Twofer

The Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs.

This was actually the best Mercy Thompson book I think I have read. That's partly because I started with Briggs' Alpha & Omega series, and I've known Samuel longer than I've known Adam and I am heartily sick of the trend of love triangles. But Briggs settled the triangle issue in the last book, pairing Mercy with Adam. She develops that relationship nicely in this book while exploring pack relationships at the same time.

It did make me sad to see Samuel left out in the cold and rather unstable. He's been quite unstable for a while now, seeing Mercy as his chance at redemption and this certainly put an end to that. This book explores his reaction to that and gives us a glimpse of his past as well.

I was certainly left wanting more. More of the pack, more of Samuel's past. (And I certainly want more Alpha & Omega, Fall 2011 is sooo far away...)

My next book is pretty much my answer to the Terry Pratchett-esque Reading Challenge #7: Go to the library and wander into an aisle you do not usually frequent. Pick a book from the shelf and read it. One way to do this is to look in the new books section, and pick something from a category you don’t usually read.

I tend to read anything that sounds good to me, so there really is no aisle that I don't frequent. I even wander through non-fiction occasionally, tending to find a subject and stick with it for a bit before moving on to another subject. So I decided to just look in the new books section and grab something by an author I'd never read before. The title of this book grabbed me.

Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl.

This book was the story of Reichl's reign as chief restaurant critic of the New York Times. It starts with her being recognized on the plane from LA to NYC and told that all the restaurants in town were keeping on eye out for her. Reichl is shocked to find out just how much is known about her and beings to wonder how she can possibly review restaurants when everyone knows her.

She decides to invent a disguise to allow her to visit restaurants anonymously. She ends up with several disguises, each with its own character and personality quirks.

It was a fun read, poignant and thought provoking at times. And it left me hungry as well, with her detailed descriptions of the food she encountered ;) Conveniently, Reichl offers up recipes along with her remembrances.