Category Archives: 2014

[Top Ten Tuesday] – #18 – Top Ten Books If You Enjoy Literary Gastronomy

Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. I thought this would be a fun way to share a condensed version of potential rambles and thoughts that I have.

This Week’s Theme:
Top Ten Books If You Enjoy
Literary Gastronomy


 Initial Thoughts:

Do you like food? I like food. Love, even.

…Did I really just open up this post with that prompt. Oh dear, well there’s only going up from here—I hope.

What a potentially questionable choice of mine to take this route. This week’s theme is based on “books you would enjoy if you like X” subbing the variable for anything of entertainment. My focus considers foodie moments in non-food/culinary-centric novels. I mean, I’m sure we’ve all gone through a love/hate relationships with people who eat food on screen because it’s food. For readers who don’t know, gastronomy is just a fancy term for, as defined by Merriam-Webster: the art or activity of cooking and eating fine food. And no, I’m not detailing cookbooks…but rather memorable scenes with the involvement of food. The only cookbook I use is Google anyways.

I’m sure we’ve all come across mouth-watering scenes involving food or maybe just we were hangry (that’s hungry + angry; especially when anger results from hunger) during the read that sparked the need to feed and find sustenance. When I look back on some novels, I’m actually perplexed at the fact that sometimes…there’s no indication that they’ve eaten food. I guess it doesn’t come across as interesting but the inner foodie in me says otherwise.

I apologize in advance if you are starving and begin to salivate as this entire post is talking about food.

Continue reading [Top Ten Tuesday] – #18 – Top Ten Books If You Enjoy Literary Gastronomy

[Music Monday] – #6 – Jason Walker – Keep Me Watching

Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by the Total Book Geek. The purpose of this bookish variant is to match a book with a particular song; whether it is character defining, a narrative element, or just an overall book defining track.

So why am I doing this? Well if I had to choose to only have one of the five traditional senses, it would be sound perception above all else. And hey I think it’d be neat to share music I listen to on a daily basis!

music monday logo

This Week’s Song:
Keep Me Watching – Jason Walker

Book Selected:
Nearly Gone – Elle Cosimano

 


Continue reading [Music Monday] – #6 – Jason Walker – Keep Me Watching

[Review] Nearly Gone – Elle Cosimano

Book Title:                  Nearly Gone (Standalone)
Author:                         Elle Cosimano
Number of pages:  388

Synopsis:

nearlygone_coverBones meets Fringe in a big, dark, scary, brilliantly-plotted urban thriller that will leave you guessing until the very end.

Nearly Boswell knows how to keep secrets. Living in a DC trailer park, she knows better than to share anything that would make her a target with her classmates. Like her mother’s job as an exotic dancer, her obsession with the personal ads, and especially the emotions she can taste when she brushes against someone’s skin. But when a serial killer goes on a killing spree and starts attacking students, leaving cryptic ads in the newspaper that only Nearly can decipher, she confides in the one person she shouldn’t trust: the new guy at school—a reformed bad boy working undercover for the police, doing surveillance. . . on her.

Nearly might be the one person who can put all the clues together, and if she doesn’t figure it all out soon—she’ll be next.

(re: Goodreads @ Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano)

Should this book be picked up? the tl;dr spoiler-less review:

– Riddles and clues galore to be solved involving a large pool of suspects — to me, it reads like a mix between The Zodiac Killer and Criminal Minds
– Narrative pacing is on-point with it’s focused genre and will keep you questioning till the very end with various twists
– Underdeveloped characters; protagonist has book-smarts but lacks the alternative and often leads to making bad decisions
– There’s a paranormal element involving empathy which isn’t fully explored to it’s potential and is easily glossed over
– Romance is a love-square and also involves reformed bad boys, jealousy, and friend-zoning

Initial Thoughts:

I had some pretty high expectations with this read being in line with all them crime/mystery/suspense shows I watch on the daily. It’s not nearly as good as I thought it could have been but it wasn’t horrendous if one overlooks some key aspects. Being a murder-mystery centric, sometimes you just have to take that skepticism hat off—or at least lower your inquisitive mind a bit to actually not be particular picky.

Disclaimer: There may be spoilers inherent to this review from this point onward.

Continue reading [Review] Nearly Gone – Elle Cosimano