Sunday Salon: Week 6

This week I have been reading Garden Spells, Cerulean Sins (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter # 11) and Coraline.

I wrote about Garden Spells last week, and as I finished the last 100 pages or so the assessment I made was pretty right on - it was an enjoyable read, but fairly forgettable. I read some reviews and a lot of people likened Garden Spells to the movie Practical Magic. It had been a while since I saw the movie, so I could only remember some vague similarities. However it was on tv last night and I watched it again and yeah, pretty much the exact same storyline. But the books is still a fun, light and fluffy read. You could do a lot worse than to pick up Garden Spells.


Next up was Coraline, which I had never even heard of until I read about it on Bookgirl's Nightstand. She thought she was the last person to read it, but as I hadn't even heard of it, I think she's safe. I added it to my list of books to read and then noticed it on the shelf at the library. I checked it out and wow, I'm glad I did. It's a young adult book, but it is genuinely creepy and all that business about the imposter parents having buttons for eyes is very weird and is creeping me out even as I type this. It's a quick read, but a wonderful fairy tale with a dark underbelly. *insert shudder here*

When I sourced an image for this book I heard that there is a movie being made based on the book. The image above is an early poster promoting the movie. Um...don't take your kids until you've read the book!


Finally, I started and finished Cerulean Sins, the 11th book in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. These books started out with a serious bang and to almost universal applause from critics and readers alike. Then around book 9, our heroine met with some...changes. From about book 10 onwards it has been nothing but hate from critics and readers alike. Amazon is populated with hundreds of 1 and 2 star ratings for books 11, 12, 13 and 14. Pretty much everyone turned on author Laurell K Hamilton and gutted her with a very long very sharp sword. Was this a great book? No, not great. But it was good, it was engaging and it kept me reading. Hamilton is gifted with a wonderful imagination and Anita is so very practical and real and solid. She's incredibly likeable, despite the fact that she kills monsters for a living and *gasp* sleeps with more than one man at a time. However, the finer points of plotting and story development are not really Hamilton's gifts. In the beginning books she was clearly heavily edited and the books were better for it. But like some other authors I can think of, as she became more popular and sold more books, her books got bigger and bigger and not necessarily better. Typos and grammatical errors (truly appalling ones, like the use of "isle" instead of "aisle" in a wedding setting) crept in and gave people who hated what Hamilton did to Anita Blake even more ammo to throw her way. And really, the publishers should be ashamed of themselves.

Anyway, the book itself was good. The plot was a bit thin, with a gaping hole in the middle resolved with a last minute tie up that was a bit too convenient. It was nice to see some development with Richard actually growing a pair and Asher finally getting back into Jean-Claude's (and Anita's) bed (at the same time! Shock! Horror!). Anita's character only moved forward marginally, but some of the scenes with her and Belle Morte/Musette were vintage Anita and really well done. Part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much was because it has been well over a year since I read Anita Blake number 10. I have discovered that a little Anita goes a long way. I have number 12 sitting on my bookshelf as we speak, but I'll be giving it at least a few months breathing room, maybe more.


Anyway, I'm one chapter into Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojurn to Kyoto which is a travel and food memoir. So far so good. I visited Kyoto a few years back and I can visualise the underground mall where the author is having her first meal of eel in Japan. It is so nice to be able to relate to the setting a book. It adds layers of meaning that you don't even realise are missing.

Happy reading and happy Sunday!