Back to the Blog!

Well it has been ever too long since I last posted. Life gets in the way and I haven't felt much like writing lately, so I have ignored my blog. Well I suppose it's time to start writing about what I've been reading. I'm supposed to be writing this for my own good, so I have a source to look back at when I need recommendations and ideas. Here we go then!!

I've read/listened to two books recently that were not as satisfying as I hoped. Don't you hate it when you're looking forward to reading something and you get all the way through it and think "well I won't remember that one!" Me too. After both these books I had to go back to a classic that I knew wouldn't disappoint and I could breeze through, so I could move onto a new (perhaps risky) read.

Well book one was Empress Orchid by Anchee Min. I love royal historic novels. They're exotic because of the difference in era, culture, and the royal court. I was so looking forward to the tale of a normal woman who ended up as Empress of China and her climb to power. I don't know much about China and don't often read novels focused on Asia, so this was definitely exotic for me.

This novel starts with Orchid's poor family. Her father, a governor of a poor district, has just died and they can hardly afford to take him to Peking and bury him. The family ends up staying in Peking, and while there, the call comes for all Manchu women with family in the governing class and above can try there luck to become one of the Emperor's brides or a concubine. From here, Orchid makes her way through the process and into the Imperial court where she must seek the Emperor's attention, work her way through the intricacies of court life, and conquer political enemies. On top of all of this, however, Orchid is still a woman, and later a mother, who craves the attention of a man and the love of her child. She wants a life that she gave up, but must try to make the best of a glamorous life that is crumbling apart as China fights off outsiders.

I expected a dramatic, lush, exciting drama about court life in China and a female who takes the lead. In this novel, you certainly get details about court life and you see the start of a woman who is taking charge, to be continued with The Last Empress, but I didn't feel as connected with Orchid or the story as I hoped. I thought the text skipped around and within a section, it would suddenly allude to something that was going to happen, but even when that event happened it was not as dramatic as originally implied. There would be details thrown in that did not fit or were superfluous to what was going on. Keep it simple and make what you put in the text good. Although I thought this was a fine read, I didn't think it was great, and I won't remember it down the line.

Next I listened to the book The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. I saw this on the staff recommendations at my library and I've heard about it around the web.

Welcome to the world of magical realism. The genre of magical realism is characterized by one thing being supernatural, magical, or out of the norm. Typically only a few characters or maybe only one has a special ability. The world is the exact same as what we live in. Think of movies like "Practical Magic" or "Chocolat". Well I was very excited about The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake because I thought it was going to be kind of chick lit-ish and light. Not so much.

Rose was a pretty normal girl until her ninth birthday when she tasted her mother's lemon cake. Instead of tasting the sweet and sour flavor of her favorite cake, she tasted sadness, depression, and self doubt. From this day on, Rose can taste the feelings of those who cooked the food she eats. She does not seem to be the only one with a strange gift. Her brother is harboring a secret that ends up affecting their whole family.


This book is more about the family relationship. It's about Rose growing up and figuring out who to tell and how to deal with her difference. I was not expecting this to be so serious. It was not a light read at all. Although parts of the book can be probing and question our relationships and feelings, for the most part I just didn't feel it. It wasn't terribly deep or new. An annoyance in the book was that Rose would skip occasionally from the present to future or past happenings. It was hard to follow these instances, perhaps because I was listening and couldn't see any breaks between paragraphs, but I was confused by the jumping between different time frames. On top of that, Rose would say things like "that was the last time I saw him", but later on she talked about seeing that person again. Again it might have been a flashback, but it was terribly confusing when the author jumped back and forth.

All in all, those two books, not my favorite. I will proceed to ax them from my memory to make room for more important things.

Until next time my dear reader.