Reading Roundup

DVD watching is seriously cutting into my reading time lately, but here are a few quick comments on the adult fiction books I've read in the last month or so:

You're Not You by Michelle Wildgen
My favorite paragaph: "There must be a better way to cook them--with some tart fruit, or a thick glaze of cooked-down wine and smoky bacon. The duck looked at me with one shining eye and took a wide-legged step away. After a moment it occurred to me that I was pondering eating random animals on my way home from school. Maybe the whole cooking thing was getting out of hand."

If that's not enough to entice you to read the book, then let me also say that this is a well written debut novel about college student Bec and Kate, a middle aged woman with ALS, who hires Bec as a caregiver. This could have easily been a sappy, overwrought story, but Wildgen writes about Bec's growth and Kate's illness in a witty, realistic way.

Orchid Shroud: A Novel of Death in the Dordogne by Michelle Wan
In the sequel to Deadly Slipper, Mara encounters murder and danger (again), and Julian continues his search for a rare orchid. Read it if you enjoy France and/or orchids.




The Highly Effective Detective by Richard Yancey
The book has a great title going for it, but I had a hard time enjoying this story about a bumbling private eye who gets into more than he bargained for when he takes on a case involving a hit-and-run of a family of geese. Kirkus, LJ, PW, SLJ, and VOYA all gave this book great reviews, so take my lack of enthusiasm with a grain of salt.