Accidental Rereads

I was recently reading two books at the same time and every time I would start reading these books, this feeling of deja vu would wash over me. It was as if I had read these books before, but I could not find a record of reading either of them. So, anyway, here are two books I'm pretty sure I've read before, but here's my  "official" record of doing so.

Book #1

The Address by Fiona Davis switches perspectives from Sara Smythe in the 1880s, when she is recruited from her job in London to manage a new apartment building called The Dakota in New York City and Bailey Camden, newly out of rehab in the New York City of the 1980s while she stays at her cousin's place in The Dakota. Soon, the historical secrets of The Dakota start to unravel.

Because I'm pretty sure I've read this before, I found it to be predictable. However, I'm pretty sure there's some shocking scenes in there. I also sort of thought the author just threw all the big stuff from history into one book, even if it didn't really fit (the introduction of Nellie Bly had me snort in disbelief). It also reminded me of The Lost Apothecary in which the absolutely untrained heroine solves a historical mystery that no one else has solved in centuries after she finds one small artifact. (Also, the 1980s character alcoholic persona was not appealing in any way. Was I supposed to be rooting for her? I did not.)

But I did end up learning a lot about early NYC and the architecture and I enjoyed all the things I looked up.  The history part of this historical fiction was solid.

*shrug* It's fine. 3/5 stars

Lines of note:

The city was made up of a mishmash of buildings crowded together like a mouth with too many teeth. (page 32)

He smelled like wood chips and grease. Not a bad combination, surprisingly. She'd market it as ManSmell, The Cologne. (page 90) 

Things I looked up:

Battenberg cake (page 8) - I did not remember this term from GBBO, but it's one of those cakes that when you slice into it, it makes a pattern, generally a checkerboard.

Henry Hardenbergh (page 12) - An American architect and early designer of those newfangled skyscrapers.

Shantung and dupioni (page 21) - Silk plain weave fabrics often used in wedding gowns. Shantung is similar to dupioni, but is slightly thinner and less irregular. 

The Dakota (basically every page in the book) - Apartment building constructed between 1880 and 1884, designed by the aforementioned Hardenbergh. One of the first large developments in the Upper West Side and remains standing as the oldest luxury apartment building in NYC and continues to be a sought after address for many celebrities, business people, and artists. If you have heard of this building in popular culture, you might know it as the place John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived and Lennon was murdered outside of it. 

By Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA - The Dakota, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80475406

Washington pie (page 151) - An American sandwich cake (not a pie at all!) filled with jam and dusted with powdered sugar. Said to be an antecedent to the Boston cream pie. 

Washington pie. Not sure how it's different from a Victorian sponge.

Al Hirschfeld's Ninas (page 169) - Hirschfeld was an American caricaturist who was known for placing the name NINA in his drawings. Nina was his daughter and he started this practice after she was born.

Book #2

So, while I was reading a hard copy of The Address, I had an ebook copy of The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson on my Kindle. Sanderson is a controversial figure in the world of fantasy. He's frequently recommended as a good entry way into SFF, but he's also had some incidents with homophobia and some people think his writing is cliched.  

In this story, we meet Vin, a street urchin who we soon learn is able to manipulate metals to perform various feats, including swaying people's emotions, sort of fly, and have enhanced physical senses. She gets hooked up with Kelsier, who is recruiting the best of the best from the Underworld, to overthrow The Lord Ruler, the powerful despot who has reigned for a thousand years.  Adventures ensue.

It's fine. It's an interesting world. It's an interesting collection of characters. It's fantasy without spells, creatures, or maps and that's sort of interesting, right? How the world is developed is the most noteworthy part of the book.

Because the writing is simple, the dialogue clunky, and Sanderson's ability to understand what a young woman like Vin would actually do and say is quite limited. The characters are hardly developed and it's hard to see where anyone grows at all - they all start as heroes and end as heroes. *sigh*

It's fine. It's a fine book. I can see why it gets suggested as an intro to urban fantasy, but I won't be reading any further in the series.

3/5 stars