Month: August 2017
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Book review: Where Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris
Where Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris My rating: 4 of 5 stars I don’t always review individual books in a mystery series after the first book, unless one book particularly stands out. This is one of them. The Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries series is set in Regency England but instead of using the frothy tone…
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Book review: Beguiling Beauty by Sherry Thomas
Beguiling the Beauty by Sherry Thomas My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the first book I’ve read by this author (who seems to have a remarkable writing range, from fantasy to mysteries to historical romances). I found myself quite taken by this story, despite some significant flaws. Without trying to reveal spoilers (although…
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Book review: Setting the Table by Danny Meyer
Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars Danny Meyer has created an extremely successful restaurant empire that includes restaurants as varied as The Modern (in MOMA), Union Square Cafe, Blue Smoke, and Shake Shack. In his book, he relates how he built his…
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Movie review: The Big Sick
Brief synopsis: A Pakistani-American man and a Caucasian-American woman fall (reluctantly) in love. When Emily suffers a life-threatening illness, Kumail meets her parents and struggles to reconcile his family obligations with his love for Emily. This appears to be a semi-autobiographical movie based on the lives of Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon (the co-writers). For…
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Book review: A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet
A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is an unusual cross-genre book–part fantasy and part romance. There is deeper character development and more sparkling dialogue than you find in most fantasy novels. The author also takes care in developing her world, although much of it is by inference…
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Book review: Blythe by John Kramer
Blythe by John Kramer My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have no idea how to classify this book–it’s as if the author of The Hunger Games trilogy went drinking with Friedrich Hayek (“The Road to Serfdom”) and C.S. Lewis, and they all decided to write a novel together (while drinking). 🙂 The book is…
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Asia 2017
Beijing was the first stop on our tour. We went with family friends and since it was their first trip to Beijing, we played tourist. This process was helped disproportionately because our former exchange student was in Beijing at the time. She helped come up with the itinerary and arranged for tickets for many of…