The lost recipe for happiness - Barbara O'Neal

Another sensual book about love and food. I must be on a theme. Very enjoyable, a love story with food, ghosts, pain, redemption. It has the dark vein of pain from the heroine's past, to add spice to an otherwise reasonably predictable love story. I loved it anyway, and the food recipes sound delicious.

A Thousand Days in Venice - Marlena de Blasi

I finally got around to reading this book which has sat on my shelf for years. I imagined it'd be some idealised romantic story and was pleasantly surprised to find that it's romantic but not in the usual sense. It's very real, with a sensual appreciation of life's abundance. The writer's gorgeousness comes through in her whimsical, creative way, the way she creates beauty out of circumstances which might otherwise be considered challenging, and engages with the people and her environment to make memorable food and special occasions.

The Marrying Game - Kate Saunders

A light hearted and funny read about four beautiful sisters who take matters into their own hands when faced with the loss of their beloved dilapidated family home, and decide to marry money.Written in an intelligent wry style and quite enjoyable, though three-quarters of the way into the book I thought it sort of took off at a tangent when the oldest sister behaves uncharacteristically, but it all comes together again satisfactorily.

Code Name God - Mani Bhaumik

Just finished this audiobook. Fascinating - dirt poor Indian boy became a scientist and invented the laser technology that made LASIK surgery possible. He found that fame and fortune could not provide him with happiness and began to go back to his roots to search for a deeper meaning. As he digs deeper he finds that the science he's so immersed in brings him back to spirituality. I found his scientific explanations very accessible.