First book of 2021! Written in a plural first-person narrative (“we”), this book recounts a series of traumatic events between students and faculty at a low-residency writing MFA workshop in Vermont. The author, also a literary editor, is a graduate of a real-life program, the Bennington Writing Seminars, that no doubt provided the inspiration for this fictional college. The novel takes a very long time to identify who this “we” narrator is, and I spent much of the book wondering about this point, which was an interesting experience - you don’t generally spend an ENTIRE novel wondering whose lens is framing the story, and who is necessarily missing from the narrative because they are the one(s) telling it. The book repeatedly foreshadows some major event (lines like “we didn’t know then that...” or “of course now looking back we understand that...” I am paraphrasing but you get the gist), and the payoff of that major event that looms so large for the narrator(s) didn’t live up to that foreshadowing, in my opinion. That being said, the book is still a very good read, introducing fascinating three dimensional characters, exploring the dynamics of students and teachers in a small creative program, experimenting with collective storytelling and memory, and questioning the nature of art, writing and for whom we write. I have found myself thinking about it days after I finished reading, which is the sign of a food book. Published by @penguinrandomhouse, and I believe the paperback is being released in the next few weeks.
Lemonreads: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen #1)
Would you believe that I had never heard the term "cozy mystery" until very very recently?!
According to Wikipedia, a cozy mystery also referred to as a "cozy," belongs to a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur off stage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.
I worked as a bookseller AND have an English Lit degree, and I had never heard this term?! I just don’t know how this is possible given I love ANYTHING that takes place in a small town (see: my rabid consumption of the entire Virgin River series earlier this year). Plus I love anything where the protagonist runs a bakery/chocolate shop/candy shop/bookstore (see: Jenny Colgan). So Joanne Fluke’s “Murder, She Baked” series featuring professional baker and amateur detective Hannah Swensen was bound to be right up my alley and a great introduction to the cozy mystery genre. I wasn’t disappointed with the first in the series, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder. I enjoyed meeting the quirky cast of characters living in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and while the murder plot was slightly predictable, its resolution was still satisfying. I love that the author includes recipes for items from Hannah’s bakery, The Cookie Jar, in the book, and I had a go at making Chocolate Chip Crunches - a yummy chocolate chip cookie with cornflakes in it to make it crispy! I think I’ll try to bake something from every book as I go! Lucky friends are going to get all this baking; I don’t want it all in my house or I’ll just keep snacking! OK, OK, maybe I’ll keep a little...just for a taste...