Stepping in the Write Direction

Four fifths of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes was engaging and compelling. The final fifth devolves into a maddening “Groundhog Day” scenario where Tony tries to make sense of an inheritance he can’t seem to access, while emailing and repeatedly reconnecting with his former deceased’s family love interest, whose response feels like a real time version of angrily throwing pieces of a crumbled Rosetta Stone at Tony, confusing reader and protagonist together.  This passage resonates: “Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however long it takes, that life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” That final fifth of the book does wear a reader down, battering them with confusion, ultimately sending one into the internet nether regions searching for instruction.  The theory that makes sense to me was in John Self’s review of The Sense of an Ending in his blog “ASYLUM John Self’s Shelves,” posted in “Barnes Jul...

The Golden Spoon by Jessa Matthews was such a delight to read. For a lover of mysteries the only thing better than a mystery where the tension and climax are building as a storm brews in the storyline, is to actually be reading it while a real thunderstorm is happening, as it was for me. I assumed the plot would be about someone involved with the televised baking show getting killed early on, and the rest of the book would be about solving that murder. It was so much more complex and enjoyable. The book starts out simply as six baking show contestants are making their way to the manor house of the show’s host, where filming occurs and all will be staying. There is tension as hopes are high in each baker to win the contest, each for their own reason. Early on a theme of someone sabotaging contest cooks develops yet no one is identified as the culprit, then liaisons occur, professional rivalries, and soon it seems each contestant has something going on, and no one is dead yet. The gift o...