Month: February 2016

Review – The Obituary Writer by Lauren St John

~ Hanna ~ 4 Comments
Hello,

Lauren St John’s novel The Obituary Writer had been sitting on my shelf for almost three years until it finally felt like the right book to read. I guess you know these moments, right? 🙂

The Obituary Writer
Image provided by Orion¹

One day, Nick Donaghue, an obituary writer for THE TIMES, is on his way to work, when he is involved in a horrible train crash where he is the only one escaping unharmed. While everybody else thinks Nick to be very fortunate, his life is turning into a literal nightmare. After months of sleepless nights, he moves from London to an old beach house in Cornwall where he runs into Sasha and has to give up his notion of living a quiet and secluded life.

It is hard to put this novel into a literary genre. The Obituary Writer starts out as a mystery with thriller elements, then it turns into a love story. This would have been okay. Unfortunately, the romance is soon sprinkled with paragraphs right out of an erotic novel that seem utterly out of place. And to top it all off, there’s a little bit of crime here, and some sick lit ² there. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with mixing genres if the mix is homogeneous. In this case it isn’t and it seems like the author wanted to try out all these different genres to see how they worked for her.

Other than that, The Obituary Writer is an entertaining novel. It sucks you in right at the beginning and holds your attention for quite some time. The middle is a little slow, but the narrative takes up speed again in the last third of the book.

While we get to know Nick Donaghue’s character – his feelings, fears and doubts – very closely, most of the other characters stay in the background. It would have been nice to get a better understanding of Sasha, the woman who attracts Nick’s attention.

If you are as drawn to this novel by its beautiful cover as I was, you might as well give it a try, but it will not be a smooth ride, that’s for sure. And if you’ve already read The Obituary Writer, I’d like to know what you thought about the ending. But no spoilers please!

3 Star Rating: Recommended

¹ https://www.orionbooks.co.uk/Books/detail.page?isbn=9781409127949
² There is a spoiler hidden underneath. If you still want to see it, just highlight the text with your mouse.

Recipe – How to make Slow Cooker King Cake

~ Hanna ~ 7 Comments
Hi,

A few days ago, I was looking for a slow cooker King Cake recipe and all I could find was Megan’s Crock Pot King Cake Fail. I knew that it is possible to bake yeast dough in a slow cooker because I made cinnamon pull-apart bread in it before, so I decided to ask the admin of the Slow Cooker Crock Pot Recipes Facebook Page if they had any idea how to tackle slow cooker King Cake. They never tried making it either, but suggested cooking it on low for 4 hours.

Slow Cooker King Cake

I used Jo’s Mardi Gras King Cake recipe and followed the instructions. It makes two King Cakes, which is why I only made half the recipe for the pastry, but not for the filling – I love lots of filling! I didn’t use Jo’s frosting and made maple frosting instead.

When I was done rolling and shaping my King Cake ring, I buttered the surface of my slow cooker to prevent the cake from sticking to it. Then, I carefully transferred the ring-shaped King Cake into the slow cooker and inserted a cylinder made of tin foil and covered with parchment paper into the middle of the ring. I put the lid on the slow cooker and waited for 10 minutes until I turned it on low.

KingCakepastry

I left my King Cake like that for 2.5 hours (on low). This was when I noticed the edges getting a little too brown and so I just turned the cake upside down and left it like that for one more hour (also on low).

KingCakeafterbaking

I removed the King Cake and put it on parchment paper. While it was cooling a little, I prepared the maple icing. You are supposed to use about 1 tbsp milk, 1 tbsp maple syrup and 1 1/8 cups of powdered sugar. I was almost out of powdered sugar, so I substituted that with granulated sugar and some more milk. I divided the icing into three parts and mixed it with food coloring. Then I drizzled it onto the King Cake.

Slow Cooker King CakeWhat would I change?

  1. I would use a bit less pastry, so the King Cake has more room to rise in the slow cooker.
  2. I wouldn’t double the filling, but use 1 and 1/2 times as much as the recipe calls for.
  3. The King Cake was fully cooked after 3.5 hours on low. I’d reduce the cooking time by half an hour, because I’m fairly confident that it was already cooked after 3 hours.

I hope all this is useful for you. Happy cooking/baking and happy Mardi Gras!

Review – The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

~ Hanna ~ Leave a comment
Hello,

I found time to write another review. I survived Christmas, my 30th birthday, and New Years Eve, found a new hobby to add to my ever-growing list (I finally treated myself to a new sewing machine) and my thesis is still in the works. I never stopped reading though (you probably know that if you follow me on Goodreads or LovelyBooks) and so I read Julian Barnes‘ latest novel The Noise of Time.

The Noise of Time
Image linked from Jonathan Cape¹

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, a Soviet composer, cannot escape Power in his country. No matter what he does, his life and his music are influenced by the government and he can’t seem to live life as a free man.

The Noise of Time is far from an easy read. If you aren’t familiar with Shostakovich, you might get the feeling of being abandoned in a maze. The novelization of Shostakovich’s life is not written in chronological order. A third-person narrator tells the reader what’s going on, he isn’t showing them and that creates a great distance between the plot and the reader. This, plus the fact that there is very little dialogue, makes reading The Noise of Time a slow process that requires concentration.

When I started the book, I had no idea what it was about. The official blurb doesn’t give away much and so I felt lost until I reached the second half of the novel. This is where I was finally able to sum up what I had read so far. If I had known that The Noise of Time was a fictional account of a composer’s life, things might have been different.

Julian Barnes’ novel has the air of a non-fiction book. Even though he writes about Shostakovich’s emotions, the reader is too distanced to feel them. The composer is long gone and so are his thoughts and his feelings. The Noise of Time might not be for everyone, but if you are interested in Shostakovich’s life and don’t shy Barnes’ narrative technique you should give it a shot.

3 Star Rating: Recommended

¹ https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1110913/the-noise-of-time/
² A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.