T. Kharitonova

(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   (REAL NAME)
 
Top Reviewer Ranking: 930
Helpful votes received on reviews: 75% (48 of 64)
Location: Calgary, AB
In My Own Words:
I love learning, cooking, reading, and am trying to cultivate a more active love of the great outdoors. But I excel at reading about it!

Interests
Reading. Everything. I read about 3-4 books per week going with whatever interests me at the time from fiction to quantum physics.
 

Contributions


Top Reviewer Ranking: 930 - Total Helpful Votes: 48 of 64
Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane
Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane
I've read lots of chick-lit set in alternate worlds lately, everything from Charlaine Harris to Richelle Mead to Karen Marie Moning. Most of it is just not that great, although a few series are worth it.

This is one of the worth it ones, as long as you don't need the saccharine sweetness of beautiful protagonists and a slight ridiculousness to your dialogue. This series is dark, gritty and has a great romantic twist with a very atypical male lead. And you still end up rooting for the couple.

Having read all the books to date, the only thing that irks me off as a reader is the clumsiness of the protagonist being used as a plot device too often. Say we're at a critical… Read more
The Commonsense Kitchen: 500 Recipes + Lessons for&hellip by Tom Hudgens
This book is more than a collection of recipes, it's a meditation on a way of life. The way of life that has largely disappeared for most of us living in cities and having an herb garden. This book seems to grow from the very land of the school that it springs from, and is tied to many observations about outdoor chores of the seasons, the cooking rewards at the end of the day and the thoughtful way work is tied to life and food.

I've only tried like three recipes so far, and they've been excellent, although my chili recipe is better. But it's a good book to read and enjoy like a novel and to get inspired into the kitchen by.
Sing It to Her Bones by Marcia Talley
Sing It to Her Bones by Marcia Talley
Once again I'm at odds with popular tastes in fiction, having detested this book. Hannah the Detective was such a whiny spoiled brat (cancer notwithstanding), that I wanted to punch her every few pages. She comes across as an adult that needs babysitting by any available adult - husband? sister in law? random dude? otherwise some petulant decision or another leads to various ridiculous 'dangerous' circumstances. I'm incredulous that other people rate it so highly. Add the cliched characters and 'mystery' plot and it's a total dud of a novel.

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