Reviews

Annie O'Sullivan is at at good place in her life. She's thirty-two, a successful relator with a line on a big project and a wonderful boyfriend. Annie is looking forward to dinner with her boyfriend, Luke, following her Sunday afternoon open house. As she is finishing up the open house a final prospective buyer approaches her outside the house.

Belgian novelist Georges Simenon is best known for his detective series featuring Parisian policeman Jules Maigret. But he also wrote a number of bleak psychological novels that deal with people whose lives are disrupted by seemingly random happenings or impulses.

Whether you are a chronic sourpuss or cheerful optimist, Bright-sided will appeal to you. Author Barbara Ehrenreich’s premise is that positivity often leads to harmful outcomes.

It’s always hard to write a review for a book you didn’t care for when it’s gotten rave reviews from pretty much everyone else. But that’s the great thing about books. There’s something for everyone, and if you don’t like it, you can always read something else.

Full Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice (I discovered after I wrote this entry that it is not in the JCL catalog, but is readily available Interlibrary Loan.)

Author Jessica Prentice is a professional chef and food activist, co-founder of Locavores and a founding worker-owner of Three Stoner Hearth: A Community Supported Kitchen in West Berkeley. Her website www.chelseagreen.com

What was life like

I started reading this book with a bit of trepidation. I expected the book to be pretty scary, or at least somewhat frightening. Initially I did find the story to be a bit creepy, but as the story continued, it lost its scare factor.

The movie Ondine is a bit of a love story and a bit of a fairy tale. What is a fairy tale without a dark brooding hero down on his luck. And one that rescues a damsel in distress no less. Because of her checkered past she conveniently contracts amnesia and says her name is Ondine which means "she came from the sea".

Juliet is both a modern and historical retelling of Shakespeare’s classic tale, “Romeo and Juliet”. The story weaves back and forth between a present-day Juliet searching for a family inheritance in Italy and a 14th-century Giulietta defying a family feud to be with her Romeo. The later is supposed to be the real inspiration for Shakespeare’s classic story, set in Siena instead of Verona.

Sue Wyshynski’s debut novel Poser is a light hearted and funny page turner. Tallulah is a sophomore who has recently moved from Florida to California. She is eager to fit in at her new school and find new super cool friends.