Saturday, February 11, 2006

Murder She Wrote

I just finished the book I was reading Sugar Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke. This was a very fluffy mystery, part of a series of books by this author with Hannah Swensen as the main character. I gave my mom this book for Christmas thinking it would just be a fun read for her. The story itself is set in Minnesota which makes me like it from the beginning because I like to read books that take place in places I've lived. The story itself is readable, but predictable and the two main characters of Hannah and her sort of boyfriend, Mike remind me quite a bit of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum and Joe Morelli (she happens upon a murder and he's a cop, she helps him solve the case). But maybe this is a common theme among fluff mysteries. I haven't branched out tremendously in this genre so I wouldn't really know.

The interesting thing about this book is that the setting is mostly at a community potluck dinner and all of the recipes mentioned in the story are listed in the back of the book. And some of them sound kind of good!

When I'm reading, sometimes there are words that just stand out to me and I say to myself, "Wow, what a great word!" This happened twice in this book. #1 on pg. 55: "Mayor Bascomb's tie was splendiferous." What a great word splendiferous is. And #2 on pg. 68: "Hannah felt a wave of relief sluice down from the top of head to her toes." Sluice is also a fun word.

Anyway, now that I've read two sort of easy reads in a row, I think I should tackle something slightly more literary. I will probably decide between Girl With a Pearl Earring and Kite Runner. I'll read a little from both and see if my interest is peaked in either.

Just curious, what kind of reader are you? Do you juggle more than one book at a time? or do you feel guilty starting a new book if you haven't finished reading your current one?

Personally, I pretty much have to read the current book I'm on. Once I've committed myself to it, I tend to finish it before moving on, even if it takes me weeks or months to get through. Though, I may have to start three or four books before I get to one I'm in the mood to read.

2 comments:

Kirsten said...

I used to be a reading "purist". I would not allow myself to open another book until I finished the one I was currently reading. But after becoming a mom, I find myself reading in the odd moment here and there--in the car, on the train, on my lunchhour, in my son's room, in the bathroom while he takes a bath.... Inevitably, I leave a book somewhere where it's not readily at hand the next time a reading "moment" presents itself. That's when I find myself starting another book, even though the thought of that still bothers me a bit. If a book really grabs me, I do a better job of keeping it close at hand, but the majority of the books I read are entertaining but not engrossing. This habit also became worse when I started buying all my books rather than using my library card. I guess if a book doesn't have a return due date, I feel I can take as long as I want to finish it.

allisonmariecat said...

I usually read one novel at a time, but I also have a couple of "ongoing" books (right now, Michael Longley's latest book of poems, Eleanor Roosevelt's bio, and a pregnancy book). I save these for in between books or if my current book isn't fitting my mood.