One last time on the last day of November! Hey there, book dragons! November was a tough month, and December is not looking much better, unfortunately. However, I have some great people on my side, and I'm hoping that all goes well this holiday (and birthday) season. Meanwhile, here are some tidbits and four book reviews for books that kept me going during dark times.
I remember reading and loving this book right after it was published and hit shelves in the bookstores. Katherine Center's prose was eloquent and moving, and the plot was engaging and made the book a real page turner. The movie looks to be just as riveting. I will keep a weather eye on Netflix this next year so I can watch it unfold.
Movies:
The Bodyguard
Leighton Meester (Good Cop/Bad Cop) and
Jared Padalecki (Supernatural)
will star in a Netflix holiday rom-com
based on Katherine Center's The
Bodyguard. Deadline reported that in
the 2022 novel, "a no-nonsense bodyguard is assigned to protect
a charming action star over the holidays, leading sparks to fly and
secrets to unravel, with Christmas getting a whole lot more
complicated."
The movie's cast includes Andie
MacDowell, Walker Hayes, Noah LaLonde, and Toby Sandeman. The project
is directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum (Aquamarine) from a script
by Erin Cardillo & Richard Keith (Isn't It Romantic, Virgin
River). Gina Matthews and Grant Scharbo are producing for Little
Engine Productions, alongside Jared & Genevieve Padalecki for
Living in the Asterisk.
Deadline noted that "fans of The
Bodyguard will have a hand in titling
the new Netflix movie--keep an eye on
the Instagram pages of Meester,
Padalecki and Center to find out more."
Rosenbaum said, "I began paying
close attention to BookTok culture
around the success of my last Netflix
Film, Purple Hearts. The
overwhelming enthusiasm on social media
and with readers for Katherine
Center's novel was a major factor in my
decision to come on board as
director.... It's been amazing to work
closely with Katherine so far,
and to see her so excited about moving
her witty story about a
no-nonsense bodyguard to an A-list
actor into the holiday season."
I not only had a copy of the Rice Book cookbook, I bought two more over the years and gave them away as gifts. RIP to a wonderful cookbook author, who made making delicious Indonesian meals easy.
Obituary
for Sri Owen
Sri
Owen, a Sumatra-raised food writer living in London "who
brokered her homesickness for her native cuisine into a prolific
career as a cookbook author credited with popularizing Indonesian
delicacies in the English-speaking world," died October 4, the
New
York Times
reported.
She was 90.
Owen published 10 books, starting with The Home Book of
Indonesian Cookery (1976), a groundbreaking work that "brought
to light a national cuisine that was little known in the Western
world, weaving myriad recipes into a memoir format that also traces
the swirl of cultural influences--Chinese, Indian, Spanish, Arabic
and others--that shaped the Indonesian palate," the Times
wrote.
The Rice Book (1993) explored the historical legacies of
the grain, as well as its myths and legends, while offering more than
250 recipes from many countries. The Observer ranked The
Rice Book #19 on its list of the 50 best cookbooks of all time.
Her other cookbooks include Healthy Thai Cooking (1997),
Noodles the New Way (2000), and New Wave Asian
(2002). In 2017, the Guild of Food Writers honored her with its
lifetime achievement award. Her final book, Sri Owen's
Indonesian Food, is available from Interlink Books.
Owen moved from Sumatra to Britain in 1964 with her English
husband, Roger Owen. A Jane Austen fan and self-described Anglophile,
she later said she had been eager to move, but soon began to yearn
for the foods she had grown up with. "When I arrived in London,
Indonesian food was not known at all," Owen said in an interview
with the Times in 2020. "I started cooking Indonesian
food because I wanted to eat my own home cooking. The flavors of
Indonesian food are difficult to leave behind."
A literary agent friend of her husband who had dined in the Owen
home helped arrange a deal for The Home Book of Indonesian
Cookery with Faber & Faber.
In 1984, Owen opened an Indonesian food shop on the ground floor
of the family home, naming it Mustika Rasa, roughly, "jewel of
flavor," which sold its wares at Harrods, the Times noted,
adding that by her later years, she "had no shortage of
Indonesian restaurants to choose from in London. But there was little
point in asking her for recommendations. As she put it to Food52, 'I
find I can cook better than any of the average eating places.' "
Death at Dovecote Hatch by Dorothy Cannell is a wonderfully old fashioned historical cozy mystery that brings to mind Downton Abbey at it's most charming. Here's the blurb: "Agatha Christie meets Downton Abbey…a charming reminder of all the country house murders of Britain's golden age."—Kirkus Reviews
It's November 1932, and the peaceful village of Dovecote Hatch is still reeling from the recent murder at Mullings, country estate of the wealthy Stodmarsh family. Now it's about to be rocked by news of another violent demise. When the body of mild-mannered Kenneth Tenneson is found at the foot of the stairs in his home, the coroner's inquest announces a verdict of accidental death. Florence Norris, however—the quietly observant housekeeper at Mullings—suspects there may be more to the story than a fall.
Florence's suspicions of foul play would appear to be confirmed when a second will turns up revealing details of a dark secret in the Tenneson family's past. Determined to find the truth about Kenneth's death, Florence gradually pieces the clues together—but will she be in time to prevent a catastrophic turn of events?
