Paradox Bound By Peter Clines

I love Peter Clines, his work on The Fold and 14 were fantastic. However, I feel that this novel was a slight step back. It seemed overly slowly paced at times and would take me out of the novel. Overall this was a mostly enjoyable book to read, and I rather enjoyed it, but I think it could have used some better pacing. But if you like his other works a lot, definitely check it out. Overall 3/5.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in return for my honest review.

Ninth City Burning

I enjoyed this novel a lot. It is told from multiple different people, and I personally enjoy that type of narrative, if done well, which this is. The novel is set in the future as the earth banded together to find invaders. It is a well done Military Sci-fi novel that works well to develop the world and the characters. I was engaged with each character and felt that they each had their own voice and personality. I won't go into each character, but I loved the mix of genders that are present in the novel. Further, the author was able to work humor into the novel that could otherwise be bleak in the hands of a different author. It added a freshness to the novel and kept me engaged.

The one critique of the novel is at times the amount of detail present. Sometimes it felt as if the novel slowed to a halt with the amount of detail present in a section as it was easy to get lost in. I think some trimming would have been beneficial to the novel, but if you like to know every detail of the novel, you would likely enjoy this aspect.

Overall, I have nothing bad to say about this novel, it is well written, the world building is brilliant and the characters are engaging. What more could you really ask for in a novel. I am excited for the following books to come out and hope to read them in the future.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. However, this did not influence my review.

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Home cooked

I'm a little late on this one, other things got my attention. And I wanted to actually test a number of these recipes before I posted a review, well now here it is. I love this book. It is fantastic, the recipes are easy to follow and are delicious. What else could you possibly want from a cookbook? It gives you info an just about anything you could think of, and it is all fantastic. Love it and would recommend it to everyone, plain and simple.

I did receive this book in return for an unbiased review from blogging for books.

The Fold by Peter Clines

I will not post a summary of this novel as you can find it a lot of places online. Overall I liked this book quite a bit. It was engaging, for the first 270 pages or so, and made me want to keep reading. While the language used wasn't the most advanced, it was easy to read, and therefore even harder to put down. I think this added to the novel. Other than the effect I felt it had on Mike, he's crazy smart but tries to hide it. I would have rather had him speak a little bit more like the smartest person in the world. In the end, the first 270 pages were a solid 4/5, the last pages were probably a 2/5, leading me to give the novel a 3/5 overall. It was almost if the author was rushed to finish the novel, which is a shame for such a wonderful beginning.I received this novel from Blogging for Books for my unbiased opinion.

Author Bio: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/176410/peter-clines

5 in 5: For every season

Michael Symon's 5 in 5 came out with a new book focusing on in season produce and a simple way to prepare it. While the recipes do not actually use only five ingredients, you can be sure that many of these recipes will help you with some ideas of what to do with some of the more under-utilized vegetables of the season. I liked Michael's small intro to each recipe which explained his opinions and tips about each dish. Also, as a regular CSA member, many of the produce items I receive can be confusing and intimidating. Michael breaks the book into four sections (spring, summer, fall, winter) which was very helpful when looking for and identifying dishes that use a specific confusing vegetable I may have received at the Farmer's Market that day.

Many of the dishes are accompanied by photos of the food which are beautiful and very detailed. However, many of the dishes are not accompanied by photos which can leave the reader on their own when figuring out how the final product will look. Also, Michael's ingredient lists are not limited by geographical location, obscurity, or price. So you may not be able to just open the book and grab from your pantry and many of the meals are not going to be appropriate for a tight budget. Overall, I was very satisfied and excited about many of the dishes and have plans to try quite a few of them. Additionally, because seasonality is important to me, I was very happy with this cookbook's break down of the seasons which encourages us to eat food growing during that time of year. Michael Symon's notes are funny and personal and I would recommend this cookbook to adventurous cooks looking to create meals using fresh produce appropriate for each season. I received this book from Blogging for books in exchange for this review.




http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/92231/michael-symon/

J by Howard Jacobson

Great Idea, but can be hard to follow. The overall story follows two people who meet, maybe not by accident in a world that forgets the past of something that maybe happened, that people only half remember. The letter J is also very little used, while not illegal it is rarely used. The story is great in its scale, but it may get lost in its own story sometimes. While this makes it hard to read at times, the story is fantastic.

The characters are well thought out, the plot has surprises, which can make it easy to follow. You come to love the characters and engaged to their outcome. I would recommend this book to everyone, and suggest they go pick it up.

4 out of 5.

More about the author.
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/14271/howard-jacobson/

I did receive this book from Blogging for Books in return for this review, it did not have any affect on my review.

The Marauders by Tom Cooper

After the BP oil spill life in a small town shrimping town drastically change. We follow the lives of different people affected. Each character is unique and engaging in their own way. The story is very well written, and this novel is one in which it is hard to put down. Once I began to read I just wanted to keep reading. I would strongly recommend this novel to anyone who loves fiction novels, or anyone who is capable of reading.

I received this book from Blogging for Book in exchange for a review.