’d Know You Anywhere did not grab me, on any level.  The people in the book were flawed, that’s never the problem for me, I am flawed, we are all flawed.  These characters simply irritated me.  They had no spines, and the ones that almost did, were shallow, they were self-serving.  And not in an amusing way.  I simply did not give a rat’s ass about any of them.

And....

The Wilde Women by Paula Wall

           I liked this book very much, it had a very special "feel" that I really enjoyed. If this book was a photograph it would be one of those sepia-toned hand tinted antiques in a massively heavy frame.  It has the warmest brown hue to it.  I really enjoyed reading all of the separate-but-linked stories, the attitudes, and the emotions of each character.  They felt like real people you'd run across if you were transported back in time to this heavily burdened, but hard loving, fictional community.

          You can hear Wall's distinctive voice on every page, you could practically taste the dust of The Great Depression with every uniquely descriptive line.  Wall is a grand story teller and a true wordsmith. 

          The only thing that would have added more, I felt, would have been if she'd included family trees or some type of graphic to chart all the characters and their lineage.  Every once in a while I'd lose track of who was related to who(m?).  Overall I so loved reading how they interacted and crossed paths, in the current setting and in the past. 

          One or two folks were left a bit shallow in their backstory/history, and weren't quite as fleshed out as I would have liked.  But, I do understand the need for "minor" characters in every tale, and not every reader wants a tome that weighs more than a pudgy toddler  (could just be me this case).

          The twists and "just desserts" that rounded out the ending were very well done, tying up loose ends and giving the closing chapters a satisfying HEA (or just EA, but well deserved).

          There was, not exactly similarities, but a similar emotional sense, in this book as compared to her first one, The Rock Garden.  I think most readers would be happy with it if they enjoyed the other one.  For the familiarity of Wall's "voice" more than anything else.

So, those are our Monday mini-reviews!  Thanks, Julie!

Also, congratulations, merrymac12, you are the winner of the Adrien English Mysteries 1&2!  Shoot me an email at booksandbacon at yahoo dot com, and I'll get going on that.

Have a Happy Monday, and a Happy Valentine's Day everyBetty!