State of the Onion

State of the Onion Julie Hyzy

Last month, the library had an edible books contest. For prizes, I gave away books about food and asked Twitter what were the best food-based cozies out there. A lot of people voted by Hyzy's "White House Chef Mystery" series, so I picked up the first one as a prize. I was intrigued enough by the title that I couldn't resist reading it, too.

Olivia Paras is an assistant White House chef. The Executive Chef is about to retire, and Olivia is one of the final candidates for his job. Her main competition is a TV celebrity chef that Olivia's worked with before-- and does not want to work with again. If she gets the job, Olivia knows she'll be leaving the White House. But the drama and pressure is soon pushed to the side when Olivia is walking back to work and sees a guy fleeing from the Secret Service and clocks him with her frying pan. Suddenly, she's trying to figure out a massive conspiracy that may end up in someone assassinating the President. Before she can solve it, she gets a glimpse of the world's most feared assassin and then she's no longer trying to save the President's life, but her own.

This was a fun one. I liked the behind-the-scenes look at the White House staff and the kitchen-- the differences in preparing a simple lunch for the first family versus a major state dinner and all the planning that happens. I liked the tension between Olivia and the new head of Culture-and-Faith-based Etiquette Affairs (he's such a jerk!!!)

I also liked her secret Secret Service boyfriend and the tension between them as Olivia got herself more involved with the case that he kept trying to push her off of. Overall it was very enjoyable and I didn't guess the ending. The bad guy was on my list of possible bad guys, but there was enough in there that I kept guessing on my choices. It was also often funny-- I especially liked when we finally meet the celebrity chef that Olivia is competing with. I think this is a series I'll continue reading.

Also-- do you have any good cozy recs? Mysteries, especially cozies are HUGE with the adults at my library, and now that I'm the adult librarian, I need to up my reader's advisory game. Leave 'em in the comments if you've got 'em.

Book Provided by... my local library

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FREE BIRD!

So... one of the highlights of the weekend was Mitali Perkin's book launch/bhangra party at DCPL. (See her page for the incriminating photos!)

In preperation for the party, I read the book that was being launched, First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover.

Tangent: I was excited for this book because when I was a kid, I really liked The President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson White. Did you ever read that one? It's awesome. And then, at ALA this weekend, I found out that there were sequels!!! Who knew?! AND! There's a 4th one coming out soon, Long May She Reign. I got that ARC this weekend, which is how I found out there were more.

Anyway, back to First Daughter. Sameera is Pakistani by birth and was adopted by a human rights crusader and diplomat. She goes to boarding school in Brussels where she writes for the school paper and is the coxswain on the crew team. When school gets out, she goes back to the US, where were father is campaigning for President.

She's poked and prodded and made over to be much more glamorous than she is. A consultant that's an expert in teen marketing writes a blog for her that makes her sound like a complete ditz. She's told to giggle more and to insert more "uh"s into her conversation. She's sick of her nickname, Sparrow, and wants to start going by Sameera-- it sounds more grown up. She's told that her new name is Sammy, because that sounds more American. Right.

At first, Sameera goes along with the changes. She wants to be a journalist and sees herself less as becoming a celebrity and more as going undercover as one. In the meantime, she has her myfriends page, which is closed to her intergalactic circle of 29 friends who remind her who she really is.

As the campaign gets closer, Sameera can't take it anymore. She starts dressing in her salwar kameez to sneak out into DC and hangout with the South Asian Republican club at George Washington. She buys a burka to better hide herself. Eventually, she can't reconcile her two selves and decides to break free and just be who she is. The political consultants will just have to deal with it.

Sameera is such a love-able character. I was slightly mystified at how her mother just let the consultants do what they want, but as the campaign wore on, I got it. I liked how Sameera takes charge and I liked her true voice--she was bright and interesting but still sounded like the sixteen year old she was supposed to be. Perkins perfectly captures the way the press hounds young and hott celebrities and really takes a stand at giving political kids a bit of space. I liked the fact that Sameera's dad was the Republican, not the Democratic, front runner. Also, when was the last time you saw crew as a main characters major sport? And coxswain? Nice touch. I hope she continues to do crew in the next book-- you can see them rowing every morning on the Potomac. I can see Sameera standing there, shouting at them as they go under the 14th Street Bridge. And there could be a great scene with some Secret Agent falling into the icky water. Just a suggestion.

My main disappointment is that when Sameera sneaks out to buy her clothes, Perkins is ambiguous about what neighborhood she's in. I like it when authors know corners of my city I don't that I can then explore. Oh well. It's a small thing.

Overall, this book is pretty fun, but it still touches on some bigger issues without being bogged down in teenage or political angst. I'm looking forward to the next one!