It's November 1932, and the peaceful village of Dovecote Hatch is still reeling from the recent murder at Mullings, country estate of the wealthy Stodmarsh family. Now it's about to be rocked by news of another violent demise. When the body of mild-mannered Kenneth Tenneson is found at the foot of the stairs in his home, the coroner's inquest announces a verdict of accidental death. Florence Norris, however—the quietly observant housekeeper at Mullings—suspects there may be more to the story than a fall.
Florence's suspicions of foul play would appear to be confirmed when a second will turns up revealing details of a dark secret in the Tenneson family's past. Determined to find the truth about Kenneth's death, Florence gradually pieces the clues together—but will she be in time to prevent a catastrophic turn of events?
This slender volume of only 251 pages gripped me right from the first paragraph, as, like Downton Abbey, I got caught up in the small village characters circa 1932, and their lives and loves. The prose is also old fashioned (think Sherlock Holmes-style) but readable and elegant, and it moves along the stalwart English plot "a treat" as the British are like to say. I'd give this marvelous story an A, and recommend it to anyone who likes classic and cozy mysteries that don't give away the ending in the first third of the novel.
Vow of Thieves by Mary E Pearson is the second book in the "Dance of Thieves" duology, and it's quite a firecracker of a YA dystopian romantasy. Though it's as hefty (480 pages) as its predecessor, the plot moves at a running pace that will leave you breathless. Here's the blurb: Pearson's prose is lovely and intricate without being stuffy and boringly full of researched details that slow down the plot. I liked Kazi and Jase's journey, though I still found a whiff or two of the misogyny of the female protagonist taking a backseat on her hopes and dreams to the male protagonist, who is always a bit of a jerk, if not an outright asshat in most romantasy novels. This fills me with anguish, especially with YA books because what kind of message does it send to young women in our country that they are still expected to be the sidekick and leave behind their dreams and needs in favor of "love," especially of a guy who is usually nasty and grumpy and treats the female main character poorly at the outset (which is seen as sexy...why?). Also the male protagonist is almost always tatted up and has swoopy hair that falls onto his forehead, and he's muscular, tall and just so handsome that the female protagonist suddenly loses her ability to reason or be her badass self because her hormones take over and she can't stop drooling over this egotistical (but damaged) guy. Again, why are we telling young women that this is what love is? Not an equal partnership but a severing of a woman's independence and fighting spirit for the "joys" of love, marriage and producing children. Anyway, this novel, due to its adventure and rabble rousing, has much less of the "woman reduced to child-like stupidity for love" themes in it, so I enjoyed the way that the author tied up all the loose ends from the first book. I'd give it a B+, and recommend it to anyone who read the first book "Dance of Thieves."
Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane is a romantic comedy novel that's contemporary enough to posit the question of what happens when your long term BF decides to use your private confessions and family situations as fodder for his streaming show, without telling you or asking for your permission? I would have been furious with the heat of a thousand suns if with happens to Roisin happened to me, but she just cringes, hides and sulks, without a thought of getting a lawyer and suing her BF Joe for stealing from her for his own gain. Anyway, here's the blurb: Mhairi McFarlane
delivers a witty, clever, emotional new novel about a woman whose life
unravels spectacularly after her screenwriter boyfriend uses their
relationship as inspiration for his new television show.
When Roisin and Joe join their friends for a weekend at a country house, it’s a triple celebration—a birthday, an engagement, and the launch of Joe’s shiny new TV show. But as the weekend unfolds, tensions come to light in the group and Roisin begins to question her own relationship. And as they watch the first episode of Joe’s drama, she realizes that the private things she told him—which should have stayed between them—are right there on the screen.
With her friend group in chaos and her messy love life on display for the whole world to see, Roisin returns home to avoid the unwanted attention and help run her family’s pub. But drama still follows, in the form of her dysfunctional family and the looming question: what other parts of her now-ex’s show are inspired by real events? Lies? Infidelity? Every week, as a new episode airs, she wonders what other secrets will be revealed.
Yet the most unexpected twist of all is an old friend, who is suddenly there for Roisin in ways she never knew she needed
Matt turns out to be a halfway decent human being, for which he's lauded like the second coming of Christ, but its clear early on that he's been enamored of Roisin for years, but was too much of a coward to do anything about it. Again, his failings are somehow soft-pedaled as sexy and vulnerable, and Roisin can't help but fall for him, as he goes from confidant to lover.McFarlane's prose is succulent and fun, and her plot dances along to a zippy beat. I'd give this odd novel a B-, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in privacy in the digital age.Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz (bad luck on that cloddish last name, Em) is a an action/adventure cozy romantasy that is so full of warm and wonderful magic that I was enchanted from the first chapter on! Here's the blurb: Violet is a charming bungler of a witch, whose desire to start over is thwarted when she tries to deny her second nature as a badass thorn witch. Her landlord and neighbor, apothecary and one-time alchemist Nathaniel, is a brooding, grumpy guy for whom denying what he wants in life, in order to run his parent's shop (so his sister can run around playing music and dancing, but it appears that only one twin is allowed to follow her dreams, due to gender, which hardly seems fair) has become second nature. When Vi and Nate start to grouse at one another and banter via shop signs, its inevitable that they'll fall in love with one another. The prose here is light and frothy, and the plot as swift as a summer storm that comes out of nowhere. I loved the story and the surprise at the end that allowed Vi to realize that accepting her "dark" side need not siderail her plans for a new and better life as a florist. I'd give this uplifting novel a B+, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys cozy romantasy and second chances.
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