The Pram

 Book 95 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from October 9 - 11

The Pram

by Joe Hill

My Opinion

2 stars

This short story is part of the Creature Feature collection available through Prime Reading.  It's not a good sign that it took me 3 days to read a 58 page story; I kept reading a chapter and then moving on to something else.

The last section of the story (from when the shed was cleaned out until the end) bumped it up from a 1 star to a 2 star because it was creepy.  

Your Table is Ready

 Book 94 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from September 18 - October 10

Your Table is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maitre D'

by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina

Summary (via Goodreads)

From the glamorous to the entitled, from royalty to the financially ruined, everyone who wanted to be seen―or just to gawk―at the hottest restaurants in New York City came to places Michael Cecchi-Azzolina helped run. His phone number was passed around among those who wanted to curry favor, during the decades when restaurants replaced clubs and theater as, well, theater in the most visible, vibrant city in the world.

Besides dropping us back into a vanished time, Your Table Is Ready takes us places we’d never be able to get into on our own: Raoul's in Soho with its louche club vibe; Buzzy O’Keefe’s casually elegant River Café (the only outer-borough establishment desirable enough to be included in this roster), from Keith McNally’s Minetta Tavern to Nolita’s Le Coucou, possibly the most beautiful room in New York City in 2018, with its French Country Auberge-meets-winery look and the most exquisite and enormous stands of flowers, changed every three days.

From his early career serving theater stars like Tennessee Williams and Dustin Hoffman at La Rousse right through to the last pre-pandemic-shutdown full houses at Le Coucou, Cecchi-Azzolina has seen it all. In Your Table Is Ready , he breaks down how restaurants really run (and don’t), and how the economics work for owners and overworked staff alike. The professionals who gravitate to the business are a special, tougher breed, practiced in dealing with the demanding patrons and with each other, in a very distinctive ecosystem that’s somewhere between a George Orwell “down and out in….” dungeon and a sleek showman’s smoke-and-mirrors palace.

My Opinion

2 stars

Maybe it's because the lifestyle is so far removed from mine or maybe it's because it sounds too good to be true but the stories were pretty unbelievable.  Everything always works out for him no matter the choices?  He does acknowledge the changes in the industry and culture and happily seems to think the progress is a good thing.

When I read in the epilogue that he was getting ready to finally start his own restaurant I looked it up and am very happy to see it's still up and running.  I'm sure his experience, people skills, and recognition of talent are big reasons why.

The Library of the Unwritten

 Book 93 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from September 16 - October 2

The Library of the Unwritten

by A.J. Hackwith

Summary (via the book jacket)

Many years ago, Claire was named head librarian of the Unwritten Wing - a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the Library. When hero escapes from his book and goes in search of its author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and the nervous and sweet demon Leto.

But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifying angel Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the ability to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell...and Earth.

My Opinion

4 stars

Excellent title and premise that made me snatch it off the library shelf quickly and I was not disappointed.  It was a little convoluted at times but the situations kept changing in unexpected but plausible (at least plausible for the story...there's nothing realistic about this setting at all) ways.  There were many twists and turns and I plan on continuing the series but there was enough of a resolution that someone could read this one alone if they wanted to.

Quote from the Book

"We are the dreams that did not die with the dreamer. We care nothing for the dark."

Oak Avenue

 Book 92 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read on September 23

Oak Avenue

by Brandi Reeds

My Opinion

3 stars

This short story is part of the Dark Corners collection available through Prime Reading.  I'm rating it neutrally because while it was entirely engrossing and I was tearing through it to find out the ending, the ending was unsatisfactory.  There was too much buildup to have such a sudden switch to people being helpful and there were too many questions left unanswered (and not the typical mystery "the end...or is it?" questions but story ones like the in-laws, why there was such a switch of multiple characters' behaviors, etc.).

Just a Girl

 Book 91 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read on September 18

Just a Girl

by Alyssa Cole

My Opinion

4 stars

This short story is part of the Obsession collection available through Prime Reading.  My jaw was clenched the entire time because it was so frustratingly realistic.

A Good Day for Chardonnay

 Book 90 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from September 4 - 18

A Good Day for Chardonnay

by Darynda Jones

Summary (via Goodreads)

Running a small-town police force in the mountains of New Mexico should be a smooth, carefree kind of job. Sadly, full-time Sheriff--and even fuller-time coffee guzzler--Sunshine Vicram, didn't get that memo.

All Sunshine really wants is one easy-going day. You know, the kind that starts with coffee and a donut (or three) and ends with take-out pizza and a glass of chardonnay (or seven). Turns out, that's about as easy as switching to decaf. (What kind of people do that? And who hurt them?)

Before she can say iced mocha latte, Sunny's got a bar fight gone bad, a teenage daughter hunting a serial killer and, oh yes, the still unresolved mystery of her own abduction years prior. All evidence points to a local distiller, a dangerous bad boy named Levi Ravinder, but Sun knows he's not the villain of her story. Still, perhaps beneath it all, he possesses the keys to her disappearance. At the very least, beneath it all, he possesses a serious set of abs. She's seen it. Once. Accidentally.

Between policing a town her hunky chief deputy calls four cents short of a nickel, that pesky crush she has on Levi which seems to grow exponentially every day, and an irascible raccoon that just doesn't know when to quit, Sunny's life is about to rocket to a whole new level of crazy.

Yep, definitely a good day for chardonnay.

My Opinion

3 stars

Too much.  I was invested and there was witty, humorous dialogue as always but I'm also a little angry at how much I've been drawn in because there really are too too too many situations going on to have everything continue to work out semi-well (yet also have so much death at the same time).  It also makes ZERO sense to me that the paternity issue was not laid to rest years earlier...duh.

So I'll continue the series but it's almost reluctantly at this point.  It's kind of like the Stephanie Plum series...I'm interested in the characters and want to know what's going to happen but I also know the wheels are going to fall off and I'm just going to have to suspend any semblance of reality and go for the ride.

Slot Machine Fever Dreams

 Book 89 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read on September 17

Slot Machine Fever Dreams

by Chris Bohjalian

My Opinion

3 stars

This short story is part of the Obsession collection available through Prime Reading.  It was fine while I was reading it but as it continued to become more and more unrealistic it took away all the suspense and ended with a whimper instead of a bang.  It's not that I necessarily wanted anyone to die but it took 'honor among thieves' a little too far.