I’m back to work and right away my reading has slowed down immensely. Especially this first week of teaching was extremely tiring, so I haven’t finished any new books. But luckily I did finish a couple of books this summer and I have these two to still talk about. So let’s just dive in!
Automatic Noodle – Annalee Newitz
From sci-fi visionary and acclaimed author Annalee Newitz comes Automatic Noodle, a cozy near-future novella about a crew of abandoned food service bots opening their very own restaurant.
While San Francisco rebuilds from the chaos of war, a group of food service bots in an abandoned ghost kitchen take over their own delivery app account. They rebrand as a neighborhood lunch spot and start producing some of the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the city. But there’s just one problem. Someone―or something―is review bombing the restaurant’s feedback page with fake “bad service” reports. Can the bots find the culprit before their ratings plummet and destroy everything they created?
This is a tordotcom novella and if you know anything about me you know I adore a good tordotcom novella. I own another book by Annalee Newitz but I haven’t read it yet. It is a time travel book though, so I’m really excited to read it at some point. This novella is about robots who are opening their own restaurant and it is wonderful!
The story is really heartwarming, but also quite sad to think about. There is an anti-bot rhetoric going on in the world this is set in and for me there were a lot of parallels of the racism that’s going on. And when I was reading about all the things the bots weren’t allowed to do (like owning a business), it reminded me of the time that slavery was abolished but Black people still didn’t have much rights. It made me really sad, but I also think it’s an important topic and not something I have seen in a lot of books. I would love to hear if anyone else was reminded of this while reading Automatic Noodle.
All in all I loved this story, the characters were wonderful and I had a great time reading it. It makes me want to pick up more novellas, as I’m always in awe of the ability to create a whole world in such a little amount of pages. And I need to pick up more by Annalee Newitz!
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It – Elle Cosimano
“Getting the job done” for one single mom takes on a whole new meaning in Finlay Donovan is Killing It.
Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.
When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.
Fast-paced, deliciously witty, and wholeheartedly authentic in depicting the frustrations and triumphs of motherhood in all its messiness, hilarity, and heartfelt moment, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a brilliant new series from YA Edgar Award nominee Elle Cosimano.
I was hoping this would be as hilarious as it sounds. Candyce enjoyed this book, so I had high hopes! And luckily this book met those expectations. I thought this was really funny and I laughed out loud multiple times while reading. The book can be ridiculous at times, but it really works in this case. At least, it did for me haha.
I enjoyed the murder mystery storyline a lot, I didn’t see all of the twists coming and that made it really enjoyable. Finlay was an interesting character and pretty relatable at times, but my favorite had to be Vero. I loved the friendship between the two of them, but I mainly just loved Vero in her own right. What a wonderful character, I hope she has a big part to play in the sequels. Because I will for sure be reading the sequels haha.m Especially after that ending! That was a great way to get everyone interested in book 2. I’m just really glad I don’t have to wait for the release and can read the next 4 books in the series. Then I might be ready just in time for the release of book 6 releasing in March!
Two really enjoyable books I read in no time while relaxing in France. I truly wish I was back there again haha. Hopefully the next weeks of work won’t be as exhausting and I can read some more. I would love to hear if you read these books and what you thought of them down below!
